Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Lost Girl and The Gathering Dark

Casey at The Bookish Type has started up a new meme for highlighting recent book deals that have been announced! These are for books at the stage where they don't yet have a cover or official synopsis. I always feel like the books only really start getting attention once they have a cover, so I'm excited about this meme!

My picks:

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

There's not a lot to go on yet, but what there is sounds awesome!

From the author's blog:

"It's a book about a girl, and a copy of that girl; it's a story about death and echoes and impossible, reckless love." 

And a FAQ giving a bit more info:

"How did you come up with the idea for THE LOST GIRL?

A mixture of Frankenstein and Tim Burton and a hot afternoon in Bangalore. The thought of making a person from scratch is both creepy and kind of appealing to me. And once the idea of stitching a human being together took hold, it wouldn't go away. A girl started taking shape in my head. Smokily, foggily, at first. Then she stopped being smoke and became real. She was a copy of somebody else. She loved the wrong people. She was angry and sad and lovely and I wanted to write about her."

From Goodreads: "A girl forced to choose between two worlds."

Stats: scheduled for 2012, from HarperCollins Children's Books in U.S. and Random House Children's Books in U.K.

I want to know more! The Franksteinian aspect sounds kind of creepy and unsettling, but at this point I'm not sure exactly what genre it's in. Just that my interest is definitely piqued!

The Gathering Dark by Christine Johnson

From Goodreads: "Christine Johnson’s THE GATHERING DARK, about a gifted pianist who discovers that she and the mysterious boy she’s falling for are part of an alternate world made from dark matter, and in a race of love against fear, she must somehow save her life without losing herself."

Stats: scheduled for Fall 2012, from Simon Pulse

And the author has provided a visual idea of the book on her blog:

I haven't read Christine Johnson's books Claire de Lune and Nocturne (I'm not big on werewolves), but The Gathering Dark definitely appeals to me more. The premise stands out among other YA reads and I'm interested to see how the physics aspect of it (an alternate world of dark matter?!) is handled, along with the connection to music.

What recent book deals have you discovered! Join the meme on Casey's blog and share!