Kaede kicks ass in HUNTRESS by Malinda Lo

The ancient world in Huntress is dying.  The seasons won't change, the sky is a constant shade of grey, crops are dried up, and people are starving.  Kaede and Taisin are two teenage girls in an academy training to be sages.  Taisin is a gifted sage from a humble birth, while Kaede has remained in the academy despite any magical ability because she is the chancellor's daughter.

When the King receives an invitation from the Fairy Queen, Taisin's visions and a prophecy determine that Kaede and Taisin  must accompany Prince Con into the world of fairy.  Taisin's only worried about one thing: in her vision, she's in love with Kaede and sages must take a vow of celibacy. Taisin wants more than anything to be a sage and is determined to not let any feelings get in her way.

Huntress by Malinda Lo is a splendid fantasy full of both intense adventure and a sweet romance.  The love story in this book feels so genuine and pure.  I kept reading late into the night just to see more interaction between these two girls.

Huntress is technically a prequel to Ash, Lo's retelling of Cinderella.  Although I loved Ash as well, I feel like Huntress is the stronger book and is easy to read completely on its own.   If you like Graceling by Kristin Cashore ( I love it!) then I think you'll enjoy Huntress as well.

And for you writer-types, Lo does something interesting with point-of-view.  Huntress is told in 3rd person omniscient-ish.  We see inside several characters' heads.  I hadn't read a contemporary book that pulls this off until now.

So, check out Huntress and let me know what you think!

Ooh, also.  I just read this epilogue-ish short story by Malinda Lo here.

From bimbos to badasses in BEAUTY QUEENS by Libba Bray

A plane full of beauty pageant contestants crashes on a deserted island.  It's an awesome premise, but in Beauty Queens, Libba Bray does so much more than give us Lord of the Flies in heels.

Bray's smart and hilarious writing takes us deep into the psyche of our ensemble cast of teen beauty queens.  Each girl has her own reasons for entering the pageant and each girl has her own demons to conquer on the island as she comes into her own. It is a truly ensemble cast, but Petra is my favorite.  She might be the one with the biggest secret, but she is also the girl who has the clearest sense of who she is.  Beauty Queens is somehow both campy and deep, it delivers a strong message and yet is light-hearted and hilarious.

If you took LOST, James Bond, Glee, Clueless, The Heart of Darkness, added some feminist-flavored rum, and put them in a blender, Beauty Queens would be the fruity cocktail you'd enjoy by the pool.

I loved Bray's use of footnotes in the novel and many of them had me literally laughing out loud.  Example: "Che Guevara, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary who later became a best-selling t-shirt icon."

Although they might start off as superficial pageant contestants, Beauty Queens is full of strong heroines, some of which become pretty bad-ass.  It's great fun to see the girls use their beautifying skills to survive on the island and confront any dangers that come their way.  I love this book and I think anyone who's ever seen an advertisement for a beauty product should read it.

Holly Black knows how to make readers feel smart in RED GLOVE

I read because I like to feel smart.  Sure, I read as an exercise in escapism.  I read to step into someone else's shoes and to learn about the world around me.  I read to laugh.  I read to cry.  Sure, whatever.

I love books that make me feel smart.  I'm not talking about reading Plato's Republic and then annoying my friends with Socratic quotes.  Not that kind of smart.  I love figuring things out.  I love that "aha!" moment, when I'm pretty sure I've solved the mystery.  I love that light bulb moment so much, that I'll sometimes put a sticky note on the page where things finally came together.  That way, later when someone asks "When did you figure out the BIG MYSTERY?"  I can say, "HA! I knew all the way back on page 98."  (No one's ever asked, but you know, just in case).

BUT! Here's the thing.  As much as I love feeling smart, I also love being tricked.  And this is where Holly Black is most brilliant.  She's weaved so many mysteries, twists, and turns into Red Glove that while I'm patting myself on the back for figuring one thing out (sticky note ready) BAM!  Someone sneaks up behind me and whacks me on the head with a shovel.  (Not literally, you know what I mean).

Red Glove is the second book in Holly Black's magical mobster Curse Workers Series.  But Red Glove is so much more than a sequel to White Cat.  As Kiersten White eloquently points out, Red Glove avoids all the second book pitfalls and is the "perfect middle book."

Cassel's brother is murdered and he has to figure out who killed him, while hiding his powerful curse, and shaking off both the mob and the feds who are breathing down his neck trying to recruit him.  The thing is, Cassel is a pretty screwed up guy.  With an emotion-worker for a mom, he doesn't trust his own feelings, let alone those of others.  His family is full of criminals and killers, and although he doesn't want to be like them, he doesn't know how to be anything else.  He doesn't trust his own sense of right and wrong.  Lies come more easily than the truth.  His self-loathing is so complete, he can't believe anyone would like him unless they're being conned, worked, and/or lied to.

Black does a brilliant job of letting the reader figure some things out long before Cassel does.  He's so lovably screwed up, he can't see what's right in front of him.  But at the same time, Cassel is so busy lying, hiding, and conning, we never see the end coming.  Dark and heartbreaking, with thrilling set-ups and cons, Red Glove's best con is the one Black pulls on the readers.


**Ok, so I know I'm breaking my own rules by raving about a book with a male protagonist.  But, I wouldn't mess with ANY of the women in this book, they're all pretty kick-ass in their own right.  And, they're my rules and I can break them if I want to.  So there.

Fancy is Wicked in SLICE OF CHERRY by Dia Reeves

Hello! So, a few weeks ago Blogger was doing funny things and ate my post on Divergent by Veronica Roth.  But I've been too lazy  incredibly busy to rewrite it.  So, I'll sum up. You should read it. Divergent crawled inside my head and stayed there for days.  Fans of The Hunger Games will love it.

OK then, onward and upward!

I loved Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves and I was excited about Slice of Cherry.  I'd heard it was darker, bloodier, and even better than Bleeding Violet.  And guess what?  They were right!  These people who say these things: so smart!

It's not a sequel, but Slice of Cherry takes place in Portrero, the same town as Bleeding Violet, and Hanna and Wyatt make a cameo.  Slice of Cherry is about Kit and Fancy, daughters of an incarcerated serial-killer known as the Bone-Saw Killer.  And the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  The girls can't fight the desire to cut and kill (well, it's not like they try hard).

All Fancy wants is for her and her sister to be together and be allowed to be themselves, even if that means an occasional homicide.  Reeves has this way of combining blood, murder, sex, and a light-hearted playfulness into a book that is difficult to put down but creates this uncomfortable squishy spot inside you.

I'd find myself rooting for Fancy and her murderous desires, only to be disgusted with myself for doing so.  Through their special abilities in the dangerously magical world of Portrero, Kit and Fancy turn murder into a game.  Although it made me squeamish at times, I loved how remorseless Fanny is.  She doesn't apologize for who she is.  Ultimately this is a book about being true to yourself, sticking by your family, and searching for what it means to be "good."

There are some books where you love the world and the characters so much, you want to dive into the book and live the characters' lives.  This is not one of those books.  Reeves does an excellent job of making Portrero and the girls' world feel disturbingly real, but I'm really glad it's not.

If you want to read a book you can feel in your gut, I highly recommend Slice of Cherry.

Some Conference Tips from a Social Dweeb

So, it's conference season in the publishing world and now that I've attended a handful of writers' conferences, I thought I'd share what I learned.  Now there are plenty of blogs and interviews from agents and other publishing peeps with advice on conferences.  Except for some great tips about how to pitch, most of the advice out there comes down to this: Don't be crazy.

Now chances are, if you're reading blogs looking for advice about attending a conference, then you probably aren't the type to pitch in the bathroom or get irate at rejection.

But I've learned there are so many more subtle ways you can screw up at a conference.  So here's some of my mistakes and what I've learned.

Start Early

• It's intimidating to attend an event in different city with people you don't know, and all that possibility and potential hanging in the air.  And if you're like me, you might like to take a moment, or a day, to sit back, observe, and figure out how these things work before plunging in.  This is a mistake.  Don't wait until the closing cocktail party to pitch that agent or talk to that author. 
• At the last conference I attended, most of the agents came to the first hour of the closing cocktail party and then left.  People have planes to catch and if no one is pitching them in the first hour, they figure they might as well go drink and talk amongst themselves somewhere where there's not a bunch of drooling writers staring at them from across the room.
• So, if you see that agent you're dying to pitch hanging out by the coffee the first morning of the conference, go pitch him/her! Everyon waits until the last event of the conference to gather their courage, but then you'll have to fight off the other vultures or you'll be disappointed when the agent has to take off to catch a plane, or go get a tattoo, or whatever.

Socialize

• Ha!  How I wish I could tell you how to do this well.  I'm terribly awkward person with this huge, looming fear of social rejection following me wherever I go.  I'm timid and shy at first but once someone actually makes eye contact with me and starts talking, then something kicks over in my brain and I can't be stopped.  Once I realize I won't be rejected, I just talk and talk, getting louder and louder, making weird noises, flailing my hands about and knocking things over.  It's awful.  But I do it anyways.  Force yourself to talk to people.
• The same start early advice applies here.  As soon as you have the name badge around your neck, start introducing yourself.  don't know what to say?  Here are the basics:
• "Where are you from?"
• "What do you write?"
• "How's your conference going?"
• "Which panel did you/are you going to attend?"
• Found yourself awkward and alone? Go stand by the food or coffee, people will come to you!  Then hit them with one of the abover lines.
• Also, don't be clingy.  Once you've broken the ice with that first person, don't follow her around all day.  Branch out and keep mingling.
• Exchange contact info and follow through, it's easy to shoot someone an email or follow thier blog or twitter and say, "It was great to meet you at the conference."

Talk to the Published Authors

• If you've read an author's work and loved it, tell her.  I've made the mistake of trying to give authors meaningful looks at signings, hoping they'll remember me.  Or I think, "Why should I say I loved their book?  They must hear that all the time, if I can't be original, then I won't say anything at all."  Stupid!
• Also, it's ok to talk to an author if you haven't read their book.  I still quite haven't learned this one.  At my last conference, an author stood behind me in line at a signing and we just stood there in silence, awkward.  If we were at the grocery store, I would've talked to him, but I felt ashamed or embarrassed that I hadn't read his book.

Pick your Panels Wisely

• I know you're probably attending conferences in hopes of getting an agent.  But there's also tons of other opportunities for learning and meeting other writers.  Don't attend a panel simply because the agent of your dreams is on it.  Giving strong looks from the audience will not make them offer representation, I promise.  And a lot of the time, the agent panels are usually about how to get an agent or trends.  Both of which agents usually don't like talking about and both of which you can learn an ENORMOUS amount from this thing called the internet.  Don't get stuck in a How to Query panel with the blue-haired lady asking, "What's a query?" and "Don't you just love rhetorical questions?"  You'll smack yourself in the head, wanting to scream, "HOW CAN YOU SPEND $300 ON A CONFERENCE BUT HAVE NEVER READ NATHAN BRANSFORD"S BLOG??!!"  Ahem.  In other words, try to attend panels where you'll learn something you can't find bu googling it.

So, I'm incredibly awkward and have made lots of mistakes, but I've managed to attend a few conferences without being blacklisted from publishing.  I've learned tons and met lots of great people.  If you're a social dweeb like me and the only thing holding you back from going to a conference is fear of going alone, then I say, forget fear, and go for it!  Be awkward with other writers!