Sunday 27th November 2011. AAMI Park. Melbourne Victory v Gold Coast United. We win 3-2. Here are some dodgy photos:
1. The Blue-and-White Brigade’s message to the team.
2. After Vargas’s red card. (Australians, you better get that Micallef Programme reference!)
3. Fabio is stretchered off. Looked like he did his ankle.
4. Requisite arty shot. Note the setting sun’s streaks. Taken just after (yes, I’m late) Hernandez’s match-winning goal.
Ilsa J. Bick
Drowning Instinct
Lerner Carolrhoda Lab (US: 1st February 2012)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
This novel may be relentlessly grim, but is nonetheless a page-turner. You’re never quite sure where the story’s going to go, but you’ll know it’ll be bad – and it is. This may not be the kind of book teenage girls will flock to, but critics and awards committees should definitely consider it. Would I have appreciated Drowning Instinct as much when I was a teenager? We’ll never know, because I’m twenty-five years old, and I loved this. There are still some questions, but we don’t necessarily need answers.
Jenna’s story will stick in your brain. For better or worse.
Done with November 2011 Releases? Here are December 2011 Releases. To see future titles, check Reading Wishlist.
Posted in Reading Wishlist, Megan Hart, Kelley Armstrong, Richelle Mead, Cassandra Clare, A. J. Menden, Laurie Faria Stolarz, Erica Spindler, Michelle Rowen, Tara Moss, Kylie Chan, Robin Wasserman, Kelly Gay, Carolyn Crane, Rebecca Lim, Dia Reeves, Darynda Jones, Veronica Rossi, Jordan Dane, Jill Williamson, Sara Grant, Jenny Schwartz
Tagged All Fall Down, Blue Dragon, Clockwork Prince, Dark Parties, Deadly Little Voices, December 2011 Releases, Fortune, Head Rush, Hidden, Muse, November 2011 Releases, On a Dark Wing, Replication, Second Grave on the Left, Shadow Heir, Slice of Cherry, The Girl with the Granite Heart, The Hour of Dust and Ashes, The Spider Goddess, Torn, Under the Never Sky, Vampire Academy: The Ultimate Guide, Wanted: One Scoundrel
Jordan Dane
On a Dark Wing
Harlequin Teen (US: 20th December 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Far and beyond, the best part of On a Dark Wing is the mountain trek: the preparations, climbing Denali, and the rescue. There’s nothing scarier than Mother Nature, and her storms create much trouble for the climbers: avalanches, and cerebral oedemas. It all makes for thrilling reading.
The realistic stuff is okay, such as the problems at school, and Abbey’s grief. But the paranormal elements just don’t work. At first, I just didn’t understand what was going on and why, but even after it was explained… Supernatural stuff requires suspension of disbelief, but in this case it calls for too much, which means I have to work to shut off logic, and I don’t like having to work when reading.
Stay for Denali, then make an early exit.
Laura Bickle‘s The Hallowed Ones & a sequel to Graphia (NA). Pitched as Witness meets 28 Days Later in which an Amish girl must protect her family from a violent contagion, even as fear and denial threaten to erode her community from within.
Kim Harrison‘s The Hollows series has been optioned for small screen production through the CW network.
Erica Hayes‘s new dark paranormal romance series in a 2-book deal to Berkley (World). Book 1, Revelation, is set in a decadent, near-future Manhattan, in which a young medical examiner who’s lost her faith must team up with a fallen angel warrior to stop a gang of demons hijacking the Apocalypse & creating hell on earth.
Darynda Jones‘s next 2 books in the Charley Davidson series to St. Martin’s (NA). Features a private investigator by day & grim reaper by night.
Vicki Pettersson‘s new supernatural noir mystery series to Harper Voyager (World rights) in a 3-book deal. The Taken is scheduled for June 2012.
Eve Silver‘s Respawn to Katherine Tegen Books (NA) in a 3-book deal. 1st in a teen series about a girl who finds herself inside a “game” where she must hunt aliens, or be hunted by them.
Erica Spindler‘s Don’t Look Back in a 2-book deal to St. Martin’s (World).
Maggie Stiefvater‘s The Scorpio Races to Warner Brothers, for David Katzenberg & Seth Grahame-Smith’s KatzSmith Productions to produce. About the craggy island of Thisby, where the savage & beautiful water horses emerge from the waves, & 2 teens risk everything – love & life – in the violent, glorious Scorpio Races.
Scott Tracey‘s Phantom Eyes to Flux (World English).
Jill Hathaway
Slide
HarperCollins (UK & AU: 1st March 2012; CA: 14th March 2012; US: 27th March 2012)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Vee Bell is a psychometrist of sorts – she can touch an object and, if the owner’s emotion was strong enough to imprint on the item, Vee can “slide” into their consciousness to see what they’re doing right now. When a cheerleader dies, supposedly a suicide, Vee knows better…because she slid into the murderer, only she can’t identify who that is.
I was not expecting to like this. The concept is so familiar (Melinda Metz’s Fingerprints/Echoes series comes to mind) that it seems common as muck, and on the very first page is one of my major pet peeves: characters reading classic literature that reflects what’s happening to them (in this case, Julius Caesar). Also, there are so many ’90s music references that it’s easy to tell the author grew up in that decade and makes her characters grow up on it, too. Which would’ve been okay if it was Madonna’s music, but instead it’s grunge.
But I actually really enjoyed this, because Slide is a well-crafted mystery: it’s difficult to pick whodunit as there’s plenty of shady characters. There does seem to be a lot of focus on mothers…
Blythe Woolston
Catch & Release
Lerner Carolrhoda Lab (US: 1st February 2012)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
MRSA (what does that stand for?) is a contagion – bacteria enters the body via a cut and kills what it comes across. For Polly Furnas, it entered via a bleeding blemish, taking out her cheek and an eye. MRSA also took Odd Estes’s leg, which has since been replaced with a robot leg. And these people were the lucky ones.
Polly and Odd met in hospital, and now they embark on a fishing road trip. On a diet of junk food, coffee, alcohol, and medical marijuana, each teen comes to terms with their disabilities whilst trying to survive each other.
With a parent blind in one eye, I believe our narrator’s problems merging lanes and parking. Polly Furnas is affable, clever, and funny; exactly the traits that make for a great “Vagina American”.
AWESOME POLLY QUOTES
-”I am not a pussy. I prefer the term Vagina American.”
-”It’s a trout. It’s a whore. It’s every guy’s fantasy.”
-”Krikey. Bad idea, mate.” Actually, it’s spelled Crikey, but hopefully this’ll be fixed before publication.
Meanwhile, Odd is a douche: He dumps a dog on Polly’s mum to care for, he pees on roads and graves, he struggles to sleep without booze, he carries a gun, he makes Polly pay for everything…and he’s a massive bitch. He’s such bad company that I’m not sure why Polly chose to go with him (other than needing time away from her mum). But Polly thinks he’s a douche, too, so I have the intended reader reaction – and that doesn’t often happen, so Blythe Woolston should be commended.
Catch & Release is character-driven, and the low level of plot may put off readers, but it’s still more accessible than the author’s first novel. And it has one of the most deliciously creepy covers!
Jenny Schwartz
Wanted: One Scoundrel (A Clockwork Christmas Anthology, Novella)
Harlequin Carina Press (US: 5th December 2011) [eBook only]
Buy (US)
In 1895, Esme Smith is the daughter of the richest man in the Swan River colony, if not the whole of Australia. She’s campaigning for equality: for men and woman, rich and poor, internationally descended and indigenous. But as a woman, she’s not permitted to enter gentlemen’s clubs, so she needs a puppet. Enter Jed Reeve, an American who’s the perfect scoundrel for Esme to train.
This is more historical than steampunk – the technological aspects seem only as set design, and not plot-centric. This is disappointing, because I WANT devices to be centre stage – they’re vital for true steampunk.
But even though Wanted: One Scoundrel is more historical than mechanised, I really enjoyed this. I’ve never before encountered a steampunk set in Australia, so the location here is easier for me to identify with, and a welcome change from the seemingly endless parades of English- and American-based corset-and-bustle dramas.
And I actually believe the relationship, and wanted it to happen – which I almost never do, so this is a big compliment to the author’s considerable talents. Esme and Jed don’t have silly misunderstandings to create a “darkest hour” – they’re smart, likeable characters who don’t turn into insufferable gits once they fancy each other.
In fact, the STORY is more central than the romance, and this is another brilliant difference that lifts this novella above its peers. I certainly hope to read more Australian steampunk from Jenny Schwartz.
P.S. I still don’t know what a “scoundrel” is.
Kat Falls
Rip Tide (Dark Life, Book 2)
Scholastic (US: 1st August 2011); Simon & Schuster (UK: 4th August 2011; AU: 1st October 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)
Usually young adult novels don’t scare me, but Kat Falls’ Dark Life series does. The subsea location freaks me out – the creatures, the gangs, the politicians…not to mention that if they run out of crops and Liquigen, the people will die. The stakes are always high, and the scenes with the saltwater crocodile and the Drift rescue are bloody frightening. There’s more than enough gore to satisfy horror and crime fans, and the first-person male narrative is realistic.
If you haven’t checked out Book 1, Dark Life, get on it, then track down Rip Tide. These YA dystopian thrillers are dynamic!
