Updates to my review policy

Just wanted to direct any newcomers to the blog to some pertinent changes in my review policy. A couple of new highlights:

• My professional email address is no longer mdesmondobrien@yahoo.com. It is now mdesmondobrien@gmail.com. I will do my best to stay on top of the trickle of Yahoo! emails still coming, but if you want a guarantee that I'll get back to you, please direct all emails to the Gmail address.
• The Middle Grade Monday feature has been officially discontinued. Unfortunately my darling 11-year-old sister Ellie has decided that, while she loves reading, blogging and reviewing is just not for her. This means that I am no longer accepting middle grade books for review, unless they have significant teen and adult crossover appeal.

A couple of old highlights that still bear repeating:

• I am still open to teen books in any genre as long as they capture my attention. Yes, even romance, though your chances are better with a contemporary or sci-fi title. I'm a fairly open and voracious reader, so give it a shot! The worst I can do is say no.
• I am still open to indie books in any genre as long as they capture my attention. My experiences with indie authors have been among the best I've had here at Maggie's Bookshelf, and despite some frustrations with the self-publishing machine, that's not likely to change anytime soon.
• I am still open to adult books, but I am more discriminating than I am with my teen choices and would prefer to receive requests for titles with teen crossover appeal (please, no more war hero biographies).

Thanks to all, and please keep the review requests coming! They make this bibliophile's day every time, even when I say no.

Review: Stick by Andrew Smith

Stick by Andrew Smith
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Contemporary, 292 pages, Feiwel & Friends

• Series: stand-alone
• Pub date: October 11th 2011
• Why I read it: Brothers, LGBTQ, gritty stuff
• Disclosure: Received an ARC from the Red Balloon Bookstore. Thanks!

Judged by its cover: Just okay. It does a decent job of conveying the story, but it screams I AM READING AN ISSUE BOOK OF GREAT IMPORTANCE rather loudly (and not in a good way). It is also a rather excellent example of why stock photos aren't the best idea for YA covers: see Harmonic Feedback.

Goodreads blurb:

Fourteen-year-old Stark McClellan (nicknamed Stick because he’s tall and thin) is bullied for being “deformed” – he was born with only one ear. His older brother Bosten is always there to defend Stick. But the boys can’t defend one another from their abusive parents.
When Stick realizes Bosten is gay, he knows that to survive his father's anger, Bosten must leave home. Stick has to find his brother, or he will never feel whole again. In his search, he will encounter good people, bad people, and people who are simply indifferent to kids from the wrong side of the tracks. But he never loses hope of finding love – and his brother.

The Long...

From the minute I read the summary for Andrew Smith's previous release, The Marbury Lens, I knew he was an author I had to try. When I got the opportunity to check out The Marbury Lens from the library and get my hands on an ARC of Stick in the same week this summer, I jumped on it. The problem? I'm still reeling.

Of all the words you could use to describe Andrew Smith's writing, "easy" is not one of them. The Marbury Lens was easily the most intense YA book I have ever read, and while Stick was slightly less brutal, it's still a white-knuckler the whole way through. Every time something goes right, you know something's about to go wrong in a big way, and while I couldn't tear my eyes away, it sometimes felt more like rubber-necking than reading.

Still, there's no denying that Smith's writing is as affecting as it is difficult, and Stick's voice--words skipping around the page as we imagine he hears them--was distinctive and excellent. Stick's connection to his brother Bosten, even as it tears him apart from everything he knows and loves, was my favorite part of the book, especially since I've always wanted a big brother. And while, as with The Marbury Lens, Smith's treatment of his gay characters is less than consistent as the book goes on, it's less an issue of content than of genre: the book feels more like literary adult fiction than YA.

All that is to say nothing of the conclusion, which was easily the most devastating (while hopeful) I've read in a long time. I was ready to leave the characters behind, but they weren't ready to leave me, and I still catch myself thinking about it in odd moments. I'm still not sure I can be entirely coherent about this book. I'm sure it will be as polarizing as it is thought-provoking, and it's certainly worth a read, if only to set your head spinning for awhile.

...and the Short:

Brutal, visceral, intense: love it or hate it, this book will stick with you for a long time.

The Final Word: Liked it.

YA and music: Call for submissions!

Back from the brink of No-Internet-Landia, I finally have the chance to bring my desperate shout-out for YA playlists to a place beyond Twitter: to make a series of long, boring tweets short, I'm looking for submissions of playlists or even single songs that make you think of particular YA novels or authors.

Basically, I love YA, and I love music, but I'm terrible at making playlists. So please, help me out.

If you feel like making a few (or have some already made!), please drop me a line at mdesmondobrien@gmail.com, and I'll repost them with your permission ASAP. Or, if you have particularly good YA playlist links to share, whether author- or reader-created, I'm happy to re-post those, as well.

Or guest posts. Or anything related to both music and YA, really.

For example, see this awesome playlist author Steve Brezenoff made for his book, Brooklyn, Burning, which you can find my review for here.

If you are so inclined, some books I would particularly love to see playlists for:

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Goodreads/my review)
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (Goodreads/review forthcoming)
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (Goodreads/my review)
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion (Goodreads/my review)
Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves (Goodreads/my review)
And Then Things Fall Apart by Arlaina Tibensky (Goodreads/review forthcoming)

I hope I've gotten your creative (musical) juices flowing. Submit away!

Review: Chime by Franny Billingsley

Chime by Franny Billingsley
Goodreads | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble
YA, Fantasy, 361 pages, Dial

• Series: stand-alone
• Pub date: March 17th 2011
• Why I read it: unreliable narrator, swamp wolves, historical fantasy
• Disclosure: Checked out a copy from my local library.

Judged by its cover: Just okay. I like the font and the tree roots around her shoulder--a cover that actually has something to do with the story, huzzah!--but yet again we have a doe-eyed girl staring out at the world as I read. And that's awkward.

Goodreads blurb:

Before Briony's stepmother died, she made sure Briony blamed herself for all the family's hardships. Now Briony has worn her guilt for so long it's become a second skin. She often escapes to the swamp, where she tells stories to the Old Ones, the spirits who haunt the marshes. But only witches can see the Old Ones, and in her village, witches are sentenced to death. Briony lives in fear her secret will be found out, even as she believes she deserves the worst kind of punishment.
Then Eldric comes along with his golden lion eyes and mane of tawny hair. He's as natural as the sun, and treats her as if she's extraordinary. And everything starts to change. As many secrets as Briony has been holding, there are secrets even she doesn't know.

The Long...

Franny Billingsley knows what she's doing. Exhibit A: I guessed every twist Chime had to offer pages and pages before the big reveal, which is normally a deal-breaker, but in Chime was a deal-maker. Exhibit B: protagonist Briony, consumed by self-hatred, doubt, and guilt, should have by rights been insufferable, but was instead the most distinctive and enjoyable protagonist I read all year. Exhibit C: I couldn't put it down. At all. Ever.

Put it this way: I don't tie just any book with Daughter of Smoke and Bone for my Best Fantasy of 2011, folks.

With the rise of steampunk, especially Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy (continued in Behemoth and Goliath), I'm seeing more alternative history than I ever have before. Still, the "alternative" part usually has more of a sci-fi bent than did Chime, with its hanging of witches that turn to dust if they're real (and stay a corpse if they were just human after all) and the Boggy Mun taken as everyday life. Briony's love of the swamp (and her wolves) was the closest I've felt to Gemma Doyle and her Realms in Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty since...well, A Great and Terrible Beauty.

Speaking of Libba Bray, it all just drives home how sad this year's National Book Awards debacle was, since Chime has certainly received a large portion of the fallout after Lauren Myracle's exclusion with Shine. Both Chime and Shine are terrifically deserving books, and terrifically different.

In the end, what makes Chime so memorable is its mood: utterly different from the steaminess, grittiness, seediness, and danger that have dominated so much of YA this year. Chime can be shocking and terrifying, certainly, but it does it in such a childlike way you hardly believe you're reading a novel and not a fairytale you grew up with. It seeps in and becomes a part of you, and isn't that all we ask of our books, anyway?

...and the Short:

A charming, complex fairytale with protagonist and world you'll never forget.

The Final Word: Loved it!