About the Author

Melissa Marr is the New York Times bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely series as well as the adult fantasy novels Graveminder and The Arrivals. When not traveling, Melissa can be found in Phoenix or online at www.melissamarrbooks.com.

When librarians finally granted Kelley Armstrong an adult card, she made straight for the epic fantasy and horror shelves. She spent the rest of her childhood and teen years happily roaming fantastical and terrible worlds, and vowed that someday she'd write a story combining swords, sorcery, and the ravenous undead. That story began with the New York Times bestselling Sea of Shadows and continues with Empire of Night.

Armstrong's first works for teens were the New York Times bestselling Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising trilogies. She lives in rural Ontario with her husband, three children, and far too many pets.

Veronica Roth is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, Four: A Divergent Collection, and Carve the Mark. Ms. Roth and her husband live in Chicago. You can visit her online at www.veronicarothbooks.com.

Margaret Stohl is the bestselling author of twelve books for children and teens, including coauthor of the #1 New York Times bestselling Beautiful Creatures series. She also cowrites Mighty Captain Marvel for Marvel Comics. You can learn more about her at mstohl.com.

Rachel Caine is the coauthor of the Honors series and has written more than fifty novels in multiple genres, including young adult, thriller, science fiction/fantasy, horror, and paranormal romance. She is best known for the #1 internationally bestselling fifteen-book Morganville Vampires series and her Weather Warden series in urban fantasy. She lives and works in Fort Worth, Texas, with her husband, artist, actor, and comic historian R. Cat Conrad. www.rachelcaine.com

Nancy Holder is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of over 80 novels and 200 short stories. She has received 5 Bram Stoker Awards from the horror writers Horror Writers Association, and a Scribe Award from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers. She is the former Vice President of the Horror Writers Association and currently serves on the board of trustees. Her Buffy novel, The Angel Chronicles, hit number 2 on the amazon bestseller list. She has written or co-written over 4 dozen Buffy and Angel projects. She divides her time between Washington state and Italy.

Reviews

Gr 8 Up-This collection of dystopian short stories features some of the genre's greatest voices along with the work of popular paranormal romance authors. The nine original tales all center on themes of revolution, class wars, and romance. Standouts include Veronica Roth's "Hearken," in which musical prodigies are schooled to hear the life songs-or death songs-of individuals with the help of an implant, Margaret Stohl's "Necklace of Raindrops," a lyrical piece about the value of truly living; and Rachel Caine's "Dogsbody," a tale of corporate control gone wrong. Along with selections by Beth Revis and Carrie Ryan, these pieces move quickly, make good use of the limited word count, and are likely to stick with readers. However, other offerings-Kelley Armstrong's "Branded," Nancy Holder's "Pale Rider," Melissa Marr's "Corpse Eaters," and Kami Garcia's "Burn 3"-are forgettable due to predictability, far-reaching plots, and unbelievable circumstances. All in all, the action is fast paced and the variety of storytelling tones appealing, making this an ideal addition to libraries in which dystopian and paranormal romance books are popular.-Jennifer Furuyama, Pendleton Public Library, OR (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.