Malinda Lo

This has been a rough week for people of color and women. First, there was the whole thing where people forgot that yes, there are black people in The Hunger Games. Then I watched the most recent episode of Once Upon a Time (that TV show on ABC), in which there was a black fairy ... More→

Here are three YA novels I read and adored recently … just in time to recommend to you during the spookiest time of the year. Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake Cas Lowood is a ghost hunter with a twist: He actually kills ghosts who are harming humans. He moves to Thunder Bay, Ontario, ... More→

With startling regularity these days, the mainstream media publishes essays on young adult fiction, generally debating the question of whether or not YA is too mature or “dark” to be read by young adults. Recently, two more essays joined this growing body of opinion: Maria Tatar’s piece in the New York Times, “No More Adventures ... More→

I don’t often read contemporary young adult novels. It’s not because they’re not good — some of them are amazing — but I’m a genre reader at heart, so it takes a special hook to pull me into a contemporary YA. Sister Mischief by newcomer Laura Goode had plenty of those hooks: it’s about queer ... More→

On Monday I noted that in light of this post from two authors who were asked by an agent to de-gay their book, I was planning to do some statistics wrangling and see if I could quantify some of what’s happening in LGBT YA publishing. Apparently my latent economics major is raring to go (or ... More→

Nancy Garden’s classic lesbian coming-of-age novel, Annie on My Mind, is one of the four books I resolved to read this year. Annie was first published in 1982, and is about two 17-year-old girls in New York, Liza and Annie, who fall in love with each other. NOTE: There will be SPOILERS in this post! ... More→