Leigh Bardugo's Blog, page 612
December 21, 2013
novelnoviceya:
YA novels of 2013, re-enacted by...
YA novels of 2013, re-enacted by snowmen!
Original art by my mom, exclusively for Novel Novice
See ALL of her YA snowmen drawings HERE!
1. I am charmed.
2. I am jealous. I want one for Shadow and Bone.
3. Do yourself the favor of clicking through for The Hunger Games in Winter. That is some macabre snowman humor right there.
lalondes:
So. Ned Vizzini has committed suicide. And this fact...
So. Ned Vizzini has committed suicide. And this fact of his death, that it was by his own hand, weighs so, so heavy on the grief that I am feeling right now.
I am not the first young person to write, today, about how It’s Kind of a Funny Story kept me breathing during some of the darkest moments of my adolescence. I will not be the last. This is Ned’s legacy: he tossed a bright, orange-and-white ring to us drowning kids and pleaded with us to stay afloat. And we read his words, and we understood, and we eventually made our way to shore.
I was thirteen years old when I read Funny Story for the first time. I was still living in Vancouver. I picked it up at the Chapters on Broadway and Granville and cautiously paged through the first couple of chapters right there in the store. I put it back on the shelf. The very next week, my family took off on a vacation to the east coast. We stopped into a Barnes & Noble in New York City, and I found a copy and read a few more chapters. It wasn’t until Kramerbooks in Washington, D.C., that I decided, finally, to buy the damn thing and bring it home. I’ve kept it with me ever since.
It’s a special book. I truly don’t believe that a more accurate portrait of a young person’s depression exists in literature, with the exception, maybe, of The Bell Jar. And the great, unspeakable tragedy of The Bell Jar is now the tragedy of Funny Story.
The book opens, as you can see above, with sixteen-year-old protagonist Craig musing that it’s “so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself.” The last page, by contrast, is a cacophony of verbs, spat out in a breathless staccato, ending with a clarion call to “live, live, live, live.” I think I must have read that page alone a hundred times now. It got me through high school. It got me through my parents’ divorce. It got me through the end of friendships. Once, in the tenth grade, it kept me from a suicide attempt.
And there, I think, lies the most important lesson: survival is not a temporary state. Healing does not necessarily have a delineated beginning and end. You have been sad before, and you will be sad again; what matters is how you interact with your sadness. You have to be kind to yourself, and gentle. You have to surround yourself with people who love you, and you have to love them in return. Every day of your life is a fight, and it helps to have allies.
Ned Vizzini was once asked what he hoped young adults would take away from Funny Story, and he said this:
What I would like young adults to take away from It’s Kind of a Funny Story is that if you’re feeling suicidal, call a hotline. Suicidal ideation really is a medical emergency and if more people knew to call the suicide hotline we’d have less suicides.
In Ned’s memory, I will reiterate his words: if you are feeling suicidal, or depressed, or anxious, talk to someone. Call a hotline. I’ve posted a list of helpful numbers here.
Don’t keep quiet. Ask for help. You are not alone.
Live. Live. Live. Live.
Live.
December 20, 2013
You’ll be missed, Ned.
You’ll be missed, Ned.
gwendabond:
Charles Simic, ‘Totemism’, from Dime-Store...
Charles Simic, ‘Totemism’, from Dime-Store Alchemy: The Art of Joseph Cornell
I love Simic’s essays almost as much as his poems.
lightispaintingshadows:
fashion inspiration: alina starkov
So...
fashion inspiration: alina starkov
So many men had tried to make her a queen. Now she understood that she was meant for something more. The Darkling had told her he was destined to rule. He had claimed his throne, and a part of her too. He was welcome to it. For the living and the dead, she would make herself a reckoning. She would rise.
Loooove!!!
Burn With Me - A Grisha Mix (listen)
Because morally ambiguous...
Burn With Me - A Grisha Mix (listen)
Because morally ambiguous Sankta Alina is all I desire of life. (Strong undertones of Darklina because let’s be real here this is me we’re talking about and also that’s the only kind of music I listen to)
i. The Awakening - Angtoria ii. If I Burn - Emilie Autumn iii. My Little Phoenix - Tarja iv. Shot in the Dark - Within Temptation v. Equally Destructive - After Forever vi. Breaking Dawn - Dama vii. Wild Card - ReVamp viii. Все пройдет - Markize ix. When The Lights Are Down - Kamelot x. Burn With Me - Amaranthe xi. Shine - Aperion xii. The Blood Legion (Mitch Marlow Remix) - In This Moment xiii. Pahinta Tänään - Indica xiv. Games We Play - Stream of Passion xv. Through Hell - We Are the Fallen xvi. What Have You Done - Within Temptation xvii. Coward - Trillium xviii (Bonus). Bad Romance - Halestorm
(listen)
Gah! I have such a soft spot for Alina with white hair. One day, @glitzandshadows is gonna let me cut in line at her signing
emmyiskhaleesi:
Met Leigh Bardugo today :D A very good picture,...
Met Leigh Bardugo today :D A very good picture, I think!
btw, I’ve just been informed that I should be tracking #lbardugo instead of the book tags. I officially FAIL AT TUMBLR.
Thinking about the Reblog Book Club ...
Did you see that the Reblog Book Club has selected a new book? The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson!
Today I was thinking about how I was traveling when the Fangirl book club discussion was winding down, and I don’t think I ever said good-bye or thank you.
…
