Five More Contemporary YA Books to Read Before YALC

YALC is in ELEVEN DAYS TIME! But don't worry, there's still time to get some reading done...maybe just a little if you've got to work! If you want some moral support, the YALC Readathon Challenge is still open, and if my first recommendations post wasn't enough, I am here for you:

1. Counting Stars, by Keris Stainton

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Counting Stars is at the older end of YA, it could be called NA (New Adult), and it is my favourite of Keris' books that I've read so far. It follows Anna who moves to Liverpool after she finishes school to move into a shared house and work at a theatre, keeping her YouTube channel going all the while. Anna and her housemates deal with adulthood in very different ways, and it was really interesting and entertaining to see them work their way through grown-up problems for the first time. I wrote a draft of a NA novel last year and Counting Stars, although quite different from what I'm working on, confirmed my belief that it's important that we have more books featuring characters of this age. Keris will be leading a workshop on Writing YA on the Saturday at YALC.

2. Hacker, by Malorie Blackman


This is a really quick read so ideal if you haven't got much reading time in the next couple of weeks! Vicky's father, a programmer at a bank, is wrongfully accused of stealing a million pounds. To clear his name, she logs into the bank's system and tries to work out what has been going on. It was first published in 1992, so it is a bit dated - for a more detailed explanation, watch the video above - but it's still a quick read, ideal for younger teens.

3. Remix, by Non Pratt

Non will be joining Sophia Bennett on the 'Teenage Soundtrack: Music in YA' panel, and rightly so, as Remix is all about the power of music to bring friends together. I made it sound totally cheesy then, didn't I? It's not, I promise! Remix is about best friends, Kaz and Ruby, who are going to a music festival together. Their favourite band in the world is playing, and a bunch of their friends are going. In theory, this should be the perfect break from normality, but both of them have secrets they're trying not to let slip out... I did a full review of Remix here.

4. Lobsters, by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

Another book featuring a music festival is Lobsters, but it's quite different in tone - Remix is more serious, full of friendship and romantic dramas, whereas Lobsters is very much a heartwarming romantic comedy. The tag line is 'A socially awkward love story' and that is exactly what you get, as Sam and Hannah try and fail and try again to get together. It's very funny. In fact, I don't think I've stopped laughing at it and I read it months ago - lines from the book pop into my head sometimes and I start cracking up all over again. I would share my favourite line, the one I laugh at the most, but I don't want to spoil it for you. Just read it for yourself! The authors are leading a workshop on co-writing.

5. Nobody's Girl, by Sarra Manning

If festivals aren't your thing, why not take a trip to Paris with Bea, who has been obsessed with France ever since her mum first told her that her absent father was a Parisien. When she gets the chance to explore Paris for real, she can't resist - even though she was meant to be in Spain with her school's Mean Girl clique. She finds romance and adventure and gets into a lot of trouble with her mum. My full review is here.

Have you read any of these? If you haven't, get on it! While we're having this heatwave, why not roll with it and take copies of Remix and or Lobsters to the park? Go on! Join the Readathon!

Many thanks to Hot Key Books for sending me a copy of Counting Stars and to Walker Books for sending me Remix.

Five Contemporary YA Books to Read before YALC

As host of the 2016 YALC Readathon Challenge I've been thinking a lot about what books I would recommend by authors attending YALC. Hopefully I'll do several posts in this series, but I thought I'd start with five contemporary YA books, as that is my favourite genre!

1. Girl Out of Water, by Nat Luurtsema

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This is the first book I read for the YALC Readathon Challenge (go on, join me!) and it was a great way to *PUN ALERT* dive in - Girl Out of Water follows Lou Brown's attempts to find new friends and a new place in the world following her failure to get into Olympic swimming school.
It's funny (Nat is on the Funny YA panel), heartwarming, and deals with an issue I think is underexplored in fiction - coping with failure. Not everyone is going to succeed against all the odds. Sometimes the odds are never in your favour - and you keep going, like Lou learns to do.

2. Love Song, by Sophia Bennett

I have read some amazing books so far this year and plan to read many more - but I'm sure whatever happens this will be in my top five. I was not expecting to fall in love with a story about a girl who goes on tour with a boyband, but reader, I fell HARD.

I am finding @sophiabennett's Love Song so unputdownable I am literally reading it while I #ukyachat. Not even kidding I'm on page 156

— Julianne Benford (@ladyjulianne) April 8, 2016

@SnugglingonSofa @sophiabennett I basically had to abandon my own writing to finish it because it was so addictive! I even ignored Two Dots!

— Julianne Benford (@ladyjulianne) April 11, 2016

I am really looking forward to the Music in YA panel!

3. London Belongs to Us, by Sarra Manning

Both Sarra Manning's 2016 releases. View on Instagram

If you've never read any books by Sarra before this is a great place to start - though if you're spoiler-averse you may want to read Guitar Girl and Adorkable first. An enormously entertaining love letter to London filled with snappy one-liners, it follows Sunny's pursuit of her wayward boyfriend (or is he ex-boyfriend?) over one night and features pastries, parties, perilous road journeys, dramatic confrontations and hairspray. There are also several girls you'll wish you could be friends with - highly appropriate as Sarra is on the #SquadGoals panel.

4. Boy Meets Boy, by David Levithan
Look at my beautiful hardback. Just look at it.

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If just gazing at the cover isn't enough to make you pick it up, this is an LGBT classic. It's a pretty straightfoward romance story with the usual tropes but it's set at a school where there isn't really any homophobia - it's a utopian vision of what school should be like, and although it's not realistic, it's lovely to disappear into a world where things are a little more as they should be.

5. My Secret Rockstar Boyfriend, by Eleanor Wood

From my 'Music March'. View on Instagram

This is a funny and surprisingly realistic story about Tuesday Cooper, a music blogger who starts getting comments from her favourite rockstar. One thing leads to another and he becomes the secret boyfriend of the title, getting her into trouble with friends and family alike. It's really interesting seeing how she deals with the mess she's in and moves towards adulthood.
What books by YALC authors do you recommend? Would you choose different books by these authors? Let me know! And don't forget to vote for your favourites!

Book Review: The Sin-Eater's Daughter, by Melinda Salisbury

I found this copy of The Sin-Eater's Daughter in one of the Little Free Libraries
of Walthamstow. I left it there, as I already had a copy, but I wanted to use this
photo as it's a lovely cover and my proof doesn't have the big central image.

Twylla used to be the Sin-Eater's daughter, trained by her mother to take over the role when she died, until she was chosen by the gods for a different path, and left that life behind. Now she is Daunen Embodied, the daughter of the gods, betrothed to the prince, living amongst the splendour of the royal court - and executing their enemies. For Twylla's skin is poisonous, and none who are not anointed by the gods may touch her without suffering a horrible death.

The Sin-Eater's Daughter was one of my most anticipated books of the year, and I really enjoyed it, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. The problem with trying your best to ignore the hype and avoid spoilers is that sometimes this leaves you without a clear idea of what a book is meant to be about! I was expecting an exciting new fantasy world to explore, but The Sin-Eater's Daughter is actually quite light on the fantasy. Other readers (now I'm free to read reviews without the threat of spoilers), have said that it's more of a fictional-setting medieval romance, and I agree. I haven't read the blurb, as I read a proof copy, but if I were writing one I would definitely place emphasis on the romantic elements.

I would also mention rituals. The Sin-Eater's Daughter is all about rituals. Twylla, in her struggle to understand her position, learns how rituals can give us strength, but also how they can keep us locked in to dangerous patterns. I loved all the details about the religious roles and ceremonies - they seem both strange and familar, despite belonging to a fictional society. This is what really hooked me when I was reading the book - I found it almost impossible to put down when I had to go to work or sleep, because I was absolutely fascinated by the setting and by Twylla's descriptions of the society she lives in and her duties as Daunen Embodied.

I also really enjoyed the politics and I'm looking forward to seeing more of that in the second in the series. In fact, I liked the political intrigue so much that it made me impatient for the romantic scenes to be over so that the drama could continue! Maybe I'm getting old?! There's a bit of a love triangle, and it's all tangled up with the politics, which made the romantic interests a bit less likeable than they might otherwise have been, but people are complicated. Twylla's whole life is complicated. And there's the epilogue. I can only say that I really liked the epilogue, because spoilers!

I would recommend The Sin-Eater's Daughter to people who like dramatic, life-and-death romances, and perhaps as a gateway drug for those who would like to dip their toes into the fantasy genre. If you feel intimidated by complex magical systems, weird and wonderful creatures, and imaginary cultures, The Sin-Eater's Daughter could help ease you in.

Book Review: Blood and Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klause

Vivian is loup-garou, a child of the Moon, a werewolf, and she loves it. She relishes the thrill of the change, delights in running through the forest in the dark, feeling powerful and beautiful. She used to love being part of the pack, as well, until one of them killed a human, and vigilantes burned down their home, killing Vivian's father, the leader of the pack.

Now they have moved to a town, leaving their old lives and hopefully their fears behind. Vivian feels isolated and lonely. She wants friends. So when she finds a poem about werewolves in the school magazine, she is intrigued. The writer is human, but could he be the one to truly understand her? Will they fall in love?

Blood and Chocolate was first published in 1997, but for the most part it doesn't feel that dated. The review quote from Publishers Weekly on the front of my copy calls it 'as addictive as chocolate' and I have to agree, I really struggled to put it down! Vivian is a teenage girl with no self-esteem problems at all - she's hot and she knows it. She's very aware of her own sexuality and desire, and she sets out to seduce Aiden, the poem's writer, rather than waiting to be approached. She also pays a lot of attention to the politics of the werewolf pack, and her own role in the group - her confidence is tempered by her fear that it was her fault that her father died.

Whenever she's rejected or anyone attempts to order her about, she's angry and defiant. On the other hand, she desperately wants peace and longs to be able to run free with the pack without worrying that there is a killer in their midst or that they will be hunted by humans. These internal conflicts drive the story and make Vivian a compelling and unusual protagonist.

This novel is by no means perfect. It's hard to know what the author is trying to say about the gender politics of the pack for most of the novel, and ultimately a lot of those issues are unresolved. I guessed who the killer was before it was revealed.  I strongly disliked the ending and the resolution to the romantic storyline.

But I loved the energy throughout, and Vivian's refreshing confidence. I would recommend Blood and Chocolate with the caveat that there may be aspects of it that you really hate, but that overall it's very interesting. Definitely a book I want to discuss with other people.

Book Review: Killing the Dead, by Marcus Sedgwick

I hadn't read a World Book Day book in ages. I may have only read one World Book Day book previously - Shop Dead by Kate Cann, which was one of the books in 2001. It's about a girl who is obsessed with shopping and the way she looks, told from the point of view of a guy who takes her on a date. Kate Cann is amazing at writing teenage boys. I remember my sister got it with her voucher (I invariably forgot to use mine). Shop Dead is pretty dark, as is Killing the Dead.

Apparently Killing the Dead has some relationship with The Ghosts of Heaven, one of Marcus Sedgwick's full length novels, or at least they both heavily feature spirals. I didn't want to look into it too much in case of spoilers. I did enjoy Killing the Dead so I'm very intrigued by this and will have to give The Ghosts of Heaven a go.

At first Killing the Dead seemed like an odd choice for a World Book Day book. It's historical fiction, set in an American all-girls boarding school in 1961. I've always thought of World Book Day books as being aimed at reluctant readers, and the setting and time period won't be familiar to most teenagers, as you learn almost nothing about the Sixties at school. But then it got really dark. If there is one thing I believe about teenagers' reading preferences, it's that they love it when things get dark. I did. I still do.

Killing the Dead is set during the aftermath of the death of a schoolgirl, Isobel, and in the run-up to the school's annual Procession Day. We see this time from the perspective of different characters, slowly building up a picture of what Isobel was like and what might have happened. Then there's a twist that contradicts this picture and our assumptions.

I thought that both the build-up and the twist were very well done. It's a very short book - 117 pages of quite large type - and Marcus Sedgwick doesn't have a lot of space for characterisation but I found almost all the characters well-drawn and easy to imagine. There were two exceptions. Isobel is a mystery. Even when we learn what happened, she maintains some mystery, but this seems appropriate - she is, after all, dead. Margot, another schoolgirl, the new Procession Queen, apparently haunted by Isobel's ghost, is also a mystery, but it felt less like she should be. Her personality isn't really detailed until her role in Isobel's death is explained, which works for preserving the mystery, but as I was reading the chapters in the run up to the reveal I felt like I should have more of a handle on her character than I did. I couldn't really imagine what kind of girl she was and why she did things. I was left trying to fill in those gaps for myself without much to go on.

I'd love to discuss Killing the Dead so please let me know what you thought in the comments or tweet me!

A Garden of One's Own, or, Book Review: Return to the Secret Garden (Return to the Secret Garden Blog Tour)

The Secret Garden is one of my favourite books of all time. It's certainly my most reread book, my copy boasts a heavily creased cover and spine as well as yellowed, torn pages. When I was a teenager I had a habit of reading just my favourite scenes in books over and over, so until quite recently it had a bookmark in it at the scene where Colin gives a lecture about Magic. When I reread it in preparation for Return for the Secret Garden, I was slightly underwhelmed by that scene - I'd mythologised it in my head, remembered it as longer, more dramatic.

That's what I do with my favourite parts of my favourite books and films and songs, especially when I haven't revisited them in a while. Those scenes or dramatic moments become bigger to me than they are, and I forget the rest of what made them so great. As I reread, or rewatch, or relisten, I reevaluate it, and the thing as a whole, and this often leads to surprising revelations. See my previous post about Harriet the Spy - in that case I thought I loved best the parts about sneaking around and spying on people, but it was the stuff about writing that really sunk in.

Anyway, remembering that scene so fondly, I thought what I loved most about The Secret Garden was the Magic. Wrong again! As an adult, reading it, I realised what actually I loved most is the secret garden! (And this isn't just because I've recently become obsessed with plants.) I love seeing private spaces. Photographs of lived-in houses. Scenes in films with carefully constructed and personalised rooms - the teenage bedroom, the shop the character owns and decorated themselves. At night, on the top deck of a bus, I look out for open curtains and gleefully stare into other people's houses.

Mary Lennox is a girl who doesn't have anything of her own, a space where she can be herself. Her bedroom is a place she is brought to and taken out of on the orders of others - but the garden she finds by herself. It's her sanctuary. On this reread, I was actually slightly disappointed when she starts letting other people in!

My much-loved copy of the original book. View on Instagram.

Return to the Secret Garden is set thirty years after the original, and follows another young girl's search for a place where she belongs. Emmie has never really had a proper space of her own. She lives at an orphanage, where she shares a dormitory with other girls. To snatch some privacy, she climbs through a window onto a rickety old fire escape. It's there she meets a stray cat, the first thing she has that's really hers (as much as a cat can be owned!). But then along comes the Second World War, and the orphanage is evacuated. Emmie has to leave her cat behind and travel a long way to a strange old house in Yorkshire, one Misselthwaite Manor.

I was a little apprehensive about reading a sequel to a book I love so much, but I found Return to the Secret Garden charming. It was great to see another little girl find a kind of home in the garden, even though it's no longer locked, and she has even less right to it than Mary, being an unconnected orphan, rather than the niece of the manor's owner.

Like Mary, she is grumpy and sometimes rude, but also very determined once she gets an idea in her head, and I loved all these characteristics in Mary. Many people prefer Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess to The Secret Garden, but I am a Secret Garden person through and through. It helped that I actually owned a copy of The Secret Garden. I read A Little Princess one time and returned the book to the library. I  saw the film once for my birthday. That was enough (though when I rewatched it as an adult, it did make me cry).

Sara, the 'little princess', is too good to be relatable, she's always kind and sweet, no matter what happens. Whereas Mary gave me hope - that even if I wasn't perfect, I could be likable, and I could try and improve. Emmie is the same. She's an orphan, but she is neither tediously pathetic or overly good. She seems realistic, as do all the children, who fight and fall out but ultimately help each other out.

My least favourite part was seeing the children of The Secret Garden as adults, but that might be only because I have never ever imagined them grown up! I think children reading this after the original won't find it jarring at all.

I'm sure I would have enjoyed reading Return to the Secret Garden as a child - it takes some of the best features of the original and puts them into a familiar yet strikingly altered setting. It's a cute, quick read. Many thanks to Scholastic for sending me a review copy (it's a particularly gorgeous little hardback) and to Faye Rogers for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

Have you ever read a sequel to a children's classic that wasn't by the original author? What did you think? Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour and enter the giveaway! Yes, Scholastic are giving away a copy of The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett and a copy of Return to the Secret Garden by Holly Webb to one lucky blog tour follower!


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Book Review: Remix, by Non Pratt

I can't overstate how much I was looking forward to reading Remix. I really enjoyed Non Pratt's debut, Trouble, but it was about teenage pregnancy, so it was never going to make it to my best books of all time, just because it's not one of my favourite subjects. However, if I was to pick a favourite theme for fictional stories, the one theme to rule them all, it would be friendship. So I was thinking - if Non could make me enjoy a book about (ew) teenage pregnancy, she would be able to work wonders when writing about friendship.

I was not disappointed.

Ruby and Kaz love being best friends. They want to tell each other everything, to rely on each other and support each other. And they want to be exclusive. They're possessive, and jealous, and they worry that they'll do something wrong and the friendship will dissolve. Their relationship is wonderfully realistic - at the beginning of the novel their relationship is going strong, but they both have secrets that they are afraid to share with the other. Kaz doesn't want to confess that her ex-boyfriend is coming to Remix, the titular music festival, because she knows that Ruby will judge her for still being into him. Ruby, on the other hand, isn't expecting to see her ex all weekend. He cheated on her, so she hates him, or so everyone, including Kaz, believes. Ruby is too proud to admit to anyone that things aren't that simple.

Another issue simmering under the surface, as they pack (Kaz) or neglect to pack (Ruby) is that of their impending separation. Ruby has not done well in her exams and won't be joining Kaz in the next year of school. Both of them worry about how they and their friendship will survive this.

The music festival provides the perfect setting for all the anticipated drama to play out. Old friends cause trouble, new friends get in the way, secrets are shared and mistakes are made as they weave and out of stalls, sing around campfires, and see bands they love.

Music plays a really important role in Remix - Kaz and Ruby have differing tastes but are united by their love of one particular band, like many friends are. Kaz is a musician herself, while Ruby loves to listen or throw herself around a mosh pit. Reading Remix made me feel completely desperate to go to a festival again, or a gig - unfortunately I had to settle for finding some new bands to listen to on Spotify!

If you love contemporary YA, I think you will really enjoy Remix. I thought it was fantastic and I can't wait to see what Non Pratt writes about next!

Many thanks to Walker Books for sending me a proof copy of Remix.

Book Reviews: A Month with April-May, and 100 Days of April-May, by Edyth Bulbring

Note: A Month with April May is actually the first one...but to get the similar picture I'd have to show you the backs!

I decided to review these books together because that's how I think they're best enjoyed - and besides, they look so gorgeous side-by-side! A Month with April-May introduces April-May February and her dad Fluffy, aka July, who live together in South Africa and want to stay together. But in order to do this, April-May must keep her mother happy by doing well at the school she has just joined as a bursary student.

The spanner in the works is Mrs Ho, a fearsomely prolific teacher determined to keep an eye on April-May, who just wants to be left alone to read Twilight, wear stripy socks, and hang out with her own Edward, trouble-making Sebastian. So April-May comes up with a plan or three to get rid of Mrs Ho, but she's not easily removed, and she's also got Fluffy's finances and her mouth-breathing new friend Melly to worry about…

I generally prefer reading books aimed at older teens to those aimed at younger teens, which is why I think it took me a while to warm to A Month with April-May. Also, I think that, in comedy, the better we know the characters, the more we laugh at and with them. I liked the setup in the first book - there's a diverse and interesting range of characters introduced, but by the time I'd gotten to know all of them properly the book was over! Both books are very short for modern YA, which is one of those things that appeals to some people and not to others - I would definitely have preferred them to be longer and for the story to be more fleshed-out, but other readers will love how quick they are to read.

April-May has a strong voice as a narrator – she is opinionated, nosy, greedy, and self-assured. It's always refreshing to read about a young girl who knows that she is smarter than most of those around her. April-May February is no Frankie Landau-Banks, she is much too nice, even though she tries not to be, and her schemes don't always work out the way she hopes, but she has a similar level of confidence and respect for her own values.

April-May's family and friends are a gently quirky bunch of people who are alternately her allies and enemies, and I found that I wanted to know more about every single one.

I laughed a lot more at the second book, 100 Days of April-May, and would probably find a third even funnier. I hope there is a third, because it's really great to see more YA books from outside the UK and the US being published here and I think April-May and her friends have many more schemes to attempt!

Book Review: Being Emily, by Rachel Gold (#LGBTReadathon)

Being Emily is the story of Chris/Emily, who has never told anyone before that she identifies as a girl, At the start of the book she decides to come out for the first time, to her girlfriend Claire, and this short novel follows her progress from that point on.

It took me a while to get into Being Emily at first, because there was quite a bit of info-dumping near the start. There are a couple of scenes in which the characters research gender and transsexualism online, featuring several paragraphs that do nothing more than detail what they learned. I already knew pretty much all of the info they find, so I found them a bit dry, and I hoped that the book wasn't going to continue along the same lines.

Happily, it didn't, and once those early chapters were out of the way I found myself getting really emotionally involved with the story, which has two points of view. Chris/Emily narrates the bulk of the chapters, but there are several from Claire's point of view, in third person. I did find this a bit jarring, but I enjoyed both, and I think it was great that they were both included.

Chris/Emily's loneliness, frustration, determination, and happiness all come across really clearly in her chapters. I felt her excitement as she explored her identity with her friends and therapist and rooted for her as she dealt with her parents and the various setbacks. I was absolutely desperate for things to work out for her and for others to accept her the way she had accepted herself.

I think Claire's chapters are a realistic portrayal of someone coming to terms with such a big revelation from someone close to them, but what was really interesting about Claire is that she is religious. Rachel Gold, the author, has a degree in English and Religious Studies, and Being Emily does not shy away from the subject of gender and Christianity at all, which was fascinating. Most of the characters that bring up Christianity in reference to gender believe that God condemns trans people, but Claire, who has a strong interest in early Christianity, finds that Bible studies and her personal relationship with God help her understand, come to terms with, and even defend Chris/Emily's identity. There were some quotes from the Bible in Claire's sections and some interpretations she provides that I had never heard before.

Online communities and gaming also play an important role in Chris/Emily and Claire's lives, and that's always great to see to in books.

I know that a lot of readers are a bit bored with coming-out stories, but Being Emily has some unique aspects that I think will make it a worthwhile read, especially for readers that don't know very much about trans issues.

My main caveat is that Being Emily has not been published in the UK, so it's a bit on the expensive side - over £10 for the paperback edition, though the ebook is cheaper and I was lucky enough to find it in my library's ebook catalogue.

Some other reviews of Being Emily that I found interesting:
My Life in Neon
erica, ascendant
Lambda Literary
The Lesbrary
Gay YA

I read Being Emily as part of the #LGBTReadathon, organised by the fabulous Faye at A Daydreamer's Thoughts. Next up: I'll Give You The Sun, by Jandy Nelson.

Book Review: Wintersmith, by Terry Prachett (Farewell Terry Prachett Blog Tour)

Tiffany Aching's witch training is going pretty well until she is taken to watch the Dark Morris, the opposite of the better-known spring time morris dance, performed to bring the winter to the land. Bored and distracted, she finds herself giving into temptation and joining the dance, where she comes to the attention of the Wintersmith, an elemental, and he falls in love with her, threatening to plunge the world into eternal winter if she cannot work out how to stop him.

But this isn't all Tiffany has to worry about - her current mentor, Miss Treason, is a witch feared by many, a woman shrouded by legend - skulls and spiderwebs decorate her house, there's allegedly a demon in her basement, and she has a clock instead of a heart. And of course the Nac Mac Feegles are still protecting her, stealing food, and reading her diary...

It has been a few years since I read the previous Tiffany Aching book - A Hat Full of Sky - and I found that I remembered characters better than plot details, so I did have to read the Wikipedia summaries of the previous two books. However, I wouldn't worry about having to do this as there aren't that many references to the previous two books - the most important thing you need to do to enjoy Wintersmith is to remember who everyone is!

With characters this memorable, it's not a struggle at all, and for me Wintersmith was all about the characters. If I remember the other books correctly, I preferred the plots of the last two, but Wintersmith would be well worth reading just to learn more about the witches and see more of the Feegles! I loved all the little details that are thrown in because they're funny, even if they have nothing to do with the plot - like Horace the living cheese.

I hope you enjoyed this review - do check out the other #terryprachettblogtour posts. Now, I really must read I Shall Wear Midnight soon...

An Interview with Kathryn James, author of Gypsy Girl (Countdown to 7th May)

Hello! Today I am thrilled to share with you an interview with Kathryn James, as part of the Countdown to 7th May multi-author multi-blog tour, which celebrates the great new books that will be released on 7th May 2015.

I think Kathryn gave some really interesting answers, so without any further ado...

When I began reading Gypsy Girl, I was drawn immediately into Sammy-Jo's world. It was very easy to imagine her life - there's a lot of detail about her family and their history. Even the wedding planning parts were fascinating - and they led to some great group scenes. Your bio says that you have worked with Gypsy and Traveller children. How much of this experience fed into the book? Did you have to do any additional research before you wrote it?

Yes, I worked for eighteen years with Gypsies and travellers here in Leicester, firstly organising play schemes on the sites and then later doing classes in photography, video, literacy and Driving Theory for the teenagers and adults, and nursery classes for the little ones. We also had a mobile classroom in the shape of an old Leicester City Bus which had been repainted with a rainbow painted on the side. We loved this work, and the days spent with the traveller girls were always filled with lots of excitement and laughter. We didn’t only teach them, we also joined in with their celebrations – they are very big on Weddings and Christenings and first communions – in fact they celebrate most things!

I didn’t do any additional research for Gypsy Girl, because we’d worked alongside girls like Sammy-Jo and her family. Of course Sammy-Jo isn’t based on any one girl, but I met many like her, with the same spirit and strength and love of family. I also saw the prejudices on both sides when a Gypsy falls for a non-Gypsy and wanted to illustrate these problems through Sammy-Jo’s relationship with Gregory.

The video classes led on to us videoing some of the weddings. Features from all of them went into Sammy-Jo’s sister’s wedding in the book. But the last wedding we videoed a couple of summers ago was probably the biggest influence. It was a really big, full-on Gypsy wedding.

Here’s the bridesmaid that inspired Sammy-Jo’s dress!

I loved the Smith family - there are a lot of them but you have given the members distinct personalities. My favourites were probably Sammy-Jo's aunts, Beryl and Queenie. Which of the secondary/background characters is your favourite? (I'm a bit obsessed with this question - I've made two Bookish Brits videos about secondary characters!)

I loved Beryl and Queenie, they were such fun to write! They were based on women we met whilst working with the travellers, but also I think there’s a bit of me and my best friend in there as well! Like Beryl and Queenie, Mandy and I like to know everything that’s going on, and we’re always in the middle of things plotting and planning and giving our opinions. Mandy hasn’t read the book yet, but when she does she’ll really enjoy Beryl and Queenie. I do have a soft spot for bride-to-be Sabrina as well, I think she knows she’s being spoilt and demanding but she can’t seem to stop. I put it down to wedding nerves :)

Like you, I also have a fascination with secondary characters. In some books I’m almost more interested in them than the main heroes. When I was at school we read Jane Eyre and I always remember wondering and worrying about the mad woman in the attic and wanting to know how she got there. Years later I found out that another author had exactly the same thought and had written a book all about her – Wide Sargasso Sea.

Are you going to write any more stories about Gypsies/Travellers? I have to admit that when I first saw the title, I didn’t like it, because I thought 'It sounds a bit like this is The Book about characters with this lifestyle, and I think there should be loads'! As I read the book, I changed my mind - it makes sense as 'Gypsy Girl' is Sammy-Jo's fight-club name, and because it is an identity that she is proud of, but that can lead to problems for her and her family, because of the assumptions other people make about them. It's central to the book.

I’d love to write more about Gypsies and travellers. The girls and boys in our classes very rarely see themselves in fiction. When we were doing the nursery classes we made photo books for the children, showing them leaving caravans rather than houses when going to school, and playing around a site rather than in a garden. They loved them, I think it was the first time they’d seen their surroundings and way of life in a book.

I’ve just finished writing Gypsy Girl 2, which carries on with Sammy-Jo’s story and her fight to make her family safe again. Before Gypsy Girl I wrote a couple of books called Mist and Frost, about the Elven that live secretly amongst us. Although the Elven were a fantasy based on the Scandinavian tales of elvish people, I actually based some of their characteristics on the gypsy children I worked with – their toughness and liveliness, the fact that they live secretly amongst us and that people fear and mistrust them, even thought they don’t mean any harm. But after writing those two books I wanted to write a book that was based in the real world, about some of the girls we’d worked with. I wanted a feisty heroine who would fight for her life and her family against great odds – and there’s no girl better equipped to do that than a Gypsy girl, even if she’s wearing her heels. And by showing Sammy-Jo’s life I hope my readers will enjoy learning about these secretive people and their lives, loves, hopes and families.

The word 'Gypsy' and derivatives are sometimes used as insults, yet 'Gypsy' is a word used in law and by community organisations to describe themselves, for example, the Gypsy Council. Sammy-Jo describes herself as a Traveller and as a Gypsy, and as I said above, she is very proud of who she is, but is very concerned about how other people see her and her family and friends, because of the stereotypes and myths about Gypsies. Could you explain a little about the history of the term 'Gypsy', and how it is used today?

The term Gypsy apparently comes from the word ‘Egyptian’ because people used to think they came from Egypt but that’s incorrect. Most historians believe they are a lost and wandering tribe from India, who left that country after persecution hundreds of years ago, and gradually wandered right across Asia and Europe. Imagine how exotic and foreign they must have seemed all those centuries ago, when most people didn’t move far from where they were born, to suddenly see the Gypsy wagons pulling into their village!

Nowadays Gypsies and Travellers often live on council or private sites, or own their own land. Most still travel but some stay put and live in houses.  But even those who live in houses now would still consider themselves Gypsies or travellers.

The girls and boys we worked with were a mix of Gypsies and Travellers. The Gypsies were mainly English, and proudly call themselves Gypsies. If I asked a girl to describe herself, she would say, ‘I’m a Gypsy Girl’, so the title of my book reflects this love of their lifestyle. They name they hate being called is gypo, this is the insulting term for them and is considered offensive.  The travellers we worked with were mainly Irish, (but there are Welsh and Scottish travellers as well) and they didn’t refer to themselves as Gypsies, only travellers. If you’ve every watched the programme My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, then the families normally shown on it are actually travellers not Gypsies, so people still get it wrong. Perhaps the programme makers thought Gypsy had a bigger impact than travellers!

Finally, how are you going to celebrate on 7 May?

Well it’s the day of the election so I will go and vote. But after that there will be champagne I’m sure!

Thanks for some very interesting questions!

Thank you for taking the time to answer them, Kathryn!

Kathryn also sent us some photos taken when she used to work with Gypsies and Travellers:

If you enjoyed this post, please do go to CountdownYA.com to find out more. You can also follow @CountdownYA and #CountdownYA on Twitter.

Book Review: Red Glove, by Holly Black

This book is the second in a trilogy and therefore this review will inevitably contain spoilers for the first book, White Cat.

I don't have any red gloves...

White Cat is a tough act to follow and I was worried that Red Glove wouldn't live up to its promises, especially as I began reading it immediately after.

In Red Glove Cassel becomes less isolated and more involved with the other characters' lives. He has another mystery that he needs to solve - to get federal agents off his back, but the story is also about his developing friendships, the changes in his family relationships after the revelations of White Cat, and of course his relationship with Lila, cursed to love him. He is also being courted by Lila's father, who wants to use his abilities for his own criminal ends.

I felt like the mystery was a little less compelling this time, even though I guessed parts of the reveal in White Cat and didn't guess what had happened in Red Glove. However, the new worldbuilding details that were revealed along with the developments in Cassel's relationships more than made up for it. I loved finding out about the politics of the world, about the campaigns to give curse workers more freedom and those to persecute them. I really want to know more about Daneca's mother.

It's difficult to go into much detail without bringing in spoilers, so I'll end by saying that if you enjoyed White Cat, you will very probably also enjoy Red Glove, so what are you waiting for?

Book Review: White Cat, by Holly Black

Cassel Sharpe, our narrator, is the youngest in his family of "curse workers" - magic users. But unlike his mother and brothers and grandfather, he doesn't have any powers of his own. He's an outsider, isolated from his family, but also from the rest of the world, brought up to be a conman, and hiding a very dark secret. He doesn't know how or why, but he killed his best friend, Lila. His brothers have told him how they found him and protected him. His secret is safe, even from himself.

Cassel goes to a boarding school where he runs a betting pool to earn the money he needs to keep up appearances and to give himself a role to play in the school's social life. But the whole charade, as well as Cassel, nearly comes tumbling down when he wakes one night on the roof of the school dorms, after a dream about a white cat. Forced to return to his family home, he slowly becomes aware that his brothers are still keeping secrets from him.

This is the second series by Holly Black that I've read. I had mixed feelings about the Modern Faerie Tale series, as you'll see if you check out my reviews of Tithe and Valiant. I found it difficult to empathise with Kaye's story in Tithe and found the pacing hard to get on with, but on the other hand I loved the worldbuilding and adored Valiant - it's one of my favourite books.

I think that a lot of readers tried Tithe and didn't like it, so they've never given Holly Black another chance, and that's why I hadn't heard a whole lot about White Cat before reading it.

But for me it was a must-read. What I loved most about the Modern Faerie Tales was that the teenaged characters seemed so real. They have messed-up families, and create powerful bonds with their friends. They do things that are morally dodgy. They are by turns selfish and selfless. Sometimes they run away from their problems, and other times they try desperately to put their wits to work and fix everything.

I was hoping to get more of the same with the Curse Workers series, and I was not the slightest bit disappointed.  I really, really loved this book. I loved it so much that a) I got the second book in this series and started reading it immediately afterwards and b) I lent my copy of White Cat to my boyfriend (he also really enjoyed it - it made his Best of 2014 Books list).

As much as I love the classic paranormal creatures, vampires, witches, fairies and the rest, it was totally refreshing to read about something new. The idea of 'curse workers' is brilliant and fits in so well with the criminal gangs that Cassel's family are involved with. I also loved that the story revolves around several mysteries - Cassel is the perfect narrator for this, observant and critical. The writing is very well balanced between action and exposition.

I did guess some elements of the big reveal, but that didn't stop me enjoying how it all played out and there were some parts that I didn't anticipate.

In short, White Cat is amazing, Holly Black is underrated, and you should go read it now.

Book Review: Searching for Sky, by Jillian Cantor

Island is the only home Sky has ever known. It's the only place she has ever known. Surrounded by Ocean, Sky, her mother, River, and Helmut are isolated from the world, but they have everything they need. Then Sky's mother and Helmut die, and she and River are left alone, rapidly running out of food. Sky is scared but hopeful, until one day River sees a boat out in Ocean, and their lives change forever.

I read most of Searching for Sky with my heart fluttering somewhere around my throat. I would never have thought that anyone could write so convincingly about a girl who'd grown up on a desert island. I really shouldn't be surprised - I was also wrong about amnesia as a topic.

I don't think I can really pull off usage of phrases like 'all the feels', but that is what I had for poor Sky. Taken away from everything she's used to, separated from the one living person she  and put in a place that is confusing and utterly different in every way. I also felt really strongly for her grandmother, and River. The differences between the way Sky saw her previous life and the way the rest of society saw it were illustrated really well and I liked the way that we slowly found out the story behind Sky's mother's move to the island.

I did sometimes wonder if Sky shouldn't be a little more curious about the world she had joined, but that didn't stop me flicking through the book at high speed. I raced along until I got to the ending, which was...confusingly ambiguous. I'd love to talk about it, so send me an email if you've read Searching for Sky so we can discuss!

Many thanks to Bloomsbury for giving me the chance to read Searching for Sky via NetGalley.

Book Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

My own silver shoes.

You know how this one goes. A young girl named Dorothy and her little dog, Toto, are carried by a cyclone to the strange land of Oz, where she makes friends with a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodman, and a cowardly Lion, and goes on a quest to find her way home.

I went to see the musical Wicked last year and I decided to read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz beforehand to remind myself what happened in the story as I knew it. It's a children's book, so I knew it would be a short read, and although I'd read various picture-book versions of the story, and had seen the film, I'd never read the original story before, and I was curious. Lots of other people seem to have read the entire Oz series in their childhoods and loved it, so I downloaded the first book onto my Nook and started reading it.

It's odd. I couldn't tell if it was meant to be satirical - for most of the book there's so little humour that it seems like it could all be a joke - the characters are so one-dimensional that it seems silly! It's a relief each of the few times the author makes a joke about this - the best are at the end, when Glinda lets loose with the puns.

It is very similar to the film adaptation and all the picture book versions I'd read. There's a few extra details, but the biggest change is that the ruby slippers are silver shoes!

Because I knew the plot and I didn't find the writing endearing, I stopped reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz after a couple of days. I only resumed reading it a couple of days ago, when I'd finished reading another book while on the train.

I'm glad I read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but it's far from a favourite, and I wouldn't say there's much in it that will interest adults, though I think it will stay a children's classic, being a fairytale with a few twists. Apparently, the style of the other books is quite different so I will keep an open mind and try reading the first of the many sequels, The Marvelous Land of Oz.

As these books are in the public domain, you can download them from the links below for free:
Download L. Frank Baum's books from Project Gutenberg
Download audio versions of L. Frank Baum's books from LibriVox

I also wanted to pick out a print edition of this book to link to here, and was amazed by the cool stuff available. I've put a few of the most interesting below (affiliate links). The 'Classics Reimagined' edition looks like a work of modern art, whereas the Osborne Illustrated Originals version would have been my pick as a child! But if I was going to have any version of this book it would be the Annotated version, because I am a complete nerd and I think it would be really interesting! I'll have to check the libraries.


Have you read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and/or any of the other Oz books? What did you think?

Book Review: Adaptation, by Malinda Lo

Reese remembers the birds. She remembers when they attacked. She remembers the plane crashes. She remembers right up until the accident, and then nothing after. A month has passed when she wakes up in a government facility. She knows that something has changed her. Something has changed the world. She has survived when she should have died, and so has her debate partner, David. And no-one has any answers to give her - or do they?

I enjoyed Adaptation a lot, possibly even more than Ash, despite my eternal love of fairy tales. They are very different books, but they both have a powerfully atmospheric quality to them. Adaptation is particularly interesting because it combines this atmosphere with a science-fiction story that has a massive mystery at its heart.

The world of Adaptation is verging on apocalyptic. After the birds, the public doesn't know what is going on. They are scared. They make up strange theories. Some of them try to investigate. Others trust the authorities, desperately hoping for protection. Reese doesn't know whether to cling to everything that she knows as normal, or to plunge headlong into this strange new chaos.

Of course, having read 'The Birds' by Daphne du Maurier, and watched Hitchcock's The Birds, I could not help but be reminded of them when reading Adaptation, which made it even creepier for me.

I loved the love triangle in Adaptation, despite not usually being a fan of them. Typically, they persist because the main character is trying to decide which love interest s/he is more attracted to or which would be the better choice, but in Adaptation the romantic options represent something more. They indicate two different sides of Reese; two different paths she could take. But at the same time, they are not just symbols, they are interesting characters in their own right who are just as entangled in the plot and the mysteries of the story as she is. I thought I knew which of the two I preferred, part way through the book, but by the end I was fascinated by both of them and I am looking forward to learning more in the sequel, Inheritance.

I also liked all the other characters, from the mysterious figures at the government facility to Reese's mother, who stands up for her daughter and Gets Things Done.

I think that this might be a bit of a Marmite book because of the pacing. From the synopsis you might expect a thriller, and this does have some exciting scenes where I was reading on the edge of my seat/bed, desperate to find out what was going to happen. However, it was also quite a slow burner. I liked this, because it built up the atmosphere and it kept me guessing, but other readers might not.

I am looking forward to reading the sequels - the novella, Natural Selection and the full-length novel, Inheritance. Many thanks to Hodder Children's Books for allowing me to read the ebook of Adaptation via NetGalley.

Book Review: Boys Don't Knit by T. S. Easton

Ben Fletcher is on probation - the criminal variety. Following a certain incident with a stolen bottle of Martini Rosso and a lollipop lady, he has been ordered to keep a journal, Give Something Back (to the community), and attend an extracurricular class. The options are pretty dire (worst of all being car maintenance with his Dad), so he decides to go for knitting, without telling anyone. But how long will he be able to keep his new hobby a secret, especially after finding out that he's actually quite good at it?

I started reading Boys Don't Knit while I was volunteering at the London Short Story Festival. I'd already giggled several times on the way to the events, but didn't get to read very much until my lunch break. The restaurant at Waterstone's Piccadilly, 5th Story, is quite fancy looking. There's a bar and a view and the jacket potato costs about twice as much as it should (though it is delicious). It's filled with the sorts of classy-looking people that you'd imagine would go for lunch at Waterstone's Piccadilly.

And there I was, cackling at Boys Don't Knit for half an hour. I must have really lowered the ambience.

Boys Don't Knit is very very funny. Basically, it is a sports movie, in book form, with knitting instead of sports and with most of the earnestness switched for comedy. It has all the right ingredients. Seriously, if you've read Boys Don't Knit, look up Sports Story on TV Tropes. It's all there. It's a Billy Elliot Plot in which a teenager who is dealing with difficult life situations tries to get out of an Awkward Father/Son Bonding Activity, becoming an Accidental (knitting) Athlete, and in the end, everything rides on the outcome of the Big Game (knitting championship). There are more, but they would be spoilers.

Because it is essentially a sports movie, Boys Don't Knit didn't have the most unpredictable plot of all time, but I don't think that matters. Firstly, it is not a thriller, it is a comedy. The humour is the point. Secondly, I don't think every story needs to have an entirely unpredictable plot. Most don't. Once you've consumed enough stories in their varied and wonderful forms, you are usually able to make a reasonable guess at what will happen in the end when you're only halfway through. I think it's more important for the plot to be coherent than surprising.

So I love that Boys Don't Knit is a sports-free book version of a sports movie. I know next to nothing about most sports, but I do know about knitting, so all I got all the references to the craft and could imagine Ben's struggles and successes easily. It's also very British. There are lots of references that people from outside the UK might not get. However, I don't think you need to know anything about yarn, needles, or British politics to enjoy it, again, because of the humour.

The characters are daft but loveable, and quickly I found myself cheering on Ben and enjoying the downfall of his enemies. I won't tell you any more, because I want you to discover all the weird and wonderful people in Ben's life for yourself!

I would recommend Boys Don't Knit to those who love comedy, especially if you've read The Hunger Games! I am really looking forward to reading the sequel, An English Boy in New York.

Book Review: The Princess Diaries, by Meg Cabot

Mia Thermapolis thinks she's just an ordinary girl with a couple of big problems - her mum is dating one of her teachers, and she can't get the boy she likes to notice her. Then her dad reveals that he's the Crown Prince of Genovia and everything gets a lot more complicated. Mia falls out with her friends, starts getting followed by paparazzi, and perhaps worst of all, has to endure princess lessons with her grandmother...

I'd say that the film of The Princess Diaries is one of my guilty pleasures, except that I don't feel guilty at all. I just love it. I'd always intended to read the book series at some point, but didn't get around to starting it until it was chosen as one of the Bookish Brits book club reads.

It's quite different from the film - Mia's dad is still alive, and her grandmother is a lot less likeable as person, but a lot funnier as a character! Although Grand-mère is one of my favourite characters in the book, she annoys Mia almost constantly. The plot develops at a slower pace so I think that the film must contain material from other books.

It's a sweet and funny book and Mia is a great narrator. I think this is regarded as a teenage classic and with good reason -  many little girls dream of becoming a princess, but as teenagers most of us come to realise that it wouldn't be such a good thing! The whole cast of characters is fab, from Mia's best friend Lilly to her driver/bodyguard Lars. I liked the romantic elements, but most of all I loved the different friendships and how they develop.

I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series and finding out more about Mia, her family and friends. Have you read this series? What did you think?

We read The Princess Diaries for the very first Bookish Brits Book Club! You can watch the results below:

Book Review: Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell

Going to university means almost nothing but anxiety for Cath. She was comfortable with the way things were at home with her dad and twin sister Wren. Her only comfort is that Wren is going to the same university, but Wren doesn't want to be her roommate - she wants to make new friends and go to all the parties she can.

Cath isn't interested in parties, or making new friends. She is devoted to the fanfic she's been working on for two years, Carry On, Simon, featuring the stars of the Simon Snow books. The last book in the series is going to come out soon, and Cath is determined to finish her version first. But can she manage that and complete her assignments for her creative writing class? Is her dad going to be alright at home by himself? Is Wren going to too many parties? Does Cath's roommate Reagan hate her? And what is up with Reagan's boyfriend Levi?

Usually I reserve judgement on a book until I'm at least halfway through but I decided that I loved this whilst only a few chapters in. I love books set at universities and I love books with a strong focus on relationships and social interaction. There so much going on in Fangirl. There are plots and subplots and the cast of characters is fantastic.

I'll start with Cath, who is the main character and the fangirl of the title. I could relate really strongly to Cath - it was like I used to be her! Cath is very anxious about having to interact with anybody new, but this doesn't make her shy and sweet, it makes her grumpy and reclusive, which I think is far more realistic. She is mostly happy working by herself on her fanfic and studying, and I could definitely relate to that. I have gone through periods in the past when all I wanted to do was be left alone to read and write.

Cath's anxiety puts her in some quite difficult situations. As you'll hear if you watch the video above, I used to avoid the dining area at university but I coped by going home or eating in the loos or the library. Cath doesn't have the luxury of a shared kitchen so she can't eat proper meals at all! Fangirl has to be one of the most fun books that I've ever read that deals with mental health issues.

The other characters are brilliant too. I forgot to mention him in the video but I adored Cath's dad, as difficult as he makes her life sometimes. I'm not going to list anyone else or I'll end up spoiling half the book.

I also loved all the snippets from the Simon Snow books and Cath's fanfic pieces. I was shocked to hear that some people don't like them! I really want to read the Simon Snow books now, it's such a shame they're not real!

There were a few chapters which were a bit light on plot and character development, but I didn't really mind.

I would recommend Fangirl to everyone, pretty much! Fangirl was the Bookish Brits Book Club choice for May 2014, and in the video I recommended Adorkable by Sarra Manning to Fangirl...err...fans and I would do the same the other way around - they deal with similar issues but the protagonists are very different.

Find out what the Bookish Brits thought of Fangirl by watching the video below: