Posts Tagged "Young Adult books"

In promotion of her new book, Beautiful, author Cindy Martinusen-Coloma is cruising the Internet on a bit of a blog tour and we thought we’d get on the bandwagon. We posted a review of Beautiful two days ago and now we’re excited to bring you an outstanding interview with Cindy herself. Grab a cup of coffee, find a comfy spot on the couch and enjoy!

**Spoiler Warning**

At the end, are Ellie and Ryan back together? Although that was never explicitly said, it sure seems like they might be…

Well…what do you think? Sometimes in my books, I leave certain things to the readers’ imaginations when the book warrants that kind of ending. This book was about Ellie’s journey of losing her identity and discovering the real essence of who she is and can be. Her sister Megan is on a similar reluctant quest but in a different way. The romantic storylines are definitely part of their journeys, but both girls have a lot of self-discovery and inner explorations to do and their boy relationships only complicate that. It’s as they start finding their way that love opens up as more of a reality.

Ryan was so in love with Ellie, but she didn’t let herself really see more of who he was – the underneath layers. Part of that was because she was hiding a lot herself, and she couldn’t even look at herself very well. It was all about performance. Ellie also wasn’t going beneath the exterior of Ryan – writing him off as just a good-looking jock who was a lot of fun. Ryan is so much more than that.

With Ellie finally discovering many truths, it brings the hope for something to grow romantically. Ryan perhaps? ☺

If Will had said he wanted to date Ellie, do you think she would have given it a go with him?

Ellie and Will’s friendship certainly developed into something more. And in fact, she did go out with him on a number of occasions. But an official date, I think her personal demons would have made her too afraid to be seen in public like that.

To me, it seemed that Ellie didn’t really grieve or even think too much about the fact that Stasia didn’t even live – what was that all about?

That’s an interesting take because I viewed Ellie as not being able to get over Stasia’s death at all. She really struggled with knowing how to cope with it, and so, she often stuffed it away as best she could. But the guilt was always there beneath the surface. I’ve seen during times of trauma, it takes a long time to process and grieve fully because there’s just the moment-by-moment need to survive. Ellie is in that mode after the accident, trying to heal, trying to cope with her new life, haunted by the guilt over being alive, bitter over what’s happened to her, etc. Her grieving of Stasia is mixed up in all of that. From times of grief in my own life and in friends’, I’ve seen how trauma brings about a new state of being compared to what is normal. It takes a long time to sort through that.

I thought it was interesting that, in addition to Ellie’s story, you chose to follow Megan’s as well. What was your motivation for this?

I like paring two opposite characters and weaving their stories together. For these two sisters, they are so different that they really don’t understand each other. When a crisis event occurs, it’s their love and sisterhood that makes them move beyond their differences to start discovering the unique qualities that they couldn’t see before. We all do this – judge someone and put them into categories. I’ve become really close with people that I initially thought were too different from me to become my friends. It’s easy to miss out on really amazing people who bring fresh perspective and a unique viewpoint to our lives because we judge a person like a book by it’s cover.

If you wanted readers to take one thing from Ellie’s story, what would that be?

That our lives don’t have meaning because of what we do (our accomplishments, our style, our careers, our attitudes) but we have and find meaning because we are unique creations, loved by God, with a magnificent ability to love others and to discover who God really is.

Find more information about Cindy and her writing at www.cindycoloma.com

Her friends once thought she was perfect. Now she must face the mirror–and herself–to discover what true beauty is.

Ellie Summerfield has everything a girl could want–she’s beautiful, she’s Senior Class President, has a calendar full of social engagements, volunteer commitments, and church activities. In short, she’s perfect, according to most of the students at West Redding High School. But something is bothering Ellie, like a loose string on a dress she can feel but can’t see. Does she really love her boyfriend, Ryan? Who are her true friends? And is she really happy in her picture-perfect life?

Then in the course of a few minutes, the loose string in Ellie’s life completely unravels. Forever changed, she must face herself as she discovers what it really means to be beautiful.

Ellie is that girl. You know the one I mean: the one with the hot boyfriend; the one with the flawless grades; the one that everyone admires; the one that is most likely to succeed in life. There’s one in every school, and although you’d love to hate her, there just isn’t anything about her to hate.

But then something happens, something bad. Ellie and her friend Stasia are involved in a car accident. Ellie suffers a lot of injuries and winds up in the hospital with severe burns to one side of her body.

Stasia doesn’t even make it out of the car alive.

The doctors assure Ellie, that after a few years and a whole lot of surgery, that she’ll recover and the scarring will almost definitely disappear. But a few years is a long time to walk through life looking like a mutant, and suddenly Ellie decides there is plenty about herself that’s worthy of hating.

In a fit of depression, she cuts herself off from her friends. Every single one of them, including her boyfriend, Ryan. She’s no longer beautiful, so what’s even the point?

Ellie spirals further and further into a pool of depression and self-pity until one day, an old friend from way back in her past, someone that she sees as imperfect and flawed in his own way, walks back into her life.

Will has always had a crush on Ellie, even when they were little kids, and nothing has changed now. Just because her face isn’t the same as it used to be, doesn’t make her any less beautiful, in his eyes. For Will, beauty isn’t something that’s just on the outside. For Will, beauty comes from within.

Will he be able to save Ellie before she hits the bottom of the barrel? You’ll have to read for yourself to find out.

Although Ellie’s horrible self-pity was hard to endure, it was not unrealistic. As a character, I found the way she responded to the events and issues thrown at her to be very believable. I felt sorry for Ryan and her friends when Ellie simply cast them aside, but I never once thought that she was being unfair, or that her character was unrealistic.
Of all the characters within Beautiful, I admired Will and Ryan the most. Although Ellie pushed Ryan away with everything she had, he never stopped loving her, and just like Will, believed that her beauty went far deeper than the scars on her face.

A solid read that I’m sure the girls will love.

Pages: 266

Publication Date: 2009

Rating::

She doesn’t see dead people, but…

She senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally.

Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about her need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who’ll be next…

Kaylee has spent her adolescence riding on the coat tails of her best friend, Emma. Emma is one of those beautiful, cool and popular types, and although Kaylee doesn’t quite make the cut, the fact that she’s Emma’s best friend means that she’s been accepted by most of the cliques around school. But Emma’s the one that gets all the attention, Kaylee’s usually just along for the ride. So when Nash, one of the cutest boys in school, starts paying attention to her, Kaylee can’t believe her luck.

But Kaylee has a secret. She can sense when someone is about to die. It’s all consuming and comes in the form of something resembling a panic attack. When she starts flipping out in front of Nash at a club one night, she thinks her chances with him are shot.

Nash sees something in Kaylee that he’s never seen in many people before. He sees who she is for real and it doesn’t bother him in the slightest. In fact, he actually likes the creepiness that comes along with Kaylee. Nash thinks that together, he and Kaylee could be amazing – in more ways than the obvious.

Kaylee doesn’t understand why she can sense immanent death, and the last time she tried to tell someone about it, she ended up in the loony bin, all drugged up and the center of one kooky psychological study. After she got out of the hospital, she knew that she had to keep her secret to herself. Then girls start dying all around her and Kaylee knows enough about her ability to identify their deaths as anything but coincidence. She’s not so sure she can keep her secret to herself for much longer. There is something about Nash that makes her want to trust him, makes her want to confide in him. When she does, Kaylee almost doesn’t believe what he tells her.

Almost.

Kaylee’s character development throughout the story is solid and believable, and her reactions to Nash’s news about what, and who, she is hits the nail right on the head. Nash is dynamic, and something tells me that he’s going to be paramount to the popularity of this series, but I have a feeling that we are yet to see just how powerful, how strong Kaylee is. I suspect she’s going to grow into one heck of an amazing role model for young readers everywhere.

With the right amount of romance and supernatural action all mashed together, Vincent’s prose is simple and easy to read, making My Soul to Take an easily digested treat.

My Soul to Take is a supernatural feast. I have a feeling that readers, both young and old, are going to love this series.

Pages: 279

Publication Date: 2009

Rating::

Teaser Quote: I froze in the middle of my fuzzy purple rug, horrified by the very thought of standing between a reaper and his intended harvest. “Nash, he was doing us a favor.” But they both ignored me…

My Soul to Save has also been voted by our loyal forum members as our bookclub read for the month of February. We’ll be kicking off discussions from February 1, 2010. Click here to join in the fun.

Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl’s debut novel, Beautiful Creatures, is our Book of the Month during January. The authors took some time our of their busy schedules to answer some questions about their story and their beloved characters. Enjoy.

*Author photo credit: Alex Hoerner

What is it like co-authoring a book? Does this process ever get complicated or confusing at any stage?

Margie: You know, since this is our debut novel, we really don’t know any other way to do it. The most complicated part is definitely juggling our schedules so we can work. The easiest part is the writing. We’ve been friends longer than writing partners, so we can finish each other’s sentences – and that’s how we write, too.

Kami: We can fight like sisters, but it’s always about the mundane – the schedule – how cold our office is – why there is no ice for the Diet Coke. We’ve never disagreed about the story. And this year has been so overwhelming for us in so many ways, I can’t imagine going through it alone.

When you write, do you get together and write, or do you writing individually and then come together and edit?

Margie: We work separately. If we are in the same room, we’re still separated by my enormous earphones. Music vs. no music – we can’t write in the same airspace!

Kami: But we edit together, hashing out huge, color-coded whiteboards that plot all the character arcs, magic developments, and story beats. Our office is in Margie’s house, and it’s like the war room.

Was focalizing the story through Ethan’s POV a conscious decision, or did it just kind of happen?

Margie: We knew Lena was our mystery, and our supernatural. We wanted a strong female character with power, and we wanted to follow Ethan as he found his way into her story.

Kami: We also knew we were doing something less typical in YA, by allowing the reader to experience insecurity, first love, and fear through the eyes of a guy. To see what guys are thinking about girls, for once.We also fell in love with Ethan, the guy we never dated in high school…

As two female authors, was it difficult to write a romance-centered story from a male point of view?

Margie: Not really. We have six brothers between us. Also, there is so much already out there that is written from a teen girl’s perspective, it might have been harder to find our own voice if we hadn’t written from Ethan’s POV.

Kami: Sometimes it’s easier to write from a perspective that is definitely not your own. And Ethan is a great guy. He’s easy to write, because we love him so much.

Did you have prior knowledge/personal interest in magic and witchcraft, or was this something you had to research for Beautiful Creatures?

Margie: Just a lifetime of reading Diana Wynne Jones and high fantasy! I can’t imagine writing a book that didn’t have some sort of magic in it. Ever since I first read Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series in third grade, I have been living in a fantasy world. And yes, I can still recite the poem from the front of that book.

Kami: We are both huge fantasy readers, so magic and magical lore has always been swimming around in our minds. I don’t consider the magic in BC witchcraft, per say. But I have always been interested in the way religions from Africa and the West Indies influenced Southern culture. I’m so superstitious that I might as well be Amma.

When it comes to naming your characters, what kind of process do you go through?

Margie: We have raided our family genealogy for generations, to begin with… But we also do lots of research on the meaning of the names.

Kami: We used French-Creole names for Lena’s family, and traditional or more obscure Southern names for the folks in Gatlin.

A little birdy told us that Beautiful Creatures has just been optioned by Warner Bros and is set to be made into a film. Can you confirm or deny this?

Margie: Was the little birdy named Variety? ☺

Kami: Yes. We are so thrilled that Warner Brothers optioned the film for a supremely talented writer/director, Richard LaGravenese, and a hugely capable producer, Erwin Stoff.

How much input/control will the two of you have (if any at all)?

Margie: When Richard and Erwin came into the picture, we knew we could trust them. Their track records speak for themselves.

Kami: And we knew Warner Brothers would be the perfect home for Beautiful Creatures. Really, we couldn’t be happier. We’ll stick to writing and leave the rest to them.

What’s in your to-be-read list at the moment?

Margie: I am just finishing a draft of a work in progress, the newest middle grade book by my old friend, Pseudonymous Bosch. He’s the Roald Dahl of my generation, I adore him.

Kami: I am completely in love with the draft of Holly Black’s WHITE CAT, which I’m reading for the second time. Her new Curse Workers series is going to be huge! And I just finished her short story collection, POISON EATERS.

What are your all time fave YA novels?

Margie: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee. In case you couldn’t tell…

Kami: Well, she took my favorite. After TKM, it would be THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton & FREAK THE MIGHTY by Rodman Philbrick.

Is it true that this series is set to be a five-book series?

Margie: We are just finishing our sequel now.

Kami: It comes out this same time next year. We are really excited about it!

Can you tell us anything about the next instalment?

Margie: Mortal danger. True love. Broken hearts.

Kami: Ethan and Lena are up against unbelievable odds. And there’s sweet tea.

You can keep up with Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl at www.BeautifulCreaturestheBook.com.

Join the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES US fansite at www.CasterGirls.com.

Visit Little, Brown’s Beautiful Creatures website at
www.SomeLovesAreCursed.com.

In case you’ve forgotten, we’ve been featuring Lili St Crow’s Betrayals as our Book of the Month in December. To close off the promo, Lili sat down and penned a review of Sarah Dessen’s Dreamland for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

The first Sarah Dessen book I ever read was Dreamland, and it is to Dessen I owe my reintroduction to the young adult genre. When I was of the age to be marketed to as a “young adult”, I found most of the offerings insipid to say the least, and downright patronizing at worst. I’m glad to say that the genre seems to have undergone something of a revolution in the last five to seven years, and Dessen holds a special place in my heart as the person who introduced me to a new breed of YA books.

Dreamland is about Caitlin O’Koren, a younger sister whose older sister Cass leaves home without a word on Caitlin’s birthday. The reason for her sister’s flight is beautifully shown but never spelled out: their mother’s almost frantic insistence on living her life through one of her children. Both O’Koren parents are flawed but not overly so, doing the best they can.

Caitlin, after living her entire life in Cass’s shadow, suddenly finds herself the focus of her mother’s ambitions. She’s now a stand-in instead of a postscript, and when she meets the appropriately dangerous-seeming Rogerson Briscoe, she makes the first of many abortive attempts at freedom. Unfortunately, Rogerson is a problem in and of himself. He has serious anger-management issues, a bad home life, and is exactly the wrong boyfriend for a vulnerable, uncertain girl.

Unfortunately, many real-life stories start out this way and end tragically.

When I was young enough to be a target audience for YA, the subject of teen dating violence—like so many other subjects—was taboo. I think what grabbed my attention most in Dreamland was Dessen’s unflinching but gentle look at the realities of such a situation. Rogerson is not a villain, he’s a messed-up kid. Caitlin is spoiled, yes, but she’s also loyal to her friends and trying to shoulder her family’s burden as well as she can. Caitlin’s mother is so devastated by her older daughter’s disappearance that her younger daughter becomes a figurehead to her, and Mr. O’Koren is uncomfortable with anything even relating to “girl talk” and prefers concrete action over emotional messes. All these things conspire to make an abyss Caitlin falls into, one she can’t extract herself from without help. She’s not completely a victim, and Rogerson is not completely evil.

I remember finishing Dreamland for the first time and feeling as if Dessen had reached into some of my most secret memories. The shame Caitlin feels, her need to “protect” Rogerson and cover things up, the pressure of her family’s loss, all these things felt familiar. It felt like someone was speaking the truth, and I do not remember the young adult books of my young adulthood ever giving me that frisson. Instead, I graduated early to the “adult” section of the library and didn’t look back—until Dessen.
Dreamland is not perfect. For one thing, the pacing is uneven and Caitlin’s therapy is not given nearly enough room. For another, all Dessen’s heroines start out (even if they haven’t always been) as upper-middle-class. Money is rarely an issue for the kids in her books, and it seems a shame that a writer of Dessen’s talents hasn’t explored that angle. Rogerson Biscoe screams “trouble” so loud, and Caitlin is such a sleepwalker, that occasionally the adult me wanted to shake both of them—as well as Caitlin’s mother. Still, the very strength of my emotional response tells me that these are well-crafted characters. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t have fallen so hard into the world of the book, nor would I reread it with my heart in my mouth each time.

I’ve read most, if not all, of Dessen’s other young adult books, and been entertained each time. Dreamland, however, remains something special. Every time I read it, it’s like the author—and Caitlin herself—are speaking directly to me. Which is a feeling to treasure, whether one is seventeen or seventy. Dessen opened up the new world of the young adult genre for me, and I’m glad to note that books for younger readers are not the clichéd swill that was the only thing on offer when I was significantly younger than I am now. Each time I see a new Dessen book, I feel a thrill and reach for my bank card.

And that, as a reader, is the highest compliment I can give.