Derelict (Halcyone Space, #1)

by Lj Cohen

[empressbrooke]

I read a lot of YA, so it's not without deep affection that I say that YA heroes are often what teens aspire to be, rather than who they are. They are ultra talented. They save the day when the adults drop the ball. They keep their shit together and keep the world from ending.

The teens in Derelict may be geniuses when it comes to music or computer programming or botany, but the main crisis they have to get themselves out of is one of their own making. They end up trapped on a runaway spaceship because they act without thinking, make rash choices, and lash out moodily at each other. As they become reluctant allies, they push against the boundaries of who their parents have raised them to be and uncomfortably start growing into who they want to be.

It made for a nice change of pace, and it fit perfectly with the setting: a 40-year-old broken down spaceship and a slightly-claustrophobic, out-of-the-way space station where no one gets stationed by choice.