February Book Wrap-up & Must-Have March Releases

 Book Covers, Book Reviews, Books  14 Responses »
Feb 282011
 

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Finally, a dystopian for boys! Ok, that was mean, but Ship Breaker has very little of the romantic, emotional subplots that most female-centric dystopians possess which was both refreshing and grim because Paolo’s dystopia is really scary. I adored the imagery, particularly when they traveled to Orleans. Really, the storytelling is top notch, no wonder it won the Michael L. Printz award for 2011.

I didn’t know this was a series, but after checking GoodReads and it is listed as “Ship Breaker #1″ I guess that means it is. Interestingly enough, the ending could be a true ending and work just fine, but there is also plenty of space to keep going.

via Goodreads. Set initially in a future shanty town in America’s Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being dissembled for parts by a rag tag group of workers, we meet Nailer, a teenage boy working the light crew, searching for copper wiring to make quota and live another day. The harsh realities of this life, from his abusive father, to his hand to mouth existence, echo the worst poverty in the present day third world. When an accident leads Nailer to discover an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, and the lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl, Nailer finds himself at a crossroads. Should he strip the ship and live a life of relative wealth, or rescue the girl, Nita, at great risk to himself and hope she’ll lead him to a better life. This is a novel that illuminates a world where oil has been replaced by necessity, and where the gap between the haves and have-nots is now an abyss. Yet amidst the shadows of degradation, hope lies ahead.

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Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves

This book scared the holy hell out of me and that’s not even an exaggeration.

If you could have seen me while reading this book! I spent a lot of time with my mouth open, feeling like I’d maybe possibly taken a hallucinogenic before trying to read a perfectly respectable novel. Slice of Cherry is something like Alice in Wonderland if it were populated by Bret Easton Ellis characters. Had Christian Bale popped up in the narrative with a chain saw I wouldn’t have even been very surprised. Slice of Cherry is something altogether different from typical Young Adult books. It’s gorgeous and terrifying and I’ve never been so in love with psychopaths in all my life.

EDIT: While writing this little blurb, I went to GoodReads to get the book cover and…realized the listing was called Slice of Cherry (Portero #2). My reaction: WTF NUMBER TWO?!?! OMG WHAT HAVE I DONE. I knew Dia had written another book called Bleeding Violet, but it had never caught my attention because covers with miscellaneous lady body parts, particularly dangly legs, seem to inspire a pavlovian reaction of disinterest in me. I did not know Slice of Cherry built on Bleeding Violet, though while I haven’t read Bleeding Violet I think they are more companion novels set in the same universe than sequels to each other. Someone correct me if I’m wrong about this and confirm that I have actually read a book series out of order.

DOUBLE EDIT: I just checked Dia Reeves’s website and the fact that she has happy looking rainbows on her site makes my head explode by way of cognitive dissonance. What I want to know is who does she think she’s fooling? Anyone that can write books like Slice of Cherry should not be allowed anywhere near a rainbow. Just you wait, blogosphere. One of these days you’ll be reading her blog and suddenly those rainbows are going to open up and swallow you into a world of OMG WHAT IS THAT MONSTER COMING TOWARDS ME. And then don’t complain I didn’t warn you.

via Goodreads. Kit and Fancy Cordelle are sisters of the best kind: best friends, best confidantes, and best accomplices. The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that’s just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.

It’s no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire—the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren’t killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities….

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XVI by Julia Karr

XVI is a dystopian that doesn’t jump us light years into some TRON-like technological future, and I really like that. It feels more realistic and the gadgetry more plausible and I really enjoyed the side characters which really doesn’t happen as often as it should. I thought it was marketed a little weird since the whole “sex-teen” thing wasn’t really as big of a deal in the story as all the copy and blurbs made it out to be. Thank God, although I’d have liked to have seen a deeper dive into the consequences of a world that treats its women so much more like objects than people. That was my only complaint. The side characters, most of whom are boys, don’t treat the girls any different even though society seems to be teaching all the other males in the population to treat them like objects. So I don’t know, but it didn’t detract from my absolute enjoyment of the world and the characters. The characters really made this book for me, particularly Wei, Sal, and the grandparents. Also the ending felt like it was only the first in a series of books? But I can’t find any mention of a second book anywhere. I’d very much like to read more Julia Karr and I’d love to read more about the world she built in XVI. OH Oh oh, also? Really shiver-worthy villain. I kind of wish he was in the book more than he was, but maybe because he was just on the periphery made him so upsetting a character.

EDIT: Serendipity! The day I was prepping this post and checking Julia’s website, she posted that XVI is going to have a sequel and it just got it’s title: TRUTH. Can’t wait to see what’s next for Nina and Sal.

HEY. You don’t have an excuse not to check XVI out because Julia has put the first chapter up for free on her blog. Check it out!

via GoodReads: Nina Oberon’s life is pretty normal: she hangs out with her best friend, Sandy, and their crew, goes to school, plays with her little sister, Dee. But Nina is 15. And like all girls she’ll receive a Governing Council-ordered tattoo on her 16th birthday. XVI. Those three letters will be branded on her wrist, announcing to all the world—even the most predatory of men—that she is ready for sex. Considered easy prey by some, portrayed by the Media as sluts who ask for attacks, becoming a “sex-teen” is Nina’s worst fear. That is, until right before her birthday, when Nina’s mom is brutally attacked. With her dying breaths, she reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past—one that destroys everything Nina thought she knew. Now, alone but for her sister, Nina must try to discover who she really is, all the while staying one step ahead of her mother’s killer.

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Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase

Yes, I read a romance novel. Yes, it was naughty. Yes, I was completely shocked out of my shoes that I actually liked it. I promise it was not for lack of trying. It’s not that I have anything against romance as a genre, it’s just that I really don’t care for formula writing very much. I’m also not crazy about the implication many take that all women want to have romance forced upon them by a lord/duke/king/sheik/emperor/pirate whatever.

In any case, I must give Loretta Chase credit where credit is due because she wrote two exceptional main characters despite the formula or the genre. Jessica was a strong, interesting, fully realized character and Dain was interesting and moody and really unlikeable a lot of the time and not perfect or beautiful at all. It had a Beauty and the Beast twist to it that I liked very much. I thought Jessica was well written outside the typical British heroine box and I admit when she shot Dain in front of all his friends I threw my hands up and whooped with joy. It was awesome. It was a friend’s fault I even knew this book existed, but I blame the mini series North & South for putting me in the mood for a British romance in the first place. Now I’m knee deep in Downtown Abbey. Who else loves British romances? What is it about all those gentlemen and ladies and uncomfortable but beautiful clothes that just screams dashing young lovers and shocking, secretive passion? If you like British romance, the scene in Lord of Scoundrels in the rain beneath a lampost will make your toes curl, I promise.

via Goodreads. Sebastian Ballister, the notorious Marquess of Dain, is big, bad, and dangerous to know. No respectable woman would have anything to do with the “Band and Blight of the Ballisters” – and he wants nothing to do with respectable women. He’s determined to continue doing what he does best – sin and sin again – and all that’s going swimmingly, thank you… until the day a shop door opens and she walks in.

She’s too intelligent to fall for the worst man in the world…

Jessica Trent is a determined young woman, and she’s going to drag her imbecile brother off the road to ruin, no matter what it takes. If saving him – and with him, her family and future – means taking on the devil himself, she won’t back down. The trouble is, the devil in question is so shockingly irresistible, and the person who needs the most saving is – herself!

 

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March is a HUGE release month for me. There are too many books coming out in March that I’m desperate to get my hands on, so I had to slim my spotlight to only 4. Tough choice, but here are the four I will probably read first.

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan

Release Date: March 22, 2011

Must-Have Reason: The third and final installment in Carrie Ryan’s amazing ZOMBIE series The Forest of Hands and Teeth. I just…need to know how it ends!!! More zombies, more zombies for me.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Release Date: March 22, 2011

Must-Have Reason: This cover was released more than a year ago and I remember having a minor heart attack right along with the rest of the YA blogging community. This cover is so gorgeous, one of the few books with models on the cover that completely captures my heart. It wasn’t until many, many months later did we even find out what this book is about. And lucky for us, the premise is as cool as its cover.

Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon

Release Date: March 29, 2011

Must-Have Reason: The first book in this series, Silver Phoenix, blew my freaking mind. This fantasy is one of the very few non-western fantasy stories out there and Cindy’s imagination is worth every word. It feels like I’ve been waiting years for this book to come out, and now that it is finally here I almost can’t take the suspense. I so can’t wait to see what has happened to my favorite Asian fairy tale.

The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta

Release Date: March 8th, 2011

Must-Have Reason: Um, because I have a huge author crush on Melina Marchetta? Isn’t that a good enough reason? No? Ok well, The Piper’s Son is a companion to Melina’s to-die-for book Saving Francesca with some of the same characters but focused on one of the side characters who totally stole my heart right out from under the main character’s nose. This book has been out for a long time in Australia, but has finally made it state-side. Of the four books on this list, this is the one I have pre-ordered.

And now, The End.

 My Life in Action, News, the Good and Bad, Things Worth Sharing  4 Responses »
Dec 312010
 

Last Christmas my city was buried by a snow storm that canceled the holiday. A few weeks later, J.D. Salinger died. Just before Valentine’s Day, the final book of the Hunger Games series, Mockingjay, was revealed and a thousand hearts exploded in anticipation. In March I traveled to Indiana to go hiking through the woods in order to discover the landscape of my novel and met John Green at a book signing in Indianapolis. In April bullying was the watch-word and authors, would-be-authors, and celebrities came out to tell their stories about bullying and to encourage kids not to let it define them or destroy them. I did too.

In May I switched from Blogger to WordPress and lost half of my graphics that I’m still trying to reconstruct in my archive. In June I experienced my first major burn out and my plot got lost on its way to chapter fourteen. I abandoned writing for several weeks just to feel normal again.

In July I hit up OSFest 2010 and wrote several extensive posts about character tropes which are what originally started luring new friends to my blog. I realized then I had something to share with the world.

I dedicated August to Hot Dystopian Summer Nights and wrote about some of my favorite books and genres. September was all about banned books and October I wrote every day about haunted things but embarrassed myself by calling it an October Blogfest but really meant a festival of blog posts. Whoops.

November was National Novel Writing Month and I started a new steampunk fantasy though I never hit 50,000 words. I wrote blog posts every day and cross-posted them over at Nathan Bransford’s forums where they were well received.

December I paraded out my Top 5 lists, caught the plague and wished for a swift death. I tried not to get buried beneath the shopping frenzy or be run over by psycho shoppers.*** I succeeded at one of these two things. Santa brought me The Mockingbirds and Anna and the French Kiss so 2011 will begin with some fine YA lit.

There were plenty of book contests out there. I gave away copies of Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth, The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor, and lots of others. I won Morgan Matson’s Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell, Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers. I discovered Melina Marchetta and fell in love with words all over again. I met the wonderful Victoria Caswell and I never miss a post by Em and Nora at Love YA Lit, also The Story Siren, or Steph Su Reads.

I discovered that authors are like anyone else (Carrie Ryan, Courtney Summers, Saundra Mitchell, Kiersten White, Melissa Walker), but are also amazing, involved, grateful, lovely and so full of kindness I can hardly put into words but try to model myself after every day.

I read 73 novels, 80 if you include how many times I reread Jellicoe Road and The Sky is Everywhere. I think this says something about my dedication to reading, but I also think it says something about the quality of books that are being published these days, particularly in YA.

I discovered Nathan Bransford’s forums and the crazy personalities that populate its streets and I can honestly say I will never be the same person I was before I met them. They forced me, at linguistical gun point, to become a better thinker. My writing became deeper, more complicated, my characters more diverse and complex, and during those moments where I thought I was done, couldn’t go on, wasn’t even sure I still wanted to, there they were with a hanky and hot chocolate, kind words, naughty jokes, and giant emoticon eyerolls that said “Oh hell girl, we’ve all be there. And we’re all still here. You’ll be fine.” They might not mean anything to you, but the names Margo, Mira, Quill, Polymath, Watcher55, J.T. Shea, bcomet, and sierramcconnell and so many others will always stand out in my mind as people who helped me Take The Next Step, question myself, and speak up without fear of reprisal or derision. I. Am. In. Awe.

And now.

Now we come to the final days. These final hours. One more day is gone and I wonder how many people realize there is no going back. No reset button, no do-over. I wonder if the people who say, “I do not have time to write a novel today,” understand that tomorrow is just as temporary? I’m not very old, 31 is the new 21 and all that, but I can’t help but think – did I make the last year worth every last second? Did I waste any of it and if I did, why? It isn’t like we can get it back when it is gone. And I think – am I going to waste any moment of 2011? Will my novel go another year without being finished and why would I allow that to happen? We cannot get back the time we’ve spent and I believe that if we do not spend it well we do not really deserve it.

Did you spend it well? Will you spend it better?

No resolutions.+ This isn’t a competition when you are only competing against your own ability to make excuses. If I do not finish that novel this year, then why am I writing it? Go big or go home right?

2011 will be the year I get out of my own way.

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*** True story – a friend of mine got cussed out in a parking lot when he got to a parking spot before another shopper. She then stalked him and tried to run him over after he came out. People never cease to amaze me.

+ I lied, there is one resolution. For two years I have made a resolution to learn how to sew a button and for two years I’ve put it off and avoided the Closet of Coats with Lost Buttons. No more! This year I will learn to fix my own bloody buttons or I’m switching out all my clothes to Velcro.

Top 5 Book Trailers of 2010

 Book Trailers  1 Response »
Dec 282010
 

2010 is dragging itself kicking and screaming to the very end in these final days and all my brain can do is go “blaarghgh” at the very idea of writing anything profound. So you’ll have to stick with me a couple more days while I round off the year with a few more Top 5 lists. So here we go. Top 5 Book Trailers of 2010.

#5 – TIE! **

Matched by Ally Condie

Girl Parts by John M. Cusick

#4 - Plain Kate by Erin Bow

#3 - The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan

#2 - Being Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram

#1 – VIXEN by Jillian Larkin


**It’s my list. I can tie if I want to.

NaNoWriMo Cookies: Day 19 with a success story

 Fantastic Authors, NaNoWriMo 2010  2 Responses »
Nov 192010
 

Day 19.

Sorry this is late going up. I’ve been stricken with the plague and just woke up from sleeping for 15 hours straight and I had not had it prepared ahead of time. On the plus side, I feel incredibly well rested. Still sick though.

I haven’t gotten much writing done this week due to said plague. Also other things I will talk about later, but I needed a pick-me-up story this late in the game of someone winning even after not winning NaNo since I do not think I’ll make 50,000 words this year.

I didn’t know this until earlier this month when she posted it, but the very awesome Carrie Ryan‘s popular YA zombie book The Forest of Hands and Teeth was a NaNoWriMo book she started in 2006. Something “different” for her that ended up becoming such a beloved series.

So here is her story of not winning NaNoWriMo but in the end writing and editing a great book series. Enjoy and have a great weekend full of writing. We are almost to the end.

I was a stickler for the rules and so I started casting about for a new idea — something to stretch my writing voice and take me in a new direction — and that’s when JP (my husband) suggested I write what I love which was zombies and that was that.  A year later I sold The Forest of Hands and Teeth. -Carrie Ryan

Trick-or-Treat Book Contest, only 3 days left!

 Contests!  No Responses »
Oct 282010
 

Only three more days!

I’m kinda really excited about giving this one away. I’ve had a great response and to be perfectly honest I wish I had more stuff to give! You’ve all been really great and welcome to those of you who have friended me thanks to this contest! I really, really appreciate it!

If you haven’t already signed up, you’ve got until Saturday at midnight to complete the form found at this link-> CONTEST!

On Sunday, October 31st, I will draw 2 winners at random for the following Trick-or-Treat prize boxes:

Box #1:

  • Madapple by Christina Meldrum (hardback)
  • Prom Nights From Hell: Paranormal prom stories from five hot authors including – Meg Cabot, Stephanie Meyer, Kim Harrison, Michele Jaffe, and Lauren Myracle.
  • Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by  Alvin Schwartz

Box #2

BOTH boxes will contain random pirate goodies, art supplies, Halloween toys, and more. One will even contain a Lego witch mini-figure, though I’m not sure which one that will be yet.

Good luck! Happy trick-or-treating!

Belated blogfest post, so in the meantime…

 Uncategorized  2 Responses »
Oct 042010
 

Today’s October Blogfest is going to be a little late because I forgot the file at home on my home computer. Whoops. Sorry guys. Clearly I am not organized enough to host a fest of any sort!

In the mean time, why don’t you go sign up for one of the two Trick-or-Treat giveaways? (Sign up sign up! Send your friends! Make a girl happy to give stuff away! ) I’ve picked up a few items so far, and one box will have The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan (paperback) and I have a zombie magnet “Sometimes I worry about zombies” and a Witch Lego minifigure. Send your friends over to sign up too!

This week’s October Blogfest will contain posts on the following topics:

  • Monday: A poem by me called “Kingdom of Monsters and Lost Children”
  • Tuesday: The scariest children in cinema
  • Wednesday: Music by Voltaire
  • Thursday: On writing horror- Setting
  • Friday: Short Halloween Story by me
  • Saturday: More Comics
  • Sunday: And a Picture Tour of a Haunted Asylum

The following week we’ve got Haunted places across the US, another short halloween story, Horror Artwork by one of my favorite artists ever, On writing horror: Characteristics of horror, Some monster of the week love, and Horror inspired games.

Non-October Blogfest related posts coming up too. The Banned Book Reading Challenge is coming to a close soon, and I’ve got my reviews and wrap-up party ready to go. I’ve also had the pleasure of reading some really fantastic contemporary YA that I can’t wait to share with you all.

In writing news: Still working tirelessly at edits and rewrites. Honestly I don’t know when it will ever end. I am not doing NaNoWriMo this year. Are you?

Why I love the YA blogosphere

 Adventures in writing, Fantastic Authors  2 Responses »
Sep 172010
 

I won’t take up a lot of time today on the blogosphere (Guess why! I’m writing!) but I do want to say this:

To those of you who gave me the internet equivalent of tossing me into the shower with my clothes on to calm me down and shock some sense back into me, Thank you. Thank you Thank you Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Sometimes I think my blog is not the place for negative emotions, and so I often keep my issues to myself and wait for them to be over. I’m also a little embarressed by them. When I let gush my frustration and freak outs, I expected nothing. I mean that literally, I expected a quiet shunning until the freak out was over.

But that’s not at all what happened. You all came up with some great ways to fill my half empty cup. I don’t know how I’m going to repay all of you for your kindness, but I’ll find a way!

That post also reminded me of why I love the YA blogosphere so much. Last week I read a post on Invincible Summer’s blog about YA becoming a little bit like the high school cliques. Her questions were good but I found myself disagreeing with her entirely on almost all her points because my experience has been the opposite – I’ve had nothing but warm, welcoming, celebration from YA authors, YA readers, and YA bloggers. Several authors have stopped by my blog before now, bloggers too, and I’ve had many great email conversations with them. And yesterday was a great example of that when Carrie Ryan (my zombie writer hero!) stopped by to give me a pep talk.

This is how the YA community works. They react together in support of each other. The drama, the unpleasentness found in other internet groups just doesn’t exist here. THIS is a big reason why I want to become an author of YA. Because I want to be a part of a community working to make the world more awesome. And I think that’s what this community does best.

I’m not over my crazies entirely yet. But I’m better. I listened to some great music last night (check the previous post for a great playlist I was listening to last night while jumping around my office) and I did some writing, editing, AND some photoshopping. I was productive and creative and it felt really good. Not perfect, but good.

Onward and upward.  Together!

Spanking the trends

 Adventures in writing, Topics in Writing, Writing  9 Responses »
Sep 152010
 

Argh. This isn’t my week.

It just isn’t. Not for writing anyway.

It seems everywhere I turn lately people are talking about zombies. That should be good, right? I mean, I’m writing a YA zombie horror speculative dystpoian whatever. So all this attention should be good when I want to start querying, right?

Except everyone keeps talking about this explosion with a hint of derision in their voices. I feel a little bit the way comic books have felt for so long, as if it’s not real writing, not a real form of literature, only for kids, nothing adult or smart at all about them. I feel like this thing that I’ve worked on for two years is somehow not serious, that I’m busy spanking the trends.

But I’m not! I want to scream. When I started writing this, no one was writing about YA zombies! I’m not spanking anything! This is my story and I love it.

Yet I feel suddenly, violently, sick. Zombies are the new vampires. I swear I want to scream every time I hear someone say this. Who the hell cares? Really, who cares? This idea that trendy = superfluous invites hair pulling and teeth gnashing and attack dogs.

Clearly people like vampires. Clearly people like zombies. And also werewolves, angels, demons, killer unicorns, mermaids, and faeries. What’s wrong with that? Isn’t it awesome that there are lots of people excited about these things? With lots of excitement comes publishers who want to push the excitement. That’s how they make money. That’s how we get published.

As readers, if we’re buying what’s trending, does that define our taste or does that make us idiot sheepreaders? Why can’t we like what we like and that be ok?

I love my zombies. I also love my characters and my world and the terrible things I put them all through. I love them and I will protect them from the abrasive dramarama of trending monsters.

So with my writing troubles, and the look-down-our-noses-at-zombies articles making me stir crazy, this morning I get an email from Simon & Schuster that has caused me to lay my head against my desk and cry a little. Nervous breakdown acquired.

First, a little back story. I started writing my book not long before the XBox 360 game Left4Dead (a game about zombies) came out. My main character’s name originally was Zoe Ellis. When Left4Dead  was released I discovered the main character of the game’s name was also Zoey. Despite being freaked out, I decided not to change the name though.

Then Left4Dead 2 came out. I was very excited, until I started playing. A main character’s name is Ellis.

ARGH. The excitement of the new game was tempered by me swearing and stomping around my living room, handwringing and begging my husband to make it all better.

In the end I changed her name to Zoe Gray. I didn’t want comparisons. I thought this was better and easier on my nerves.

Then Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan came out. It was good… until I got towards the end and a very important sentence during an exposition freaked me out entirely because I had written almost the exact same sentence in my own book at a very crucial spot towards the end.

I was derailed for days by that one. I am now a firm believer that we are all tapping the same creative cosmos. We can’t help but cross over sometimes.

Then this morning. There’s a new zombie book being released by Simon & Schuster which looks very good. The book is called Dying to Live  by Kim Paffenroth. I click to check it out and…

The main character’s name is Jonah.

You don’t know this, but over the course of most of July and part of August I was in the process of rewriting most of my book to edit a new character into the story that was integral to the plot. I planned carefully how to insert him. He was perfect. A twelve year old little ball of perfect plot.

His name is Jonah. Of course it is. And we are not talking about a side character, or an unnecessary secondary character either.

Yesterday I mentioned how I feel particularly fragile right now because my words aren’t coming so easily as they usually do. Now I feel down right vulnerable. My armor is laying in piles at my feet and I could be so easily damaged it’s not funny. I love my book. I love my characters. I hold them close to me, protecting them. Of all the names, of all the sentences, of all the plots in the whole world, why do I keep finding mine scattered across my genre? If we are really all plugged in to the same creative conscious, how do we ensure we are unique?

I don’t even know what to do. I could ignore it. I could go pull every zombie-centric book off the shelves at Borders and start flipping through to make sure I’ve not crossed ideas with anyone else. I could plug my ears and, like reviews, not listen and just keep writing. I could sit in the corner of my office and clutch at my manuscript and rock back and forth until my husband has me sedated. I don’t think any of these are very fair choices.

Has this kind of writer nervous breakdown happened to anyone else? Am I just looking for coincidences where there aren’t any to worry about? Am I allowing my vulnerability to amp my paranoia?

I’m starting to see why writers tend to be solitary creatures. The world is too darn scary for me.

Inspiration Point #6: What Flavor is Your Dystopia?

 Book Covers, Dystopian, Inspiration Point, Theme Week  2 Responses »
Aug 272010
 

As a special Inspiration Point Friday, I’ve compiled a list of YA Dystopian novels of all shapes, sizes, colors, and hardships. There are plenty of corrupt governments, mind experiments, viruses, natural resource depletions, zombies, monsters, prisons, pirates, and bombs…some are very new, some haven’t been released yet, and some date back to the 1970s and yet still remain some of the best YA dystopias ever written.

Dystopias come in all flavors. So pick a flavor, any flavor. Which of these have you read? Any that I’ve missed? Share them in the comments!

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