Today marks the second stop on the official Blog Tour for author Carrie Ryan’s newest release, The Dead-Tossed Waves – book 2 in her planned trilogy documenting a world ravaged by the zombie apocalypse. You can check out the first stop on the tour over atCynsations and her interview with Carrie yesterday.

Poignant. Memorable. Heartbreaking. These are words that describe Carrie Ryan’s work – and The Dead-Tossed Waves is no exception.

We are proud to have the incredibly talented Carrie Ryan over for a chat about her book, and to talk about her own favorite zombie books/comics/movies. Without further ado, we give you the awesome Carrie!

The Book Smugglers: Ever since delighting and terrifying mainstream audiences vis-a-vis George A. Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, zombies have been an iconic “monster” in popular culture. Some authors and films use zombies for the obvious schlock, horror and gore…but some authors, like yourself, use the zombie story as an insightful critique of human nature. To you, what does the zombie represent? Why do you write about humans living in a zombie-plagued world?

Carrie: Wow, great question! I think the zombie can represent so many things: the inevitable and inescapable march of death, fear of the future, nihilism, uncertainty about the world. In my stories I think the zombie often represents existence for existence sake — the idea of plodding through time for no other reason than to occupy space. This is something that I think we all wonder about at some point — the idea of why am I here, what do I contribute to those around me, what will I do with my life?

As for why I write about humans in a zombie-plagued world, I think I’ve just always been fascinated by the idea of survival and the extremes people will go through to stay alive. I’ve always been fascinated by books like Hatchet or movies like Alive. The zombie apocalypse is something that the world wouldn’t recover from quickly and I really enjoy pondering the question of what you do when everything you’ve ever known so radically changes?

The Book Smugglers: There are some striking themes in THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH and THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES – the loss (and restriction) of knowledge, fear of the known and unknown, and in the midst of this oppressing fear, love and the will to survive. Instead of overwhelming bleakness (i.e. Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD and other post-apocalyptic novels), there is the light of hope in your books – can you tell us why you choose this path for your stories? Are you an optimist?

Carrie: I’m glad you see the hope in my stories because to me it’s definitely there! I think that since the dawn of time people have had to struggle to survive and carve out a place in the world but even in the most daunting of circumstances, they find time for love, friendship, companionship. To me this is what life is about — it’s sort of the phrase you always hear that life isn’t about the destination but the journey. My characters could focus only on getting through the life they’ve been given or they can choose to take advantage of the calm moments.

I like to think of myself as an optimist though I think I have an uncanny knack for coming up with the worst-case scenarios (which served me well as a lawyer).

The Book Smugglers: Another resonant image in both of your books is that of fences and barriers. These enclosures keep inhabitants safe from The Unconsecrated/Mudo, but simultaneously imprison them – not only are the walls obstacles, but their fear and lack of knowledge shackles them too. Do you think these barriers are more harmful than helpful? If you were faced with the decision to stay safe behind the fences or risk the outside world, what would you choose?

Carrie: I definitely think the lack of knowledge is more harmful than helpful — I think that it’s hard to ask someone to make a decision about their life without giving them all the tools they need to make that decision, including all relevant information. At the same time, I think Sister Tabitha withheld knowledge purely out of love (you learn a lot more about her in my short story Hare Moon coming this summer in the Kiss My Deadly anthology edited by Trisha Telep).

To use another quote I had in my “quote journal” growing up: “a ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not why ships are built” (William Shedd). This is how I see Gabry in The Dead-Tossed Waves. I think it’s easy to want to stick with the status quo and avoid scary/hard to take risks. I remember the first time I had to go to court and I was terrified. My initial reaction was to say no but if I wanted to learn, I had to overcome the fear (yes, my fly was down when I stood up in front of the judge so I figured it could only get better from there).

That’s a great question, what would I choose? I think there are a lot of people who live very happy and fulfilled lives in my books — people content in Mary’s village and in Gabry’s town and so I don’t think they made bad choices for wanting to stay behind their barriers. At the same time, I know Mary would never be content to stay safe and Gabry made her decisions out of fear which constantly held her back. I’d like to think that I don’t make decisions out of fear, but that I’m also not reckless — that I appreciate what I have.

The Book Smugglers: Why did you decide to write Young Adult novels, as opposed to any other genre or category?

Carrie: When I was in high school I read about a romance author who said she sat down to write after reading a book and thinking “I can do that!” Reading those words I thought to myself “if she can do that, I can too!” And I think that because I was reading romance at the time I always assumed I’d write romance when I grew up. For a couple of years after college I did write romance and then after law school when I dedicated myself to writing again I realized that what really inspired me were young adult books. These are the books that taught me to love reading, to escape in other worlds and kept me up late speed reading to the end. The idea that I could join those ranks was just too tempting for me to give up!

I also really love that young adult books are all shelved in one mass — you can combine romance and sci fi and fantasy and horror and anything else and not worry about where you’ll get shelved in the bookstore.

The Book Smugglers: What books do you recommend for readers, ravenous for more books like yours after they have devoured THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH and THE DEAD-TOSSED WAVES?

Carrie: Anyone interested in the zombie apocalypse would probably enjoy World War Z by Max Brooks. For tense dystopia I’d recommend The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. For action Diana Peterfreund’s Rampant and for romance Graceling by Kristin Cashore and The Season by Sarah MacLean.

And now, for Carrie’s Favorite Zombie/Post-Apocalypse/Dystopia Books/Comics/Movies!

1. World War Z. Max Brooks is just a genius with this book — not only does he go through the zombie apocalypse step by step but he creates a huge cast of very distinct voices and stories along the way. Utterly absorbing.

2. Dawn of the Dead. I know most people hate the remake, but it will always have a place in my heart as the movie that started it all.

3. Night of the Living Dead. George Romero’s movie that really created the modern zombie (though they weren’t called zombies in the film). I actually really hated this movie the first time I saw it because I was so frustrated at the characters inability to get it together to survive. But then I heard Romero talk about the point of the movie which was society’s inability ot get their act together to solve really big issues in the world like poverty, hunger, war, etc. This made me love the movie.

4. Shawn of the Dead. This zombie flick perfectly nails the kitch humor of zombies and then the utter pathos and despaire that can come along with it. I don’t think I’ve laughed as hard at a movie or been more moved.

5. The Walking Dead. Robert Kirkman notes that his goal with this graphic novel series is that it has no end — there’s not set story arc but instead he just wanted to explore what happens to people constantly trying to survive after a zombie apocalypse.

6. Left 4 Dead (1 and 2). Brilliant video game with lots of zombie killing.

7. Zombie Fluxx is a fun little card game where the rules are constantly changing. And one rule is that every time you draw a zombie card you have to groan like a zombie – best rule ever!

8. 28 Days Later. Sure some zombie purists don’t count this as a zombie flick, but these fast zombies are utterly terrifying.

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, Carrie Ryan is a graduate of Williams College and Duke University School of Law. A former litigator, she now writes full time. She lives with her writer/lawyer fiancé, two fat cats and one large puppy in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are not at all prepared for the zombie apocalypse.

You can read more about Carrie on her website HERE, or her blog HERE.

A huge thank you to Carrie Ryan! And make sure to check out the next stop on The Dead-Tossed Waves blog tour! Tomorrow, she’s at MTVNews.com’s “Hollywood Crush”.

Title: The Dead-Tossed Waves

Author: Carrie Ryan

Genre: Horror, Post-Apocalypse/Dystopia, Young Adult

Publisher: Delacorte
Publication Date: March 2010
Hardcover: 416 Pages

Gabry lives a quiet life, secure in her town next to the sea and behind the Barrier. She’s content to let her friends dream of the Dark City up the coast while she watches from the top of her lighthouse. Home is all she’s ever known, and all she needs for happiness.

But life after the Return is never safe, and there are threats even the Barrier can’t hold back.

Gabry’s mother thought she left her secrets behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but like the dead in their world, secrets don’t stay buried. And now, Gabry’s world is crumbling.

One night beyond the Barrier…

One boy Gabry’s known forever and one veiled in mystery…

One reckless moment, and half of Gabry’s generation is dead, the other half imprisoned.

Gabry knows only one thing: if she is to have any hope of a future, she must face the forest of her mother’s past.

Stand alone or series: Book 2 in a planned trilogy, however can be read as a stand alone novel.

How did I get this book: Review Copy from the publisher

Why did I read this book: I am a huge Carrie Ryan fangirl. Her first novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth was one of my Top 10 Reads of 2009 – needless to say, I was chomping at the bit (ho-ho!) for the chance to read The Dead-Tossed Waves.

Review:

On the shore of a horizon-spanning placid ocean is a lighthouse, its beacon a lone, strong light in the night, cutting through the darkness that enshrouds the seaside town of Vista. With her mother, Mary, Gabrielle tends to the shore, living a life of relative calm and security. When the Mudo wash up on the shore following high tides, Gabry helps her mother decapitate and dispatch of them, as is their duty as keepers in the small town. Gabry has always known a life of safety behind the village barriers; a beloved daughter, a dear best friend, and maybe even one day, someone’s girlfriend. When her friends decide to sneak over the barrier for a night in the rundown amusement park just outside the walls, Gabry is terrified. She has never broken the rules and does not wish to step beyond the safety of her world; especially not into a place where the insatiable Mudo could be lurking. But, urged on by her best friend Cira and the boy that makes her heart race, Catcher, Gabry sneaks out with the others into the ruins. It is here that she shares her first kiss with Catcher, and revels in the promise that her life holds. All of those dreams and hopes, however, come crashing down – a “breaker” senses the humans nearby, and sprints towards the group of teens, infecting and killing three of the group, Catcher among them. In an instant, Gabrielle’s life, and her friends’ lives, have been turned upside down. While Gabry is able to escape, her surviving friends aren’t so lucky, and are sentenced to service with the Recruiters – the force that patrols and protects the villages of the loose confederation from the Mudo threat – but without reward of citizenship at the end of their two year term. To Gabry’s mind, this is a death sentence – and still shocked by the loss of Catcher to infection, she’s also losing everyone she’s ever known. When Cira begs her to find out, to follow her brother Catcher until his demise, Gabry cannot refuse – and so she makes her way across the sea of the dead, and beyond the barriers of her safe, now shattered, world.

Well, wow. The Dead-Tossed Waves was my numero uno; my absolute MOST highly anticipated novel of 2010. In other words, The Dead-Tossed Waves had quite a bill to live up to – and, for the most part, I am happy to report that it does.

There’s a strength of plot and of continuity with The Dead-Tossed Waves. We readers get ANSWERS in this book. We learn why some of the Mudo/Unconsecrated are fast, and some are slow; we finally see the origins of Mary’s village in the forest of hands and teeth; we learn about the outside world, how it is governed, and what future is available to the living, surviving amongst the undead.

Beyond the strengths in terms of plotting, The Dead-Tossed Waves works so well because of how tragically flawed and heartrendingly human all of its characters are. This novel is a continuation of The Forest of Hands and Teeth, but instead of following protagonist Mary, the novel follows Mary’s daughter in an interesting twist. Inevitably, this invites a whole bunch of comparisons between Mary and Gabry, as heroines and narrators. Gabry is not as winsome as her mother – but that’s a tough legacy to live up to. Heck, even Gabrielle knows this, as she constantly compares herself to her mother! Countless times, she extrapolates about her lack of strength, her lack of curiosity and lack of a sense of adventure – especially since her mother was willing to risk so much on a mere dream. Though, Gabry is much more like her mother than she gives herself credit for – she too makes a number of impulsive, not-so-hot decisions yet is strong in her own, different way. It should be said, however, that Gabry is ever-so-slightly irritating with her emotional equivocating between two devoted boys (seriously, where do YA heroines find these guys?), and in her tendency to put blame on herself for EVERYTHING (which reads as slightly ego-centric).

But… isn’t that what people are really like?

Not always brave and strong, not always right, not always knowing what they want, not in tune with where their hearts lie? I loved that Gabry was terrified, paralyzed by fear, and unlike Mary. In stark contrast to her mother, who grew up with dreams bigger than her village’s fences could contain and who lost her family to the Unconsecrated, Gabry has grown up in love, and in a home sheltered in safety. Does that make her “weak”? I don’t think so. In fact, it makes it harder for her, because she has so much more to lose. And the most endearing thing about Gabry is the fact that she is so afraid of the outside world, and in spite of that fear, she does take the risk and lives, challenging the barriers that have held the Unconsecrated/Mudo out, but also trapping her in, too. And that, dear readers, is really, really freaking cool.

Beyond the first-person protagonist, the other characters of The Dead-Tossed Waves are similarly endearing. Elias, the boy shrouded in mystery, is awesome. He is a shadowed, uncertain figure; an outsider that uses Gabry’s mother’s terminology to describe the Mudo – Unconsecrated. Then there’s Catcher, Gabry’s first love interest – who also is a very interesting character, connected to Gabry in a way that Elias never really can be.

All this said, The Dead-Tossed Waves is by no means a perfect novel. It falls short of its predecessor, straying towards the melodramatic in its last few chapters, with plot twists thrown in to tear apart characters for the sole reason of emotional exploitation. There’s also the familiar YA syndrome of two dreamy dudes head-over-heels in love with the same girl, and you know how that song goes. Yet, despite these minor drawbacks, The Dead-Tossed Waves is a beautiful, heartwrenching novel. These are very genuine characters, in an impossible, terrifying reality, confronted with the choice to survive, or to live.

And that, my friends, makes all the difference in the world.

You’ve got to love (or at least respect) an author that does not shy away from heartache. When you live in a forest of jagged teeth and sickly moans, on the shores of a sea teeming with bloated, ever-hungry corpses, you are unquestionably surrounded by death. Death is inevitable. And for all this sorrow and bitterness, The Dead-Tossed Waves is tempered with hope, and with love. That’s a wonderful, rare thing. Written throughout with Carrie Ryan’s dazzling, almost poetic, poignant prose, The Dead-Tossed Waves is a novel to be read over and over again.

I loved it. And I cannot wait for more from this incredibly talented author.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the first chapter:

The story goes that even after the Return they tried to keep the roller coasters going. They said it reminded them of the before time. When they didn’t have to worry about people rising from the dead, when they didn’t have to build fences and walls and barriers to protect themselves from the masses of Mudo constantly seeking human flesh. When the living weren’t forever hunted.

They said it made them feel normal.

And so even while the Mudo—neighbors and friends who’d been infected, died and Returned—pulled at the fences surrounding the amusement park, they kept the rides moving.

Even after the Forest was shut off, one last gasp at sequestering the infection and containing the Mudo, the carousel kept turning, the coasters kept rumbling, the teacups kept spinning. Though my town of Vista was far away from the core of the Protectorate, they hoped people would come fly along the coasters. Would still want to forget.

But then travel became too difficult. People were concerned with trying to survive and little could make them forget the reality of the world they lived in. The coasters slowly crumbled outside the old city perched at the tip of a long treacherous road along the coast. Everyone simply forgot about them, one other aspect of pre-Return life that gradually dimmed in the memories and stories passed down from year to year.

I never really thought about them until tonight—when my best friend’s older brother invites us to sneak past the Barriers and into the ruins of the amusement park with him and his friends.

“Come on, Gabry,” Cira whines, dancing around me. I can almost feel the energy and excitement buzzing off her skin. We stand next to the Barrier that separates Vista from the ruins of the old city, the thick wooden wall keeping the dangers of the world out and us safely in. Already a few of the older kids have skimmed over the top, their feet a flash against the night sky. I rub my palms against my legs, my heart a thrum in my chest.

There are a thousand reasons why I don’t want to go with them into the ruins, not the least of which is that it’s forbidden. But there’s one reason I do want to take the risk. I glance past Cira to her brother and his eyes catch mine. I can’t stop the seep of heat crawling up my neck as I dart my gaze away, hoping he didn’t notice me looking and at the same time desperately wishing he did.

“Gabry?” he asks, his head tilted to the side. From his lips my name curls around my ears. An invitation.

Afraid of the tangle of words twisting around my own tongue, I swallow and place my hand against the thick wood of the Barrier. I’ve never been past it before. It’s against the rules to leave the town without permission and it’s also risky. While mostof the ruins are bordered by old fences from after the Return, Mudo can still get through them. They can still attack us.

“We shouldn’t,” I say, more to myself than to Cira or Catcher. Cira just rolls her eyes; she’s already jumping with desire to join the others. She grabs my arm with a barely repressed squeal.

“This is our chance,” she whispers to me. I don’t tell her what I’ve been thinking—that it’s our chance to get in trouble at best and I don’t want to think about what could happen at worst.

But she knows me well enough to read my thoughts. “No one’s been infected in years,” she says, trying to convince me. “Catcher and them go out there all the time. It’s totally safe.”

Safe—a relative term. A word my mother always uses with a hard edge to her voice.

Additional Thoughts: Delacorte has released new covers for both The Forest of Hands and Teeth (for the paperback version), and the current cover of The Dead-Tossed Waves is another replacement for an earlier model. I, for one, prefer the older covers. The new ones are still rather pretty, but more…commercial. I suppose that’s a good thing for a book, but those first covers are so hauntingly gorgeous! Any thoughts?

Also, make sure to stop by later today as we host a stop on the official blog tour for Carrie Ryan’s release!

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next: A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire

Title: The Unwritten Rule

Author: Elizabeth Scott

Genre: YA / Romance

Publisher: Simon Pulse
Publication Date: March 17 2010
Hardcover: 224 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

Everyone knows the unwritten rule: You don’t like you best friend’s boyfriend.

Sarah has had a crush on Ryan for years. He’s easy to talk to, supersmart, and totally gets her. Lately it even seems like he’s paying extra attention to her. Everything would be perfect except for two things: Ryan is Brianna’s boyfriend, and Brianna is Sarah’s best friend.

Sarah forces herself to avoid Ryan and tries to convince herself not to like him. She feels so guilty for wanting him, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her best friend. But when she’s thrown together with Ryan one night, something happens. It’s wonderful…and awful.

Sarah is torn apart by guilt, but what she feels is nothing short of addiction, and she can’t stop herself from wanting more…

Why did I read the book: I have seen great reviews of Elizabeth Scott’s books and I thought this was a good place to start to reading her books.

How did I get the book: I requested a review copy from the publisher.

Review: (Warning: a few spoilers)

“There are a million rules for being a girl. There are a million things you have to do to get through each day. High school has things that can trip you up, ruin you, people smile and say one thing and mean another, and you have to know all the rules, you have to know what you can and can’t do. And one of them is this: You don’t kiss your best friend’s boyfriend. You don’t do it once. You certainly don’t do it twice.”

The unwritten rule: you don’t fall for your best friend’s boyfriend. Even if you liked him first. Even if you have liked him for years. Even if he likes you back. Except that we are all human beings and therefore flawed and there are some things that one simply cannot avoid: like irrevocably being in love with your best friend’s boyfriend.

A simple love story complicated by unfortunate circumstances: Sarah has loved Ryan forever but never acted on it for a series of reasons. But now, he is dating her best friend Brianna and being that much closer to him is making things even worse. It does not help that things don’t seem to be working that well between Ryan and Brianna and that Ryan and Sarah have so many things in common. And then one night, they kiss. And oh boy, it is everything she always wanted and more but what about Brianna, her best friend since kindergarten? She seems to love Ryan too – what can Sarah do?

I read The Unwritten Rule in one sitting and thought it was lovely although not without its problems. On the positive side, Sarah is a relatable character with a quirky voice, real emotions including the love for her cool parents, her love for art which she shared with Ryan and her friendship with Brianna which is a mixture of co-dependency and love. And Ryan is an absolutely a-do-ra-ble dork who so obviously liked Sarah as well.

On the not so positive side, even though the book is on the short side with just over 200 pages, there was still a feeling that the story was being unnecessarily dragged. As much as I had sympathy for Sarah and Ryan’ plight (if we can be so dramatic) and I felt the author did really get the psychological aspects to leap from the pages (I felt Sarah’s guilt as much as I felt her need to be with Ryan and his to be with her, you just can’t help but to root for the two of them) , it was also very clear that all was a matter of a simple conversation to be had. It was very, very frustrating to see that Ryan was so obviously not interested in Brianna at all and yet, why was he with her in the first place? It just didn’t compute with the fact that he was clearly a nice guy.

One of the most interesting things about the novel is how it is narrated by Sarah (first person, present tense with a few flashbacks) and how her narrative is tempered by her own view of things which are so evidently biased: not only by her own self esteem issues but also by her love for Brianna. For the reader though, who is not biased, and can see the other characters for who they really are, Sarah’s emotional journey is undermined by the fact that the reader absolutely knows where it is leading. And that is the greatest shortcoming of the novel: Sarah might have been blind to Brianna’s manipulative ways but the reader is not; and that removes from the equation what could have been the novel greatest strength: a true sense of friendship and guilt. Because the author takes the easy way out, by making Brianna the friend who is not really the good friend, therefore making it easier for the reader to side with Sarah and for Sarah to make a stand. Had it not been that way, the book might have been a great book, a fantastic book, with a real earth-shattering ending for all involved including the reader. As it stands it is a great coming of age for Sarah because Sarah does go through all the uncertainty of not knowing, of having to make a choice, of knowing that what she feels is both wrong and right but in the end I was left disappointed and with a sour taste in my mouth. At the beginning of the novel Sarah makes an astute observation that the sidekick best friend is always referred to in movies and novels as the loser or the funny friend. It is ironic how in the end the roles were reversed and the other best friend ended up with the role of the Bitch so that the sidekick could come up on top. Surely, we can have two good girls in one book, none of them stereotypes, both deserving happiness?

Rant aside, overall I actually enjoyed the novel, the chemistry between Ryan and Sarah and I thought the writing was first rate:

“Thanks,” I said, although I’m betting it sounded more like “Geratyuhrh,” and then I reached for the book and he gave it to me, his hands touching mine for a moment.
And then he said, “Sarah,” and touched my hand again. I looked down. My fingers were spotted with the dark green my father had wanted the garage painted, and his hands were spotted too, white and yellow, and the book slid to the floor as he did more than touch my hand. He held it, he slid his fingers into mine.
Our palms pressed together, and all I could think of was a line I’d read somewhere, about palms pressed together like a kiss, and he was still looking at me and then we were standing up, still holding hands, and he was close, so close and he was leaning in and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, could only watch and wait, hoping and breathless as he moved close and closer and –

I definitely want to read more by Elizabeth Scott.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

I am caught in a huge tangle I don’t know how to get out of. I want Ryan, but I don’t want to lose Brianna.

I open the door. Maybe it really can all work out. People have been to the moon and cured diseases and found ways to inject cream into snack cakes.

But that stuff doesn’t involve love. Or how you have to open the door to your crying best friend and know that you love her, you want to be there for her – but that you’ve done something that would make her cry too.

Additional Thoughts: Elizabeth Scott seems to have an interesting backlist – a mixture of light romance novels and more hardcore dramatic ones:

Everyone thinks their parents are embarrassing, but Hannah knows she’s got them all beat. Her dad made a fortune showing pretty girls–and his “party” lifestyle–all over the Internet, and her mom, who was once one of her dad’s girlfriends, is now the star of her own website. After getting the wrong kind of attention for far too long, Hannah has learned how to stay out of sight…and that’s how she likes it.

Of course, being unknown isn’t helping her get noticed by gorgeous, confident Josh, who Hannah knows is her soul mate. Between trying to figure out a way to get him to notice her, dealing with her parents, and wondering why she can’t stop thinking about another guy, Finn, Hannah feels like she’s going crazy. She’s determined to make things work out the way she wants….only what she wants may not be what she needs.

Lauren has a good life: decent grades, great friends, and a boyfriend every girl wants. So why is she so unhappy?

It takes the arrival of Evan Kirkland for Lauren to figure out the answer: she’s been holding back. She’s been denying herself a bunch of things (like sex) because staying with her loyal and gorgeous boyfriend, Dave, is the “right” thing to do. After all, who would give up the perfect guy?

But as Dave starts talking more and more about their life together, planning a future Lauren simply can’t see herself in– and as Lauren’s craving for Evan, and moreover, who she is with Evan becomes all the more fierce–Lauren realizes she needs to make a choice…before one is made for her.

Have you read any of Elizabeth Scott’s books? Do you like them? Which should I read next?

Verdict: This book has some lovely writing and a sympathetic protagonist and a couple with real chemistry to root for. It is a shame that the tension of the main plot is moot and undermined by a cop-out.

Rating: 6 – Good

Reading Next: Scarlett Fever by Maureen Johnson

Our giveaway of Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten has officially come to a close, and we’ve got THREE lucky giveaway winners to announce.

Nina was beautiful, wild, and adored by her younger sister, Ellie. But, one day, Nina disappeared. Two years later, everyone has given up home that Nina will return, but Ellie knows her sister is out there. If only Ellie had a clue where to look. Then she gets one, in the form of a mysterious drawing. Determined to find Nina, Ellie takes off on a crazy, sexy, cross-country road trip with the only person who believes she’s got a chance—her hot, adventurous new crush. Along the way, Ellie finds a few things she wasn’t planning on. Like love. Lies. And the most shocking thing of all: the truth.

And the lucky winners are:

Congratulations to the winners! Now, you know the drill. Send us an email (contact AT thebooksmugglers DOT com) with your snail mail address, and we will get your winnings out to you as soon as possible!

Thank you to all that entered!

Title: Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium

Author: Robert C. Rodgers, illustrated by Todd Wills

Genre: Steampunk, Fantasy, Adventure, Comedy, Young Adult

Publisher: Steam-Powered Press
Publication Date: October 2009
Paperback: 288 pages

In an era of bygone anachronisms and steam-powered ambulatory engines, a sharp-witted street-thief with a heart of semi-precious metal finds herself locked in a battle of wits against a secret plot to bring the city she loves to its knees. Arcadia will need to enlist the help of a reformed mad scientist, a stern suffragette, and a persnickety pigeon to unravel the mysterious past of the Steamwork Consortium – and stop the cabal of sinister mathematicians who would use that past to destroy all of Aberwick. Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium is both a cautionary tale against reckless mathematics and an accurate historical account all rolled up into one. In fact, the story is so accurate that you might consider it more of a history lecture than an illustrated novel.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Review Copy from the author

Why did I read this book: Though we mostly review books from larger publishers, we also like to share the love with independent/self/small-presses too – provided the book sounds like something we want to read. When we received a review query from the author of the book last year, I read the synopsis and first chapter online and was instantly hooked – and what better a time to review this novel than during Steampunk Week?

Review:

“Dear Madame,” the letter read. “Although we remain appreciative of your continued attempts to bring a feminine touch to the world of aeronautics, the Royal Society of Aviation regrets to inform you that your design shall fly only once swine have taken to the skies.”

The letter was framed and mounted on the dining room wall.

So begins Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium (henceforth Arcadia Snips), described quite aptly in its tagline as “Being A Wholly Accurate Historical Account Concerning Matters Of Steam, Skullduggery, And The Irresponsible Application Of Reckless Mathematics In The 19th Century.” Of all the books I’ve read this week (so far), Arcadia Snips is by far the most traditionally Steampunkish (Steampunky?). Taking place in the late nineteenth century, the novel includes no shortage of creative machines, flying contraptions, and other steam-powered miscellanea. There’s even political intrigue, a dash of romance, and Great Peril – all of this in spades. Alternating storylines between “the past” (twenty years in the past), in which an unlikely partnership forms between three far-sighted individuals, and the present, in which a thief named Arcadia finds herself in the employ of a powerful Count, as his consultant in the Watts and Sons Detective Agency’s investigation of the murder of Basil Copper.

Arcadia Snips, the titled protagonist, is a delightfully quirky heroine in this delightfully quirky book. Just look at our initial introduction to her:

Beneath Arcadia Sinps’ derby hat and short black curls was the face of a silver-fanged cherub — a mocha-toned antel with enough charm to sell a pack of matches to a man doused in lamp oil. But whenever she grinned, the very tip of that silver fang would tuck over the edge of her bottom tooth. It gave her a savage, frightful look.

It is also worth mentioning that we first meet Arcadia as she is shackled in prison (having escaped from jail twice, and about to accomplish this wriggling, lock-defying feat for the third time in a row). She’s a thief, a wise-cracker, and, again, altogether delightful with her wit and verve. And while Arcadia on her own as a protagonist would be enough personality for this book teeming with silly cleverness, she also has a male counterpart in young William Daffodil, the son of two “mad scientists” (that greatly endangered the city of Aberwick in the past storyline) and a young man that is much more interested in the safety of mathematics than the perils of mad science. This pair…well, they just work.

Beyond these protagonists, there are the “past” characters that are wonderful in and of themselves – Abigail Parsley, for example, has one of the best opening sequences in the book. We also get into the minds of villains, a most unique perspective.

What I loved the most about Arcadia Snips, beyond the characters, was the pure delight of reading the book entails. It’s silly, to be sure, but so witty and absurdly fun, it’s all the better for it. Dialogue between characters verges on the persnickety and crazed at times, but the authenticity and eminent readability of this novel make it all worth it. For every misstep, there’s a gem like this:

The city of Aberwick was a topographical nightmare wrested from the laudanum-fueled fever dreams of half-mad cartographers. It was cradled in a yawning canyon of volcanic rock, with communities swelling up into massive heaps of brick and timber; the trains flowed aside, above, and even through these mounds.

As I said, truly wonderful stuff.

I also should mention that Arcadia Snips is an illustrated novel, with the visual stylings of artist Todd Wills. While I’m not a huge fan of the cover (a bit cartoony and a strange color scheme – does the cover version of Arcadia look like Calamity Jack to anyone else?), I do love the black and white illustrations within as they capture the book’s mood perfectly.

I’m always a little bit scared of taking on independently or self-published books – but books like Arcadia Snips remind me of why I agree to do so in the first place. Every now and then a true undiscovered gem comes along, and I’m happy to say that this book is one of them.

Whole-heartedly recommended to all looking for a farcical, somewhat deranged (in a good way!) steampunk read. Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium is a delight.

BUT IS IT STEAMPUNK? Oh, hell yes. It’s the most traditionally steampunk novel I’ve read this week!

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the introduction:

ACT 1

“In yet another example of tragically misapplied genius, the mysterious anarchist who calls himself Professor Hemlock has done it again—several of the Eastern Aberwick Bank’s calculation engines have been crippled through the irresponsible application of reckless mathematics. The rogue chaotician claimed responsibility for the financial disaster in a letter delivered to the Isle Gazette (see page 9a), citing the company’s cutthroat business tactics, support of imperialism, and rude bank tellers as justification. Authorities continue to investigate the anarchist’s activities while urging all citizens to behave no differently during this time of fiscal duress. Meanwhile, one question lingers upon the lips of every man, woman, and child: Who is Professor Hemlock?”
—Front page of the Isle Gazette, ‘PROFESSOR HEMLOCK STRIKES AGAIN’

Additional Thoughts: The coolest part about Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium? It’s available in its totality for FREE online!

You can check out the book’s website HERE and the illustrator’s website HERE. To download a free PDF copy of the book, go HERE. You won’t regret it.

Rating: 7 – Very Good

Reading Next: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Title: Airborn

Author: Kenneth Oppel

Genre: Young Adult, Steampunk, Fantasy

Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: May 2005
Paperback: 544 pages

Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow’s nest, being the ship’s eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there’d been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt’s always wanted; convinced he’s lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist’s granddaughter that he realizes that the man’s ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.

In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 in the Matt Cruse trilogy

How did I get this book: Bought

Why did I read this book: I’ve heard nothing but praise for the works of Kenneth Oppel, and when looking for a new YA novel to read for Steampunk Week, Airborn was the clear choice.

Review:

Matt Cruse was born in the sky.

The son of a dedicated airman, Matt has always longed to fly like his father. And, after his father’s death, Matt finally gets to live out his wish, serving on his father’s old ship, the Aurora, as a cabin boy. Two years in service, the luxury airship comes across a marooned balloon in their path – and young Matt helps to bring the balloon’s sole inhabitant on board to safety. This old adventurer asks Matt if he had seen “them” – beautiful, flying creatures in the sky – just before he dies. One year later, Matt is still hard at work on the Aurora as a cabin boy, having lost out on his opportunity to advance to a junior sailmaker position (to a well-connected, rich young man). Though his hopes are temporarily dashed, Matt is always happiest in the air, and relishes his time aboard the magnificent ship. Then, he meets a girl named Kate de Vries – sassy, intelligent, and adventurous…as well as rich, pretty, and spoiled. As it turns out, Kate is the granddaughter of the man Matt rescued a year prior, and she is travelling on the Aurora with a very specific mission to discover exactly what her grandfather saw. Matt and Kate, despite their difference in class, become fast friends and work together to find answers, and elusive proof of Kate’s grandfather’s magnificent, winged creatures. Of course, things are never so easily accomplished and a number obstacles present themselves – namely pirates, a shipwreck, more pirates, and wild, unfettered danger.

Airborn is a rollicking adventure novel, blending aeronautics with compelling characters, stunning images, and a swashbuckling plot. It’s kind of like Titanic the The Swiss Family Robinson meets Up meets Treasure Island meets Die Hard in the sky. Sounds like an unlikely, unappetizing mix? Let me assure you, gentle readers, I mean this multi-genre/film/book mishmash comparison in the best possible way. I LOVE ALL OF THESE THINGS.

Ergo, I love Airborn.

At 500 pages, Airborn is a swift, unputdownable read. Narrated by Matt Cruse in a clear, level-headed, youthfully honest voice, this book managers to tread familiar waters – or rather, fly familiar skies, a more apropos metaphor – with pirates, young love across class differences, shipwrecks, and mythical bird creatures, and yet still feel fresh and exhilarating. This is the kind of adventure story I want to pass on to younger, reluctant readers, to get them excited about books, about the escapist, fun experience reading can be.

And fun Airborn truly is. Matt Cruse’s world is familiar in its Victorian-type era and aesthetic (impressive, dominant airships, strong class-dividing lines, era-specific wardrobes, etiquette and mannerisms), but Mr. Oppel manages to put a new, steampunk worthy spin on his technology, inventing an entirely new element called “hydrium,” lighter than hydrogen (enabling massive airships to fly to great altitudes without the need for gas or steam power) that smells, strangely, of mangoes. Throughout the book, it is little touches like this that make the setting seem completely natural, and the world plausible (for example, as Matt guides Kate on a tour of the Aurora he points out the many “Depressionist” paintings on display in the cigar room).

In addition to the swashbucking, altogether wondrous plot and worldbuilding, the characters are what make Airborn soar. Kate, as the headstrong and adventurous (dare I say young Amelia Peabody-esque – minus the parasol and ample…well, you know) young heroine is feisty and winsome, more so because she is not without her flaws. In addition to having the usual YA fantasy heroine traits (smart, driven, restless with the constraints of her class and family expectations), she also is uppity, spoiled, and careless – and it’s cool to see that. She’s not perfect, but that’s ok – she’s all the more real and endearing for it. But the true showstealer in Airborn is young Matt Cruse – Cabin Boy, narrator, and heart-wrenchingly honest young man. Matt’s voice is pure and resonant; he shares his fears and emotions without reserve, allowing readers to truly get a feel for this remarkable young protagonist. He’s (obviously) smitten with Kate, but infuriated by her manner at times too, and the interactions between these two characters is alternately tender and hilarious. They make quite the duo on their adventures together, and I cannot wait for more.

If you couldn’t tell, I truly loved Airborn. It’s a feast for the Young Adult, but also for the older, more world-weary reader, looking for pirate-story adventures to sweep them away on a current of mango scented Hydrium.

Plus, Airborn ends with the best closing line ever.

BUT IS IT STEAMPUNK? Hell freakin’ yeah it is. Ok, it’s light on the “punk” component. It doesn’t really challenge or critique society in any way – but the imaginative (yet still relatively simple) technology is central to the story, and it is set in a very Steampunk appropriate world. The book basically takes place on an airship, which isn’t just for show – we readers learn how it works, how the world looks, and what dangers accompany this strange technology. There’s also an almost a “Darwin goes to Galapagos” feel to the book so far as Kate and Matt’s excursions to discover the mysterious Cloud Cats and – very era and sub-genre appropriate.

Notable Quotes/Parts: From the official excerpt:

“Sir, there’s a ship headed towards us!”

The airship was small, and I could now see why I’d not picked her out earlier. Her skin was painted black, and she carried no running beacons anywhere. No light emanated from the Control Car either. Her side bore no markings, no name or number. It was only her dark sheen from the moon’s light that made her visible at all.

“She’s at ten o’clock and sailing straight for us, half a mile.”

“Bear away,” I heard the first office tell his rudder-man. “Elevator up six degrees. Summon the captain.”

That meant we were going into a climb. The Aurora was as responsive as a falcon. Stars streamed to my left as the ship began her turn, angling heavenward. High in the crowsnest, I swivelled in my chair so I could watch the smaller vessel. As we turned and climbed, she turned and climbed with us, keeping herself on a collision course. This was no mistake. She was chasing us. She was smaller and faster than the Aurora, and I could feel the vibration of our engines at full capacity. We would not be able to outrun her.

“Where is she, Mr. Cruse?”
“She’s changed course, but still coming right at us. Closing, at eight o’clock.”
“Raise her on the radio!” I heard the first officer shouting out to the wireless officer.
“She’s not responding.”

A collision seemed sure now, but for what purpose?

“Distance, Cruse!”
“Some two hundred yards, sir.”
“Send out a distress call,” I heard Mr. Rideau instruct the wireless operator.
“We’re too far out, sir,” Mr. Bayard’s voice replied.

It was clear there was no shaking her, this sleek black raptor shadowing us through the night sky.

“She’s angling up, sir,” I said into the speaking tube, “as though she means to overshoot us.”

“Take us down, Mr. Riddihoff, take us down five degrees, with haste!”

I felt the Aurora pivot and her bow dip. My ears popped and heaviness rose through me. I swirled in my seat, peering up and almost over the ship’s stern as the airship pulled closer, altering course as seamlessly as if she’d anticipated our moves.
“Fifty yards off our stern!” I shouted into the speaking tube. “Forty, thirty . . . she’s pulling up over our tail.”

And so she was, this predatory airship, skimming over our tail fins and gradually overtaking us, only a few dozen feet overhead.

“She’s directly overhead, sir, matching us.”

We were levelling out now and so was the other airship. Less than half our size, she was like some agile black shark hounding a whale.

“Hard about, please.”

Through the speaking tube it was the captain’s voice I heard now, and I felt a surge of confidence to know he was on the bridge. He would see us through this. Again the Aurora swivelled, trying to throw off her predator, but once more the smaller ship matched our movements, slinking over us like a shadow. A spotlight flared from its underside, and I saw ropes springing from open bay doors and unfurling towards the Aurora.

“She’s dropping lines on us!” I shouted into the speaking tube.

Pirates! That was all they could be.

“They’re trying to board,” the captain said. “Dive and roll to starboard, please.”

The lines were weighted, for they hit the ship and didn’t slide off. I saw six men already dropping down towards me. But then the Aurora banked sharply, dipped, and the lines slewed off the Aurora’s back, leaving the men dangling in mid-air.

“Ha! You’ll not have us!” I shouted, shaking my fist.

But the pirate airship was already adjusting its course, keeping pace, and as it forced us closer to the waves, we would have less space to manoeuvre. There was a great flash from the pirate ship’s underbelly and a thunderous volley of cannon fire scorched the night sky across our bow.

A voice carried by bullhorn shuddered the air.
“Put your nose to the wind and cut speed.”

There was no need for me to repeat this into the speaking tube for I knew they had heard it in the Control Car. There was a moment of silence, and I could imagine them all down there, standing very straight and still, the elevator men and rudder-men watching the captain, awaiting his command. He had no choice. That cannon could sink us in an instant.

“Level off and put her into the wind, please,” said Captain Walken. “Throttle back the engines to one-quarter. Thank you.”

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Airborn is actually the first book in a trilogy following the adventures of Matt and Kate – the next two books are Skybreaker and Starclimber:

Former cabin boy Matt Cruse, now a student at the prestigious Airship Academy, is first to identify the Hyperion, the private airship of a reclusive and fabulously wealthy inventor that disappeared forty years ago with its owner. Armed with the Hyperion’s coordinates, which only he possesses, Matt, heiress Kate de Vries, and a mysterious young gypsy board the Sagarmatha, an airship fitted with the new skybreaker engines that will allow them to reach the Hyperion, 20,000 feet above the earth’s surface. Pursued by others who want the Hyperion and will stop at nothing to get it, and surrounded by dangerous high-altitude life forms, Matt and his companions are soon fighting not only for the Hyperion but for their very lives.

In this thrilling sequel to Airborn, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Kenneth Oppel evokes the classic storytelling of Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne, creating a world in which a new discovery can have unimagined consequences — on earth and miles above it.

“Mr. Cruse, how high would you like to fly?”

A smile soared across my face.

“As high as I possibly can.”

Pilot-in-training Matt Cruse and Kate de Vries, expert on high-altitude life-forms, are invited aboard the Starclimber, a vessel that literally climbs its way into the cosmos. Before they even set foot aboard the ship, catastrophe strikes:

Kate announces she is engaged – and not to Matt.

Despite this bombshell, Matt and Kate embark on their journey into space, but soon the ship is surrounded by strange and unsettling life-forms, and the crew is forced to combat devastating mechanical failure. For Matt, Kate, and the entire crew of the Starclimber, what began as an exciting race to the stars has now turned into a battle to save their lives.

Award-winning and bestselling author Kenneth Oppel brings us back to a rich world of flight and fantasy in this breathtaking new sequel to Airborn and Skybreaker.

The series has an awesome interactive website, chock full of great extras. I highly recommend you go forth and check it out.

Rating: 8 – Excellent, and I cannot wait to pick up the next two books in the series!

Reading Next: Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium by Robert C. Rodgers

Title: The Sky Is Everywhere

Author: Jandy Nelson

Genre YA / Contemporary

Publisher: Dial
Publication Date: March 9 2010
Hardcover: 288 pages

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.

How did I get this book: ARC from publisher

Why did I read this book: When we were contacted by the publisher offering a copy of the book and I read the blurb and saw the AMAZING cover, I immediately said yes: it does have Ana-Crack spelt all over it.

Review:

Lennie’s sister is dead. Without as much as a presage, Bailey simply collapses one day at school and just like that, puff, she is gone. Left behind are those who love her the most and who must deal with her sudden absence: her sister Lennie, her boyfriend Toby, her grandmother, the one who raised her.

The Sky is Everywhere is narrated by Lennie whose first person narrative takes the reader into a journey – an exploration of grief and of sadness (at least to begin with). As the story starts Lennie has recently lost her sister and is preparing to get back to school. She has effectively shut herself to the world and won’t talk to anybody about her sister. Bailey was her closest family member (their hippy mother abandoned them when they were children and they never knew their father) and she won’t talk to her grandmother or to her best friend ; the only way she communicates with the world around her about the immense sense of hurt, confusion and loss she feels is by writing pieces of poetry that are scattered around town and which open almost every chapter:

The morning of the day Bailey died,
she woke me up
by putting her finger in my ear.
I hated when she did this.
She then started trying on shirts, asking me:
Which do you like better, the green or the blue?
The blue.
You didn’t even look up, Lennie.
Okay, the green. Really, I don’t care what shirt you wear…
Then I rolled over in bed and fell back asleep.
I found out later
she wore the blue
and those were the last words I ever spoke to her.

(Found written on a lollipop wrapper on the trail to the Rain River)

And then there is Toby, Bailey’s beloved boyfriend. Before her death, Lennie never got along with him but after her sister is gone something happens and Toby and Lennie grow closer together. What brings them together is a mixture of grief and being able to understand one another in their shared memory of Bailey. Their relationship evolves though, to something else and in this something else, there is also guilt and shame.

At the same time at school, Joe Fontaine, a new student, recently arrived from France, is a breath of fresh air, a welcome relief from the sadness, someone who is interested in her, and who shares her passion for music (he plays guitar, she plays clarinet).

It is in this between world of being at one times relentlessly sombre and at others recklessly happy that most of The Sky is Everywhere takes place. And it is such an extraordinary book!

It takes an honest look at the process of grieving and it says: here, not two people in the world grieve in the same manner. This is Lennie’s story and this is how it goes. And it is raw and painful at times, especially at those moments when Lennie is with Toby because of the guilty involved and because everybody knows that it is a mistake: Lennie, Toby, the reader. But the pull is there, even if it is senseless and illogical and difficult to understand and accept . But being with Toby reminds her and him of Bailey. It makes them not forget. And this is what matters to them – that they have such an intense love for Bailey that they would do anything to not let go.

At the same time, being with Joe is the direct opposite. He is able to pull her off her musical shelf, he wants to know about her and her alone. There is nothing about Bailey when she is with Joe and that and the joy she feels when with him, makes her forget, and that forgetfulness when hits homes, is also cause for guilt and grief.

And the absolutely wonderful thing about the book is that the writing conveys a sense of intimacy in which all of those feelings are mirrored in the reader. Many times, I found myself laughing and falling in love with Joe Fontaine, only to catch myself in middle of the act along with Lennie, to remember: Bailey died. And it was hard.

Hardest of all to Lennie because more than a book about death and grief, this a book about love and life and really, a coming of age story. She gets to be her own woman, to get under the shadow of her older sister, to do her own things, to make several (many, and horrible) and fix them. Because the one thing that happens as soon as Bailey dies, is how alive, awakened Lennie feels (and yes, horny ) and it makes it all the more powerful and raw because she is aware that she is awakening when her sister is sleeping forever. The book might sound like a downer or dark but it is not really. In fact, the story is replete with humorous passages and adorable sequences especially between (the awesome) Joe Fontaine (who kept being a fool around Lennie just so she could say to him “quel dork” ) and beautiful turn of phrases.

Jandy Nelson’s Debut is incredible, I loved it and I can’t recommend it enough.

Notable Quotes/ Parts:

“Thank you,” I say, for the hundredth time that day. Sarah and Joe are both looking at me too, Sarah with concern and Joe with a grin the size of the continental United States. Does he look at everyone like this, I wonder. Is he a wingnut? Well, whatever he is, or has, it’s catching. Before I know it, I’ve matched his continental U.S. and raised him Puerto Rico and Hawaii. I must look like The Merry Mourner. Sheesh. And that’s not all, because now I’m thinking what it might be like to kiss him, to really kiss him—uh-oh. This is a problem, an entirely new un-Lennie-like problem that began (WTF-edly?!) at the funeral: I was drowning in darkness and suddenly all these boys in the room were glowing. Guy friends of Bailey’s from work or college, most of whom I didn’t know, kept coming up to me saying how sorry they were, and I don’t know if it’s because they thought I looked like Bailey, or because they felt bad for me, but later on, I’d catch some of them staring at me in this charged, urgent way, and I’d find myself staring back at them, like I was someone else, thinking things I hardly ever had before, things I’m mortified to have been thinking in a church, let alone at my sister’s funeral.

This boy beaming before me, however, seems to glow in a class all his own. He must be from a very friendly part of the Milky Way, I’m thinking as I try to tone down this nutso smile on my face, but instead almost blurt out to Sarah, “He looks like Heathcliff,” because I just realized he does, well, except for the happy smiling part—but then all of a sudden the breath is kicked out of me and I’m shoved onto the cold hard concrete floor of my life now, because I remember I can’t run home after school and tell Bails about a new boy in band.

My sister dies over and over again, all day long.

Additional Thoughts: I think book trailers are getting better and better. The one for this book is simple and yet, effective. And I love the music because the music is such a big part of the book.

Verdict: A highly emotional, deeply beautiful look at what it feels like to lose someone you love whilst at the same time learning to love someone new. Sad and funny, always charming and with great sympathetic characters, The Sky is Everywhere is a wonderful debut.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next: It’s Steampunk week ahead!

Title: Incarceron

Author: Catherine Fisher

Genre: Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult

Publisher: Dial (US) / Hodder Children’s Books (UK)
Publication Date: January 2010 / May 2007
Hardcover: 448 Pages (US)

Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible.

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside—she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don’t realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye, and escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know. Because Incarceron is alive.

Stand alone or series: Book 1 of the Incarceron Series

How did I get this book: Review Copy from the publisher

Why did I read this book: Incarceron has garnered a lot of buzz online – I’ve been seeing widgets for it all over the place. Not to mention, it’s a dystopian YA novel, about a living prison. How could I resist? I immediately began hounding folks for a review copy.

Review:

Incarceron is a vast, encompassing prison. Instead of steel bars and cell blocks, however, Incarceron is a world in itself; it is a metal world where nothing is created nor wasted, where stars and sky are near forgotten fairy tales, where all live in a cutthroat world, fighting for food and survival. Even more than that, Incarceron is alive – it observes everything that goes on within its walls, it’s red seeing eye omnipresent to the mortals within. Incarceron is all they have ever known – although there is a myth about one man, a prophet named Sapphique, that was the only one able to escape to the mysterious outside.

Finn is a child of Incarceron, remembering only when he woke up in a dark, squalid cell two years ago, mad with fear and lost memories. Now seventeen, Finn has been forced by circumstance to join a crew of “Scum” – that is, ruthless thieves and bandits, that call themselves the Comitatus. One day, Finn makes a shocking discovery – a crystal key, whose design matches the tattoo on Finn’s wrist. The key, which Finn and those around him believe could be the way out of Incarceron, also turns out to be a communication device, and Finn finds himself able to speak to a mysterious girl, named Claudia.

On the outside of Incarceron, Claudia is the daughter of the Incarceron’s Warden, and set to marry the prince of the realm. Frustrated with her bleak future and the cutthroat political games in which she finds herself ensnared, Claudia is determined to prove that the monarchy is corrupt, and to find a way to instigate change in the static, innovation-fearing kingdom – and the way she plans to do this, is to discover Incarceron’s secrets. When she finds a crystal key in her father’s study, she finds a link to a world that is nothing like the ideal utopia that Incarceron was supposed to be – and she and Finn must work together to bring him out of Incarceron, and into the “real” world.

And with Incarceron itself watching, waiting, and toying with its inhabitants, Claudia and Finn’s task is no small feat.

Incarceron is an amazing feat of a novel from author Catherine Fisher. The book, actually initially published in the UK back in 2007, is part dystopian critique, part science fiction parable, part fantasy. This is not an easy blend to pull together, but Ms. Fisher does it with aplomb. Her world building in particular is PHENOMENAL. I loved the oddity of advanced technology in a royalty-imposed archaic time period – the monarchs and nobles emulate the late medieval western model of courts, down to the dress, castles and mannerisms. But this is not a medieval society! Claudia’s world has incredibly advanced technology, from “skin wands” to give humans the permanent appearance of youth to programable holograms, to artificial intelligence and reality-shifting tools. Despite this technology, however, those in power have resisted any change, abandoning their advanced tools in order to embrace the ways of old, in an attempt to control the population – which rings as very familiar. There’s also Incarceron itself, which is a whole new world on its own. Initially an experiment to create a perfect world for the unruly masses, of course went wrong. The concept of a utopia that is actually a dystopia isn’t really a new one, but this Ms. Fisher writes it so well, and with such awesome variation within Incarceron itself, of A.I. gone horribly awry, it hardly matters.

In terms of plotting, Incarceron is also surefooted, as it packs in revelation upon revelation, surprises, and twists at an expert pace. I could not put Incarceron down – Ms. Fisher is one hell of a storyteller.

Finally, what is a book without its characters? The cast of this novel is similarly well-rounded, though at first glance, they are very standard, fantasy archetypes. There’s the rebellious, intelligent (and beautiful) future queen; the orphaned boy thief with a heart of gold and a destiny to save the land; the calm, wise teacher; the jealous, handsome, morally-ambiguous best friend; the ragamuffin tag along girl; the zealous, prophecy-driven priest; the power-usurping, beautifully cruel queen; etc. These are very familiar character molds, no doubt about it – but as Incarceron progresses, the characters are shown in different ways. Not one thing is exactly how it seems, and that goes for characters as well. In particular, I loved the character of Claudia’s father – the cold, immutable, powerful Warden of Incarceron, Lord John Arlex. I loved the insights to his character throughout the book, especially in his strained relationship with Claudia’s tutor, Jared, and the Warden’s terrified – yet defiant – daughter, Claudia. (There’s one particular scene near the end of the book between these three characters that is made of mind-blowing awesomeness.)

So far as protagonists go, Claudia is as plucky as they come, but it is Finn that captures hearts with his vision, his trusting friendships, and his courage. The other character I truly enjoyed is the morally ambiguous Keiro – handsome and power-hungry, different characters have different interpretations of Keiro. Finn, as his oath-brother, is tied to Keiro by an unbreakable bond – should one of them die, it is the other’s responsibility to avenge them at any cost. And, as a loyal friend, Finn knows Keiro’s flaws, his hunger for power, his recklessness, but he also believes that underneath it all, Keiro would do anything for Finn. Other characters, however, are not so generous, as Keiro is seen as a rogue, out only to use Finn to get him out of Incarceron, no matter the cost. In any case, Keiro is a character that isn’t easy to peg, and I’m excited to see what happens with him in the next book.

With its breathtaking world-building, admirable characters, and exceptional plotting, Incarceron is a dystopian, sci-fi gem. I loved it, and I cannot wait for the next book in the series, Sapphique!

Notable Quotes/Parts: From Chapter 1:

Finn had been flung on his face and chained to the stone slabs of the transitway.

His arms, spread wide, were weighted with links so heavy, he could barely drag his wrists off the ground. His ankles were tangled in a slithering mass of metal, bolted through a ring in the pavement. He couldn’t raise his chest to get enough air. He lay exhausted, the stone icy against his cheek.

But the Civicry were coming at last.

He felt them before he heard them; vibrations in the ground, starting tiny and growing until they shivered in his teeth and nerves. Then noises in the darkness, the rumble of migration trucks, the slow hollow clang of wheel rims. Dragging his head around, he shook dirty hair out of his eyes and saw how the parallel grooves in the floor arrowed straight under his body. He was chained directly across the tracks.

Sweat slicked his forehead. Gripping the frosted links with one glove he hauled his chest up and gasped in a breath. The air was acrid and smelled of oil.

It was no use yelling yet. They were too far off and wouldn’t hear him over the clamor of the wheels until they were well into the vast hall. He would have to time it exactly. Too late, and the trucks couldn’t be stopped, and he would be crushed. Desperately, he tried to avoid the other thought. That they might see him and hear him and not even care.

Lights.

Small, bobbing, handheld lights. Concentrating, he counted nine, eleven, twelve; then counted them again to have a number that was firm, that would stand against the nausea choking his throat.

Nuzzling his face against the torn sleeve for some comfort he thought of Keiro, his grin, the last mocking little slap as he’d checked the lock and stepped back into the dark. He whispered the name, a bitter whisper: “Keiro.”

Vast halls and invisible galleries swallowed it. Fog hung in the metallic air. The trucks clanged and groaned.

He could see people now, trudging. They emerged from the darkness so muffled against the cold, it was hard to tell if they were children or old, bent women. Probably children—the aged, if they kept any, would ride on the trams, with the goods. A black-and-white ragged flag draped the leading truck; he could see its design, a heraldic bird with a silver bolt in its beak.

“Stop!” he called. “Look! Down here!”

The grinding of machinery shuddered the floor. It whined in his bones. He clenched his hands as the sheer weight and impetus of the trucks came home to him, the smell of sweat from the massed ranks of men pushing them, the rattle and slither of piled goods. He waited, forcing his terror down, second by second testing his nerve against death, not breathing, not letting himself break, because he was Finn the Starseer, he could do this. Until from nowhere a sweating panic erupted and he heaved himself up and screamed, “Did you hear me! Stop! Stop!”

They came on.

The noise was unbearable. Now he howled and kicked and struggled, because the terrible momentum of the loaded trucks would slide relentlessly, loom over him, darken him, crush his bones and body in slow inevitable agony.

You can read the full excerpt online HERE.

Additional Thoughts: As I mentioned above, Incarceron was originally published in the UK in 2007. Similarly, the sequel to Incarceron has already been published in the UK, though it makes its way to the US early next year. Here’s the skinny:

Finn has escaped from the terrible living Prison of Incarceron, but its memory torments him, because his brother Keiro is still inside. Outside, Claudia insists he must be king, but Finn doubts even his own identity. Is he the lost prince Giles? Or are his memories no more than another construct of his imprisonment? And can you be free if your friends are still captive? Can you be free if your world is frozen in time? Can you be free if you don’t even know who you are? Inside Incarceron, has the crazy sorcerer Rix really found the Glove of Sapphique, the only man the Prison ever loved. Sapphique, whose image fires Incarceron with the desire to escape its own nature. If Keiro steals the glove, will he bring destruction to the world? Inside. Outside. All seeking freedom. Like Sapphique.

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out the cool book trailer for Incarceron:

Verdict: A truly awesome blend of science fiction and fantasy in a future dystopian setting, Incarceron is a book not to be missed. Easily one of my favorite reads of 2010 thus far, and recommended to all.

Rating: 8 – Excellent

Reading Next: Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrison

Title: NUM8ERS

Author: Rachel Ward

Genre: Speculative Fiction, Young Adult

Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic (US & UK)
Publication Date: January 2009 (UK) / February 2010 (US)
Hardcover: 336 pages (US)

Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die. Burdened with such awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today’s number. Today’s date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem’s world is about to explode!

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I read this book: Review Copy from the publisher

Why did I read this book: The cover completely caught my eye, and despite the immense cheesiness of the blurb, I was hooked by the premise of the book. Plus, I really loved the last Chicken House title I read (the supremely excellent Raiders’ Ransom by Emily Diamant), and Numbers was a similar competition-winning novella that was turned into a book. I’m a sucker for this kind of thing.

Review:

NUM8ERS is Rachel Ward’s debut novel about a young girl named Jem, and a unique ability. When Jem looks into peoples’ eyes, she can see their number; that is, Jem can see the date of any person’s death. It’s a realization that Jem has made when she was seven after discovering her own mother dead of a heroin overdose. Now, at fifteen years old, Jem has been shuffled to different foster homes, labeled as a problem child for her taciturn behavior and disinterest in school and lack of direction. After cutting class from her latest school, she comes across one of her peers – a lanky, exuberant boy named Spider. And Jem notices immediately that Spider only has a few short weeks left to live. Against her instincts and her own strict rules, Jem begins to spend time with Spider, and the two become friends quickly, bonding in their shared differences. One afternoon on an attempt to impress Jem, Spider takes her on a trip to the London Eye – but Jem soon notices something bizarre and unsettling; everyone at the Eye has the same death date. Freaked out, she drags Spider running from the site, only to see the Eye get blown up a few minutes later. The police hear reports of the two teens fleeing the scene before the blast, and a nationwide search is on for them – and both Jem and Spider fear that they will be thrown into prison forever as scapegoats for the terrorist attack. Both of them know that no one could possibly believe that a screw-up foster kid and stereotyped black, drug dealing teen could have predicted the impossible. Together, Jem and Spider make their way across the English countryside, sleeping in the cold and avoiding towns at all costs. But as the authorities close in on them – and with Spider’s own death date looming – Jem must face a harsh reality.

NUM8ERS is author Rachel Ward’s first novel, which made it to publication after catching the eye of a Chicken House editor at the Frome Festival. And, as a debut novel, NUM8ERS has a lot of good to recommend it, but is not without its unevenness and weaknesses. The strongest thing about Ms. Ward’s debut is in the strength of her characters. As a character study, NUM8ERS soars. I absolutely freaking *loved* how the characters were DIFFERENT from the suburbanite white kids one always reads about in YA novels. Jem is screwed up. Like, really screwed up in the head. But it’s incredibly believable, and compelling. If you saw your mother overdose on heroin and were shipped around from home to home, and could see the impending deaths of everyone around you once you made eye contact with them, you’d be screwed up too. Jem’s not likeable, nor is she “cute” or perky or smart or anything like that – she’s simply Jem. Quiet, sullen, overwhelmingly (yet understandably) negative Jem. And, in spite of her curmudgeonly exterior and at times vitriolic thoughts, she’s an eminently relatable, genuine character. A lot of the time, mainstream YA novels tend to stick with characterizations that safely fall around the same median – though there are variations, most heroines fall under the “safe and normal” category, i.e. pretty white girl, decent home life (besides the odd misunderstanding with family members/daddy or mommy issues), smart in school (or talented in some related arena), etc. Jem and her friend and love interest Spider (who is black, lanky, stinky, energetic and contagiously exuberant) are so real and different. They aren’t cliched – there’s no “outsiders with hearts of gold beneath jagged exterior” blandness here. Both characters have their own issues, and I loved that Ms. Ward doesn’t attempt to romanticize or idealize them in any way. They simply…are. The relationship between these two “misfits” is very distinct from anything I’ve read on the YA market at present; refreshingly so. Take for example this exchange in the classroom between Jem, Spider, and her teacher:

We put our things in our bags or stuffed them into pockets, and waited for the standard bollocking: “Unacceptable behavior…Letting yourselves down…Lack of respect…” But it didn’t happen.

Instead, he waked up and down between the desks, stopping and saying something to each of us before going on to the next one. “Unemployed.” “Checkout girl.” “Garbageman.” When he got to me, he didn’t even pause. “Cleaning lady,” he said and carried on walking. He worked his way back to the front, turned and faced us. “OK, how did that make you feel?”

We stared at our desks or out the window. It had made us feel exactly how he wanted us to feel. Like shit. We all knew what sort of futures were waiting for us after school, didn’t need a puffed-up little tit like him to remind us.

Then Spider blurted out, “I feel fine, sir. It’s just your opinion, isn’t it? It don’t mean shit. I can do anything I want, can’t I? [...] Five years’ time, I’m gonna be cruising the streets in my black BMW, got some vibes on the sound system, got money in my pocket.” The other boys jeered.

McNulty looked at him witheringly. “And how, Dawson, are you going to do that?”

“Bit of this, bit of that, sir. Buying and selling.”

McNulty’s face changed. “Theft, Dawson? Drug dealing?” he said coldly. He shook his head. “I’m almost speechless, Dawson. Breaking the law, peddling in misery. Is that all you can aspire to?”

“It’s the only way any of us are going to get any cash, man. What do you drive, sir? That little red Astra in the parking lot? Teaching? Working for twenty years? I’m tellin’ you, I ain’t driving no Astra.”

“Sit down on your chair, Dawson, and shut up. Someone else, please. Jem, what about you?”

How could I possibly know what was going to happen to me? I didn’t even know where I was going to be living in a year’s time. Why was this man torturing us, making us squirm like this? I took a deep breath and said, as sweet as I could manage, “Me, sir? I know what I want.”

“Oh, good. Carry on.”

I made myself look him right in the eye. 12252023. How old was he now? Forty-eight? Forty-nine? He’d go just around the time he retired, then. On Christmas Day, too. Life’s cruel, isn’t it? Christmas spoiled for his family for the rest of their lives. Serve him right, the cruel bastard.

“Sir,” I said, “I want to be exactly…like…you.”

He brightened for a second, a half smile forming, then realized I was taking the mick. His face shut down, and he shook his head.

Jem’s voice as a narrator, and Spider’s too, are the strongest parts of this book. Also, stylistically, I loved that Jem would “break the fourth wall” – that is, directly address the reader.

But characters aside, on the plotting side, things were unfortunately weaker. The main conflict in the story, revolving around Spider and Jem’s fleeing from the police and taking refuge wherever they can makes NUM8ERS a thriller and a love story. While both of these genre elements are well written, it also meant there was little time (actually, no time) to explore the actually SF elements of the story. While I loved the premise and concept of seeing someone’s deathdate (which totally reminds me of Shinigami eyes from the epic Death Note manga. I love Death Note. Seriously.), NUM8ERS felt significantly lacking in the development of Jem’s particular “gift.” In contrast to another debut YA novelist, Jen Nadol, Ms. Ward does not explore the more interesting, philosophical implications of Jem’s capability – whereas in The Mark, Cassie’s ability to see a person’s impending death is explored to varying degrees (can you change someone’s death date, the ages-old question of fate versus free will, etc).

And, most egregiously, the ending of NUM8ERS was melodramatic, rushed, and contrived. Not a fan. BUT, that said, NUM8ERS has enough to recommend it, based on its characters alone. Ms. Ward has a forthcoming sequel next year, and I’m hoping that it will improve on the regretful low-note the first book left me with.

Notable Quotes/Parts: You can read the first chapter of NUM8ERS online via its Scholastic website HERE.

Additional Thoughts: Make sure to check out the official NUM8ERS website HERE. Also, you can see the book trailer below:

Rating: 7 – Very Good. In spite of its disappointing ending and lack of SF development, NUM8ERS has a lot going for it, especially if you’re looking for well-rounded characters outside the norm.

THE GIVEAWAY:

As promised, we have a giveaway! Up for grabs we have one GRAND PRIZE and two RUNNER-UP prizes!

The contest is open to addresses in the U.S. ONLY, and will run until Saturday, March 20th at 11:59 PM (PST). To enter, simply leave a comment here. Only ONE comment per person! Multiple entries will be automatically disqualified. Good luck!

Wherever Nina Lies is the debut novel from the young and extremely talented Lynn Weingarten. In order to celebrate the paperback release of the novel, we are offering up a giveaway for THREE lucky readers!

The Book:

Wherever Nina Lies by Lynn Weingarten

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery

Publisher: Point (Scholastic)
Publication Date: February 2010
Paperback: 320 pages

Nina was beautiful, wild, and adored by her younger sister, Ellie. But, one day, Nina disappeared. Two years later, everyone has given up home that Nina will return, but Ellie knows her sister is out there. If only Ellie had a clue where to look. Then she gets one, in the form of a mysterious drawing. Determined to find Nina, Ellie takes off on a crazy, sexy, cross-country road trip with the only person who believes she’s got a chance—her hot, adventurous new crush. Along the way, Ellie finds a few things she wasn’t planning on. Like love. Lies. And the most shocking thing of all: the truth.

The Website:

The Excerpt:

The guy walking toward me is good-looking in an obnoxious way, like he’d play the hot jerk in a TV movie about why drunk driving is bad or how it doesn’t pay to cheat on the SATs. He’s got these big wrap-around sunglasses on and a shiny black short-sleeved button-up shirt filled out with the kind of insanely sculpted arm muscles a person only gets when they spend most of their time lifting weights in the mirror and grunting at themselves.

You can read the full first chapter online HERE.

The Author:

Lynn Weingarten spends a lot of time writing in coffee shops while occasionally reading strangers’ laptops over their shoulders. In the past she has been a book editor, a barista, a counter girl at a bakery in Ireland, a waitress at a bar, and a seller of tiny homemade clay animals. She lives in New York City. Wherever Nina Lies was her first novel. Please visit her online at www.lynnweingarten.com.

THE GIVEAWAY:

We are giving away THREE copies of Wherever Nina Lies! The contest is open to participants with a United States mailing address only (international readers can enter if they have a friend in the States who can accept their prizes by mail) and will run until Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 11:59 PM (PST). In order to enter, all you have to do is leave a comment here. Only ONE comment per person, please! Multiple entries and/or duplicate comments will be automatically disqualified. Good luck!