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Paper Fury

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We Need To Talk About City of Heavenly Fire (6) by Cassandra Clare

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I discovered Shadowhunters this year.

Six book series? Last one is 700-pages long? Challenge accepted.

(After I, you know, finished crying because the book is so big I can literally stand on it and bring my pathetically short stature up to normal height. Yes, peoples. It’s a biggie. And big books scare me. Although I do have a zombie apocalypse escape plan based solely on fighting myself out of vicious hordes using books as weapons.)

The last book, number 6, City of Heavenly Fire (which this post is about, just so we’re perfectly clear) came out in May, 2014. And I’ll shriek a ginormous thank you to Walker Books Australia for this review copy.

It’s really hard to review series conclusions. If you haven’t read the first books the post either a) doesn’t make sense, or b) you don’t want to read it for risk of spoilers. SO. For all of you who are concerned with these two things:

– YES. There will be spoilers in this post for the rest of The Mortal Instrument series, books 1-5 (not big spoilers! Just the unavoidable ones).
– NO. There will not be spoilers for book 6! Spoiler free review of the conclusion!
– In fact, YES, I will mostly just be squealing about the characters.
– Are we ready for this? LET’S FANGIRL, PEOPLES.

I don’t even know how to adequately sum up my feelings for this phenomenal book.

It’s brilliant. It’s satisfying. It’s just a little touch heartbreaking. (But all the best books are, right?) There are, though, a hunk of things I’m disappointed over. But in the scheme of 6 books I loved, and characters I adore, and a world I would like to subtly jump into and learn to be a kick-butt Shadowhunter? I DON’T CARE ABOUT ANY DISAPPOINTMENTS. I loved this book! I will party in this fandom to the moon and back! I wish to read anything and everything Cassandra Clare ever writes!
(Speaking of which, I’m about to start The Iron Trials and The Bane Chronicles and I have my eyeballs set on Clockwork Angel.)

Series conclusions have a lot of weight riding on them…and I think CoHF buckled just a little.

I think book 5 was my favourite and maybe my expectations were just a little too high? Or maybe the stakes were too high for book 5 and so I didn’t feel the vamped up enough in book 6?

City of Heavenly Fire spent a lot of time introducing 12-year-old Emma and Julian (who are going to star in their own series! LOOK! The Dark Artifices!). They were cute and interesting but…I didn’t care at this point. I’ve spent 5 books following Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, Alec, and Magnus and I want THEM. Stop…stop distracting me from them.

Also there were many meetings with the Clave that felt repetitious from last time. (I felt like I’d “been there, read that” in all the other books.) Plus Maia’s werewolf story line did. not. interest. me. STILL. I said this for book 5 and I say it again.

All the story lines wrapped up smoothly.

No gaping holes. No unsatisfactory answers. And yet it’s all still so open for more books! More adventures! I mean, the castulties of war were huge. Shadowhunters are nearly an endangered species thanks to Sebastian and his motley crew of freaktastic Endarkened.

Let’s talk about ALL the characters.

description

– Clary and Jace. They truly are the most disappointing twosome in this series. They were my favourites in the first books — angst and chemistry and hilarious banter. But it’s like they hit their peak and now absolutely plateaued. I feel like everyone in the series (particularly Jace!) went through amazing character development…but Clary is the same in book 1 as she is in book 6. That’s somewhat disappointing. 


– Isabelle and Simon. OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE MY FAVOURITE! THEY ARE MY SHIP! THEY ARE MY WORLD! I love Simon to death (which fits since he’s undead anyway) and I love Isabelle’s incredible snark and emotionally damaged heart and how adorable they were together and how much Simon really truly cared about Isabelle. 
descriptionI love Simon because he could still have a friendship with Clary even though he didn’t love her romantically. 
I love Isabelle when she broke down barriers and actually admitted she loved Simon. I SMUSH THEM TOGETHER, MY ADORABLE HAPPY SHIP. I would read an entire series about Isabelle and Simon. I would read anything. Oh my gosh. Hold my heart. I’m fangirling.

descriptionPlus, Simon Appreciation Moment: I completely thought he would fade out of the series when I first met him in book #1. But Simon is the soul of the entire The Mortal Instruments books. He carries all these Shadowhunters. He’s unassuming and sweet and everyone dismisses him. 

And he is THE character of the series.

You’ll see what I mean.


– Alec and Magnus. They went through a heck of a lot of character development here. Although…well, I won’t tell you if they end up together or not after book 5’s traumatic breakup. But I admire these two a lot because they are so different and yet…Malec.


– Luke and Jocelyn. I maintain that Jocelyn is the worst and most annoying parent to ever walk across YA. She’s useless and controlling and way too dramatic. She spends all her time trying to stifle Clary and then — BOOM — Jocelyn is in danger/missing/gone/sleeping again. I don’t even care. I want her gone. I think Clary has so much more room to develop when she’s no there. LUKE ROCKS. But he had shameful little book time. 


– Sebastian. He was a freaky level of evil, although he maintains he’s disgusting obsession with his sister that grosses me out 100%. I believe it’s supposed to. Although… something happens. I kind of teared up.

All in all, it was a frighteningly delicious book.

I’m HAPPY with this as a conclusion. I don’t think it’s the strongest TMI book, but I think it’s a satisfying one. I love this fandom! Humour! Danger! Fighting! Betrayal! Heartbreak! Myth! Lore! Dimensions! Angels! And a piano!
 
I am so pleased.  

Can We Quote It, Now?!


I’ve listed even more glorious quotes on my goodreads review, if you wish to see it.


In this dazzling and long-awaited conclusion to the acclaimed Mortal Instruments series, Clary and her friends fight the greatest evil they have ever faced: Clary’s own brother.
Sebastian Morgenstern is on the move, systematically turning Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Bearing the Infernal Cup, he transforms Shadowhunters into creatures out of nightmare, tearing apart families and lovers as the ranks of his Endarkened army swell.
The embattled Shadowhunters withdraw to Idris – but not even the famed demon towers of Alicante can keep Sebastian at bay. And with the Nephilim trapped in Idris, who will guard the world against demons?
When one of the greatest betrayals the Nephilim have ever known is revealed, Clary, Jace, Isabelle, Simon, and Alec must flee – even if their journey takes them deep into the demon realms, where no Shadowhunter has set foot before, and from which no human being has ever returned…

are you in the shadowhunter fandom?!! are you catastrophically in love with this series or do you feel more meh about it?? tell me what you thought of the series conclusion!! (and, obviously, what’s your favourite couple ship?!)

Cait is currently on Shadowhunter withdrawal. She rewatched the movie yesterday, whilst folding paper cranes (as one does) and felt a little appeased. Which reminds her how freakishly EXCITED she is for the new TV series in works! She’s got The Bane Chronicles to read next and then it’s onto The Infernal Devices. Thank goodness, Cassandra Clare has written a small mountain of books.

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13 Best Book Beginnings Of Ever

I like books that begin with a BANG.

Doesn’t have to be a literal bang (though not arguing against those), but just a “hook-me-so-hard-I-won’t-put-this-book-down-unless-you-pry-it-from-my-cold-clammy-grasp-of-doom” sort of bang. There are a lot of books out there, begging for me to read them, so when it comes down to picking between them: yes, the first sentence might make a difference.

You can also deduce a lot about a book from the first sentence. (Excuse my Sherlock.)

It’s never the only selling fact for me, but I won’t deny that it makes the reading experience awesome.*

(Plus, judging first sentences is almost as fun as judging covers.)

So together, we shall deduce why these first sentences of these books are so freakishly fantastic.

Now keep calm. And look out for Sherlock.

* Plus, judging first sentences is almost as fun as judging covers. What? These things just happen.

This squeals intrigue, it really does. Why does the “first day of November” mean sure death? COME NOW. Tell me your secrets, precious manuscript.







I’m deducing it’s popular to begin books with DEATH and DESTRUCTION. Which kind of makes sense, because death intrigues humans to no end. We can also deduce about this book that it’ll:
a) involve parents
b) involve someone who likes to read (yay!)
c) involve someone who’s presumably depressed (just a hunch).





I’m quite fond of the beginning of Gone because it uses the title straight away. You know the book means business. And also, if we can analyse a minute (don’t sigh at me) it tells you a lot of things about the book. Like a) it’s about children since they’re still in school and b) it’s ironic with the talk of vanishing mid “war” lecture, and c) it’s already using short punchy sentences so we know the book’s going to be in that style.







Again, this absolutely sets the tone of the book. Whoever this Mr. Scrubb is we may deduce that he is awful because he has an awful name. Although, to be honest, I have been converted to liking the name Eustace thanks to…Eustace-the-later-years.

Maggie Stiefvater is obviously Queen of Book Beginnings. (I’m also a mild fan…is it too obvious?) Again with the IMMINENT DEATH. Apparently Maggie Stiefvater loves this style hook, and I agree: it’s catchy! Killing your own true love sounds drastic. It makes me want to know why. Is she killing him because he annoyingly steals her socks? Or is there deep mystery and intrigue beyond sock theft?

(The mystery is deeper than sock thievery, if you’re curious.)


Drama is fabulous. There’s no better beginning than the author informing the reader that all has gone to the dogs in the first sentence. Also it’s terrifically short and crispy. I really love Patrick Ness’ beginnings…you can feel the pace and tension rating of the book from THE FIRST SECOND. 




Reverse psychology always worked perfectly on me as a kid. But who are we kidding? It works fine on me now.

Look me in the eye and tell me when someone say
s “Don’t look left!” that you don’t automatically look left. Call it human nature. Call it the Moriarty in us. But we just do the things we’re told not to. Lemony Snicket capitalises on this. (I went on to read about 20 of his books.)

For instance, if Sherlock where to pop onto this post and scream at you, like so:

Would you keep reading my post?

Go on, you little fantastic rebel. Keep reading.
Okay, first thing to deduce from this beginning is: the grandpa sucks at babysitting. I guess we all have our failings.*
This really catches my eye because a) drama and death, and b) we know it’s going to feature people with slightly messed up little minds.
* Except, obviously, for me. I’m practically perfect in every way. 

The fact that the narrator, whoever they are, is knowledgable on the psychology of monsters really intrigues me. If I had to take a guess when monsters would like to show up, I’d hesitantly say midday, because humans can be right sleepy in the middle of the day.

Which is also why, if I was taking over the world, I’d probably do it at midday when most people are tired and full of lunch.

But I’m getting off topic.

This totally lures me in with its buggy whispers. We can tell a whole lot about the book from just this opening. The narrator hears bugs…is she crazy? Yes. What does she do with these blogs she collects? Skewers them into art. Why is she hearing their whispers at all?!!

A NINE YEAR OLD is killing? What is this sad little dejected novel? I must read it. Although it kind of makes me think the book will be about a nine-year-old. It’s not. I think Lynne is 16 or so when the book really takes off.

(Um, okay, so death does feature a lot in these. But hey. Who doesn’t like high stakes? It’s thrilling and dangerous and gives you reason to root for the characters straight away. Stay alive! Don’t die!)

This tells you a LOT about what style the book is going to be in and also what it’ll be about. Which I think is a fabulous accomplishment for 2 small opening sentences, don’t you? We also know a) Liz does not die, b) she’s in high school, c) she’s very astute in class, d) but this astuteness in class doesn’t make her happy.

Oh, pfft, Percy, of course you did. Without your half-bloodness you wouldnt have met your precious Annabeth.

This grabs me because of the fabulous voice. It’s like a friend is talking to you, and everyone knows Books Are Friends. If I turned my Sherlock skills onto this sentence, too, by the way, I would deduce that being a half-blood would cause Mr. Jackson a lot of trouble. (Spoiler: it does.)

 

For me, a first sentence needs at least one (preferably more) of these things:

1) Intriguing, quirky, or relatable voice. (Like Percy Jackson or The Fault in Our Stars.)
2) High stakes. (Like: dying.)
3) An inkling to what the book’s going to be about. (Like Percy Jackson is about half-bloods. And Bird is about baby-sitting fails.)
4) Makes me ask a question. (Like I want to know why Blue’s killing her first love in The Raven Boys.)

I’m extremely and incredibly interested in your opinion on book beginnings, my favourite blogglings.

I want to know what YOU think makes an awesome book beginning. Do you like any of my picks? And (if you’re up to the challenge of epicness) share your favourite book beginnings i
n the comments!! Go! Go! Go!

Cait is contemplating doing a reversal of this post…worst first sentences? (Hehe…should she dare?!) This post has also reminded her of the pain of being on hiatus from Sherlock. Apparently there’s only 45,854 years until more episodes come out. Great. She quite likes shouting some of Moriarty’s wonderful lines while she cooks eggs for breakfast. This has lead to Mime being startled out of her wits. (But not as badly as the time Cait cracked an egg on Mime’s head. Legit. It happened.)

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Do You Want To Know How My NaNoWriMo Went?

I…I am an overachiever.

I forgot it was National Novel Writing Month and thought it was National Novel Writing Week. IT’S AN EASY MISTAKE, RIGHT? It could happen to anyone! Also my brain is slightly hyperactive and when I embark on a delicious project (like reading a book or going running) I do it on super-speed.
It just happens.

I finished NaNo.

Ignore that it says “Day 8”. I finished on Day 7 but collapsed and didn’t screenshot till now.

I’m linking up with Beautiful Books #2: How’s The Writing Going.

(Which is open all month, writers! So link up with us!) You can see my first Beautiful Books post if you wish it. But right now? I’m going to tell you about my week. Because I’m excited! I’m happy! I did my best writing score of my life! I had so much fun!

But things you need to know first:
– I basically had the whole week to write.
– I forgot to read.
– I type very very fast because I’ve been writing for 5 years.
– This book was easy to write for some reason. Trust me, that never happens. 
– I didn’t procrastinate at all.
– Everyone was so super encouraging and nice and fabulous!
– I did write 65,000-words in 7 days.
– I also wrote up to 6 hours a day (with breaks).
– And maybe there was a 18,000-word day. But shhhh. That’s a secret and also my personal record.
– Uhgnnnn. I’m tired.

 

But seriously, thank you to everyone who took two seconds to like my snippets on twitter and instagram and give me the nicest feedback of EVER. I’m honoured. I’m ridiculously happy. EMBRACE ME, WATSON.

1. Be honest: how is your writing going?

Well it’s gone, as you know. BUT! Let’s rewind to, say, yesterday.

To be very honest, this is the easiest book I’ve ever written. It just happened! But I typed a lot and I mean a lot. And it got to the point where I closed my eyes as I typed because I was too tired. There was more than one moment where I dashed up to Mime with my eyes bugged out saying, “Someone is going to diiiiiiie today.”

2. What’s your first sentence/paragraph?

3. Do you have a book cover, and/or pictures that reflect your book?

I do have a book cover, which you can see on my NaNoWriMo profile, but I won’t post it here because it’s…probably illegal. BUT! Pictures! Yes, I do. I have a pinterest board bursting with them. (Each picture links back to it’s source, too, by the way.)

4. Do you have pictures of each of your characters?

Again, I have only one word: PINTEREST. (I love it so…inspiration abounds.) Again…click the picture for the source.
From left to right: Moxie Smith, 16 // Thomas Murphy, 16 // Khalida Gola, 16 // Cat Thoms tries to kill
From left to right: Moxie’s uncle, Luca // Moxie’s father, Jon // Thomas’ brother’s grandson, Ennis Murphy // Thomas’s sister, Ava Murphy

5. What scene are you most excited to write?

I have to admit…the ending. Not for any particular reason except IT’S THE ENDING. I absolutely love to finish a book and feel that incredible burst of “Oh my gosh, Cait, look what you’ve done!!”

6. Share a snippet or scene that you really enjoyed writing!

Okay, you asked for it. (Actually, you didn’t…Sky and I came up with these questions. But still. I’m very excited for this one.)

I have a few snippets (you may have seen them if you follow me on instagram or twitter).


I ship my two main characters, Thomas and Moxie, very very hard.

They’re adorable.

And logical. 

 I don’t know why there’s a cat in this book. I hate cats.

Thomas puts the “hot” in psychotic. 

7. Now that you’re writing, have any of the plot details, or the process itself, turned out different from what you planned or imagined?

The ending. (All my answers won’t be “the ending”…I promise. Just this one. And a few more.) Everything almost went along cosy and comfortable as I had plotted it in my head. Honestly: this book was a dream to write.

But:

– I had 3 murders in the outline. Only 2 went down.
– Moxie was supposed to agree to burn Thomas’ bones. She never does.
– Moxie’s best friend was supposed to be in the climax. She’s absent.
– The grandson of Thomas’ killer was supposed to be just a name. Nope. He tagged along for the entire climax and ending. Nice fellow. I quite like him.
– Thomas was supposed to wreck the house. Instead, he cleans it. Which is probably more terrifying.
– Thomas tries to kill Moxie’s uncle in my finished draft…that…that wasn’t in the outline at all.

8. Is there a character or aspect of your plot that’s difficult to write?

THE ENDING.

Ha. I’m kidding. The ending was only difficult to write because I’d written 18,000-words that day and…and I was tried. My brain was tired.

It was difficult to write Moxie, who was deaf. Mostly because she couldn’t overhear arguments. She couldn’t answer the phone. She couldn’t talk to people if they were facing fridge. (My characters often have their head in the fridge.) I constantly wrote about her hearing things…there will be edits, my friends, copious edits.

9. What’s your favourite aspect of the novel so far? Favourite character?

Thomas and Moxie’s banter. There is no contest. I’ve never written a book in this style before and it’s been a long time since I had this level of snarky wit.

10. Have you drawn off any life experiences or people you know to create your novel and your characters?

I, strangely enough, have never been dead. Research for Thomas’ storyline was limited.

I haven’t been deaf either.

But I am a reader and a geek — and all the characters in this book are geeks/readers. There’s lots of subtle popular YA book references. Moxie’s father runs a nerd coffee store (he serves cappuccinos in Batman mugs) and that’s something I’ll be introducing to the world when I rule it.

11. Do you have a playlist or certain song for your novel and/or characters?

I write in silence.

12. Let’s have some fun: imagine you are transported into your book’s world. Which character are you most likely to be found hanging out with?

Can I say Moxie’s uncle and father in their nerdy coffee shop with copious amounts of coffee and comic books on hand to read?? Although, Moxie also has a room so full of books she piles them on the floor. I would like to be her best friend too.

13. How do you keep yourself motivated to finish your daily wordcount? (Pinterest? Internet breaks? Chocolate?)

My only secret to motivation is: my overachieving brain. I literally wrote and wrote and wrote and did not procrastinate. I took breaks, yes, but I went and did useful things like eating, sleeping, dishes, replying to a few important emails, maintaing my etsy store.

But I did eat chocolate.

14. What’s your favourite writing quote or piece of writing advice?

 

15. How does this book make you feel so far? Are you laughing? Crying? Frustrated?

I laughed most of my way through and I didn’t stop typing in case the magic of “oh this book isn’t turning out so bad” suddenly broke.

But it needs editing. Oh, it needs editing so badly.

So I did it!

I did it and I’m pleased and I made a personal record and I’m renaming it NaNoWriWe. Now I get to read and blog again. (I have so many comments to catch up on!) And calm myself slightly because my brain feels like it’s been electrified to maximum. It is literally a lightning storm in my head.
(And, honestly, I had a lot of time to write. I am NOT an amazing writer! Honest! I believe in writing horrible first drafts and making them presentable later. I’m fast, but I really don’t want to be braggy. Are we good? Good.)
TALK TO ME, WRITERLINGS! how are you going?! what’s your current word count?! but better than that: i want to see your favourite lines from your book in the comments! go go go! 
Then keep writing. No more procrastinating on the internet. Back to your typing! Ah ah ah, no arguing. Go write.

 

Cait is tired. Weird, right? She spent her first NaNo-free-day going to a library sale and picking up 50-cent copies of The Help and The Wee Free Men. Then she did Hairy McClary puzzles and made chocolate chip biscuits with her 4 year old nephew. And it was mightily relaxing. She does (slightly) miss writing banter snarky and freaky murders but…rest first. Edit later.

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Made For You by Melissa Marr || Come, read this review. Feel the fear.

This book was downright terrifying, but before we get into that, I need to mention (quietly) that I do have troubles with this author’s name.

What is it with authors liking their names to start with M!? Melissa Marr is not to be confused with Shirley Marr or Marissa Meyer or Stephanie Meyer or — okay! I’ll stop. But my tiny brain is very excited to have now READ a Melissa Marr book (she is quite famous) and (hopefully) will now stop referring to here as Melissa Shirley Marr/Meyer. It happens.

People think I’m crazy.*

But onwards, shall we! We have a lot to discuss about this book, mainly a) it freaked my little wits out, and b) I am disturbed, and c) please…don’t ever trust your friends. THEY MIGHT BE KILLERS.**

* Not that being thought of as crazy is a new phenomenon for me. I like to think 6 crazy thoughts before breakfast each morning, you know.
** This is not a spoiler, but I’ll explain. Calm yourself and give me a moment. 

Made For You is a psychological thriller, a phrase here which means: “a book to take your happy trustful bookwormish thoughts and TERRIFY you.”

Brilliant. Creepy. Disturbing. And fantastically written. What more can you really want? Oh…to sleep at night? Ha! Hahaha ha ha. You’re adorable. 

It’s really hard to say “I love this book” when it’s about a psychopathic killer. 

So…just understand that I love the writing, the characters, and the brilliant storytelling behind this…but the actual murders/psychopathic sickness TERRIFIES me. Seriously. I’m so disturbed. The entire book reminds me of Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas. It’s that level of mind-twisting-phenomenal-plot-but-coincidentally-terrifying.

It’s written by 3 points of view.

1) Eva (the main character), 
2) Grace (her BFF), 
3) “Judge”, the mysterious killer. 

All we know is that Eva knows the killer. He’s a boy in her life…so a school friend? Someone she’s met on the street? Someone she hangs out with? WE KNOW SHE KNOWS HIM. But that’s it. He doesn’t give his real name in his chapters. Which is…how do I put this? FREAKING TERRIFYING. Is it her friend? The quiet kid at school? Her boyfriend? Her ex?! Whooooo is it?!!! 

About 80% into the book we, the readers, do find out who the killer is. BUT EVA STILL DOESN’T KNOW. That’s worse. We can see her interacting with him and and she’s so clueless and he’s…he’s…

Okay, I need a moment to scream. 

The writing is brilliance. 

Eva is the primary narrator. It’s set in a small Southern town, so there’s a lot of the Southern USA culture there.* And Eva is quite a sweet nice girl, buuuut…not really. She is stubborn. But NICE. That’s a really hard combination and the author nailed it. 

I liked Grace, but as a narrator, her voice was way too similar to Eva. I  had to do double takes to remember who was narrating. 

The killer was sickening. He had very warped “religious” ideals going on. Just absolutely warped. Every time it was his chapters…ugh. I just wanted to close my eyes. BUT I HAD TO KEEP THEM OPEN BECAUSE I NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. Do you see how painful this book is?

* For me, since I’m Australian and have no idea about Southern culture, I automatically envision pearls and fried chicken…like in The Hel
p.

My face while reading this book.

I seriously couldn’t put it down. 

It’s a thriller and…yes, that would be my heart galloping across the floor to lock itself in the panic room.

Disturbing and creepy and well told…I totally recommend it.

Thanks HarperCollins Australia for the review-copy! Made For You by Melissa Marr came out 1st of October, 2014.

Bestselling author of the Wicked Lovely books Melissa Marr’s first contemporary YA novel is a twisted southern gothic tale of obsession, romance, and murder. A killer is obsessed with Eva Tilling. Can she stop him, or will he claim her?
When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

let us speak of thrillers, my friends. do you like thrillers? (you can totally recommend me your favourite thriller because goodness knows i want to read more of them.) do you like your books served with a huge slab of psychologically disturbing? and is this cover not the prettiest thing of ever?!!

Cait has been writing madly this last week, so madly, in fact, that she has neglected her blog quite terribly. She’ll be catching up on comments asap! Currently she’s thinking about drawing and chocolate and art heists (as one does) and trying to processes the catastrophic ending of BZRK, which she just finished on audio. She’ll also be changing her twitter handle to @PaperFury this week so…watch out.

PS. I have two giveaways going at the moment for Spark and Masquerade! So enter! Enter! Win!

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Beautiful Books Linkup #2: How’s The Writing Going?

Hello, writerlings! Are you still alive? Has NaNoWriMo eaten you whole? Are you still SANE?!!

As you know from last time, we’ve taken a 3 month break from the Beautiful People linkup (which is all about interviewing your book characters) to do Beautiful Books! Sky and I made this version more book directed (since a lot of us are doing NaNo). 
Ready for round #2?
Of course you are, stop running away. Come back here. I have marvellous questions for you to answer. 

What is it Beautiful Books exactly!?

Beautiful Books is a three-month-long blog event linkup focused on three different stages of writing: plotting, writing, and editing. It was designed with NaNoWriMo in mind. NaNoWriMo is a writing event where you write a 50,000 word novel in a month. Because a lot of writers will be participating, we decided to help get your juices flowing! We’ll be focusing on plotting in October, writing in November, and editing in December. See how organised we are? Super cool.

Do I have to be doing NaNo to participate?

Nope! Just pick a work-in-progress and you’ll be good to go. If you don’t have a novel that works for the entirety of the blog event, you can feature different ones. The point is, you absolutely don’t have to do NaNoWriMo to participate, and we really want you to join! We also want your friends to join, so if you have writing groups…spread the word!

Are you ready for this?!

The Questions for Round #2: How’s The Writing Going?

  1. Be honest: how is your writing going?
  2. What’s your first sentence/paragraph?
  3. Do you have a book cover, and/or pictures that reflect your book?
  4. Do you have pictures of each of your characters? If not, describe them for us! (Be as descriptive as you can.)
  5. What scene are you most excited to write?
  6. Share a snippet or a scene that you really enjoyed writing.
  7. Now that you’re writing, have any of the plot details, or the process itself, turned out different from what you planned or imagined?
  8. Is there a character or aspect of your plot that’s difficult to write?
  9. What’s your favorite aspect of this novel so far? Favorite character?
  10. Have you drawn off of any life experiences or people you know to create your novel and your characters?
  11. Do you have a playlist or certain song for your novel and/or characters?
  12. Let’s have some fun for a moment: imagine you are somehow transported into your book’s world. Which character are you most likely to be found hanging out with?
  13. How do you keep yourself motivated to finish your daily wordcount? (Pinterest? Internet breaks? Chocolate?)
  14. What your favourite writing quote or piece of writing advice?
  15. How does this book make you feel so far? Are you laughing? Crying? Frustrated?

A little teeny tiny note:

Last time I noticed a lot of linkers (sorry I didn’t get to everyone! I try!) skipped questions because they didn’t want to give away “spoilers”. I get that. I totally do. But remember, a huge point of these questions is to help YOU learn more about your book. If you don’t want to give spoilers: don’t. That’s fine! (Skipping questions is also okay.) But in reality…if/when your book is published and available to readers, they’ll have forgotten these “spoilers” anyway.

The buttons

Grab whichever you prefer! Or just link back to my blog or Sky’s. 

The Linky

Come let us talk about our NaNoWriMo novels, my writerly friends!

If you have any questions, feel free to throw them at me. I answer to “your majesty” and “oh mighty one” because I am so flexible.

We had 51 linkers last month, so let’s go! go! GO! and hear more about your books. The linkup is open all month.

Be fabulous, now.

i want to hear your current word-counts in the comments! speak to me, glorious writers! is NaNo being tough on you? (how much chocolate/coffee have you eaten so far, really?)

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In A Well Ordered Universe, I Would Reread Books (but it’s not and I don’t)

TTT 2

I have another confession: I don’t reread.

Look at me, confessing things all over the place. It’s shameful. How will I maintain my almighty and somewhat villainous overlord facade if I keep confessing my faults to you? Someone shut me up. (Last time I linked up for a Top Ten Tuesday, I confessed to not finishing series.)

I have reasons for not rereading, a) being I have no clone again dangit and b) being there are so many new books to read! I WANT TO TRY THEM ALL. I get quite excited, see, and just must try a bit of everything in the literary world.*

* This is, unfortunately, only true for books. For everything else I never try new things. I always wear the same tee-shirts and eat the same breakfast and run at the same time each morning. LOOK. Another confession. I have a problem.

This week’s prompt is: Top 10 I Want To Reread (In An Ideal Universe)

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

YES, I just read this. YES, I want to reread it. I actually wanted to reread it the moment I finished it and that never ever happens to me. I re-watched the movie to appease myself. Apparently I like pain.

This book is just beautifully written. That is all.

2. The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

I’m actually being really reserved for this list, because I could fill the ENTIRE THING with just Maggie Stiefvater books. I wish to reread them all. (I actually posted yesterday about why she’s my favourite author. It’s not a logical post. It’s full flailing.) Anyway. Since Blue Lily Lily Blue (book #3) is just out, I would love to reread this one. In an ideal universe.

Which we don’t have.

And I also saw this post on Maggie Stiefvater’s Tumblr about just how messed up Kavinsky is. That kid is a freaky mess. It also made me want to reread it. Don’t judge.

3. These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

I had a rather embarrassing disagreement of opinion on the ending of this book with my sister. She said it ended one way. I said a different. We looked at each other and realised we had no idea. How awful is this?! It’s only been a year since I read it!

4. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

I read this so long ago. I don’t even remember the details. All I know is that a) it terrified me, and b) I literally flopped on my sister’s bed and whined about how awful and mean the ending was. THEY KILLED CHILDREN FOR BODY PARTS, OKAY?! Now Unwind is a massive series. I did borrow Unwholly from the library but I opened it and realised I didn’t even remember anyone’s names. If I want to finish this series, I need to reread.

5. The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

Back in my Life Before Goodreads (dark ages, let’s not dwell on them) I read this book for school. Only now do I realise it’s a series. I’ve been robbed. I need more.

I also still maintain that the style reminded me of Ramona Quimby by Beverly Cleary. But in Afghanistan. With a girl pretending to be a boy to get her family fed. Little differences, you know?

6. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Because: MOVIE. And I will take this small but glorious moment to scream that I am so not okay with the fact Mockingjay will be split into two parts. Oh, not because I think it shouldn’t be. BECAUSE I WON’T BE ABLE TO HANDL THE CLIFF HANGER.

Do you know how Peeta is going to be? DO YOU? I can’t…no. Goodbye.

Even Katniss can’t handle it, so how will I?

7. Light by Michael Grant

Tell me, do I rave about my favourite authors too much? DO I? Because I feel like I flail about Michael Grant an awful lot. I’m not even sorry. (I think you should read his books.) I’m actually up to my eyeballs in BZRK (if you’ve read it, ugh, you’ll get my awful pun) and I have this sudden urge to reread the Gone series. Light in particular.

Because Caine and Sam. They are a brother duo I loved so very much, even though they spent 6 books trying to kill each other while everyone else died.

But that is family.

8. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Because I adore the name Atticus. I like how it sounds. I like how it looks on paper. I named a character in my book Atticus. I would name my child Atticus, but failing that, I would name my bookshelf Atticus.

I am actually (hopefully) naming an animate object Atticus soon. I will tell you about it. But not yet.

9. Enchantress From The Stars by

You’ve probably never heard of this book. EVER. And if you have, I will hug you. I read it during school and it was my first taste of real sci-fi. It’s a genre mash-up of medieval and hardcore sci-fi by 3 points-of-views and it’s brilliant.
The ending hurts. But all the best endings do.

10. Matilda by Roald Dahl

Because there is no better representation of a bookworm than Matilda. And I read it so long ago. Actually (funny story) I somehow missed that a person should read Roald Dahl at around ten years old…and, when I was 15, I read ALL HIS BOOKS. I liked them a lot. I would like to write an MG book like this one day but apparently you can’t explode things as badly as I explode them, so. I need to practise gentler explosions.
how often do you reread books? (do you even want to reread books?!) and (obviously this question is coming) what would you reread if you, too, lived in a well ordered universe with infinite time?

Cait is feeling a mite bit overwhelmed because she is supposedly writing, she needs to finish a review, she is VERY behind on replying to comments, and…and all she feels like doing is drawing. Unfair. She now understand why people take blogging breaks whilst doing NaNo. BUT DO NOT FEAR. She is still replying to comments and visiting (all) your blogs. Just give her a second. Currently she’s (still) reading ATLANTIA. Slow going.

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My Hero Monday: Maggie Stiefvater

I know. Stop raising your eyebrows at me. I have posted about how unfathomable fabulous Maggie Stiefvater is before. BUT. Some of you are new and haven’t been subjected to my favourite-author-flailings.

Plus, I’m linking up with A Girl’s Voice for the My Hero Monday meme. You get a prompt each month and you post about it. Easy, right? (There are rules and things, too.) And also Engie @ Musings from Neville’s Navel is hosting this month so…how could I resist joining in?!

Maggie Stiefvater

Birthdate: November 18th, 1981
Current Age: 32

What books has she written? Which is your favourite? Why?

What books has she written?! ONLY A MILLION OF THEM. And picking a favourite is hard, seriously hard, people, so I hope you appreciate the decision making I’m going through here. I love all her books (yep, every single one) but for different reasons.

The Scorpio Races: This was my very first Stiefvater book and I have enormous respect for it. In a well ordered universe, I would reread this.
Lament and Ballad: My first real taste of faeries and how awesomely nasty they can be. Also: music. Also: James. I can never love Dee very much, but James? He deserves glorious things.
Shiver, Linger, Forever, Sinner: While Shiver is probably my least favourite of her books, Linger, Forever, and Sinner are incredibly fantastic. Can we just talk about Cole and Isabel together? They are like knives and ice and I can’t love them more.
The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves: I originally sent The Raven Boys back to the library because I thought, “Ley lines? Dead kings? Meh.” BUT I WAS DELUDED. I re-borrowed it about a year later and bye-bye feels and sanity. I have never loved a book’s friendships so, so much. Ronan, though. Ronan.

I haven’t gotten my clammy paws on Blue Lily, Lily Blue (Raven Boys #3) yet, but the day will come. And I will flail. Maybe scream. Probably sing wildly in the shower about my love for it. You know…normal stuff.

When did I first hear about her?

I’d just finished The Hunger Games (which coincidentally got me fully glued to YA) and wanted more. MORE, I TELL YOU. I found this list 25 books to read if you love The Hunger Game and thought, “This is awesome.”

The Scorpio Races was on the list and my library just happened to have it.

Thus began my realisation that, “Oh, I cannot live life unless I read every single one of Maggie Stiefvater’s books.” These things happen.

Quotes:

I’m often in unfathomable agreement with Maggie Stiefvater. I’m always inspired by her books and her posts and the way she’s accessible and awesome online. A lot of authors are super mysterious, but I love the way Maggie Stiefvater posts about her drawings and her life and her cars…and her goats.

She keeps goats.

I write weird and unusual supernatural books too. I would love to be better at art. I do not keep goats, but I keep a sister, and that’s kind of the same thing.

Maggie Stiefvater inspires me no end. She is simply fabulous.

The My Hero Monday Schedule:

November 3
November 10
November 17
November 24
so! it is time for you to spill and tell me your favourite female authors. BUT. you have to tell me why. how do they inspire you? what’s your favourite book they’ve written? 
and have you read anything by maggie stiefvater?! (will you know that i’ve told you she’s fabulous?) how interested are you in owning a goat? or a sister. a pet is a pet, let’s not get hung up on species. 

Cait is nerve-wrackingly choosing a new blog design. Did she tell you she’s drawing her new header? SHE IS DRAWING. ART, PEOPLES, ART. The drawing, interestingly, distracts her from NaNoWriMo, but is a very worthy form of procrastination. Currently she’s reading ATLANTIA (it’s not about mermaids, dangit) and is 20,000-words into her ghost story.

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Goodbye October || Also drastic (somewhat scary) blogging announcements

Well, hello, my favourite blogglings of the universe!

Today is a post of glorious announcements. I’m doing my monthly recap (which is a bit different to my weekly, but we’ll survive this) and I also have some seriously huge and LIFE CHANGING announcements at the end of the post. They’re mammoth, honestly. Even I’m trembling. 
Before we dive in, don’t forget I’ve got 3 copies of Spark to giveaway (Australian only) so enter! Enter! Win!
Look at this itty bitty adorable baby pile. I AM SO PROUD. I’m also doing NaNoWriMo, so borrowing two million books is not wise for me at this moment.
[Let It Snow – library – completely stupid reading idea because it’s freakishly hot right now]
[Wither – library – the author is insanely hilarious on twitter…so obviously that leads me to read her book]
[City of Lost Souls – library – and I finished it! Only one more book to go!]
[Atlantia – thanks Penguin!]

Guess what? It’s NaNoWriMo!

As you know from my Beautiful Books post, I’m writing a book about a deaf girl and a dead boy. (I foresee relationship problems.) And NaNoWriMo is officially in swing! I’ve got my first 2,000-words down…only 48,000 to go.
I also happen to be going away for the last week of November. So, yes. I’m writing speedily. It should be incredibly interesting. 

I Read A Few Books This Month. About 23 Of Them. 

Best book? This is hard! I had like seven 5-star reads!! But it has to go to All The Bright Places. I will never recover from that painful book of wonderfulness.
Notably awesome? The Scorch Trials and Disruption and City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls and Rose Under Fire AND Since You’ve Been Gone all got 5-stars…so. They are awesome.
Wish I’d never read? Prize of this goes to You (which I technically only hafl read) and Touch of Power.
Did I laugh? Um, YES. Almost embarrassingly so. I laughed my head off reading Disruption….but the trouble was, I listened to it on audio when I went walking. So I was the weirdo walking down the road laughing to myself.
Cover love? Definitely The Ghosts of Heaven! I wasn’t fussed on the insides though. (My bad.)
Most eaten genre? I didn’t read quite as widely as last month, but 7 genres isn’t too shabby, right?! Contemporary, fantasy and paranormal all tie for 4 books each.
Ratings? Was I just super easy to please this month?! HOW ON EARTH DID I GET SEVEN 5-STAR RATINGS?!! And 4-stars wins overall…so I’m pretty happy! Stoked in fact. Bring me some pie and let’s party!

On The Blog, This is What You Blogglings Loved.

Apparently, these posts were enjoyed:
People also found us with these interesting search results:
– Pepperoni pizza
– Cat saying omg (Well, this I wish to see as well.)
– but i would like to write about la (Go for it, my friend.)
– British person loving tea. (I’m curious to which post this lead you to, to be honest.)
– Frozen let it go 
– guess from the book (I don’t even…what?)

The Time That We Did Not Read

Hmmm…nope. I basically read the entire of the month. But in my defence my small overlords abandoned me for 3 weeks so I was very lonesome. I ate a lot of books, wrote a lot of words, annoyed Mime…normal things.
I did draw this month though, because zentangling is fun.

Across the Internet Things Went Down.

John Green vlogged about the Paper Towns movie!
Marvel kindly gave us a schedule of their next 9 movie release dates.
Daniel Radcliffe is no longer The Boy Who Was Harry Potter, but can rap, very very fast.
Darren Groth (author of Are You Seeing Me? and who I interviewed) has a book deal for AYSM in USA and Canada! So you guys will all be able to read his awesome book!! HUZZAH!
Kristen @ My Friends Are Fiction asks if you rate books higher when you cry?
Allie @ Little Birdie Books is writing a book!
Inge @ Bookshelf Reflections did the book blogger tag.
Imogen @ Gossiping With Dragons did a series on NaNo posts and introduced us to her WIP!
Kara @ Diary of a Teen Writer has a new gorgeous bookshelf and I love it and secretly covet it.
Emily @ The Loony Teen Writer doesn’t believe in guilty pleasure books.
The Book Chewers are back in action with ways to ruin a notebook and discussions on title lengths. 
Nara @ Looking for the Panacea had an awesome quiz on chapter headings!
The wonderful Midnighters @ YA Midnight Reads wrapped up their Halloween celebrations (they had so many awesome interviews with authors, giveaways, and guest posts!)

DRASTIC AND SOMEWHAT SCARY NEWS!

OKAY! Time to spill all the beans. Although if you a) follow me on twitter or b) have looked at our updated header go on, do that now if you haven’t, then you probably know what I’m going to say. 
Notebook Sisters is changing it’s name and moving to wordpress!

I explained a while ago that my sister (and co-blogger, obviously) can’t blog anymore. She’s too busy with school and music and being fabulous, SO, that leaves me very awkwardly with a blog name that needs both of us. I have brainstormed seriously for names (and bothered Lydia incessantly with ideas…she was very patient with me) and I’ve made the decision. 

I’m going to be Paper Fury (paperfury.com)

I knoooow, it’s going to be terribly hard to get used to and also it’ll be weird. You all know me as Notebook Sisters, right?! It’s my username EVERYWHERE. But this will all (slowly) change to Paper Fury. 
Hopefully all bloglovin’ feeds and email subscriptions will be fine in the change over. If you type in notebooksisters.com it should redirect you to Paper Fury. It hasn’t happened yet! But SOON. So if I suddenly go quiet for months and months….look me up at paperfury.com. (Because, let’s face it, it’s completely uncharacteristic of me to be quiet for more than 2 days.)
When the move is done, I’m going to have a small party and large giveaway. Because parties are fun (cake included, obviously) and giveaways are even more fun.

Goodbye October, HELLO November!

Now it’s your turn to spill. TALK TO ME OF ALL THE THINGS! What do you think of my new blog name? How many 5-star reads did you have? Are you doing NaNo?! Did you watch any cool movies this month? (Any tips for me for being a newbie at wordpress?) 
I’m linking up with these memes: Because they’re awesome.
The Sunday Post

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6 Things The Jewel “borrowed” from The Hunger Games (And Why This Badly Annoys Me)

I received The Jewel for review (thank you Walker Books AUS!) and, I admit! I was dubious. I didn’t know of even one blogger who’d given it a rating over 3-stars. That’s pretty tough. But I have a cantankerous tendency to like books that everyone hates. (Look at me raving over Half Bad while the rest of the world pronounces it “meh”.)

 I thought I’d LOVE The Jewel…but then it did the unthinkable.

It felt dangerously similar to my favourite trilogy of all time, The Hunger Games.

 I don’t want to rant. I want to talk about this logically. And I don’t for even one minute think that I’m 100% right about this. I don’t want to slam anyone! I just want to…chat with you about this botheration.

Therefore we need a list of the similarities and you can see for yourself. (Don’t sigh. You knew the list was coming. This is me! Listastic Queen.)

1. The “stylist”

The Hunger Games: After Katniss was tossed into the confusing elite rich world of The Capital, she gets all “prettied up” for the interviews and Capitol life. Bring in Cinna. 

“So they gave you District Twelve,” I say.
“I asked for District Twelve,” he says without further explanation. (THE HUNGER GAMES || pg. 78)

The Jewel: After Violet gets bought as a surrogate and is tossed into the confusing elite rich world of The Jewel, she gets all “prettied up” for her new life. Bring in Lucien.

“I’ve been doing it [the auction] for so long now, I get to choose who I work on.” He bats his eyelashes.
“You chose me?”
“I did.” (THE JEWEL pg. 62)


Both Katniss/Violet have an insta-warm-relationship with their stylists because they’ve been tossed into a new environment and this is the first person to tell them WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON. Can’t deny though, the circumstances are exactly the same.

2. Their little sisters

The Hunger Games: Katniss has a little sister, Prim, who gets picked to fight to the death in an arena. Katniss volunteers for her.

The Jewel: Violet has a little sister, Hazel, who she leaves behind in the poor slums. But, if it came to it, Violet says she’d sacrifice everything for her.

If it was Hazel being sent away on that train and I could save her by taking her place, I would do it in a heartbeat. (THE JEWEL pg. 266)

To make this worse for The Jewel, it really didn’t need to add in the little sister bit. They could’ve left it completely out and it wouldn’t have affected the story at all!!

3. The heroine’s poor and dirty home town

The Hunger Games: Katniss comes from District 12, which is a mining industry. People die of mine collapses or lung diseases and everyone is poor and sick and starving.

The Jewel: Violet comes from The Smoke, which is one the factory industries. People die of lung diseases and everyone is dirty and poor and sick and starving.

4. The iconic salute

The Hunger Games: There’s a 3-fingered salute that’s a pretty big symbol throughout the story.

At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love. (THE HUNGER GAMES)

The Jewel: Randomly (just ‘cos, you know), Violet is sad because her friend Raven is being abused. She does this salute. SHE NEVER DOES IT AGAIN THOUGH.

Our eyes meet, and I cross two fingers on my right hand, and press them against my heart, the symbol of respect from the surrogates of Southgate and a sign that, no matter what, I will never forget her. (THE JEWEL pg. 232)

I AM SO FURIOUS RIGHT NOW. I CANNOT EVEN.

5. The sexual slave

The Hunger Games: Although this is from later books in the trilogy, there’s a character, Finnick, who is basically a sexual slave to The Capitol. He’s coy and awesome and smooth with words and utterly loathes the life he’s been forced into.

The Jewel: The love-interest is Ash, a “companion”. He’s a slave bought to teach girls how to be pleasing to their husbands, with all the strings attached. He’s smooth and beautiful and totally hates himself for the life he’s been forced into.

6. The “fire is catching” line

The Hunger Games: It obviously actually has the “fire is catching” line. It’s rather iconic for the second book which is titled (wait for it!) Catching Fire.

“I didn’t meant to start any uprisings,” I tell him.
“I believe you. It doesn’t matter. Your stylist turned out to be prophetic in his wardrobe choice. Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided a spark that, left unattended, may grow to an inferno that destroys Panem,” [President Snow] says. (CATCHING FIRE)

The Jewel: And because The Jewel needed to follow suit…

Lucien smiles a secretive smile. “It only takes one small stone to start an avalanche.” (THE JEWEL pg. 292)

I can’t deny it, I’m a little angry with The Jewel.

I am a huge The Hunger Games fan! I have a Mockingjay pin! I love the movies! I adored the books before they were even famous! I FEEL A KINDRED SPIRIT TO KATNISS WHO LOVES FOOD. I absolutely adore those books and I will always stick up for them.

I’m not saying the author of The Jewel blatantly copied The Hunger Games. I don’t even know if she’s read it! But, peoples, those similarities are huge. They make me a little suspicous.

I don’t think you can be a writer in this day and age and use the excuse of “I didn’t know”. It’s too easy to educate yourself on trends in famous books to ever be ignorant.

The really depressing part is: The Jewel was a good read. It had some freakishly original concepts. Like the magical abilities of the surrogates?! The fact that the royalty couldn’t have children so they used surrogates?! The politics? The who-is-really-evil-here grey areas?! There was so much going for this book. The writing is strong. The characters are intriguing.

But for me? Whether I’m right or wrong, it feels like it copied. And it loses face.

Maybe I’m reading out-of-context though! Maybe I saw the Cinna/Lucien similarity and my hackles rose and I zoned in on anything remotely similar. MAYBE IT’S JUST ME. There’s pretty much only one way to find out.

You need to read it and discuss it with me.

Plus if you haven’t read or didn’t like The Hunger Games, you would probably love this a lot.

Also, feel free to read my entire review on Goodreads if you wish it.

obviously i want your opinions on this matter. how do you feel when a freshly published book has serious similarities to an old (and iconic) favourite?? are you ever swayed to a new favourite or do you stick with the old? does it make you furious/sad/indifferent?! did you see the similarities between The Jewel and The Hunger Games? or is it just me? TALK TO ME. I NEED TO TALK.

Cait has been drafting blog posts frantically before NaNo, which (in her half of the planet) is tomorrow. Wow. But she has a plot! She has a pinterest board! She is PREPARED FOR THIS. She is also making fantastic and evilly delicious plans for a great Blog Renovation. More news on that will come on the weekend. But you may admire the header. Yes. Look up. It has changed. She just finished reading MASQUERADE by Kylie Fornasier.

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YA 2015 Trend Predictions || Wherein I gather MANY BLOGGERS to chat

A delicious part of book blogging is looking forward to books.

Let’s face it: books make our mouths water. And with 2014 wrapping up, our brains are straying to next year’s YA releases and wondering what the trends will be.

Although my opinion on these things is (obviously) fabulous…I thought it’d be nice to swim through the blogosphere and ask other bookish bloggers what they think 2015’s trends might be. They humoured me greatly. They are the nicest friends. And I accumulated a glorious post of our predictions!

The Opinion of Yours Truly:

I think 2015 is going to be the year Fairy Tale Retellings (which makes me insanely happy because retellings are my favourite). Sure I’m a teeny tiny bit worried they’ll explode (like vampires) and everyone will write a retelling and we’ll lose the quality…but for now? I’m enjoying it!

Movies definitely inspire people to read and, on the film front, we have Into The Woods and Pan and Disney’s new Cinderella. Then coming from 2016 onwards is Pinocchio (played by RDJ!) and The Huntsman and Beauty (with Emma Watson).

But for the bookish front we have (of course) the retelling queen, Marissa Meyer, with Fairest and Winter. Then A.G. Howard’s Alice in Wonderland retelling concludes with Ensnared. Danielle Paige brings us Dorothy Must Die #2 with The Wicked Will Rise. OH and let’s not forget Rosamund Hodge’s Crimson Bound! There’s also A Wicked Thing (Sleeping Beauty) and Beast Charming. Phewf. Is that enough? WAIT LET’S SQUEEZE IN ONE MORE! How about Sarah J Maas’ new retelling of Beauty and the Beast with A Court of Thorns and Roses?!! WHO IS EXCITED FOR THIS?

Amanda @ Book Badger

I’d think I could confidently say, based on what people have enjoyed in 2014, and the film adaptations that have come about within the last year, that there could be a surge in the amount of Mystery/Thriller novels next year. Looking at how well novels such as Don’t Look Back, Dangerous Girls/Boys and Gone Girl have done within 2014 and the constant and need and want for more criminal based reads, I don’t think it would be a far cry to expect novels like The Dead List by Jennifer L Armentrout and Liars Inc by Paula Stokes to do very well. I also think with the craze brought on from the ending of The Lunar Chronicles, that 2015 could prove a good year for retellings too, with Crimson Bound, Mechanica, A Wicked Thing and the start of Rick Riordans fourth mythology series, Magnus Chase and The Gods of Asgard, but to mention a few, and of course, the release of both Fairest and Winter by Marissa Meyer – it really shouldn’t be surprising that other authors would jump onto a genre/sub-genre that has pleased an awful lot of readers lately. I, for one, am most interested in reading The Dead List and The Fill-In Boyfriend, as well as finishing The Lunar Chronicles and The Unknown Assassin series’ and I hope I’m not let down.

Asti @ Oh, The Books!

So wait, Cait, I tell you I have these supernatural powers, that I can see into the future and know what is to come, and you waste my powers on this piddly task? For shame. 😉

In all seriousness, I think it can be somewhat hard to tell what exactly readers will want. Let’s face it, if it were something we could easily predict, then the publishing world wouldn’t be so difficult. (Or maybe it would be, because what if anyone start publishing the books we wanted but then we were so overwhelmed by all the choices within our desires and then ended up being turned off! WE JUST CAN’T WIN!)

While this isn’t a genre, I think the reading area that will be (or should be) hot in 2015 is VILLAINS! Personally, I find it fascinating when we are able to see the villain’s point of view in a story. To understand why he or she is motivated to do such horrible things in the world and if there is ever a chance for redemption is a really intriguing thing, and I think with so many horrible things happening in the world daily there is a certain desire I think to understand why people fall into such desperation situations. Plus you have movies like Maleficient and books like The Young Elites and Vicious, which have received great interest from readers proving there is a desire for this type of story.

That all being said, I am sure you can guess which book I am most excited to read in 2015 – Fairest by Marissa Meyer, the “bridge book” between Cress and Winter in the Lunar Chronicles where we get to see Queen Levana’s side of the story. I haven’t actually read Cress yet, but I plan on doing so soon because I want to read Fairest as soon as it comes out! 


Kelly @ Diva Booknerd

Personally, I think magic realism will be one of the main genres in young adult next year. In the past few months we’re seeing a trend of authors mixing generic teen contemporaries and fantasy, which doesn’t always result in a compelling read. Overall, I’m not a fan of the genre, and I’d prefer to see apocalyptic make a comeback. Not necessary dystopians, but natural disasters that show characters fighting to survive. And more standalone novels, because sometimes I don’t want to invest in an entire series that could have been wrapped up within one book.
The books I’m most excited for are Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke, The Winner’s Crime and most importantly Ensnared. Because honestly, who doesn’t need more Morpheus in their life.

Zoe @ The Infinite To-Read Shelf

To be honest, I think fantasy will be a popular genre come 2015. After the success of series such as Throne of Glass and Shadow and Bone, I have a feeling that authors will find this to be a “go-to” genre in terms of marketing.
And only one or two?!? GAH! THAT’S SO HARD! *thinks deeply* I’m going to have to go with Winter by Marissa Meyer and the untitled 3rd book in the Starbound trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner.

Jeann @ Happy Indulgence

So I’ve seen a few different YA genres rise and fall over the past few years, it’s amazing how short lived they usually are. First it was paranoma
l with the VA and Twilight craze, then paranormal books became boring and substandard. Then we saw the dystopian trend rise up after The Hunger Games, with many, many clones of it in it’s wake. 2014 was the year of contemporary, I can’t count how many different contemporary books I’ve read this year. From the heart-wrenching, to the light and funny, to the meaningful and thought provoking, it was a great year of YA contemporaries. On the wake of These Broken Stars, the Lunar Chronicles series, Dissonance and A Thousand Pieces of You, I can see YA sci-fi being the next big thing! Which is awesome, because it combines some amazing technological concepts with futuristic worlds. 

I just CANNOT WAIT until WINTER is out by Marissa Meyer! I mean this series is the best fairytale based sci-fi story I’ve ever read. I ship most of the couples in here too, especially my favourite Cinder and Kai. 

Jen @ The Starry-Eyed Revue

Retellings have always been a thing, but it does seem like they’re gaining momentum here lately, and I anticipate that we’re going to see even more of them in the coming year. I’ve already added several to my TBR: two from Marissa Meyer –Fairest and Winter, A Court of Thorn and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge, and A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas.

I also think criminals and crime families are going to be an oft-seen trend in YA lit in 2015, one I’m delighted about, if I’m being completely honest. After loving The Curse Workers series by Holly Black, I’ve been hoping for similar stories to see the light of day, and it’s like someone heard my prayers…just look at all of the new crime-related stories arriving next year: Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes, All Fall Down by Ally Carter, Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt, and Lies I Told by Michelle Zink.

I really hope this influx of historical fantasies continues, as well. You know the ones: set in a historical backdrop but steeped in fantastical elements. One such that I’m REALLY looking forward to is An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. I would do unspeakable things to get my hands on a copy of that book right now. =)

Charnell @ Reviews From a Bookworm

I think contemporary YA will be on the rise, which seems silly because how could it get even bigger than it is now. But with the success of the TFIOS adaptation, we’re beginning to see more YA contemporaries turned into films. That’s always good for the book genre because those books begin to sell like crazy and then publishers are looking for the next big thing in contemporary. So I would put my money on contemporaries being the biggest thing next year. I’m excited for the release of All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven because, even though I’ve already read and loved it, I can’t wait for everyone else to get to read and experience it. They need to feel the joy and pain too. The other genre I hope to see on the rise is YA fantasy, which I definitely feel will be the case next year. I might be basing that solely on the fact Sarah J. Maas has not one but two books releases next year. And, to me at least, she is the YA fantasy author. 

Releases I am most excited for: Throne of Glass #4, A Court of Thorns and Roses and All the Bright Places. 

Haymitch (and coincidentally, me too) approve of EVERYONE.

Thank you so incredibly much to all the bloggers and their fabulous opinions!

I love this post. (Just sayin’. I do.) But you know what I also would like? YOUR OPINION. I want to know your predictions, blogglings…and also want to know your verdict on ours. A lot of us are hedging bets on Marissa Meyer bringing retellings to shine in 2015…but we’re also voting on crime and contemporary quite a lot too.

So your opinions
on trends for 2015? Comments! LET US DISCUSS.

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2018 Reading Challenge

2018 Reading Challenge
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