YA: some recently read books

I don't read much YA. There is too much drama, a lot of dealing with issues. Too much cuteness in the writing and not enough craft. I didn't read it when I was in the target demographic and I wouldn't really push it on the target demographic now. Still, I read a few things that probably count:

Some books I recently read:

Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
Nhamo lives in Mozambique. There are bad family politics and an arranged marriage so she runs away to Zimbabwe to find her father. Along the way she talks to her dead mother, a bunch of chimps and various spirits from the water and elsewhere. Then she bumps into some scientists. It's a coming of age thing with a complicated vocabulary.

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Matteo Alacran is a clone of the mob/ganglord guy who rules the area between future USA and future Mexico. There is a lot of drugs going around. No one likes the clones. Matt runs away. There is a lot of confusing future-speak in this book.

The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler
I don't know if this is really a YA book or not. I am deciding it is, because it features all manner of high school drama. Flannery Culp is editing her diary, which explains a murder committed by herself in unwitting conjunction with her set of friends. There is a reference to a series of unfortunate behaviors. This is quick but consciously clever. It also occasionally bogs down in thinly veiled references: Steven Queen, the horror writer; Winnie Moprah, talk show host; rock band Q.E.D. with hit songs With You With You, I Keep Finding What I'm not looking for. The study questions and vocabulary that periodically interupt the narrative are amusing, but there is a bit too much smartiness in some places. Is the content to adult for YA? Maybe, I don't know.