A finalist for the prestigious National Book Award, Franny Billingsley’s Chime spins an imaginative and darkly romantic fantasy. Chime is narrated in the first person through the eyes of 17-year-old Briony, who struggles with her special powers, with her feelings of guilt, and with the knowledge that she is a witch in a society that hangs witches (that could never happen in America, right?). Briony alternates between pride and self-loathing; she is a complex character who, like the rest of us, sometimes can’t see beyond herself well enough to understand the actions of others. As with Katniss in The Hunger Games, the observant reader can often sort through her emotional tangle better than the character herself. Briony’s faults make her real and relatable. Her eloquence makes her fascinating.

It is through Briony’s cleverness with language and image that Billingsley truly shines. The sentences dance and flow and sing and surprise. There is a lot of good poetry disguised as prose in this excellent Young Adult novel.