Review: 17 AND GONE by Nova Ren Suma

Title: 17 & Gone
Author: Nova Ren Suma
Pub info: Dutton Juvenile, 2013; 354 pp
Genre: YA thriller/paranormal

There's nothing more interesting than following an author from her debut novel through her career and watching her take off. As soon as I read Nova's first book, Dani Noir, I knew I'd found a keeper. Her third book, 17 & Gone, did not disappoint.

Goodreads summary:

Seventeen-year-old Lauren is having visions of girls who have gone missing. And all these girls have just one thing in common—they are 17 and gone without a trace. As Lauren struggles to shake these waking nightmares, impossible questions demand urgent answers: Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? And… is she next? As Lauren searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

With complexity and richness, Nova Ren Suma serves up a beautiful, visual, fresh interpretation of what it means to be lost.

Status: finished 4/10/14

My impressions:
This is a tough book to review without giving away too much. Suffice it to say that Lauren's journey of getting to know--and obsess over--the many lost girls she discovers is complex and utterly believable. A thread that runs through Nova Ren Suma's books is an exquisite balance between what is known and what is unknown; the real world and the world just beyond. A strong theme in this book is that 17-year-old girls are all too often left to chance. It seems harsh, even unrealistic, to ask, Who cares about another 17-year-old runaway? And yet it's a fair question. When a 10-year-old goes missing, a neighborhood mobilizes. But a 17-year-old is on the cusp of adulthood, and if she runs away, well, maybe there's a good reason. Suma doesn't want us to leave these girls by the roadside. They matter, and Lauren matters. You'll read this book and come to know Lauren intimately, and what she cares about, you'll care about. It's a fascinating journey we take with her.

About Nova:

Nova grew up in small towns across the Hudson Valley and now makes her home in New York City. Her YA novels Imaginary Girls (Penguin/Dutton, 2011) and 17 & Gone were both named 2014 Outstanding Books for the College Bound by YALSA. She also wrote the middle-grade novel Dani Noir (Aladdin, 2009), reissued as Fade Out for a YA audience (Simon Pulse, 2012).

Nova's next book, The Walls Around Us, is due out in spring 2015 from Algonquin YR. Like a few other authors on my TBR 2014 list, she is a contributor to the YA horror anthology Slasher Girls & Monster Boys, coming from Dial/Penguin in fall 2015.



Online:
Check out Nova's distraction no. 99, which is one of the best writer blogs out there. Her news and events can be found here, on her website. You can chat with her here on Twitter, and watch a video interview with Nova right here. 


Want to win a free copy of this book? The first Monday of each month features a giveaway of any of the titles I've reviewed the previous month. Pick your fave, enter, and win!  Next giveaway: May 5.

SIGN UP HERE TO RECEIVE A BRIEF EMAIL WHENEVER A NEW GIVEAWAY BEGINS.

To follow my progress as I bulldoze my way through a stack of 51 to-be-reads this year, search for the tag 2014 TBR Shelf. Read all the reviews here.

Fun Friday: Who Gives a #^(! About an Oxford Comma?

I'm a fan of the Oxford comma, people, and not just because it's named after the Oxford University Press, which makes it sound like a supersmart thing. It's come from years of editing using the style book most favored by American publishers, The Chicago Manual of Style. But its use is--gasp--optional. Here's today's informative video on the topic:




And here's today's irreverent take on the topic. (Caution: an R-rated word is featured. You've been warned.)

TBR 2014: Book No. 11

Yippee! YA! Month rolls on with Nova Ren Suma, one of my favorite new(ish) authors. Her 2011 YA novel Imaginary Girls is luminous and not to be missed. So I'm thrilled to be reading her third novel, 17 & Gone (Dutton Juvenile, 2013). It's about 17-year-old Lauren, haunted by visions of girls who have gone missing. I know it will be fantastic.

"Elegant, riveting, powerful, and poignant, this suspenseful, supernatural tale slips under the skin, inking out a haunting tapestry of menace and madness."  --Libba Bray, bestselling author of The Diviners

"A compelling, skillfully written page-turner."   --Booklist

 "With a complex and intriguing plot, this novel should have no trouble finding readers."  --School Library Journal

Nova is an exquisite writer, blogfrogs! Pick up a copy of 17 & Gone and read along with me.


That's right: I've committed to reading all the books on my TBR Shelf this year--and blogging them! Click here to read the reviews I've posted so far.

Review: THE DIVINERS by Libba Bray

 Title: The Diviners
Author: Libba Bray
Pub info: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2012; 578 pp
Genre: YA historical paranormal

The glitzy streets of Manhattan may be the duck's quack to Ohio native Evie O'Neill, but a restless spirit has her fighting for her life before you can say sloe gin fizz. This book is a must-read if you love your thrills mixed with a bit of history. Welcome to April! It's Yippee! YA! month on the blog.

Goodreads summary:

Evie O’Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City—and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It’s 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult.

Evie worries he’ll discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far. But when the police find a murdered girl branded with a cryptic symbol and Will is called to the scene, Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer.

As Evie jumps headlong into a dance with a murderer, other stories unfold in the city that never sleeps. A young man named Memphis is caught between two worlds. A chorus girl named Theta is running from her past. A student named Jericho hides a shocking secret. And unknown to all, something dark and evil has awakened.

Status: finished 4/2/14

My impressions:
Okay, I was a little biased going into this book. I love Libba Bray's writing, so I was prepared to enjoy the book. I also love the 1920s time period. And I love New York City. So, win-win-win.

But wow.

Part of this book is like cruising through a noisy speakeasy, meeting character after character who you'd love to know better. You get just enough of a taste of each life to become invested, and then you're whisked away to the next. Each character is interesting and multifaceted; each is linked to the others. All of them kept me turning pages, from gutsy flapper Evie to the scholarly Uncle Will, orphaned poet Memphis Campbell and his psychic brother, and Ziegfeld Follies girl Theta Knight and her sweet piano man, Henry.

Then there's Bray's stunning, detailed picture of 1926 New York, from fashions to cigarette ads to catchy slang and hot jazz. This tumultuous time period--a whistle in the dark between the tragedy of the Great War and the devastating Depression to come--is the perfect setting for the rise of an evil spirit.

And that's the final piece: The ghost story. This isn't a pretty haunting, and the murders are quite grisly, but they're kept firmly in PG-13 realm. (Picture a ghoul coming at a young girl with a bloody hatchet, and ... fade to black.) The creeps are genuinely chilling, and the story flies by as if unencumbered by its massive page count. I stayed up late several nights to finish it and now absolutely can't wait for the sequel. Additional plus: This story is self-contained and completely stands on its own--no cliffhangers here--but the stage is set for more evil to sprout in the next volume.

About Libba:
Libba Bray is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Gemma Doyle trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing); the Michael L. Printz Award-winning Going Bovine;  and Beauty Queens, an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist. She is originally from Texas but makes her home in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, son, and two sociopathic cats. The sequel to The Diviners is called Lair of Dreams and is due out from Little, Brown in August 2014.


Online:
Catch Libba online at her website here and the separate website for The Diviners series. She is also active--and very funny--on her Twitter account here. You can see two fantastic trailers for The Diviners: The official one is here; this other one was created by a fan but is absolutely fantastic. (I know it looks like a movie trailer, but as of this writing, The Diviners has not yet been produced for the big screen. Paramount Pictures has optioned the book, which Libba will adapt, but no word on a release date yet.) 


Want to win a free copy of this book? The first Monday of each month features a giveaway of any of the titles I've reviewed the previous month. Pick your fave, enter, and win!  Next giveaway: May 5.

SIGN UP HERE TO RECEIVE A BRIEF EMAIL WHENEVER A NEW GIVEAWAY BEGINS.

To follow my progress as I bulldoze my way through a stack of 51 to-be-reads this year, search for the tag 2014 TBR Shelf. Read all the reviews here.

April Giveaway

** SORRY, THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED **

NEXT GIVEAWAY: MAY 5 | THEME: YIPPEE! YA!

In case you missed the newsflash, the first Monday of every month features a NEW GIVEAWAY on the blog! Take your pick of any of the books I've reviewed the previous month. This month's theme was Mostly Middle-Grade March Madness ("mostly" because there is one title for adults in the mix). Here are your choices for this month. Click the links to read the reviews of each:

THE LIFEBOAT 
by Charlotte Rogan
adult literary thriller / historical

THE CHRONICLES OF HARRIS BURDICK
edited by Chris Van Allsburg
anthology of fantastical tales, ages 8+

MOON OVER MANIFEST
by Clare Vanderpool
historical Newbery winner, ages 9+


FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, NATE!
by Tim Federle
contemporary humor (sequel to Better Nate Than Ever), ages 10+

THE LAST DRAGONSLAYER
by Jasper Fforde
fantasy, ages 9+ (Book 1 in the Chronicles of Kazam series)

THE SONG OF THE QUARKBEAST
by Jasper Fforde
fantasy, ages 9+ (Book 2 in the Chronicles of Kazam series)

TESLA'S ATTIC
by Neal Shusterman & Eric Elfman
sci-fi (Book 1 in the Accelerati series), ages 9+ 

TBR 2014: Book No.10

When I first heard of The Diviners (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2012), I got that wonderful, shivery, goose-bumpy feeling that means, I have to read this! I might have felt it even if I hadn't known it was written by Libba Bray, but the fact that it was just added to the anticipation. I mean, Libba Bray, people: she of the Gemma Doyle Trilogy and the sublime Going Bovine. It's a ghost story/occult murder mystery set in one of my favorite places--Manhattan (New York, not Kansas, just to be clear)--and one of my favorite time periods--the 1920s. What could possibly keep me away?

"1920s New York thrums with giddy life in this gripping first in a new [series] from Printz winner Bray...The intricate plot and magnificently imagined details of character, dialogue and setting take hold and don't let go. Not to be missed."  --Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"The compelling and dramatic supernatural plot explores self-actualization, predestination, the secrets everyone hides, and, of course, good versus evil. An absolutely terrific read and, thankfully, the first in a planned series."  --School Library Journal (starred)

I'm already a little bit afraid to go to sleep after reading this book late at night! Ready to be chilled? Pick it up and read along!

** Also, blogfrogs, side note: Anyone notice that my shirt (kind of) matches the cover? Totally unplanned.

That's right: I've committed to reading all the books on my TBR Shelf this year--and blogging them! Click here to read the reviews I've posted so far.

Writer Wednesday: Tools of the Trade

When I was a kid, I wore tennis shoes all the time. My reasoning was that you never know when you might need to make a quick getaway. Operating under that same mentality, I still like my life to be small and portable, to travel without checking luggage. I want to take the most important things with me, without a lot of hassle.

Because you just never know.

So I love tech that serves double or triple or quadruple duty. Early on I embraced the Walkman, then the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad. They allow me to take not only my music and calendar but even my writing anywhere, even if I'm on the run. (Was I a con artist in a former life? Why is this a thing?) Of course, the ultimate portable writing tools are the notebook and pen, but notebooks get heavy, they fill up, and more notebooks must be purchased. And the notebook doesn't give me that blessed technology that I embraced at age ten, the keyboard.

So when I discovered last week that Microsoft had released Word for the iPad, I kind of screamed. In a good way.

It's a dream come true: store my manuscript in the cloud; call it up on my iPad whenever I like; send it back to the cloud; and when I get home to my laptop, there it is, edited and looking just as fabulous as ever. No formatting issues, no tinkering, nothing. Just seamless.

I'm not writing an advertisement for Word for iPad, because frankly, I don't care if anyone else uses it or not. My point is: When you find a good writing tool, welcome it. Splurge on those fantastic gel pens that you can only find in the fancy stationer's store. Buy that book of maps. Go on that research trip. Get the tool that works for you and say, I'm investing in my writing.

I realize that might not be true. You may be just BS-ing your way to a pretty new laptop that you'll use to buy new Sperry shoes and post pictures of your cat on Facebook. But I hope not.

I always talk about writing in my office with my door closed and my cup of coffee beside me, as if that's the only way I can work. But recently I had about an hour and a half to kill after dropping my kid at a choir rehearsal before the concert began. I brought the iPad with me, knowing full well I'd probably not work.

But somehow, I did. My tools were right there, and the environment was so novel that I didn't sit and agonize. I just hammered out the next scene. And I even got a little bit of a Real Writer thrill: Didn't Hemingway and Fitz hang around in Parisian bars, scribbling away in a haze of blue smoke and Scotch fumes? I'm just like them! Well. In the lobby outside the concert hall, but still.

Tools are important. Find the ones that work for you. Get them. Use them. Love them. Your writing is worth it. 


image by Petar Milošević (own work) and reproduced under this Creative Commons license. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

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