Day 13 - The Epic Journey

It's day 13! Today's the last day of the Canadian YA Lit Event (even though it's the 13th so hopefully you'll forgive me). I hope everyone's enjoyed the posts, the reviews and the Q&A's. And thank so much much to the authors who took part this year. :)

As with past years, I wanted to talk about something that's part of Canadian lit or perception of Canadian YA, and so I've settled on something I've discovered in so many books over the years.

The epic journey.

Canada is a pretty big place, and we've just about got it all, climate and ecosystem-wise. Mountains, prairies, plains, grasslands, shield, forests, taiga, arctic, maritimes. And our history is full of explorers, of people traversing mountain pathways and striding across endless fields in order to get from the east coast to the west. It's a big, wide, open space we have, and who among us hasn't ever gotten the urge to travel it? To see it all?

Journeys pop up so regularly in books. Quite often in YA it's internal, taking in what's around you, what's happened to you and others near you, and learning something from that experience. But a number of times in Canadian lit, it's an external journey. It's a mission to get from place to place. And the reasons for the journey often vary. Sometimes, to find someone or something that was lost. Sometimes, to hide something that must stay hidden. And sometimes, to find ourselves, to listen closely in the silence of nature.

One example that comes to mind so quickly is The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch. Raim must travel so far, across an endless desert under the brutal heat, in order to discover the truth about his broken oath and the shadow that follows him. It tests him, tests his strength and his will, his faith in those he once kept close to him. And when that journey ends, another begins. And another. And another. Raim stumbles along the way, he falls and falters, he wonders what it would be like if he have up, but he never does. He continues because he must.

Kate Boorman talked about this last year in relation to her book, Winterkill. How, to her, "[t]his land, while heart-breakingly beautiful, is incredibly harsh. It is something to admire and survive. The first people here knew that: they developed an intense understanding of the landscape and climate in order to flourish. The arriving immigrants had to learn—the hard way... A landscape that can sustain life and take it in dramatic ways fascinates [her]."

We often look at Canada in a kind of subdued awe. We see the paintings done by the Group of Seven, we read the poetry and the short stories, we listen to the true tales of harsh winters before Canada was called Canada. And we attempt to embrace it, to understand it. It gives to us and it takes away. It's bitter cold in the winter and blazing hot in the summer. It pushes and pulls at us as we do to it. How can we not want to explore it, to attempt to uncover its secrets, its hidden gems, as it picks away at the shields we've wrapped around ourselves after years of city living?

I wonder what it is about journeys that still tug at me. They're everywhere in Canadian lit, so much so that I grow tired of them, but there's still something about them. Perhaps it's because of a book I read as a kid. It's about a girl who, after losing her father and gaining a secret message, heads off through the wilds of rural Upper Canada in order to find a general to give the message to. I think it's set around 1812, when Canada was at war with America. I can't remember the title, though, but I remember reading it over and over again. Her perseverance stuck with me.

Here are some other Canadian-authored YA novels that I could think of (there are many, many more that I either haven't read or can't remember) with some kind of epic journey, in case you're looking for more: Blood Red Road by Moira Young, Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts, The Lives We Lost by Megan Crewe, and Stone in the Sky by Cecil Castellucci.

The epic journey sticks with you after you read it. Sometimes it gives you a sense of wanderlust, gives you the desire to see what those characters saw, see if the sunrises look the same, if the trees and the rocks are still there. I think the epic journey pushes us to have our own, to see what we can't in the city, to experience something different. To travel without knowing who you'll meet along the way or how long it'll take you to get there. Or if, at the end, you'll even want to go back.

It's not just Canadian lit, of course. The journey is everywhere, because we're all human beings. We all have those same drives to create and explore and experience. I don't think it'll ever go away. There will always be places to go people to meet. Stars to discover, sunrises to watch. It will always be part of us.

What do you think about 'the epic journey?' What books with epic journeys have you enjoyed?

Day 12 - E.E. Cooper

It's day 12! And it's the last Q&A of the event. I hope you've enjoyed these. :)

E.E. Cooper lives in Vancouver, BC with her husband and a rather spoiled dog. You can find her on her website or on Twitter at @eecooperbooks where she spends far too much time.

Q: The summary/premise of Vanished is something I've sort of seen once before (Far From You by Tess Sharpe), a psychological thriller/mystery featuring a lesbian/bisexual POC as the main character. Where did the idea for this book come from?

A: Inspiration from this book came from two long term passions of mine.  The first is friendships. I am drawn to exploring  by them- how they work, how they don't, how they can be toxic, how they evolve over time, how they can make a huge difference in your life etc.  I wanted to write about a group of three friends because interaction between three versus two can make things very interesting. I wanted to put the main character, Kalah, in a situation where she was trying to navigate an unequal friendship with her own confusing feelings about one of the people in that group.  My second obsession is psychological thrillers.  I have stacks of them in my house. I find people, and what they are capable of doing, fascinating. I wanted to write a dark book that hopefully leaves readers wanting to read one more chapter to see if they can figure out what is happening. 

And I've been working on the sequel to VANISHED and having fun seeing if I can twist all those ideas once again! 

Day 11 - SuperMutant Magic Academy

It's day 11! Time for a review of a book that's a little outside the box. It's not strictly YA but it is about teenagers. Teenagers, the soul-destroying hell that is high school, life, and the universe. And maybe a cat.

Title: SuperMutant Magic Academy
Author/Illustrator: Jillian Tamaki
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Enter the not-so-hollowed halls of SuperMutant Magic Academy and let the teenage apathy wash over you. Wendy, Marsha, Cheddar, Frances, and the other students will be your guides through the D&D games, performance art, unrequited crushes, and spell-class tests that are the staples of life at a school for paranormal teenagers.

SuperMutant Magic Academy is intelligent, compelling, and bizarre. It's absurd and impossible while being true to the absurdity and impossibility of high school life. Yes, they all have some kind of magical ability, but all of that takes a backseat to the angst and the worry that teenagers face every day. Tests, dating, the future. It's all here in black and white, and sometimes red.

It's hard to describe this book, this collection, beyond what it is overall. There's sort of a set story line, the characters' lives while in high school, both inside and outside of class. Having lunch, doing homework, dating, breaking up, crushing on, fighting. Worrying about life post-high school, worrying about what the future might hold. Worrying about everything. Each page is its own separate story. It's a collection of moments, glimpses in time, until the newly drawn ending that follows more of a set story.

This is the most true to real life I've ever seen fantasy/paranormal characters be. There's Marsha keeping her crush on best friend cat-eared Wendy a secret. There's lizard Trixie trying so hard to fit in, to find a boyfriend, to be pretty. There's bold performance artist Frances and her friend with a large head Gemma. There's magical Trevor, angry and misunderstood, who's possibly just waiting for someone to finally call him on all his crap. And there's Everlasting Boy, who lives and dies and lives again. The moments they have are sometimes impossible to understand, like Frances' performance art, and sometimes so familiar it hurts, like when one boy brings another to his dorm room and acknowledges that while it is a mess, it's his mess. It's something that belongs to him. Finally, something that's all his. What teenager hasn't ever desperately craved something that was their own, and rejoiced when they finally found it?

This book is at times bold, weird, and unflinchingly honest. The moments of existentialism alternate with the moments of humour, the moments of how all teen boys can think about is sex, as seen in a number of their D&D games. A must-read for comic fans, for fans of so much reality in their fiction, for fans of storytelling.

(I received a finished copy of this title from Raincoast Books.)

Day 10 - A Canadian YA Reading List

It's day 10! This is something a little different.

Last month I asked for Canadians, be they bloggers or authors, to send me their suggestions for which Canadian YA novels they would recommend to those looking to read more Canadian-authored YA and the reason why. I wanted others to suggest books because I knew that they would have different reading tastes than me.

And so here's the list I have with some of my picks thrown in (because while people did respond with their picks, it wasn't as many as I'd hoped).

• Above by Leah Bobet
• Half World by Hiromi Goto (suggested by the awesome Yash from The Book Wars)
• Ultraviolet by R.J. Anderson
• Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson
• Sorrow's Knot by Erin Bow (suggested by Kate)
• Witchlanders by Lena Coakley (suggested by Kate)
• Stolen Songbird by Danielle L. Jensen (suggested by Kate)
• The Story of Owen by E.K. Johnston (suggested by Kate)
• Prairie Fire by E.K. Johnston
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (suggested by Kate)
• For the Win by Cory Doctorow (suggested by Kate)
• All the Rage by Courtney Summers
• Live to Tell by Lisa Harrington (suggested by Cormorant Books)
• The Beckoners by Carrie Mac
• Winterkill by Kate Boorman (suggested by Salom)
• The Never series (Once Every Never, Every Never After, and Now and For Never) by Lesley Livingston
• Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts
• The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B by Teresa Toten
• Audacious by Gabrielle Prendergast
• The Darkest Powers trilogy (The Summoning, The Awakening, and The Reckoning) by Kelley Armstrong (suggested by Roxanne)
• Sam Cruz's Infallible Guide to Getting Girls by Tellulah Darling (suggested by Roxanne)
• Alice, I Think by Susan Juby (suggested by Roxanne)
• Drummer Girl by Karen Bass
• How I Lost You by Janet Gurtler
• The Knots Sequence duology (The Oathbreaker's Shadow and The Shadow's Curse) by Amy McCulloch

And here are two suggestions from the wonderful Robin Stevenson (Hummingbird Heart, Record Breaker, The World Without Us) complete with reasons why.

• Alice, I Think by Susan Juby. Set in the small northern town of Smithers, BC, this is Susan Juby's first novel, and the first of three books about the wonderfully unique Alice McLeod. Alice is a brilliant mixture of naivete, endearingly tangential thinking and razor sharp observations. A witty, satirical and often moving novel-- I rarely laugh out loud when I read, but I did when I read this, many times. Read in public at your own risk.
• The Droughtlanders by Carrie Mac. This is the first book in the dystopian Triskelia trilogy, and it is epic. Secrets, complex characters and even more complex family relationships, dangerous journeys, and a vivid, disturbing and utterly believable futuristic world- plus beautifully handled issues of power and oppression. I found it impossible to put down. Fans of Patrick Ness should absolutely check this one out.

Thanks so much to everyone who recommended books. There are lots more Canadian-authored YA novels that weren't mentioned and that doesn't mean you should just read these. Read whatever you're interested in. But perhaps these will be the jumping off point for discovering more Canadian YA.

Is there a book missing that you thought would be on here? What would you suggest?

Day 9 - Quicksilver

It's day 9! Time for a review! I'm kicking myself because I read the first in this duology years ago but somehow delayed reading this. Like an idiot. For those looking for more sci-fi in their YA and some awesome LGBTQIA+ representation, check this out.

Title: Quicksilver
Author: R.J. Anderson
Release Date: March 1, 2013
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab

Back in her hometown, Tori Beaugrand had everything a teenage girl could want—popularity, money, beauty. But she also had a secret. A secret that could change her life in an instant, or destroy it. Now she's left everything from her old life behind, including her real name and Alison, the one friend who truly understood her. She can't escape who and what she is. But if she wants to have anything like a normal life, she has to blend in and hide her unusual... talents. Plans change when the enigmatic Sebastian Faraday reappears and gives Tori some bad news: she hasn't escaped her past. In fact, she's attracted new interest in the form of an obsessed ex-cop turned investigator for a genetics lab. She has one last shot at getting her enemies off her trail and winning the security and independence she's always longed for. But saving herself will take every ounce of Tori's incredible electronics and engineering skills—and even then, she may need to sacrifice more than she could possibly imagine if she wants to be free.

Quicksilver is intriguing, intelligent, and mysterious. Tori's waiting, waiting to have a normal life again, then waiting for the other shoe to drop. But she doesn't stand still, she takes change and does what she has to in order to save herself.

Tori is a rather interesting character. Compared to most female characters in YA, she's atypical, which is great. It makes her stand out, makes her interesting to me. The idea that girls who are considered "beautiful" or "pretty" can also be intelligent and skilled when it comes to mechanisms and technology is still something that confuses people. Which is shouldn't. Since when can't "pretty" girls be interested in makerspaces? Since when can't they want to study engineering in university? Tori is driven, foucsed, and intense. All those parts of her make her a compelling person to read about. And she's still scared about what could happen to her, scared of who might be coming for her, and that's fine. Tori's not the kind of girl who's just going to sit around. She'll try and do something about it.

Tori's asexuality is another of those rarely seen in YA topics, and it's so well-written, so well done. What Tori says to Milo about friendship is true, that "[t]here's no such thing as just a friend" (pg. 126). Sometimes it's about companionship. Sometimes we need relationships that aren't about sex or romance, that aren't filled with that kind of pressure. And sometimes, for people who are asexual, that's all there is, and they need it. Tori misses Alison like mad.

There's a mixture of contemporary and science fiction in this book. There's Tori being who she is, dealing with homework and worried parents, missing her friends, needing someone to talk to and be around. And there's Tori hiding from the relay, there's Faraday suddenly appearing in her life, there's Mathis not wanting to lose the data he's collected from Tori since she was a baby he dumped on Earth in order to experiment on. And all the Canadian references, from the food and shops to the perception of what the police can do in Canada and in the US.

I love how there's a layer in this book that challenges our perceptions of people around us based on their looks. Not every gorgeous blonde teen girl is flirty and flighty. Not every teen guy of Asian descent (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, etc.) is excellent at math and science. Not every teen is a mass of raging hormones ready to have their sexual awakening. Not every teen is human. The story is great, the characters are complicated, and while a small part of me wonders what would happen in a third book, the ending was solid. A must-read for those looking for something a little different, for an amazing asexual main character, and for a lot of humanity in sci-fi.

(I borrowed a copy of this book from the library.)

Day 8 - Holly Bodger

It's day 8! Time for a Q&A with a debut author! :)

Holly Bodger is a long-time resident of Ottawa and has been working in publishing since graduating from the University of Ottawa. She is also a finalist for the 2013 RWA Golden Heart Award (YA category). Her first book, 5 to 1, comes out on May 12, 2015, is is published by Knopf (Penguin Random House). You can find her on her website or on Twitter at @HollyBodger. :)

Q: 5 to 1 has such an intriguing premise. Set in a country where boys outnumber girls 5 to 1, where boys must compete in order to be chosen as husbands. Where men have next to no power or purpose beyond giving their wives daughters. Where did the initial idea for this book come from? From the past? From the present?

A: The idea was sparked by a journal article I read about the consequences of son preference and sex-selective abortion in China and other Asian countries. This article was discussing what future life might be like for the boys who will not be able to marry or have children, and that got me thinking about how this might change the dynamics of gender relations. When I considered it, I realized that life might be a lot like it is for the girls of today but in complete reverse. 

Q: As I read your book I tried to figure out who was in control. If it was the women of Koyanagar, who wrote the laws and decided on the Trials. If it was Sudasa, because she must make the final decision. If it was Kiran, because of his actions, his going against the norm during the Trials. Even now after finishing, I'm not sure. Is anyone ever in control, or is it all about the illusion of control, of acting like they're in power when no one is?

A: This book is primarily about what happens when you attempt to control someone else’s right to choose. There are many people trying to do this throughout the book, but in the end, the only real control is that which the characters have over their own destinies.

Q: Both Sudasa and Kiran have strong voices, they have hopes and dreams and fears. They yearn for something more than what the future holds for them. But with the world around them, the customs around them, the rules around them trapping them, I'm not sure if the book is more character-driven than plot-driven? Do you find it's more of one than the other, or was it being a little of both on purpose?

A: I chose a somewhat strict plot because I wanted to show the different outcomes produced by different characters in the same situation. I suppose this would make it plot-driven for the most part, although I believe the end is definitely character-driven.

Q: With Sudasa's voice in verse and Kiran telling his story in prose, was one easier or harder to write than the other? Or was it more than each point of view presented its own set of challenges?

A: I’d definitely say that each had its own challenges. Sudasa’s voice allowed me to float in the clouds and ponder the world in a very artistic manner, however she did not give me much room to lay out the hard facts of the world. Kiran’s voice allowed me to do exactly this, however I had to be very careful to always keep his feet firmly placed on the ground. I’ve always considered myself to have a little bit of both of these character traits so it wasn’t a challenge to write them, but it was a challenge to keep them separate.

Q: With the book being set in India, I can only imagine the amount of research you had to do. How much research did you have to do into India's culture and customs, their laws and values? With the ongoing push and support for diverse books in non-North American settings, how important was it to portray Sudasa, Kiran, and their country as accurately as possible?

A: The research was definitely the hardest part about writing this book. There were three main things required: 1) researching the country itself (everything from landscape to weather), 2) researching the people (this included religious customs, holidays, caste system, clothes, language, history and politics), and 3) creating a realistic new world from the two. Koyanagar is a fictional country with a history rooted in India, so it needed to maintain many of the elements of India, but it also needed to break off onto its own the way many newly-formed countries often do. There are many customs of Koyanagar that are intentionally different from India because the country was formed with the purpose of initiating change and thus I believed its leaders would want to discard those things that had caused India's problems. Unfortunately, I could not just say, "we're not going to have arranged marriages" without doing in-depth research first. All of this is to say that 95% of my many months of research did not end up on the page.

Thanks so much to Holly for answering my questions and to Random House Canada for sending me an ARC. 5 to 1 comes out on May 12! :)

Day 7 - We Are All Made of Molecules

It's day 7! The event is half over! Remember to enter the giveaway!

Title: We Are All Made of Molecules
Author: Susin Nielsen
Release Date: May 12, 2015
Publisher: Tundra Books

Thirteen-year-old Stewart Inkster is academically brilliant but "ungifted" socially. Fourteen-year-old Ashley Anderson is the undisputed "It" girl of grade nine, but her marks stink. Their worlds are about to collide when Stewart and his dad move in with Ashley and her mom. "The Brady Bunch" it isn't. Stewart is trying to be 89.9% happy about it, but Ashley is 110% horrified. She already has to hide the truth behind her parents' divorce; "Spewart" could further threaten her position at the top of the social ladder. They are complete opposites. And yet, no matter their differences, they share one thing in common: they--like the rest of us--are all made of molecules.

We Are All Made of Molecules is a thoughtful book, a look at change, at perception, at moving on. At the fact that we all have something in common, no matter how different we are.

Stewart is smart and practical, always hoping for the best. He's gifted academically but not socially, which means navigating this new world called high school is a bit of a struggle for him. Which means being in a new environment is a struggle for him. As time passes he learns, he grows. He's hit by some of the more painful and complicated bits of high school but he doesn't let it weigh him down. It helps that he has some very supportive friends to lean on.

His complete opposite, Ashley is bitter and frustrated. She hates the idea of Stewart and his father moving in, her own father divorcing her mother. She over-dramatizes everything and blames everyone. While yes, there are some teen girls who act this way, who love fashion and struggle in school, Ashley's flaws are so overblown she feels like a cliché. She has some depth, I thought her repressed anger towards bother her mother and father needed to be expressed beyond her screams or her silence, but it's hard to find any redeeming qualities. As the book goes on, she does get better, nicer. She learns her lesson, but I'm not so sure that the way it comes about was really the right way.

I think this book says a number of good things about family and friendship, about supporting other people, about working through problems and keeping those you care about close, or in your memories if they're no longer with you. My issue is that most of those moments appear in Stewart's point of view and rarely in Ashley's. I did find some parts of Ashley problematic, as well as some parts of a rather serious near-assault that happens near the end. Perhaps other readers will see her growth more than I can. I do think that some kids will read this and see themselves, or see parts of themselves, and relate to it.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Random House Canada through NetGalley.)

Day 6 - Some Kind of Normal

It's day 6! Time for another review. :) Some of you might remember my review of Boys Like You during last year's event. If so, then you might enjoy this review of the companion novel.

Title: Some Kind of Normal
Author: Juliana Stone
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire (Sourcebooks imprint)

For Trevor normal was fast guitar licks, catching game-winning passes and partying all night. Until a car accident leaves Trevor with no band, no teammates and no chance of graduating. It's kinda hard to ace your finals when you've been in a coma. The last thing he needs is stuck-up Everly Jenkins as his new tutor—those beautiful blue eyes catching every last flaw. For Everly normal was a perfect family around the dinner table, playing piano at Sunday service and sunning by the pool. Until she discovers her whole life is a lie. Now the perfect pastor's daughter is hiding a life-changing secret, one that is slowly tearing her family apart. And spending the summer with notorious flirt Trevor Lewis means her darkest secret could be exposed.

Some Kind of Normal is a look at two teens trying to figure out how to get their lives back on track, back to normal, because they don't feel like what they have now is anywhere close. But what is normal?

Trevor is trying to get back to where he was before the accident. Before the traumatic brain injury, the coma, and the seizures. Everly is wishing her family was back the way it used to be. Before she discovered a secret of her father's, before she realized he wasn't who she thought he was. Both wish they could go back to before but they can't, and they're struggling to keep from falling under the waves of sadness and frustration. There's hope in their voices but it's drowned out by sorrow and anger. And they're just hoping it will all fix itself, they're keeping everything else inside and not relying on anyone for help. Not talking about it. Pretending it didn't happen and things can be normal again. But that never works.

What is normal? Normal is a lie, there is no normal. It's just seeing how put together everyone else looks and wanting to be like that. It's not wanting to stand out, to be stared at and pointed at, to be talked about behind out backs. It's wanting to blend in. We spend out lives searching for something that doesn't exist. Being "normal" is impossible so stop searching for it. Instead, just be you. Be happy, be healthy. Be around those you care about who also care about you. And talk about what's worrying you.

I found that Trevor's post-coma struggles were rather realistic, similar to Trina St. Jean's Blank. He wouldn't just bounce back once he woke up. There would've been a good amount of rehab, of setbacks, of new conditions and hurdles to climb over. It wasn't simple. I do think this book highlights the stress that some teens put themselves through by keeping all their concerns and problems locked away, the struggle that teens go through to put up a façade so they look "normal." It isn't healthy, it rarely works out, because it all gets exposed sooner or later. I would definitely recommend this to fans of the author's previous YA novel as well as fans of contemporary romance.

(I received an e-galley of this title to review from Sourcebooks through NetGalley.)

Day 5 - E.K. Johnston

It's day 5! It's time for a Q&A with one of my favourite internet people. :) Seriously, if you haven't read her books or you're not following her on Twitter, you're doing it wrong.

E.K. Johnston is a forensic archaeologist by training, a book seller and author by trade, and a grammarian by nature. She spends a great deal of time on the internet because it is less expensive than going to Scotland. She can probably tell you, to the instant, when she fell in love with any particular song, but don't ask her, because then it will be stuck in both of your heads. Her first book, The Story of Owen (March 2014, Carolrhoda Lab), was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award (2015), a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (Top Ten) (2014), and a Kirkus Prize Nominee for Young Readers' Literature (2014). Next came the sequel, Prairie Fire (March 2015, Carolrhoda Lab), and coming later this year is A Thousand Nights (October 2015, Disney*Hyperion). You can find her on her website or on Twitter at @ek_johnston.

Q: For those who've been living under a rock and haven't yet read your awesome books, what is Prairie Fire about? Because it's not just about being a dragon slayer, is it? It's so much more layered and complicated than that.

A: PRAIRIE FIRE is the sequel to THE STORY OF OWEN, so it's still about music and dragons and Canada, but I've sent them on quite a road-trip, so it's a larger scale. Basically, Owen and Siobhan have finished high school, which means Owen has to join the Oil Watch, and Siobhan isn't going to let him do it alone. It seems like a pretty straightforward decision, but everything gets complicated pretty much right away.

Day 4 - Mad Miss Mimic

It's day 4! Time for another review. :)

Title: Mad Miss Mimic
Author: Sarah Henstra
Release Date: May 5, 2015
Publisher: Razorbill Canada (Penguin Canada imprint)

London, 1872. Seventeen-year-old heiress Leonora Somerville is preparing to be presented to society -- again. She's strikingly beautiful and going to be very rich, but she has a problem money can't solve. A curious speech disorder causes her to stutter but also allows her to imitate other people's voices flawlessly. Servants and ladies alike call her "Mad Miss Mimic" behind her back... and watch as Leonora unintentionally scares off one potential husband after another. London in 1872 is also a city gripped by opium fever. Leo's brother-in-law Dr. Dewhurst and his new business partner Francis Thornfax are frontrunners in the race to patent an injectable formula of the drug. Friendly, forthright, and as a bonus devastatingly handsome, Thornfax seems immune to the gossip about Leo's "madness." But their courtship is endangered from the start. The mysterious Black Glove opium gang is setting off explosions across the city. The street urchins Dr. Dewhurst treats are dying. And then there is Tom Rampling, the working-class boy Leo can't seem to get off her mind. As the violence closes in around her Leo must find the links between the Black Glove's attacks, Tom's criminal past, the doctor's dangerous cure, and Thornfax's political ambitions. But first she must find her voice.

Mad Miss Mimic is mysterious and dangerous. Set in a time of progress and a growing dependency on the mind-numbing effects of opium, this is the story of a young woman who must discover who she truly is before everything crumbles around her.

Leonora, for all her beauty and money, is a lonely young woman. Her sorrow uncovered and expressed through memories of her childhood. Trapped by a voice and a tongue she can't control, she's unable to get out more than a few words without stuttering. Or words in her own voice, before someone else's takes hold and commands her tongue. She's pitied and ridiculed by society. Leonora's bursts of curiosity lead her down an unsteady path straight into danger. She's not weak, not by any means, but fear and worry grips her more often than not. She has to find the strength to push past that, to finally take complete control. She must find the courage to yell and scream at the top of her lungs.

The research done by the author is clear on every page. The period details of polite society's chat and snobbery at the lower classes, the slums and the opium dens and the hopeful souls who lived there, the advances in medicine and in drug-trafficking. The sights and smells and sounds Leonora finds are all what I would expect to see.

This is an intriguing book set around events I haven't yet come across in YA. Historical, yes. Mysteries, yes. Lonely, broken girls trying to find their power and agency, yes. It's the centering of the plot around the opium trade, around its dangers and opportunities for doctors and criminals alike that sets it apart. Perhaps for me it takes a little while for Leonora to fully fall into the mystery, to finally ask herself what is going on. Still, I found this to be a great read with a rather intriguing narrator.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Penguin Canada.)

Day 3 - Quick Reviews

It's day 3! Time to kick off the reviewing of all the books with a little something different. I know that you're about to be inundated with reviews, as well as Q&A's, over the next couple of weeks, but there were some that I just couldn't squeeze in. Which is where this come into play.

Here are some reviews of three books whose authors I've interviewed for this year's event. :)

Blank by Trina St. Jean (April 1, Orca Books): Blank is a powerful look at memory, at identity, and at anger. Jessica is trapped in a life that doesn't feel like hers. It doesn't feel like anything, and it confuses and scares her. Her memories gone because of a freak accident on the family farm, she now has to piece together who she was while discovering who is around her and who she is now. Her anger at not knowing is quite visceral. She doesn't know who anyone is, she doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how to act around them. It leaves her floundering, trying to keep hold of anything that's in any way the least bit familiar. But can she go back to who she was before the accident? Will she ever be able to find the old Jessica? After reading her diary and talking to her friends, does she even want to go back to who she was? Her journey through memory and life is honestly told.

5 to 1 by Holly Bodger (May 12, Knopf/Random House): 5 to 1 is a structured dystopia where one girls fears a cage and one boy longs to escape possible death. The book alternates between their point of view, giving us both sides of the trials that could make him her husband. It's an intriguing imagining of a future where male children outnumber female children by a dangerously high ratio, where women hold all of the power but cannot choose their own husbands. Through verse we see the girl living a life of luxury, not wanting to choose a husband, not wanting to be a pawn of her grandmother's. And through prose we see the boy, a simple farm boy with a desire to escape, to be free, and a plot to make sure he is not picked. They both want the same thing but their unspoken assumptions about the other keep them from knowing that. Each sees the other as full of opportunity, while they are trapped. Can they move away from this and finally work together? This book is intriguing and rather possible, given how many countries currently value male children over female.

Vanished by E.E. Cooper (May 12, Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins): Vanished is an intense mystery, one girl's search for her runaway friend and the secrets and lies left uncovered in the empty space she left behind. Kalah is a very compassionate girl, a girl caught in her feelings for her friend and her boyfriend. But when Beth disappears? Kalah feels lost, like the rug has been swept out from underneath her feet, and scrambles to find her after realizing she cares for Beth more than she thought. What follows is an increase in tension and suspicion as hidden truths are revealed, as another friend disappears, and as Kalah becomes unsure as to who's really missing and who's hiding, waiting to come back. This book delves into the darkness of friendship, into how far some will go, and how far some go in order to uncover the truth.

Hopefully, these have piqued your interest. Blank is out now and 5 to 1 and Vanished are both out of May 12! And many thanks to the authors and publicists who sent me copies of these to read. :)

Day 2 - Trina St. Jean

It's day 2! And we're kicking off with a blog tour stop for a debut novel!

Trina St. Jean grew up in a small town in northern Alberta, Canada, but left in pursuit of degrees in psychology and education. During a decade out east, she picked up a husband with a cute accent and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. She now lives in Calgary, where she teaches ESL and tries to stay out of trouble with her husband and two daughters. Blank, out April 1 with Orca Books, is her first novel. You can pay Trina a visit at her website or on Facebook. :)

Q: At the start of the book, Jessica's voice is rather distant and confused. She feels numb, lost in a fog of missing memories. Lost in a fog of a missing identity. She's actually caught between two identities, who she was and who she is now. How difficult was it to write Jessica, to write from the point of view of someone who sort of knows the world around her but doesn't know herself? How hard was it to fit her different identities together, the mundane but happy girl and the confused, broken girl?

A: I was very aware from the beginning that it was going to be a huge challenge to get Jessica's voice down on paper, specifically because she was so broken and confused. I wanted to get that across but not sink the reader into a pit of despair, and I also wanted to show glimpses of Jessica being a "good" person even if she couldn't remember what that meant exactly. In an early draft of the story, I remember a reader saying that they weren't sure they liked Jessica very much, that she was sarcastic and sad. I had to really tread carefully in my rewrites, to make sure that through the sarcasm and anger there were some hints of joy. Although it wasn't calculated to happen that way, I think the interactions she has with Stephen, her little brother, show a softer, more playful side of Jessica.

Day 1 - Canadian YA Lit Event 2015

Hello! It's May, which means it's time for the Canadian YA Lit Event! It's back! :)

I hope you're all looking forward to two weeks of reviews of Canadian-authored YA books and Q&A's with Canadian authors, because that's what I have lined up. It's about 50/50 this year with reviews and Q&A's.

Day 14: My Thoughts

Day 14. It's almost over, but, as always, I leave you with some thoughts cobbled together from the pieces of my rather book-centric brain. :)

I wanted to talk about something practical this year, something important. Something that made me think. Something rather recent. Diversity in YA would've been a great topic, it is a great topic, we need diverse books to be read more and discussed more and published more and promoted more. But I felt that if I talked about diversity, I would be talking while everyone around me is screaming. So many other bloggers and authors have discussed the desire for diversity far more eloquently and passionately than I ever could, and so I would suggest you go read their words (like those of Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Ellen Oh, #WeNeedDiverseBooks on Twitter, and many many others).

This year, I thought about the practice of banning books. Which is curious because it's just not done here.

Except for recently, when a father from Kamloops, BC went to his teenage son's school district and demanded they ban The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky because "students in Grade 10 shouldn't be reading a book with contents this vulgar" (quoted from this article by the CBC, March 26 2014). The article ends with the news that the man's son was given a different book to study.

I remember Twitter sort of exploding (because it's Canada) when this story broke. It just sounded so ludicrous. Banning books? In Canada? In 2014? Really?? There were more than a few tweets from people who said something along the lines of "but it's a great book" or "this guy's nuts" or "no Bible for his family, then" or "no way, that book saved me in high school."

Apparently, on April 28, a decision was made by the Kamloops School District in regards to the request (read, demand) to have The Perks of Being a Wallflower banned. I discovered yesterday in a new article that they decided not to ban the book, good for them, but that the father won't stop and will consider legal action. He considers Perks to be pornography. ... I think he needs someone to define pornography for him, because I don't think this book is it.

In Grade 11, my English class read Show Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, because my English teacher didn't like Lord of the Flies. It was fine with me, Flies didn't sound interesting. Have you read Snow Falling on Cedars? There's swearing, there's violence (both in and out of war), there's racism, and there's a fair amount of sex. But I don't remember it being a big deal. It was a novel study. It just was. Like reading Shakespeare, or that short story The Lottery where the woman gets stoned at the end.

I just find book banning to be so outdated, like we've traveled back in time to the Middle Ages. It's so restrictive and filled with fear and hatred and bigotry. I don't think I was ever told to not read a book because it might contain violence, swearing, sex, rape, or drug abuse. I think it was because my parents knew me, and they knew that I knew that, while whatever happened in the pages of a book wasn't real, some of the events could happen, and it was up to me to learn from that.

I don't know how I would've felt if I'd been told to not read a book because of its contents. I think I would've been really confused and sad, and asked why. Book are meant to share, to teach, to escape and experience through a different pair of eyes, touch through a different pair of hands. Banning books feels like cutting off a limb.

I'm sure most of you have heard of the recent banning of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian in Idaho and the subsequent absolutely awesome actions of local teens to hand out free copies of the book only to get tattled on to some rather confused cops. Those teens were awesome to do that. And those parents who called the cops? I have to wonder what else they would take offence to.

There is a page on Wikipedia titled "Book censorship in Canada." It says, quote, "Banning books is not a common practice in Canada at the current time." It is then followed by a list of seven books once banned at one point by various levels of Canadian government. SEVEN. I'm surprised it got all the way up to seven, really. I checked and I think one of those books is still banned, classified as "hate literature" by the government.

In Canada, we have Freedom to Read Week. This year it ran from February 23 to March 1. 2014 was the 30th year of Freedom to Read Week. Banning books isn't done a lot in Canada, but I love that we still speak out against it.

I think that's why I always get confused when I heard about a book being challenged or banned in the US or in a different country, because it just doesn't happen here. And when it does come up in the news, it just sounds wrong, like it's a news story about a pig learning to fly a spaceship. It just doesn't make sense to me.

What are your thoughts on banning books? What do you think about how it's very rarely done in Canada?

Day 13: Kate A. Boorman

Day 13. Today's post is like a sneak-peek into an upcoming book, because it's not out until September. :)

Kate A. Boorman is a writer from the Canadian prairies. She was born in Nepal and grew up in the small town of Rimbey, where she developed a fondness for winter. Kate has a MA in Dramatic Critical Theory and a resume full of an assortment of jobs from florist to qualitative research associate. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta with her family, and spends her free time sitting under starry skies with her friends and scheming up travel to faraway lands. WINTERKILL is her first novel. You can find her on her website or on Twitter (@KateBoorman).

I've read that a distinguishing motif in Canadian literature is our relationship with our physical environment. If it's true that Canadians have a preoccupation with our landscape and climate, I have to assume it has something to do with us knowing, deep down, that we are at its complete and total mercy. 

Does that sound melodramatic? Maybe a bit. Actually, as I sit here in my t-shirt, staring out the window at the snow-caked streets, eating a pineapple from Hawaii, that statement feels totally over the top. It's pretty easy to convince myself that my existence relies mostly on my internet provider.

Day 12: Capricious

Day 12. It's a review day. If you haven't read this and its predecessor Capricious, and you have an undying love of verse novels, then you should really read this. ;)

Title: Capricious
Author: Gabrielle Prendergast
Release Date: April 1, 2014
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers

Ella's grade eleven year was a disaster, but as summer approaches, things are looking up. She's back together with her brooding boyfriend, Samir, although they both want to keep that a secret. She's also best buddies with David and still not entirely sure about making him boyfriend number two. Though part of her wants to conform to high school norms, the temptation to be radical is just too great. Managing two secret boyfriends proves harder than Ella expected, especially when Samir and David face separate family crises, and Ella finds herself at the center of an emotional maelstrom. Someone will get hurt. Someone risks losing true love. Someone might finally learn that self-serving actions can have public consequences. And that someone is Ella.

Capricious is honest, expressive, and emotional. This is what I imagine when I think of the hardships and terrible times, the jealousies and slurs of the teenage years. This is the struggle to find the balance between who we want to be and who the world wants us to be, straddling the line and trying to keep from falling to the ground.

Ella, Raphaelle, is explosive, controversial, and opinionated, and I would have her no other way. Her individuality is what breathes life into this book. Her desires, her sadness, her fears, her dreams and nightmares. She is the explosion at the centre, painful and impossible to look away from. She continues to try and find her place in life, continues to test bits and pieces in order to piece together who she is. Her family continues to not understand her, her classmates continue to find her overwhelming, and the boys in her life continue to find her appealing. But she thinks that having two boyfriends could be interesting, could be just the thing to do now after everything blew up in her face in the previous book.

By keeping both Samir and David and secret kind of maybe boyfriends, Ella receives a number of things. With them, she can be different. She can be closer to who she wants to be. But life is never easy like that. Life does not often forgive those who choose to be audacious.

What I love about verse novels is how they are both sparse and expressive. Every word has a purpose, has meaning, but only so many words are given to the reader in order to tell the story. Less words for such a large story. And it works as it did with Audacious. Ella's pain and confusion coat each and every page.

What does it mean to be capricious? To be subject to an odd notion or unpredictable change, to be erratic. But what can we be as teenagers if not capricious, if not audacious? Are we supposed to know, by glorious miracle, how to act what to wear how to speak where to work so we don't make mistakes? No, we're not. This book is filled with experiences good and bad, lovely and painful, and it's supposed to be. Ella is supposed to be audacious, capricious, adventurous, impudent, daring, foolish. Because Ella can do anything.

(I received an e-galley of this title from Orca Book Publishers.)

Day 11: Michelle Krys

Day 11. More Q&A's with debut authors! :) And this time, witches! :)

Michelle Krys lives in Northwestern Ontario with her husband and son and works part-time as a NICU nurse. She loves reading (duh), is a massive celebrity gossip junkie, loves music she can dance to and bad reality television, belly laughing, baby-breath, rainy days, and driving with the windows down (except on rainy days). She also loves smart humor but still laughs at fart jokes. Her debut YA, Hexed, comes out on June 10, 2014 with Random House, with the currently untitled sequel and separate standalone book Dead Girls Society set to follow in the future. You can find her at her website or on Twitter (@MichelleKrys). :)

Q: With Hexed coming out in June, do you think you're leaning more towards excited or nervous these days? Or is it more of a bizarre mixture of both? Do you have plans for release day or will it be just another normal day?

A: Definitely a bizarre mixture of both. After nearly two and a half years since signing the book deal, I'm overjoyed that the waiting is almost done. But at the same time, after all that build-up, there's a lot of pressure for the book to be incredible. That's nervous-making!

I'm traveling to Toronto for two days during release week to meet up with bloggers, which I'm really, really excited about. I don't have any plans for release day in particular, but judging by my missing ARCs and chapter samplers and my husband's sneaky smiles, he's definitely up to something.

Day 10: The Opposite of Geek

Day 10. Another review. :) This is actually set in the Lower Mainland/Vancouver-ish area, so a book to check out if you're looking for more YA authored by Canadians and set in Canada.

Title: The Opposite of Geek
Author: Ria Voros
Release Date: September 1, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic Canada

Gretchen Meyers doesn't know exactly what went wrong, but life in the eleventh grade is beginning to suck. As if having a semi-nudist, food-obsessed family wasn't awkward enough, she has lost her best friend to the fanatical school swim team, and her chemistry grade is so close to negative digits that only emergency tutoring can save it. So far, so high school. Then James/Dean rolls into her life, also known as her zit-faced chemistry tutor James and his slightly less zit-faced cousin Dean. Kind-hearted rebels without a cause, they draw Gretchen out of classroom hell, and briefly the world seems full of possibility. But everything changes over the course of one awful night. Bewildered by harsh new emotions of grief and love, Gretchen realizes she must now decide who she wants to be and what it means to be loyal.

The Opposite of Geek is emotional, rough, and complicated, all about what it means to be a friend to someone and what it means to be you. To be brave enough to stand up and be the person you want to be and not who others want you to be. To be brave enough to be different.

When the book starts, Gretchen feels her life is spiraling into a big pit of nothing, brought down by her strange family, her growing distant best friend, and her failing chemistry grade. In turn she becomes angry, maybe a little depressed, and she doesn't understand why this is happening to her. She's hit that spot, the one where you start figuring out what you want to do after high school, after college, and what you want doesn't necessarily match up with that plans you had before. Or your parents' plans for you. Or what your teachers are pushing you towards.

It doesn't help Gretchen's tumble into frustration with her parents over her future that her best friend suddenly (to Gretchen) has other interests. Has new friends. Would rather hang out with them. Friends come and go, it's one of those painful parts of life that we just can't avoid. But then James and Dean enter her life, two guys rather different from anyone she knows, two weird guys who give her the chance to escape. And she needs to escape. She needs fresh air, away from the pressure. In a way, they save her.

I found the writing style of the book, the mixture of poetry and prose, to be rather lyrical and expressive. Gretchen's voice is clear, honest, filled with her disappointment, sadness, and happiness. Everything she feels is there on the page for the reader to see. Maybe there were times when Gretchen headed towards whiny and annoying, when her teen angst felt over-done and exaggerated, but then isn't everything over-done and exaggerated when you're a teenager? Doesn't it always feel like the world will end when something doesn't work out? I would recommend this to contemporary YA readers looking for a little poetry with their prose and a lot of reality.

(I received a copy of this title from Scholastic Canada.)

Day 9: Danielle L. Jensen

Day 9. Are you a fan of instant fantasy with trolls and a couple who hates each other at the beginning? Then this is the first in a series for you. ;) And remember to read the whole post because Danielle is giving away a signed copy of her book! :)

Danielle L. Jensen was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta. At the insistence of the left side of her brain, she graduated in 2003 from the University of Calgary with a bachelor's degree in finance. But the right side of her brain has ever been mutinous; and in 2010, it sent her back to school to complete an entirely impractical English literature degree at Mount Royal University and to pursue publication. Much to her satisfaction, the right side shows no sign of relinquishing its domination. Her debut YA novel, Stolen Songbird, came out on April 1, 2014 from Strange Chemistry. The sequel Hidden Huntress is due to follow in 2015. You can find her at her blog or on Twitter (@dljensen_). :)

Q: Cécile is educated and trained as a singer, but she comes off as a bit average and not necessarily special. What I mean is, after she's inside the mountain with the trolls, the thing (in an attempt to avoid spoilers) they thought would happen didn't and she's left to struggle and work her way out of her situation. Was that your plan for Cécile from the start?

A: Gosh, doesn't it seem like everyone is special these days, both in life and in literature? As an adult reader that annoys me to no end, but I read some survey results the other day (don't ask me to find the link!) that indicated teens preferred to read about characters who are special. IMHO, I think that is a function of how western society values innate or natural gifts (beauty, genius, extreme talent) over that which is achieved by hard work and dedication. I think there is the idea out there that in order to achieve something extraordinary you yourself must be unique or special. Which is *&^%. Normal people accomplish incredible things everyday because they have good hearts and lots of determination. 

When I created Cécile, I wouldn't say I set out to make her average (she is certainly quite pretty & talented), but it was my intention to make her relatable. She has skills, attributes, and her own magic, but her successes are the result of pluck, bravery, and tenacity.

Day 8: Caroline Pignat

Day 8. And now you get the second part in today's two-part Unspeakable blog tour posting. Here, Caroline has provided a thoughtful post on what it means to be Canadian and what makes a story Canadian.

Caroline Pignat was born in Ireland but calls Canada home. Her first novel, Egghead, was shortlisted for the 2009 CLA Book of the Year and is recommended as a bullying resource by Kids Help Phone. Her second, Greener Grass, won the Govenor General's award in 2009. It was followed by Wild Geese and Timber Wolf. When not writing books, she's either still writing or teaching Writer's Craft. Her most recent book, Unspeakable, came out on May 6, 2014, with The Gospel Truth to release later this year. You can find her at her website or on Twitter (@CarolinePignat). :)

Who we are, what we have to say, and how we say it are all shaped by the cultures that have shaped us. For me, born in Ireland and raised in Canada, those experiences flavour every story I tell. And just like any flavour steeped into the whole, it can be hard to isolate. To be honest, I’ve never tried.

I am Irish. That voice is surely in my writing. I hear it in my Irish characters like Kit in GREENER GRASS or Ellie in UNSPEAKABLE as clearly as I hear it in my mother's voice. They sound just like Mom or Granny with their sharp wit or lilting laments. That flavour is as strong as Granny's tea.

But what flavour is Canadian, exactly?

Is there one?