Okay, so I picked this one up because I really like Skovron's last effort, Struts and Frets. I saw Skovron speak last year at the Rochester Teen Book Festival, and saw on his website then that we was writing a book about a demon girl, quite a departure from his last book (a realistic fiction about a teen boy in a crappy band). You know I hear demon and I'm in, so...
Jael, our heroine, is a half demon. That's right, her priest dad and a cool demon chick got it on and she was the result. Don't worry, it's cool though, cause he left the church and married the demon. (Romance!) Unfortunately, her mum died and Jael has grown up with her strict father and pretty much no understanding of her demon side. On her 16th birthday her father gives her a gift that allows her to reconnect with her demon side. Unfortunately her new demony goodness also sicks blood hungry racists demons on her, bent on keeping the race clean by destroying halfbreeds.
Oh, by the way, super strong demons are out to get you...Happy Birthday!
As if it weren't tough enough to deal with new demon powers, Jael also has a skater/scientist love interest. Also...her uncle is a fish monster. Oh, and the whole demons trying to kill her thing. I like Jael because she's pretty tough and learns to stand up for herself. Also, the scenes where she uses demony magic are really cool.
The story is written in third person present tense, which is unusual but kind of cool. There are lots of flashbacks to Jael's father's life which might be jarring for some readers. Overall I thought it was a pretty neat take on demons, with lots of historical references. I could have used a little more resolution with Jael's relationship with her father, but you can't ask for everything!
If you want a lighter, more cupcake filled version of a demon in school story, you could try Maureen Johnson's Devilish. If you're into the whole teen girl finds her place amongst her people thing try Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klaus (but avoid the movie).
Okay - so...I read this book over the summer and I'm super excited for the movie. I was very excited when I found out that Don Coscarelli was making it and Paul Giamatti is going to be in it. Thought there's no release date yet right now it's premiering at Sundance (read a review here)
The book is about a loser guy and his friend who ingest a trippy drug called Soy Sauce which gives them crazy abilities. You don't really need me to tell you any more that that because you should just that it's ridiculous and awesome. But here's some random words that relate to the film: Meat Monster, Televangelist, Bob Marley, Jennifer Lopez, girl with one hand.
Hi there. So, this week I found two different cool and bookish girl approved links I'd like to share. The first is: Book Mooch This is a site where you can send your unwanted books out into the world to people who really want them and get ones you do want from others. It's free to join and free to ask for books from others. The only costs for you is the shipping to send your books out. Each member has an account gets and spends points by completing actions on the site. You can read all about it before you sign up. I've just signed up so I can't report too much more on it, but it seems really cool to me. Just because I didn't like a book doesn't mean that it isn't going to be great for someone else. And in theory, I can get stuff I want for free. So...if you got lots of books on your shelf that you don't need to hang on to, then consider signing up.
The next one is Chapter One through the Washington Post. This site allows you to read the first chapter of lots of new books. It's got a nice assortment of fiction and non-fiction. It's pretty cool to be able to check something out before committing.
Kayso, I'm giving this book as a selection for the Book Club I run at school because we will be meeting the author at the Teen Book Festival in May. I can't wait for them to read it because I know they will love it. The story is about Carter, a brand new baby Freshman boy with ADD and a stutter. Our story starts during the summer right before school starts. Anyone who teaches high school knows that Freshmen are really 8th graders for a good portion of 9th grade. Carter, whose ADD makes it very hard to focus on anything, is definitely immature. He's part of the popular crew and he plays football, though he doesn't really like it. He goes to high school parties he doesn't really want to go to, and he tries like whoa to have sex with some girls. He makes a lot of mistakes. Many of them are embarrassing. He accidentally breaks some hearts and has his broken. The book has many qualities you'd expect from a book told by a 14 year old boy. There are fart jokes (I don't care who you are, fart jokes are always hilarious) and many deep thoughts on the differences between girl boobs and lady boobs (boobs are pretty much the only thing Carter can focus on). The author, Brent Crawford, also suffers from ADD. He presumably also once suffered from being a 14 year old boy. His writing style is real and engaging, even if the narrative seems on fast forward sometimes (much like the VHS tape that Carter buys in the book. Hint: it's porn). Crawford is also an actor, and apparently a jean aficionado - which is weird but kind of awesome. The book goes from slapsticky to serious smoothly. The whole last fourth of it just tickled my high school nerd girl so hard, but I'll let you figure it out for yourself. I'll leave you with my favorite quote from Carter:
"I think when you tap into something that you really want to do, you have to fight for it, even if the fight is with yourself."
Soundtrack: Luck Be a Lady Tonight from Guys and Dolls (You'll have to read the book to figure out why)
I wanted to share with you this cool link I found the other day, which is a blog where authors display their writing space. It's called Write Place, Write Time. I think this is pretty cool. I found it while I was on A.S. King's website (she's too BA to even call her my girlfriend, but you know...I'd take her on a date if I could). Here's a link to her entry. Joe Hill, one of my favorites also had a recent entry complete with cute pictures of his corgi (Squee! That's my second most wanted breed of dog!) Some of these authors have extremely fancy offices some of them have a crazy mess happening (I'm looking at you, Peter Straub). This is also timely because I spent a good deal of yesterday futzing around with my desk and office area in order to make it more streamlined. I argued to myself that this was a good use of time (you know...instead of writing) because it would make the space more...inspiring...user friendly...etc. This is crap, of course. As an amateur writer with lofty hopes and dreams it's somehow very easy for me to fritter away time that could otherwise be spent on writing. So...on to writing....
Okay. Right off the bat I need to tell you that I'm a nerdfighter. What's that? One of John and Hank Green's legion of fans. Author John and his brother Hank have a wildly successful youtube channel full of videos to each other. Seriously, clicking that link will make you cooler/a better person/more attractive. Nerdfighters battle to decrease world-suck. The motto is DFTBA which stands for Don't Forget to Be Awesome. I may or may not have a shirt that says Keep Calm and DFTBA (spoiler: I do). I should also tell you that I would probably leave my boyfriend for an opportunity to have lunch with John Green. (Sorry, Boyfriend). In the words of one of my students: I want to marry his brain. He's definitely on my Wall of Boyfriends at work. Yeah, that's a thing.
Anyway, one thing Nerdfighters are is internet savvy. There are about 8000 online homes for TFiOS love right now, not to mention several different websites devoted to Nerdfighteria. Including: TFios homes - pictures of happy people with their brand new copies of the book. Oh, did I mention that John Green notably signed all the copies of the first run of this book, so those that pre-ordered got books signed by him in various colored sharpies? Because he did and that's awesome. It was also accidentally released early by a Barnes and Noble slip-up that involved sending out pre-orders early. John was understandably upset that the book might have jerks spoil it. But, because Nerdfighteria is awesome many people promised not to open or read the book before it's official release date on January 10. I didn't pre-order (not sure why, I would have liked a signed copy) but I went to the store after work on Jan 10. As you could see by the info up top, I finished it Jan 11. Whatever else he is: John Green is highly readable.
Anyway, having said all that I'm not sure how much I need to actually talk about the book here, because there's just so much about it elsewhere online. Either way, here's the review:
First off - it's a cancer book. When I found out about that way back when I was all sad trombone noise. I do not like to cry. Actually, it's kind of a miracle I like John Green at all since my tastes tend to run more toward body counts, boobs and blood, or at least magic. I don't like my entertainment to be too feelingsy. And I knew Green + cancer book would = lots of feelings. Hurty ones. So feelingsy in fact, that someone posted this....
And here's the thing, I was right, but it makes you feel ALL the feelings - sadness, sure. But also happiness and hope. So that's nice.
Anyway, the book is about Hazel, a teen who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and has to lug around an oxygen tank and a lot of sarcasm everywhere she goes. At the beginning of the book she goes to a support group for cancer teens and meets the dreamy Augustus Waters who is recovering from osteosarcoma. There is much banter and falling in love. I mean, these two have a lot in common: cancer, statistically improbably names, and a love of witty repartee.
So Hazel introduces Gus to her favorite book An Imperial Affliction (which also has it's own tumblr). It's a book about cancer (naturally) and the thing Hazel wants most (well, besides you know, a cure for cancer) is to meet the author. Gus, (because, did I mention he was dreamy?) figures out a way to make that happen. There's a cancertastic trip to Amsterdam and a lot of talk about Swedish rap music. It's very romantic (not the Swedish rap music, that sounds like the Swedish chef plus the Natalie Portman SNL rap video - and oooh Gus tells Hazel that she looks like Natalie in V for Vendetta. Full Circle!) . That's all the plot info you get.
One thing I love about Green's writing is that he isn't afraid to use wonderful vocab words (if you've read all of John's books and never had to check a dictionary, I bow to you). His characters are also so damn smart and funny and make these wonderful references. The title in fact, is a Shakespeare reference. My teenage self was not nearly that brilliant. Hell, my adult self isn't.
My favorite John Green is still An Abundance of Katherines, because I like things a little more silly. But I am very happy with this little dose of life a la John Green.
So now: please enjoy some hideous Swedish hip hop.
ding level: Ages 14 and up
