Your blatant book trailer pandering does not win me over...

...except, actually, yeah it does. How I know publishers are out to break my bank account: they send me book trailers like this one.

Kind of hate the trailer itself, and also the Lady Antebellum soundtrack is laughable. But. Farm kids, you guys! I love farm kids. Mostly because I am a farm kid who wears flannel shirts and jeans and cowboy hats totally non-ironically while riding her totally non-ironic horse full pelt through pastures rounding up her goat herd totally non-ironically!

And...yeah, I kind of hate the summary from its Goodreads page, too:

Samantha was born on a full moon to a mother already dead. Revived by doctors and given to her unloving father, Samantha was raised a cursed child, her only friend the ghost of her mother who speaks to her through keys. From the inside out, Sam burned with life, a fire so vivid it kept her peers at a distance, all except one. Leith, a quiet farmboy with a broken heart and demons of his own, enjoys the seclusion his classmates grant him, but the seclusion is all too familiar to Sam.  

When their worlds collide... fires burn.

But. FARM KIDS. This girl is totally sold.

And now it's discussion time, folks! Am I the only one with crazy compulsions? What factors make you want to run out and buy a book OMG RIGHT NOW? Leave 'em in the comments - I can't wait to hear from you!

Review: Harmonic Feedback

Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble

• Why I read it: Music, on (not) fitting in, Manic Pixie Dream Girls
• Disclosure: Won a copy from the author in a contest. Thank you!

Goodreads blurb:

Sixteen-year-old, music- and sound design-obsessed Drea doesn't have friends. She has, as she's often reminded, issues. Drea's mom and a rotating band of psychiatrists have settled on "a touch of Asperger's."
Having just moved to the latest in a string of new towns, Drea meets two other outsiders. And Naomi and Justin seem to actually like Drea. The three of them form a band after an impromptu, Portishead-comparison-worthy jam after school. Justin swiftly challenges not only Drea's preference for Poe over Black Lab but also her perceived inability to connect with another person. Justin, against all odds, may even like like Drea.
It's obvious that Drea can't hide behind her sound equipment anymore. But just when she's found not one but two true friends, can she stand to lose one of them?

The Long...

I know the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is an archetype I am supposed to despise. And, truly, I do see the problem with portraying anyone (of any gender, girl or boy) as a Manic Pixie Anything instead of as a three-dimensional person. But good lord (and may the feminist powers that be strike me down where for typing this) I love me some Manic Pixie Dream Girls (and Boys). Everything about this book reads like a Manic Pixie Dream, all musty basement bands and sleepovers and street racing and mysterious pasts. And that should sell you right there, right?

Well...maybe wrong, because it did get a little too heavy-handed, and the ending was make-my-teeth-hurt-saccharine-painful. Does that go with the debut territory? Absolutely. Does it spoil what is otherwise a terrific read? Definitely not. 

Perhaps what captured me most about it was the author's bravery in taking a protagonist "with a touch of Asperger's" - who should, by publishing industry rights, belong in straight issue book territory - and making her, in the immortal words of Weetzie Bat, slinkster cool. I occasionally wanted to sit down for a nice chat with Drea and explain the facts of friendship and boys to her. But mostly, I just wanted to be her. Authors who want to write diverse characters in YA could do much, much worse than to take a leaf out of Kelly's book.

Of course, what made Drea so awesome was undoubtedly her love of music. Kelly's rendering of a bunch of kids hanging out in a basement making music is pitch-perfect (pun fully intended), and Drea and Justin's constant musical bickering was one of my favorite parts of the book. Music geek that I am, I'm now doubly excited for Kelly's next release, Amplified (to Goodreads), which looks like it follows a similar vein.

Finally, Drea's best friend Naomi. Where do I even begin? She's the one who made me think Manic Pixie Dream Girl in the first place (though the whole book had an oh-so-Zooey-Deschanel vibe from the start), and while she's far from perfectly drawn, she's also heartbreaking. I've known far too many Naomis in my life to deny that I cried at the end, despite the earnestness of it all. If watching Drea grow is the bones of the book, Naomi is its heart.

This book caught me completely and happily off guard, and while it wasn't perfect, I can't wait to see where Tara Kelly takes us next. Yay for contemporary YA!

...and the Short:

Harmonic Feedback is offbeat, romantic, funny and heartbreaking in equal measures; in short, a delight. It might come off a little too earnest for some, but awesome music references and some fantastic Pacific
Northwest street cred make it hard to beat for a sweet and sad rainy day read. Read it!*

*and yes, I know I promised you an explanation of my new ratings system last week. It's coming this Monday, I promise!

#YesGayYA: new sides to the story

Remember that post I wrote a few days ago in response to this article? I certainly do. It was one of the most painful and personal things I've ever written for this blog, ever. And unfortunately, it turns out that the incident in question had a few more dimensions to it than we'd originally believed.

Check out this guest post from the agent in question at Colleen Lindsay's blog, with a note from the venerable Colleen Lindsay herself. *EDIT* As Colleen pointed out in the comments, this was not a post by the agent in question but rather a post by another agent defending her colleague. Sorry for the misunderstanding! */EDIT*

And then this rebuttal from the authors in question.

The internet can be an ugly thing, folks. But it can also be a beautiful one. Make up your own mind about what happened here (I know I'm waiting for the additional information that will inevitably come out), but in the end, I'm very glad I wrote that post anyway. Whether or not this incident is false, the systematic erasure of the LGBTQ community (and especially LGBTQ teens) is a very, very real issue I'd like to see addressed, in the publishing industry and beyond.

Happy Release Day, Bluefish!

You might remember my review of Bluefish by Pat Schmatz. You might even remember that it ended up on my Best of 2011...so far list. And it's finally here! Today's release day! *throws confetti*

Check out the summary below:

Thirteen-year-old Travis has a secret: he can’t read. But a shrewd teacher and a sassy girl are about to change everything in this witty and deeply moving novel.
Travis is missing his old home in the country, and he’s missing his old hound, Rosco. Now there’s just the cramped place he shares with his well-meaning but alcoholic grandpa, a new school, and the dreaded routine of passing when he’s called on to read out loud. But that’s before Travis meets Mr. McQueen, who doesn’t take "pass" for an answer—a rare teacher whose savvy persistence has Travis slowly unlocking a book on the natural world. And it’s before Travis is noticed by Velveeta, a girl whose wry banter and colorful scarves belie some hard secrets of her own. With sympathy, humor, and disarming honesty, Pat Schmatz brings to life a cast of utterly believable characters—and captures the moments of trust and connection that make all the difference.

Seriously, guys? You want this book.

Be sure to pick it up at your bookseller of choice (though of course, I always like to recommend that you shop indie) and to wish the author a happy book birthday over at her blog. And, as always, I hope your day is as bibliophiliac-wonderful as mine!

Please don't erase me: on the straightening of gay YA and why I think it sucks

First off, apologies for the lack of blogging lately. College, college, and a little more college (17 credits worth of college + extracurriculars!) has been a crazy brainsuck. Plus my carpal tunnel's flaring up. Plus I have been sick-like. Plus...well, I'm lazy. What can I say?

There are some things, though, that I can't sit back and be lazy about any longer. Namely, this post that went live on a Publisher's Weekly blog this morning: "Authors Say Agents Try to 'Straighten' Gay Characters in YA."

Wait. What the hell?

Because really, publishing industry, I thought we were past this already. I thought we'd established that, while perhaps (perhaps) gay YA isn't ready to go blockbuster a la The Hunger Games yet, it is not the dealbreaker for a buyer it once might have been.

That, in fact, there are some people (myself included) that actively seek it out, and are actively frustrated at the exceedingly narrow selection you allow to hit the shelves.

That, in fact, there are some people who like to push boundaries, expand their horizons, and read about people who are different from them.

That, in fact, there are even some teens and adults (myself included) that are gay, or lesbian, or bisexual, or transgender, or queer, or questioning, or part of a whole spectrum in between, that would love to wake up to a world where they aren't erased and ignored for the crime of making some people uncomfortable.

That, in fact, would love to be able to go into a bookstore and buy a book with a teen going through exactly what they're going through, with the hope of a happy ending instead of the tragic one foisted constantly upon nearly every LGBTQ story, ever.

It would be nice, you know? To feel, for once, like I exist. Like I can be okay whether I ride off into the sunset with a girl, a guy, or someone in between, if that's what makes me happy.

But no, screw it. Don't bother listening to me. I'm only that high school kid who reads and reviews 100+ (mostly YA) books a year and is, in no way, your target audience.

Go ahead, erase me. I'll be okay. It's been done before.

I'd just really, really hoped that you'd be different, publishing industry. And it makes me sad to find out that you're not.

Ten years later

Ten years ago, I was a six-year-old whose only real comprehension of the events of September 11th, 2001 was that it almost meant that our homeschool field trip to Luray Caverns, VA was going to be canceled. (We went anyway. I think my parents wanted to escape the news as much as anyone.)

And today, ten years later, I'm still not sure if my comprehension goes any deeper than that. It's still too horrifying to have sunk in completely, and it's certainly not something I can write about with any sort of coherence. I did try last year, though, and if you'd like to read that post (on how books have changed in light of 9/11) you can find it here.

You can watch Paul Simon perform "The Sound of Silence" at Ground Zero, too, if you are so inclined. It's a better tribute than I could ever hope to give.

And that's about all I have to say. Stay safe, celebrate life, remember.