In My Mailbox (48)

In this meme, hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren, we share the books we've received, bought or taken out from the library. This post covers the past couple weeks.

For review:

 Embrace by Jessica Shirvington — thanks to Raincoast Books!

The Land of Decoration by Grace McCleen — this one sounds like an adult novel with crossover potential, since its protagonist is a 10-year-old girl. Thanks to Henry Holt!

Fair Coin by E. C. Myers — thanks to Prometheus Books for this unsolicited review copy!

From the library:

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead
Bunheads by Sophie Flack
The Twelfth Enchantment by David Liss (adult)

"New Adult" Niche: Interview with Callie Kingston (Undertow Blog Tour)

 

I'm pleased to be able to welcome Callie Kingston, author of Undertow, to the blog today for an interview! Since I'm hosting the "New Adult" Reading Challenge, I focused my questions on that aspect of the book.

First, a bit about Undertow and author Callie Kingston:

"Marissa is nearly eighteen and can't wait to leave behind her traumatic past. With long time boyfriend Drake, she thinks she has her future all figured out--until she discovers his betrayal. She flees to a desolate beach on the wild Oregon coast hoping to escape her pain, where, overcome with emotional and physical exhaustion, she dozes off beside a log. When the first icy waves strike her, it is too late: a rogue wave drags her out to sea.
Somehow she survives, and now each night she dreams of a creature who rescues her. Determined to discover the truth, her obsession deepens until she once again risks her life in the frigid ocean. Will the creature Marissa seeks save her? Will she be lost forever in the eddies of her mind, or will Jim, her new boyfriend, keep her from drowning in the abyss?

UNDERTOW is a contemporary novel in which a young woman finds a terrible choice thrust upon her: overcome the pain in her past and the dangers which lurk in her mind, or succumb to these and be lost forever inside a beautiful dream." (from Goodreads)

Callie's bio:"My home is in the Pacific Northwest, where I live with an assortment of furry creatures (husband included). I have a masters degree in Psychology. When not writing or working, I like to explore the outdoors, especially the forests and beaches along the Oregon coast. I also enjoy a great cup of cappuccino, which happily is easily found in this part of the world."

And now for the questions...



1.) Why did you decide to make Marissa an early high school graduate, thus fitting Undertow into the New Adult category? Did you set out to tell a New Adult story from the beginning?

From the beginning, I knew Marissa was a young woman on the brink of independence. She was also a bit precocious, which masked her vulnerability. While I didn’t intend to write a New Adult story (when I began writing Undertow, I honestly had no idea that college-age protagonists were verboten in YA), I’m glad it falls into that category now.

2.) How do you think Marissa's story would have been different if it had been set during high school instead? Do you feel that setting it during the college period is essential to the storyline?

When I began querying agents and editors, I discovered that Undertow would be a tough sell because the main character and her friends were in college. I considered rewriting the story and let Marissa be in high school, perhaps a senior. It just wouldn’t work. Marissa needed to be on her own, trying out life as an independent young adult, for her story to unfold. Otherwise, her mother would see what was happening and intervene before she reached a critical stage.

3.) Ages of characters aside, how would you say YA and New Adult differ (e.g. thematically, maturity levels, etc.)?

The primary difference, as I see it, is that the crucial challenges of launching into independent adult life present such rich material for an author: first live-in relationships, whether as roommates or boyfriend/girlfriend; supporting oneself financially and emotionally, or negotiating terms of on-going support with parents; facing the great unknown of a wide-open future. It’s such a fragile and critical time in a person’s life. New Adult literature can mine these issues and also assume a higher level of maturity in the reader. While it’s true that many, if not most, readers of YA are actually adults, thanks to cross-over appeal, writers still need to be cognizant of the developmental level of their target audience.

4.) Currently, traditional publishers seem to be leery of New Adult books, preferring to bump the protagonist either down to high school level or up to adult. Why do you think that is? Do you see a place for New Adult books in traditional publishing in the future, or will they stay primarily the domain of indie publishers and self-published authors? 

The truth is, I see publishing shifting toward independent and small presses as we move more deeply into the digital age and niche marketing. The takeover might be gradual or abrupt, depending on what technologies and markets evolve. At the same time, I sense that traditional publishers are operating out of fear of these inevitable shrinkage of their business and taking on fewer risks.

5.) What was the most challenging aspect of writing Undertow? How did you tackle it?

Time. There are still only twenty-four hours in a day, and as a writer, you know how much time you pour into not just drafting a manuscript, but critiquing, revising, editing, polishing, and, if you choose the indie path, formatting, publishing, and promoting. It’s a lot of work, and I have a very demanding job and family as well.

After my mother passed away unexpectedly, I decided my creative life is a priority and have found ways to carve out time.

6.) Could you list a few New Adult books by other authors that you'd recommend?

 I’m always on the lookout, and there are many listed on the Goodreads New Adult Reading Challenge list that I’ve added to my TBR pile. I’m especially excited to read Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire.


Thanks very much, Callie, for sharing your thoughts on the New Adult genre! 


Readers, what do you think about the category of "New Adult" and its place in the publishing world?

Also, Callie is offering up a Kindle copy of Undertow at each stop on the tour! This is open internationally, just leave a comment on this post (if you'd like, you can answer my question above) and your e-mail address. The giveaway ends Mar. 15, at 11:59 pm EST, after which a winner will be selected randomly and contacted by e-mail. Also, everyone who comments on any of the tour stops will be entered into a grand prize giveaway! Here are the rest of the stops on the tour:

Cinder: A Close-Up Review

"Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth's fate hinges on one girl... Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world's future." (from Goodreads)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer


This review has taken me a long time to write, but it's finally ready! I know quite a few snippets of this review are in white, but they contain pretty major spoilers.

Characters:


Cinder: I wasn't crazy about her, but she certainly has some admirable qualities — she's quite mature and responsible, very practical and tough. She's had to fend for herself and it shows, but she does put others she cares about (like Peony) first when the situation calls for it. On occasion she demonstrated a snarky, sarcastic sense of humour that I wish we'd seen more of, but she's very serious most of the time. Indeed, I thought she was a little too responsible/conscientious at times; she could use a stronger sense of curiosity! There was one point at which she had the opportunity to learn some important information, but she decided to take the "honourable" route (spoiler, highlight to read: she had the opportunity to listen to Kai's android talk about the missing princess, and she told it to stop talking!).

I enjoyed seeing the bond between Cinder & Peony — it's clear she really cares for her and puts Peony ahead of herself. Just generally, actually, I think she's used to putting humans first; she seems to have a kind of "I'm-an-inferior-cyborg" complex that she needs to get over. It sometimes comes off as false modesty, since Cinder is often spunky and forward, rather than obedient or submissive. However, I don't think that's the intent; rather, I'm pretty sure this is meant as a demonstration of the consequences of the society's attitude that being cyborg makes a citizen inherently inferior. 

Kai: Because it's written in third-person we do get to see Kai's perspective in some chapters, and it was neat to get a peek into how he views things. Kai seemed a bit more light-hearted overall than Cinder in his approach to life, which was needed to balance out Cinder's serious nature. I thought he showed a lot of potential to be a leader, but also the naïveté and youthful nature that a prince suddenly forced to take on the role of a king would have. He also needs to challenge his prejudices and assumptions, which I suspect will happen throughout the series as he grows as a character. While they do have a few cute exchanges, for most of it, I wasn't really feeling the chemistry between Kai and Cinder, unfortunately.



Queen Levana: I wasn't that impressed with her, frankly. She's stereotypically villain-ish — overconfident and self-centred — but she didn't seem smart enough to be the all-powerful queen everyone is intimidated by. I found her annoying but not terrifying. Some plot holes also popped up with regard to the queen and her powers. For instance, why doesn't she just manipulate Kai into marrying her? He doesn't seem as susceptible as some to her powers, but I think she could probably wear him down. I mean, really, she's been trying to get this alliance-through-marriage happening for a long time now, and it still hasn't worked, so why is she persisting with approaching this through diplomatic means? You'd think she'd be tired of waiting — although she does strike me as a fairly passive character, especially for a villain. Plus, everyone seems to think she's infallible, but I think someone really should have been able to incapacitate her if they'd given it a try. Ultimately, I just didn't respect Levana, and I often like to be able to respect a villain.


Other side characters: Iko was a fun character with a lot of personality (more than an android "should" have) and I wanted more scenes with her! She had this wonderfully bouncy, peppy attitude. And Dr. Erland really grew on me. (Spoiler: I admit I didn't trust him at first and I was kept guessing a little about his role, but by the end he seemed pretty awesome. Loved the really cool mechanical gadget-hand he gives Cinder!) Also, did everyone spot the cameo fairy tale character? I loved that addition! (Spoiler: the girl from Luna with the super long hair...totally Rapunzel.)


Premise/world-building:

Originally I thought Cinder was quite a creative spin on Cinderella, set in this world of intermixed fairy tales and with a complete overlay of sci-fi worldbuilding. The parallels to the Cinderella fairy tale are admittedly very loose; I would have liked the similarities to have been made more salient. But for the most part the basics are there, and Meyer adds a lot to the bones of the original, the result being a very different retelling. However, it has since been pointed out to me by a fellow reader that there are some strong resemblances to another well-known storyline (spoiler: Sailor Moon, which I am not very familiar with), so perhaps it's not quite as creative as I had first believed. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing how the series continues and the fairy tales mesh together.  

There's a lot of "sci-fi talk" in here that either went over my head or bored me. I make no bones about the fact that I am not a big sci-fi reader; I don't have much interest in gadgets and technology or aliens and death rays or anything like that. But I do enjoy fairy tales, so I thought this book might help me overcome my aversion to sci-fi. Unfortunately that didn't really happen. Cyborgs, androids and the like just don't seem to be my style, and I always have trouble visualizing exactly what's going on when there's discussion of technology. (I was a bit more interested in the biological/genetics side of things.)


I'd like to know more about the history of the world, as I thought that not all of technology is at the level you'd expect it to be this far into the future. There are different stages of technology present here (for instance, Cinder has a metal leg and hand, rather than a more life-like prosthetic, but there are also androids wandering around). Perhaps this discrepancy is due to the fact that Cinder is poor and a "second-class citizen," so she can't afford the actual good technology...but I'd still like a better explanation of how the society, and particularly the technology, developed. I'd have been more impressed if there was some more creative technology — most of it didn't seem to be projected very far into the future or reflected common sci-fi ideas (like the hovers and androids). 


I was admittedly skeptical about the Lunars and their abilities at first. I was going, "A civilization on the moon? Seriously?" But once we actually get to see some Lunars, I warmed up to the idea a little more. However, there is one aspect that I think really requires a major suspension of disbelief. Spoiler: the mutant army spotted on the moon. I found that just too over-the-top to swallow, although perhaps once it's explained and expanded upon later on in the series, it might make more sense.


Plot/pacing:

I found the first two-thirds to be quite sluggish; every time something exciting happened, something else then slowed it down. Thankfully things livened up in the last third or fourth of the story, though. 


Pacing aside, I found the plot to be altogether too guessable for the most part. Early on I had guessed a couple of the secrets already (Hands? Who figured out these spoilers right away? Cinder's identity as the Lunar princess and Dr. Erland's identity as a Lunar.) The clues were just too obvious, and even when it wasn't really clear what was being hinted at, it seemed like there was a red flag to the reader going, "there is a hint of some nature here!"


I thought it showed real guts on the author's part to commit to one particular plot point that packed a punch the reader wasn't expecting (spoiler: Peony's death!). But I did find there were some plot holes throughout, and the climactic scene didn't blow me away. (Spoiler: I thought the cyborg planning kicking in at the last minute to save Cinder from shooting herself seemed a little too convenient.) I wasn't a fan of how the whole glass slipper aspect of the fairy tale — one of the most important parts — was transformed in this version. Also, I thought there needed to be more of a fight; there are lots of revelations, but I would have expected Queen Levana to make a huge commotion. However, I liked the ending and think it will segue well into the next book. 


Final verdict: 3.5 shooting stars. I wasn't very emotionally invested in the story/connected with the characters, but I'm still looking forward to the rest of the series. I think it'd be particularly interesting to see one of them set on Luna!

Disclaimer: I received this book as an ARC for review from the publisher. Also, I did attend one of Marissa Meyer's signings prior to writing this review — I'd hope that has not biased it but you never know! (On a sidenote, she is super friendly, and the signing was a lot of fun.)

Getting Somewhere giveaway winner!

Random.org has chosen...

Rachelia from Bookish Comforts!

She has 72 hours to reply to my e-mail before I select another winner. Congrats to Rachelia, and thanks to everyone else who entered!

Edited: I have now had confirmation from Rachelia!
 

February "New Adult" Challenge Reviews — Link Them Up Here!

Participants in my "New Adult" reading challenge: if you have reviews from February, here's your chance to link them up! And everyone else: if you are interested in joining the challenge, please see the details here. The more the merrier :)

Also, I had my first "New Adult Niche" guest blogger stop by in February, so if you missed it, be sure to check out her post!