Interview with Heather Smith, author of BAYGIRL

We're pretty excited to have a guest with us today: Heather Smith, the author of Baygirl, which hit shelves this month. And we're doubly excited to be hosting her launch at the store this saturday.

Hi Heather! I’m so happy to get a chance to chat with you (and to be a part of your launch!!). First off, can you tell us a little about yourself?

I was born and raised in Newfoundland but now live in Waterloo with my husband and three children. I enjoy running and drinking green tea (not at the same time, that would be dangerous). I’m a terrible multi-tasker and am easily distracted. I actually don’t know how I managed to write a book, but I did, and I hope to do so again, many times over (I’d write different ones of course, writing Baygirl again would be silly).

You are delightful. Okay, in one or two sentences, tell us about Baygirl. Why did you write this book in particular?

Baygirl is the story of a sixteen year old girl whose typical teenage struggles (fitting in, falling in love, finding oneself) are further complicated by the unpredictable behaviour of her alcoholic father.

Although I cannot relate to Kit’s predicament firsthand, as a teenager I had a couple of close friends whose fathers were alcoholics and, as a result, have seen and heard things that stick with me to this day. I’ve witnessed major blow-outs (like the ones Kit and her father regularly have in the book), as well as other, more subtle interactions that can be equally damaging – snide remarks, accusing looks, cold shoulders. I always wondered - how does one forgive the person who has caused them to live their life walking on eggshells?  This is the question I wanted to explore when writing Baygirl. This is why forgiveness is Kit’s biggest dilemma.

Alcoholism touches the lives of many people, both directly and indirectly. That is why Kit’s story was an important one to tell. I hope that anyone, teen or adult, who has spent their life walking on eggshells, can find some comfort in Baygirl.  

Addiction can have such a devastating effect on a person’s life, along with the lives of those they love, and it’s a very difficult thing to escape if one manages to escape it. But it's a real thing that happens to families, and in light of that, I think you portray Kit’s father in a way that’s really fair.

Because we’ve chatted before, I know that you’re originally from St. John’s. Why did you choose to split the book between the city of St. John’s and the town of Parsons Bay?

Yes, St. John’s is my birthplace … which makes me a townie! When writing Baygirl, I thought it would be fun to give my main character a different perspective from my own, so Kit became a “baygirl”.  Splitting the book between the “town” and the “bay” really drove home the differences between the two places and, ultimately, the people who live there. Highlighting the prejudices and preconceived notions that townies have of people from the bay (and vice versa) added to the drama of Kit’s move to the city … as if she didn’t have enough problems!

I really loved your contrast of the town versus the bay. As someone who grew up on a farm but now lives in the city, I could definitely relate to Kit and the uncertainty she feels about where she belongs.

I have to say that my favourite character overall was definitely Kit’s new neighbour, Mr. Adams. He was so endearing, he made me laugh out loud, and his dialect was delightful. You captured him so perfectly. Who was your favourite character to write? Who gave you the most trouble?

My favourite character to write was Mr. Adams. I knew when writing Baygirl that Mr. Adams would be an Englishman and making him hail from Yorkshire was a no-brainer. You see, thanks to the delightful writings of James Herriot, I have a major obsession with the Yorkshire Dales.  In All Creatures Great and Small, Herriot paints a picture of the Dales that is so appealing it makes me want to trade in my life in Canada for a thatched cottage in a Yorkshire village full of quirky townsfolk. It makes me want to pull on a pair of wellie boots and a wax jacket and go frolicking through the dewy meadows. Given my fascination with James Herriot, I’d be gormless (I say, gormless!) not to make Mr. Adams from Yorkshire.

The character who gave me the most trouble was … Mr. Adams. Ee by gum, that dialect was tricky!

Wow, I would never have guessed that you had trouble with him. He really was perfect. And a thatched cottage in a Yorkshire village sounds so cozy and quaint!

Without giving too much away, writing (and writing poetry specifically) becomes a way for Kitty to work through the things that are happening in her life. Was that a conscious decision on your part, or did that happen naturally?

This was not a conscious decision at all. This book was written fairly chronologically, so when I got to the part where Kit was missing Parsons Bay having her write a letter to Anne-Marie came naturally. I wanted to illustrate how devastating moving away can be by showing, through Kit’s letter writing, how her and Anne-Marie were drifting apart. This naturally evolved into writing becoming an outlet for Kit and, from there, became more of a theme throughout the novel.

How long did it take you to write this book? What was the hardest part and what was the best part?

I started writing Baygirl many years ago when I was in a writing class led by Kathy Stinson. The book got off to a great start but, at the time, I had three young children and writing time was limited.  It eventually became a forgotten file, lost on my computer, until two years ago, when my youngest started school full-time. It was then that Baygirl was resurrected and I was able to give it the quality time it deserved.

Find Heather on her website and on twitter. 

The hardest part of writing Baygirl was the editing process, although I think a more fitting word would be challenging. I say this only because Baygirl is my first published novel and the whole process was new. I’d never worked with an editor before and the whole idea was initially daunting. As it turned out, however, the editing process was also thoroughly enjoyable. My editor, Sarah Harvey, was (is!) fantastic and working under deadlines made me push myself in ways that only a ticking clock can do. I loved the going back and forth, the tightening of text, the whittling down of words. The whole process truly made me a better writer.

The best part of writing Baygirl was when I’d be struck by moments of clarity - when the tangled knot of words I’d been staring at for hours would magically unravel to become what my mind’s eye had intended them to be. It really is the best feeling and is my favourite part of writing in general.

Are you like Kitty - do you use writing as a way to work through things or respond to the world around you? Or do you write for other reasons?

I absolutely write as a way to work through or respond to things. I don’t know how many times I have written full essays that never see the light of day. For me, the act of writing it down is a release. Once it’s on paper I can move on.

Mostly I write because I have no space in my head for the stories that live there, so I evict them and help them find their home on paper.

Do you have a special or favourite place to write?

At home, in my empty, quiet house.

Because writing and reading are so inter-related, I have to ask: what have you been reading lately that you want to shout about from the rooftops?

The last three books I have read have all been great and are all very different from each other.

Annabel, by Kathleen Winter.  Beautiful, haunting, one that stays with you long after you’ve snapped the book shut.

The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion. This book reads like a Hollywood romantic comedy script, which isn’t always my thing. But the main character is so quirkily charming I was quickly whisked off my feet and didn’t touch solid ground again until I’d reached the last page.

Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden. Interesting look at World War I through the eyes of an aboriginal solider. I’m always amazed when horrible things are told in a beautiful way.

Ah, I’ve been wanting to read Annabel for a long time now. Maybe this will be my reason to finally pick it up.

Okay, last of all, what are you working on right now? Can you tell us a little bit about your next project or is it top secret?

My latest project is about a teenaged boy who, in a bid for attention, vandalizes a war memorial just days before Remembrance Day. After navigating the youth justice system alone, he is placed in a community service program in which he must regularly meet with a World War II veteran. The subject matter is pretty heavy at times but the stories that are told are ones that should never be forgotten.

Whoa. I am intrigued. I can’t wait to read it! Thanks so much for answering all my questions, Heather, and I look forward to your upcoming launch!

Words Worth Books will be hosting Heather's book launch this saturday, September 21, starting at 7pm. Come hear Heather read from the book, pick up your own signed copy, and enjoy some Newfoundland songs and snacks.

A Tale of Two Dystopias

Like most people, I loved The Hunger Games. (Team Peeta, thank you very much.) I loved the flawlessness of concept in book one. I loved the focus on inter-generational teamwork and the stirrings of uprising in book two. And I loved the complexities of war and grief in book three. The thing I loved most, though, was Katniss. The very first novel my littlest brother ever read for pleasure (he’s 15 and will be the first to tell you that he most certainly is not a reader) was The Hunger Games. He couldn't stop talking about it for weeks. I’ve never seen him so excited about anything before. And that's why I love Katniss: she's accessible; she flies in the face of all the cries about young boys not wanting to read about girl protagonists.

With all that said, though, The Hunger Games is not actually the book I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is another dystopian YA that I loved even more. A book that I think does what The Hunger Games does, only better: Blood Red Road by Moira Young. 

There are a lot of similarities between these two dystopian stories. First of all, Saba (the protagonist of Blood Red Road) and Katniss are both initially motivated by their love for a sibling. They’re both thrown into circumstances they’re unequal to (essentially, extreme fight or die situations – Katniss in an arena, Saba in a cage). And they both get caught up in a revolution of epic proportions that aims to take down the powers that be.

While having a lot of similarities, though, the two girls are quite different. Katniss is cool and reserved and self-controlled, and while I love this about her, I found these things made it hard for me to relate to her. Saba, on the other hand, is passionate and vulnerable. While Katniss keeps her head down and does what she needs to survive, Saba goes in with her fists up. Saba is all heart and raw emotion and straight-up-in-your-face-fierce.

The other thing I preferred about Blood Red Road was the writing. Both books are told in first person POV. But while Suzanne Collins says it like it is with simple and lyrically-sparse prose, Moira Young is poetic and vivid and Saba’s unpolished voice makes her character and her world bright and alive. For example, this: 

I cain’t speak. Cain’t breathe.
Lugh’s gone.
Gone.
My golden heart is gone.
I kneel in the dust.
The tears roll down my face.
An a hard red rain starts to fall. 

Or this: 

I watch what she does.
I learn fast.
She gives me a helluva beatin before I learn enough. Then I git lucky. I go at her with a flyin kick to the stummick that slams her hard aginst the bars an that’s it. She don’t git up till the keeper pulls her to her feet.
An it’s over. The end.
The end fer her. The beginning fer me.
They don’t tell me her name. There’s a little pink birthmark on her face. It looks like a butterfly.
Like the Cage Master says, it’s a shame when a good fighter goes down to the gauntlet.
But one of us had to.
An it sure as hell warn’t gonna be me. 

See what I mean? Fierce. 

Another awesome thing is that Moira Young is a Canadian living in the U.K. and Saba's world was written to be a kind of dystopian Alberta. Saba’s home of Silverlake is basically the prairies after an ecological apocalypse. Which ties in with the very last reason I prefer this book to The Hunger Games, and that reason is Jack. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Peeta and Gayle. But I didn’t like them the way I liked this guy. Jack is sassy and suave. He's a post-apocalyptic cowboy with mysterious motives, and the chemistry between him and Saba was pitch-perfect.

Also, there were no love triangles - at least not in book one. I can’t say the same about the sequel, however. 

-Kristen

P.S. Read more about Blood Red Road here.

Review: Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories

The steampunk genre is everywhere these days, to the point that it's kind of becoming the Starbucks of the sci-fi/fantasy genre. Those of you who are new to the genre (and thus not over-caffeinated) and are looking for a worthy guide for this broad adventure, should look no further than this superb collection of short stories. Writer and editor Kelly Link has curated a strange and wonderful assortment of steampunk-themed tales here: in "Clockwork Fagin", author Cory Doctorow unleashes a savvy bunch of orphans who turn their deceased master into an automaton so they can rule themselves; "The Summer People" by Kelly Link is a sinister fairytale about a girl who escapes the enchantment of fairy folk that have had her family under their spell for generations; and "The Oracle Engine" by M. T. Anderson is a cool Classical spin on the genre that takes its readers to ancient Rome. Love.

This is the best collection of young adult fiction I've read in a long time. And, it's steampunk.

-Erica

Q & A with Vikki Vansickle

Vikki VanSickle is the author of three middle grade books: Words That Start With B, Love is a Four-Letter-Word, and Days That End in Y. Her most recent book, Summer Days, Starry Nights, is a YA novel that was just released this month.

Kristen: Vikki, I mention in my review that I couldn’t put Summer Days, Starry Nights down. It cast this warm, lovely spell over me, which is why I was so excited about this interview. I have so many questions!

Vikki: Yay! That is so nice of you to say!

Kristen: First of all, where did this story come from or what inspired you to write it?

Vikki: Reenie Starr literally walked into my head one day while I was on a two day break between camp sessions up north, staying at a friend’s house in Sudbury. I had a very clear sense of her voice and her family right away.

When I was a child my family rented a cottage on a family resort much like Sandy Shores for a week on Lake Dalrymple (near Orillia, ON), which I loved. I never wanted to leave, and so as an adult I imagined what it would be like to live there! One of the joys of fiction-writing is living out your own fantasies (to an extent).

Kristen: I loved everything about the setting: northern Ontario, the resort environment, the 60s! What about this place and time period appeals to you?

Vikki: I’ve always loved the 60s, particularly the music and the sense of change that was in the air. My favourite kind of story is a poignant coming of age tale and in the 60s it was like the whole world was coming of age. It was a particularly interesting time for women. All three women in the story, Reenie, Gwen, and Mimi, are products of their respective eras and are pushing against what was expected for girls at the time. Mimi is less successful, but in 1960s women were breaking boundaries all over the place. I read two fabulous nonfiction titles about women and music in the 60s, Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller and Girl Groups, Girl Culture by Jacqueline Warwick, which really helped shape Gwen’s character and provide insight into what the music industry was like for women at the time.

As for the location, it was loosely based on the resort my family visited when I was a child. I have very vivid memories of my time there. I’ve always associated summer with the 60s, probably due to movies like Dirty Dancing, My Girl, and My American Cousin. A summer story NOT set up north would have been very strange for me!

Kristen: Mimi, despite her flaws, was probably my favourite character in the book. I really felt her longing, and her sadness, and I so badly wanted to know why she was the way she was. Her running away right at the beginning had me immediately hooked. Which was your favourite character to write and why?

Vikki: I’m glad you felt for Mimi! She was the most interesting and difficult character to write because she makes some bad parenting decisions which end up hurting her children, particularly Reenie. Depression was not talked about widely in the 50s and 60s. Mimi would probably not refer to her own sadness as something as chronic as depression, which is something people today still don’t do and why it’s important to be open about mental illness. Mimi isn’t a bad mother, nor does she hate her lot in life. But she does have difficulty facing the world sometimes.

Gwen was the most fun to write about. She is the cool, older sister I would have loved to have. I love how fully she embraces life and how willing she is to take risks. She is the girl Mimi could have been in a different time period given different choices.  

Kristen: How long did it take to write Summer Days, Starry Nights? Was the process mostly the same as your other three books, or completely different?

Vikki: The process was similar in that I didn’t write in order. I don’t outline and I am wary of too much pre-planning. Instead I wade around the story, jump from scene to scene, and try things out until I eventually have so much material I need to step back and think about ordering it in some way.  

Summer Days, Starry Nights took a bit longer to write (about 2 years) and was almost double the length it is now. Originally it took place over a number of years and was titled The Seven Summers of Reenie Starr (I still really like this title, although it clearly doesn’t work anymore!) Eventually I realized a lot of those summers were back story for my benefit, but the reader didn’t need to be privy to all that detail. This meant that I made a huge cut, which is something I’ve never done before. It was scary, but also very liberating.

Kristen: I'm fascinated by authors who write out of order. I'm also curious about where you write. Do you have a special or favourite place?

Vikki: I tend to write in my room or in a little sun room/office space off the kitchen in the house I share with my roommates in Toronto. I prefer to write early in the morning when my brain is open and no one else is up yet. I drink pots and pots of tea and take many breaks to pet the cat. If I don’t, she takes it out on my poor laptop!

Kristen: Okay, more writing-related questions: Why do you write? What are the best and worst parts? What was your favourite part of writing Summer Days, Starry Nights?

Vikki: I love people. All of my books start with a character’s voice in my head. Eventually it gets to the point where I can’t ignore the voice and so I start writing. For me, the best part of writing is getting carried away by the story and all of a sudden two hours have gone by and you have a new twist or a new character.

The worst part for me is breaking to go about the regular business of life, like going to work or doing chores. Some days my story is taking up such a huge part of my brain it’s a miracle I can get anything else done!

Kristen: What have you been reading lately that you absolutely love? Or what is one of your all-time favourite books? (Feel free to name a few if you can’t pick just one.)

Vikki: I am bad at picking favourites, but lately I have loved Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell and Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. One of my favourite summer books is Kit Pearson’s Looking at the Moon. I love how Pearson catches the mood of the 1940s and Nora’s growing sense of self in the world around her. In some ways Summer Days, Starry Nights is just as much a tribute to that book as it is to Dirty Dancing.

Kristen: I definitely felt the Kit Pearson influence in Summer Days, Starry Nights, which I adored. And I loved Eleanor & Park too! Ow, my heart. Okay, last question: Do you have a favourite band from the 60s?

Vikki: Again, I am terrible at picking just ONE, but I love The Marvelettes, The Shirelles, The Crystals, Lesley Gore, and The Beatles (of course)!

Kristen: Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, and thank you doubly for writing such a lovely book!

For those of you who haven't read Summer Days, Starry Nights yet, check out our review and Vikki's awesome pinterest board, and then go grab it!

Summer Days, Starry Nights by Vikki VanSickle

Summer Days, Starry Nights is a sun-kissed story that opens with a spark which quickly turns to flame: Reenie’s mother, Mimi, is missing. When she reappears we find out that shiny, exotic Mimi who once dreamt of being a star and whose dark, silent moods could strike at any time, ran away without even leaving a note. The secrets and uncertain moods of Reenie’s mother aren’t the only threat to her family’s happiness, though. Business is in decline at their resort, Sandy Shores, and Reenie is worried; she loves her home - the lake and the sand, the cabins and the customers - more than anything. She can’t bear the thought of losing it.

Then Gwendolyn Cate arrives – Mimi’s solution to all their problems. Gwen is a ballet dancer in training from Toronto, come to shine things up a bit. But Reenie’s memory of the fairy-like girl turns out to be just that: a memory. At first, Gwen seems like another person entirely, keeping secrets and not letting Reenie in. Gwen is friendly, but not as friendly as Reenie wants her to be. She wants a best friend, not an older sister. So Reenie decides to take matters into her own hands and figures out a way to simultaneously draw out Gwen’s secrets, make everyone happy, and save Sandy Shores. Only things don’t quite go as planned.

I found Reenie so endearing. She's eager to prove herself, as well as at ease in her home - whether she’s fishing with her dad, taking care of her little sister, or accommodating customers. She’s on the cusp of adolescence, a teenager and yet not quite a teenager, wanting more responsibility but not realizing what that responsibility entails. Inevitably, she makes mistakes and learns about herself along the way. I most especially loved her relationship with her father. She admires him and longs for him to see just how capable she is.

Altogether, Summer Days, Starry Nights is warm and delightful summer reading, perfect for preteens and younger teens. It evokes that camp or cottage feel, as well as that time in life where you just want to be able to test your wings and see if you can fly.

I couldn’t put it down.

-Kristen

(you) set me on fire by Mariko Tamaki

Mariko Tamaki’s earlier graphic novel, Skim, (about an adolescent girl struggling with her sexuality) was beautifully written and handled with honesty and sensitivity. Her new novel, (you) set me on fire, has a lot of the same insight.

Allison Lee is seventeen and starting college in the fall. She’s had a rough senior year in high school: she’s set herself on fire twice (accidentally) and been in love once, and the wounds are still fresh. College, she imagines, is the perfect setting to start again. And things seem to be going along as planned until Allison meets a rebellious girl named Shar and her world goes dramarama.

You’ve probably heard people say that life after high school is really just a rehash of the same old dramas. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that high school social structure is a super-concentrated slice of life. However you look at it, it’s fair to say that the teenage years are a goldmine of dramatic possibility for novelists, and Mariko Tamaki takes advantage of this in the best way possible. (you) set me on fire is reminiscent of the John Green at his best. 

-Erica  

Review *The Vampire Diaries 2: The Struggle* by L.J. Smith

Just the other day I was reviewing the first book in the series, The Awakening, and the ending of each book is such that you have to just keep reading into the next one. The final scenes are cliffhangers and the first sentence of the next book is the last sentence of the one that you just finished. It was a smart idea for Harper Collins to print two books in one, with a few teaser chapters of the third book even, in one volume. I would have been so mad finishing each book on such a cliffhanger. It makes you just keep reading, too. But you know what else kept me reading? Damon.

Here's a sampling of my reading notebook that I keep to remember parts I like for my reviews:

261: Hot

258: Hot, with eyebrows

I was most excited about The Struggle because I felt Damon was only introduced in the first book. In the second one, the tension is on now between Damon and Elena, and Damon and Stefan. While I still found him elusive, you get way more of him in Book Two.

Here's a little taste of the above pages I wanted to remember to quote:

"I'm talking about Power, Elena." Suddenly, [Damon] stepped close to her, his eyes fixed on hers, his voice soft and urgent. "You've tried everything else, and nothing has satisfied you. You're the girl who has everything, but there's always been something just out of your reach, something you need desperately and can't have. That's what I'm offering you. Power. Eternal life. And feelings you've never felt before."

She did understand then, and bile rose in her throat. She choked on horror and repudiation. "No."

"Why not?" he whispered. "Why not try it, Elena? Be honest. Isn't there a part of you that wants to?" His dark eyes were full of heat and intensity that held her transfixed, unable to look away. "I can waken things inside you that have been sleeping all your life. You're strong enough to live in the dark, to glory in it. You can become a queen of the shadows. Why not take that Power, Elena? Let me help you take it."

Hot. And I love that on PAGE TWO Damon's eyebrows already have center stage:

[Elena] clenched her fists. "Where's Stefan?"

A line appeared between Damon's dark eyebrows. "Stefan who?"

The Struggle seemed to lack the focus and build of the first book. All kinds of things were happening--Hallowe'en dances and stolen journals, dead History teachers. Bonnie gets a little more central action as the psychic trance lady, alerting Elena and Stefan to surrounding dangers. She also gets an off-screen kiss from Stefan--Hello, L.J., please write this hot scene into the story! And I'm still not so sure about Meredith who seems to have no personality at all. I can understand why she wasn't written into the TV show. There's nothing really to work with.

A new addition to the plot was the introduction of the new history teacher, Alaric Saltzman. On his first day of class he gets everyone to turn their desks into a circle and he asks them to spill about their traumas regarding the death of their old teacher, Mr. Tanner. Then just as class is wrapping up he's all: "How about if you all come around to my place this evening, and we can talk informally? Maybe just get to know each other, maybe talk about what happened...I'll provide the refreshments." Okaaaayy. Alaric is being so obvious. He even suggests to the class that coming to his party counts as participation marks in his class. So weird. By the end of the book you don't have a sense of his motive, but I'm sure he's just getting going in The Struggle.

Actually, one of the most awesome scenes in the book happens at his party. Damon hasn't been introduced to the characters outside of Elena's sightings of him. His grand social entrance is when Elena reaches for a breadstick and chews one end of it. Suddenly, a form lunges toward her saying "Mind if I have a bite?", and Damon bites off the end of the breadstick, "in that moment, their lips were only inches apart." It was really funny. Presumably all the girls were like "oh, what a suave College guy". Can you imagine anyone doing this at a party. Especially if you didn't know they were right beside you?

I was also hoping for a little more from Caroline's character. She hooks up with Tyler from book one *barf*, and exacts a pretty petty revenge on Elena for being the coolest girl around. What Caroline isn't realizing is that Elena is naturally pulling away from her old life at school because of the secrets she has to keep. She's not the "it" girl anymore. And you're second in command; just give it a little time and there will be room at the top for you. Caroline could be a strong nemesis for Elena, but I just haven't seen it yet. She's too easily overwhelmed by her jealousy to properly execute her plans. She's Damon to Elena's Stefan and I'd love to see her as a more formidable foe.

Another theme that really keeps me reading this series is the play of darkness and light and the push-and-pull it creates, looking for balance. Damon hates Stefan because he has light in him, because he cultivates goodness. Stefan hates Damon because he is only darkness and refuses to imagine any other way. Elena is a bit of both. She's described as an Ice Queen with a raging fire inside her. She's capable of loving her friends and family, sacrificing herself for others, but she's super-spoiled and entitled. It makes her think she can do whatever she wants, regardless of the people around her. Matt accuses her of only thinking of herself. And she tries to deny her passion for Damon. At the end of book two you get a real view into her true character and the potential she has for being bad.

The ending of The Struggle really surprised me. I can absolutely say that I have NO idea how the series will continue. Many things happened that are irreversible, and huge. Things that other teen vampire romances never quite broached. So I'm looking forward to The Fury, book 3. Oh, L.J., you have me hooked!

Mandy

Neat factoid: The Fury was originally the last volume of The Vampire Diaries, which was intended as a trilogy. Pressure from fans at the time caused L.J. to write a fourth book, Dark Reunion. And a new VD trilogy is in the works, The Vampire Diaries: The Return. The first title, Nightfall, came out last February and the next two books will be out this March and July.

Review *The Vampire Diaries 1: The Awakening* by L.J. Smith

I'm a fan of the t.v. show. BUT, really only because of Damon and Caroline. I love their characters and can't wait to see what happens to them (and including any of the cast members of Firefly always excites me, however badly her character was written). So, within the first 5 pages of The Awakening my first blurted thought-to-mouth was "Where's Damon?!"

And he's in there, you just have to wait for it. Which I can do. I WAS disappointed with Caroline's character, though (in the book). She could have been a real Cordelia, but she wasn't amped up enough in the book. Which is one of my complaints in general: Vampire Diaries, the book, does not have punchy, memorable characters.

Although I was surprised by Elena's character. I really liked how desperate she was to win over Stefan. She claims a few times in the book that she will persue him TO THE POINT OF DEATH! This girl is passionate about her interest and doesn't balk to spread rumors that Stefan is a "Narc" (which made me burst out laughing--I'm sure everyone remembers someone who was called the Narc in school, it's classic and should be used more in teen fiction). Or to deliver flowers for herself from her fake boyfriend, Jean-Claude. Desperate and conniving, and great to see in a main character. I find Elena in VD the TV show (VDTV) kind of cardboardy. Definately not the Cordelia-type Queen of Cool that she is at the beginning of the book. I liked how hard she tried at the highschool level to bag, although she didn't know it, a man who is hundreds of years old.

"I've decided what to do my oral report on," [Elena] said, watching with narrow eyes as Bonnie finger-combed grass out of her curls.

"What?" said Meredith.

Elena tilted her chin up to gaze at the red and purple sky above the hill. She took a thoughtful breath and let the suspense build for a moment. Then she said coolly, "The Italian Renaissance."

Bonnie and Meredith stared at her, then looked at each other and burst into whoops of laughter again.

"Aha," said Meredith when thet recovered. "So the tiger returneth."

Elena gave her a feral grin. Her shaken confidence had returned to her. And though she didn't understand it herself, she knew one thing: she wasn't going to let Stefan Salvatore get away alive.

It's refreshing to see her engage him so openly and work to get his attention so obviously. I wish that L.J. would have played up the rivalry between Caroline and Elena over Stefan a little more instead of having Caroline just kind of fade away from the picture once S and E got going. But for the most part, I wasn't annoyed by Stefan as brooding and unattainable, because VD was written before Twilight and Buffy, for that matter: you can't be bothered, while reading, to be all "yeah, it's been done already".

Actually I'm really fascinated by where Vampires in highschool began, in fiction. VD is originally published in 1991. I didn't read it at the time it came out, but I don't remember anything else out there about vamps in highschool. Or really relating vampires to the teen experience. Interview with a Vampire was a great book at the time, but it wasn't necessarily about the teen years. And VD doesn't remind me of Interview with a Vampire at all, really. What are the original vampires in highschool/teen experience books?

Getting back to Damon, I am really actually looking forward to reading the second book in the series, The Struggle. Because now we're really going to get into the push and pull between Elena and her two guys. The Awakening is about Elena and Stefan; meeting each other, falling in love, she learning his secret, them sharing an intimacy that surprised me in the story (*** Hop to the bottom for a spoilery explanation, only if you've read the book or don't mind knowing). At the end of the first book I was hankering to jump right into the second book because I knew it was Damon's time to shine. Kind of cliffhangery on L.J.'s part, but not horrible seeing as the new editions have published two books in one. Otherwise, cliffhangers are unnecessary. They suggest that you don't trust the reader to keep reading the series based on its own merit, you have to trick them into needing to know what happens next because they've committed so much time already to the book and can't duck out now. The break between the books is more like a chapter break than a whole separate book with separate title thing.

I also appreciated how slow the build-up was to the story. There wasn't a lot of detail or particular attention to character development, but it also wasn't crashbang in your face with deaths and kidnappings to Georgia and running off into the nights. In this respect it was pretty tame, I liked the pacing of it. Any action was plotted well within the story, paced properly with the other social dramas happening.

Overall I hope Damon is as cool in the book as he is in the TV show. Although there hasn't been a lot of humor in the book, so we'll see. It has my interest and I was surprised by how much I liked the story.

I also love this artist rendition of Damon from L.J.'s website. Check it out for others, including Matt, Elena, and a surprising one of Stefan.

***Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers ***

In the book Stefan and Elena have only shared kisses and one night they drink each other's blood. This type of sensuality is always suggested in books with vampires who date girls, but not as obviously carried out. I found the book did a good job of making this trade have impact, like it really meant something as an act. Like you could see them doing it regularly, just for the connection it brings them. Kind of taboo to suggest to teens.

Mandy

Fun Vampire Diary Stuff!

Follow along to the TV show as Frankie parodies, in intense detail, each episode. Seriously, well well worth it. Via The First Novels Club blog.