Welcome back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature. I’m your barista, along with Gabriela from iggi&gabi. Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs.

We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned! Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.

Today’s Special: What makes a book suspenseful?

Regardless of the genre, two things make a book suspenseful for me: stakes and characters. It’s like a formula:

High Stakes + Sympathetic Characters = Ghenet turning the pages over and over until she reaches The End.

First, high stakes. Basically they refer to what the main character has to lose if she doesn’t make her goal. If there’s a lot to lose, I’ll be invested and want to keep reading until I know how the story turns out. A story doesn’t have to be a thriller to have high stakes. Even contemporary stories have them. What’s important is for the author to make clear what Bad Thing will happen if a goal isn’t met, and make that Bad Thing something terrible.

Examples:

• The Hunger Games: Katniss will lose her life if she doesn’t win the game.
• Past Perfect: If her coworkers find out she’s been “sleeping” (well, making out) with the enemy, they’ll hate her.
• An Abundance of Katherines: If Colin doesn’t figure out his relationship theorem, he fears he’ll never have a successful one.

What makes a story even more interesting is when the Bad Thing does happen. Then I’m even more in suspense about how the character will get through it.

High stakes alone aren’t enough to keep me in suspense, though. I also need a sympathetic character. If I don’t care about the main character, I’m not going to care whether he reaches his goal. I won’t care if the Bad Thing happens to him at the end of the book. These characters don’t have to be perfect (it’s better if they aren’t!) but I have to like them.

Examples:

• The Hunger Games: Katniss takes her sister’s place in the games. You can NOT love her after that.
• Past Perfect: Chelsea is hilarious and the kind of girl you want to be best friends with.
• An Abundance of Katherines: I talked about why I love Colin here. He’s also funny but doesn’t mean to be, and is incredibly smart.

These two elements are musts when it comes to keeping me in suspense. How about you? What do you think makes a book suspenseful? Gabi shares her thoughts on her blog so check it out!

Also, NEXT WEEK (10/28) is our YA Cafe Book Club. We’re chatting about a YA book that scared us. So, grab your favorite YA scary book and tell us about it!