Ahhhh… It’s our very last day!
The Class of 2012: YA Superlative Blogfest (hosted by Jessica Love, Tracey Neithercott, Alison Miller, and me) runs Monday, December 17th through Thursday, December 20th. All of the awesome people who are participating in the blogfest (YOU, I hope!) will highlight favorite books published 2012 using a variety of super fun superlative categories. The Class of 2012: YA Superlative Blogfest is about promoting extraordinary young adult books, so if you haven’t already, draft a post, hop down to the end of this post, and sign up to participate. We can’t wait to see your favorite reads of 2012!
The 2012 YA novels I’ve read, listed in no particular order: The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, A Million Suns, The Fault in Our Stars, The Disenchantments, Something Strange and Deadly, Pandemonium, Wanderlove, Under the Never Sky, Ten, This is Not a Test, Happy Families, Insurgent, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone, Monstrous Beauty, Bitterblue, Time Between Us, My Life Next Door, Breathe, Pushing the Limits, Skylark, The Raven Boys, Live Through This, Bittersweet, Flawed, Ditched, Starters, Reached, Lovely, Dark and Deep, Meant to Be, and Days of Blood and Starlight…
And here’s how I chose to award today’s categories:
Best in Show
Favorite Cover
These covers are practically opposites (bright and fun/dark and mysterious), but they both convey the tone of the stories beneath them so perfectly, I couldn’t choose just one.
Cutest Couple
Samantha and Jase… So sweet and considerate of one another, with chemistry that sings. They bring out the best in each other.
Most Likely to Succeed (Or, Pick a Printz)
This was a tough choice… I read SO MANY award-worthy books this year. But The Fault in Our Stars seems to most exemplify the qualities “literary merit” that the American Library Association looks for.
Most Likely to Make You Miss Your Bedtime
These two… Could NOT put them down!
Best Repeat Performance (Favorite Sequel or Follow-Up)
I was nervous about reading both of these books. I love their predecessors SO MUCH, and I had very high expectations. Luckily, Days of Blood and Starlight and Bitterblue lived up to the excellence of the books that came before them.
Favorite Finale or End of Series
A very satisfying conclusion to a trilogy I’ve followed since Matched‘s debut.
Romance Most Worthy of an Ice Bath
Echo and Noah have some pretty intense sexual tension, which made their otherwise dark and serious story a lot of fun to read.
Break Out Novel (Favorite Book by a Debut Author)
Yeah… This one pretty much blew me away. Beautiful writing, characters I cared so much about, and a romance that had me swooning. Love.
Favorite Old-Timer (Favorite of the Year, Published BEFORE 2012)
I waited far too long to read The Book Thief — now I know why it is so highly regarded. And Saving June, wow… A pretty darn perfect contemporary young adult romance.
Book Most Likely to Make a Grown Man Cry
This one didn’t make me cry, but I’ve heard from a lot of others that they had to raid their tissue boxes, especially toward the end.
Most Pleasant Surprise (Book I didn’t think I’d Like, But Did)
Zombies? Eh. But I love the way Courtney Summers writes far too much to pass up any of her new releases. So glad I gave her version of zombies a chance — this book rocks!
Most Creative Use of a Love Triangle
I think the love triangle between Blue, Gansey, and Adam will develop further as this series goes on, but so far I’m totally on-board with the dynamic between these three. Maggie Stiefvater is masterful.
Sleeper Hit (Book I Found So Awesome I Wish it Was Hyped More)
I know, I know… I’ve talked a lot about this one. But guys, it’s just SO GOOD! If you like contemporary and romance and serious themes, pick Lovely, Dark and Deep up as soon as possible!
Favorite Outlier (Favorite 2012 MG or Adult Book)
Yowza… This story is a total trip. The characters are pretty much all deplorable, but one is such a complete sociopath, she would NOT let me put this book down.
katyupperman.com 
You’re right – TFIOS is truly deserving of the Printz award, but since JG already has one, I chose Raven Boys. 🙂
I’m thinking I need to read PUSHING THE LIMITS. 🙂
Have a wonderful holiday!
Wait — is that a rule? One Printz per author? If so, I had no idea! And yes, I think you’d probably like PUSHING THE LIMITS quite a bit. 🙂
This has been so much fun. Thank you for helping put it together. And as for your sleeper hit, I’ll be reading it. Also, I almost picked the Something Strange and Deadly cover. I’ve enjoyed reading all of your answers!
Ditto, Liz! I hope you do get a chance to read LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP. It’s a beautiful book.
I honestly thought the title “Most Creative Use of a Love Triangle” was made for THE RAVEN BOYS. I mean, it isn’t really present in this first book, but we totally know it’s coming. 🙂 I also picked THE BOOK THIEF as one of my favourite old-timers. Man, I don’t know what took me so long to read that book!
Thanks a bunch for helping host this blogfest, Katy! It was great to get back into blogging more again and to do so with something so fun. 🙂
I had such a great time blogging this week too, Jaime. I love nothing more than to blog about awesome books. 🙂 And yes, I totally agree about THE RAVEN BOY’s love triangle. I wasn’t expecting it and I’m not sure exactly how it’ll play out, but something tells me it’s going to be amazing.
Ha, we both used “masterful” to describe Stiefvater’s love triangle. Truly, great minds. 😉
For sure! I can’t wait to see how that love triangle plays out…
I *really* need to re-read THE BOOK THIEF. Like, even with the insane number of new books I’ve added to my TBR this week, I think it needs to happen soon.
And I forgot about how cool the SSaD cover is–I have it on my Kindle so I don’t look at it that often. Great pick there!
I loved THE BOOK THIEF too, Jess! It’s one I’ll definitely reread at some point too.
The Book Thief is being picked a lot today, and it makes me happy. I’ve rec’d that book to pretty much everyone since I read it, and I know I’ll be rereading it multiple times (although not terribly soon, because I’m still broken from it).
I know multiple grown men who actually did cry at TFiOS, so that one feels apt…
Glad I made a good choice in TFiOS… I never really know what’s going to hit people emotionally. I NEVER cry, so I’m not a great judge. 🙂 And yes, THE BOOK THIEF is aMaZiNg!
I´ve read The Book Thief a few years back, and loved it! Both of those covers are gorgeous…
And yay for Samantha and Jase ❤ They are adorable…
Thank you so much for hosting this blogfest Katy with all those wonderful ladies. Had a blast! (and my TBR exploded :D)
Samantha and Jase are *totally* adorable. MY LIFE NEXT DOOR is the 2012 book I read that most closely resembles my manuscripts in genre and tone, so it has a special place in my heart. 🙂 And thanks SO much for participating, Elodie. It was a blast to read about your favorite books from the last year!
The cover for The Disenchantments is SO cool! I chose Noah and Echo too, OMG at their sexual tension!! Have heard people raving about Gone Girl, looking forward to reading that!
Thank you for hosting this *awesome* blogfest, Katy!
I love THE DISENCHANTMENTS cover too! Such bright, fun colors! GONE GIRL is pretty fantastic, though I’m glad I read it after I became happily married. I think it might have scared me off the institution of marriage otherwise! Thanks so much for participating this week, Iffath… It was so much fun to read about your 2012 favorites!
Once again, we have a few similar choices!
Thanks for co-organizing such a fun blogfest! I can’t wait til next year!
Thanks for joining us, Crystal! It was so much fun to check out your superlatives choices this week!
Okay, I think you’ve convinced me to read Lovely, Dark, and Deep. 🙂 I’m so pumped to read all those sequels (Laini Taylor’s, Kristin Cashore’s, The Matched sequels) that I’m a little overwhelmed about which one to start with! Ah!
I’m still waiting to get Gone Girl from my library. I’ve been on the wait list for months!
Thanks for hosting this blogfest again, Katy. It’s always so fun to see everyone’s favorite books! 🙂
I’m glad your jumping on the LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP train. I’ve been raving about it all week, so I think I’ve been successful in brainwashing at least a few people into reading it. 🙂 Oh, and I hope you enjoy GONE GIRL… That book was nuts!
Thanks for much for participating this week… I loved reading your posts!
GONE GIRL was such an awesome read! I want to find a YA like that.
Thanks for the super-fun blog fest!
Ooh, GONE GIRL for the YA audience would be amazing… I wonder if there’s anything out there like it now. Or, maybe one of us should write something like it. 🙂
Yay! This blogfest was so much fun! I especially love your choices, because I know we have such similar taste. You remind me of the books I need to put at the top of my list for 2013.
Uh, ditto! Namely, UNSPOKEN. I’m going to check my library for that one tomorrow!
Yay for all the BITTERBLUE love and PUSHING THE LIMITS and Sam and Jase!
Thanks for hosting this – it was so much fun to participate!
I am so looking forward to Reached!!! I almost can’t bear to read it though, because then it would be over lol. Same with Bitterblue! I just stare longingly at it on my shelf 😀