Tag Archives: young adult

Book Review: The Boy Who Fell into the Sky (The Possessor Wars, Book 1) by Chad Spencer

by in Author Tuesdays, Book Review and tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Boy Who Fell into the Sky (The Possessor Wars, Book 1) by Chad Spencer

A Teen/Young Adult Science Fiction Novel published by PossessorWars.com (July 22, 2014)

 

Summary:

Jeff Bowman lives a normal life… for a kid living in a mile-wide thousands of stories tall ‘arcology’ in a world where there are colonies beyond earth. Jeff, his friends Harriet and Akio, and a growing network of their friends have found a way to make extra money for school, lessons, and programs for their datapads. They rebuilt robots to help garden, because everybody eats synthpaste and real fruits and veggies are valued highly. Their friendship is disrupted when they are separated by colonization, and Jeff begins his true path, following in the footsteps of his father as an engineer on a Spaceship.

 

Keywords:

 Futuristic, 14-year-olds, friendship, revenge, life-changes

 

My Review:

The immediate opening of The Boy Who Fell Into the Sky is full of catchups, aka backstory. The reader is inundated with current technology and sci-fi knowledge of how space travel works. The author spends a lot of his first few pages defining all the new aspects of technology, which intrudes into the developing story and drags out the explanations that most readers of young adult will skip over entirely for the good stuff: the story and the action. The author even employs textbooks to help him tell the story of this modern society, dulling the impact of the crazy wonder of a new world by straight out telling the reader all about it instead of letting it soak in naturally from events, dialogue, etc.

I was intrigued by synthpaste, the concept of every food (flavor) from one tube. I was also quite intrigued when Jeff and his friends subverted this concept of fake food by growing a garden (illegally), but the author didn’t take this action anywhere. The gardens were a plot dead end and only showed the reader that Jeff was a nice guy and took care of his friends, which he continues to do throughout book, rendering the entire first part of the book unnecessary.

About a third of the way into the book, the author threw in a bright yellow wrench of surprise that blew me away. O cruel, cruel writers to give your characters their worst nightmares and have them struggle along, attempting to be the heroes and heroines of their own stories. What a grand plot twist.

Hissing and booing, I cringed when I came to this line: “Did it ever occur to you that girls like to do different things than guys?” First the author makes the one girl fit in as one of the guys, calling her Harry and then we find out she never wanted to be called by that name. Then the author gives her such a weak personality that is so stereotypically girly that I just want to tear the pages out. The other females introduced later are no better and none would pass the infamous Bechdel test (a work of fiction featuring at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man). Granted, the female characters are not that bad, but when Harriet tells Jeff and the guys that she wants to be treated as a GIRL because she is a GIRL, I take offense as a GIRL. Surely this novel was not just written to be read by young male readers?

Supposedly these three friends are approximately 14-years old. To me, their behavior and speech pegs them at a middle school age, not at a high school age. Their inappropriate behavior and near tantrums give the impression that they are younger and that the novel is intended for a younger audience.

The stylistic choice for capturing Jeff’s thoughts became annoying and intrusive to read. I understand the novel was written in third person from the point of view of Jeff (most of the time), but to tell the reader “Jeff thought” every time Jeff has internal dialogue was repetitive and annoying. I wish the author had thought to place Jeff’s inner-thoughts in italics or did away with them altogether. Were all of them truly necessary? Probably not.

I did really enjoy the concept of referencing others by Sirsen and Mamsen for Sir and Miss/Mrs./Ms. respectively.

One of the biggest issues in this novel was the pointlessness of the first part of the book. What is the essence of the story if not about Jeff’s great problem in space and the first part was a buildup to nowhere with Jeff and his three friends. Understanding that this book is a part of a series might come into play later on in the series, but looking at this novel as a unit in and of itself, it come up lacking in this regard.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys early reader young adult novels or futuristic space stories.

This novel was published by PossessorWars.com July 22, 2014 and is available on Amazon here.

 

TLDR Star Rating: 3.00

 

Links for more information:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22907331-the-boy-who-fell-into-the-sky

Website: http://possessorwars.com/the-series/book-1.html

Rachel Barnard Publishes New Novel: At One’s Beast

by in At One's Beast, Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams, Author Tuesdays, Local Authors, Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

Local Author Does it Again!

Seattle, Washington, July 14th – Rachel Barnard, a driven young author in the Seattle area released her newest young adult novel, At One’s Beast this month. The novel comes on the heels of the re-release of her debut novel, Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams (published March 25th, 2014).

Barnard began writing At One’s Beast last year during the Southern Cross Novel Challenge (SoCNoC – the Southern Hemisphere writing challenge mimicking the NaNoWriMo Challenge to write a 50k word novel in 30 days) in June. She began editing the novel the following winter, handed it to beta readers in the spring, re-edited in the summer and hit the publish button in July.

At One’s Beast is about a village that creates a monster… Every girl and boy in the village of Frey fears the beast who lives in the forest. Ten years ago, the beast was formed from the town’s rage — and the evil that lurks inside all people in moments of weakness. Every year since, the townspeople have sacrificed one of their own to appease his anger. This year the sacrifice does not go as planned. A young man saves the chosen girl from fate. She is torn between doing her duty and untangling the identity of her savior and captor. The young man grew up with thoughts of revenge on the town that turned their backs on him, but when he is close to the girl, he is reminded of who he used to be. From once upon a time to happily ever after, the people of Frey will have to rally together to rid the town of evil once and for all, but in the process will they destroy everything that is good in their world?

What did the beta readers have to say about the book? “Your action scenes are quite good!” and “I’m starting to get into the book and not wanting to put it down!” and “I loved the once upon a time opening – evokes storytelling, tells reader the type of story they are about to read.” (Bill Barnard)

Want to read more? Createspace Preview of Chapter one is available for your reading pleasure Here 

For more information on Rachel Barnard and her novels, you can visit her website at www.rachelauthorbarnard.com

Book Review: The Moment Before by Suzy Vitello

by in Book Review, Local Authors and tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Moment Before by Suzy Vitello

A Young Adult Novel published January 14th 2014 by Diversion Books

 

Summary:

 Popular Sabine and Broody Brady are Irish twins, born 11 months apart. After Sabine dies, Brady is thrust from her sister’s shadow into a world full of drama, complication, and lies. Brady must find out what really happened to her sister before she died and Brady discovers more about herself along the way.

Keywords:

Teens, Drama, Death, Popularity, Complicated, Angst, Daughters, Irish Twins, Family, Drugs and Alcohol, Finding Yourself, Grief

My Review:

This may be a young adult fiction novel but it is not your typical angsty teen book. Though there are sex, drugs, alcohol, and death, they are dealt with in an adult and masterful way. It is almost as if this is not a work of fiction but an atypical and insightful diary-esque book. I felt, immediately, in touch with the main character as she narrated.

Vitello has such a way of bending a sentence into a beautiful structure that is almost, but not quite, out of reach for understanding. Phrases seem thrown together, such as “Into the growing awkward I say…” (page 50) but they blow me away with their tight structure. Even the dialogue is spot on, “That’s not fair for me, I realize. You have to make mistakes in order to grow. But I’m begging you. Pleading with you. Do not fall in that murky well right now. Now now.” (page 185). Vitello is able to tell me exactly what the main character is feeling and seeing. Her descriptions pack a punch that stays true to each of the characters, defining their complexities: “Mom called her my manic-panic girl. Me? Brady-brooder.” (page 14).

It was refreshing to have the plot thrown in my face in the first few pages so I knew exactly what I was getting into, but I couldn’t just sit tight for the ride because there were layers to the plot that the author expertly revealed in pits and pats.

I absolutely fell in love with Brady’s voice. “The tickle of this feels like a secret I’m sharing with my sister, like back when we were little girls sneaking into each other’s rooms at night to munch on candy under the blankets.” (page 15). Most of the time the author utilizes abrupt and short sentences that feel halting at first but then begin to worm their way into the voice of the character. She is a teenager with a teenager’s voice. But she is not just any teen. She is insightful and charismatic. She is real and emotional. She connects to her unseen audience through her fears and realizations. I love how Brady describes other people around her. “Why am I even friends with this girl? The way she glows with satisfaction when the world matches up to her sense of order and the way things should be.” (page 187) These are the same flaws I saw in Martha and Brady was able to voice them with such eloquence. I could listen to Brady all day.

Who wouldn’t like a book that mentions bacon maple bars?.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys movies with the environment of Clueless or the clever dialogue in the movie Brick.

 

This novel was published by Diversion Books on 1/14/14 and is available on Amazon here.

TLDR Star Rating: 4.75

 

Links for more information:

On the web: http://www.suzyvitello.com/books/the-moment-before/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18701765-the-moment-before

Blog: http://www.suzyvitello.com/suzys-blog/

Author Thursdays: Camp NaNo – Like NaNoWriMo but in April

by in Author Thursdays, NaNoWriMo and tagged , , , , , , ,
Of Ducks and Writing
Remember these pictures?

 

Camp NaNo is a looser form of NaNoWriMo in which you -still- attempt to write a novel in a month (April) but you create your own writing goals. Mine is 25k words. How am I doing thus far on the morning of the third day? Behind of course! I’m still fleshing out my novel but it will be grand. My goal is to finish the first book in well-edited first draft mode this year. It is the first in a young adult fantasy trilogy and I’m still fleshing out the plot particulars.

Any of you participating in Camp NaNo this year? It’s not too late to start!