Me on This Week's Book Week (44)

This Week's Book Week is like Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews but

Unlike last week, some books came. :) Books make happy faces. As does book mail 2 days in a row. :)

There've been a few ALA books that I've read and left little mini reviews of on Goodreads, so if we're friends over there you've seen them. Mini reviews so far include The Summer Prince (in lieu of a full review because any kind of review from me would be inadequate (a very unique story that's hard to describe)), Eleanor & Park (a sweet story that I know others have loved but just isn't my kind of contemporary), and Things I Can't Forget (which I didn't pick up at ALA but decided to leave a mini review of). 

I think Chapters/Indigo learned some things when Cassandra Clare and Holly Black came to BC 2 years ago, the main one being that lots of people would show up. And so I think that's why they set up the rules for next week's signing featuring Cassie and special guest Sarah Rees Brennan (too bad Maureen Johnson was only at the stops this week, she's loads of fun). Such rules include purchasing Clockwork Princess on the 19th at the store the signing will be at in order to get one of the 400 wristbands that will get you into the signing line.

So I went to the bookstore early Tuesday morning to get the book and the wristband, figuring it would get busy over the day but not right at 9am. I forgot about the power of fangirls and teenagers on Spring Break. My sister went with me (she wanted to go shopping after) and when we got there just before 9am, the line was 200+ people long (also, the line did hold a fair amount of friends/parents/pained boyfriends). Once the store opened, the line moved along at a good pace, meaning the line was directed straight to the checkout where the cashier would give you a copy of the book with the wristband tucked inside and you'd pay right away. Which meant we were only in line for about 30 minutes. There were still some there when we left the mall, I saw a Twitter update saying there were around 100 left close to 11am, then I saw that evening they still had about 20 wristbands left. I imagine they're all gone now.

Now, to determine what time to leave to get in line next Tuesday (it starts at 6pm). Do I go early and be close enough to the front to get a seat, around 1:30/2pm? Do I go later because of the wristband that automatically gets me into the signing line, around 4/5pm?

Would people like a giveaway from the Cassie and Sarah signing? What would be in the giveaway? A signed Cassie book? A signed Sarah book? Whatever swag I can get? I'm leaning towards maybe swag and away from a book, mailing the heavy Clockwork Princess hardcover sure could get expensive.

Upcoming reviews will feature This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith (Tuesday the 26th) and Beautiful Decay by Sylvia Lewis (Friday the 29th). :)

Received:
Nameless by Lili St. Crow (from Penguin Canada)
Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike (from Penguin Canada for a blog tour this summer)
My Totally Awkward Supernatural Crush by Laura Toffler-Corrie (from Macmillan through NetGalley)

Bought:
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare (I read it on Tuesday after I got home. :))

Me on The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door

Title: The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door
Author: Karen Finneyfrock
Release Date: February 21, 2013
Publisher: Viking (Penguin imprint)

Celia Door enters her freshman year of high school with giant boots, dark eyeliner, and a thirst for revenge against Sandy Firestone, the girl who did something unspeakable to Celia in eighth grade. But then Celia meets Drake, the cool new kid from New York City who entrusts her with his deepest, darkest secret, who makes her look at things a different way. When Celia's quest for justice threatens her relationship with Drake, she's forced to decide which is sweeter: the revenge she craves or the friendship she never knew she needed.

The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door is a clever, honest, and insightful look at one girl's entrance into high school and all it entails, including a reunion with the girls from middle school who made eighth grade painful. Celia is an interesting sort of character, funny and clever but sad and confused, and her experience will resonate with anyone who'd ever felt alone and bullied by their peers.

One thing that stands out the most in this book is Celia's voice. She's creative, she's wise, she's knowledgeable after reading book after book from the public library. She has her own way of seeing the world around her, seeing her parents' marriage stagnate and turn into something else, seeing Drake struggle with the secret that only she knows, seeing Sandy Firestone and waiting for the day she'll get her revenge. There's a mention of Celia studying the high school's yearbook so she could prepare for her freshman year, but there is no studying. It's a jump into the deep end for everyone, we just have to hope we can tread water or that there are people nearby willing to help keep us afloat.

Celia's poems are a coping mechanism, a way for her to express what she's feeling when she's keeping it all inside. She doesn't tell either of her parents, her forgetful mother or absent father, how she feels, she doesn't tell Drake the truth behind how she feels, and so it's all building up inside her, escaping in little bursts of poems that no one is ever meant to see.

At fourteen, Celia is a young narrator for a young adult novel, but the message of this book is no less powerful or important. She's been bullied, she's become Dark, but is getting her revenge on Sandy Firestone worth it? Is revenge ever worth it? With revenge, Celia wants Sandy to feel exactly how she felt, she wants her to feel the pain and the shame that she was put through, but she never considers the end. Those who plan revenge plots rarely consider the aftermath, the whispers, the additional pain that could surface. If Celia goes through with her revenge, she might lose the only friend she has.

Those early years of high school, the first year or two, they're the start of you discovering what you want to be, who you're going to be. You don't want those times to be sad, to be painful, to weight you down until you're about to buckle under the pressure. It's not about becoming who other people want you to be, it's about figuring out who you want to be. Be the best you you can be, hang out with who you want to hang out with. Maybe then high school will be pretty sweet.

(I acquired an advance copy at ALA Midwinter.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (120)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Not a Drop to Drink
Author: Mindi McGinnis
Release Date: September 10, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins imprint)

From Goodreads:

Regret was for people with nothing to defend, people who had no water.

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

With evocative, spare language and incredible drama, danger, and romance, debut author Mindy McGinnis depicts one girl’s journey in a barren world not so different than our own.

This sounds so creepy and so brutal and so dangerous. I want to read this so bad. But it'll have to be in a brightly lit room, just in case someone shows up and tries to steal my glass of water.

Me on 17 & Gone

Title: 17 & Gone
Author: Nova Ren Suma
Release Date: March 21, 2013
Publisher: Dutton (Penguin imprint)

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 and immediate answers. Why are the girls speaking to Lauren? How can she help them? Is she next? As she searches for clues, everything begins to unravel, and when a brush with death lands her in the hospital, a shocking truth emerges, changing everything.

17 & Gone is haunting and hugely powerful. Dripping with mystery, intrigue, sadness, and determination, this is one girl's journey to discover the truth behind another's disappearance, behind multiple disappearances of teenage girls. Something happened to these girls, something that led them to be declared missing, and one girl takes it upon herself to reveal the truth.

The novel is Lauren's account of her experience right from when it starts, when she first sees Abby, when she first sees the visions, and as she sees girl after girl, story after story, until she's surrounded by them. Her voice feels slightly distant from the story as a whole, but I find that it stems from how this is told. Lauren is recounting what happened to her, what happened to the girls who went missing, and what happened as she traveled unknowingly straight to a surprising and revealing ending.

While the novel mainly features Lauren, it's not just about her. It's also about the girls who are 17 and gone, gone and disappeared into the mist, into a car, into an adventure, into a life they hoped was better than the one they left behind. It's a serious subject. What happened to those girls who leave and are never found, girls whose family wants them back while the authorities just wash their hands of them as they declare them to be runaways? It's heartbreaking, it's terrible to think about, but there are those who want to find them. There are people who care about them when no one else does.

The different stories, the different girls, they're all the different ways someone can become lost. All the girls are lost, but so is Lauren. She's lost in this mission they give her, swept away into the current they create, pushed into discovering the truth no matter how unexpected it might be.

What is the truth behind what Lauren is seeing? She thinks she's seeing spirits, ghost, visions of the past, but is she? Or is it all in her head? Is she making it all up? Are they ghosts searching for someone to help them, or is Lauren suffering from a mental illness? In a way, I think it's up for interpretation on behalf of the reader. They can choose to believe that what Lauren sees or not.

No matter if you believe Lauren or not, if you think the girls are real and crying out for help or not, this novel will still stick with you, whispering the names of lost girls, whispering their stories. Crying out for someone to find them.

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

Me on This Week's Book(less) Week (43)

This Week's Book Week is like Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews but I'm terrible at naming things and this has stuck. :)

No books again. Sad face. But then I look at the books I have reviews scheduled for in April and think "NO MORE!" And then I go on Twitter and want more books. It's a terrible cycle.

It was finally really rainy this week. Last week was really nice, but this week was gloomy. Standard Lower Mainland weather. :)

So. Review buffers. I like having a buffer, I like not being in a rush to read a book and then write up a review. I've always tried to have a buffer, sometimes it hasn't worked out so well but at the least I've got the week's reviews ready to go up by that Sunday. Having a set schedule of what you're going to review and when also helps. I think I'm scheduled up until mid-June (thank you, ALA books). I'm going to try and take a week to read through some of the books I missed, the ARCs I picked up whose release dates have come and gone, and then jump right into April's review books. Since the blog event starts in May and the first two weeks are dedicated to it, and since I have a bunch of May 7 releases (7 of them, well, 8, but one of them counts for the event) they either get crammed into late April or mid to late May. Which means most of April will have 3 reviews a week weeks.

Would you guys appreciate me saying what reviews will be posted the upcoming week so you know beforehand? This week's reviews will be 17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma (Tuesday) and The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door by Karen Finneyfrock (Friday). :)

Read this past week or so:
The Right & the Real by Joëlle Anthony (An interesting contemporary YA. Girl's father joins a religious cult and when she doesn't go with him, she ends up homeless.)
17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma (A haunting story about being lost, discovering the truth, and what happens to those missing girls no one ever finds.)
This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith (Cute, sweet, fun contemporary.)
Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison (A murder mystery kind of ghost story.)
Things I Can't Forget by Miranda Kenneally (Contemporary YA. High school grad works at a Christian summer camp, all about friendship and religion and dating and secrets and following the rules you feel are the most important.)