Winner of *Gone* and *Wake* by Lisa McMann

The winner of the double book giveaway for *Gone* and *Wake* is.....

Mandy from Mandy Can Read

Congratulations!! *fanfare* I've sent you an e-mail. And I SWEAR that I used random.org and chose the winner that way...NOT because her name happens also to be Mandy!! :)

Two other giveaways going on right now under your nose:

Win a copy of *Pretty Dead* by Francesca Lia Block

Win a copy of *Fat Cat* by Robin Brande

I also want to thank the 69 (!!) people who stopped by my blog and entered to win these two books. You guys are amazing! I hope you'll come back to read more content and check out future giveaways. Most notably, check out Dystopian Teen Week happening here on October 30th.

Mandy

Interview with *Robin Brande* and a Special Book Giveaway!

With my funner blog entries sometimes I just don't even know how to start writing! I'm just sitting here, thinking excitedly, like you would hear a little contented whirring noise if you leaned in close to my head.
Robin Brande has written two very cool books, Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature, and most recently, Fat Cat. In my review for Fat Cat, I mentioned that Evolution... had me consumed by reading fever from the first chapter. Ditto, Fat Cat.
So I was beside myself when Robin agreed to be interviewed for Edge of Seventeen. Especially when her responses were so funny and insightful. And, AND!, Robin has offered a wonderful chance to win a copy of her book, Fat Cat, SIGNED, to a lucky winner! I am truly jealous of this last part!

*****

Did you "method write" to create the right experiences for Cat in your book? Did you become that naked Neanderthal woman?

I’ve always loved the method writing aspect of my work. I love to put on my character’s life and wear her around for a while. So yes, I absolutely did everything Cat does in the book—which led to some hugely-positive (and several unexpected) changes in my life. I gave up all processed food. I went back to cooking. I tried to give up as much technology as I could while still writing a book!
As for Cat’s ultimate choices about what foods to eat, I had no idea that’s where the book would go. But the more research I did into food and health and the modern chain of food supply, the more I realized that both Cat and I would have to come to the same scientific conclusion about what was a healthy way to eat. So I’m grateful for Cat’s experiment, because I’ve continued to eat that way for the past year and a half, and I feel so much better than I ever have in my life. Although, confession: I have gone back to drinking coffee. Not too much, but just enough to make my little coffee taste buds happy.

At one point Cat is assessing her life so far and she realizes that she's been holding onto the same ways of thinking, even when they've hurt her. She mentions this great image of holding your thumb down on a bruise and that just letting go means you just remove your thumb. Can you tell me a little more about Cat and the way she holds on to things that hurt her in the story, how she understands destructive patterns?

Sometimes it takes a radical, dramatic change in your habits to make you realize how asleep you’ve been—how you’ve just continued to do the same thing for years and years, even when it doesn’t serve you anymore—or worse, it actually harms you.
I think Cat had a lot of different issues to work through and finally let go of: her anger, her feelings of hurt and betrayal, her shame at feeling she didn’t look right, her personal health habits, her choice to lock herself away from everyone except her best friend and the best friend’s boyfriend. Sometimes we isolate ourselves out of fear that people will reject us or ridicule us or otherwise make us feel worse than we already do. Part of Cat’s transformation that I loved so much was seeing her open back up to the world. A big part of that was letting go of all of the hurt from her past.

Nick is my favourite character. He's a science nerd and a total recluse when he's in school but during the summer breaks he does well with the ladies. I loved his whole wooing Cat section in the book. How did you create his character? Is he currently single, can you hook me up? :)

Oh, my gosh, isn’t he hot? I’m glad you liked him, because I had SO MUCH fun writing that section of the book. He’s based in part on a couple of different guys I’ve known in my life, and I’m sort of wondering if any of them will read the book and think/know I’m talking about them. But part of Nick is also pure invention. I just loved the idea of having a guy be so smart, so disciplined, and so unexpectedly passionate that it would really throw someone like Cat off her game.

Do you have a background in any Sciences? Both your books have a strong emphasis on Science class for the main characters. Both girls figure out the world through research experiements. Did you have a special science teacher who inspired you?

I was completely anti-science when I was younger. Thought there was nothing more boring or difficult. I have no idea why, but I’ve become a late-blooming science geek. Now I watch all the science shows on PBS, I read science books for fun—and I’m currently doing the research for my next novel, which involves quantum physics and string theory. It will be a romantic comedy, of course. Because don’t we all like to get our science that way?

I am giving away a hardcover edition of Fat Cat to a lucky winner. Is there a "virtual inscription" that you would pass on? How would you ideally inscribe a copy of Fat Cat to a reader?

No need to be virtual. You pick the winner, and I’ll personally send him or her a signed copy.


To participate in this generous book giveaway offer, simply leave your name and e-mail address and consider yourself entered to win! I'll choose someone at random (using random.org) on October 27th.

Check out, also, Robin's official website and Blog (and check out some very exciting film news about Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature!)

Mandy

Review of *Fat Cat* by Robin Brande

I had no idea that Robin Brande was going to have her second book published this month. I had read her first book, Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature in one sitting at the library last year. I was browsing the shelves and picked it up at random, thought I'd just read the first chapter to get a feel, and found myself a few hours later having finished it. So I was very excited to get a copy of Fat Cat this week.

When I saw the front cover online I thought the purple form being squished by the measuring tape was a person's body, but it's actually a purple book. There are curled pages along the right hand side, if you look closely. Catherine, Cat, is a science nerd. She feels she's overweight and is addicted to sugar, caffeine, and other additives. She's an overeater and is generally lazy about her eating habits, often eating from an emotional need rather than a sense of bodily hunger. Her addiction to crappy food also fuels her cravings for more crappy food. One thing I loved about Fat Cat is that Brande never gives out the numbers; we never know how exactly "fat" Cat is, or how skinny she gets when she starts eating right. Which is great. You just get this sense of how Cat feels about herself at the beginning and how she feels as the story goes on. Her weight is measured by how good she feels inside.

So Cat is in her highschool research science class and her teacher Mr. Fizer is describing their big project of the year. The project is independent and each person has 7 months to work it out for themselves. Everything is top secret and the final presentation is very important for college applications and scholarships. Secretly, winning with her project is important to Cat because it would mean beating Matt McKinney, her nemesis. According to Cat, Matt is a total jerk. We're also told that Matt did something unforgiveable years ago that Cat has held onto, and now she's making it her personal goal to beat him.

The project is assigned randomly. Students pick a picture out of a face-down pile and have to form a hypothesis based on the image. If you're lucky you'll get a picture that has something to do with your strengths; like Matt's strength is Astronomy, and when he picks his picture, peers at it and smiles, Cat is beside herself. It just fits in with her image of him as someone who gets everything in life so easily. Cat's picture, however, gives her a lot to think about:

The picture was worse than I thought.

Naked Neanderthals.

No, I take it back. Not Neanderthals, but something even more ancient--Homo erectus, to be exact. Early hominins from 1.8 million years ago, the caption said. Great. Highly relevant to my own life, not to mention my fig wasps.

At first she is lost in self-doubt. Then she takes a good look at the woman Neanderthal:

And she was thin. Not emaciated, fashion-model thin, but that good muscular thin like you see on women athletes. She looked like she could run and hunt and fight just as well as the men--maybe even better.

And that's when I realized: I wanted to be her.

Not her in the sense that I wish I had to fight saber-toothed hyenas just to get a decent meal, but her in looks. I want--and I know this sounds incredibly shallow, but science requires the truth--I wouldn't mind for once in my life seeing what it's like to actually look...good. Or at least better than I do right now. Maybe even pretty, if that's possible.

So Cat does some research and finds out what Neanderthals would have eaten at this point in their evolution and she follows the spirit of their diet for the next 7 months. She has to get over her cravings, give up sugar, diet coke, caffeine, crappy foods. She even gives up most forms of technology, although allows herself necessities like running water and cooking with a stove. Her early hypothesis is that modern people have let themselves go soft; they are lazy about what they eat and its led to all types of modern problems like Diabetes and obesity. But this need to be like that Neanderthal woman is at the heart of Cat's new lifestyle.

At about the three-quarter mark in the story, I started to worry that the basic science part of Cat's project was lacking, that she was only doing it to look better. And seriously, like two pages later, her teacher brings this exact idea up with her. Cat's priorities take a turn and it adds this depth to her story that I really appreciated while reading.

Fat Cat is also really funny:

He took me to Goony Golf and we sat up inside the giant Mondo Head in the dark and he kissed me, which I was prepared for, but then he made an unauthorized reach for the breast. Luckily I was wearing my new special sports bra with all the complicated hardware and about fifteen layers of fabric between me and the outside world, impervious to both nuclear weapons and unauthorized groping, and when I pushed Greg away and said, "What are you doing?" he answered, "Come on, babe, I love you"...

My favourite character is Nick, Cat's classmate. He's a science brain and keeps to his own during school season but in the summer he's a "major hound dog", hooking up with science geek babes at summer camp. He and Cat have a fling in the book and it's the funniest section.
I really enjoyed Cat's transformation. It was subtle and I knew what was probably going to happen by the end, but the way Robin gets us there is the real story. I felt happy for Cat by the end and kind of pumped to eat apples slathered in peanut butter.

One more hilarious quote to finish off this review:

Research Project, Phase II: Effects on male population of changes in female appearance. Experiment #1...

The question is, can I do this right? There are so many variables when you start involving other people. It isn't like working with fig wasps. I can't just crush boys into a petri dish and extract their DNA. Or really, in this case, their whole psychological makeup.
But it's like what Einstein said: "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?"

Mandy

In My Mailbox This Week!

I got a few great books this week!

Thirst No. 1, by Christopher Pike. I didn't read Christopher Pike growing up; he's been writing teen thrillers since the 80's. And Simon Pulse is releasing The Last Vampire series (6 books) as Thirst 1 and 2. It was originally published in 1994. I really like the new cover. And the fact that they've collected three books into one. The story is about Alisa, a 5,000 year old vampire who goes back to highschool and falls in love with a human named Ray. Her creator comes back to hunt her and she has to rely on Ray for help. And there seems to be a lot of historical references in the story from India and Egypt. Seems cool. The new edition just came out in August.

Almost Perfect, by Brian Katcher. I'm pretty psyched to read this one. Although I made the mistake of reading too much of the inside jacket premise. I feel like it tells me the whole story! I prefer to find out while I'm reading. Logan is devastated after his girlfriend cheats on him and walks around school like a zombie. Until he meets the new student, Sage, and he feels a strange attraction to her. There is a big twist in the plot that I won't wreck for you here because I would have preferred to find out for myself while reading. Booklist compares Brian Katcher's previous book to John Green. Almost Perfect is released this month.

Fat Cat, by Robin Brande. I really enjoyed Robin's first book Evolution, Me and Other Freaks of Nature. I actually hounded a publisher's representative to send me a copy of Fat Cat, I wanted to read it so badly. I'm almost done it now and it's so good. Check back for a review. I want to save all my comments for a review post! Fat Cat is out this month.

Funny Business: Conversations With Writers of Comedy, by Leonard S. Marcus. I was really excited to get this one because I had read Leonard's collection of interviews of Fantasy writers and it was so good. This one is a collection of interviews of YA writers of comedy such as Beverly Cleary, Louis Sachar, Daniel Pinkwater, Judy Blume, Carl Hiaasen, Jon Scieszka, etc. Leo does a great job of structuring his interviews and adding cool things like childhood pictures, prints of manuscripts, stuff you usually don't get to see. I am especially lucky because this one came in hardcover and it's heavy and smells good. Like a real book. This one is also out in October.

Some cool things this week at Edge of Seventeen:

Review of *The Broken Thread* by Linda Smith

A Little *Sarah Dessen* Love

Plotting and Planning *Dystopian Teen Week*!

Review of *Pretty Dead* by Francesca Lia Block and GIVEAWAY!

In My Mailbox Last Week

And Tuesday is the last day to enter your name to win copies of *Wake* and *Gone* by Lisa McMann!!

Mandy

Bloghopping *The Naming* by Alison Croggon

Kiirstin has been reading the Book of Pellinor series by Alison Croggon and her reaction and reviews so far have me totally excited about reading The Naming, the first in the series.

Here's a peek-see into her review:

"I was utterly amazed at how wrapped up I got in this book, although I probably shouldn't have been. It's definitely my sort of thing -- reading The Naming is a bit like coming home for me. My first reading love is fantasy and though I've been reading a wide range of things lately, The Naming is where my love of reading started: a strong female protagonist on a fantastical quest to save the world"

"Within the first few pages I was attached to Maerad, and I think Croggon's biggest triumph is in her characters. It's not just Maerad we grow fond of -- it's the supporting characters around her, even those who seem to flit in and out of the story such that we hardly get to know them before they're gone again. These characters are brave, smart, kind people we care about, who are about to be put through hell. But Maerad is the glue of the story, and she's a wonderfully courageous, practical, and intelligent character. She's also a little uneven in the way a sixteen-year-old would be expected to be uneven, with slightly irrational moods and angers, which peter out just as quickly. And she's mature enough to know when to cut it out. It's very well done"

"As a testiment to how much I enjoyed this book, I am still considering turning right back to the beginning and reading it again, because I'm pretty sure it would be better a second run through. I'm going to control myself, though, and wait until I've read the full series, and then read the whole thing through again"

Read all three (so far) reviews of the books in this series by Kiirstin!

The story sounds like it gets even better by the third book, The Crow. They are huge books, nothing to take on too lightly, but as Kiirstin says, you get caught up in the story easily. I'm looking forward to starting it!

Mandy

Cover Considerations *Ice* by Sarah Beth Durst

Okay so I own the galley edition of Ice by Sarah Durst but just today I noticed the officially published hardcover on the shelf. And it is gorgeous. I will now try to describe to you how amazing this book looks.

The picture posted here doesn't do the book justice because there are all these details you can't quite make out. Most exciting is the metallic sheen, very soft not gaudy, that is happening. The colours are perfect; baby teal and light purple, soft baby white and a hint of plum. The girl's hair is a rust red and it really draws your attention, aided by the red blush in her cheeks.

But the polar bear is my favourite part. His fur has so much shag and movement. His eyes are tender and there are the smallest white sworls around the bottom of his nose to say that there's something magical going on with this bear. His eyes are rimmed with a baby purple and it makes him look vulnerable and heartfelt. I actually feel his connection to the girl.

The background is layered with snowflakes and larger swirlings, soft snowy smudges. The whole design looks cold and plush at the same time. The title is in silver and it stands out in a subtle way as the only silver used for the design. This is one of the best teen bookcovers I've ever seen.

Cliff Nielsen is the illustrator and he's done other bookcovers such as the Cassandra Clare Mortal Instruments trilogy, which I can totally see, now. He's also provided artwork for the Bloody Jack series, The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint, he's done the new paperback editions of The Chronicles of Narnia, the Margaret Peterson Haddix series, the cover for Blood and Chocolate. Covers for both Star Trek and Star Wars books, and even a Harlequin Intrigue cover. What a cool guy.

The cover for Ice and the Mortal Instruments books actually radiate softly. Ice is even subtler, just adding a hint of sparkle. Lovely.

Mandy

Review of *The Broken Thread* by Linda Smith

Do you remember this cover? I am glad the content turned out to be so good.

The Broken Thread felt like a few other books I've read, and at the same time, felt entirely like itself. There is a definite Graceling (Kristin Cashore) tone, but with the theme of burgeoning love opened up to include love for a cobbled-together family (although there is also romantic interest). And it also reminded me of The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay, with a significantly smaller cast of characters, but the same scope when it comes to exploring universal values like love and goodness.

The book opens with a dialogue between Alina and her younger brother, Eric. Alina is daydreaming about the Isle of Weaving, the most sacred and mysterious place in their world where fates are woven and determined. Although Alina admits she really has no idea what that means for the individual. Eric, who is petulant that Alina would want to leave him, questions her about the island and what it means to serve the tapestry, the center of the world. Alina is impatient for the Ambassadors of the Isle to visit her and bring her back with them; a tradition that has happened to the women in her family for generations. Except to her mother and her sister who chose the life of wives and mothers, to Alina's confusion. She only knows that she wants to do something important and the Isle is the most important place she knows.

Two ladies pick her up pretty quickly into the book and she spends a few weeks on the Isle of Weaving in meditation and performing the chores of a hopeful weaver; dyeing and sorting threads, kitchenwork, etc. Alina is living like a nun in a convent, and still hasn't even seen the great tapestry. At this point in the book I was thinking *wow, that would be peaceful but super boring*, and then:

The routine was comfortable, the labour less hard than farm chores and household tasks at home. But the excitement of anticipation, the joy of arrival, lay in the past. Now was the present, and the present was...well, boring.

And I giggled. Or let out a breathy "hee-hee". Then, one day when Alina is asked to deliver thread to the tapestry hall and the weaver steps out for a moment, Alina sees the work being done:

It hung from the ceiling to the floor along the back wall. Threads of different colours wove through it in intricate designs. It shouldn't have been beautiful--there were large sections composed primarily of the brown thread that Alina found so dull. But the way the threads flowed in and out, connecting the rough with the smooth, the dark with the light, the drab with the brilliant, somehow created a pattern so fascinating, and so lovely, and so right, that Alina wanted to cry.

Until she notices a vivid red thread, shortened and frayed, hanging from the bottom of the tapestry. Moved by compassion, Alina pulls some of her own copper coloured hair and winds it along the frayed end, weaving it into the design with its new length. And thousands of threads further down the pattern snap viciously...And we're only on page 18.

Alina is sent through time and space to the beginning of this red thread in history, to end the life of the person who should have died young. He is a young Prince and Alina has to end his life to save thousands.

The writing in The Broken Thread is tight and beautiful, totally resonant but not distancing. Linda Smith definately has a story to tell, but she does it with an effortless love of language and a fantastic imaginitive scope. The setting in this book has all of these great little details that are pieced in when needed, and you get this huge sense of the immensity of their world, like the author intended on writing additional books with different characters to take up more of its space. And while I thought the ending was tied up a little quickly and the plot at times was strained, The Broken Thread was a delight to read.

Mandy

Teaser of *The Broken Thread*, Opening Lines

Dystopian Teen Week Official Business Update

Edge of Seventeen's Dystopian Teen Week will run from October 30th (Devil's Night, *oh*) until the following Friday, November 6th.

I will try not to give away the secrets of this week but rest assured there will be awesomeness in the form of book giveaways and other fun fun stuff.

It seems so far away but there is much to organize!

Want to be involved in some way? What's your idea? E-mail me.

Mandy

See the original Dystopian Teen Week entry; link along sidebar. -->

An October Book *Hold Still*

I forgot to add *Hold Still* by Nina LaCour to the list of books published this month.

It has sketches and "hand written" journal entries in it, and it looks like its dimensions will be slightly larger than the standard hardcover. At least my galley is a little larger, like a journal.

Hold Still is about two best friends, Ingrid and Caitlin, inseparable until Ingrid takes her own life. Paralyzed by grief, Caitlin discovers that Ingrid has left a long goodbye in her journal, made up of sketches and words. The story covers one year of Caitlin's grief and journal reading, recreating Ingrid's last days.

On Nina's website there's a Q & A that I want to quote here because it's so interesting:

Art, specifically photography, is a major part of Hold Still. Right before I wrote the first pages, I visited my mom's classroom to look at her students' work. (My mom is a highschool photography teacher). One image still haunts me. It is a black-and-white, dramatically lit photograph of a girl with the words ugly, fat, stupid carved into her stomach. The photograph is heartbreaking, but it is also beautiful. I was simultaneously troubled by the image and in awe of the photographer's work. This photograph influenced my writing in so many ways. The girl in the image inspired the character of Ingrid, and the act of photographing became one of Caitlin's passions. Throughout the book, even as Caitlin is struggling, she is finding joy in creating art.

Also, the last page in the book is a sketch (all sketches and lettering throughout are by Mia Nolting) of a treehouse. I can't find the image online to post here *too bad*. But I DID find the image of the book cover which includes the wraparound spine *pictured above*. Actually the wraparound goes all the way to the back cover.
Just one more book to look out for this month.

Mandy

Mean-Girl Mettle, or What Do You Recommend?

Just because I read and really liked Pretty Little Liars, despite my suspicions about bitchy-girl books, I feel enthused to read more of them, like "that wasn't so bad, good in fact, bring it on!".

Is The Clique by Lisi Harrison any good? How about Gossip Girls by Cecily von Ziegesar?

Now that I've had my mean-girl mettle tested, I'm up for another. Would you recommend either of these books, or anything else? I can take it!

Mandy

Words Worth Books 25th Anniversary Party

Your all invited!

Even though Words Worth Books does not look a day over sweet sixteen, the store will be celebrating its 25th year of business all day on Saturday October 17th. Join in the fun with birthday cake, free giveaways, a children’s comic book event, and more. And another reason to stop by and help the store blow out their 25 candles - everything in the store will be 25% off all day – excluding periodicals and special orders.

Words Worth Books has been a community fixture in Uptown Waterloo since 1984. Previously the owners, Chuck Erion & Tricia Siemens, carried on a bookstore business for seven years in Mount Forest. The couple was inspired to open a store in Waterloo because of its two universities and vibrant community.

The bookstore has a reputation for great books and great staff. From the thousands of titles that the staff has collectively read, each takes personal delight in placing the right book with the right person. “We are eager to share our love and knowledge of books. We have grown with our readers and introduced them to wonderful books and wonderful authors. We know and like our customers,” says Siemens, one of the co-owners. One of the store’s regular customers, Jennifer Stacy, says “I have a feeling of being among like-minded people whom I’ve come to think of as family: extreme readers like I am, and everyone so knowledgeable about books.” Another loyal customer remembers when Siemens recommended a book for a granddaughter who didn’t like to read. “I gave Danielle the book and said my friend Tricia had chosen it JUST for her.” Later on Danielle was sitting cross-legged in the rocking chair, nose buried and reading intently. She looked up and asked ‘Grandma, does your friend have another book?’’ Doris Lemon says, “Tricia hooked my granddaughter into reading.”

In addition to recommending excellent reads the store also supports book clubs with suggestions, a monthly book club pick and two in-store book clubs. As part of the 25th Birthday, the store is unveiling their list of their top 25 favourites from 25 years of business.
Words Worth is also proud to have a strong history of bringing outstanding authors to Kitchener-Waterloo. Since opening its doors, the store has been honoured to host some of the best authors in the world to their events. W.O. Mitchell, Timothy Findley, Margaret Atwood, John Irving, Robertson Davies, M.G. Vassanji, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Rohinton Mistry, Karen Armstrong, Louis de Bernieres, and Jean Chrétien are only a few of the hundreds of authors that the store has brought to this community. John Siebert, the executive director of Project Ploughshares, recalled his favorite Words Worth author event with Ishmael Beah, a former child solidier from West Africa. “The proceeds for the evening went to Project Ploughshares, which was really terrific, but more so was the response of my 2 teenage children to Beah’s presentation. They needed to read the book. It was one of those rare times where a parent literally sees the light go on in their child’s eyes.”

October 17 is Independents' Day, a day celebrating the importance of independent bookstores. Independents Matter is a national grassroots campaign with a community focus created by Canadian Booksellers Association to celebrate the independence and promote the benefits of shopping at local bookstores. On October 17, 2009 independent booksellers all across the country will celebrate Independents' Day. By a huge margin, independent booksellers carry more Canadian-published and regional titles than any other stores. For Canadian towns and cities, independent booksellers mean local jobs, local investment and local culture.

This free celebration takes place all day Saturday October 17, 2009 from 9am to 6pm at Words Worth Books, 100 King Street South, Waterloo. There will be giveaways, cake, and more. David Okum will be demonstrating a comic book drawing lesson to children at 10:30am. The store is offering 25% off everything in the store for the day (excluding special orders and periodicals). You may enter to win a $25 gift card by submitting your favorite memory of the store to Bronwyn Addico. Email to bronwyn@wordsworthbooks.com.

A Little *Sarah Dessen* Love

I love books by Sarah Dessen. I find her so addictive; you have to sit and sit and finish her books all at once. Here's a little Dessen inventory, personal to me:

The first book by her I read was Keeping the Moon. At the time I thought it was just fine and didn't read anything by her for a while afterwards. I thought the story was a little hard to feel for. I wasn't connecting with the main character, it felt a little distant. But, I loved the setting--beach town, summer, fish-out-of-water teen girl working at a diner. It's all about who she meets, who she falls in love with, how her summer changes her from this weight-obsessed daughter of an aerobics guru to something a little more like herself.

Then I read Dreamland and had about the same reaction to it. It was just fine. A girl gets involved with a bad boy and he turns out to be a really terrible person. Not this bad boy with a heart of gold kind of guy, a vulnerable little boy with a prickly exterior, but a real jerk of a person who gets her into drugs and smacks her around sometimes. Oh, actually, I read Just Listen before I read Dreamland. Here's what I had to say about Dreamland last August:
I definately didn't enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed "Just Listen". When Rogerson starts abusing Caitlin I was surprised, not because I was so into Rogerson being a genuinely good guy, but because it didn't seem to fit. I don't think the turn into a survivor's story was written well enough to take me along with it. I also think this turn was taken too late into the story and then dealt with too quickly. I guess I have a pacing and tonal problem with the book. I will still read more Sarah Dessen.

And I did. As I realize now, I read Just Listen after Keeping the Moon and completely fell in love with Owen. He was this huge guy just out of anger-management counselling with a crazy taste in music but a sweetness to him that won me over. His leading lady was a former popular girl who was shunned out of her circle I think because there were rumors that she slept her best friend's boyfriend. The two spend their days together and Owen shows Annabel how to speak up for herself, especially about her sister who's bulemic and her mother who's a weird-o child-model fanatic, carting Annabel around for years to photo shoots she hated. Just Listen is my favourite Dessen title to date.

And Along for the Ride, I think , was a lighter story. It revisits the setting of Keeping the Moon and some of the secondary characters, but I can't remember the details exactly. The same diner is featured although this book takes place at a different time. But again, it's the story of this girl, a fish-out-of-water, visiting her dad, his new wife and her new step-sister for the summer. She has no idea how to make friends or how to even be around people. She thinks she's cold like her mother, but she realizes that she has an inner feel-good girl and hunky Eli is happy to let that girl loose.

I have to say that I still don't love the cover for the book. The characters on the front look like grown-ups, especially the guy. The bike is all wrong; Eli is a talented bike trick/stunt guy like a skateboarder but with bikes *sorry, I have no idea about the language* so his bike does not look like this. The cover just looks kind of uncomfortable and a little plastic. I looked around to see if they've released cover art for the paperback edition and they haven't yet, but I DID find this amazing Livejournal dedicated to Sarah Dessen. This person has created a fantasy movie poster for Along for the Ride. And it's really cute.

Oh, and Lock and Key was really good too. It was about a girl and her mother living in poverty until her mom just stops coming home. Ruby, underage, tries to hide it for as long as she can but Social Services takes her to live with her sister, who she hasn't seen in 10 years. Her sister left her and her mother, went to school and now lives the ideal life; she's educated, lives in a beautiful home, she's married to a great man. Ruby doesn't know how she'll fit in because she's never lived like this. The book, really, is about Ruby getting to know her sister and her mother and her past a lot better. There is some love-interest in the book but the message is more like "Ruby has a lot of stuff going on in her life and can't really get her head around liking a boy, too". Nate is more like the nice guy next door, maybe potentially in the future a boyfriend.

What I love about Sarah's books is the transformation that happens to her characters. She often starts her books by pulling a girl out of her habitual way of life and plunking her down somewhere not quite her. Add some wacky cast and the result is an exploration into the way people around us change us, make us see things in different ways. Plus, when she's on, Sarah knows how to really write a leading guy.

Mandy

I Want To Read *Salt* Like WHOA!

I just went out to our teen bookshelf and found this guy just hanging out, overlooked.

Salt, the first in a trilogy, looks really cool. *turning it over* Ooh, Bernard Beckett has an author blurb about it: "From a storyteller who makes the craft look effortless...Salt is brutal and uplifting in equal measure". Well, when you write a book like Genesis, you get to recommend anything you want to me, Mr. Beckett.

Oh hey, also, maps! I love when books have maps, especially when they are made up places. The author has more than 40 books to his name, both written for adults and teens. Why have I not heard of Maurice Gee before?

The inside jacket flap leaves the story sounding vague, which is exciting. I hate knowing everything about a book going in. Here is the library summary:

In this compelling fantasy Hari and Pearl must discover the secrets of Deep Salt in order to rescue Hari's father Tarl. Their journey becomes far more than a quest to save Tarl--their world is on the brink of unspeakable terror.

This sounds so good. I think I will inch it into my book list for Dystopian Teen Week (I'm going to figure out the exact days of DTW by Wednesday).

Mandy

Review *Pretty Dead* by Francesca Lia Block

I'm not sure how to best start this review, but my very first reaction, even after reading the first PAGE of Pretty Dead, was "wow. Really? Wow".

Francesca Lia Block's writing astonished me. I was almost unprepared to read this book. I'm going to copy out the first paragraph because after I read it my mind shifted gears, knowing I was about to read something totally different:

Teenage girls are powerful creatures. I remember; I was once one of them. They are relentless and underutilized. They want what they want, and they will do what they must to get it. Love, possessions, beauty, food, sweets, friends. Unless they are crushed so hard as to give up. But then they are just as relentless, only seeking different things. Detruction, annihilation. Unless they can find a way to birth something beautiful out of themselves. In this way teenage girls and Night's children are not that much different, are we?

Pretty Dead is a book about vampires unlike any other teen vampire novel published now. It has a classic Anne Rice sensibility; old world vampires and the weight of the universe. But it's also about true love, it's magic, and centuries-old boredom, brother to destruction. Sadly, the cover is misleading. This story has real weight to it, and the cover is too light; it has this cute candy-sweetheart look, where the story has this deep passion and intensity. The story is also surprisingly erotic, definately for an older reader. It's a powerful read.

Pretty Dead is about an old beautiful, lonely, bored Vampire named Charlotte who goes to highschool on a lark and loves a girl named Emily because she is innocent and alive. They are best friends, although Charlotte is in love with Em's boyfriend Jared. Charlotte is also being stalked by her maker, an even older vampire named William, who seduced her after the death of her twin brother. When Emily dies and Jared can't cope, Jared and Charlotte find a mutual solace. And Char realizes that it will be the biggest transforming power in her whole unlife.

As for sexy and dangerous vampires, William is one of the best written fiends I've come across. The scenes in the book with him were my favourite, tantalizing and scary. I felt like Charlotte, overwhelmed and intrigued by this person who dressed like the Devil the first time they met at a Hallowe'en party. He is completely how he seems; destruction follows him through the many years Char is with him, until she realizes the true horror of living such a long life.

F. Block is an infinitley quotable book. You can open it at random and find a passage so sensual and alive that it will catch you off-guard. F. Block doesn't write so much as she crafts a living animal with her words. Very very powerful stuff. Here are a few lines in particular:

"That doesn't sound so bad in my opinion," she laughed. "I'd like to be immortal. In this house. With you. We could dance and dance and never stop."

I smelled the rich red wine of her blood again then. Like tiny grapes. Plums. Berries. A bit of cocoa. A hint of cinnamon. A tang of iron.

***

We were in Rome when we finally succumbed. I say "we" because it seems to me that it was something we did together in Rome in the dark. Something both of us wanted at that time. I had figured out what William was and I wanted to join him. How can you not succumb to such a desire in Rome, in the dark with a fountain spurting outside your window, the shadows long from the white moon?

I was like that moon to William's demon sun.

Pretty Dead was a quick read, more of a novella, but it packs a lot in. F. Block has a gritty urban magic-realism sensibilty which I think runs through most of her books, the Weetzie Bat books in particular. I don't know why it took me so long to actually read her stuff. The cover of Pretty Dead drew me in, although it sets a different tone than the actual story. I would have gone with cover art more like this Tara McPherson print, which is edgy-cute, dark and older than it seems (pictured above).

And because I loved this book so much, I want to give it away. So I'm hosting a Pretty Dead book giveaway. Just leave your name and e-mail address and consider yourself in this draw. My copy is not a galley, it is the real hardcover deal. How much do you want this book?

Giveaway ends October 18th.

Mandy

Plotting and Planning *Dystopian YA Week*

A few weeks ago, when Bart posted a Dystopian YA book list and I realized that I actually hadn't read A LOT of the titles listed, I tut-tutted myself and decided to sit down and read them all at once. And other dystopian YA titles that I hadn't gotten around to. I keep claiming it's my favourite genre, but can it be if I haven't yet read The Giver?

So, I'm going to have a Dystopian Week around Hallowe'en. During this week there will be reviews aplenty, author interviews, book giveaways (a must!), and anything else I have the time to post. The books I'll be reading during that week will be revealed as I read. I hope you will check back as I take this dystopian odyssey.

I would also love any dystopian teen book recommendations you have! Send them along. If you've reviewed any titles on your blog, send along the link and I'll read it and make it part of my dystopian week later in the month.

If you're wondering about my official Dystopian Teen Week picture, it is a scene from one of the greatest video games ever: Final Fantasy VII. This street scene put me exactly in the right mindframe for a week of themed reading.

Mandy

Bart's Dystopian Reading Challenge

Best Dystopian YA Novels Redux

In My Mailbox This Week

This week I received a few cool items in my mailbox. Such as:

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins. This one is out in March and no cover art has been released to give us an idea of the story. My copy is white with black neo-gothic "Hex Hall" on the front. It is going to be available in March (so long!) and the author, Rachel Hawkins, has already written and submitted the sequel, Hex Hall 2: The Joy of Hex. "yeah. I went there" Rachel wrote on her blog. Holy Cow that is quick, I mean this book is not even released yet. It also seems like it will be funnier than initially thought. It has a going-to-Hogwarts vibe, a girl discovering she's a witch from her father's side, vampires, ghosts, a hot Warlock, a secret society. But on goodreads.com people are already reading the galley and saying it's hilarious. I'm pretty intrigued. I can't even post a picture of the galley copy I have, there is no visual info on this book online.

The Heights by Brian James. I saw this one in a catalogue and was all like "ehn!", while making grasping-air fingers (think spirit fingers/jazz hands but slower and with just a hint of "my precious"). The Heights is a modern re-telling of Wuthering Heights. Yes Please! I would recount the premise written on the inside cover but it is just Wuthering Heights. Except Heathcliff is now named Henry. I can't even wait to read this one. I must know how it is done! The author wrote Zombie Blondes, which I haven't read but a lot of bloggers really liked. The cover of The Heights is thick and textured and it wraps around the back in sworls. It also says, "A contemporary imagining of Wuthering Heights".

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers. This one is out in January. It looks like a bullying, popular girls vs. the loner book. Regina used to be part of the in group but was suddenly kicked out after rumors about her spread. Something about her and her friend's boyfriend maybe hooking up. The "wronged" group is out for communal revenge and Regina tries to find companionship in some of the people she used to bully. A back cover blurb says "taut with tension". Sounds cool.

Invisible I: The Amanda Project (Book One) by Stella Lennon. Has anyone read this book? It just came out for an early October release. I've never heard anything about it. But it looks good. There are all these illustrations inside of vines and birds, very attractive. There's also an online component where you can login and write your own stories and post theories about the central mystery in the book. Kind of like 39 Clues? The premise on the back is super simple: a friend has gone missing and while looking for her, the group realizes she was not the person they thought she was. Sounds like Pretty Little Liars. It's also going to be an eight book series. The back also claims that, "The Amanda Project is more than a new series plus a website--it's the evolution of fiction for girls". That's quite the claim, but it has MY interest.

I also received Bad Apple by Laura Ruby which I've read and reviewed here.

Some other things that have gone down this week at Edge of Seventeen:

Interview with *Hate List* author Jennifer Brown
Introducing new teen imprint Sourcebooks Fire
Interview with *Hush Hush* author Becca Fitzpatrick

Double Book Giveaway *Gone* and *Wake* by Lisa McMann

My Review of *Pretty Little Liars* by Sara Shepard

Mandy

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Review *Bad Apple* by Laura Ruby

Bad Apple was a lot lighter than I expected. It initially seemed to be about a sixteen year old student and her art teacher having an affair, but that turns out to be not quite the truth. Even when I read some of the author blurbs on the back from E. Lockhart and Libba Bray saying how "wickedly funny" this book is, I was kind of like "How will a book about such a topic be so funny?" But it was. It was totally funny.

Tola Riley is a freak at school. She's sardonic and irreverent and people don't know how to take her so they dismiss her as nuts. When gossip starts circulating that she's having an affair with her art teacher, Mr. Mymer, everyone just thinks it's "something Tola would do". The book opens just after the police investigation into their relationship. Mr. Mymer has been cleared of charges, having no solid evidence and since Tola refuses to speak out against him, he's preparing to resume teaching at another school. Then the internet sites start. Message boards and photos supposedly documenting their affair pop up online. Tola is even more outcast as everyone scrutinizes and judges her for their supposed relationship.

Tola also has a lot going on at home. Her mother is so angry that Tola refuses to "admit" that Mr. Mymer had an indecent relationship with an underage girl, and thinks she's lying when she says it never happened. Tola's father is recently re-married and her step-mom hates her. Tola's sister is depressed and distant. She's also being bullied at school by her old best friend who is deeply creepy. When all of this catches up to Tola, she starts to lose it and decides the best way to express this anger inside her.

Here are a few funny lines you'll find in Bad Apple:

Madge laughs. Her laughs are more like the shrieks of banshees. When Madge laughs, puppies have nightmares.

***

I say, "Anyway, I thought we were talking about my outfit."
"The outfit is part of the attitude."
I try to be funny. I try to keep up appearances, too. "Uh, Mom, we do have pictures of you when you were in high school. I seem to recall a troubled relationship with hair spray."
"I wonder if it's that...man."
My mother won't even speak his name. Mr. Mymer is now in the same league as Voldemort.

There's also a reference to Twilight in Bad Apple. Tola's sister is talking about her outlook on life, that it's bleak but "realistic" when she wonders if people expect her to be watching Twilight: "Let me tell you something, the pretty, sparkly vampires aren't coming to save us. We're not worthy. We're not special. We don't even smell good."

Just before each chapter in the book there is a section of comments recorded by the people in Tola's life as if they have been questioned by reporters. It ties in with what happens at the end, but they are my favourite part of the book. They're hilarious. One is written by Tola's jerk neighbour who keeps on her about her cat. Tola mentions that he's the only one in the world who doesn't even care about the controversy in her life; he just wants Tola's cat to stop leaving dead animals on his porch. So his comment has nothing to do with her supposed affair and he just goes on about her cat.

There's also this cool part in the book about banning books in school libraries. A concerned mother stands up at a school board meeting and mentions a book that has an apple on the cover that tells a story about a teacher having an affair with a student. And now it's happened in their school. She means Boy Toy by Barry Lyga (I'm pretty sure), which is a cool cameo. The librarian at this point exclaims loudly and stares the group down, then leaves the room in disgust. It's a good scene.

Bad Apple was very different than I thought it would be. I recommend reading it just for the scene where Tola finds out she can take a punch in the face. That whole scene with the school heartthrob/jock is the funniest in the book.

Mandy

How I Decided to Read *Bad Apple*

Interview with *Hate List* author Jennifer Brown

When I read Hate List, released in September, I was floored. Here is a book about a school shooting with a focus on how you would make a life beyond this tragedy, pick up the pieces and move on. And with every good book I've read I had SO many questions! So I google-stalked and accosted Jennifer for some answers (really I asked politely, please do not accost Jennifer as she's a sweet lady), and I got them. Thanks again, Jennifer! (with apologies for my emotional attack on Valerie's father, read below)

***

Hate List is your debut novel and it just released in September. How has the ride been so far? What kind of responses have you had to your book? It must be very exciting for you!

It's been a cuh-razy ride! Mostly ups, but the stress occasionally gets overwhelming. One thing's for sure -- launching a book is tons of work for everyone involved! But I've gotten lots of great response to the book. I've gotten a couple starred reviews (Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal... holy crap! Is this my life?!), and have gotten tons of excellent feedback from readers.

Recently, I received an email from a girl who'd done a book report on HATE LIST for school. She sent me the assignment, which was so beautiful and lovely and well-written and... wow, she totally and completely got what I was trying to get across in HATE LIST. That is always such a proud moment for me -- when readers really "get" the message I was trying to convey. And then she told me that she was now going to pursue her dream of becoming a writer because she wanted to touch readers the way I did with my book. And that right there has probably been the highlight of the whole process so far.

Was it ever hard on you, writing Hate List? Anything that felt a little impossible or too tough to write about? I have to say that a few times while reading it was tough to be so involved emotionally, which made for a truly great story.

Well, only inasmuch as it's hard on me to write any story. Once you create a character that you really like, and then you flesh her out into someone you really love... and then you crush her dreams... that kinda sucks just a little. But it was maybe a little bit easier for me to write HATE LIST, emotionally, than it is for readers to read it, because I knew how it was going to turn out all along.

Also, it helps that I write a weekly humor column. I get to "lighten up" the mood a little bit once a week. It helps to spend at least a day working on lighter stuff.

There is light all through Hate List, even at its darkest. How important was it for you to allow this light into the story? Was it always your intention?

Oh! *claps* I'm so glad you saw the light! Yes, it was very important to me to keep that light in there. Because that's what it's all about, right? The hope that one day we will all do better than we have been doing. One day we'll all get it.

I do believe that the light really exists, even in the darkest of our hours, and that if we look at and really concentrate on that light... we just might change.

You wrote a very human side to Nick. Actually, I felt, like Valerie, that I only ever knew him as someone who loved his girlfriend. Was it important to you to include this side to Nick? Valerie’s experiences of him, his humanity?

Actually, this is where I need to give a nod to my editor, T.S. Ferguson, because this was something that I did not initially explore in the original draft of HATE LIST. I figured that we could just rely on Valerie's word that Nick was a decent person, and that if we trust Valerie, we can trust when she says he was good. But T.S. really felt we needed to "see" more of that romance between the two of them, and after thinking about it, I agreed and went back to add in the "more human" scenes. And... T.S. was right! It worked!

Is there anything redeeming about Valerie’s father and his reaction to her after the shooting? If Hate List had a sequel, how would his character end up?

Okay, so I've made some people quite mad with Valerie's father. If I had a nickel for every time someone said to me, "I just wanted to slap her parents!" I'd be one rich writer. Anyway, here's the deal. I don't think Val's dad is all that horrible. He's not great at unconditional love, that's for sure, and he's not a great parent or husband, either. But he's human. And humans have flaws -- sometimes huge and ugly flaws!

I think what makes readers so mad at him is that he's the dad, and dads are supposed to be there always and love their daughters always and have forgiveness always, and he's just not doing it. But just as Val wishes for her dad to see her as she really is... she maybe needs to see him for who he really is. He's not a monster; he's just a failing dad. He's scared. And he's selfish. And he's shut down. Sucks, but that's who he is.

If there were to be a sequel, I don't know that there'd be much change in that character. But maybe not only because of him. I'm not sure if Val will ever let him in. And it's hard to make changes when you're locked out.

Valerie and Nick have similar reactions to being bullied at school, creating the Hate List to deal with their emotions. But the Hate List is used for extremely different purposes by each character. And their ultimate reactions to being bullied are very different. What is the difference between Val and Nick and how did that affect their choices and actions?

Oh, boy, this is a tough question, because you're essentially asking me what makes one person snap and another not snap. And I think there's no real answer to this. If we had answers, then we'd be able to stop it from ever happening again. Is it a matter of Valerie being, at heart, good and Nick being, at heart, evil? No, I don't think so. Is it a matter of her having other choices and him not having other choices? No, I don't think it's that, either. But what is it? I just can't say. I wish -- really, really wish -- that I could.

Here is my review of *Hate List*

Jennifer Brown's Website and Blog

The funniest blog entry ever crafted

Hate List chapter One

Mandy

Poll Time *Paper Towns* by John Green

Here's what I wrote on Goodreads.com about Paper Towns in September 2008:

I was impossibly psyched to read this book...and I didn't like it. Which was confusing as I have loved all things John Green. It wasn't anything in particular that I couldn't handle, it was just the book as a whole. I really dislike the cover(s), which did not faze me when I started reading. I am going to try this one again in October (pub date)and see how it is a second time.

Brutal! I never got around to picking it up again. And just yesterday we recieved the paperback edition, with it's huge pin. I'm still not a huge fan of either yellow or blue cover. I really DO want to give this book a proper reading soon. I mean, John Green? The man is amazing. I have his new book which will be published in the Spring, Will Grayson Will Grayson (Co-written with David Levithan), and it looks shiny and awesome.

The premise for Paper Towns is pretty cool, though. Margo is the girl next door, but also a very mysterious and possibly dangerous girl. She sneaks out at night with weird missions, hauling her smitten neighbour with her, Quentin. Margo sounds a little like Alaska from Looking for Alaska: this girl with a wildness to her, like she could do anything at any time. Then when Margo disappears after a long night of strange errands, Quentin searches for the answers.

I loved Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katharines, so I should really give a proper read to Paper Towns.

Mandy

Yes Please!

Sourcebooks is launching a teen imprint line of titles called Sourcebooks Fire in Spring 2010.
Holy Crow, check out the covers!

From the Publishers Weekly article:

In its debut season, Sourcebooks Fire will release seven titles, including Beautiful Dead Book 1: Jonas by Eden Maquire, first in a bestselling paranormal romance series from the U.K. (March 2010); Recognized by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown, a novel based on the true-life story of teenage sisters who invented the séance in 1848 (June 2010); We Hear the Dead by Dianne K. Salerni, a romantic mystery set against the backdrop of the Civil War (May 2010); and The Turning Book 1: What Curiosity Kills by Helen Ellis, a supernatural thriller set in New York City (May 2010), among others.

I want them all but Beautiful Dead is my favourite cover of the bunch. I don't quite have a handle on the premise. Something about seeing dead people who are in limbo and having to help them, but also the main character's friends are all dead...(?). I should write back jacket synopsis (synopSEES) professionally.

Mandy