Features | 4 Novellas I Think You Should Know About

Features | 4 Novellas I Think You Should Know About

• Sunday, 5 June 2016

The simple definition for a novella is a short novel, or a long short story. At least that's the definition that comes up when you search for the definition online. It's accurate, but it's just a bare bones definition. Novellas are a growing trend, and they're becoming increasingly popular. Many authors whose writing I really enjoy are now writing novellas and they're pretty good too. Bitesize stories, sometimes reintroducing you to characters you already know and love, or sometimes introducing you to brand new ones.

So here are four novellas I think you should know about! In no particular order...

1. Unboxed by Non Pratt

Barrington Stoke are publishing a novella from the author of Trouble and Remix in August this year, featuring a group of friends who all meet up at their old school to open the memory box that they all stowed away there several years ago. There's five letters inside, but only four of them - Millie, one of the friends, has died in between hiding the box and the point that they're in today, but Millie has left them a new letter, saying they may read hers but only if they all read their own letters to their older selves out loud. I'm really excited about this novella, and it has such an interesting plot to it, I think this will really work as a novella and I'm looking forward to August to get myself a copy!

    2. Another Together by Lauren James

Anyone that saw my review of Lauren's debut, The Next Together, when I posted it on my blog last year knows that I was completely obsessed with it. Lauren's next book, The Last Beginning, arrives later this year, but when revealing the cover, she also decided to drop the news that she was releasing a free (!) novella based on the two characters, Matthew and Katy, set in 1940. A murderer is loose in Bletchley Park, at the time where one of the most daring codebreaking missions against Nazis was taking place. Is it possible that Matthew and Katy can catch the killer? You don't have to read The Next Together to understand this book, but I highly recommend you do anyway because Lauren's writing is amazing. This particular novella is now available from various e-book retailers. 

   3. Nick and Charlie AND This Winter by Alice Oseman

Alice wrote two books that I really enjoyed, Solitaire (2014) and Radio Silence (2016). However, she also released two novellas, Nick and Charlie and This Winter. Both are based on the characters you met in Solitaire, with This Winter focusing on how the winter isn't always a happy time for Tori and her brother Charlie to get along and the coming season going to be more difficult than most, and Nick and Charlie focusing on the relationship that exists between Nick and Charlie and how they are the inseparable couple, but with Nick leaving for university and Charlie staying at sixth form, they're questioning if their love can survive the distance? 'Because everyone knows that first loves rarely last forever...'

  4. Life Before Legend by Marie Lu

If you've read the Legend trilogy, you may want to consider giving this a read. This short story provides a look at June and Day's lives before they met in 'Legend,' where June begins her first day at Drake University as the youngest cadet ever admitted and Day is on the streets fighting for food. Well worth a read if you're a fan of the trilogy.

So those are four novellas I think you should know about! If you've read them, what did you think? Have I missed any? Comment on this post and share the novellas that you've really enjoyed!