Review: Red Glass

Red Glass by Laura Resau
Find it at a local indie!

• Why I read it: Central America, panic attacks, Mexican food, border troubles, immigration, shades of gray
• Disclosure: Had a copy passed on to me by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. Thanks, Lyn!

ONE NIGHT SOPHIE and her parents are called to a hospital where Pedro, 6-year-old Mexican boy, is recovering from dehydration. Crossing the border into Arizona with a group of Mexicans and a coyote, or guide, Pedro and his parents faced such harsh conditions that the boy is the only survivor. Pedro comes to live with Sophie, her parents, and Sophie's Aunt Dika, a refugee of the war in Bosnia. Sophie loves Pedro - her Principito, or Little Prince. But after a year, Pedro's surviving family in Mexico makes contact, and Sophie, Dika, Dika's new boyfriend, and his son must travel with Pedro to his hometown so that he can make a heartwrenching decision.

Call me naive, but I've always wondered why immigration (illegal and otherwise) across our southern border, especially from Mexico, is a political issue and not a humanitarian one. Red Glass perfectly illustrates why. Its opening scene is so visceral and heartbreaking, especially for me as an older sister, that I almost put the book down, unsure if I would be able to take it. Of course, I didn't put it down, and for that I'm glad. Red Glass is the kind of book that can be life-changing.

The first reason? Our heroine. As someone who (as I've mentioned) suffered from anxiety for years, I always love reading about characters with anxiety and reminisce on how far I've come. Sophie's panic attacks are perhaps the most realistic I've ever read, but Resau also seems to have an intimate understanding of where realism ends and magical realism begins, and we know from page one that Sophie's journey will be a parallel to our own. Everything about the character rings true, and in the YA magical realism genre where the quirky so often becomes the absurd and incomprehensible, it's a good thing we have that to cling to. In fact, nearly all of her characters are bastions of normal in the face of the crazy, and the ones that aren't - Aunt Dika in particular - are charming beneath the bizarre.

The second reason is Resau's prose, which can only be described as sensuous, and hot - Mexican border hot. Desert hot. Jungle hot. Heated conversations hot. And sexy hot when it comes to everything Ángel, of course. As with The Indigo Notebook (Resau's later release, which I read and reviewed before this one), I read Red Glass during one of our many cold snaps this spring here in MN, and found myself literally crying because I wanted to be within the pages of this book so badly. I believe the last time that happened was Harry Potter, so believe me when I say that this book has some of the most evocative descriptions I've ever read.

The third reason (of many, though the last I'll list) is the author's absolute refusal to pull punches, which I also remember from The Indigo Notebook. Every time I started to pull away, worried I was going to get saddled with a happy ending I didn't want and the story didn't need, I got a twist that not only pulled me straight back in, but also made such perfect sense in hindsight that I couldn't believe I hadn't seen it coming.

In short: it's brilliant, and as I said in the first paragraph, life-changing. If The Indigo Notebook was good, Red Glass was excellent, and it kept me thinking (and wanderlusting) long after the final page was turned. There aren't easy answers to its conclusion, just like there aren't any easy answers to the issues of immigration, poverty, war, and intercultural relations in general, but it's got enough sweet and romantic moments to make me want to re-read it, too.

And, leaving my Professional Reviewer persona behind me for a moment, I will share that first on that re-read list is every scene with Ángel in it. Nice Latino boy without a machismo complex a la What Can't Wait? Awww yeah!

If you couldn't tell, this was one of the books that majorly brought me out of my Mean Reviewer blues. It's beautiful in every way, and I can't wait to get my hands on more from Laura Resau. Five out of five stars. 

Diversify Your Reading! An awesome giveaway from Diversity in YA

As I may have mentioned once, or twice, or many many times here on this blog, diversity of all kinds in YA is an issue very near and dear to my heart. Imagine my delight when Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo, two of my favorite authors of diverse YA, announced they'd be going on tour with even more incredible authors of diverse YA! (Dia Reeves! Nnedi Okorafor! Holly Black!) Then imagine my crushing disappointment when I found out the closest they'd come to me was a day's drive away.

Turns out I get the chance to be delighted all over again, though, because for everyone who missed it like me (or got to go, lucky ducks!) there's the Diversify Your Reading Challenge for readers, book bloggers, and librarians!

The scoop for the readers and book bloggers half:

We invite readers and book bloggers to read diverse MG and YA books throughout the summer (you choose the books!) and write an essay (at least 500 words) about your experience. You can post it on your website, Blogger, LiveJournal, Tumblr, or on Facebook; we only ask that your post be publicly readable.

And the librarians:

We invite librarians to incorporate diverse middle grade and young adult novels into your summer reading programs, whether it’s as a book display, a book club event, or a book list you’ve created to share with your patrons. Please take photos or shoot video of your display or event and share them with us!

You can find more about the contest (including prizes, reading lists, info about the judging, fine print, deadlines, and the entry form) at the Diversity in YA website (www.diversityinya.com), or at this link. There's a kick-off giveaway involved, too, so there's extra incentive to blog the love and spread the word.

And if you want to get a head start on your diverse YA reading this summer, you should definitely check out Ari's blog Reading in Color (multicultural/multiracial YA) and John's blog Dreaming in Books (romance and LGBTQ YA) for some awesome recommendations. Go Diversity in YA, and best of luck to everyone in the giveaway!

**CLOSED** Guest post and giveaway from James Vachowski! **CLOSED**

**THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED**

Today I'm lucky enough to play guest post host to James Vachowski, author of Outspoken from Vagabondage Press, which also happened to get a 4.5 star review from me and was runner-up on my best of 2011 so far list. James was also kind enough to offer a e-copy of Outspoken and his latest novel Burnout for a special winner, so be sure to read all the way to the bottom for the rules of the giveaway! Good luck, and take it away, James!

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Why I Can’t Stand Writing Prompts, and How I Plan To Get Over Myself

                So if writing is supposedly such a noble pastime, how come I feel like that one clerk at Barnes and Noble is secretly mocking me every month on New Magazine Day?  Yes, I’m talking about the hairy 29-year old dude who makes $9.50 an hour and still lives with his mom and smells of Starbucks and clove cigarettes, the snobby guy who looks down through his thick hipster glasses at the issue of Writer’s Digest that I’ve tried to hide in between copies of The Economist, Soldier of Fortune and Cracked.  I mean, is it really too hard to believe that a fairly clean guy wearing a collared shirt, clearly a nine-to-five operative for The Man, could have secret aspirations of literary greatness?

                I’ve been writing for three years now, and I’ve long since crossed that mental threshold where I actually consider myself a “Writer with a capital W,” but writing stuff is still just another hobby for me, much like riding motorcycles or wandering around big box retailers late at night.  It’s a particularly sweet feeling to get paid a few extra bucks for a hobby that I enjoy, but this guy is not quite ready to quit his day job yet.  But you know what?   I’m okay with that.  I’m actually pretty lucky to have had some kind of success when it comes to my career, and the health benefits, steady paycheck, and 401k match aren’t bad either.

                I guess that’s why I’ve never cared much for writing prompts, those watered down one-liners which are supposedly designed to spark creative genius.  You know, random thoughts like “Write from the perspective of a three-legged dog named Lucky” or “You’ve just fallen out of an airplane.  How will you survive?  Or will you?”  For me, writing prompts almost seem like a one-way ticket back in time to seventh-grade English class, with all the rules and structure that always seemed painfully at odds with the chaos of adolescence.  Nowadays when I have an idea for a story, I usually just go ahead and write it.  Taking orders from someone else would make writing almost seem like…well, work.

                But see, here’s where it might be time for me to put my big kid pants on and give myself some critical feedback.  Let’s think about it for a second:  There must be some kind of benefit to using writing prompts, right?  I mean, it seems like they’re everywhere I turn, so it’s possible that at least a few people must be using them successfully.  Yes, like every other writer I already have a “little black book” full of thousands of ideas that I’ll probably never get around to putting on paper, but maybe using writing prompts would give me an extra creative burst every once in a while.  So here’s what I’ve got in mind to get over my latent phobia of directed writing:

                I’ve asked Maggie’s permission to have you guys, her loyal readers, come up with a one-sentence writing prompt and post it in the form of a comment below.  In an extremely subjective competition, I will act as the sole judge and name my favorite as the winner.  After that, I plan to shut up and get started writing.  I can’t guarantee that I’ll ever be able to get the finished story published anywhere, but I’ll give it the old college try.  If I do succeed, you’ll have the distinct privilege of being able to claim full credit for my success at your next social gathering.  You know that loudmouth who always brags, “I knew that guy way back when?”  That could be you!      

                And if that’s not enough incentive, I’ll also help stuff the winner’s e-reader with digital copies of both OUTSPOKEN and my newly released mystery, Burnout.  So what are you waiting for?  Prompt me!

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You heard James! Go ahead and leave your prompts in the comments (along with an email, Twitter, or another convenient way to get a hold of you), and I'll send off the entries for their (highly subjective) judgment on July 22nd, one month from today. Best of luck, and I can't wait to read what you guys come up with! (And in the meantime, why don't you follow James at his blog?)

**start of edit** Participants in the contest may enter up to THREE prompts (all in the same comment or in three separate comments). Prompts added beyond those three will be disregarded as entries. Thanks, everyone! **end of edit**

**THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED**