A Very Happy (Challenge-Free) 2012

This year I made a capital-D blogging Decision: I will be participating in exactly zero reading challenges for 2012.

Not the Debut Author Challenge. Nor the POC Reading Challenge. Nor any of the other challenges I attempted this year, even though they were great and I do encourage you to try them and will be cheering you on from the sidelines.

I realized that I'm lazy. That I'm worn out. And that constantly worrying about meeting challenge goals takes the fun out of reading for me. I'll be reading and reviewing what I want and am able to in 2012, and we'll see how that works out.

I want to thank you all for a truly spectacular blogging year: the wonderful community I stumbled into when I started this blog is the only reason I didn't quit right after I started. Bloggers, authors, editors, agents, bookish people all, you rock. Happy New Year, and may 2012 be even better than we hope.

Winners of the Catching Jordan swag giveaway!

I'm a lazy blogger. See: every single contest I've ever run. Anyway, I finally tallied up the entries for my swag giveaway for Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally, and the results are in:

Lauren and A.J.!

Congratulations! You were entries 13 and 6, respectively, and so you each win a bookmark, a sticker, and a postcard. I've sent you both emails, and if I don't get a reply within a week, I'll go ahead and pick another winner.

For all of you who didn't win, be sure to check out the blurb for Catching Jordan: 

What girl doesn't want to be surrounded by gorgeous jocks day in and day out? Jordan Woods isn't just surrounded by hot guys, though - she leads them as the captain and quarterback on her high school football team. They all see her as one of the guys, and that's just fine. As long as she gets her athletic scholarship to a powerhouse university. But now there's a new guy in town who threatens her starring position on the team... and has her suddenly wishing to be seen as more than just a teammate.

And also to follow Miranda on Twitter, because, you know, she's awesome. Happy New Year!

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Fantasy/Paranormal Romance, 418 pages, Little, Brown & Company

• Series: 1st in Daughter of Smoke and Bone series
• Pub date: September 27 2011
• Why I read it: Artsy girls are artsy, old fairy tales and new stories, the dark side of angels
• Disclosure: Won a copy from Forever Young Adult. Thanks! 

Goodreads blurb:

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

The Long...

Looking over my to-review list, I feel like I've tackled a lot of books I hated lately, or at least ones I wasn't crazy about. And I've got a few more negative reviews to come. It's times like these where I turn to reviewing the books that knocked my socks off for comfort, and it's hard to imagine a book that better fits the description of knocker-offer-of-socks than Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

(Sometimes I'm really happy I'm a book blogger and can describe books as knocker-offers-of-socks without a trace of irony.)

To put it in other terms? This book is the most imaginative, atmospheric, and gorgeous story I've read all year; exactly the qualities that put it at the top of my best-of fantasy list. From the streets of Prague where the story opens, to Marrakesh, to the otherworld of angels and demons, to the dozens of other places Karou travels without batting an eyelash, the word that comes to mind is luscious.

Taylor doesn't skimp on her character development or plotting either, with every twist evolving so naturally from every moment before it that once you've read it, it feels like the only logical place the story could have gone. Karou is an unusual YA heroine in that, even as she quests for her identity, she never seems to angst or dither about it: she is as much of an enigma to us as she is to those around her. She is competent, talented, envied, beautiful, and knows it, and yet we see just enough vulnerability in her to keep us reading. Her love for her demon family is heartrending, and her relationship with Akiva is by turns fiery and tender.

The last thing of note is its mythology, which is complex and real and difficult to trace to any real world myths. Sure, it's an angels-and-demons story, but it has a much wilder, pagan feel than you might think. The war is brutal, yet the moments between the war are delicate and beautiful. Taylor has a keen sense of the pointlessness of the labels of "good" and "evil," and at times, we're as much on the side of the villains as the heroes.

I could gush on, but that would be boring. Suffice to say that it was easily in my top three reads of 2011, and that I'm breathless for the sequel.

...and the Short:

Gorgeous, wild, and mysterious, Daughter of Smoke and Bone left me breathless. A sequel, please!

The Final Word: Loved it!

Book-to-movie adaptations: some thoughts

If you follow me on Twitter (and check on it often), then you might have already seen this article from Salon: "And the next 'Tintin' is..." It's chockablock with opinions from all-star YA authors from Sherman Alexie to Maggie Stiefvater to Patrick Ness on book-to-movie adaptations; on which movies they'd like to see made, and which movies should never have been made. It's a great piece, and I'll still be here when you all finish reading it.

Finished? Okay? Okay.

It left me thinking which books were released this year that I'd love to see adapted for the big screen: Scott Westerfeld's excellent Leviathan trilogy that concluded with Goliath this October, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Holly Black's Curseworkers trilogy, Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey, If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, and--while I doubt it would transfer to screen well--Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King.

It also got me to thinking about which movie adaptations never, ever should have been made: Eragon, The Golden Compass, and, while Anne Hathaway was cute, Ella Enchanted.

So what say you, fellow bibliophiles? What book-to-movie adaptations would you most like to see, and which do you most wish you could un-see?

Review: Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson

Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Sci-Fi/Thriller, 410 pages, Orchard

• Series: 1st in the Ultraviolet series
• Pub date: June 2 2011
• Why I read it: Girls with superpowers, mystery, mental hospitals
• Disclosure: Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks!

Judged by its cover: Surprisingly good. Hate the title font and the tagline, but the image is interesting and artsy and would definitely catch my eye on a shelf.

Goodreads blurb:

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special.
This is not her story.
Unless you count the part where I killed her.
Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori -- the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?

The Long...

It's been about five months since I've read this book. I've tried writing three drafts of this review. And none of them has come out quite right. Many aspects of Ultraviolet are exactly what I'd like to see more of in YA: a heroine who is as gutsy as she is broken and who has to put the pieces together on her own to face her own demons; an intriguing sci-fi twist; a mystery that genuinely kept me on my toes. What about those things didn't add up for me? I'm not sure, and I'm trying to figure it out.

It's difficult to explain what's irking me, too, when so much of the narrative tension of Ultraviolet rests on its twists. There's little I can say that won't crack this story wide open, and that's the last thing I want to do when I'm writing a review.

I'll give it my best shot anyway.

We're introduced the Alison at the height of her panic. She doesn't know what's wrong with her, and no one else seems to know, either. We're thrown into the middle of her psychotic breaks again and again, and this is where Anderson's writing shines: we feel for Alison, and we're scared of her, too.

Then there is the charismatic doctor who offers to give Alison her answers. There's something off about him, and we don't know what until about three twists later. Then there is the girl Alison thinks she killed. And then. And then.

Maybe that's what's bothering me: it's a fun little roller coaster ride that throws you for a loop again and again, but once you climb off, you look back and realize it wasn't that great after all. There isn't a lingering feeling of...well, anything, other than faint disappointment. You thought you were going somewhere, and it turns out there's nowhere to go: just confusion and a half-hearted cliffhanger ending. Anderson crams so much into her third act that it left me breathless, but once I had the time to take a step back, it felt wrong.

It's not bad, is what I'm saying. In fact, it's pretty good, and I can think of a whole slew of people who might enjoy it. It just wasn't as great as it could have been, and the disappointment is swallowing everything else.

...and the Short:

It's an intriguing roller coaster ride, but the third act fails to deliver upon the slow-moving promise of the first two. Worth reading, but perhaps not reading again.

The Final Word: Meh.

Review, and a rant: The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegen

The Mephisto Covenant by Trinity Faegen
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Paranormal Romance, 439 pages, EgmontUSA

• Series: 1st in The Mephisto Covenant series
• Pub date: September 27 2011
• Why I read it: I'm...not really sure.
• Disclosure:  Received an ARC from The Red Balloon Bookstore in St. Paul. Thanks!

Judged by its cover: Terrible. Enough with the skinny blonde white girls in pretty dresses that have exactly ZERO to do with the story. The night sky is pretty, though.

Goodreads blurb:

Sasha is desperate to find out who murdered her father. When getting the answer means pledging her soul to Eryx, she unlocks a secret that puts her in grave danger—Sasha is Anabo, a daughter of Eve, and Eryx’s biggest threat.
A son of Hell, immortal, and bound to Earth forever, Jax looks for redemption in the Mephisto Covenant—God’s promise he will find peace in the love of an Anabo. After a thousand years, he’s finally found the girl he’s been searching for: Sasha.
With the threat of Eryx looming, Jax has to keep Sasha safe and win her over. But can he? Will Sasha love him and give up her mortal life?

The Long...

Let's play Things-Maggie-Hates-in-YA bingo, shall we? Pretty vapid white girl in pretty dress on cover? Check! Insta-romance between an ancient, hunky guy and a young, bland, holier-than-thou girl? Pretty much! Heavy-handed religious references and an obsession with chastity? Yep! Aforementioned young, bland, holier-than-thou girl has appropriately feminine superpowers directly tied to said chastity? You got it! Big secretive family who lives in gorgeous, remote location and also happens to have more money than god? BINGO!

I'll admit freely, I am not the target audience here. The target audience are girls who love Twilight, Starcrossed, and hunky angel romances like Hush, Hush and the Fallen series (which, in the interest of full disclosure, I have never read), and are dying for something, anything, like them. I am not these girls. I do not have a problem with these girls.

I do have a problem with the writers, editors, publishers, and everyone else in the publishing industry who has a hand in continuing to shove this sexist drivel down all our throats.

If The Mephisto Covenant was simply a bad book, I might write something a little snarky, as I am wont to do, and then forget about it. Contrary to what those who write me hate mail seem to believe, I do not set out to write nasty reviews, and would much rather spend hours promoting the crap out of a book I loved than disparaging one I didn't like. If The Mephisto Covenant  was an isolated incident, I wouldn't be writing this, either.

But it's not an isolated incident. It is, in fact, the prevailing incident in paranormal YA, which is why I so rarely read it. There's something nefarious about it all: the constant Madonna/Whore complex of the heroines; the hunky guys who so often stalk them, beat them, nearly kill them, bully them, coerce them, mock them, and destroy their dreams in the name of true love; the endless weakness of girls when it comes to boys, and the awful co-dependence of it all. I don't know much about true love, but I do know that this endless, endless ideal that's pushed in so much YA isn't it.

I haven't said much about The Mephisto Covenant in this review, and that's because I'm still seething too much to even think about it. I won't take pot shots at the writing, or specific incidents, because they're not what's got me all riled up. Just know that it's the most perfectly crystallized example of everything I just ranted about that I have ever, ever read. I hated it, full stop, and worse, I'm spectacularly disappointed that a genre that can claim such spectacular releases as the ones on my best-of list can also claim such ugly misogyny.

Yes, this is mean, and maybe a little unprofessional. Deal with it, and better yet, FIX IT. I can't embrace Paranormal YA until it figures out where exactly it stands with the demons this book so nicely exposed.

...and the Short:

Any redeeming features this book has are utterly obscured by its ugly, sexist, formulaic plot. "Not for me" doesn't even begin to cover it.

The Final Word: Not for me. 

**EDIT** Something I would like to add that I'm not sure I made clear enough: I'm not disparaging paranormal YA as a genre, nor, inherently, the tropes I describe. I'm disparaging the fact that this combination of tropes seems to comprise most of YA, without any balance of strong heroines and heroes.

I'd also like to point out that The Mephisto Covenant just plain sucked, aside from its tropes, and that it was a bit of a low blow to use it as the jumping-off point for this discussion.

Finally, in saying that these books are marketed towards girls (and boys) who want books like Twilight, Starcrossed, etc.: I'm not even placing these books in the same category as The Mephisto Covenant. I actually enjoyed Twilight a lot, despite its messages, and while I didn't like Starcrossed, it was worlds better than this book. I'm just saying that publishers are marketing Mephisto-style YA to that audience.

I apologize if any of my points are misunderstood. This post was written in the heat of the moment, and while I stand by the heart of what I'm saying, I said it a little more harshly than I intended.**/EDIT**

Writing for Today's Savvy Teens: Guest Post from Wanda Ernstberger

Talk about a long time coming: this post has been half-written on the back burner for six months! What better way to get my feet back under me after a sleepy holiday season?

When Wanda Ernstberger contacted me her short story "The Next Shakespeare," I was dubious: I'm not a particular fan of YA short fiction, as you may remember. "The Next Shakespeare," though, was a pleasant surprise, and I think it would be perfect for the crowd just transitioning from middle grade to YA. You can find it for sale on Barnes & Noble and on Amazon, but I don't think I need to tell you how I feel about Amazon, either. 

As part of her promotion efforts, Wanda was also kind enough to write a guest post on writing for today's teens. Take it away, Wanda!

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*Writing for Today’s Savvy Teens

J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer proved young people like to read, so it’s no secret YA is today’s hot genre. But, how does a writer break into this lucrative market?

First of all, forget they are a “market.” They’re teens. Today’s teens are mature, articulate and have powerful radars to detect whatever is “phoney,” so don’t reach for their wallets, reach for their hearts. Here are some tips for connecting with today’s savvy teen readers:

1. Be authentic

The characters have to be real. Their relationships, worries and hobbies have to reflect who they are, and their problems have to be believable. To gain these insights, observe how teens interact with their friends, siblings and adults. Listen to them on the street, on the bus, at the mall (but don’t be a stalker. Making your audience run away won’t do anything your career. Or your reputation).

2.  Don’t follow trends

What’s hot today might not be popular tomorrow. Sadly, it takes less time for an elephant to give birth than for a book to be released. If you write whatever is trendy today, the audience might have moved on by the time your book is out. In the same vein, (no vampire pun intended), use slang sparingly. Slang changes every few months and nothing dates a book more than using language no one has spoken for five years. Gee whiz!

3.  Don’t talk down to them

Teens are young, they’re not stupid. Don't assume they all curse, use drugs, swear, or have sex on the brain all the time. Don’t think they’ll love a character because he dresses and acts like the latest pop star. Don’t veil a preachy agenda with cardboard cut-out characters and a just-add-water storyline. Insulting the audience does not bode well for a writing career.

4.  Tell a good story

This applies to writing for all genres, but especially for the YA market. First of all, don’t bore them with useless dialogue and pages of description. Keep it moving. Next, create characters that are believable and sympathetic. Lastly, don’t worry too much about the type of story you want to write. YA readers are open to stories which range from earnest and heartbroken, to witty and hilarious. Most importantly, tell a story that comes from the heart. That’s the magic which resonates with any audience.

 All in all, when writing for teens, keep in mind they are people, and as people they want to be moved, inspired and entertained. So don’t worry about how to reach that “market,” just write the best story you can, one that can only come from you. Your audience will follow.

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As a savvy teen myself, I can personally attest to the value of that advice, aspiring YA writers! If you'd like to read more from Wanda Ernstberger, you can find her at her blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Thanks, Wanda!