Black Heart by Holly Black – A Review

Title: Black Heart

Author: Holly Black

Publisher: Gollancz

Published: 19^th April 2012

Pages: 296

 Rating: 5/5

In Black Heart we are thrown back into the deep end of The Curse Workers world as the characters face the consequences of their actions in Red Glove.

I have always liked Holly Black’s writing. The fact that she brings darker themes to the forefront in YA is something that I commend her for. But it wasn’t until I read Black Heart that she was cemented in my mind as one of the front-runners of her craft.

Throughout the series the reader has been taught about grifting, and how to pull off the big con, and with this book we realise that the author has been steadily preparing us for the events with each book. In each book we have read as the cons have become that bit harder to pull off. Yet in Black Heart, the reader finds themselves reading through a maze of twists and turns, not knowing how Cassel is going to get himself out of each sticky situation, until you realise that he has been provided with the necessary tools to do so.

Something else I have appreciated as a reader is Black’s use of misdirection. She will be showing the reader one thing, whilst something else is going on entirely. As a reader, you think that some events are unrelated and wonder what they have to do with the rest of the story. When we look at it in terms of the actual writing we are able to appreciate the attention to detail that Black has included in the book. Take for instance Cassel’s mother – something happens that we don’t think is important, however, when it comes to a major scene with Sam, we have that ‘Oh’ moment. You know the one, the one where you’re sorry you didn’t trust the author enough.

The plants and pay-offs in this novel are seriously awe-inspiring. Some will say that they could see things coming, but I couldn’t, this was one of those books where I was thrilled, wondering what was going to happen next, trying to solve the small seemingly unrelated mystery of Mina. Black gives the reader everything they could possibly needed, yet manages to retain a level of concision I wish I could lay claim to.

We also have the relationship between Cassel and Lila. Their relationship has been fraught with problems since the beginning of the series, and once again the reader doesn’t know how they’re going to be able to move past them. The reader understands that they’re in love with one another, but wonders whether too many bad things have happened between them to get past.

Black manages to make their relationship more tense as Lila is the only person Cassel can go to with his problems, and she’s the only one with answers. You can’t help but feel that it’s incredibly cruel that they’re being thrown together in this manner – you want them to reconcile, but you don’t want them to hurt.

Altogether, I thought that this novel was brilliant – a well-executed Young Adult novel with darker themes and humorous undertones. The characters are well-rounded and as a reader you are able to empathise with them as Black makes the situation strike a chord with the readers – after all, haven’t they all done something to please the ones they love?

Until next time, that is all.

 

City of Lost Souls – A Review

Title: City of Lost Souls

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Walker Books

Pages: 540

Published: 8^th May 2012

Rating: 4/5

 

City of Lost Souls is the first YA novel I’ve read that has looked at the various stages of relationships. We have followed the love story of Clary and Jace for five books now, we have examined each nuance of this burgeoning relationship, yet we have only had glimpses of other relationships in the series. In CoLS, Jace and Clary’s relationship is further tested, as Cassandra Clare questions whether there are any limits when it comes to love. However, as the novel progresses, this question evolves, asking how far would you go to protect the one you love?

Alec’s relationship with Magnus comes up against a barrier, as Alec faces the imitable question about his own mortality. Alec becomes more aware of the fact that he will die and Magnus will go on living. When presented with the opportunity to remove Magnus’s immortality, the reader is left to wonder what Alec’s decision will be.

The question of mortality has been handled before, in the form of Twilight, however, Clare handles it in a new and interesting manner. Instead of having the mortal party try and become immortal, they are offered the chance to make their love interest mortal. This becomes a major theme throughout the entire novel: possession.

Sebastian has possessed Jace’s mind and body and wishes to possess Clary. Simon possesses the Mark of Cain, the only thing keeping him from being killed. Alec might wish to possess Magnus’s mortality.

We also gain insight into a relationship that isn’t about love but trust. After Jordan turned Maia, their relationship has been strained. They’re not on good terms with one another, both know that they love one another but neither knows how they can turn their backs on the past.

In terms of the novel, this works well as we are seeing a different kind of relationship. We are seeing two characters after the fallout, unsure whether they will be able to rebuild what fell apart.

Once again, Clare mirrors this against Simon’s relationship with Isabelle. Throughout the novel, we are told that Isabelle is unsure about Simon’s friendship with Clary – will she ever be loved as much as her. This is another relationship we are seeing after the fallout. Both parties are willing to rebuild a relationship here as well, however, the characters themselves are unsure where to start.

Familial relationships are also called into question here. On the first page we’re alerted to Simon’s cracked relationship with his mother; she has disowned him, covering her house in religious images, knowing that he is a vampire. This is mirrored against Alec’s relationship with his parents – they don’t talk about his homosexuality, or the fact that he is in a monogamous relationship with another man.

Furthermore, Alec’s relationship with Isabelle is used to mirror Simon’s relationship with his sister. Unable to cope with rejection, Simon has not spoken to his sister in months, now she wishes to get in touch with him. However, Rebecca accepts Simon as a vampire, no questions asked – the same way Isabelle accepted Alec’s sexuality.

As a reader, you’re glad of this, as it provides you with further insight into Isabelle and Alec’s relationship.

Further to this, Clare shows us the relationships between Clary and her mother and Clary and Sebastian. Jocelyn and Clary’s relationship doesn’t so much reach breaking point, but after a natural progression achieves a crescendo where Jocelyn reveals how she feels about her daughter’s relationship with Jace.

As we know Clary can’t stand Sebastian, due to events in City of Glass, yet Clare hasn’t really revealed Sebastian’s attitudes towards his own actions. However, in this novel, Clare does give us a glimpse at Sebastian’s mind-set. As a reader, I didn’t necessarily feel sorry for Sebastian, so much as pity him. You get this impression that all he wants is a relationship with his sister, but she wants nothing to do with him.

If we see this novel as a novel about relationships, then we can also consider the fact that this isn’t about good versus evil. Throughout the novel we are told that it’s not black and white, emphasised by the fact that Jordan did something seemingly unforgivable but Maia is able to forgive him, then Clary is asked the question of whether she can forgive Sebastian.

I think that this is something more writers could take heed of, myself included, not all antagonists have to be perfectly evil, they do have to have some motivation for what they do. Even though I still think of Sebastian as a manipulative character, capable of more evil than we have yet seen in the series, I think there is more that we haven’t seen yet. I don’t feel sorry for him, but I did find, when reading, I was reminding myself that Sebastian had a different upbringing to the other characters – his morals and his communication skills are different to everyone else’s in the series.

Clare could have left Sebastian’s motivation at ‘he has demon blood’, but she doesn’t. She shows the reader how Sebastian came to be who he is, rather than shrugging it off with the simple explanation.

If I’ve got so many good things to say about the book, you might wonder why I only gave it a four out of five. I do have my reasons. Even though this book was crafted well, there were still problems. As a novel exploring the relationships between characters this novel is great, but as a book in the series that all it is, a book in the series. It doesn’t change anything we already know, the characters progress, but only in terms on their relationships and I feel that this book was only there to get us from City of Fallen Angels to City of Heavenly Fire.

It’s a bridge to another novel, and you read fast anticipating something big to happen, but it doesn’t. There’s a battle, and the novel can be thrilling, but there’s quite a strong amount of telling us about how the characters feel rather than showing us.

As an analysis of the characters, this novel is brilliant, but I can’t help feeling there was something missing. Something that I haven’t been able to put my finger on whilst reading. Altogether, I did enjoy this novel, and still applaud Cassandra Clare as a writer, this just wasn’t the best book in the series.

Until next time, that is all.

 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone – A Review

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Date Published: 29^th September 2011

 Number of Pages: 432 pages

I wanted to like this book, so much. There have been that many folk across the internet exalting this book in reviews, loving its ‘lyrical prose’ and the protagonist. The plot is seen as original, yet I couldn’t find much semblance of plot at all.

In the beginning, we’re led to believe that the book is about a teenage girl trying to uncover the mystery surrounding her supernatural ‘family’ of Chimaera. Admittedly, I was interested to find out who Karou and the Chimaera were, and what relation they had to the Seraphim. However, it seems that Taylor couldn’t figure out a way to show the reader without writing a hundred-page flashback with characters the readers didn’t care about. It felt like a cop-out, as though Taylor hadn’t properly considered the craft of the mystery and thus thought she’d betray the reader’s trust. Veering off after three-hundred pages to show the reader something they didn’t need to be shown was a bad decision.

Taylor has also created what must be the biggest Mary-Sue of the twenty-first century. Karou has an extraordinary hair colour, draws amazing artwork that people can’t help but admire, and everyone around her is in love with her. Even her best friend, who is annoyed with her, forgives her at the drop of a hat. Karou is able to get anything she wants by wishing for it.

When the reader expects some confrontation, Taylor doesn’t show it, making me question her ability as a writer. When Karou discovers the fates of the Chimaera, Taylor shows no confrontation, just Karou doing something you’ve been expecting for four-hundred pages. If Taylor had shown some confrontation between Karou and Akiva then I would have understood the relationship, but this is a world seen through rose-tinted glasses.

This is meant to be the first of a series, yet this book could easily have been summed up in one paragraph from what I’ve read. Taylor wasted time providing the reader with unnecessary backstory. There were long-winded passages that could have also been trimmed down to one sentence.

The dialogue was also stupendously Americanised. I’m not saying this is a bad thing but Taylor failed to remember that she’d set this book in Prague. I’ve never been to another country, but I know that they have a different sense of humour and frames of reference. There’s also the fact that even the Chimaera that had been alive for centuries still spoke like modern-day Americans. I’m not saying that Taylor should have written with stilted dialogue, but she should have paid attention to the fact that different nationalities and species were talking in the same style. There was no variation in character, each character could have been condensed into one ultimate parody of itself.

Over all, this is not the best Young Adult book of the last year. As a writer, and a reader, I was disappointed by what I read and think that there could have been great improvement made if the storyline had been condensed to one book.

 

 

The Lacuna – Review

Title: The Lacuna

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Published: 22^nd April 2010, Faber and Faber

Number of Pages: 688 Pages

Rating: 5/5

‘In the beginning were the howlers.’ So begins The Lacuna, one of my favourite books of the last year. As writers we’re often told to ‘start late and leave early’ so that the reader ends the novel or short story wanting more. The Lacuna doesn’t do this; however, as you continue the novel, you begin to see why Kingsolver chose to begin her novel in this manner.

            The first line of the novel is one of those lines. You know, the ones that make you stop and think. It drew me in immediately and I found myself enraptured by the prose. I’d stay up until the early hours of the morning, longing to spend more time in the world Kingsolver created. This must be the first novel I’ve read and – despite being told in the beginning – wondered whether it was real. Kingsolver creates this effect by grounding the characters with historical events and characters such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Riviera. The words felt true, and, as a reader, I was almost saddened to discover the protagonist didn’t exist.

I was first introduced to this book last year. Perhaps, Kingsolver is best known for The Poisonwood Bible, a book I previously owned but never read, and now regret. A good friend found The Lacuna and recommended it to me; telling me that Kingsolver was one of her favourite writers. I took the book home and read the first fifty pages.

Then I left it.

Other books got in the way, or I was doing uni work. Life got in the way. But over Christmas I sat down and decided I was going to read this mammoth of a book. I never expected to be as inspired by a book as I was. I lived for finding out more about the characters – it’s made me want to go to Mexico just so that I can see the world where these characters walked.

I must admit, I did spend time wondering whether the first few hundred pages were necessary, but found myself arguing with myself. The novel wouldn’t have had the same set-up, and events in the early pages foreshadowed later events in the novel. This is a novel I still feel passionate about, a month after finishing it. I remember snippets and I’m drawn back to feeling sorry for the protagonist, wishing him luck in his endeavours.

This is a novel unafraid to point the figure of truth at the world it is set in. As I approached the end of the novel, I began to realise how it would end; Kingsolver had made me think there was no other way for this story to go. It reminded me of The Outsider by Albert Camus (another of my favourite books), in that it emphasised the stupidity and fear of the world through the eyes of an innocent character who, by association, had been made out to be an evil man.

This novel is also one of those novels that have me questioning my rating system. I’ve given books five out of five before, meaning they’re perfect, and this novel has its imperfections yet it is still one I would give a perfect rating to. It is in some ways better than the books I have read – I can tell you what happened in a book, but I won’t be as passionate about them. This is one of those novels that will have you questioning how you see the world – there are other books that will do this, I’m sure, but this is by far one of the better ones.

A Year Without Harry Potter

All right, so seven months have disappeared without me touching the blog. You’d think that I’d have seven months’ worth of witty anecdotes and a mention of something the faintest bit literary, but I don’t. For the first time in my life I’ve felt like I’ve not had any time. After my last blog post I became ill, and then stayed with my Nan for the entirety of August. Certain family issues have risen and been resolved. I realised that, in relation to my blog, I was becoming too big for my boots. I just wanted some time alone to get my head straight.

Now, I’m hoping to return to the ‘blogosphere’ and start discussing the books I’ve discovered over the last few months. I still haven’t read ‘Wither’, after harping on about it for a few months, but first impressions are good, I see it as ‘Jane Eyre meets A Handmaid’s Tale’, but I swear I read that on a blurb somewhere. I want to tell you about writing, and go through my literary woes. But right now, I’m going to list the books I read last year.

On January 1^st 2011, I made the decision to go without reading Harry Potter for a year. Having read every book twice a year, I thought it would be difficult, and a few times I did take the book out with the intention of reading it, but I had accepted the challenge. Now the books listed here are the books I finished this year, however, there is no order. The last book I read of 2011 was The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan, and the book before that The Lacuna. I flit between books whilst reading, and thus I started The Lacuna in January, so it was at the top of the list, but didn’t read it fully until December when I restarted it.

1)      A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin

2)      Sphynx, T.S. Learner

3)      Brixton Beach, Roma Tearne

4)      even the dogs, Jon McGregor

5)      The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver

6)      Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, M.C. Beaton

7)      The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie

8)      Never the Bride, Paul Magrs

9)      A Storm of Swords Part One, George R.R. Martin

10)  Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet, M.C. Beaton

11)  Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener, M.C. Beaton

12)  The Thirteen Problems, Agatha Christie

13)  Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley, M.C. Beaton

14)  Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage, M.C. Beaton

15)  Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist, M.C. Beaton

16)  Clockwork Angel, Cassandra Clare

17)  Crescendo, Becca Fitzpatrick

18)  Torment, Lauren Kate

19)  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot

20)  Ironside, Holly Black

21)  Beautiful Creates, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

22)  Paranormalcy, Kiersten White

23)  Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death, M.C. Beaton

24)  Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham, M.C. Beaton

25)  The Dead Tossed Waves, Carrie Ryan

26)  The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie

27)  The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

28)  A Storm of Swords Part Two, George R.R. Martin

29)  Blue Moon, Alyson Noel

30)  The Demon’s Covenant, Sarah Rees Brennan

31)  Mirror Cities, Julie Armstrong

32)  American Gods, Neil Gaiman

33)  Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman

34)  The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman

35)  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins

36)  City of Fallen Angels, Cassandra Clare

37)  Shadowland, Alyson Noel

38)  Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden, M.C. Beaton

39)  Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam, M.C. Beaton

40)  Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell, M.C. Beaton

41)  Death at Wentwater Court, Carola Dunn

42)  Beware Invisible Cows, Andy Martin

43)  The Dark and Hollow Places, Carrie Ryan

44)  The Forest for the Trees, Betsy Lerner

45)  Dark Goddess, Sarwat Chadda

46)  Coastliners, Joanne Harris

47)  White Cat, Holly Black

48)  Rivers of London, Ben Aaranovitch

49)  The Dreamers, Tanwen Coyne

50)  A Feast for Crows, George R.R. Martin

51)  The Demon’s Surrender, Sarah Rees Brennan

52)  Angel’s Fury, Bryony Pearce

53)  A Dance with Dragons, George R.R. Martin

54)  Bonjour Tristesse, Francois Sagan

55)  Will you please be Quiet, Please? Raymond Carver

56)  In-Flight Entertainment, Helen Simpson

57)  What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami

58)  The Snow Goose and the Small Miracle, Paul Gallico

59)  Constitutional, Helen Simpson

60)  Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body, M.C. Beaton

61)  The Body on the Beach, Simon Brett

62)  Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came, M.C. Beaton

63)  Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

64)  Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House, M.C. Beaton

65)  Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon, M.C. Beaton

66)  Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor, M.C. Beaton

67)  Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye, M.C. Beaton

68)  The Burned Children of America, Zadie Smith

69)  One Day, David Nicholls

70)  The Understudy, David Nicholls

71)  The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, Reif Larsen

72)  Sexing the Cherry, Jeanette Winterson.

Something you may have noticed about this list is the amount of ‘Agatha Raisin’ novels I’ve read. I began reading the books in January as they seemed to be popular ‘cosy crime’ books going around. Published by Constable and Robinson, they’re not that well-written. If you were to read an Agatha Raisin novel, you would be reading a synopsis of what could have been a much better novel. M.C. Beaton tells more than she shows and is unable to show any character depth at all. Her characters are stereotypical caricatures that are unbelievably clichéd.

A book I was pleasantly surprised with was ‘The Lacuna’ by Barbara Kingsolver, I am in the process of writing a review, but I finished it three weeks ago and it’s still playing on my mind. I don’t know what it was about the book I enjoyed, there were points where I thought it went against everything we’d been taught at uni, yet I was more than happy to let these ‘imperfections’ pass.

A disappointment for me this year was ‘A Dance with Dragons’ by George R.R. Martin. I felt that the characters didn’t really get anywhere in the entire novel, and that it could have been a lot shorter than it was. Sometimes, I wonder whether leaving it so long meant that no one cared how it was edited, as long as something was put out there.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet could help you realise the importance of family in your life, even if you may not think it at the time. Whilst One Day deals with the importance of friendship and remains a novel I thought was quite true to life and its characters.

Reading more ‘mainstream fiction’ still leaves me with my dreams to one day write a ‘mainstream novel’, or the very least to continue what I’ve already started. I haven’t discussed the novel with anyone, as I’m unsure as to whether I have the experience needed to write what I want.

I know that there are other books on the list that have meant something to me, and that this blog post isn’t really as spectacular as it could be, but this is more a new beginning. Hopefully I can stop pretending to be a narcissist for once in my life.

Until next time, that is all.

 

Influences and Tea

I’m currently writing this post sat in the supermarket car park. I’m in the backseat of the car, sister eating an ice lolly in the front, with a dog lying
on my feet. You didn’t really need to know this information, but I’d like to give a bit of context.

A few weeks ago, I was having coffee with a friend. We got to discussing my writing and I said that although I’ve seen a lot of authors who’ve been
influenced by the world around them, I don’t think I’m influenced by anything or anyone. She told me that I mightn’t think I’m being influenced but I’ll look back and realise that, subliminally, the little things will have influenced by writing substantially. It was one of those, ‘start considering what you’re writing, Charlie’ moments. Believe it or not, I actually have a lot of them.

Over the past few days, I’ve realised that my friend was right. This is usually the case, she’ll give me a small tit-bit of advice and I’ll think nothing of it until weeks later. I’ve been sat around thinking about how all my characters drink copious amounts of tea. It’s become the staple scene; my characters will be having a conversation whilst making tea. And I like how there is all this conflict, and this unusual situation, yet my characters make tea.

I’ve really be influenced by the ‘keep calm and carry on’ mentality. The same friend told me that it’s the typical British thing, that when any crap is happening, we will, ultimately, make tea. It’s what we do. It’s also influenced by my family: we drink a lot of tea, my teeth are tea-stained I drink that much; we went through forty tea bags in two days. It’s just what we do. We make tea when someone dies, when a baby’s born, when we’re congratulating one another; it’s a part of our day-to-day lives.

The familial aspect of the novel has also been influenced by my own family. I have a huge extended family; if we had a family reunion we’d have to book one of the Orkney Islands, just to accommodate us. I think this led to me having Juniper passed around to various family members throughout her childhood. There’s also an estranged sister, based upon my aunts on my Dad’s side of the family.

One aunt I didn’t know existed until I was twelve years old at my Granddad’s funeral and the other stopped speaking to us after we contested said Grandfather’s will. It was that old adage that for everything you gain you must lose something. Maybe she wouldn’t appreciate me being truthful, but I feel that I’ve told you everything about myself so this isn’t really going to change the fact that she wasn’t a very kind woman.

The novel’s also turning out more humorous than I anticipated, and I think this comes from my family’s constant taking the piss out of itself. We’re not afraid to hold up the mirror to ourselves for our humour and I think that’s something you need to do. It’s what my characters are exceptionally good at.

Another influence is something we were told this year in my creative writing class. According to our tutor, Raymond Carver once said that he didn’t write for stupid readers. I feel that when I’m writing, the prose should be easily understandable. I don’t want my readers to need a degree to be capable of understanding what I’m talking about.

I do think there’s a slight problem with my prose though. I’m hoping critique partners will highlight my problems, though, because I like my style of writing too much.

I wonder then, if I am being influenced as a writer, then have these things also influenced who I am as a person? I think so.

With this in mind, what are your influences?

Answers in the comment box below.

Until next time, that is all.

Angel’s Fury – A Review

Title: Angel’s Fury

Author: Bryony Pearce

Date Published: July 4^th 2011 by Egmont

Number of Pages: 304

Rating: 5/5

Every atrocity. Every war. Every act of vengeance. One fallen angel walks the earth to bring mankind to its destruction…Turning love into hate, forgiveness into blame, hope into despair. Through the fires of hell he will come to haunt one girl’s dreams. But what if everything she ever dreamed was true? Every time Cassie Smith tries to sleep, she is plagued by visions of a death: A little girl called Zillah. A victim of the holocaust. In desperation Cassie is sent for treatment in an old manor house. There she meets other children just like her. Including Seth…Seth who looks so familiar. Her dream becomes nightmare. And then reality. [FROM AMAZON]

I finished this book over a week ago now, but I’ve been unable to fathom how to review it. I mean, I really enjoyed this book; it has big themes, a strong female heroine and its pretty dark for teenage fiction. Yet something niggled at the back of my mind, telling me that nothing I possibly say could get across how much I like Angel’s Fury.

All right, so maybe I should start with the protagonist. Cassie Farrier is having nightmares, those terrible nightmares where you wake up terrified, only hers are about one-hundred times worse than anyone else’s. (Apart from the dream I had where my father drove me off the side of a multi-storey car park, that was pretty horrendous, and I refused to speak to him for a week afterwards.) Yet she soon begins to realise that what she’s seeing in her dream actually happened.

There was something incredibly real about Cassie. The way she spoke, and behaved, you could imagine yourself feeling the same uncertainty, and I have to say that if I were her, I think I’d have fallen down at the first hurdle. The characterisation of Cassie could have gone way over the top, yet it didn’t, she did what all teenagers do when they think there’s something wrong with them: she hid it. She kept everything bottled up, and I think this is another reason I enjoyed Cassie’s character.

The book also has an incredibly fast-pace. If you wanted to, you could finish it within a few hours. This was another of those books where I held my breath and didn’t realise I was doing so until I was completely out of breath. It encompasses a thriller, a romance and fantasy fiction, as well as making the reader debate about the possibility of reincarnation.

You might be shying away at the mention of romance in teenage novel, but in this novel, it’s tentative, and isn’t the be all and end all of the world. Seth and Cassie’s lives are intertwined in a big way, but there’s a rather hefty question over whether they can be together or not, and I was pleased how Pearce handled the relationship, and the repercussions their past lives have on them now.

There are a great many cultural references that give the characters depth. Cassie isn’t reading Wuthering Heights she’s reading a Meg Cabot novel, and in my opinion this is much more believable for a teenager. Then we have the mention of Blackadder Goes Forth, and its finale,
and how it would affect Cassie, and that, to me, was just brilliant.

Throughout the novel, I was unsure who Cassie could trust. Pearce keeps the reader waiting until the last possible moment before revealing who the villain of the piece is, and it was a big ‘oh yeah, I should have seen that coming moment.’

I met Bryony at a signing on Saturday and she’s extremely kind and approachable and offered me book recommendations. She even led me around Waterstones looking for a book, and yes, I am now the proud owner of a signed copy of Angel’s Fury.

Until next time, that is all.

 

 

Lauren DeStefano Book Plate Giveaway!

Today we must rejoice for Lauren Destefano reached 1,500 likes on her facebook page. And we all know what that means:  http://www.laurendestefano.com/blog.php Giveaway! It’s also international, because she’s an absolutely amazing writer. I know I use amazing to describe so many writers, but you can trust me on nearly all of my thoughts.

So tweet about the giveaway, blog about the giveaway, facebook the giveaway. Scream it down the phone at your physics tutor if you must, as long as you make sure to point them in the direction of the blog, you’re set.

I mean, who doesn’t want to win a signed book plate?

Until next time, that is all.

It’s Not All Repressed Dragons, Sociopathic Wizards and Tyrannical Queens, you know?

Last week, someone approached me and said, ‘I don’t usually read fantasy, but I like hearing your novel.’ At first I was pleased, I’m not going to lie, I got that arrogant, writerly smile, you know the one, the one that says, ‘How could you not like my novel?’

But I have to admit, that it got me thinking. Not immediately. My thought process isn’t nearly well-developed enough to be capable of thinking about something as soon as it’s said. No, I started dwelling on this on Tuesday night, and don’t believe I’ve had a decent night’s sleep since.

Before I started rewriting ‘Juniper Brown: Book One’, I had no idea of feuds between genres, or I chose to ignore them. Yet, now it seems to be something mentioned to me a lot more frequently:

A lot of folk don’t like fantasy fiction.

It seems that fantasy has gained stigma over the years. You can imagine reviewers being sent a copy of a fantasy novel and running for the nearest chintzy coffee shop screaming, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As though fantasy isn’t worthy of praise.

If genre’s were a school class room, all the literary fiction would be neat,  presentable, with their awards pinned to their blazers, whilst fantasy fiction would be made to stand in the corner, facing the wall until they realised the error of their ways.

However, once you start asking them what fantasy fiction they’ve read, they don’t usually have an answer. That stigma has caused readers to steer clear of fantasy because they didn’t want to be tarred with the same brush.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, fantasy writers work extremely hard. George R.R. Martin has spent the best part of six years writing A Dance with Dragons; he’s crafted a whole world, with countries and a multi-cultural variety of characters. If we turn it on its head we can say, ‘Literary writers are writing about the world around them, they don’t have to create anything.’ And we know they do. Yet we cannot, for whatever reason, accept that fantasy writers are just as hardworking, they’ve spent just as long, if not longer, creating a world that readers will love.

If your complaint about fantasy fiction is that ‘they’re all long-winded tales that don’t know where to end’ then search for shorter fantasy fiction and stop bemoaning the unfortunate fate of Robert Jordan as your reason for not reading it. There are hundreds of well-written fantasy novels already out there. You can easily walk into your local book shop and ask them for recommendations, tell them what sort of ‘literary fiction’ you like, and see if they can find something.

Another complaint I hear is, ‘I didn’t like Lord of the Rings’. Since when has Lord of the Rings been the ‘be all and end all’ of fantasy fiction? I have to admit that I’ve still not managed to make it through the books, but it doesn’t mean they’re not good.

I think that people need to take a step back from hiding under your bed sheets with copies of American Gods beneath your War and Peace dust jackets. Come out of the closet and join us, we’re not all bearded forty-year olds who still live with our parents, playing World of Warcraft till the cows come home. Some of us can’t even grow beards.

If you’re looking for somewhere to start, try:

A Song of Ice and Fire Series, George R R Martin

The Mortal Instruments Series, Cassandra Clare

The Dark Is Rising, Susan Cooper

Runemarks, Joanne Harris

Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust, Neil Gaiman

Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen, Garth Nix

His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

Green Rider, Kristen Britain

The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss

Howl’s Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Rivers of London, Ben Aaranovitch

And there’s a pretty extensive list here:

http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/fantasy100/lists_books.html

Or you can just go to Amazon and read the blurbs; you can sample chapters on almost everything.

So please, don’t hate fantasy just because you’re told to. Read some fantasy fiction and make your own mind up.

Until next time, that is all.

It May Look Like Nothing …

‘Charlie, I’m just going out will you do the washing up?’

‘Charlie, will you bake me a lemon tart?’

‘Charlie, will you go on comparethemarket.com and find me car insurance?’

‘Charlie, will you go on 4xtrahands.com and find me a job?’

‘Charlie, will you babysit my dog, I have an appointment at the hospital?’

They are just a few of the requests I get most days. Now, I understand that I’m sat in the house a lot, but I am doing something. Writing. And although it mightn’t be important to anyone else, it is important to me. It’s not like my family don’t know this – they know I’m writing a novel, joke about it often enough that it’s hard not to be enthusiastic about writing, yet they still come to me whilst I’m typing and ask me to do these things.

Okay, so when I babysit my Nan’s dog, I’m able to write – Chapter Three was written whilst she went for her appointment – but when I’m being constantly bombarded, my output becomes increasingly stunted. I’ve only written 170 words in three hours, because I’ve been doing this and that for folk.

I love my family, but it would be nice if they’d respect that I am serious about my writing. I do intend to send my novel off to agents and to polish the words until it practically shines off the page. I can’t do this, however, when I’m being asked to find someone cheaper car insurance! We have wireless internet, for Pete’s sake, it’s not like I’m hogging anything. You chose a Playstation over a laptop, it’s not my fault.

All right, so perhaps my rant is a little bit one sided. If you look at my family, and the fact that six people live here, it can get a bit overstuffed with pots and plates, and when we get post, the postwoman can be stood there for nearly five minutes. When I’m in the house all day, it can be annoying to find that only one sinkful of washing up has taken place, yet I’ve managed to write a chapter for a book that no one properly knows about.

If you met me you’d call me a slob. My days consist of writing and drinking copious amounts of tea. When I’m writing I can miss meals altogether (which you couldn’t tell if you saw the size of me), and turn into this evil person who bites your head off at every interruption. Here, I must  apologise to my mother, who was only telling me someone’s email address.

I want to know whether anyone else has a family like mine, who can accept you’re a writer, but don’t actually understand the writing process. ‘You wrote 50,000 in two days, this is a rewrite, it shouldn’t take that long.’

We all know by now that writing 50,000 in two days makes you ill, you repeat things over and over, you don’t actually sleep properly, you drink too much caffeine even though caffeine makes you more ill, and then you spend days trying to force a migraine from your head. Don’t do it. Take your time. Enjoy yourself.

So please, someone tell me they have a family like mine.

I know it looks like I’m doing nothing, but I’m writing, constructing a world, creating characters, pacing things, plotting and making my  antagonists antagonising, all you do is farm. (Yeah, two can play at this game. Well six.)

Until next time, that is all.

PS: The lemon tart turned out great. In The French Kitchen by Joanne Harris and Fran Werde – it’s amazing.