Things YA has taught me.

 

I’m sure by now most of you have read the Wall StreetJournal article by Meghan Cox Gurdon and have even taken part of the Twitter camping #YASaves, but for those of you who haven’t I highly recommend reading the article and voicing your opinion. 

But for the short of it, this article condemns any dark YA fiction as damaging to young adults  "If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is. There are of course exceptions, but a careless young reader – -or one who seeks out depravity — will find himself surrounded by images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds." and even goes on to say "Alas, literary culture is not sympathetic to adults who object either to the words or storylines in young-adult books" and then goes on to suggest that "the book industry’s ever-more-appalling offerings for adolescent readers spring from a desperate desire to keep books relevant for the young."

Um… what? I’m sorry but the world is not always a happy amazing place full of sunshine and rainbows. That is not the real world, and it has never been the real world. As a society we are just coming to realize that a lot of these problems exist and need to be talked about, and we are not afraid to talk about them anymore. The article talks about the relevance of these subjects and even says that they can encourage young adults onto a self-destructive path. And that is simply not true. I am not going to bog you down with facts but millions upon millions of kids each year are dealing with eating disorders, self-harm, bullying, sexuality crisis, abuse and much more. Proving that these books are not only RELEVANT to the young adult reader but also NECESSARY, ignoring these issues will not make them go away and I believe that we need to talk about them. True it is not these are not easy subject to talk about but that is not a good reason not to talk about them. Books open our eyes; books give us ways to bring these things into the light and into open forums so they can be talked about. 

Silence is never the answer.

YA saved my life, YA has taught me I am not alone, YA gave me a voice when I didn't have one, YA has helped me to better understand my fellow man, YA has shown me that everyone has a story, Writing YA has giving me the voice I never had in high school, YA help me figure out what depression was and how to help myself, YA has made me more compassionate, YA has taught me about problems I never knew existed, YA taught me that is ok to be myself, YA kept me sane, YA taught me that it was not my fault, YA gave me an escape when I needed to get away.

I am 25 years old, I still read YA because YA opened my world and changed my life.

What has YA taught you?

I gonna start doing book reviews...a little / The Horns of Ruin

OK, it has come to my attention that I read to many books not to be giving reviews of them. So I think I am going to start doing reviews on here. Now I am not going to review EVERYTHING I read because I don’t want book reviews to become the meat of my blog, but every once in a while I am going to post reviews on here. But also I want to review books are a writer not just a reader so hopefully my reviews will also be helpful to writers out there.

Anyway I am going to rate each book I read on two scales the 1-5 scale below and if you should buy or borrow the book.

Alexis’ 1-5 scale and what it means:

1: I couldn’t even finish it / just plain bad

2: I hope I didn’t pay for this / disappointing

3:  I didn’t hate it, but it was still missing something / forgettable but inoffensive

3.5: On the line between good and ok / like, not love

4: Solid mind candy / worth reading

4.5: So very close to perfection! / must read

5: I could not put it down and I’m still thinking about it! / a true treasure

I also plan to always write a section on what this book could teach or show to aspiring authors. I know one of the main reasons I love to read is because I find it one of the best ways to learn about my craft and I would love to share that with all of you. 

So let’s start this off with a BANG!

My I present you with The Horns of Ruin by Tim Akers 

My rating: 5 stars! I could not put it down and I’m still thinking about it!

Amazon.com rating (and break down): 4 Stars (5 star:7/  4 star:3/ 3 star:0/ 2 star:2/  1 star:0)

Pages: 340 ages

Buy or Borrow: at $16 ($12 on Amazon.com) the shelf price is a little high for how thin the book is but I think it is totally worth the cash, especially if you buy it online.

Description: (From Amazon.com) Eva Forge is the last paladin of the dead God, Morgan.

Eva, forsaken by her parents and forgotten by her family, was the last child dedicated to the Cult of Morgan. Morgan, God of battle and champion of the Fraterdom, was assassinated by his jealous brother, Amon. Over time, the Cult of Morgan has been surpassed by other Gods, his blessings ignored in favor of brighter technologies and more mechanical miracles. Now, Eva watches as her new family, her Cult, crumbles around her.

When a series of kidnappings and murders makes it clear that someone is trying to hasten the death of the Cult of Morgan, Eva must seek out unexpected allies and unwelcome answers in the city of Ash. But will she be able to save the city from a growing conspiracy, one that reaches back to her childhood, even back to the murder of her God?

What I thought: It has been several weeks since I read this book and every time I think about it I am still blown away. While there are some flaws I felt that overall they were not big enough to really even matter in my final rating. What I love in this book was how beautifully Akers blends religion, sorcery and science, It felt effortless and completely real for his world. Akers describes himself as the only son of a theologian and that is where his book shines, the theology of the three brothers is really what makes this book work. But the theology is not so thick as to be confusing or daunting.

Eva is such an amazing character, I believe she might have been the first one to say “shoot first and ask questions later.”  She is so intensely honor-bound that you cannot help but side with her even when you think she should think a little more before she asks. But I loved her impatience with pretty much everyone else in the book, she is after all a woman of action and doses not idle well. Everything out of her mouth was entertaining. I loved that her character never wavered.

The Horns of Ruin is an amazingly fast paced adventure packed to the brim with sword fights, gun downs, arcane magic, witty dialog, sorcery, incantations. It is a wild ride that will leave you breathless and begging for more. I really hope there will be more books about Eva, I would follow her anywhere.

Here is one of my favorite (spoiler free) parts from Page 11-12:

“Names?” he asked over the clockgeist’s quiet howling clatter.  I stepped in front of Barnabas.

“Eva Forge, Paladin of Morgan and sister of the Fraterdom.  I demand entry to the house of my brother by my right as scion of Morgan.”

He looked up from my breasts, then down to my holster, then up again to the two-handed sword slung over my shoulder.

“You’ll have to leave your weapons at the gate.”

I sneered and snapped out the revolver, flipped it once in my hand, and spun the cylinder open.  I presented the clacking wheel of bullets to him and began to invoke.

“This is Felburn, heart of the hunter, spitting fire of the sky.  Morgan blessed the revolver as a weapon of his Cult at the towers of El-Ohah, when the storm cracked the stones of that place and the cannons of his army cracked the sky.  This weapon was beaten from the iron of the mountains of the Brothers, the land of their birth.  The bullets are engraved with my soul’s name, and blessed by the Fratriarch of Morgan on an alter of war.”  I snapped the cylinder shut, passed the barrel across the pale man’s heart, and slammed it into my holster.  ”I carry it, whether I live or die, through fire and fear and foes.  I leave it nowhere.”

“Well, I . . . uh.” The Alexian grimaced and shuffled his feet.  Barnabas leaned out from behind me.

“Don’t ask her for the sword,” he said, then banged his staff against the narrow stone walls all around.  ”It’s a much longer show, and there’s not really enough room for the full production.  If we step outside for a moment, though, I’m sure she’ll be happy to demonstrate.  Eva?”

What writers can learn from this book: I think number one is that theology matters, what your character believes in shapes them. I think your character has to believe in something, not necessarily a god or goddess but I find that if the character doesn’t believe in anything then I don’t care. I want them to believe in something, to feel that need in them. That is one of the only things that makes a character feel real to me.

The other thing is that even though Eva was a woman I really didn’t care, her sex was not a defining character trait, and I don’t think it should ever be.

So that wraps up my first ever book review I hope you enjoyed!

~~~

And don't forget, the Now Starring Blogfest being held on April 25^th by Lindz and myself! It is gonna be a blast! And you have the chance to win some super fabulous prizes! 

Share The Love Blogfest

 

Happy Sunday all!

I have been very remiss in my blogging lately but I swear I will have more posts up soon. Who new life could be so demanding sometimes? *lol*

What brings me here today is Sari Webb’s Share The Love Blogfest she is doing for her birthday! So happy Birthday Sari! I hope it is an amazing year to come!

Ok I fancy myself a writer so I will ask for help, but anything I want to post is WAY too long (re: 1000+ words) so I think instead I will just ask a question.

How do you make your battle scenes flow? I can’t help but get lost in them, struggling through every action. So do you have any helpful tips for writing action scenes? 

And for a little extra credit I will also talk about the other part of the blogfest I will share about a book I LOVED recently and why.

The book I have fallen in love with recently is Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. This book was beautiful. Bottom line, it was beautiful to read and it was beautiful to hold. Revolution is a contemporary YA novel but with the added aspect of very well researched historical fiction layered in. and it is layers in beautifully. It is the story of a girl named Andi Alpers who is popping antidepressants and flunking out of her New York prep school, grieving over her younger brother's death. She finds solace only when playing guitar. When the school notifies her mostly absent scientist father that she's flirting with expulsion, he takes Andi to Paris for Christmas break, where he's testing DNA to see if a preserved heart really belonged to the doomed son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Andi is ordered to work on her senior thesis about a (fictional) French composer. Staying at the home of a renowned historian, Andi finds a diary that relates the last days of Alexandrine, companion to the doomed prince. The story then alternates between Andi's struggle with depression and Alexandrine's efforts to save the prince.

I truly love this book for touching on so many levels, and wish I had had it to read when I was in high school. Donnelly has such an amazing voice that you really truly feel for each girl and connect with them even if you have never thought about killing yourself or tried to save a dying boy. There are so many layers to this story that I feel are revealed beautiful and at the correct time. You really get to see inside of Andi’s head and to know her completely. Just truly a stunning work. I highly recommend it to any and every one.