Due to the slowdown in publishing here at the end of December, we don’t have any interviews for this weekend. Instead, we thought we’d share some of our favs from 2015. I asked the AYAP team these two questions:
Which book published in 2015 made you laugh so hard your stomach ached?
Which book published in 2015 made you cry hard enough to destroy a box of tissues?
Martina
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli is laugh-out-loud funny, but it also distinguishes itself with a clueless but caring family, a wonderful and diverse cast of friends, and a self-discovery journey that feels wonderfully honest.
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson wrung me out like a towel—a towel soaked with tears. I read it last month and, partly because I’ve done so much research on PTSD for Cassie (in Persuasion) I found myself carrying the emotions around with me, thinking about it at random moments.
Sam
Laughed: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli.
Cried: Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed and The Winner’s Crime by Marie Rutkoski.
Shelly
The book that made me cry the most is Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez. It’s a haunting, beautiful, heartbreaking and romantic tale of two star-crossed lovers that takes place during one of the worst school disasters in the US (the 1937 New London school explosion). Both characters are struggling to find their own place within the world, within each other’s world and within the future world. I have never sobbed harder than reading this book!
I can’t think of a super funny book I read this year though! 🙁
Lisa
I am TOTALLY cheating here, but I’m using the same book for both. I laughed, I cried, and was genuinely surprised and delighted by BONE GAP this year. It’s the book that I keep thinking about all these months later, so I’m choosing it for both its quirky humor (you HAVE to love Finn) and it’s touching revelations about the human condition.
Lindsey
I can’t recall which book made me laugh, but I couldn’t stop crying while I read the latter pages of Illuminae, to the point where my partner very seriously asked me what was wrong. That book wrung me out completely.
Jocelyn
The footnotes in The Truth Commission by Susan Juby especially made me laugh.
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon made me sniffle.
