Last year, I read thirty-something YA titles between professional reviewing and leisure reading. I love a bildungsroman no matter the target audience, but I’ve never had a year of such teen-centric reading since I was one myself. Thus, it became clear over the months what truly separated the forgettable stories from those that spring to mind immediately during reader’s advisory interviews. I can’t love a book without solid, dynamic characters, but what really elevated these stories in my mind was not the people within them, but the worlds they inhabited.

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore:

This is my favorite book that I read last year. I included it on the end of the year list for Fox Hunting, but with the website change, it’s no longer visible. So, here is what I said:

“Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue (Firebird) has become one of my favorite books, ever. The character of Bitterblue is introduced in Graceling. Her father, King Leck of Monsea, had a grace (a power) that allowed him to control his kingdom by influencing the citizens’minds. After his death, Bitterblue became a teenage queen with little idea how to rule and almost no concept of life outside of her castle. This novel is the story of how she comes into her own.

It’s a testament to Cashore’s writing how engrossing the book truly is. Little action occurs; it’s a mystery that slowly unravels the secrets of Bitterblue’s father’s horrible reign while she desperately tries to fix the immense damage he’s inflicted. Most of the story takes place solidly within the castle walls, but the lack of movement only further insulates you within the protagonist’s mind and her painful growth as her friends each face peril on her behalf. Though she’s strong-willed, resilient, and determined, Bitterblue is no cookie cutter heroine. She has no grace to help her navigate her complicated life or protect her kingdom. Her evolution actually leads her even further from the direct action, morphing her into a leader that has the power to heal a broken kingdom through forces greater than mystical powers or brute strength.

The ending reads as achingly realistic and yes, I’ll go for it here – bittersweet.

I haven’t felt so enamored with a fantasy novel since Garth Nix’s Lirael.”

World building bonuses:

- The bridges: Monster Bridge (the highest), Winged Bridge (white and blue marble floor made to resemble clouds), Winter Bridge (made of mirrors). All built by Leck, all beautiful and bizarre and slightly disconcerting.

- The library: It’s run by a librarian named Death, which is pronounced “Deeth.” He’s curmudgeonly yet lovable, in the way only a librarian named Death can be. Complex written codes are broken and translated in this dusty library.

- Monsea: The reader gets to see Monsea through Bitterblue’s eyes – the eyes of a queen masquerading as a baker’s daughter in order to freely roam the streets at night. A queen who never knew the outside of her own castle walls, so sees and experiences everything anew.

- Story rooms/Thieves’ lair: Bitterblue finds trouble in taverns designed for story-telling. Her new thief friends hide a printing press and a list of dreams for their kingdom and its people.

Lirael by Garth Nix:

The sequel to Sabriel, Lirael (HarperCollins) begins 14 years after the events of the previous novel. Sabriel itself is rife with immersive world building, introducing the Old Kingdom through the eyes of a young necromancer. This book, however, really digs deeper in terms of setting.

Protagonist Lirael lives with the Clayr but does not fit in. In fact, she stands out like a sore thumb: a raven-haired, pale girl in a sea of tanned faces curtained by white blonde hair. But what eats at her is not her physical differences, it’s her lack of what binds the Clayr together: the Sight. Most Clayr show signs of the ability to predict the future (or possible futures) by age 11, but nothing stirs in Lirael. At age 14, she’s finally assigned a position in the library.

The library, contained within the Clayr’s Glacier, puts all other fictional libraries I’ve encountered to shame. Hidden, mystical objects abound within its long halls. And of course, Lirael encounters some of the most dangerous, magical elements. It’s here where she teams up with the highly memorable, bantering Disreputable Dog.

I could happily live in the Clayr’s library forever, but Lirael, of course, is bound for bigger things. And the world unfurls magnificently for her as she takes off to learn her destiny.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater:

The first in the Raven Cycle quartet, The Raven Boys (Scholastic) introduces us to the world of the rakish Aglionby Academy boys, rich prep-schoolers who reside in sprawling, gorgeous Henrietta, Virginia. The protagonist, Blue Sargent, comes from a line of women gifted with psychic abilities. She, however, lacks this gift, instead acting solely as an amplifier for those who possess it. The book takes off with a flying start: while accompanying her mother to watch the apparitions of the soon-to-be-dead drift past them on St. Mark’s Eve, Aglionby student, Gansey, speaks directly to Blue. To further complicate matters, it’s long been prophesized that she will cause her true love to die.

Soon Blue finds herself face to face with the living, breathing Gansey while she waits tables at the Raven Boys’ favorite haunt, Nino’s. And in spite of her disdain for the rich, angst-ridden prep-school boys, she falls in quickly with Gansey and his friends.

Gansey, however, isn’t a normal Raven Boy. He’s on the hunt for Glendower, a sleeping Welsh king.

Blue and the Raven Boys traverse sprawling hills, magical forest glens, and ostensibly idyllic country roads. It’s the kind of landscape dripping with golden sunsets, toasted with cold iced tea. But some spots hang more in the shadows, like Monmouth Manufacturing, the now defunct warehouse Gansey and his friends Ronan and Noah inhabit. Piles of books and a cardboard model of Henrietta fueled by the power of insomnia make it quite the atmospheric space. And Blue’s house filled with psychics isn’t lacking in ambience, either.

I’m on the second book in the series now, and the contrast of a stuffy boarding school in a small town and an underbelly of magic and ley lines remains irresistible and ever-expanding in scope.

Honorable Mentions:

Servants of the Storm by Delilah S. Dawson:

Servants of the Storm (Simon Pulse) is a horror novel, rich in creepy, post-hurricane southern gothic atmosphere. There are gloomy bars hidden down mazelike alleyways, an elaborately eerie and irresistible carnival, and an overlying cloud of humidity and growing evil. The ending, which is abrupt and a riff on a Twilight Zone episode, will be jarring to some, but the mood and the setting are undeniably immersive. I’m really hoping that ending isn’t the final word and that a sequel arrives to further deepen the creepy twist on Savannah, Georgia.

Eleanor (The Unseen series, Volume 1) by Johnny Worthen:

If you’re looking for a book rife with the pain of not fitting in as an adolescent, the drama of first love, and an entirely unique, lore-based secret regarding the origins of the main character, Eleanor (Jolly Fish Press) has you covered. The viscerally gray loneliness of the Wyoming landscape entranced me. It acts as a compelling character itself. I’m a sucker for a well-done rural setting, especially if it adds a romantic, melancholy mood to the story. The small town Eleanor inhabits stands in contrast to the changes occurring within her. Side characters, especially the love interest, aren’t as dynamic, but it doesn’t detract much from the book, which stands apart from all other teen paranormal romances.

If you have any suggestions for more YA titles with heightened atmosphere worth getting lost in, shoot me a tweet.