All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill (Disney - Hyperion) wasn't in my most-urgent reading pile for the Cybils. The cover, while nicely done, fits the mold of a dozen other orange-blue "adventures" I've seen lately. But I thought I'd share this as an example of how all nominated books are being viewed and reviewed by the first round judges--it's great to open to the first pages and be surprised! After a bit of a mysterious start, the action is non-stop.

Em is imprisoned. What she knows is that she dreads the drain, and that Finn, on the other side of the vent, is her whole world, the only person she can talk to. Then, one day, she steals a spoon and opens the drain, and finds a letter, to her--from her. And there's one instruction: kill him.

What makes this book tick:

1. Time travel!
2. Nonlinear storytelling.
3. Questions about fate versus free will.

Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst

Oh, the Cybils and its abundance of riches. This year, it seems like review copies are coming in about two weeks later than normal, so I'm hustling along as best I can...

One book that stopped me in my reading tracks was Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst (Bloomsbury - Walker). Eve hardly knows anything that the agents in the protection program don't tell her. She needs instructions on the basics of everything in her life. But when she looks at the birds on the wallpaper, she can make them fly. She remembers...a magician, a storyteller, a circus, deaths. But when she uses her magic, when she remembers, she's sick and loses time. The only way to use her magic safely is to breathe it into Zach, a boy who can take it and shape it anew.

Who is she? What do her memories mean?

What makes this book tick:

• Memory as mystery
• Secrets! Lies!
• Meditation on humanity
• Following your heart to find justice

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake (Macmillan - Tor Teen) swings away from the ghostly toward the gods. They aren't gone from this world, but they're trying their best to live quiet lives away from the stresses of being, well, gods. Now they're getting sick, and there's a war coming. Knock off another god, and you'll live longer...

What makes this book tick:

• Larger-than-life characters who are also still teens
• Sharp, dark writing
• Dark take on mythology, including the Trojan War
• Combines fantasy and horror

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff (Penguin - Razorbill) has a sort of lazy, hot, oppressive feel to it, and not just because the book takes place in midsummer. Hannah has a friend who’s always hanging around; wherever she goes, Lillian goes too. The thing is, Lillian is dead. And pretty soon, she's not the only dead girl Hannah knows, since there's a killer leaving bloody valentines in the park.

What makes this book tick:

• Excellent imagery
• Believable teenagers
• Murder mystery
• Characters who don’t fit the everyday stock types

The Rose Throne by Mette Ivie Harrison

The Rose Throne by Mette Ivie Harrison (Egmont) gave me a lot to think about. It follows the lives of two princesses in what could be called rival kingdoms. Both are of an age where they’re expected to take on their royal duties and marry for strategy, and both has to push against the boundaries of what girls are allowed to do. What gives The Rose Throne an extra twist is that there are two kinds of magic—one that’s the province of women, and one the province of men. To have the “wrong” magic can be a death sentence…

What makes this book tick:

• Interesting gender-related magic
• …that gets deconstructed
• Romance
• High-level politics

The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson

This is one of my absolute favorite series from the past few years--yes, I have collected the set of ARCs and the set of hardbacks. Don't think there aren't paperbacks coming. And I've put off reading the novellas (something I usually skip when reading series) because I wanted to have one last bit left....

The tags feature should show you a few past reviews; I am loath to give away anything if you haven't started from the beginning. Start at the beginning! Suffice to say that The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson (HarperCollins - Greenwillow Books) wraps up the series in spectacular fashion.

What makes this book tick:

• More exploration of the idea that with great power comes great responsibility
• More complication of the relations between Elisa's kingdom and her neighbors
• Political intrigue!
• Kissing
• Sacrifice
• Acceptance of leadership
• Family relationships, and related self-esteem
• Negotiation
• Big, epic adventure

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Scholastic - Arthur A. Levine) marks the first of my 2013 Cybils (short, spoiler-free) reviews. I've been saving up this review because, well, this is a hard book to put into a review without spoiling it, even just as an opening summary.

In a far, far future Brazil, in Palmares Tres, a sort-of enclosed city ruled with a heavy hand by its matriarchy, June is caught up in the cycle of the Summer Prince, the selection of men and boys who are political and social sacrifices. Enki wins over June and her best friend, Gil--and inspires June to greater artistic heights than ever before.

What makes this book tick:

• Complete teenage rawness--the idea of being abuzz with hormones and life, and perhaps never closer to foolish death
• The compelling, contradictory desire to both be seen and to be invisible
• The need to make some sort of mark on the world and to prove oneself
• Tension between generations
• Flawed characters who keep moving through space
• The intersection of art and technology, especially once it's out in the world for consumption
• On the literary side of SF--no hand-holding on the worldbuilding or when the plot changes streams
• Explorations of class within an imagined culture
• Politics and being socially aware