Two-fer

There Comes a Prophet by David Litwack is a YA/dystopian fantasy.  While I felt the characters to be less than fully developed and the world building more a facade than a real world, the essential plot was interesting.

Nathaniel, Orah, and Thomas, three young people from Little Pond, have been friends forever, but when the vicars choose Thomas for a teaching, a ritual that is meant to fortify the vicars' control of the population, they have made a mistake.

When a broken and shamed Thomas returns, his friends are devastated.  When Orah is taken for a teaching in the next quarter, Nathaniel sets out to offer himself in her place, unable bear to have Orah suffer what Thomas has suffered.  From the error of choosing Thomas, the vicars' hold on the three friends begins to unravel.  In ways the vicars could not have imagined, the loyalty of the three young people will have dramatic effects.

While Nathaniel is imprisoned awaiting a decision on his offer, the prisoner in the next cell communicates with him.  The old man is a Keeper and needs to pass his information along before he dies...

Light read, pretty standard fare.

From Net Galley/Double Dragon Publishing.

YA/Fantasy/Dystopian.  2012.  Print version 266 pages.
   ISBN-10: 1771150149

The Last Academy by Anne Applegate is also a YA novel.  At first I was confused.  Young Camden is sent to a boarding school, the Lethe Academy, but the title of the book is The Last Academy.  Lethe comes from Greek mythology, one of the rivers of Hades, and means forgetfulness.  With the introduction of a mysterious and  somewhat sinister character named Barnabas Charon, I concluded that the Lethe Academy was not a misprint, but a connection meaning that this boarding school was the last academy its students would attend.

Camden makes friends, but is also thrown curve balls by other academy students who have secrets and motives she doesn't understand.  Students disappear, and Camden and her friend Nora attempt to discover the importance of gold coins that some students and teachers have received.

The conclusion didn't come as a surprise, enough allusions have been tossed out to the reader to get the idea;  truthfully, however, the intended audience for the book probably wouldn't  get the allusions and would welcome the explanation at the end of the book.  And the allusions leave the possibility of different outcomes.

Not sure of what I think about the book.  The suggested age range of 12 and up would probably appreciate the book much more than older YA readers, but Camden Fisher is an enjoyable protagonist.

Net Galley/Scholastic Inc.

YA/Mystery.  April 30, 2013.  Print version 320 pages.
ISBN-10: 0545502047