Several renowned thriller authors have taken their first step into the young adult genre recently. One of those lives right here in Washington and is one of my favorite writers, Gregg Olsen.
Gregg signed my copy of Envy in Maple Valley. Check his web site for other places he is signing books.
The time this New York Times best selling author spent writing true crime has paid off in his fiction work because you realize that the plots could have happened. Olsen’s first YA Envy is the first in a series of “Empty Coffin” novels. Since working with children in a school setting, I’ve always said that you have to keep kids attention with every paragraph of a book. They won’t settle for long descriptions, careless plots or flawed character profiles. When their interest wanes, they put the book down and never pick it up again. In my opinion, an author has to be the best kind of writer to appeal to the YA readers.
Olsen does this superbly in Envy. It’s the story of what can happen when cyberbullying goes way too far. It’s about twin girls with unusual powers. Coincidentally, Olsen has twin girls. It’s set in the very lovely town of Port Gamble, Washington. Maybe the town will hold “Empty Coffin” tours like Forks does “Twilight” tours. Coincidentally, Olsen lives in a small rural town in Washington, just not Port Gamble.
I love reading good YA’s because I have the attention span of a gnat. And this one, kept me turning pages well after midnight, but also checking to make sure the doors were securely locked.
Good for reluctant teen and tween readers and also great for adults who won’t tolerated slow-moving plots.
Do you read young adult novels?
Heather Larson writes about the Pacific Northwest from her office in Tacoma, Washington hoping she can entice you to visit or share your own memories of the region and read books by Washington authors, who are some of the very best.
I don’t read YA in general, but have started looking at what’s out there in view of giving my granddaughter a birthday present. Thanks for this recommendation.
My kid is in the YA section these days, so always looking for good books for teens. Thanks for the tip.
Always happy to hear about books like this for young adults that explore important issues.
I will occasionally read them, especially if people are talking about them (like Holes, etc). This sounds interesting!
I don’t read YA novels, but have a friend who writes them. She’s always telling me of her latest plot – and I must admit that it does sound like interesting stuff.
I typically don’t read YA, but this sounds like a good one. I’ll be recommending it to some of my friends with kids.
I’ll have to tell my teen about this book. She goes through books so fast we’ve been visiting the library pretty much daily this summer.
Always great to hear of writers others enjoy – I have read YA on occasion, and enjoyed it far more than I imagined I would!
Even though I’m, uh, older than the YA crowd, I just love that genre. I’ll definitely check this out – and ok, see if my 15-yo wants to read it, too.
This was so built up to me that by the time I read it it didn’t live up to the “hype”