It's NOW! It's TIME! For the first, annual YABBAS!

Yes, the time is nigh!  For what, I hear you ask?  Why, for the event of the year.  Screw the Oscars, forget the Golden Globes and belittle the Baftas.  Her at YAckers HQ, we are delighted to announce the inaugural presentation of what will be the awards event of the year in the future.  Welcome to the:

YAckers Awards for Books, Brilliance And Stuff (YABBAS)

Yep, we also thought that the title rolled right of the tongue.  As with all good award shows, this one is over long, full of spurious categories.  All nominees were gleaned for books YAcked in 2012 and were decided on in a process that was only vaguely democratic and which involved crying and wine.  And so... AVAST!

While we YAckers very much felt that DoSaB was a book of two halves, we were almost united by the gorgeous use of words and visual, er, vis-u-osity.

Sadly, where there is love, so is there hate, where there beauty, imperfection.  Le Sigh.  The voting in this category was almost (ALMOST) unanimous.  For whatever reason, ToG really didn't gel with the majority of the lady YAckers and now it pays the price.

And again, DoSaB pips all others to the post.  It was a jolly old romp through Prague and it's netherworld, though, wasn't it?  Hmmmm?  We plan to recreate it on our first YAckers holiday.  Really.  We shall have blue hair and creepy ex-boyfriends.

This bored us.  A lot.  In fact, some of us didn't make it past the opening chapter (and were therefore not allowed to YAck it, as we do have SOME rules).  One of us liked it.  But only one.

Of the chilling tales we read, and there were a few, this story of the son of a serial killer was the one that stayed with us longest.  It was the bleach.  And the eyeballs.  And the ick.

This award was originally monickered the YABBA for Existentialism but we quickly realised that there could only be one winner.  In his honour, this award shall be The John Green Award for Being John Green every year henceforth.  And we sincerely hope that John Green wins it FOREVUH.

With her contemporary Gothic novel, Sarah Rees Brennan got all of our imaginations whirring.  Spooky houses and creepy characters abound, all in middle England as opposed to, er, Middle Earth.

She had us at BAD DOG. 

A title that had us excited, then conflicted and ultimately a bit confused, Shadows made for sore heads and an interesting YAck.  We're hoping it falls into "that difficult second album" category and look forward hopefully to Monsters.

What can we say - we REALLY liked Prague. And the rest.  To say more would be to ruin your own discovery of Laini Taylor's beautifully imagined world.  It's awesome.  So read it.  Now.

John Green writes about life.  He uses clever words and overly-verbose teens, but look beneath this and hsi portrayal of the stuff of life is spot on.

It turns out that we REALLY LIKE overly-verbose characters as our favourite character of 2012 was...

Augustus Waters - The Fault in Our Stars

What's not to love?

Caelejoraueru Snweruaoewruaou - Throne of Glass

(er, Caelena Sardothien? Maybe?)

Not one ballot that came back had this name spelled the same way.  NOT ONE.  That's how much the YAckers loved her.

Nearly there, loyal audience (of which at least 90% are actually just, well, US).  Now we reach our book awards of the highest magnitude:

Henceforth known as:

Yes, after his star turn of Thorin in The Hotness: An Unexpected Joy-ney, we feel RA could easily carry off the role of Brimstone.  For the solitary YAcker who suggested he may work as Barrington Whelk in The Raven Boys please note that this is NOT the Elijah Wood award for Championing Elijah Wood.

And FINALLY!

This was a tight race, with The Fault in Our Stars deserving honourable mention for being pipped to the post by just ONE MEASLY PIP.  Ultimately, however, the award goes to the only book that we ALL ACTUALLY (pretty much) LIKED (other than, er, TFIOS).  Even Donna.  Who surprised even herself.

The YAcker's Book of 2012 award goes to:

This tale of dead Welsh kings, four conflicted boys and one cursed almost-psychic pretty much blew our tiny minds with it's beautiful language, accomplished story-telling and unpredictable plot.  Bring on book two.

INTERMISSION

That's write, kick back, pop a cork, sip some bubbles and join us later for part two - the YABBAS for YAckers.  Who will be Queen YAck?  Who will be given the Keys to the YAckdom.  Who knows? (well, me, actually). 

See you soon.