Gimmicks in literature (YA)

Here at WCL we love authors who commit to the bit, so here's a selection of books where the author took a gimmick and ran with it.

In this list you'll find interactive books, less linear stories, the same story from multiple perspectives, narratives told through ephemera, and even an abridged version of a book that never existed.

Updated July 1, 2024
W
Wellington City LibrariesYouth team at Wellington City Libraries
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Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales
Nwosu, Poppy
Paper Book
One bite of an apple from a family shrine unearths hungry ghosts. A poison garden unfurls a polite boy's deepest, darkest desires. Interfering with an Indigenous burial site unleashes ancestral revenge, to a metal soundtrack. An underground dance party during Covid threatens to turn lethal. And on...
Where'd you go, Bernadette : a novel
Semple, Maria.
Paper Book
A misanthropic matriarch leaves her eccentric family in crisis when she mysteriously disappears in this "whip-smart and divinely funny" novel that inspired the movie starring Cate Blanchett (New York Times). Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's...
Illuminae
Kaufman, Amie
Paper Book
"It certainly filled the Battlestar Galactica-shaped hole in my heart." --Victoria Aveyard, bestselling author of The Red Queen   Read the New York Times bestselling blockbuster that critics are calling "out-of-this-world awesome." The first in...
The invention of Hugo Cabret : a novel in words and pictures
Selznick, Brian.
Paper Book
Don't miss Selznick's other novels in words and pictures, Wonderstruck and The Marvels, which together with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, form an extraordinary thematic trilogy!2008 Caldecott Medal winnerThe groundbreaking debut novel from bookmaking pioneer, Brian Selznick!<...
The arrival
Tan, Shaun
Paper Book
What drives so many to leave everything behind and journey alone to a mysterious country, a place without family or friends, where everything is nameless and the future is unknown. This silent graphic novel is the story of every migrant, every refugee, every displaced person, and a tribute to all...
The neverending story
Ende, Michael
Paper Book
Read the book that inspired the classic coming-of-age film! From award-winning German author Michael Ende, The Neverending Story is a classic tale of one boy and the book that magically comes to life.  When Bastian happens upon an old book called The...
Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children
Riggs, Ransom
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times best-selling series   An abandoned orphanage on a mysterious island holds the key to supernatural secrets in this unusual and original first book in the one-of-a-kind Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series  A captivating blend of...

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