Wednesday 10 October 2007
Back from the Dark
This blog has had an embarrassing amount of downtime! This is due to RL issues, mainly my health. However, I've read lots of YA books, so more reviews will be coming soon, including the newest Tiffany Aching book by Terry Pratchett, book 2 of the Deptford Mouselets ('Whortle's Hope') by Robin Jarvis , and 'The Ship that Flew', a classic/'oldie' by Hilda Lewis, a writer of historical romance. And, of course, more POD books from Lulu, to be read on my laptop screen while knitting socks (TMI?)
Tuesday 17 July 2007
Review (Part 1): 'Twilight's Edge Volume One', by Heather Renee* Holden
(Sorry Heather, I'm not smart enough to do the little thing above the 'e' in Renee.)'Twilight's Edge, Volume One' earns a Happy Hamster rating, because I will be recommending it to other readers.:-) The first installment of a serial about teenaged diabetic vampire hunter Raven Radley, 'Twilight's Edge' is definitely a story aimed at teens rather than kids,* with some mature content (high level of violence, non-graphic sexual situations, death, no swearing/cursing that I noticed though). I gave this story a reader enjoyment rating of four out of five, and a technical rating of four out of five. If you like a gritty vampire tale that doesn't stint on the violence and is filled with witty one-liners, then why not preview this story?
*Depending on reader sensitivity/maturity/preference, and/or parental decision-making... ;-).
Raven Radley has type 1 diabetes; in other words, she's the opposite of someone on the Atkins diet. *They* go out of their way to eliminate carbs - hopefully they'll donate the carb sources they don't need to her, because she needs to keep her blood sugar up.
If her blood sugar level falls too low, she won't be able to concentrate, and she needs to concentrate, because vampires keep trying to kill her, and some of them are smart.
Sure, since the mysterious 'Blessing' that made her the new slayer, she's developed her own unearthly powers, but the mysterious Vampire Master who keeps sending his stooges after her doesn't seem too concerned. After all, he only has to be lucky once.
And it's not like he's going to run out of vamps any time soon - he's got all the cemeteries in Crescent Valley to choose from, and they're filling up at quite a rate.The Vampire Master has plans. He's going to do a ritual - he's been looking forward to it for rather a long time. Raven, a practising Wiccan, knows all about rituals - they're life-affirming events that tap and direct the positive energy in the universe. Not this ritual, though. This one will allow the terminally insomniac vampires to overturn the curse that turns them to ash in the sunlight, so they'll have twice as much hunting time. Raven has to stop them, before they slaughter her and her friends, or worse, capture her alive. The Vampire Master wants her alive so he can turn her into a vampire.
Slayers-turned-bloodsucker are famous for their power, their pure evil, and their ability to be able to cancel that pesky curse forever. If Raven's arch enemy gets his way, regular cravings for fruitjuice will be the least of her worries...
I will post part 2 later/tomorrow. In the mean-time, here's Heather Holden's website.
For adult readers: fake covers for Harry Potter...
It always weirded me out that you could buy 'Harry Potter' books with different covers for adults; I don't think I saw other stuff like that when I was a teenager, and I always used to look in the adult section to see which of my favourite authors had a big enough crossover appeal to be listed there too. Same covers, every time. Redwall, little mice waving swords, even. Was it Harry Potter that started this craze? I think I've seen alternative covers on the Northern Lights Trilogy since. Are there any others?
(Link below is for those with an appreciation of very crude humour only. They are indeed 'adult' covers... you have been warned).
This link, courtesy of whoever's behind 'pointlesswasteoftime.com', has a series of (yes, printable) fake covers for adults to put on their Harry Potter books, and links to more. I noticed they all seem to be geared towards men, though the copies with the real adult covers are selling well to both sexes. (I wonder if anyone's produced some fake 'romance' covers for HP, heh heh).
I find this phenomenon of different covers for different readers disturbing for the following reasons:
1. Surely the point of not being a kid/teen any more and leaving home is that you can read what you like. Gone are the days of cunningly hiding things from people who don't approve, or can judge and mock you for, or worse, control, you reading matter. Now I have the increased power of being an adult, I will read what I like where I like in my own time. If that turns out to be a picture book by Barbette Cole on the tube (subway to you Americans), so be it.
2. It kind of implies the original book/product won't pass muster for adults unless improved on/changed for adults. Philip Pullman had an excellent rant about the second class status of kids'/YA lit, which I will dig out and dissect at some point, and link to.
3. It annoys me as another example of society's obsession with surfaces, and politicians and celebrities who change the cover/surface/packaging for different consumers at different times. 'How do you like this? No? OK...' *fiddles around with the 'surface'* 'How do you like it/me/us now?'
Shudder.
4. Something that annoys me about how marketers manipulate people's opinions of others. Because someone provides me with a choice of 2 covers, I can now be judged for what choice I make. When I pre-ordered Harry Potter 6, I was asked which cover I wanted, and the decision I make says something, however insignificant, about me, because I had to make the decision.
5. Harry Potter's universe is a fantastical, colourful place, and the YA/kids' cover displays that with pride. I think it's sad - 0r even disturbing - not to celebrate this. If you're reading a book with dragons in, why not have a lovely great big dragon on the cover that says, 'Hello, everyone, I like reading about really fantastic dragons!' rather than exist in dragon-denial with a plain or serious looking cover? Yaaarg.
OK, less ranting, more reading, and soon, review posting.:-)
(Link below is for those with an appreciation of very crude humour only. They are indeed 'adult' covers... you have been warned).
This link, courtesy of whoever's behind 'pointlesswasteoftime.com', has a series of (yes, printable) fake covers for adults to put on their Harry Potter books, and links to more. I noticed they all seem to be geared towards men, though the copies with the real adult covers are selling well to both sexes. (I wonder if anyone's produced some fake 'romance' covers for HP, heh heh).
I find this phenomenon of different covers for different readers disturbing for the following reasons:
1. Surely the point of not being a kid/teen any more and leaving home is that you can read what you like. Gone are the days of cunningly hiding things from people who don't approve, or can judge and mock you for, or worse, control, you reading matter. Now I have the increased power of being an adult, I will read what I like where I like in my own time. If that turns out to be a picture book by Barbette Cole on the tube (subway to you Americans), so be it.
2. It kind of implies the original book/product won't pass muster for adults unless improved on/changed for adults. Philip Pullman had an excellent rant about the second class status of kids'/YA lit, which I will dig out and dissect at some point, and link to.
3. It annoys me as another example of society's obsession with surfaces, and politicians and celebrities who change the cover/surface/packaging for different consumers at different times. 'How do you like this? No? OK...' *fiddles around with the 'surface'* 'How do you like it/me/us now?'
Shudder.
4. Something that annoys me about how marketers manipulate people's opinions of others. Because someone provides me with a choice of 2 covers, I can now be judged for what choice I make. When I pre-ordered Harry Potter 6, I was asked which cover I wanted, and the decision I make says something, however insignificant, about me, because I had to make the decision.
5. Harry Potter's universe is a fantastical, colourful place, and the YA/kids' cover displays that with pride. I think it's sad - 0r even disturbing - not to celebrate this. If you're reading a book with dragons in, why not have a lovely great big dragon on the cover that says, 'Hello, everyone, I like reading about really fantastic dragons!' rather than exist in dragon-denial with a plain or serious looking cover? Yaaarg.
OK, less ranting, more reading, and soon, review posting.:-)
Monday 16 July 2007
Achuka and Teensreadtoo
While you're waiting for me to finish reading my first ebooks, here are two review sites for young adult/children's literature:
Achuka
I love this site. Not only is it dedicated to YA/kids' books, but it introduced me to one of my favourite books, Henry Tumour by Anthony McGowan. I'll post a review of that one when I've reread it, but it's a brilliant book (for those with a dark sense of humour; it's about a boy with a talking brain tumour, you have been warned) and I'd never have found it without Achuka. I read the review on Achuka, thought 'talking brain tumour? wow!'), took one look at the (groovy) cover, and went to look for it in my local book shops. It wasn't on any shelves, so I had to order it in specially. It took 2 weeks, but it was worth it.
'Henry Tumour' is definitely for teens and above. There is frank discussion of sex(uality) and cancer; I wouldn't give it a 'mature' rating, because there's nothing graphic, but it may offend some, or at least make them feel queasy...
I bought this book in 2005, and it was the first fiction book I bought that I discovered while broswing on the net. If I hadn't been online, I might never have discovered it - and that's a book published by Doubleday! When I was at school, I used to give and get recommendations for kids/YA books to and from friends, but now this isn't so common, as most of them mainly read 'adult books' (snigger) now. Since, I just browsed book shops for new titles every month or so, until I discovered the internet is an important source of info about books I might like to read. I hope this blog introduces some excellent books to people who might otherwise never have come across them. Browsing online sites is getting easier what with intelligent linking systems (ie 'customers who bought/viewed 'Book Y' also bought/viewed 'Book X' and 'Book Z'), and the ability to preview the first few pages free as one can in a brick-and-mortar book shop, but often books sold through online shops have no or not-very-useful customer reviews, so I think review sites will prove more and more useful for helping people to find books that they'd never find in the high street shops, as well as those they might.
Teensreadtoo is a massive site with loads of book reviews, author interviews, and information about books' release dates. I recommend having a good poke around.:-)
Achuka
I love this site. Not only is it dedicated to YA/kids' books, but it introduced me to one of my favourite books, Henry Tumour by Anthony McGowan. I'll post a review of that one when I've reread it, but it's a brilliant book (for those with a dark sense of humour; it's about a boy with a talking brain tumour, you have been warned) and I'd never have found it without Achuka. I read the review on Achuka, thought 'talking brain tumour? wow!'), took one look at the (groovy) cover, and went to look for it in my local book shops. It wasn't on any shelves, so I had to order it in specially. It took 2 weeks, but it was worth it.
'Henry Tumour' is definitely for teens and above. There is frank discussion of sex(uality) and cancer; I wouldn't give it a 'mature' rating, because there's nothing graphic, but it may offend some, or at least make them feel queasy...
I bought this book in 2005, and it was the first fiction book I bought that I discovered while broswing on the net. If I hadn't been online, I might never have discovered it - and that's a book published by Doubleday! When I was at school, I used to give and get recommendations for kids/YA books to and from friends, but now this isn't so common, as most of them mainly read 'adult books' (snigger) now. Since, I just browsed book shops for new titles every month or so, until I discovered the internet is an important source of info about books I might like to read. I hope this blog introduces some excellent books to people who might otherwise never have come across them. Browsing online sites is getting easier what with intelligent linking systems (ie 'customers who bought/viewed 'Book Y' also bought/viewed 'Book X' and 'Book Z'), and the ability to preview the first few pages free as one can in a brick-and-mortar book shop, but often books sold through online shops have no or not-very-useful customer reviews, so I think review sites will prove more and more useful for helping people to find books that they'd never find in the high street shops, as well as those they might.
Teensreadtoo is a massive site with loads of book reviews, author interviews, and information about books' release dates. I recommend having a good poke around.:-)
Thank you!
Thank you to everyone submitting books! I'm having fun reading them, and forming my inner reader's (and writing-nerd's) opinions, and I appreciate the extra variety self-published/POD books provide to my reading. Thanks to a combination of self-publishers, POD technology, and the internet, I am no longer limited to my local book shop and library for choice of reading matter. I appreciate that... :-)
Review Policy/Disclaimer
The aim of this site is to promote the reading and writing of Young Adult and Children's Literature. The way I see it, readers come first. Because readers come first, all reviews posted on this site will be my honest opinion.
If I read a book - whether submitted or bought/found/borrowed - and I have negative opinions about it as well as positive, the review will contain both. If I only have negative opinions about it, I may well still review it. On the other hand, if I only have positive opinions about it, I'm not the kind of person to make up negative stuff.:-)
All criticism will be constructive, and directed to the book and not the author. Likewise, please direct any criticism of the reviews towards those and not me.
If I chose not to review a submitted book, I will try to briefly explain why on the blog as soon as possible. If you feel one has slipped through the net, please email me at the address on the right rather than commenting on the blog, as I might not check comments as often as I check my email.
In the event that I know an author, I will state this in the review.
So, please submit your work for an honest and free review.
If I read a book - whether submitted or bought/found/borrowed - and I have negative opinions about it as well as positive, the review will contain both. If I only have negative opinions about it, I may well still review it. On the other hand, if I only have positive opinions about it, I'm not the kind of person to make up negative stuff.:-)
All criticism will be constructive, and directed to the book and not the author. Likewise, please direct any criticism of the reviews towards those and not me.
If I chose not to review a submitted book, I will try to briefly explain why on the blog as soon as possible. If you feel one has slipped through the net, please email me at the address on the right rather than commenting on the blog, as I might not check comments as often as I check my email.
In the event that I know an author, I will state this in the review.
So, please submit your work for an honest and free review.
Anti-hamster Rating
Books that earn an anti-hamster... I hope none do. Here is a non-exhaustive list of reasons why I would give one of these:
- Book contains offensive stereotype characters, or celebrates/condones/pushes prejudice. I'm not taking about satire, or dark humour, or a healthy distrust of the PC lobby here.
- Book is not for YAs, it is impossible to conceive it having a crossover appeal to YAs. In fact, book has been submitted spam fashion with author's brain not engaged. (This is the only way I can think of at the moment that an anti-hamster could be earned by an author rather than his/her book).
- Book is not suitable for stated target audience, for reasons of content, style etc.
- I would actively recommend that almost everyone not buy this book.
If I give a book an anti-hamster, I will explain why.
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