Gone by Michael Grant

Delightfully Dark and Sinister.

This dark and eerie dystopia was a real treat. Imagine a normal day and a normal town and then everything changes in the blink of an eye.

This is the setting of Gone.

Cleverly written, well characterised and applauded by Stephen King himself this indeed is a must read. In fact the whole American Gothic undertones were a beautiful homage to King what with its inclusion of shacks, mining towns, mutants, nuclear power plants, and talking koyotes.

I found this compulsive and an interesting exploration of a what if.... nightmare.

For all of those needing a read after the wonderment of Hunger Games, this is the perfect book. I'm rushing out this weekend to buy the other two in the trilogy and will be raving about this to my class.

Rating 4.5/5

Give Away

GIVE AWAY OF 'THE FOREST OF ADVENTURES'

3 Signed ARC copies

For seventeen year old Mina Singer, falling in love with an Arthurian Knight on a white horse was never part of the plan - especially being that she's an ordinary college girl living in the twenty first century.
As Mina finds herself catapulted into a land she believed only existed in the bedtime stories of her childhood, she soon discovers that Fairyland is not quite as innocent as she imagined.

The question is...who will come out alive?

Haunting, beautiful and sexy, The Forest of Adventures, is a dark romantic quest into the land of true and forbidden love.

To enter please click on the link below and send me your name and address.

Entries will be pulled from the hat on Feb 14th 2010.

There are no conditions for entry.

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Lament by Maggie Steifvater

I picked this up foolishly thinking it was part of the Mercy Falls Wolves series - so a complete delight to find that it was in fact a different series completely. As I love all things fay, I was quite enchanted by this.
The novel is about an ordinary girl and a not so ordinary boy. Steeped in Irish fay legends, and well researched folklore, this book was both magical and 'educational'. Maggie Stiefvater is a natural storyteller, intelligent and skilled in narrative and dialogue. Her work is always a complete pleasure to read.
The only criticisms I have of this novel is that the beginning was a little flat and that the twist (can't reveal) was a little laboured in its clue giving. But these really are minor points. A definite recommended read.
4.5/5.00

Informal Q&A Vlog interview

The Question of 'Real' YA Characters

Something I have been interested in as I have been noseying around readers' blogs, is the question of characterisation.
It has been of note to me that characterisation is very often what makes or breaks a book. It is interesting that to many readers the 'reality' / plausibility of a character is important; that to be able to suspend disbelief and journey 'into' the book that they need to be able to attach themselves to a character and travel the book together. This is very much the case with what I expect in a novel too - if you can't connect then the whole question of the novel's success comes under question.

However, what is equally fascinating is that there seems to be some universal expectations of characters - which in a strange kind of paradox, seem to actually remove the character from what is actually real.

In truth - in reality - even good people have annoying traits and weaknesses, moments where they behave in an unexpected way, or a way which we would prefer that they hadn't and yet with the protagonists of our books aren't we a little bit high in our expectation as to their superior moral and emotional conduct?

This whole question is of particular interest to me as I read a lot of, and write YA fiction, in which my protagonists are obviously Young Adults -who by their very stage in life have not yet developed a fully secure sense of self - that being the whole wonderful & exciting point of beeing a Young Adult. Young Adults often do not behave in a way in which the Adult (often more cynical / trained) world would like or prefer them to.

What is wonderful about being a Young Adult (and of much irritation to the adults around them sometimes) is that most teenagers have a wonderful freedom to express themeselves without a real fear or understanding of the consequences - there is a freedom from the expectations and conditioning that adults are subject to. As a result of this, sometimes Young Adults behave just as we would secretly like to but feel is off limits.
This kind of emotional freedom doesn't make them any less believable or real in YA fiction - if anything it is perhaps a truer reflection of the YA experience. (And in truth - I'm a little bit jealous of this!)

Stealing time.

The thing with writing is that it is a solitary pursuit. To do it effectively you need your own little space with your own music and most importantly only your own demands to satisfy.
This is very difficult when you live in a house full of people that love you but also are highly dependent on you.
This is why I have taken to stealing time. I'm finding myself competively racing to get up the earliest on a Saturday morning (with a toddler that is quite an ambition) and to go to bed later than the husband.
I've decided that sleep is really far too much of a luxury and that like all bad habits it has to be given up.
We'll see how that......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.