“On The Smugglers’ Radar” is a new feature for books that have caught our eye: books we heard of via other bloggers, directly from publishers, and/or from our regular incursions into the Amazon jungle. This is how the Smugglers’ Radar was born, and because there are far too many books that we want than we can possibly buy or review (what else is new?) we thought we could make it into a weekly feature – so YOU can tell us which books you have on your radar as well!

On Thea’s Radar:

*rubs hands together* I cannot freaking wait for this upcoming anthology, that includes the likes of Diana Peterfreund, and is edited by the formidable duo of Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier. Can we say, AWESOME?

Edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier, this teen anthology asks the question: which is better and badder, the zombie or the unicorn?

Saw this cover over at Aidan’s blog, A Dribble of Ink, and am intrigued. I have The Adamantine Palace on my TBR (and will be reviewing it in the next two weeks), so I’m excited to see more form Stephen Deas!

When Berren makes the mistake of stealing a purse from a thief-taker, it should have condemned him to a short and brutal life in the slave-mines. So when the thief-taker offers to train him as an apprentice instead, he can’t believe his luck. The thief-taker has secrets of his own, though, and Berren is soon sucked into a faraway war, filled with mercenary soldiers, necromancers who brew potions that can change your destiny, and a psychotic girl-princess with a penchant for cutting pieces out of her lovers’ souls.

It’s no secret that I am an unabashed Rachel Caine fangirl – her Weather Warden series is amongst my top 3 favorite currently running UF series’ PERIOD. New cover art is out, and I. Am. Stoked.

Did you know Dan Simmons has a new novel coming out this year? Hmm? I am a sucker for anything this man writes. He, like Neil Gaiman, is a Writing God in my mind. I cannot wait for Black Hills.

When Paha Sapa, a young Sioux warrior, “counts coup” on General George Armstrong Custer as Custer lies dying on the battlefield at the Little Bighorn, the legendary general’s ghost enters him – and his voice will speak to him for the rest of his event-filled life.

Seamlessly weaving together the stories of Paha Sapa, Custer, and the American West, Dan Simmons depicts a tumultuous time in the history of both Native and white Americans. Haunted by Custer’s ghost, and also by his ability to see into the memories and futures of legendary men like Sioux war-chief Crazy Horse, Paha Sapa’s long life is driven by a dramatic vision he experienced as a boy in his people’s sacred Black Hills. In August of 1936, a dynamite worker on the massive Mount Rushmore project, Paha Sapa plans to silence his ghost forever and reclaim his people’s legacy-on the very day FDR comes to Mount Rushmore to dedicate the Jefferson face.

Also, as the release date draws ever closer, I am really getting excited for the next installment in Claudia Gray’s Evermore books. And I really like this cover for Hourglass.

Bianca will risk everything to be with Lucas.

After escaping from Evernight Academy, the vampire boarding school where they met, Bianca and Lucas take refuge with Black Cross, a fanatical group of vampire hunters. Bianca must hide her supernatural heritage or risk certain death at their hands. But when Black Cross captures her friend—the vampire Balthazar—hiding is no longer an option.

Soon, Bianca and Lucas are on the run again, pursued not only by Black Cross, but by the powerful leaders of Evernight. Yet no matter how far they travel, Bianca can’t escape her destiny.

Bianca has always believed their love could survive anything . . . but can it survive what’s to come?

I just recently saw the formidable Danielle of Opinionated, Me? review this older YA book, and immediately thought: MUST HAVE.

Since the war and the bombs, Hatfork, Wyoming, is a broken-down, mutant-ridden town. Young Chaos lives in the projection booth of the abandoned multiplex, trying to blot out his present unable to remember his past. Then the local tyrant, Kellogg, reveals to him to over a can of dog food that the bombs never fell. The truth is a little more complicated. With a fur-covered girl and an automobile, Chaos sets out on journey, following the empty highway to the edge of the American nightmare, ins search of a missing identity and a stolen love. The truth he finds,is indeed a little more complicated. or a lot . . .

And finally, saw this over at Angie’s blog, Angieville. Now, I am a huge fan of Moira J. Moore’s Hero books. I *love* Taro and Lee. But seriously, these covers blow chunks. Instead, compare the lovely art from Chris McGrath and imagine if THIS was the art for Ms. Moore’s wonderful books.

On Ana’s Radar:

I am currently madly, unhealthly in love with Angry Robot’s entire catalogue. They have what appears to be, some crazy shiz coming out. Evidence #1:

On the streets of Indianapolis, the ancient Arthurian cycle is replaying in the lives of rival street gangs. Told through the eyes of King, as he gathers like-minded friends and warriors around him to venture into the fastness of Dred, the notorious crime lord, this is a stunning mix of myth and harsh reality. A truly remarkable novel.

Evidence #2:

There is a box. Inside that box is a door. And beyond that door is a whole world.

In some rooms, forests grow. In others, animals and objects come to life. Elsewhere, secrets and treasures wait for the brave and foolhardy.

And at the very top of the house, a prisoner sits behind a locked door waiting for a key to turn. The day that happens, the world will end…

and I know that this is way more like Thea’s cup of tea, but I liking the sound it so..evidence # 3:

Botanica is an island, but almost all of the island is taken up by the Tree.

Little knowing how they came to be here, small communities live around the coast line. The Tree provides them shelter, kindling, medicine – and a place of legends, for there are ghosts within the trees who snatch children and the dying.

Lillah has come of age and is now ready to leave her community and walk the tree for five years, learning all Botanica has to teach her. Before setting off, Lillah is asked by the dying mother of a young boy to take him with her. In a country where a plague killed half the population, Morace will otherwise be killed in case he has the same disease. But can Lillah keep the boy’s secret, or will she have to resort to breaking the oldest taboo on Botanica?

I mean, don’t these sound fa-bu-lous?

Earlier this week, Thea sent me the link to this YA book. I have never read any of Carrie Vaughn’s books, but her new series may be a good place to start:

On one side of the border lies the modern world: the internet, homecoming dances, cell phones. On the other side dwell the ancient monsters who spark humanity’s deepest fears: dragons.

Seventeen-year-old Kay Wyatt knows she’s breaking the law by rock climbing near the border, but she’d rather have an adventure than follow the rules. When the dragon Artegal unexpectedly saves her life, a secret friendship grows between them—even though the fragile truce that has maintained peace between their two species is unraveling around them. As tensions mount and battles begin, Kay and Artegal are caught in the middle. Can their friendship change the course of a war?

In her young adult debut, New York Times bestselling author Carrie Vaughn presents a modern tale of myths and machines and an alliance that crosses a seemingly unbridgeable divide.

And finally, this one, by my new author crush, John Green. Apparently there is no blurb and all we know is: it’s out in April and it is about two guys named…Will Grayson.

What about you? Any books on your radar?

Following Bloomsbury’s Whitewashing Cover Fiasco ‘09-’10 (Justine Larbalestier’s Liar and Jaclyn Dolamore’s Magic Under Glass), readers were able to make some small positive change resulting in the publisher’s book jacket retraction and subsequent re-issuance of new, race-conscious covers.

This is great news. Awesome news, in fact. And, as a community of vocal, impassioned readers, we should be proud. But, if the controversy surrounding Magic Under Glass has shown us anything, it is that COVERS MATTER. The whitewashing of Liar and Magic Under Glass are not isolated incidents – this is a problem that has pervaded the industry for a very long time, and continues today.

Thus, we have decided to start a monthly feature called “Cover Matters.” The motivation for this feature is not because we think we are influential or on some sort of blogger power trip. Rather, we simply care about covers and books. A cover is a book’s first impression; it’s the equivalent of eye-contact and a smile from across the room. Covers can be an important factor in noticing and deciding to purchase a book. Beyond the first impression, we reflect on covers whilst reading and after finishing a book too.

We want this feature to dedicate more separate space to a topic that has always intrigued, irked, and befuddled us. In these posts, we plan to touch on not only racist cover practices (as with Liar and Magic Under Glass), but other cover issues too (covers in poor taste, misleading or completely inaccurate covers, and, of course, covers that manage to get it right). We are writing these pieces because we do care about cover issues – whether they be about whitewashing, slenderizing, homogenizing, etc. Cover Matters does not have any agenda beyond creating a space for an ongoing discussion of book covers.

We plan on getting guests (bloggers, authors, publishers or even cover artists if possible) to join us for these monthly pieces, with the following question in mind: Do covers matter?

In closing, we’ve got a few cover-related issues around the web that we’d like to bring up.

Firstly, we’d like to draw attention to a post over at Bookshelves of Doom that takes a look at The Mysterious Benedict Society books. It seems that while the illustrations within the book are accurate and depict a character named Sticky as “a skinny boy with light brown skin, anxious eyes (though perhaps the anxiety came from not yet having recovered his breath), and a completely bald head,”

the covers of the books show a skinny, bald, white character instead:

These books have been around since 2007 and are published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. You can contact Little, Brown here:

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publicity Department
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
publicity@lbchildrens.com

We encourage everyone to write to Little, Brown and share your feelings concerning these covers.

What else can you do, if you’re interested in these cover practices, beyond writing letters and blog posts? Well, you can also send a message via sales – and sign up for the Persons of Color Reading Challenge.

All you have to do is commit to reviewing as few as 1 and as many as 25 (or heck, more if you feel like it!) books from a POC author or featuring POC characters. You can find book and author suggestions HERE, and link your reviews to the challenge HERE. We are definitely on board and will make a conscious effort to review qualifying books this year.

Thirdly, as a direct result of the Magic Under Glass situation, a facebook fan group has been created, called Readers Against WhiteWashing with the following mission:

Whitewashing

* Fails to accurately represent race and diversity
* Says people of color do not matter
* Denies readers positive and diverse representation

RAWW is committed to public criticism of publishers who misrepresent characters.

We again encourage everyone to sign up and check it out.

Finally, we’d like to close our inaugural Cover Matters post we have a question for you, dear readers and please feel free to speak your mind:

Do covers matter to you? If so, how much? If not, why?

A Bit of Background:

The Internets are full of rage again as Bloomsbury Publishing finds itself at the center of yet another book cover controversy. Remember the furore surrounding the cover of Liar by Justine Larbalestier? When readers found out that the intended cover of a book featuring a black protagonist was this…

…the outcry was so deafening that publisher issued its mea culpa and replaced the offending cover with this more acceptible one:

But, alas! It seems that Bloomsbury did not learn its lesson and has triggered the burning, fiery wrath of the interwebs once more. In the sage words of La Brittany, oops, they did it again.

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore:

As Ana pointed out back in December when she posted her review of debut YA fantasy novel Magic under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore, another grievous instance of whitewashing has occurred. Magic Under Glass has a dark-skinned protagonist, and yet its cover features a white-skinned girl.

This time, unfortunately, the cover made it to publication, slipping past the attention of readers and bloggers. Perhaps Magic Under Glass remained under reader-radars because author Jaclyn Dolamore is a newcomer (and without the significant online clout that Justine Larbalestier & Scott Westerfeld have). Now that the book has been published, however, YA and other book bloggers are up in arms. Some are even calling for a complete boycott of Bloomsbury books.

Now, we agree that what Bloomsbury’s marketing/sales/publicity department is doing with its whitewashing of book covers is a heinous, inexcusable, racist practice. We absolutely agree that we, as bloggers, have an obligation to stand up, make our voices heard, and speak out against publishers that perpetuate these acts. As Anna North of Jezebel aptly points out, it seems that publishers like Bloomsbury are buying into the “self-fulfilling prophecy” that “black covers don’t sell.” (Or at least, they don’t sell BIG)

We agree that something must be done to put an end to the systemic de-colorization of novels. But boycotting the publisher – and, by proxy, the book – will not help matters. Quite the contrary. If you stop buying the book, the person most adversely affected is the author – the one person in this whole mess who has absolutely NOTHING to do with the cover (in fact, the vast majority of authors have little to no say concerning what their covers will look like). And why would you want to hurt the one person that actually wrote the awesome diverse, dark-skinned heroine in the first place? Not to mention the fact that, whitewashed cover aside, Magic Under Glass is one damn fine book. Ms. Dolamore’s work should be appreciated, her efforts celebrated – she should not be punished or threatened because of the poor judgement and practices of her publisher.

A Call For Action:

Instead, we call on YOU, dear readers, to speak up with us. Instead of boycotting Bloomsbury Publishing, we encourage you to CONTACT the publisher and make your voice heard. Join Reading In Color’s Open Letter to Bloomsbury Kids USA. Start a petition to get the publisher’s attention. Do whatever you can to make the message clear: we DO NOT approve of your whitewashed covers, and we demand change.

RE: Covers, In General:

It is clear that publishers pay less attention (what an understatement!) than they should to book covers – it is a problem that we are constantly complaining about here at The Book Smugglers. This is not by any means, an issue that is relegated to one genre or to one issue. Gender, race, size, genre, you name it – problems with covers abound everywhere. Consider:

Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea Cycle (A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore) – in which Ged, the protagonist, is a young man with red-brown skin (in a world populated mostly by people that are red-brown, brown, or black). These covers (and the SciFi miniseries based on the books) are obviously a little off.

Everything Beautiful by Simone Howell – (a book that works because of its gritty realism) in which protagonist Riley is an overweight young woman, and yet on the US cover (again published by Bloomsbury!) is portrayed as anything but overweight.

And this is to say nothing of other book covers that are constant in their inconsistencies. Lise Haines’ Girl In the Arena portrays a cover model with long dark locks and a gladiatrix costume – when the main character, in fact, shaves her head very early on in the story and rocks the bald buzz cut for the rest of the book (including her stint in the Arena). Diana Peterfreund’s Secret Society Girl shows a model with long dark hair in prepster clothes – while protagonist Amy had short hair, and wouldn’t be caught dead in those clothes. Don’t even get us started on the myriad Urban Fantasy covers that have absolutely nothing to do with the material within.

And you know, the more we think about it, the more we realise, that this is a problem that is a concern to us readers because it reflects what we do and who we are as consumers. Because publishers only put those out because they think the alternative will not sell – a judgement based on what they assume we will buy. Just a bit of food for thought.

The call for war is laudable. We do have reasons to be up in arms. Shout! Write a blog post! Start a viral video campaign on Youtube or on your blog. Write a letter complaining to the Publisher or an email supporting the writer. But, for crying out loud, do NOT stop buying books.

So, while Thea is on a Thanksgiving break and I am left on my own, I decided to take over (Muwahaha) and do this stash, Ana style.

What was on my mind last week?

First and foremost: I was immersed in Smugglivus’ (upcoming event to celebrate reading and books!) preparations.

Drooling over the pretty poster, organising our crazy schedule, contacting our guests, etc. If you missed our Smugglivus’ announcement last Thursday, you can read it here.

I also spent some time trying to decide which books to read next month. Because of Smugglivus and the end of the year , I will be able to read those books I wasn’t able to read so far. One of those was The Magicians by Lev Grossamn and that did not work out as expected.  Alas, I do hope my next reads will be better. I have high expectations for those in particular:

I also spent some time musing and fawning over this one here:

I think the cover is fabulous; I like the blurb; I read one story by Sam Sykes in the Dragon Book and I liked it; The twitter buzz around this novel is growing; The book is not out till April though and it is KILLING me that I have other books I need to read before I can read this one.

Speaking of new authors: not a new author per se, but new author to me, I think I have a new author-crush for Jim C. Hines. I loved his Princess books, which I reviewed this week

….and I have been reading his livejournal. On top of interesting posts about writing, there is one about Rape in Fiction which I thought was fabulous.

Speaking of  rape in fiction. Kate, from What Kate’s Reading posted her thoughts on The Windflower and ended up writing a great post about rape and

why Rape is not romance. Rape is not a laughing matter. Rape is not a cheap literary device.

Her post is part of The Windflower World Tour, which by the way, is getting back on track!

For those who do not know, The Windflower World Tour is an across-blogs event in which a copy of the out of print The Windlower by Laura London is going around the world from blogger to blogger. The book is an old school romance and the reactions to it are all over the place. You can read more about it here and here. Next stop on the tour is at Literary Escapism.

Also on my mind last week, were the series of great posts that author Jackie Kessler wrote about the whole Harlequin Horizon debacle (in which publisher Harlequin opens a Vanity Publishing on the side). You can read more about it here and here. Also, here.

Great is also the word I would use to describe a post by Sarah Rees Brennan where she reviews some books she loved (including a couple of wonderful romance novels by the ever magnificent Meredith Duran) and mentions the Blank Page Heroine. Justine Larbalestier picked up the term and talked about it on her own blog . Make sure to read the comments – they are great too.

Speaking of heroines – and heroes and “great” , I jump right into Super-heroes ( am I trying too hard? LOL) : I saw this at Harry’s blog and loved it! The Super Emo Friends:

Seriously, how cute is that? And so, so true.

Anyways, this is what I have been up to. On Tuesday, we kick-off Smugglivus and we will post a special Week One Schedule tomorrow right after my review of Deep Kiss of Winter (Kresley Cole’s story) goes live.

What else? I think I need to do something important. Ah! Giveaway winners! I saved the best for last!

Tainted Giveaway:

Carolyn H (comment # 3)

Flash Giveaway:

Batch 1 – Jenny N (comment #63)
Batch 2 – Sarah (comment #80)

Congratulations! You know the drill – send an email to contact AT the book smugglers DOT com with your snail mail address, and we’ll get your winnings out to you as soon as possible! Thanks to all that entered, and if you didn’t win this time, don’t worry. There’s plenty more where that came from.

And that is it from me today! Have a great Sunday and until tomorrow!

~ Your friendly neighborhood Book Smugglers

Title: Liar

Author: Justine Larbalestier

Genre: YA/Thriller

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
Publishing Date: September 29, 2009
Hardcover: 384 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Summary: Micah will freely admit that she’s a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she’ll ever tell you. Over the years she’s duped her classmates, her teachers, and even her parents, and she’s always managed to stay one step ahead of her lies. That is, until her boyfriend dies under brutal circumstances and her dishonesty begins to catch up with her. But is it possible to tell the truth when lying comes as naturally as breathing? Taking readers deep into the psyche of a young woman who will say just about anything to convince them—and herself—that she’s finally come clean, Liar is a bone-chilling thriller that will have readers see-sawing between truths and lies right up to the end. Honestly.

Why did I read the book: Oh. Where do I start? The blurb. the cover. The online outcry about the cover. The premise. I love unreliable narrators.

Review: It starts with a promise:

“My father is a liar and so am I.
But I’m going to stop. I have to stop.
I will tell you my story and I will tell it straight. No lies, no omissions.
That’s my promise.
This time I truly mean it.”

Micah is the main character and the first-person narrator of this story, her story. She is a 17 year old girl who looks like a boy, the daughter of a black man and a white woman. She attends a private school for privileged white kids, but she is poor and she can only do that because she has a grant; she also has a boyfriend called Zach who goes to the same school. Micah loves three things: Zach, running (she is super, ultra fast) and her biology classes.

She is also a compulsive liar which is probably the most important thing you need to know about her. Her lies have made her a less than popular character in the school ever since she was mistook for a boy in her freshman year and she kept the ruse for two whole days. And when she was caught? She excused herself by telling everyone that she was a hermaphrodite.

When her boyfriend Zach is found dead and an investigation starts all the kids point the finger at Micah. No one really knows if he was murdered or not but the whispers start nonetheless. But Micah hasn’t seen him in days, has she? Of course, he is not really her boyfriend, given as how he has an official girlfriend called Sarah. Micah is more like an after-hours girlfriend but she swears that she has nothing to do with Zach’s death. But who can believe her?

“I am often in trouble. Mostly for things I have not done. I can’t expect to be believed. I am the girl who cried wolf.”

And that is really as far as I can go with details of the plot. As her solemn pledge attests, Micah is trying really hard to tell the truth – especially to the reader whom she is entrusting with her story. But can the reader trust Micah?

That’s where the brilliance of this novel lies. Because from page ONE, you don’t know if you can believe anything the narrator is telling you. Usually with unreliable narrators the truth creeps up on you slowly until it sinks in. But here? Every single thing that Micah ever tells the reader is subject to be scrutinised due to the fact that she is a known compulsive liar.

At some point half way through the book, there is The Twist or The Big Secret, and it blew my mind away. It sounds like the truth and it explains the first part of the novel and it explains why she lies in the first place. But then again, how can I possibly believe what she tells me, ever? But, she is so convincing. But isn’t that exactly what a compulsive liar is? But there are small clues, the small things she slips in, that makes one think about the nature of the things she lies about. THAT is the most important factor of all. Having said that: we are back to the unreliable narrative – how can I possibly base my interpretation of the book on what this narrator tells me?

The story is divided in small short sections divided in “After” and “Before” Zach’s death plus “History of Me” and “Family History” . Until later in the story when she starts to deconstruct some of her lies and how she did it. Because of that I am not sure I LIKE Micah. I am not sure I am supposed to. She is LYING to me. This whole book is like a written episode of Punk’d. I felt like Ashton Kutcher would show up at my house at any second.

Is Liar about character, or is it about narrative?

Because here is the truth and am I not lying to you: you do end up believing her. Actually, I found that the thing I wanted the most was to believe Micah, so very much. At least some of the things she says. It is impossible not to and that is because of the close relationship between the reader and the narrator and how one experiences a story. Days later and I am still thinking about it, theorising and most of all, I am psychologising it. Does she believe her own lies? What is the line between compulsive and pathological? Micah is aware of this conundrum, this impossible situation she has put her reader in and she taunts:

“You buy everything, don’t you? You make it too easy”

It is simply nerve wrecking. It also makes for a compelling, compulsive reading. I did not put the book – which is actually a simple thriller, a whodunit in its core- down.

Liar is abso-freaking-lutely brilliant. I loved it. Easily one of my fave reads this year.

Notable Quotes/ Parts: The opening of the second part. My jaw droped and I believed.

Additional Thoughts: A few ramblings on the unreliable narrator:

One of my favourite narrative modes – because I am a sucker for being outsmarted by the books I read. What can I say? That moment when one realises that what they read so far was not really the truth is one of the most exhilarating experiences when reading, at least for me. Either because the narrator straight out lied or omitted things; either because he/she believes in what they say because of say, bias or mental instability and it is down to the reader to realise that. I believe that books with unreliable narrators are those that require the most from the readers because it forces the reader to revaluate and revisit everything they read and saw to that point. I also think that the narrative mode is one that is not universally enjoyed as the unreliable narrator breaks that which is the most important thing between a reader and a book: trust.

There is also a weird line between writer and narrator in this narrative mode and I find that I am never more attuned to the writer and its presence within the book than when I am reading a book with an unreliable narrator. Because when that trust is broken it is easy to cross the line and blame the writer and not the narrator. In that sense, I can only but to assume that books like that most be really difficult to write? Any writers out there who would like to expand on that?

My first ever encounter with an unreliable narrator was when I was about 12 and it blew my mind away. It was Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I was a goner then.

I recently read a couple which I really enjoyed. Of course (and excuse me from bringing this one up again) there is The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner – narrated by Eugenides, the Thief.

The book has a major twist in the end that re-writes the whole story to that point. In this one case, Eugenides is an unreliable character not because of bias or because he lies – he simply chooses to disclose only certain aspects of the story. If you go back, you realise he never truly duped you – all the clues you need to know the truth are really quite clear for you to do so. It is really YOU who chose to believe certain things because of your own bias. Now, that is genius.

Another recent one is Jasmyn by Alex Bell. Again, without spoiling it for you, the whole story is told by her but she is unreliable – and she doesn’t even know that. Again, she is not lying nor she is biased. It is something else entirely.

On the other end of the spectrum, I recently read The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and I did not like it and that is one the cases in which I could tell where the narrator ended and where the writer began and I ended up frustrated with the story and with the writer in the end.

Of course, I could not end these ramblings without mentioning my two favourite unreliable narrators in movies:

The nameless narrator/Tyler Durden from Fight Club and Roger “Verbal” Kint/ Keyser Söze from The Usual Suspects. Both are total shockers and also totally, totally cool.

What about you? How do you feel about unreliable narrators? Any recommendations?

Verdict: I love unreliable narrators and Micah is the ULTIMATE unreliable narrator. This book is gripping, mind-blowing and brilliant. I Loved it.

Rating: 9, Damn Near Perfection

Reading Next: Tempt me at Twilight by Lisa Kleypas