WISHFUL THINKING

Bookish Gifts for a Cause!

2012-03-14T08:22:00.002-07:00

I honestly didn't know about Brad Wirz or Gone Reading until he contacted me by e-mail, seeking a mention of their products on the blog, and then I realized what I'd been missing out on!

Gone Reading International LLC is a philanthropic initiative that combines donating 100 % of their after tax profits to charities such as funding for libraries, donating to projects such as Read Global and Ethiopia Reads and seeks to "spread the magic of reading". They have an amazing array of book-related products to satisfy your book-loving soul, so that you're treating yourself on amazing stuff while at the same time doing something for a greater cause.

Gone Reading doesn't sell the books, they sell the idea of reading.

They have a great range of products ranging from book lights to bookmarks to bookplates to T-shirts and journals- everything especially catering to your bookish needs.

To show you what I'm talking about, here's a few of their products you can buy from the site Gone Reading

BOOKMARKS

BOOKPLATES

BOOK LIGHTS

T- SHIRTS

and there's a lot more!

I know I'm going to go get stuff from Gone Reading as soon as I can afford some bookish goodness- what about you?!

YOU can read about their philanthropic mission HERE

YOU can read the Gone Reading blog HERE

YOU can check out their products HERE

Cover Crazy: Nekro

2012-02-22T08:32:00.000-08:00

Love, or hate it, but his covers always catch your eye.
Yep, I'm talking about Nekro, the Spanish artist who has captured the reading YA crowd's eyes with his searingly brilliant (and mostly bright red) book covers!
So from what I see, I can analyze that this man likes his details. The swirls and trills are perfect, as is what seems to be his favorite palette of colors- white, red, black- the black always metallic and simply gorgeous!
He works for most of the major publishing houses, and his credentials include the Norma Editorial book 13 Inches.
His book covers that you will recognize include:

THE WEREWORLD SERIES

The Anna Dressed in Blood series

The Blood Rights series

Article 5

13 Inches (his book)

And there you have it! Book cover candy for a week :)

All the images are from this site: SITE

His Blog is here: (Crap, I'm SO JEALOUS!) http://thirteeninches.blogspot.in/

Ciao, guys.

Follow Friday 2

2012-02-03T03:10:00.000-08:00

SO here's the second Follow Friday!

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, and this week's question is.....

Q: Define what characteristics your favorite books share. Do theyall have a kick ass heroine or is the hot love interest the Alpha Male?

I suppose I do like kickass heroines, but they aren't a must. What's a must for me is a romance of some kind, mostly the troubled kind, and dollops of great imaginative scenarios and crazy good writing.

But alpha males are somehow a total no-no for me. I mean, I do enjoy a good hero with all his dirt and defiance, but not the kind that can make girls go so weak and kittenish that they can barely speak, let alone do any of their usual kickassery.

But I guess, the writing matters most, and I'll enjoy all sorts of characters if it is just written well enough.

Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin: Review

2012-02-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

Summary:

288 pages

Expected publication: March 1st 2012 by G.P. Putnam's Sons

Kelsey Finkelstein isfourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to her awesomepotential, her plans are foiled – by her impossible parents, herannoying little sister, and life in general. But with her first day ofhigh school coming up, Kelsey is positive that things are going tochange. Enlisting the help of her three best friends — sweet and quietEm, theatrical Cass, and wild JoJo — Kelsey gets ready to rebrandherself and make the kind of mark she knows is her destiny.

Things start out great - her arch-nemesis has moved across thecountry, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on thesoccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soonenough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer,and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just becauseKELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the worldis in on it.

Kelsey’s hilarious commentary throughout her disastrous freshmanyear will have you laughing out loud—while being thankful that you’renot in her shoes, of course…

REVIEW:

So the website says Kelsey Finkelstein is going to be your new best friend.
And guess what? That makes me HAPPY.
Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zaitlin, to-be-published by G. P. Putnam and Sons, was exactly what I needed to get over missing school-life like hell, missing my girlfriends and all the sleepovers and late-night giggling over who's-doing-what-where. Seriously. This book is a breath of fresh air, a tome of escalating fun, something that will make you clutch your sides and just laugh because it is SO. DAMN. CUTE.
Not to mention sarcastic in the best sense. And perfect for girls who are not afraid or ashamed to show their girlish side. And pure awesome.
And you know why it is pure awesome? Because the protagonist is. And you know WHY she is so awesome? Because she's just like one of us next-door girls.
Not perfect, not beautiful enough to cause a certain gravitational reaction of the male species' mouth, and definitely not a princess who gets everything she wants. She finds herself embarrassed by fussy parents, picked on by seniors, backstabbed by friends, shopping in awful departmental stores, wearing a fat suit, being freely provided with unrequired and completely unasked for photo-publicity in the school newspaper, having her heart broken and fixed and tooth broken and fixed and I don't know, I loved this book.
So Kelsey Finkelstein was almost a nobody in her old school, and this freshman year she is determined to sparkle. With the help of friends JoJo, Em and Cassidy, she seeks to outshine every other girl and get the yummy Jordan Rothman to herself. But it's a long year, and getting noticed by Jordan is going to take some inventive competition on Kelsey's part. A little difficult to accomplish because everything that actually works out in Kelsey's favor seems to have, let's say, a catch. Each of her friends seems to be keeping some secret, and a senior is out to make Kelsey's life hell.
Not much when it comes to a plot, simple stuff fit for the 11-16 demographic, but it's still fun basically because every girl's had one of the troubles that Kelsey goes through.
(Talking about that, if you want an amusing account of a Jewish play that I once performed in, keep reading after this review is over)
So anyway. I loved this book, and I'm sure you will if you've ever gone through freshman year. Seriously, this is LOL stuff. You'll love Kelsey and her friends, and you'll love the situations that they get themselves into, and you'll miss school if you're like me and have moved on to college. I loved how each of her friends had a different problem, and how these problems seems so complex to Kelsey although they really aren't: exactly how we used to feel at 14 when an unreturned missed call or a tantrum threw us all into a total frenzy.

VERDICT: Four and a half stars. For making me laugh in the middle of the night loud enough that my parents asked me if everything was okay and had I, perhaps, lost my mind a bit?

SIDENOTE: That Jewish Play.

Okay, so you guys know the story of Ruth? So our school did a play on Ruth, and I was Boaz- the rich landlord guy she ends up marrying- (because I can sing bass, you know, pretty well) and the whole thing turned out hilarious though it wasn't really meant to be. The hilarity started with my costume: a bright red satin robe thingy that kept billowing around me, and a headdress that looked like a pumpkin without the orange panels. I mean, everyone else had yarmulkes and here I was, sweating inside a pumpkin. I had a spirit-gum affixed moustache as well, and on the second day, it came off a bit while I was onstage rambling about Moab and families and brethren. I sneezed. Into my lapel mike.
And then backstage, we forgot to turn off our mikes and two lunatics were dancing around in the toilet singing a Bollywood song and the audience heard half of it. The audience mostly consisted of priests and nuns and I guess that didn't go down very well with them.
And then onstage, a friend skipped a dialogue and I was supposed to say something after it: something about red ribbons or Gentiles or something, and all I said was "red ribbon". Then we all stood there staring at each other for five full seconds in total agony before a song came on and saved us.
Oh, and someone nearly fell into the orchestra pit while leading imaginary sheep across the stage.
Tee hee.

Why am I saying this? Because this book has a Jewish play in it! And it's totally hilarious! And I kept thinking about running on stage and singing my angry-Boaz song the whole time, I even hummed it. So, yeah, I totally dig this book. I LOVE IT, so go READ IT!

(This book was received as an e-ARC from the publishers in return for an honest review; no money was exchanged )

Stuff to check out:
The Website
My Goodreads Review

Follow Friday: 1

2012-01-26T20:15:00.000-08:00

So it's my very first Follow Friday blog-hop. Yaayy.

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, and this week's question is.....

Q: Which book genre do you avoid at all costs and why?

A. This one's easy.

Historical romance.

Give me anything with princes, princesses, marquises, swooning heroines, men in breeches, stories about evil twins and lost princes and inheritances and dowries...and I'll faint. But not before I barf.

Anything where women don't wear jeans or, in fact, anything above the knee, cannot stand up for themselves against abusive males (or do stand up and is branded a rebel, a wild-cat to be TAMED. UGH) and one look from a male melts off her kneecaps is a no-no for me. Put in castles and old English and nasty, unfleeable arranged marriages and I am dead.

Bear in mind that I'm talking about those pink-and-yellow jacketed things with weirdly dressed people on the front cover.

Cover Crazy: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

2012-01-26T01:07:00.000-08:00

SO this time we're featuring a book which has multiple covers.

This week, we have The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

These are the covers most of us know:

I like these two: the first one is intriguing but sorta odd to see. The second one with the iridescent feathers would look so much more beautiful on hard back!

I loved the Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor but I have a bone to pick with the cover designer for the Indian version of the book's cover.

Now, this I don't get at all! I would never pick this book up because the cover just looks REALLY weird. What were they thinking? I don't like the red and blue together, and it looks like she's a stork.

Then there's this one, this beauty in blue:

Although the feather looks like a corn-stalk and the cover doesn't really tell us anything about the book, the texture and fonts are lovely. A clean, beautiful cover for hardback. I love the blue.

BUT THEN I FOUND THIS ONE! AND I DIED!

THE GERMAN COVER!!! Oh, this one is gorgeous. Gorgeous with its colors, gorgeous with the blue-haired model, the font, the silhouette of Prague.

They recently announced that Universal is going to do a movie on DSB, which I will be dying to see.

So which one do you like?

And since I've given you so much DSB eye candy, I'll leave you with something I found on the official website http://www.daughterofsmokeandbone.com/

Nice, huh?!

Read my review of this book here: REVIEW

So did you read DSB? Planning to?

Waiting on Wednesday

2012-01-25T05:53:00.000-08:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we feature the books we're waiting for!

So this Wednesday, I'm waiting for the sequel to the awesome Anna Dressed in Blood...

Girl of Nightmares

byKendare Blake

In this follow-up to Anna Dressed in Blood,Cas begins seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep, andsometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong. Thesearen’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and evermore gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared intoHell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to hernow. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return thefavor.

AND this book is something I'm just dying to read...it comes out on my birthday!

Masque of the Red Death

byBethany Griffin

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those whoare left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to piecesaround them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her owndespair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, theterribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedlysmart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets.Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

My interest in this is for obvious reasons, of course, I'm a Poe fan. And this is my favorite Poe story of them all- it finds new ways to chill my blood every time I read it, and most of my nightmares since reading it feature rooms with red stained glass and black drapes. Shudder.

So what are you waiting for this Wednesday?

Busting the Newbie Blues

2012-01-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

1. When did you start your blog?
Blog has been around since Dec 2010 but I actually started blogging just less than a year ago. February 2011, I guess, but it hasn't been a book blog for that long.
   2. Why did you start your blog?
Basically because I love to write, wanted a platform to build friendships with other bloggers and writers, and to just have fun, of course!
   3. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Building a follower-base of people who regularly comment, look out and encourage blog posts. Some bloggers are the I'll follow you if you follow me kind of people, and they comment once and never come back.
   4. What do you find most discouraging about being a new blogger?
The same thing as above. Most people comment so that I may read their blog in return, but it gets tiring pretty quick. But I keep commenting, because it's fun to spread the love!
   5. What do you find most encouraging?
That most YA bloggers are so nice, and that there are, rarely, some people who have just the right words to describe a piece of story or a review or an artwork that I've put up. It makes my day.
   6. What do you like best about the blogs you read? Have you tried to replicate this in your blog?
Occassionally, the design. My artwork has improved vastly because of other awesome blogs out there. Sometimes I do socially responsible posts when my blogger friends do the same- it's very uplifting. I learned how to make a button and add the LinkWithin widget and all from other Bloggers and am thankful.
   7. What do you dislike about blogs you’ve read? Do you try to avoid this?
Memes, or fluff-posts. They seem like fillers to me and I mostly avoid them, except for some favorites like Waiting on Wednesday, or memes related to art. But even then, I take part in them seldom.
   8. Any advice for other new bloggers?
Be original, have fun.
   9. Any questions you'd like to ask newbie or established bloggers?
One. I live in India and don't know if we get ARC copies of books over here. Does anyone know if publishers are willing to send books as far as here? If so, where would I go to get an ARC?
10. Is there anything you’d like to tell us about your blog? Feel free to link a few of your favorite posts or posts you wish had more comments.
Mine is not just a review blog: it combines art, writing and fiction into one. I support independent publishing, ebooks, self-publishing etc. And I also do some book cover designing- mostly for free, for the self-published authors.

Fairydust- a Flash Fiction story I wrote

Magical Healing- a post I did for Blogging Against Disability in literature.

Borrowing Abby Grace by Kelly Green: Review

2012-01-21T04:18:00.000-08:00

TITLE: Borrowing Abby Grace

EBOOK by Backlit Fiction

(My copy of this book was received from the author in exchange for honest review; I received no payment for the same.)

BLURB (from Goodreads):

When Abby Grace wakesup in the back of a van, she has no idea who she is, how she got there,or why anyone would want to kidnap her. After escaping her maskedcaptors, she hurries home, only to discover that she unknowingly lefther younger brother behind in the van. Unable to answer the police’squestions with her memories gone, she retreats to the safety of herbedroom where she tries to reconstruct her life. Just as she issettling into the belief that things will one day return to normal, shelooks in the mirror—and sees a stranger’s face.
As Abby learns next, she has become a Shadow, sent to inhabit thelives of strangers in trouble. With nothing to go on except the vaguehints of her cute but maddening Guardian, a 19th century ghostlyteenager named Will, Abby sets out to rescue the missing brother. Butshe will need all of her intelligence, fearlessness, and wit, becauseif she fails to find him in time, she will remain trapped in thisunfamiliar body forever.

REVIEW:

You have to give it up to Backlit Fiction: they know the power of good editing and design.
Honestly, in the world of independant publishing, it's hard to find a book that engages both my artist side and my writer side, but Kelly Green's Borrowing Abby Grace series does that: it features eye-catching covers, seriously well-edited books and zero grammatical/spelling glitches.
The Borrowing Abby Grace series features short, fast-paced stories that are easy to read, fast-paced and quite engaging, with interesting characters, new ideas and lots of humor. The concept is fun and original: a girl-ghost, a.k.a "Shadow" who can be "borrowed" into other bodies as other people, with lots of mystery and sassy good humor thrown in to boot. Abby reminds me of a quirkier, sassier Nancy Drew. She's all A to B, no tears and tantrums, inquisitive and funny and mostly fast-thinking. While she solves the mysteries and problems in the lives of other people- people whose bodies she is forced to take over because that is what Shadows do- she questions her own existence and the possibility of what might have happened to her own life as Abby Grace. There is also Will- the boy in the shadows who is supposed to be helping her but chooses to be infuriatingly smug instead- whose mysteries I hope will be revealed in the forthcoming books. The plot doesn't lag anywhere- it moves in one continuous sweep from the beginning to the end, and that might also be a shortcoming of this novel.
Sometimes it just seemed too FAST.
Perhaps that has to do with my reading preference of books with long winding paragraphs of description, but I felt that Abby accepted the Shadow thing too quickly. That the problem in the first book which she was supposed to solve wasn't quite a problem at all, that the girl she'd been "borrowed" into could have just solved it herself instead of going in for a paranormal solution. I mean, when you have a paranormal solution, the problem should involve guns blazing, vampires dying, world ending...right? Maybe it's just me with my need for descriptions and emotional stuff and all: but I thought the book should have been longer, Abby should have been more fleshed out, and the problems...actually problems which NEED to be fixed paranormally. And also, couldn't the decisions that she makes as someone else totally affect the "someone else" when they are back in their own body? This is a question I was asking myself throughout the Girl Steals Guy book (the 2nd one in the series) because Abby makes some pretty important choices for the girl that she has been borrowed for, Michelle. I kept thinking what Michelle would feel when she came back. (And for her to come back, where did she go in the first place? Maybe we'll get to know that as the series continues!)
But that said, there was no problem with enjoying Abby Grace and her wittiness at all. I liked Abby's voice: her sarcasm is much appreciated in the place of usual YA heroine whininess.
I liked her relationship with Will, and I want more of him in the next books. I liked that each time she does a job, a memory of hers comes back. I liked that it made me laugh, and that it also got me curious regarding the real Abby Grace, and Kelly Green's writing-style is quite good.
Just...less speed next time, more people, more PROBLEMS.
The covers rocks, though. Dude, it does.

VERDICT: Read it when you want something quick, simple, fun and sassy.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi: Review

2011-12-18T07:28:00.000-08:00

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishmentlocked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal.As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The worldis too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl.Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birdsdon't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things,so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that thesurvivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed itsmind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into apoisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

Dystopian novels have sort of inundated the market, and some of them have turned out to be terrible. In fact, most dystopian novels I've read recently (this include "The Pledge", "Enclave", and the Matched series by Allie Condie and the current favorite "Divergent") have all promised and then disappointed. With Shatter Me drawing rave reviews from most reviewers, I was expecting something from it. Did it disappoint? Yes. Did it have its bright, brilliant bits? Yes, there too.

Trouble is, I need three things to say that I like a book. One, the writing. Two, the plot. Three, the characters. Shatter Me got One and Three right. That's right: I didn't really like the plot. But let's go in the order I like it.

First of, the writing. Mafi has a very poetic style, words stumbling over each other in some places as Juliette's thoughts stumble over each other, beautiful metaphors rising out of the ashes of usual dystopian choppiness. Some of the Shatter Me metaphors are going to stay in my mind for a long time. The strikethrough thing is brilliant- it reminds me of my diary when I'm in a bad mood. I write like a madwoman whenever something pisses me off, or excites me beyond critical level, and I tend to strike off and rewrite and it's all very emotional. I got that vibe from Mafi's writing. I felt for Juliette: her pain, her isolation, her confusion. Juliette's thoughts pour out through her writing in the notebook, so the description part of it is understandable.

Secondly, the characters. As I said, Juliette is a good female lead. She has a strange power that she can't control- well, unless she puts herself in a full-body leotard or something- and that makes her starved of touch. Which is a really, really bad thing. I agree. Plus, she's been locked up in a cell, forced to share with a gorgeous cellmate (for, like a few pages, but whatever) forced to torture someone and has already killed someone else with her powers. Makes sense that she's broken. But I can also see that she has strength: it's not an in-your-face thing like in Divergent, but more subtle, better told. Adam, the hero, is a perfect YA lead: gorgeous, moody, has an abused past, and is pretty good with tanks and guns and stuff, except that he does get his ass kicked more than Juliette does in this book. (She rescues him. Hah. I'm happy with that.) Warner is the strangest, and scariest villain I've seen in recent dystopian books, scarier because he's so young, and so good-looking. And because he actually likes Juliette. Do I feel sorry for him? Yes, I do. Surprising, really, but maybe not that much. I expect Daddy Warner will be the real villain. There's a pattern to these YA books, which I hope Shatter Me doesn't follow, but I've a feeling it will.

Thirdly, the plot. This is pretty vague for a first book: there's not much world-building, except that there seems to be no birds or animals. There is new technology, I suppose, or maybe the re-establishment got rid of it, I'm not sure. There is an X-men like group at the end of the book that seems out of place for some reason, although I was expecting it. That is the problem I had with this book I guess: I was never blind-sided, I could see every twist coming. Warner and Adam's peculiar gift regarding Juliette: I saw it coming. The Professor X kinda guy and his mutant group: saw it coming. The romance part was obvious. Totally, there was nothing ORIGINAL about the plot. A polluted world, a Nazi kinda organization, throw in the X-men, strike a few bits out.

But that's not to say I didn't enjoy Shatter Me. I did, because I really loved the writing, Juliette's voice, the romance, the villainy. In fact, I think I like Mafi as a writer more than Shatter Me as a book. I'll read the next one in the series, but I won't say I have much expectations in the story-factor of it. The next Hunger Games is not here, yet. I still worship Katniss. Sigh.

BUT, despite my not-liking the book, I do like the author's blog a LOT. Check it out: http://www.stiryourtea.blogspot.com/

Power to the Blogosphere! Peace out.

Quick Tales: 1: FAIRYDUST

2011-12-11T08:29:00.001-08:00

So the blog's undergoing some major changes in light of the coming Amazon Breakthrough Novelist Award contest, which I'll hopefully get into....provided I finish my novel on time. Till then, the blog's gonna have a hoarde of writing exercises (it'll be fun) and this is one of my favorites: QUICK TALES.
Quick Tales is basically flash fiction, tiny short stories. Mostly inspired by pictures. I won't say much more, but please read the story :)

from beckyrox.buzznet.com
random search for inspiration

QUICK TALES 1: FAIRYDUST

My best friend was moving houses, moving countries, moving continents.

She announced it on the day before her departure, declaring that she will never see me again. We were lying beneath the tree in my garden, an occasional raindrop from yesterday’s rain plinking down on us. Her braided hair smelled of jasmine, and the water drops reflected millions of starbursts onto her skin.

“I’m moving,” she said. “, Away. Across the world.”

“Where?” I asked, devastated.

“Away.”

“But you’ll call?”

“There are no phones.”

“E-mail?”

“There are no computers.”

“Where is this place?”

Her lips thinned. “Where there’s no steel. Now, do you want to play one last game or what?”

We played till her mother came to call her home. Her mother’s eyes seemed strange in the twilight, an almost purple blaze. Fairy eyes, I thought, vaguely.

She turned at the edge of the street and waved at me, and that was the last I ever saw of her. I had the bottle pressed into my hand, the bottle that she gave me, my keepsake.

The bottle of silver fairy-dust.

Through years the bottle has solaced me when I needed it the most. The warmth of her hand has never faded from it. The silver powder in it shines sometimes, an invitation to uncork it, and when I open it, there’s the scent of faint jasmine. The shimmer of starbursts. The scent of earth freshly watered. The sound of two girls and their beating hearts and the rustle of wind as it pulls time along with it in an eternal race. The sound of two souls still not stained with the bittersweet spice of separation.

I think of it as a slice of time, a tiny pie-wedge of it, powdered and enclosed in a bottle.

Fairy-dust, from a fairy-girl.

Tiger's Curse by Couleen Houck: Review

2011-12-03T01:02:00.001-08:00

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world.

The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she’d be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year-old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world.
But that’s exactly what happened.
Face-to-face with dark forces, spell- binding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.
Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.
“. . . a sweet romance and heart-pounding adventure. I found myself cheering, squealing, and biting my nails — all within a few pages. In short, Tiger’s Curse is magical." -Becca Fitzpatrick, New York Times bestselling author of Hush, Hush
But that’s exactly what happened.
Face-to-face with dark forces, spell- binding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.
Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.
“. . . a sweet romance and heart-pounding adventure. I found myself cheering, squealing, and biting my nails — all within a few pages. In short, Tiger’s Curse is magical." -Becca Fitzpatrick, New York Times bestselling author of Hush, Hush

I did not finish this atrocity of a book. If you loved this book, as most of you did, you better not read this review, because I'm a hater.
This is gonna be a long rant, so let's split this up.

CHARACTERS
Blah, blah, blah. I didn't care about a single one of them.
KELSEY: was boring. She's independant and supposed to be the antithesis of a Mary-Sue Bella Swan, but the way she was written didn't give me that kind of a vibe. I spent most of the time I read this book wondering if she'd left her brain behind somewhere. Because, who goes to India with someone they'd just met? WIth a carnivorous animal they'd just met? And anyway, why does she behave like a twelve-year-old most of the time?
REN: Um. The Indian Prince. Yeah...I believe that. Because you served it to me on a plate, not because there was anything remotely resembling Indian culture or its vestiges in him, save for the Hindi dialect. I like him better as the tiger, because he doesn't speak. And Ren, why are you wearing white trousers and a white shirt? TROUSERS. In INDIA. In the 16th century. HUH?
YESUBAI has violet eyes? Wow. I didn't know Indians could have violet eyes.
And what kind of princely names are REN and KISHEN? They were all called Dhirendravarma or Chandragupta or Krishnadevaraya.
I didn't even care about the others.

THE PLOT, THE SETTING, THE ACTION
The Plot? Bizarre. To someone who's been following Hinduism, incredibly bizarre. Won't go into that one because I haven't finished the whole thing and has no intention of finishing it.
Needless to say, I had high expectations about this one, mostly because the blogosphere has been going crazy about how original and how inspiring and how non-Twilight this book is. Well, okay, if you're not from India. Double okay, if you're not from India and know nothing about Hinduism. Some reviewers say that Miss Houck has done her homework regarding Indian culture. To them I say: excuse me?? There are so many descrepancies regarding the culture, and not just that, the WAY Indians behave, and talk.

Before you say Miss Houck has done her homework, or researched well, or offered wonderful tidbits of Indian culture, please at least realize that this is somebody who doesn't know what Google Images mean. In caps, for easy access to the brain: FYI, BENGAL TIGERS MOSTLY ARE ORANGE. There are very few WHITE TIGERS, those are like orange tigers with a recessive gene. And they're INCREDIBLY rare. And you can't just walk around India with a white tiger the way Kelsey does. THERE ARE RULES. THESE are a SPECIES nearing EXTINCTION. (In 100 Bengal tigers, there are just 12 white tigers, so I find it difficult to relate that no one Kelsey meets in India, on the roads at least, is wondering why she's moving around with a white tiger. She would be immediately put in jail!)

And if you have half a brain, you could just type Royal Bengal Tiger in the Google Images box and they'll show you ORANGE tigers. In this book there is a specific dialogue where Mr Kadam tells Kelsey that Siberian tigers are orange and Indian tigers are WHITE. Didn't the editor notice this? The editor is Indian, according to the author. So, well, hulloo?? This is like saying ostriches are rampant in North America and mate with flamingos.

And then, Goddess Durga has a tiger called Damon. I've been giggling in my prayer room ever since I read this book, because we have a statuette of Goddess Durga on the tiger, and I look at him and think "Damon, Damon, Damon." This might be true, because some sites say so. I've never heard it, and neither has my grandma.

The mythology in this book is odd. It's okay to make up mythology, but the myths in Tiger's Curse didn't have the flavor of Indian myths. It was off. If you think about it, there are very less instances in Indian mythology where the heroes are on a quest to find something as compared to other mythologies in the world. Heroes and heroines of Indian myths are mostly concerned with human virtues: such as faithfulness, marital fidelity, knowledge, strength, the king's need to protect and do the best for his people, promises before blood and stuff like that. The normal Greek Myth kinda quests seeking for magical objects doesn't quite feature in Indian mythology. The story of the Kalyanasougandhika flower is the only thing I can think of at the moment. In everything else involving magical objects, they are either gifts from the Gods (Arjuna's arrows, etc) or something that should be stolen skilfully from a God. (King Bhageeratha "stole" the river Ganga from Lord Shiva.) I don't think Indian gods send heroes and heroines on quests to bring objects. They go themselves.
And Ren, who's a 16th century prince or whatever thinks it's okay to fall in love with an English woman. Well, sorry, but isn't he concerned of his kshatriya status?
Not to mention the guide guy, Phet or whatever, who speaks like Yoda. Indians speak English pretty well, FYI, or they don't speak it at all. And the whole Indian continent does NOT speak Hindi.
I can forgive the linguistic stuff, all right, but please. The tiger color change put me off so much that I wanted to throw the book. And the fact that no Indian is interested in safeguarding our national, and endangered animal. Insult, insult.
And there's this bit where Kelsey is in Mumbai and she sees all these exotic body-paint shops and palm-reading and whatever. Since I wasn't paying much attention by this point, I had to shuffle back a few pages. WHAT? When did she time-travel? There was no mention of centuries dropping away in between?
FYI, Mumbai is an enormous city with buildings everywhere. Flats, corporate offices, etc. You'll find street vendors, selling...Reebok. Adidas. Fake Gucci and Armani bags. Icecreams and jeans and little jewelry stands and pirated CDs and porno and such. BUT NOT PALM-READING, or exotic body-painting shops. You don't even find that stuff these days in rural India, albeit very very rarely. And the only tattoo-place in Mumbai is pretty hi-fi. Sorry. Wrong information, I'd like to kill the editor now, please.
India is a country very difficult to describe, especially for foreigners. Why say foreigners? I'm a South Indian who finds it difficult to describe North India. I admire the author for taking the effort, and pulling off quite a bit of it, but when it comes to important bits like mythology and tigers, which your book is entirely based on, you should do better research than this, right? Don't leave the orthodox Hindus wondering where the mythology came from. It's okay if you skip the occassional Hindi narrative (for the record, I don't think anyone says "my prema". My "priya" yes. "Prem" is the word for love, but we don't use it like "my love")
And THE ACTION? I spent too much time getting bored out of mind to get into the action.

VERDICT: Good cover. Read it if you know nothing about Indian culture. Please picture Ren orange if you can.

WATER BOMB: Is No One Listening?

2011-11-27T23:57:00.001-08:00

As you probably know by now, I live in the tip of South India, in a green little state called Kerala. I don't think the foreign media is covering this, but the lives of lakhs of people in the state is currently at risk. A collapsing dam stands between us and the water bomb on the other side. Quakes rock the state nearly every day. The dam is 116 years old. It's lifespan is supposed to only be 50 years.

If it breaks, or more accurately, regarding present circumstances- when it breaks- nearly three districts of the state will probably be affected. Lakhs of people will die, crores and crores of property will be lost, and the environmental impact of a massive wall of water slamming into the earth is beyond comprehension.

This is a shout out.

A post that I hope you will read so you will know that there are people living in the shadow of a water bomb, waiting for it to explode any moment. Praying for their lives, and worse, the lives of their children. Helpless.

There is the question you are asking of course, WHY?

WHY are we helpless? WHY is there no comfort from the Government that is supposed to be protecting us? WHY was nothing done about the cracks on the dam when it first formed? WHY is it an issue in the first place?

Believe me, most of us are asking ourselves the same thing. Some blame the Kerala Government, some the Tamil Nadu Government (the dam seperates the two states and the water belongs to both; hence the political mechanisations leading to no answers for the public) and some even blame the Central Government for sitting by and watching, waiting for catastrophe to strike before doing something even mildly productive.

The shout for a new dam seems to be falling on deaf ears. The rain keeps pouring, and the water level keeps rising in the Mullaperiyar dam. We've been hit by minor quakes but if anything above 6 in the Richter scale hits, disaster will be imminent.

WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT TO SAY:

This is not the time for empty large-worded assurances.

This is the time to DO.

We don't need assurances, but ACTION.POLITICS should not come before the lives of LAKHS of people.

While we live in fear, there are questions that nearly everyone seems to be asking: Is a vote all that matters in a democracy? Is it alright to turn a deaf ear to the voice of your neighboring state and simply suggest that Keralites are over-reacting? Is it alright to sit by and send teams of people to study the dam when teams of people studying it over the years have kept saying that it is in major danger? Is it a democracy, really, when CHILDREN have to go on hunger-strikes and protests just to get some sort of ACTION?

For once in the entire blogging history of this blog, I'm asking you to help me shout out. Retweet this. Share it if you can. Comment.

There are lives at stake.

Peace out.

FACEBOOK COMMUNITY: Save People: http://www.facebook.com/Mullaperiyar999?sk=wall

Save Mullaperiyar Dam, Save Kerala Facebòòk Campaign: http://www.facebook.com/savemullaperiyar

IMAGE COURTESY: Various Malayalam news channels.

Review : Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

2011-10-07T03:19:00.000-07:00

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone might be the best written paranormal romance I've read in a while. Let me put it like this: Laini Taylor's prose is magical. She can bring to life the twisting, tangled streets of Prague or the noisy hot squares of Morocco with about as much ease as most YA authors portray American high schools. To better get this review done, let me break it into segments.

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

THE PRETTY

Karou. Is. Effing. Beautiful.
I hate it normally when authors go for incredibly beautiful people in books and I confess I had some trouble with the omniscient third person narrative of Karou's description, but the way Taylor has described her heroine is just BEAUTIFUL. Lapis hair, dark eyes, tattoos. To someone who's a total sucker for body art, this is just the literary version of true eye-candy.
The amount of work that must have gone into Karou's characterization must have been huge, because I could picture her. I could almost feel her. I could see the whisper of her footsteps on the streets of Prague, and picture her in her orange dress in Morocco. The sounds, the smells, the SETTINGS...Taylor does it all right with the eye of an artist (which she is).

Akiva, the hero, is standard YA material: hot, glorious, powerful, haunted. But you know what? I like heat better than marble-cold heroes anyway, and HEAT has a great new meaning in Akiva. SMOLDERING has new meaning in Akiva. No, literally, because he has wings of fire and all. And you know what? He isn't a sappy YA angel hero. Taylor's prose is what remedies the over-gorgeousness.

The mentionable thing here is that the secondary characters all are lovable. Let me especially mention Zuzana, Karou's tiny scary friend, who I loved, and the strange story of Izil, which freaked me out. All of Karou's strange "family" is interesting too.

But most of all, it was the prose that really, really sucked me right into the book. It deserves praise so glowing that the praise is neon-orange. Some of the metaphors are just delicious. It's like eating the best ice cream flavor imaginable. The otherworldly settings possess an almost unbearable beauty. Taylor, I have to say this, is a seer.

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS

For what should have been a glowing, beautiful book, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone did disappoint me on certain occassions. There's a lot of TELLING and not SHOWING.

Why does Brimstone need the teeth? Well, that was the question I kept asking myself but I thought it could have been revealed better. And there is insta love. I DO NOT like insta love. (For those who read this book: We are not talking about the Karou-Akiva love story, we're talking about the BEFORE.)

I didn't know what kind of a mystery I was expecting the book to be, but it was definitely not up to my expectations. I just didn't connect with the plot, although I did connect with the characters. I think I would have been happy just to see Karou and Akiva fly around, and draw the other, and have angsty conversations, and kiss. The plot, I thought, sort of lacked a little. Nice, but not exceptional. And that's a pity, because the other aspects of this book is just so wonderful.

Again, was it overdone a bit? Everyone is too beautiful. Karou, Zuzana, Mik, Akiva, Hazael, Lazric, Issa. EVERYONE. WHY, why, why does every YA author do this? :(

WRAP UP
I guess, totally, the good stuff triumphs easily over the bad stuff, and I'm a sucker for great writing as well. The cover is TERRIBLE. Okay, maybe it's a nice color and all, but please. Bad books have some awesome covers. This is a book written so well that it deserves a cover that really represents its essence. Magic, cover artist, MAGIC. There's so much magic in this book it doesnt't go on to the cover, and that's a terrible tragedy. Because I'm an artist as well, and I would have wanted my book to look better.

I wish Taylor would write a better sequel, one with a plot that has more substance that mystery+ hot guy+ flying around+ fire+ mystery solved. Although the plot did pick up at the end, I thought there should have been more, or a better one.

But will I read everything and anything Taylor ever writes? Absolutely. I've fallen for her magic pen.

QUOTES

“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.” OVERALL SCORE:

"She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust"

“Happiness. It was the place where passion, with all its dazzle and drumbeat, met something softer: homecoming and safety and pure sunbeam comfort. It was all those things, intertwined with the heat and the thrill, and it was as bright within her as a swallowed star.”

“Hey! My body may be small, but my soul is large. It’s why I wear platforms. So I can reach the top of my soul”

7/10- pretty damn great, with points chucked off for the cover, for the not-well-carried plot, and for the overdone beauty. Sue me if I'm being unfair.

CIAO.

Is Magical Healing Respectable?! (human interest)

2011-09-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Magical Healing: Should We?

Magical Healing. Don’t we all love it as fantasy/ paranormal writers? Everyone is hot in romance novels, aren’t they? Wholeness matters. Beauty matters. I hate novels where the girl is described with, I don’t know, a squint or a cross-eye or as being (in one book I won’t mention because I might lose all control to think about it) “plain” (as though plain is a disability) and then the guy comes along, or some other Dumbledore like character comes along, and magically transforms her into- hey, presto- beautiful girl worth the boy! What is this madness about? What is wrong with the girl being plain, or cross-eyed, or even crippled, for God’s sake? Won’t the guy love her enough?

I hated Twilight at one point of time because Bella kept going on about how she wanted to be a vampire because only then would she be worth Edward. (Twilight fans: maybe you have a different explanation for this, but I will never get over this weirdness)

I am plain. Is that a problem? Do I have to do something to my face so a guy will like me?

This is there in so many paranormal novels. Girl, not much to look at, transforms into a gorgeous siren due to some weird magical intervention. Or they’re thrown into the imagination of the author as beautiful creatures. They have scars, which disappear magically. Spines, which right themselves magically even though every doctor said “sorry, impossible”. Deadly diseases that get better because they’re brave, because they’ve found the Magical Elixir of whatever. Every time I tell my stories to one of my friends, and I let it slip that okay, the girl is blind, or the girl is plain, or even the girl has a scar on her face, they say “But she’ll be pretty in the end, right? There’s a scene in the end where the guy stares at the gorgeous vision in front of him with open-mouthed surprise, isn’t there? You’re not going to ~gasp~ keep her BLIND?”

Then they suggest ways to make her not-blind. Ways to make the guy gawp at her vacuously. And I think, any guy who wouldn’t gape at me vacuously before I was pretty wouldn’t be worth my time. Because, for a second, THINK: what are you doing? What is the message you are sending out, as an author? That it’s not okay to be disabled? That the guy won’t love the girl enough if there isn’t at least one scene in the book where he isn’t hit by the sledgehammer of beauty that she is? Isn’t this the most vacuous, empty-headed trope?

And hullo, no one’s forgetting the heaps of characters that are “terrible” just because they have a limp or a hunched back. How many books have we read where an annoying character is described as being “cross-eyed and squinty” or “having a limp” or “deaf and batty”? Almost to the point that we think children’s literature is cruel to these characters. (Don’t get me started on fat characters. I’ll write a post on that unfairness soon)

Why is it not okay to be disabled, or ugly, or plain? I find it heartbreaking when books make characters absolutely lovable and fun and, yes, disabled and then kill them off, relegate them to secondary roles, or magically heal them. Eona, by Alison Goodman, was such a great example of how a person can work around their disability and triumph. She was crippled, her hipbone malformed due to a deliberate “accident”. She, pretending to be a He, is genius enough to work around that one and come out triumphant. So why did Ms. Goodman have to go and heal her in the end of the book? Because a crippled heroine is not a heroine? Or is it some kind of attempt to say that if you’re brave and fabulous and ass kicking enough, you’ll finally be rewarded by wholeness? So how do the disabled people who read this feel? That they aren’t brave enough and worthy enough? I’m not going to hark about just this book; there are countless other characters... L. M Montgomery’s Dean Priest, Eragon in Eldest, all the plain girls (a.k.a Ugly Ducklings) who due to the magical influence of whatever turned into swans. This kind of writing is shallow.

By the trend, I see in books, it’s not possible to be happy if you’re disabled. It’s not possible to love or to be loved unless you’re healed magically at the end. It’s not possible for Mr. Gorgeous to fall for you if you’re anything less than Ms. Beautiful is and if he does, then Ms. Plain transitions to Ms. Beautiful with some otherworldly help.

I wish teen-lit will stop being about beauty and start being about heart. As I promised, I’m going to write a “fat-character-post” soon. Very soon. For now, chew on this.

So what do YOU think of magical healing? To do or not to?

NOTE: if you've liked this post, you should read the following posts, which inspired this:

kitkryan's blog

r.j anderson's website

Waiting on Wednesday

2011-09-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we feature the books we're waiting for!

This week, I'm featuring Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. Obviously half the book reading world is waiting for this book, and the ones who've been lucky enough to get the ARC tells me that it's totally worth it. Read a few excerpts and quotes, and I loved it. Also, Mafi's blog is pretty awesome. You can read her at http://www.stiryourtea.blogspot.com/

SO, I give you, Shatter Me

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

Here's a quote from goodreads.

“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction. ~ pg. 71 (ARC)”

Q and A Review: Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

2011-09-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

Soooo. This is THE book I've been waiting to read for so long. I'll give you the Q and A version of a review for this one.

Synopsis

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.

So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn't expect anything outside of the ordinary: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
But she, for whatever reason, spares Cas's life.

Q. Why the hell did you want to read it so much in the first place?

A. Because:

1. The cover is REALLY gorgeous.

2. I'm tired of angsty, whiny female heroines. I want a smartass dude's POV. And Cas is full of smartassery.

3. I love that title. Love it. Anna Dressed in Blood. Now, why didn't I think of something like that?
4. He's called Theseus Cassio Lowood??? He he, you just know this kid's going to be amusing. Also, my new novel's protag is called Cassio. I'm an Othello fan, too, WTH.

Q. What did you think of Cas?
A. Theseus Cassio Lowood. Not only having to battle ghosts but also the ghosts of his own past. Never whining about it. (Thank GOD for that.) Professional ghost-killer, smartass, intelligent and all around great guy. Not that he keeps saying that. It's so nice to see such a dynamic young man from his own POV. I love how Cas is both sensitive and brilliant, I love his dynamic with Anna and with his mother, I love the way he's out to avenge his father. I love him. He's full of awesome.

Q. What did you think of Anna?
A. Ah, Anna. Anna, Anna, Anna. Why don't we have more female leads like Anna? Here's what Cas has to say about Anna, the dark ghost of Anna Dressed in Blood:

She was nothing like I expected, though now that I’ve seen

her I have a hard time remembering what I did expect. Maybe I thought she’d be a sad, frightened girl who killed out of fear and misery. I thought she’d trundle down the stairs in a white dress with a dark stain at the collar. I thought she would have two smiles, one on her face and one on her neck, wet and red. I thought she would ask me why I was in her house, and then come at me with razored little teeth.

Instead I find a ghost with the strength of a storm, black eyes, and pale hands, not a dead person at all but a dead goddess. Persephone back from Hades, or Hecate half-decayed.

And, you know, this entirely believable, wonderful boy keeps doing the "goddess" reference. Which is just great. Because Anna reminded me instantly of a powerful, dark goddess too, the way she was described.

Q. Is there a plot? Or is it just usual YA blah-blah?
A. There's a kind-of plot. But there doesn't have to be a linear structure to the plot, because this book is more about the movement of the protagonist. Cas is a ghost-killer. But he's half in love with death itself. Anna is a killer ghost. But again, she's heartbreakingly in love with him too. Again, there is the whole angle of Cas's family that's been done very well. I loved his kitchen-witch Mom, she's a very strong character. I liked Carmel and Thomas.

Q. Stand alone?

A. I hear there's a second book. There better be.

Q. Writing?

A. Great. I loved Cas's voice, his cursing, his wise-guy comments.

The hallways today look like something out of a movie. You know, the ones where the important characters walk in slow motion and the rest of the people just whip by as different flesh- and clothes-colored blurs.

This is how the entire book is, with his sometimes weird observations that's perfectly believable for a guy. (Or maybe, I don't know, I'm not a guy.)

Q. Verdict?

A. 4 on 5. I'm knocking off one point simply because I thought the book could be longer.

Waiting on Wednesday (3)

2011-08-31T00:48:00.000-07:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we feature the books we're waiting for!

This week, I'm waiting for:

PURE by Julianna Baggot

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run.

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

So what are you waiting for this wednesday?

Top 10 Best Settings for YA novels- Part 1

2011-08-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

So this is a post about novel settings. You’ve got to love these books which are set in places that seem nearly magical. By magical, I don’t mean there has to be unicorns or singing fountains, but there has to be the thrill of discovery, of seeing a whole world through a character’s eyes. So here we go with my list of awesome novel settings!

Number 1: The World within a World

This has to be my favourite of all time. There’s just something about there being a hidden world right in ours! It’s totally fascinating to think that you could be standing at Kings’ Cross between platform nine and ten, on September 1, and that the Hogwarts Express is somewhere just beyond...or imagine suddenly walking into something like a gateway to Faery... This is always amazing because we KNOW the world the character inhabits in the beginning, and the magical otherworld is always just beyond the veil...

My Best Books in this Category: Harry Potter, which wins hands down, and Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. Cassandra Clare and Holly Black’s works are notable. So are the Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl series.

Number 2: The Future

Oh, this setting is absolutely FABULOUS. Because, you know, I can say people in the future are orange skinned, and no one can dispute me. Anything is possible in the future. Everything is possible in the future, because the future is unknown. Awesome, right? And also there’ll be a lot of techy gadgetry which I’m so mad about.

My Best Books: The Hunger Games trilogy, Neil Gaiman’s Snow Crash, Enders Game, and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (which really tops this list).

Number 3: The Closed and Cramped

This setting is mostly exploited by Stephen King and Dean Koontz. You know, putting people in a building or someplace cramped and working on their emotions. This setting is quite frightening, basically because there’s nowhere to run. Typically, it’s pretty high on my list.

1408, Under the Dome and the Shining by King, Strangers by Koontz, 1222 by Anne Holt and the Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff are prime examples.

Number 4: The Exotic

To do this kind of writing really well, you must have first travelled somewhere exotic, or lived somewhere exotic. Living in India has its greatest perk in that you can find a lot to write about if you just walk out on a random street. My favourite setting in India is the pre-Independence era. I love books set in the stranger European countries: especially Romania, Norway, Finland, and my ABSOLUTE favourites ever: Istanbul, Prague and Bucharest.

Orhan Pamuk, William Dalrymple and Elizabeth Kostova comes to mind instantly. I am a huge fan of Kostova.

Number 5: Small Town America

From Kristen Hubbard's website

I don’t know what it is about this that attracts me, it just does. I like the sentimentalism and moral values that seem to be in the fabric of the characters’ mould. I like towns where everyone knows everyone else, everyone still lives in a kind of past. It’s sweet, I think, most books set in this kind of setting.

Of course, again, Stephen King uses a lot of small town setting...Recently; I read Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard and thought the town of Washokey was described beautifully. I also enjoy the description of Gatlin in the Caster Chronicles. Recently, I also liked Graveminder by Melissa Marr, set in Claytown and Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves, set in Portero, Texas.

Next Week, I'll do the rest of the Settings Post :)

So do you have a favourite setting for a book? Or do you have a specific book in mind you think is the best of any of these categories? Leave me a comment!

Review: St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

2011-08-27T02:50:00.000-07:00

Goodreads Summary (a bit shortened) :

A dazzling debut, a blazingly original voice: the ten stories in St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves introduce a radiant new talent.

In the collection’s title story, a pack of girls raised by wolves are painstakingly reeducated by nuns. In “Haunting Olivia,” two young boys make midnight trips to a boat graveyard in search of their dead sister, who set sail in the exoskeleton of a giant crab. In “Z.Z.’s Sleepaway Camp for Disordered Dreamers,” a boy whose dreams foretell implacable tragedies is sent to a summer camp for troubled sleepers (Cabin 1, Narcoleptics; Cabin 2, Sleep Apneics; Cabin 3, Somnambulists . . . ). And “Ava Wrestles the Alligator” introduces the remarkable Bigtree Wrestling Dynasty—Grandpa Sawtooth, Chief Bigtree, and twelve-year-old Ava—proprietors of Swamplandia!, the island’s #1 Gator Theme Park and Café

Russell’s stories are beautifully written and exuberantly imagined, but it is the emotional precision behind their wondrous surfaces that makes them unforgettable. Magically, from the spiritual wilderness and ghostly swamps of the Florida Everglades, against a backdrop of ancient lizards and disconcertingly lush plant life—in an idiom that is as arrestingly lovely as it is surreal—Karen Russell shows us who we are and how we live.

Know what made me pick up this anthology of short stories, despite being someone who prefers novels a lot more? The title of this book. St Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.

What. A. Title.

I knew I was in for something original, quirky, fascinating and magical the moment I started reading the first story- Ava Wrestles the Alligator- which is a real treat. A young girl, living in a swamp, looking after alligators while her sister has an affair with a ghost named Luscious? How much more original can you get? More than this, though, Karen Russel's prose is simply stunning. I've read Swamplandia! which is her novel based on the Ava story, but the beauty of her writing shines much more in this collection than in the average novel.

Haunting Olivia, which is about two brothers searching for the luminous ghost of their dead sister Olivia underwater using special goggles is simply fabulous. Look at this description of Olivia, for example:

She used to change into Wallow’s rubbery yellow flippers on the bus, then waddle around the school halls like some disoriented mallard. She played “house” by getting the broom and sweeping the neon corpses of dead jellyfish off the beach. Her eyes were a stripey cerulean, inhumanly bright. Dad used to tell Olivia that a merman artisan had made them, out of bits of sea glass from Atlantis.

In ZZ's Camp for Disordered Dreamers, we come across Elijah, with the ability to predict things that have already happened in the past through his dreams. A "pastmonition" as he calls it, again this short story is simply fascinating, because it seems rather unlikely to be set in this world.

Here's a sampler:

Z.Z.’s Sleep-Away Camp is divided down all kinds of lines: campers who can’t sleep vs. campers who sleep too much, campers who control their bladders vs. campers who do not, campers who splinter through headboards vs. campers who lie still as the dead.

In yet another, strange and marvellous story, a boy recounts his memories of migrating with his Minotaur father (yes! with horns!) and in another, a large woman runs a Palace of Artificial Snows and causes a huge, festival-like event called the Blizzard, and in yet another, little girls sail away on Precambrian Shells. The title of the book is the title of the final story, where a group of nuns try to civilize a set of girls raised by wolves.

Quote:

Each story in this short collection is as fascinating as the one before, basically because Russel seems to have no rules when it comes to her imagined world. Her world, an island in Florida Everglades, I think someone has said, is at once both startlingly too familiar yet utterly magical. It's a place where anything can happen. With well-drawn characters (a feat when you're writing short-stories), abrupt, almost flourish-like endings that leave you gaping, and a totally new look at the art of story-telling, this collection is really, truly, surely, one to cherish.

That said, my favourite is Ava Wrestles the Alligator, so I'll leave you with a short quote from it (Do read this if you haven't, it's an experience!) :

My older sister has entire kingdoms inside of her, and some of them are only accessible at certain seasons, in certain kinds of weather. One such melting occurs in summer rain, at midnight, during the vine-green breathing time right before sleep. You have to ask the right question, throw the right rope bridge, to get there—and then bolt across the chasm between you, before your bridge collapses.

We’d heard rumors about former wolf-girls who never adapted to their new culture. It was assumed that they were returned to our native country, the vanishing woods. We liked to speculate about this before bedtime, scaring ourselves with stories of catastrophic bliss. It was the disgrace, the failure that we all guiltily hoped for in our hard beds. Twitching with the shadow question: Whatever will become of me?

Waiting on Wednesday (2)

2011-08-24T07:22:00.000-07:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine so we can all talk about the books we're waiting for!

This Wednesday, I'm obviously waiting for The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which is a MG/YA novel already being compared to Harry Potter. Really? Harry Potter? I guess I'll just have to wait and see...Since I already did a post on the Night Circus, I'm gonna be focussing on another book, this one by Brenna Yovanoff, whose The Replacement I simply adored because of its fabulous characters and fabulous world. Again, this seems to be a kind of story where the main character is confused between two worlds, as Mackie Doyle was in the Replacement. I think the cover looks really good, although NOWHERE as fabulous as the cover for Replacement, which is on my top best covers ever list. But still, Brenna's writing itself should be enough to get this book upto NYT bestseller list.

The Space Between

by enna Yovanoff Br (Goodreads Author)

4.17 · rating details · 35 ratings · 20 reviews

to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be.

This second novel by rising star Brenna Yovanoff is a story of identity, discovery, and a troubled love between two people struggling to find their place both in our world and theirs.

Looks good, huh? So what are you waiting for, this wednesday?

Cover Crazy: 1: The Hair Thing

2011-08-21T02:16:00.000-07:00

Don't judge a book by it's cover, but it's not against the law to judge a cover, is it? Cover Crazy is going to be a new feature on the blog where I discuss covers, mostly seperated into types. This week's Cover Crazy features Hair, mostly, so we'll be looking at some covers with...um...hair. Too hairy? Just read on!

1. Birthmarked

Weird cover all over, but the hair and the textures is nice. Wish that yellow hadn't been there though. Why not sea-blue?

Synopsis

In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the wall and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. Gaia has always believed it is her duty, with her mother, to hand over a small quota of babies to the Enclave. But when Gaia's mother and father are arrested by the very people they so dutifully serve, Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught to believe. Gaia's choice is now simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.

Caragh O'Brien's next book, Prized, has a gorgeous cover, which I will feature in next week's Cover Crazy.

2. Keep Sweet by Michele Dominiguez Greene

I discovered this book looking for the cover, and now it's on by must-read pile! The cover is gorgeous, I wish the text had looked a little more impressive.

Synopsis

Alva Jane has never questioned her parents, never questioned her faith, never questioned her future. She is content with the strict rules that define her life in Pineridge, the walled community where she lives with her father, his seven wives, and her twenty-eight siblings. This is the only world Alva has ever known, and she has never thought to challenge it.

But everything changes when Alva is caught giving her long-time crush an innocent first kiss. Beaten, scorned, and now facing a forced marriage to a violent, fifty-year old man, Alva suddenly realizes how much she has to lose--and how impossible it will be to escape.

3. Blindsided by Priscilla Cummings

This cover is gorgeous, but it could have been so much better with a little color (just a little). It's a fabulous idea, inculcating Braille in the cover.

Synopsis

In many ways, Natalie O’Reilly is a typical fourteenyear- old girl. But a routine visit to the eye doctor produces devastating news: Natalie will lose her sight within a few short months.

Suddenly her world is turned upside down. Natalie is sent to a school for the blind to learn skills such as Braille and how to use a cane. Outwardly, she does as she’s told; inwardly, she hopes for a miracle that will free her from a dreaded life of blindness. But the miracle does not come, and Natalie ultimately must confront every blind person’s dilemma. Will she go home to live scared? Or will she embrace the skills she needs to make it in a world without sight?

4. Fallen Grace by Mary Hooper

This is a beautiful cover, the colours are gorgeous. I wish they'd taken those black vines away.

Synopsis

Grace Parkes has just had to do a terrible thing. Having given birth to an illegitimate child, she has travelled to the famed Brookwood Cemetery to place her small infant's body in a rich lady's coffin. Following the advice of a kindly midwife, this is the only way that Grace can think of to give something at least to the little baby who died at birth, and to avoid the ignominy of a pauper's grave. Distraught and weeping, Grace meets two people at the cemetery: Mrs Emmeline Unwin and Mr James Solent. These two characters will have a profound affect upon Grace's life. But Grace doesn't know that yet. For now, she has to suppress her grief and get on with the business of living: scraping together enough pennies selling watercress for rent and food; looking after her older sister, who is incapable of caring for herself; thwarting the manipulative and conscience-free Unwin family, who are as capable of running a lucrative funeral business as they are of defrauding a young woman of her fortune. A stunning evocation of life in Victorian London, with vivid and accurate depictions, ranging from the deprivation that the truly poor suffered to the unthinking luxuries enjoyed by the rich: all bound up with a pacy and thrilling plot, as Grace races to unravel the fraud about to be perpetrated against her and her sister.

5. By Midnight: Mia James

The gorgeousness of this cover is in the wavy black hair. We have so less black hair on covers, and even less wavy hair. Full marks for this one!

Synopsis

Forget everything you thought you knew about vampire lore and delve into the sinister world of Ravenwood.

A prestigious academy for gifted students - the school April Dunne’s whole life has been uprooted for – and frankly, she is not impressed. For most it couldn’t get any worse – but for April it’s about to – because there’s more going on at Ravenwood than meets the eye...

6. Entangled by Cat Clarke

Obviously, this is my favorite. The red is simply eye-catching and matches the text, as well as contrasts the eye color.

'The same questions whirl round and round in my head:
What does he want from me?
How could I have let this happen?
AM I GOING TO DIE?'17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got there.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?

So here we are! Six books, six covers all about the hair. Think this list isn't fair, or can you think of any other books to add to this list? Leave a comment to let me know. Ta ta!

New Look, New Books, New Pics

2011-08-20T08:43:00.000-07:00

So everyone! How d'ya like the blue, black and white look? It's got a distinctly weird appearance, I know, but that is what I wanted it to be, because right now I'm writing a very weird story! Today, I'm sharing a book I totally want to read. In fact, I'm dying to read this one because it is actually being compared to Harry Potter. It looks totally fun, the art is TO DIE FOR, and I absolutely love the synopsis. So I give you, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

It's pretty cool, right? It's coming out of September 2011

I'm also gonna share something I made...a digital artwork for a friend's story:

Credit goes to Stephenie of http://www.obsidiandawn.com/

and Tigg-stock on DeviantArt http://tigg-stock.deviantart.com/

So leave me comments guys! Did you like the new layout? Or was the old one better?

Independence Day

2011-08-15T01:31:00.000-07:00

31 states.
1618 languages.
6400 castes.
6 religions.
6 ethnic groups.
29 major festivals.
ONE COUNTRY.

It's India's 65th Independence Day today.
65 years since a 1947 August 15th, when the tricolor first went up. 65 years of freedom. Through hard patches and rockiness, we have stuck as a nation, despite all our differences. Today I went to the hospital regarding my asthma, and the girl sitting next to me was North Indian. She spoke a language I couldn't understand, wore her saffron-paste differently from the way we wear it, and her mother's sari was draped in an exact inversion of the way my mother usually does it. Despite all that, though, I could see her typing on her phone: a message about India, about Independence Day, about the 15th of August that anyone who is proud to be an Indian will surely always remember as the day when India first became a nation of her own.
India, at least according to me, is not just a nation.
It seems impossible that so many diverse cultures and diverse people could exist together under one flag, one tricolor, but that is my country, my subcontinent, my India. I live in the southernmost district of India, at the southernmost tip of it, but having traveled nearly the length and breadth of the country, I think I am right in saying that nowhere else in the world can you find some place so amazing, so vibrant, so diverse.

from tripadvisor.com: Nathu La pass

I want to just give a small example: when I visited Nathu La pass, the pass that acts as a trade route between India and China-when I stood in the minus degree temperature freezing and touching the wall between India and China, I could see a snow-capped mountain with the words "Mera Bharat Mahan" or "My Country is Great" raised on the mountain surface with wooden stalks, and a tricolor at the summit.The soldiers there have to suffer through temperatures cold enough to freeze even gel toothpaste, but they do it out of patriotism, out of the fire in our veins when we see the flag, the Ashoka Chakra, the years and years of culture that goes all the way back to the Indus Valley Civilization at the beginning of history.
Happy Independence Day to every proud Indian, every person born or living in what is surely the cradle of civilization, education and hospitality.
I am proud to be an Indian, proud to flaunt my Indian complexion and my Indian upbringing and my Indian culture. I am proud of everything that makes me Indian.

From 4 to 40.com

Maa Tujhe Salam.

You, Me, and the Internet.

2011-08-13T03:35:00.000-07:00

Yo, guys.

You won't believe what horrors I've been going through.

If you get a time machine and step back into a time not so long ago, when a net connection meant speed as slow as a sloth, you'll find yourself in my shoes. This connection is KILLING me. So obviously, I haven't posted for a while, and that does not mean I haven't got a truck load of posts waiting for you guys. Followers should probably note that my email account has changed ( I had to get a new one because Google Chrome kept crashing when I typed in the old one!)

So anyway. I have a list of things to say.

1) About My Love Affair With Books: This blog is one of the few really awesome blogs I've seen from my region and I was shocked to see that Misha has left blogging. She has her reasons of course, but her blog was the first to tell the world about mine, and I salute her for being such a great support. I'll miss you, Misha.

2) About my writing: The My Writing page you see up there is updated with my stories now. Please read!

3) About Harry Potter: I am in Harry Potter Obsession: Stage Two. This is the stage where, four years after I thought I was sort of over HP, I go back to reading, re-reading and quoting (yes, dudes and dudettes) QUOTING, from Potter. I'm writing a Fanfiction to control all this HP-related energy, called the Deveraux Problem, link is on the My Writing Page.

4) About Facebook: No, I don't want to say anything about FB, right now, except that...has anyone tried Google Plus? :P

5) About Me:
General Obsessions at Present:

. Dystopian Novels.

. Stephen King's Dark Tower series
. Dishing dirt on badly written paranormal romances.
. Magnetic second studs.
. Glass Bangles ( I bought a lot of them today! Awesome! Do you know they look good with jeans?)
. Virtual Reality. (I don't know. I wanna write a story on this one.)
. Shadow Play. (ditto as above.)

6) About You

THANK YOU, thank you thank you, for staying with me throughout this gap. I am so sorry if some of your comments didn't get through, the whole account was all screwed up, but now we're on our feet again!

So here's a question: What color scheme should the blog's new design be? Blue, white, black....or yellow, black, green? Comment, please!

Girl In The Arena: Review

2011-07-04T09:01:00.001-07:00

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: October 2009
Hardcover: 336 pages

Author: Lisa Haines

Synopsis:It’s a fight to the death—on live TV—when a gladiator’s daughter steps into the arena

Lyn is a neo-gladiator’s daughter, through and through. Her mother has made a career out of marrying into the high-profile world of televised blood sport, and the rules of the Gladiator Sports Association are second nature to their family. Always lend ineffable confidence to the gladiator. Remind him constantly of his victories. And most importantly: Never leave the stadium when your father is dying. The rules help the family survive, but rules—and the GSA—can also turn against you. When a gifted young fighter kills Lyn’s seventh father, he also captures Lyn’s dowry bracelet, which means she must marry him… For fans of The Hunger Games and Fight Club, Lise Haines’ debut novel is a mesmerizing look at a world addicted to violence—a modern world that’s disturbingly easy to imagine.

Girl In The Arena is such a strange book. First of all, I don't know what to make of this book because everything about it is so in-between. The world building is average bordering on good, the romance is average bordering on good, the character development, the dialogue, the action: everything is average. While gladiator sport and a world that's insistent on violent reality shows and spilling blood for enjoyment is always enjoyable to a true Hunger Games fan like me, the averageness of this book really turned me off.

I'm going to go for the good first. The twist the author gave to the gladiator sport we've all read and maybe studied about is pretty nice. There's Gladiator Sports Association, Glad-wives, a code of conduct for gladiators, huge stadiums where cheering fans watch people get mutilated and killed....but the problem here is this: the society is not a completely dystopian one as in Hunger Games. The Glad culture is written almost like the steampunk culture of today, a subculture that exists along our normal lives. Which means, in easier terms, People Killing Each other for Sport in a World that has Facebook, Second Life and normal high school. You see what's slightly off here? If Glad sport is a subculture, wouldn't a government stop it? But a government is nowhere in the picture, only the big bad Caesars Inc is, and so teenagers and old men and young men and women can fight and kill each other in giant arenas. And no one gives a damn. See what I mean by world development lacking? If there was a setting like in other dystopias with a radically different world and a radically different society, this story would be perfect. But in a world that's nearly exactly like ours (except for maybe advanced virtual reality) I can't really see anyone allowing this. And even if I can, that is ruined by the fact that the Glad culture is said to be a subculture followed only by some people. Maybe it's my problem.

Then there are the characters. Lyn is in a similar situation like Katniss in Hunger Games. Distraught mother+ violent society+ helpless younger sibling+ stuck in a celebrity marriage contract she didn't want but has to go through with= what? Lyn or Katniss? That said, I actually liked Lyn. She's engaging, her thoughts interesting and her actions pretty kickass awesome. Then there's Allison, Lyn's Mom. Another good character, wife to seven gladiators. Then there's Thad, Lyn's differently-abled brother. Here, the book grows weird. Thad makes predictions. So is this really sci-fi or paranormal or sci-fi gone paranormal? I was hoping there will be explanation for this other than the single nonsensical line the author gave us, but this is a standalone novel. Weird.

Uber, the main guy in this book, basically put me off with his name. Uber?? Come on. I'm not nitpicking, this is just a random thought, but UBER? Oh, man. He seemed a sweet, ass-kicking, blood-spilling oaf and also quite lovable, so I'll forgive U-B-E-R. God, that name~~

The other characters, save for Mark, are slightly weird. I have no idea why they are in the book. And the whole bit with virtual reality is just slightly too weird if the author is keeping the book in this immediate future. We aren't that developed. And there will be other developments if the book was actually meant to be in a more distant future, which is not mentioned in the book.

With all its flaws however, Girl In The Arena is good because it interested me, kept me turning the pages to see WHAT NEXT? I can't say the same for Lauren Kate's Passion (God, it's dragging, dragging, making me tear my hair out). I liked this book. Wish it were a little less like Hunger Games in terms of characters. And more like Hunger Games in terms of flawlessness and keeping a fixed time frame. But the best thing about this book is also that while the other dystopian novels are more about action and gore, this book is a little inclined to the family-life side. Expect a family-based, forced-to-grow-up, slightly weird storyline if you pick this up.

Book Review: Ultraviolet by R. J. Anderson

2011-07-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her. Sixteen-year-old Alison has been sectioned in a mental institute for teens, having murdered the most perfect and popular girl at school. But the case is a mystery: no body has been found, and Alison's condition is proving difficult to diagnose. Alison herself can't explain what happened: one minute she was fighting with Tori -- the next she disintegrated. Into nothing. But that's impossible. Right?

REVIEW:

Ultraviolet is not out in the USA yet, and I got the UK version.

Let's start this review by saying that this book was the first I read on the neurological condition called Synesthesia. I knew about synesthesia before, I'm a borderline sound-color syn ,and I was thinking of writing a book on it, but then I came across Ultraviolet.

Honestly, the first half of this book is just AMAZING. Alison Jeffries, as the protagonist, is intensely relatable, and we find ourselves completely hooked in her story. Alison and her relationship with her family is what I thought was the real moving point of this story. Oh, there's a missing girl who Alison claims spontaneously combusted, there's a hot psychiatrist named Sebastian Faraday, there's an interesting pyromaniac and lots of other characters who aren't the usual stereotypical young adult types, but it is Alison and her mother, their rather complex relationship that I felt touched me the most.

Alison has been different all her life. She attaches names with colors, with taste, with sound. She sees colors for sound, for pain. She hears the songs of the stars. Such a premise lets Anderson write a beautiful viewpoint for Alison. Her world is at once more terrifying and more beautiful than ours could ever be. Victoria is the popular girl in school, but she is a cliche breaker. She's not exactly beauty without brains, and she's not exactly a bitch, either. Alison made her combust spontaneously. Or at least that's what Alison thinks.

Dumped in a psychiatric facility and convinced of her sanity, Alison fights against her doctor and her parents for release from the facility. Here again, the persepective in which Alison sees her mother is interesting. She loves her Mom, and we can completely relate to this feeling, and we just keep rooting for everything to become all right in the end.

Sebastian Faraday as Alison's "psychiatrist" is interesting. Especially because he clears a lot of things up, ties up a lot of loose ends. And, oh yeah, his violet eyes help too. Anderson uses some real good prose to describe Faraday. If I remember right, Alison thought his voice was like "Dark chocolate over velvet". Okay, yum!

My main problem with Ultraviolet was that it took something like a 180 degree turn in the latter half of the book. I expected something paranormal or sci-fi because people don't just, you know, disintegrate. But I didn't expect aliens, abandoned spacestations and time-warps/ wormholes. I'd have actually liked this book to just be about Alison's acceptance of herself, and more importantly, her family's acceptance of her.

But you should read this book. Because first of all, it's sort of informative about some neurological conditions. And second, it is BEAUTIFULLY written.

I learned that Ultraviolet will have a sequel, tentatively named "Quicksilver" which is shocking because I was so sure this book is a standalone! I did NOT expect Quicksilver. I'd actually have been happy with this book's sweet, slightly bitter and altogether gorgeously written ending.

Reads and Recommends

2011-06-23T00:12:00.000-07:00

I'm too sick with fever to actually write a post or a review, so I thought I'd just talk about the stuff I'm reading right now. And stuff I wish you people would read too. Ugh, my mouth feels like cotton balls.
GOTH (novel by Otsu-ichi)
This is the cover of the manga released by TokyoPop, featured rather than the original novel cover because this one is pretty! The story is rather creepy, though. Non-linear, well-written, with two strange characters you can't help but love and shudder at.

Synopsis: A notebook that leads to murder – a refrigerator filled with hands… a pit of dead dogs… an accidental suicide… a boy buried alive – and where two teenagers linked by an obsession with murder and torture explore the recesses of humanity’s dark side.

ULTRAVIOLET by R. J. Anderson

This hasn't been released in the US yet. I read the UK version, and loved it. I picked it up because it also deals with synesthesia, the subject of my current novel Scatter. Wish the UK version has a better cover though.

SYNOPSIS

Three sips to mind the dead . . .

Rebekkah Barrow never forgot the attention her grandmother Maylene bestowed upon the dead of Claysville, the small town where Bek spent her adolescence. There wasn't a funeral that Maylene didn't attend, and at each one Rebekkah watched as Maylene performed the same unusual ritual: She took three sips from a silver flask and spoke the words "Sleep well, and stay where I put you."

Now Maylene is dead, and Bek must go back to the place she left a decade earlier. She soon discovers that Claysville is not just the sleepy town she remembers, and that Maylene had good reason for her odd traditions. It turns out that in Claysville the worlds of the living and the dead are dangerously connected; beneath the town lies a shadowy, lawless land ruled by the enigmatic Charles, aka Mr. D. If the dead are not properly cared for, they will come back to satiate themselves with food, drink, and stories from the land of the living. Only the Graveminder, by tradition a Barrow woman, and her Undertaker—in this case Byron Montgomery, with whom Bek shares a complicated past—can set things right once the dead begin to walk.

Although she is still grieving for Maylene, Rebekkah will soon find that she has more than a funeral to attend to in Claysville, and that what awaits her may be far worse: dark secrets, a centuries-old bargain, a romance that still haunts her, and a frightening new responsibility—to stop a monster and put the dead to rest where they belong.

Who am I? No, really!

2011-06-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

One of my real life 3D friends asked, the other day, if I am the girl who is "Ani Raye" on this blog. More specifically, he said "Man, I don't recognize you on that thing!", to which I replied, sort of glumly, "Yeah, I guess not". Then I thought I'd write this post, you know, so people are a little more aware of who I am. I sound like a terrorist or something.
SO here are some random facts about me:

1) My name.
It's Varsha Dinesh, no middle name because I'm Hindu. A little hard to remember, so I chose the pseudonym Ani Raye. It just happened, because Ani is a character of mine, she's sort of me anyway so I'm not pretending.

2) What I do.
Yes, I crib about this one a lot. I'm an Electronics and Communication student at Kerala University- but of course, my passion for circuits die beyond how pretty they look with bulbs in between. I basically live to write, read and digitally master pictures.

3) Where I live.
I live in Trivandrum, Kerala. This is the district that is at the tip of India, nearer to Sri Lanka. It's green. Very, very green. Our sobriquet is "God's own country". We have a ton of coconut trees, backwaters, lush forests, rain. Lots of rain. In fact, it's pouring buckets right now.

4) Stuff I like.
Easy- books, books, books. And also digital art, photoshopping, music. I'm a violin player and a singer of carnatic classical music. Slightly obsessed with tattoos- but won't get one. Pierced ears, want to pierce them once more. Love long earrings, hate the glittery type. Don't eat much, but look at how much I weigh. Sheesh.
Love the rain.
Love my room- which is always cold.
Love the house and the beautiful, beautiful front garden. My father's a genius.
Love the way we always seem to be laughing inside the house. God, I love my parents.

5) People in my life.
Dad, Mom, brother- the pillars I lean on. My two best friends: Shruthi Shyam and Joohi Sakker, who also double as my worst critics and muses. Grandparents- three of them. Wonderful, wonderful memories of the fourth who left us last year. College friends- too many to name, all loved equally.

6) Pet Peeves.
Praise- I get embarrassed. Terribly. And blush...a lot.
Long-haired guys. No matter what you people say- I can't stand them! Unless they're about as good looking with it as maybe Orlando Bloom in Lord of the Rings.
Bollywood songs. Most of the time, they annoy me. I prefer Malayalam music.
Bollywood films. Ditto as above. If you want to watch Indian movies, I suggest you go for either Tamil or Malayalam. Bollywood was good before, now it has no substance, only flashy Shielas and flamboyancy.
Hypocrites. Take them away, take them away!
Shallow people. There's no fun in speaking only about boys and clothes, all the time. My best friends and I can talk for hours without mentioning either.

More to come!

Clockwork Prince- Cover...and an Excerpt!

2011-06-05T04:07:00.000-07:00

Oh my God. This is a cover to die for.
I, as most people know, am the most incredible cynic when it comes to covers, mostly because I'm an artist myself. I find something they could have done better with every cover, but this is like....good, good God this is such a gorgeous cover.
Of course the guy on the cover has to be Jem (Who else has silver hair and that staff?) and I'm just so happy this might be a Jem book- not that I don't like Will, I am Team Will- but I love Jem too. Everything about this cover does such justice to the exoticity that Cassandra Clare brought to the character of Jem...he's so amazing in the first place, and the cover is gorgeous to the highest degree of praise. Now if the book would just release!!!

Okay, these is just the most interesting snippet from the book that Cassandra Clare gave out:

Will's voice dropped. “Everyone makes mistakes, Jem.”
“Yes,” said Jem. “You just make more of them than most people.”
“I —”
“You hurt everyone,” said Jem. “Everyone whose life you touch.”
“Not you,” Will whispered. “I hurt everyone but you. I never meant to hurt you.”
Jem put his hands up, pressing his palms against his eyes. “Will —”
“You can’t never forgive me,” Will said in disbelief, hearing the panic tinging his own voice. “I’d be —”
“Alone?” Jem lowered his hand, but he was smiling now, crookedly. “And whose fault is that?”

OMG! What is this about? These guys fight?

SCATTER

2011-06-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah, the title is sort of large. Never mind. Okay, so I'm finally settling on writing just one novel and not like 30000 at the same time, and asking myself the question: Is this Dystopia? Is this, as a friend asked, surrealism? Maybe both.
I think I had too much Katniss Everdeen, way too much Stephenie Meyer and a rather unhealthy dose of Stephen King. Throw it together (in a big bowl) and you get Scatter. Not that I'm comparing myself to any of these imaginary or real people- the story is just crazy. I made a picture for it, which doesn't describe a thing about the book of course, and which is not a cover image- just a promo pic. SO, you know, I can smirk at my own eccentricities. If we're all lucky, I'll actually finish this one. :)
SO details about this book
1) It's a bit- a tiny, teeny bit- like Hunger Games, but it's not truly dystopia
2) It has two people's Point of View- POV- and basically has only two characters
3) I don't know how to bring in more characters. :0

SO what do you guys do? You guys comment. Please. Please, do comment :) Oh!! New followers...thanks people! You guys are awesome.

(thank you nightfate stock and aurora_dreams stock on DA. I haven't put this up on DA yet because my browser sucks, but will get around to it VERY SOON!)

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

2011-06-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

Synopsis

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Atria (April 26, 2011)
Language: English

R is a young man with an existential crisis--he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, noidentity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.

After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between.

MY REVIEW

I will admit to reading this book only because of the cover, and because vamp-queen Stephanie Meyer endorsed it. She calls the protagonist the "most original romantic lead" and yeah, I guess a zombie ought to be, because no one has ever thought of making one a romantic lead, have they? Zombies get incredibly bad rap. Don't get me wrong: I'm exactly like every other girl of my age. I have a huge issue with zombies, and I mostly prefer not ever seeing or reading books where the Dead are lurching around.
But Warm Bodies surprised me on so many levels.First of all, it was funny. Funny and zombies? Not a usual combination. Second, I actually liked the zombie dude. R is fun. He likes escalators and Frank Sinatra, and he has a thing for vinyl records. CDs and i-Pods? Not so much. He's this romantic, suit-wearing, conscious-plagued zombie who's living in a derelict airport.His descriptions of life and after-life is both sad and funny at the same time, and the social life of the dead is something that hasn't been thought of by any other writers of the genre. I was actually laughing, reading how the creepy skeleton guys married him off to another member of the glorious dead after the both of them enjoyed a bit of romance going to and fro across conveyor belts or something.
In Warm Bodies, Isaac Marion has created a beautiful yet horrifying world. I guess the world is not really beautiful, it's his writing that is. There is something deeply sensitive about R and Julie, even the other main character Perry. Hopelessness, hope and a belief that love may yet mean something: that's what I find in R. Julie as the female lead is nicely fleshed out, her quirkiness and eccentricities adding to the fun of it all. Marion uses these really terrific gems of sentences occasionally, combining humour and craziness. Like this one:
"In the sunny fields of my imagination, we are not a teenager and a walking corpse driving in a rainstorm. We are Frank (Sinatra) and Ava cruising tree-lined country lines while a scratchy vinyl orchestra swoons our soundtrack"
This is nowhere near the best lines Marion has on offer. Some of these sentences are amazing for me as a writer. It's the kinda sentences I write down because they are a pleasure to look at.
There's the fact that R meets Julie because he eats her boyfriend's brain (yes, this part is gross but come ON, people. Give the book a chance), and this is what brings in Perry to the story and here I was a little confused. Paranormal or science fiction? I guess maybe a mash-up of both. It doesn't matter. This book is the classic case of a writer pulling off an extraordinary story with a pen that's worthier and mightier and whatever other way a pen can be better than a sword. I loved R and Julie. You will too.
I know it's about zombies and you people may be making faces. But please. Give the book a chance. It might actually pay up.
The author has a blog at www.burningbuilding.blogspot.com.
It's fun. Although I've never commented. Weird of me, yeah.

Back. With something Like a Blast.

2011-06-01T23:26:00.000-07:00

I am BACK! Hi, faithful followers....sorry for that unexplained weeks long hiatus...
I had my university exams, which equates with THE WORST DAYS OF MY LIFE. Honestly. I couldn't do a single thing I like doing, and all my days were occupied with cramming, cramming and more cramming. I crashed and burned through most of the exams but I guess I'll pass for everything. Except maybe Electrical Engineering, in which I messed up, like big time.
SO quick updates on my life:
1) I GOT A LAPTOP!!! Woo hoo!! It was a birthday gift from my grandma and my parents...a gorgeous silver Toshiba I stare at all the time. It's awesome. No more fighting with my brother over who gets the computer.
2) Painted the house. Blue and green for the bedrooms, very very bright. Had a lot of fun and ruined about four of my good dresses.
3) Exams. Hate them, but love crashing through them with friends. My friends rule the universe.
4) Read a lot of books on my phone during the exams. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion and Before I Go To Sleep by S. J Watson tops this list.
5) Plots, plots PLOTS! I have a ten thousand of them in my head, on notepaper, and on my laptop. What do I get around to writing? I have NO IDEA!
(I am gushing like this because I'm so happy my exams are done)
6) New obsessions.
Obsession 1: Hoodies.
Obsession 2: my laptop
Obsession 3: tiny earrings. (I do have pierced ears)
Obsession 4: monster bikes.
Obsession 5: eyebrow piercings. Not on me, on other people.
7) Artwork! Yup, I have a request from a book publisher, a new non-paranormal young adult book which needs a nice cover. Working on that.

So what have you all been upto??

Art website launch bash!

2011-04-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

The art website is here! (CLICK)
Still half under construction, but you should be able to see a cool slideshow of my bookcover works! If you follow both the blogs, and if you comment on this post or on the blog saying you want an art piece from me, you MAY HAVE THE CHANCE TO GET BOOK COVERS DESIGNED FOR FREE! All this month and the next!
The site is creativecogs.blogspot.com!
This blog is to reach out to the independent authors, self-published authors and ebook houses in need of low cost book cover, promotional banners and buttons design.
I design professional quality artwork for books, as well as for your websites. Design projects include those for maps (as used in fantasy novels), artistic character sketches, slides for book trailers, book covers, buttons, promotional banners, beautiful wallpapers based on your book etc.
All this for BLOODY low prices! What's more- this first month, you can get freebies from me if you're lucky! Check out the samples and then feel free to contact me, either here as a comment, or on my reviews and fiction blog- http://www.fictionflaire.blogspot.com/

Indie Authors! Look over here!

2011-04-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

There's a bit of ranting in the beginning but I'm going to get to the actual stuff VERY SOON.

THE RANT
Ah. Guess what time it is- it's STUDY HOLIDAYS again! Which means that it's VACATION. Really, who studies during study holidays? Me and my friends are utilizing it to the maximum for fun! Basically, I wake up everyday to rains (guess what ,Bella Swan? It rains more here than in Forks) and find that the road in front of my house is a little more washed away than the day before. Then I start writing, or reading. Then I sleep. I'm worse than Sid the Sloth right now. At least he does something in the time he's awake. I'm just walking in some kind of happy little daze everyday, the whole day.

THE ACTUAL STUFF
An Art Website of mine is coming up soon- and you know what, authors? I will be doing book covers and promotional images for FREE for the first month. Which means all you Indie authors who need a book cover or a promo image, buttons or template designs or just little little stuff to promote your awesome books, can soon get these stuff for free!!!!!
This website will probably be up this week or the next, so stay tuned!
The basic purpose here is to help out independent or self-published authors. I've seen some awesome books with terrible covers, and most Indie publishing houses don't have really good cover-designers. Even if they do, they need to be paid money, sometimes unfair amounts for the work they do.
So stay tuned guys, and I'll update you all soon!

Back!

2011-04-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

Hi, followers and blogosphere!
Been a long while since I put something up here, and I apologize. I've been busy with exams and projects and other stuff...finally free! (Not really, still have more exams coming...but only next month) I'm not ready to review yet- I did read Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffeneger, The Iron Thorn by Caitlin Kitteredge, 1222 by Anne Holt and a very unhealthy large dose of Stephen King but I'm not in a reviewing mood, and anyway, my already typed reviews are all on my phone, which is not working right now.
I'm sort of having an electronics crisis with all my electronic appliances dying around me. Thank you, new followers- for following me! Yayy!

Oh. I thought I'd make a list of things done during this interval so here they are:
1) Passed all my exams (except maybe Engineering Graphics, I have a doubt there) :0

2) Successfully went on a road trip across Kerala (my home state in India), saw countless amazing temples and was inspired to write by

the pure beauty of the culture.

Vishu Kani

3) Celebrated Vishu- the Kerala New Year- with family, and loved every moment of it. (Vishu is so well-loved because every adult gives us some money on the day, and makes us rich by the end of the day)

4) Celebrated India's World Cup win with a party! :)

5) Bought a new rather fluffy but very cute hat.

6) Bought Audrey Niffeneger's Her Fearful Symmetry, read it and loved it!

7) Plotted my next novel and decided to get help for curing my irrational dislike for typing out stories on the keyboard.

8) Saw Santosh Sivan's masterpiece movie Urumi, and LOVED it!

9) Bust my phone. Wondering now if it's still possible to somehow fix my phone.

10) Searched for a really good fantasy read. Was not rewarded.

Let me Clarify

2011-03-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

Sigh, sigh, sigh.
Exams are coming, I don't know a THING! I'm not an average student: I'm actually pretty good, and usually whole pages of awful block diagrams and methods of thermal analysis and stupid, terrible things like rotational spectroscopy should make sense to me even if I'm reading through it like a novel. Guess what? It doesn't. I CANNOT bring myself to study this...this...(okay, I will not curse but you can substitute your choicest and strongest swear word right here)
SO, I will not be here for a week. I have to pass. I HAVE TO. (Crap)
You think being bitten by a vampire is bad? Confront yourself with the education system of Kerala and worse, the god-awful series tests the college dumps on us...and you'll take teeth in your throat any day.
SO I have a new layout for the blog : thank you cutestblogontheblock for the background- the header is my own creation. If you guys liked it leave your thoughts please!
I love this nice summery header....I have an obsession with butterflies and science fiction: both of which has representation on the new Header. It took me exactly half an hour to make it: because I clearly knew what I wanted and where I wanted each element.

Writing Now: First chapters of Unholy Flame, second part of Shaded Grey.
Fifth chapter of Argentum
Little bits and pieces of something with demons in it.
Reading Now: Nothing except Engineering Chemistry and Electronics

I thought I'd simply share a picture I made by the way, just for fun....does it mirror my feelings? :p

Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James: Review

2011-03-22T10:11:00.000-07:00

'Truth or dare?' she asks.

I hesitate. I have so many secrets, so many things I don't want to reveal, but this is only a game, only a bit of fun. 'Truth,' I say finally. 'I can imagine one of your dares, and I don't fancy running down Oxford Street naked tonight.'

'Truth,' Alice says slowly, drawing out the vowel sound as if she's savouring the word. 'Are you sure? Are you sure you can be completely honest?'

'I think so. Try me.'

'Okay.' And then she looks at me curiously. 'So. Were you glad, deep down? Were you glad to be rid of her? Your perfect sister? Were you secretly glad when she was killed?'

Katherine has moved away from her shattered once-perfect family to start a new life in Sydney. There she keeps her head down until she is befriended by the charismatic Alice, and her life takes her in new directions. But there is a dark side to Alice, and as we learn the truth of Katherine's sister's death and Alice's background their story spirals to an explosive finale.

Review:

‘Beautiful Malice’. The name is simply captivating. I saw this book on the library’s new arrivals shelf, read the title and the tagline ( friendship can be deadly) and immediately knew this was what I was going to read next.
This is a good book. Not simply because it is written well and without too much flamboyancy but also because it is a starkly realistic and dangerously scary book. There’s no blood and gore kind of fright involved with it, it’s a true psychological thriller that’s nevertheless rather blood-chilling.
Katherine has been through a lot. She holds herself guilty over what happened to her sister, Rachel, and has been introverted ever since. She changed her name and changed her school, and until the most popular girl in school- Alice- asks her for a party no one even looks at her twice. Alice is like a whirlwind in Katherine’s life. She brings much needed gloss and shimmer, and is like the absolute fun person- her life is a party, and she has no rules. Alice is beautiful and can be incredibly cruel. Katherine and Robbie claims to be charmed by her, and unlike usual books I can actually understand what the author means by this charm. Although I really felt as though Katherine was walking on glass with Alice, there were parts of this book where Alice seemed to be truly fun. Robbie is supposed to be, simply, a supporting character but the beauty of Beautiful Malice is that EVERY supporting character- be it Philippa, or the lovely Mick, or even Katherine’s parents- are incredibly detailed and real.
The book starts off grippingly; the first sentence is absolutely RIVETING. From there it is a realistic yet frightening roller coaster, and as the book progresses, we begin to care for Katherine, we begin to want her happiness. And it keeps evading her at all times.
There was a part near the end of the book which I read, screamed ‘Are you kidding me?!’ and then cried over. I am not a crying-over-books person, so you can imagine how much Katherine and Mick and Robbie and Alice seemed real to me.
Especially Alice. The author has detailed her character incredibly well. While we shudder and gasp at what Alice is capable of, we also somehow realize that yes, this is something Alice would do, something we could expect from her. We get to know Alice, and that itself is a feat. She is chilling, charming, cruel and beautiful all at once. At first, we wonder if she is just ego-centric. But there is more to Alice than that- check this excerpt:
The thing is, I see Alice sometimes – at the supermarket, at
the gates of Sarah’s kindergarten, at the club where Sarah and
I sometimes go for a cheap meal. I catch glimpses of Alice’s
glossy, corn-blonde hair, her model-like body, her eye-catching
clothes, from the corner of my eye and I stop to stare, my heart
pounding. It only takes me an instant to remember that she is
dead and gone, that it can’t possibly be her, but I have to force
myself to get closer, to reassure myself that her ghost isn’t
haunting me. Close-up these women are sometimes similar to
Alice, albeit never, never as beautiful. More frequently, though,
on closer inspection they look nothing like her.
It is obvious, from this first page paragraph enough, that Alice has altered Katherine's life more than anyone would ever desire.
I would have loved for Katherine to have a happy forever in this book. Again the author proves that she is hugely realistic, that life doesn’t always indulge us- not even in books. I may not be satisfied with the ending of this book, I may have felt heartbroken- but again, it is a hugely satisfying read for the mere fact that it is not just a book, it’s a piece of darkly shaded life itself.

VERDICT:
4 on 5

Cover Talk:
The cover image above is not the one that was on the book I got from the library. In India we usually get the UK version of book-covers so the one I got was this plain red one that looks like a poster more than a book cover. It's not that great, and the USA one is actually much better. It reminds me of danger and fragility all at once.
Still, for such a book, I wish the cover had been a little better, the text color just looks weird, and the background seems poorly lit and done hurriedly enough that there was no time to run it through photoshop to make it look more even and well-adjusted.
3 on 5.

Argentum-Sneak Peek

2011-03-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Original concept cover

So this is something I've been writing for a while. A long while, actually....it's dystopian fantasy and I love it a lot. I've never put it on the blog because I'm waiting to finish the series entirely before I find a publisher for it. This will be the IT book - the one I'll really really seek to get published because I love it so much.
Only there are like a million different threads all tangling around in this book, so I may actually be set back by a few years before I'm fully satisfied with it.
This is a tiny eeny weeny bit of the story I simply wrote so as to understand my characters much better. Some of you wanted a more romantic scene from the earlier writing samples....so here it is....
The pic is just a random creation (I have a hundred for this book)

The girl I've used as stock is by catarinamzfernandez on DA. Thank you!
The Excerpt:

AYU
I come to in the White Room, chained with words spinning around my arms and legs.
'I didn't choose to be in that memory' I say, murmuring, my face growing hot and flustered with what I had seen. I'm helplessly putting myself in Kenna's shoes-in her bare feet, more like- thinking I would happily be her just for his love. He doesn't look very loving right now, he looks angry.
'That is a very personal memory. I didn't want you invading those. Does Zan need my memories now,too? I'd have thought my life was enough....' Rian says, his eyes dark, bruised circles beneath them like he's suddenly ill and heartsick. Is it even possible for him to be sick in this place?
He's pale and his lips are pressed in a thin line, like he's afraid he'd scream.
I sit on the white floor and watch, disturbed, as dark red flows slowly down the walls again. His heart's bleeding, I think obscurely, while he presses the side of his face against a wall.
'I didn't mean to be in there. I didn't mean to. I'm helpless; it's you who controls what I see' I'm wringing my hands together, my eyes riveted half on the walls, half on him.
He smiles sardonically. 'So I'm supposed to pick, huh? Pick the reels of my life you are to watch. I'll arrange them in priority, shall I? Or do you want to see the painful ones first? That might be interesting to you, hmm?'
His smile is mocking, his whole posture tense and rigid, his words spoken harshly.
A shiver runs through me while I try to form words.
I can feel a lump beginning to form in my throat. I hope the lump doesn't get too many ideas and decide to run upto my eyes and dissolve in a puddle of water.
I open my mouth to deny, to protest, but the strings of words wrap around my mouth as well, and the ones around my shoulders pull me up and off my feet. He looks at me calmly as I sway in the air, terrified, my heart beating hard against my chest, my eyes starting to water at the humiliation. He looks at me dully.
'You won't understand.', he says, coldly, his eyes completely drained off any feeling ',You won't know what love feels like. You're Updated, you've lost all that'
Or have I? It's the wrong question, I think, even as he puts me down with a derisive snort, rests his chin on his knees and looks like a lost little boy again. The question is not if I've lost every human feeling. The question is more layered, more nuanced.
The question is whether I've lost enough that I can't feel for him. What do I feel for him? Do I feel anything for him? I can't say, and I don't think I really know, myself.
'I'm leaving'
He looks up, sullenly. 'For now or forever?'
I meet his brown gaze evenly.
I say nothing at all.
Let him wonder.
A curious sense of triumph courses through me when he repeats the question.
'Are you going to come back, or have you had enough?'
'Either way, you won't have cared unless you're curious'
He shrugs. 'It gets boring in here.'
I smile to myself, and then I say my code, and the MedicEye brings me back to the real world.

So what do you guys think?!

Entangled by Cat Clarke- Review

2011-03-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

Paperback, 374 pages

Published January 6th 2011 by Quercus Publishing Plc

The same questions whirl round and round in my head:

What does he want from me?

How could I have let this happen?
AM I GOING TO DIE?

17-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with a table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got here.

As Grace pours her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget. There's falling hopelessly in love with the gorgeous Nat, and the unravelling of her relationship with her best friend Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see?

Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here?

A story of dark secrets, intense friendship and electrifying attraction

REVIEW

Ah, hell, this book.
I'm going to GUSH about the cover first because I think it's simply amazing. The colors, the simple style, the text- everything is just GORGEOUS. This, mark my words people, is the kind of cover I'd totally die for.
First up, Entangled is like it's name. The story has different threads all tangling together to form a big picture which we disentangle only at the very end. The concept was not new or anything and I figured out what was going on within a few pages, but you have to give it to Ms. Clarke for going about the story with such panache. More than the storyline of Entangled I would read it for the characters. Grace is amazing as a character- so tender, yet so tough; so vulnerable yet so able to hide all that beneath her colored hair and pretenses. She's a raw, fun, easy-to-relate to character although I would never say I could empathize with her (I can't. I'm nothing like her) And I don't know what to make of Nat, or Sal, or even Ethan- who truly confused me at first until I realized the point to him being in the story.
Entangled is good because of the various relationships in Grace's life it focuses on. There's the bestfriend, the boyfriend(s), the parents. Her relationship with each one of them is so complex and tangled that I kept wondering how she was going to pull herself out of the mire. Again, this is Grace's brilliance as a character: she doesn't mope too much. Yeah, she mopes but her moping is weirdly fun. She has a sort of sarcastic voice, and she's not a person who is doing what she does for sympathy.
The other really interesting character (?) is Ethan. We wonder what the hell he is doing, who the hell he is, and maybe some of you won't get it even when the book ends. The explanation is not given easily, you have to think for it to come.
The other amazing thing about the book is its ending. It's not a conventional teen-book sunshiney ending, and neither is it some kind of tragedy-inspired sob-fiesta. You have to read it to get what I'm blabbering about- and I'm giving this book a good verdict hoping you WILL get it (buy the book, that is), and get what I'm blabbering about...I'm confusing myself. I must be entangled too.
The final verdict is that the book is good. It lacks BRILLIANCE, it maybe has, you know, ~brilliance~ but it's not BRILLIANT. (Whatever). I would read it for the characters, I would read it for the jigsaw-like storyline, and I would remember it for it's cover. That said, I would still have preferred a more poetic language to the book. (Ah, to each his own)

4 on 5

Cover Talk:
Gorgeous!!!
5 on 5

Art, and 100 follower giveaway!

2011-03-11T09:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah, don't ask what this picture is about. It's all Chemical Match oriented. Thought it looked sort of nice as maybe a blog promotion slide or something. I'm still working on a slide-deck for the blog, you know, to display my images in and all.
Now, there are nearly 100 followers for the blog and I don't have any books to give away (I get mine as ebooks) so I thought I'd have a different kind of giveaway.
Alright!
So it's an ART giveaway, not a BOOK giveaway, and the WINNERS decide exactly what I design for you.
You can have anything of your choice- blog button (with html code), blog background, custom header, any kind of other art-related blog stuff (including customized Facebook, Twitter icons) - any TWO things for the FIRST winner, and any one art-piece for the SECOND winner.
RULES
1) Comment on this if you're entering the giveaway.
2) +1 entry for followers
3) WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN COMPLETELY AT RANDOM by a generator.
4)Have fun with the art-pieces if you win
:)
GIVEAWAY ENDS ON MARCH 21st!
You can decide everything about the things I make for you, upto color and and images used, and whatever else you want me to do. It's all for FREEEE!
(That's why it's um...a GIVEAWAY)
So enter people! Start commenting!

ATTENTION: The New Blog.

2011-03-08T23:39:00.000-08:00

Alright!
SO I've been keeping quiet for a while, and the reason is this : The Chemical Match series, which I'm writing, needed its own blog so I can put up all my artworks and get the news to all you blogosphere-siblings out there without crowding Shaded (as it is already crowded with all the other stuff). My followers of old should recognize that this is the project I've been keeping under wraps.
I'm crazy because I kept writing little bits of the story here and there, but never got a plot direction (maybe because this is my first character-inspired and not plot-inspired story). Anyway now I have something infinitely cool and strange and everything else I usually love about dystopian fiction. I even have names for the three books that will be in this series (unless I change my mind and add a few more, sigh) and those are ARGENTUM, INTERIM, and MORTEM...for now, at least.
I'm already in the sixth image for the stories (I think I should be an illustrator, really) and LOVE the way some of them are turning out. And, yeah, maybe I'll actually write them fast too instead of sitting here and painting the scenes.
I'm excited. Really.
And this is the blog for the series, with it's artworks and what not and sample chapters.
The CHEMICAL MATCH

Author Interview: Tami Jayne Jackson

2011-02-27T01:51:00.000-08:00

Tami Jackson, the author of Ravena and the Resurrected is here for an interview.

Here's what I found out about her from the SunTigerMojo website:

Tami Jackson works so hard while typing, her fingers occasionally drip with as much blood as the pages in her book, Ravena & The Resurrected. "Readers give me their valuable time. I attempt to honor that by writing fun content to make their experience incredibly worthwhile." Said Tami.
Tami earned her bachelor's degree in communications/English from Washington State University, which is about the same time she received an Emmy Award. Tami has sold many magazine and trade journal articles, written as a news correspondent for Seattle area newspapers, and worked as public relations writer and editor in business and marketing.
Born in Seattle, the fifth among seven children, with two school teachers for parents, Tami is the mother of three adult children and two grown step-sons. She is happily married to Doug, and the couple live with a Pug, a Dachshund and two rescued house cats, as well as with back yard chickens and a rabbit named Oscar.
As always, she loves writing and remains an avid fan of all things vampire, werewolf and sleuth! In addition to writing, Tami loves nature and reading action/adventure and dark fiction. Tami is a member of: Pacific Northwest Writer's Association.
She often volunteers in the community for:
* Emergency Response efforts
* Environmental projects (e.g., habitat restoration)

Here's the interview:

VARSHA: So let's talk about you first. Is there any aspect of you that you'd love to share with us?

TAMI: Well, hmm. First of all, I'm really grateful to be here Varsha. (Thank you for hosting this interview when I know you have much to do, studying electronics and communication engineering at Kerala University!)

Secondly? I really like to change my hair, the color, style, everything. Sometimes I simply wrap my head in colorful scarves because that's how I'm feeling on a given day. I grew up in an ultraconservative home where make-up and jewelry (colorful forms of self expression) were not allowed. So maybe I'm overcompensating when I often wear rings on every finger and more than one necklace at a time. Fortunately, there are plenty of people in Seattle who express themselves similarly, so I feel like I definitely fit in with folks from the city.

VARSHA: The vampires in R&R are extremely different from the normal ones we keep seeing in post-Twilight books. The main character is a mile from the usual heroines. What inspired you to write R&R in such unique fashion?

TAMI: I'm glad you said "post Twilight" and not "post True Blood" or "post Dracula." See how much the vampires inRavena & The Resurrected actually have in common with Bram Stoker's, Anne Rice's, and Charlaine Harris' vampires. Example 1: Socially (1000+ Books To Read Blog). Example 2: Physically. (Nyx Book Review Blog)

Beyond that, the vampires in R&R have different personalities and characteristics from each other, depending on what time-period they were resurrected from. Some of R&R's vampires have lived centuries. Ravena's roommate, Eva, for instance, exudes both Dracula's gothic sensuality and terror. Ravena also suffers occasional bouts of self chastisement but she's not the sort to do that for long. None of the vampires in R&R sleep in caskets, although they do sleep during daylight hours and away from sunlight.

In some ways, the vampires in R&R have similarities to vampires in The True Blood series with their retractable fangs, the ability to swim, the potential for a human to be in danger when around them. Like vampires of old, the night stalkers in R&R remain physically preserved from the day they were resurrected. That means, a vampire with gray hair had to have been older-looking on the day he or she was made. Like mythology, R&R vampires are much more powerful now than when they were human.

Regarding Ravena being "a mile from the usual heroines" I think you might be comparing her to vampire slayers? (As in Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Anita Blake Series?) Ravena's not a slayer. She loves and adores vampires and wants to become one. So in that way, you're absolutely right. She's very different. Not only that, but she has a very strong sense of humor and not many vampire books have been written where vampires like to laugh.

Another distinction might be how Ravena's normal-looking, instead of appearing like a run-way model. In the beginning, she's a bit overweight and hates her diabetes. By the end of the book, she's also just recently turned vampire, so she's still learning how to thrive in her new lifestyle and she is not nearly as seasoned as some of her resurrected associates. Judging by feedback from my readers, Ravena is adored for her quirky personality. Reviewers say she is easy to relate to.

VARSHA: Is Ravena anything like you? If yes, in what way?

TAMI: Ravena's young, just one year out of college. I'm a woman of a "certain age" (an empty nester). She has her whole life ahead of her so her current take on life is obviously very different from mine. When I was her age, I was never so quick with the witty comebacks but I was much more effective at making friends than she is. I think I always wished I had been as quick-witted as Ravena (that's something I'm developing with age). The biggest thing Ravena and I have in common now is the fact that we're both female, we both do personal analysis and attempt to live authentically by pursuing whatever version of life will bring us the most happiness.

VARSHA: Since this is an art blog too, let's talk cartoons! Tell us a little about your cartoon works (and any other art-related promotion)

TAMI: I consider myself a real amateur as an artist. I draw for fun. I've always considered myself a writer and studied journalism/English in college while I have also worked as a news correspondent and wrote as a public relations writer and editor.

As a writer, I've learned that it often helps me get to know a fictional character more intimately if I attempt to draw him or her. So I draw a lot of my characters and the places they go as I write about them. I post many of my drawings (writing vicariously as Ravena on her character blog: Vamchoir.blogspot.com). Sometimes humorous ideas come to me while I draw and then my "art" turns into a few comic panels (see image).

VARSHA: Is it difficult to write laugh-out-loud funny books when the rest of the book world is focused on angst?

TAMI: By this question, I'm assuming you're one of my readers who's admitting she laughed out loud? (I've been told, repeatedly, that happens.) I don't think a writer can receive a bigger compliment than having successfully solicited some sort of emotional response from a reader. While R&R is not exactly a "comedy," getting someone to chuckle is the most difficult sort of writing because humor must be very intelligent and personal to work. Not everyone will laugh at the same thing and some versions of humor can even offend some people. Because the reader must relate to what's being said to laugh, I do think it's most difficult to write laugh-out-loud funny books.

Meanwhile, I really like to laugh myself and I see my job as a writer as being that of an entertainer. That's why I worked extra hard at making my book as enjoyable as possible. What better form of reading is there (besides the sort of book that brings out different emotions in the reader)?

VARSHA: Last question. Any tips for writers from your side? (especially those going for self/indie publishing promoting)

Never give up. Keep writing what you know. If you have written a book that you believe in - move forward with getting it edited and published. For goodness sakes don't ever give up on your dreams. Study authors who have been successful with their marketing and try to emulate whatever they're doing to succeed (giving your marketing messages your own flair, of course). Something I keep reminding myself is that "Rome wasn't built in a day." I also look at writers like J. R. R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings Trilogy) and remember his books became famous and were made into movies long after he had died. (It was his son who actually had his writings published.) You don't want to wait that long. Publish your work now, while you still have oxygen in your lungs.

Thank you again, Varsha, for taking time from your studies to conduct this wonderful interview. If any of your viewers want to get a hold of me they can just search "Vamchoir" on-line. I'm on Facebook, Twitter, and blogger under that name. Anyone who is interested in blog hopping to visit other blogs that participated in this author tour may see my calendar: http://suntigermojo.com/book-tour-author-tami-jackson-blogs.html

I reviewed the book here

Thank you, Tami, for stopping by and awarding me with a comic image of your creation. It's proudly displayed in the awards page.

Ravena and The Resurrected Review

2011-02-26T08:43:00.000-08:00

****TOMORROW, I will be interviewing Tami Jackson on R&R, writing, art and more! *****

Title: Ravena & the Ressurected
Author:Tami Jayne Jackson
Pages: 332
Publisher:SunTiger MOJO
Published in:October 2010
Category: Urban fantasy

Life has never been smooth for Ravena Doomlah. Yet when she admits her fascination with Seattle's vampires to her coworkers, she feels all the more dejected. Not only do her coworkers shuffle away quickly anytime she approaches the company water cooler, but Ravena hears colleagues talking about her behind her back.

Once bitten, she tries to hide her new "condition" and wants to keep her job but quickly learns lessons in self reliance when she discovers highly motivated Assassins are actively pursuing her trail.

I've been on a self-published, Indie-run and am actually quite liking some of the books I've read. Now, I know that following Twilight, a lot of vampire books have come into fray, and if you're tired of glittery pretty vampires and their strangely syrupy romances with mortals (aw,come on!) and if you truly want to read one vampire book that's not pretentious (I exempt True Blood, Anne Rice's series and the Anita Blake series from this, as they were pre-Twilight and much more dark.) to the point that they make you want to scream and holler 'Take these eternal beautiful things and their eternal inner conflicts and their eternal gooey romances with mortals away!!!!', then read Ravena and the Resurrected by Tami Jackson.

First thing about this book: It was amazingly well-written with none of the usual unsparkly fare we get from independant publishing. Editing is a really important part for me. This book was edited well, the writing was fun and fresh, and not pretentious. The fact that this book didn't need over-the-top "awesome" vampires (picture those noble-hearted and always-gorgeous types that make me sick these days) and a super-pretty heroine to make it work. Actually, Ravena's character was enough to make it work.
She's a truly amazing character. I felt myself laughing at some of her eccentricities and getting this warm fuzzy feeling towards her because of her various little quirks and sense of humor. Come on: how many books have you read about vampires where the heroine actually wants to become one? Where her very surname comes from her passion for vampires, the dark side and music? Where she is not some runway model but a (lol) "pastrarian"? (read the book to find what that's about).
Ravena is a normal (if slightly eccentric) character with a huge love for sweet food (although she is diabetic), vampires and her virtual life. (wouldn't you be, if your real life pretty much sucked?) Her life takes a turn for the better or the worse (honestly, I think for the better) when she's actually turned by a vampire and starts living life as a Resurrected person. Things are not going to be smooth for her like she might have once believed though. There are some things to adjust to: there are some super bad guys after all vampires, there are 'the Elders', there are egotistic vampires and ones with no manners at all...then there's the coven, a werewolf who could seriously take over her (undead?) heart and a musician to share with...
I thought this was a rollicking fun read, and liked the fun parts as well as the slightly darker parts. Some of the ideas Tami uses for her vampires and werewolves were new to me (maybe they aren't to you, I grew sick of vampires too fast after Twilight, House of Night, the My Blood Approves series and Vampire Academy) but R&R is definitely more True Blood than Twilight (a good thing according to me, always been a Sookie-fan) and will tickle your funny bone.
The only things I can really wish away in this book was the little lag in the middle where things just went into a slump and seemed to drag a little. Some parts I felt could have been sped up a little. Then there were some bits of the book where the humor seemed forced (most of the humor is really funny though), some characters too strange for me to take them seriously at all. Also, I usually dislike references to other characters or books as I find it to be dating the work somehow.(a lot of people like this though, so it could just be a personal bias) Another thing I felt was a lack in direction of plot somewhere to the middle. Thankfully, that picks up a little later and gathers momentum too.
I really read this book because I loved the character (despite her strangeness) and the fact that I needed something fun after all the angst filled stuff I've read recently.
You can buy the book here
Check out the author's site (she's a cartoonist too) here

Cover Talk:
As this is an author-made cover, I'm not going to be hard on it. It's really saying something when a writer can both write and make art, and although some reviewers would call this cover and the girl a little off I don't think so. I think the cover rather suits the book and keeps up the unpretentious nature of it well. Although of course I have a deeply ingrained hatred of drippy fonts.
I'd give the book 3.5 on 5 stars.
The cover I'd give 3 on 5.

Award

2011-02-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

I received the One Lovely Blog award from two people: Ottilie Weber, who is an author and owns a lovely blog herself, and Brittany who has a fantastic site too. Thanks to both of you for thinking about me and passing on this award...
I will be passing it on to 15 other people (difficult, but let's manage somehow) and the list is below. If anyone is wondering why I'm writing this way (unlike my usual gushing style) it's because I'm still down. Really down. Guess I need one of Jeeves' magic pick-me-ups or something, because I've just about been moping around for days and am feeling pathetic about myself. Ah, well. Things should work out sometime. Till then, I'll write poetry.
(If you want to check out one of my down-in-the-dumps-please-pick-me-up poem, it's over here)
Anyway, this award HAS perked me up a little and I thank the two great bloggers who thought of me. I love you guys.
RULES
You have to thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.
You have to pass this to 15 other people. Don't think bad of me because I'm not passing to 15 people. I found 8 so far, and I will find the other 7 very soon. I'm just getting a really awful headache. Sorry.
The people I'm passing this to:

1) Twilight and Other Dreams
2)Beyond Twilight
3)Universe in Words
4)Paperback Treasures
5)Beyond the Bookshelf
6)Ezine of A Random Girl
7)From the Trees
8. The Story of my life