“Without a reader, a story is only half complete…Without a reader, the words just sit on the page, waiting to come alive in someone’s imagination.”
― Jodie Picoult
YALC, first and foremost, is a place where stories come alive. 16-17 November 2024 at London Olympia was its tenth anniversary and my third year of attending (accompanied as always by my youngest daughter ☺). If you love Young Adult books, YALC is a bit like walking into an alternate dimension where all of your favourite things are in the same place at the same time. A huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes to make it happen, and the end result is magic.
For today’s post, I’m going to focus on our top ten highlights from a brilliant YALC weekend.
Hundreds of readers + thousands of books = a brilliant atmosphere
2️⃣ Awesome Aesthetics (a):
Books that are works of art
3️⃣ Awesome Aesthetics (b):
Best-in-class bookish merch
4️⃣ Nostalgia:
Percy Jackson ⚔
The stand was beautiful. And if you held one of the shells up to your ear, you got to hear an extract from the audiobook. Jesse Bernstein, the narrator, was so great that we stayed to listen for ages.
Author signings are a big part of what makes YALC special. We met five different authors, and they were all so friendly and approachable. Jennifer Lynn Barnes was very interested to see the pink cover of Games Untold (see 6️⃣ below)—her publisher had heard of it, but they hadn't actually seen it. Bea Fitzgerald had just revealed the title of her next book (A Beautiful Evil), along with the colour of its cover 💚💚.
Krystal Sutherland mentioned that her sister is also a writer, and Ravena Guron asked my daughter which she thought was the most relatable of the three POVs in Catch Your Death. Holly Jackson talked about Taylor Swift, specifically how the lyrics of Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me are very Rachel Price coded (they really are!).
6️⃣ Cool Cover Colour:
For reasons of (very) limited bookshelf space, most of the books I own are ebooks, and The Inheritance Games series is no exception. I visited the Waterstones stand to buy a physical copy of the latest book, Games Untold, before I met Jennifer Lynn Barnes. There were some special edition hardbacks in orange, and I was about to get one when I saw a few copies on a separate shelf in a different colour (pink). I preferred the pink, so that's the one I chose. It turned out to be a printing error and there are only three copies in existence! Having a signed copy was special enough, but I'm over the moon to have the pink cover too 💟.
7️⃣ Four Fantastic Proofs:
We’re still a little shocked (and very happy!) about the proofs we came home with this year. It’s a privilege to have the chance to read a new story before its release date, and all four books look like they’re going to be really good. Lady's Knight, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner (release date June 2025) Circle of Liars, by Kate Francis (release date July 2025, no Amazon pre-order link was available at the time of writing this post)
8️⃣ 10-Year Bonus Bag:
Because we bought our tickets early, we were given a special YALC tote bag full of surprise souvenirs. These included a proof copy of Spellbound, by Georgia Leighton (release date April 2025) that I can’t wait to read.
9️⃣ Treasure Hunting:
Some of the publishers’ challenges were more difficult than others, and we had a lot of fun tracking down hidden clues. The most difficult was for the Walker YA Darkly competition. You had to find all four posters (left) to reveal the answer. I think we must have walked an extra mile around Olympia before we found the last one!
🔟 The Unexpected Keepsake:
We played spin the wheel when we were visiting the Hot Key Books stand and won this absolutely beautiful special edition of The Prisoner’s Throne by FairyLoot. I already own (and love) the ebooks in The Stolen Heir duology—in fact, reading The Prisoner’s Throne was one of my reading resolutions at the beginning of 2024. Adding a physical copy to my bookshelf makes me very happy, and I can’t stop admiring the artwork 💜.
Have you ever been to YALC? If you have, I hope you had a great time! And if you haven’t, I hope I’ve managed to convince you to think about it for next year. Thank you very much for visiting my blog today 💕.
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