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I don't know if this will actually be a weekly thing, but I just wanted to share with you some of the books that actually arrived in my mailbox today. Well, the courier brought them. Whatever. About a month ago I won a contest on inkpop involving books turned into movies/TV shows, and for a prize I got these four books:

I'm really looking forward to this read. My friends have told me the movie was good (I haven't seen it yet) and the whole idea of a Beauty and the Beast retelling with modern day highschoolers sounds pretty cool. I'll let you know what I think of it within the next couple weeks. 

 This series seems to be wildly popular, so I'm willing to give it a go. Highschool drama really isn't my thing, though, especially when it involves girls crushing on their teachers, or their female friends, so I don't know...

Same with Pretty Little Liars... If I really don't like the first one, I won't even read this.

In case I don't like them, who's up for a giveaway? :)

Some of you will know that I've already read this book and didn't really care for it that much. Since I already own it, I'll probably be giving this away to my friend. She's lucky that it turned out to be a really nice hardcover with dustjacket and everything. It even has a sneak peak of The Power of Six... Maybe I'll keep this version for myself and give her the other one? 

No... this didn't come in my mailbox. I wish! I read the first hundred pages on HarperTeen and I absolutely can't wait 'till the May 3rd release date. I've read an awful lot of positive reviews, so it seems like this is going to be a big release. 

That's enough of me. What did you get in your mailbox this week? Any big releases you can't wait to get your hands on? I'd love to hear what you guys are reading! 

Book Review: The Book Thief

By Markus Zusak


It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Narrated by Death, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she discovers something she can't resist- books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they are to be found. 
With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

Why I read it: I saw this highly recommended on someone’s blog (yes, that was you, Evie) and on my next trip to the library it just happened to be on the shelf. Thanks to a computer error (there were actually 9 holds on it!) I checked it out on one-week loan.

What I liked: The writing is just beautiful. Not usual, not even that easy to read after awhile, but it’s lovely. The descriptions are all so unique and fresh. I know some people have mocked them for being a little ridiculous, but I always felt they were perfect. It’s high time we moved away from the cliché ‘night black as ink’ and got some fresh perspective, like ‘a chocolate coloured sky’ or ‘hair the colour of lemons’. Colour plays a huge role in the story.

The cast of characters in this book was impressively managed. There’s the MC, Leisel, her foster parents, her ‘boyfriend’, the Jew they’re hiding in their basement and a number of other inhabitants on Himmel Street. I loved how each of these MCs had such complex personalities. Her foster mother swears like a sailor, but there are one or two scenes where her soft side shows. Even the minor characters have unique characteristics. Since their names were all German I had difficulty remembering which name belonged to which person, but I never go the people themselves mixed up.

What I disliked: This book has no plot. The story is set in WW2 Germany, so there’s a lot of war stuff happens, like them getting poorer and poorer, bombs falling, hiding a Jew in their basement… etc… It’s a nice historical portrait, but there was nothing really propelling it forward. At the time I was looking for a book that I just couldn’t put down, but this book didn’t do it.

This isn’t exactly a dislike, but the book is narrated by Death. At times it worked, but other times it just felt strange and jarring. At the end it all made sense and Death’s narration was kind of cool, but for most of the story I thought it would have been better with a normal omniscient narrator.

From a Christian Perspective: There’s no sexual content in this book because there’s very little romance (something I found refreshing after so many other YA novels). The biggest issue with this book is the swearing. There’s swearing in German on pretty much every page, and God’s name is taken in vain regularly, especially towards the end. The MC is, as the title implies, a ‘book thief’ and she goes on several stealing expedition, and it’s never really made clear that this is wrong.

To buy or not to buy: I personally won’t be buying this book because I only buy books that I’m absolutely in love with. The three star rating is because I didn't care for it that much. However, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves words. It’s not really a story… more of a work of art. 

Author Interview: Jeyn Roberts

Jeyn Roberts, author of Dark Inside was an inkpopper, but she found her publishing contract through a more traditional route and now has a three-book contract with publisher Simon and Schuster. Jeyn is from Vancover BC (yay! Another Canadian!) and she earned a degree in psychology and creative writing at UBC. For a quick synopsis of Dark Inside click here, and then scroll down to read the interview with Jeyn. (and make sure to check out the important links at the end, where you can pre-order Dark Inside so you'll get it right on the November 1st release date)


What was your inspiration for Dark Inside? Dreams. When I was a teenager I started having repetitive dreams about a world in which there was this gigantic evil. I still have them every now and then. And some of the scenes in the book are from actual dreams. 

How has your life changed since getting the publishing deal? In some ways I'm a lot less busy, in other ways I'm more busy! I'm a full-time writer now which is amazing. And I get to work from home which is great! My cats are thrilled to see so much of me. 

Is Dark Inside a stand alone novel? If not, how many more can we expect? Dark Inside is the first of three books. I'm currently working on the second one which will be out seven months after the first. 

I've heard you travel a lot. How have these experiences helped shape Dark Inside? I do travel a lot and it has helped my writing in many ways. Not only do I get to see everything but I'm allowed to learn and understand different cultures. Also, I take the same route every year that Mason takes in his book. I drove through the mountains a few weeks ago and kept thinking "Oh, that's where Mason did that" and "That's where he met Chickadee!" It was quite a funny experience. 

On YAtopia you called Dark Inside somewhat of a horror/dystopia... but not really. In what ways does it fit those genres, and how is it different? I always view dystopia as a something that takes place in the future. eg: Hunger Games, 1984. Dark Inside takes place in the present so that's why I don't like to fully categorize it as dystopia. It's a scary book so that's why I consider it horror. But there's also some romance and lots of drama. I think it really takes on a genre of its own. 

Is there anything you'd like to say to aspiring YA authors? Be patient and never give up. Becoming a writer is a long journey. Enjoy it. Learn to accept and give criticism. Don't be so hard on yourself. Remember, every author starts at the beginning. No one starts out with a blank page and writes a masterpiece.


Important Links


Amazon.ca
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble
Facebook Fan Page

How to Get Published

Now that I'm immersed in blogging and tweeting and chatting with authors on inkpop and all that stuff that authors do, it's hard to remember a time when I didn't know any of this. Just five years ago, I had no idea how to get published. It almost seems laughable now, but I didn’t know what an agent was, or how to query, or what an ARC was, or pretty much anything about publishing. The thing is, all this information is hidden away on book blogs or in sneaky places on publisher’s websites. 12-year-old me was absolutely clueless.

I remember asking my mom how to get published and she went and asked on a Yahoo group. I excitedly waited for their answers, but when the responses came in, they were all the same: ‘It’s hard.’

That was all. There was no information about how to get published (other than the suggestion that I should try to get short stories published in magazines first). They only told me it was hard.

True. Getting published is hard. It’s been five years since I decided I wanted to get published, and I’m just as un-published as I ever was. The only thing that’s changed is that now I do know how to get published. Now, this information I’m going to share is fairly basic so most of you will already know it all, but in each case I’ll share a couple links to helpful websites so you can go farther than just my blogposts.

Step to getting published:

1.       Write a REALLY good story

2.       Get feedback
3.    Revisions

4.       Query Agents

5.       The Agent sells your book

For the next three weeks I’ll concentrate on steps 2-5. As for step one… I’ll spend a little bit more time on that. According to the poll in the sidebar, writing tips were the favourite kind of post on this blog, so they’ll be a lot more of those coming up. Any post on writing is going to have something to do with step one: Write a REALLY good story. That can’t be emphasized enough. Without a good story, you’ll never receive helpful feedback. No matter how good your query, you’ll never get an agent. Even supposing you got an agent, it won’t sell to publishers.

For next week, let’s assume you’ve already got a fairly good story. Then you need to get your story out there, and be willing to accept feedback. 

Why Book Reviews are Useless (and how to make them less so)

This isn’t exactly a post on writing, but I thought it needed to be said, and I just finished my six-part series, so now’s the time for it.

I assume that all of you have a favourite book, or at least a book that you really, really like. I’m also guessing that you have some books you really dislike, ones you think aren’t worth reading and you can’t imagine how anyone could like it. For instance, I absolutely love The Hunger Games and I hated Shiver, and I really don’t get how anyone could dislike The Hunger Games or like Shiver. But lo and behold, if you go on Goodreads, they’ll be a lot of people who disagree with me.

On the whole, people do agree with me on those two books. The Goodreads rating for The Hunger Games is 4.54 (quite high for Goodreads) while Shiver is rated 3.96 (fairly average). When you average it out, The Hunger Games is ‘better.’ However, if you look at individual reviews, Shiver is going to have some five stars (I just check, and some of my friends gave it four or five), and The Hunger Games will have some one-stars (a couple of my friends gave it three). Some individuals will drastically disagree with me.

If that’s the case, why should you bother reading my reviews? Why read reviews at all? I can tell you a book if awful, but then you could go and read it and love it. I’ve read books that people have told me they loved, but I couldn’t stand them. Is there any reason to pay attention to goodreads/amazon ratings?

The thing that a good book review does is give you a sense of why the reviewer (dis)liked the book. My review of Shiver makes clear that I am not a werewolf fan, so that could well be why I didn’t like it. When I read reviews on Amazon for I Am Number Four, I saw that most of them talked about how terrible the characterization was. When I got the book, I had to agree, the characters were boring (though I have had some people say they loved them). If you’re more interested in a fast-paced action story than in riveting characters, then I Am Number Four would be great. If you like characters better, then you probably won’t enjoy it.

Basically, a good book review should do three things:

1-      Make clear that this is only one opinion (Don’t say ‘The only people who would like this book are ones who think Twilight is great literature’)

2-      Show how the reviewer’s personality affected the review (For instance, ‘I don’t normally like Paranormal/Romance, but I loved Paranormalcy’)

3-      Showcase both the books strengths and weaknesses (even the best book has some bad things, and even the worst has some strengths)

I’m not sure if my book reviews always fulfill those criteria, but I try to include them all. It may feel egoistic, but it’s essential to let your readers know what kind of reader you are, so that they know if their tastes are similar or not. You also need to temper that with a fair bit of humility, admitting that yours is only one opinion and even your favourite books have bad parts and even the ones you hate have good points. Basically, think about how your book reviews can be of the most help to your blog readers.

As for you, my loyal followers, is there anything I could be doing with my book reviews to help you out? Do you have any tips, either for me, or for other book bloggers out there? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment! 

Book Review: Shiver

By Maggie Stiefvater

the cold.
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.

the heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace...until now.

the shiver.
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.

Why I read it: I had seen the third book somewhere on someone’s blog… I think it was inkpop. Anyways, I thought it had something to do with Little Red Riding Hood. I wouldn’t have read it if I had known it was about werewolves. (BTW, I absolutely love the covers for this series. So plain, but they really stand out)

What I liked: There were a number of interesting ideas in this book, the number one being that werewolves only changed from people to wolves when the temperature got too low. I thought that was unique. It was also cool b/c at the beginning of each chapter it would have the temperature written at the top. And the font was blue! All in all, the packaging of this book was really neat.

What I disliked: Well, pretty much everything. Let’s make a list.

1-      The romance went WAY too fast. They start sleeping in the same bed the day they meet, and then they do have sex later on.

2-      Huge plot holes. The ending had a cliff-hanger that was just like ‘What????’ Also, there were two plot points (Two ‘bitten’ teens, and Shelby) who appear and then are barely mentioned again.

3-      I never understood Grace. As a little girl she was nearly killed by wolves, and yet she absolutely loves them, risking her life to save them from being shot. She also got really mad at her friends for keeping secrets from her, when the whole time she was keeping a werewolf in her house and not telling them.  

4-      Sam was just totally in love with Grace, and that’s about all I got from him. I never really understood his emotions towards anyone else. One second he would like Beck, the next he was super angry with him. It just never made sense.

5-      This book just didn’t seem to end. Getting close to the end I thought it was done, but then it just kept going and going, piling up minor events really quickly. The actual ending seemed really anticlimactic.

I could go on, but I don’t really have the time. Basically, I don’t know how anyone could like this book for its literary qualities. It could, however, appeal to fans of Twilight.

From a Christian Perspective: Certainly not recommended. There was a fair amount of swearing, especially in what would otherwise have been some of my favourite scenes. The author seems to think that for a scene to be emotional, the characters have to use God’s name in vain a couple dozen times. And then, of course, there’s the excessive romance between Grace and Sam. They start sharing a bed their very first night, they kiss a LOT, and they do have sex. Sam especially is described as ‘the best of them’ and a sort of self controlled, chaste person (werewolf), but when it comes to Grace, he looses all that.

To buy or not to buy: I certainly won’t be. I can only see this interesting Twilight fans, for people who'd rather have romance than action. I don’t know if I’ll even bother looking at the sequel, Linger. The only reason I would is because I want to read the first chapter and figure out if the ending of Shiver makes any sense at all. 

Author Interview: Leigh Fallon

Leigh Fallon, author of The Carrier of the Mark, is the first author to be published through inkpop. Leigh describes herself as 'a South African born, Irish writer, living between the US and Ireland... interesting!' For a synopsis of Carrier look here, then scroll down and read this exclusive interview with the author. 




What was your inspiration for Carrier?
I was sitting in my jeep outside of my daughters’ ballet school [in Ireland]. My twin babies were in the car bawling their eyes out with boredom. I was looking for a way to escape it all for a few moments when something my dad said popped into my head, ‘everyone has a book in them’. So taking these pearls of wisdom, I picked up some scraps of paper and started jotting down notes about a story that was stirring in my head. Each of the characters became very clear almost immediately and the magical element was at the forefront. The inspiration for it? Well probably the town of Kinsale, the old buildings, the eclectic mix of people, the beautiful views. But the story went from inspiration to the makings of a book in less than 30 mins on the backs of receipts and napkins.

How has your life changed since getting the publishing deal?
Well, since I got my publishing deal I’ve moved to the US. Getting the publishing didn’t make me move to the US, but it coincided with the move, so things have changed greatly. I’m also super busy. I spend so much time answering emails, tweets, Facebook messages, and interview requests, it’s bizarre. I’m still getting used to all the attention, but it’s great, I’m really enjoying it. I’m also writing full time now -Yay.

Can you share any details of your query letters?
I could, but I’m not going to because my query litter sucked! Seriously, it would benefit no one. LOL. When I think back to that letter I cringe, it was so amateurish. I guess it wasn’t my fault; I was new to the publishing world and didn’t really know what was expected of a query letter. It’s amazing what you learn in a few months when mixing with your writing peers. My advice to anyone embarking on the search for an agent… Stop! Wait! Read agent blogs. Get on twitter and follow the good agents. Read their tweets religiously, listen to what they are saying. They are very honest. They’ll tell the twitter world what they are looking for at the moment, what they are NOT looking for. They also tweet about things that irritate them or things that are the pet peeves. Get to know the agent BEFORE you send in that query letter. You only get one shot at it, so make a good impression. Your manuscript could be amazing, but if you press the wrong buttons in your query, the agent won’t even get as far as your signature at the end of the page before they toss it in the shredder.

How many books will there be in the Carrier series?
I’d originally planned for three books in the series, I’m still aiming off for that, but it might end up being four. But (and there is always a but), I’m only under contract to write one book in this series, HarperTeen do get first pass on the second, but there are no guarantees. So I need The Carrier of the Mark to do VERY well if I am to secure a future for the rest of the series. So we have to get the word out there. Please… buy the book!

What makes Carrier unique?
The Carrier of the Mark is a totally different spin on Paranormal. It delves into the ancient world of Irish history and folklore. The story is set in places that actually exist. Every monument, castle, or building mentioned in the book is there for all to visit. The core of the paranormal element, is one that is deep rooted in Celtic tales, symbols, and structures and I’ve built the story around the very fabric of those stories, intertwining history, folklore and magic to make it that little bit more real.

Is there anything you’d like to say to aspiring YA authors?
The publishing industry is a tough nut to crack, but stay with it, don’t get disillusioned. The way to success is through persistence. Grow yourself very thick skin, and stick your neck out. Get out there. Join writers’ forums, start networking, and reach out to people. There is an amazing, diverse group of exceptionally friendly and supportive people out there who will help guide you towards your goals.


I'd like to thank Leigh for doing this interview. Anyone who thinks Carrier sounds interesting (and who wouldn't? Irish folklore is the best!) should check out some of the important links below. Leigh's ramblings on 
her blog or Facebook will help pass the time until the release date: October 4th. 



Important Links:


Amazon.ca
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble
Leigh's Blog
Leigh's Facebook Page