I <3 YA books

At our local library, I discovered a series of YA books by Catherine Jinks about the squire of a Templar during the Crusades (specifically, right before the Third Crusade - the first book takes place in 1186, I think, and includes the Battle of Hattin). They are marvelous. The first book, Pagan's Crusade, was wonderful (the main character's name bears no relation to his religious affiliation, by the way - I was a teeny bit disappointed XD but Christianity in these books is handled very well), and I just finished the second one, Pagan in Exile, this morning. Pagan is an utterly delightful narrator - he's a Christian Arab who was born in Bethlehem and grew up as an orphan in a monastery from whence he ran away at the age of ten, and he's a sarcastic, streetwise, completely realistic down-on-his-luck kid. The first-person narrative is done in a really interesting style. It's comprised of snatches and bits of imagery: what Pagan sees, hears, smells, feels, thinks. Spoken words are usually peppered with his sarcastic inner monologue. This evokes medieval Jerusalem very effectively along with putting the reader right inside Pagan's head. It's also a vivid and - I imagine - realistic way to describe the frenzied battle scenes, for example.

Pagan in Exile is even better. In the first book, Pagan and his knight, Lord Roland, unfold as complex and compelling characters, and their depth only increases in the second book. There's a particular element in this one that I wanted to talk about, but I'm going to put it under a cut even though I'll still be as vague as possible, to avoid spoilers. It's a subject that's very important to me personally, especially in YA books.

( Cut for spoilers of theme, with details still omitted for maximum spoiler-avoidance )

In short, thumbs up :3