Kelly Jensen's Blog, page 84

Slowing Down for Summer

Summer has been the time I've always used to "catch up" with things, in part because summer always meant Summer Reading Club at the library, which was frantic, fast-paced, and energy zapping. I'd find it incredibly therapeutic to spend free time speeding through book after book in order to be ahead of the reading game. I wanted to be well-read for when fall approached so I could write about the newest and hottest, as well as be prepared to give great reader's advisory on those new titles.

This is the second year, though, I haven't been at a library during the summer. I...can't say I miss it much. I certainly miss working with the teens, and I definitely miss the opportunities afforded in working with people and books, but I don't miss things like the over-programming, the stress about budgeting, about bureaucracy, about time and energy and being "on," even when I felt completely and utterly "off." 

Whereas last summer I was new to my job and learning the ropes, this year, I'm firmly into my routine and my projects. I know how much time is needed to accomplish the necessary things, as well as how much time I have to work on new things. Being away at BEA was an opportunity to think a lot about what I want for this summer, and in reflecting, I realized how valuable summer is not for getting ahead, but instead, for slowing down. 

I'm not going to spend this summer trying to plow through things. I'm not going to pile my to-be-read plans with miles-high stacks of everything coming out this fall so I can be the first to talk about it or know about it. 

Instead, I'm slowing down and investing in reading those back list titles that I've always intended to read but have yet to pick up.

I want to slow my roll -- and my role! -- a bit. There are so many things to know, to read, to think, to reflect, and to share. And the truth is, as much as I'd love to be ahead of the game where I can be, it's important to realize that this is a thing I can't and can never control. I don't have the time to be first, and my prioritizing of energy over time management means that sometimes I don't have the reserves in me to give everything I want to do the attention it deserves immediately. What's best for me, I realize, is having a plan but allowing myself plenty of opportunities to be flexible within that plan. 

Despite having read abundantly in middle and high school, despite majoring in English, despite my library science background, there are still so many classics, especially more contemporary titles, I've missed out on. I've never read Toni Morrison, for one, and this summer I'm changing that, picking up The Bluest Eye. I've never read Margaret Atwood's classic The Handmaid's Tale, despite knowing how many books I adore reference it or are modern takes on the story. I've yet to crack open Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah, even though it's a book I admire on my shelf every single time I walk by, thinking about how much people I know absolutely adore it. 

There are less "classic-y" titles on my reading plans agenda this summer, too. I just picked up one of Megan Abbott's earlier noir titles, This Song Is You, after reading and thinking about this great piece on the rise of feminist noir (I read and enjoyed the Larssen series, even though the writing itself left so much to be desired). I've got Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects to get through, as well as Night Film, which I think I talked about reading months and months ago. Maybe now is the time to follow through with that plan. 

A handful of unread Haruki Murakami titles are sitting on my shelf, too. I've always loved his strange, surreal, magical worlds. I want to fall back into one. 

I went through a big phase of buying backlist YA titles over the last couple of years, too, and I'm eager to dive into them headfirst. Bad Apple by Laura Ruby is one, as well as Rebecca O'Connell's Myrtle of Willendorf (a recommendation from Liz from years ago I bought and let languish on my shelves) and Laura Kasischke's Boy Heaven -- I read Feathered years ago and still think about it. I admit to never having read S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders, despite having read some of her other work, and perhaps it's time to break that tradition, and I should certainly pick up one of the Francesca Lia Block bind-ups I've got on my shelf, too. I'm also still working through some Sarah Dessen backlist; I think I have just three left. 

Do I admit here, too, that perhaps I need to finally sit down and read Harry Potter from beginning to end? I made it to book 5 or 6 one summer while I was teaching middle schoolers about Shakespeare -- they pressured me to -- but it's become such a cultural reference point that I feel obligated to revisit with a different, perhaps more excited, mindset. 

I'm feeling way less pressure when it comes to reading now, and a big reason is that I've made the conscious decision to not just slow down, but to not feel obligated to read everything that's new. While that still makes up the bulk of my reading diet, I'm much more intentional about my choices. I'm not picking something up just because. Instead, I pick it up because I'm interested in it; I'm reading far more books across genres and styles not because of that. Perhaps it's changed how I'm blogging a bit, since I don't write reviews as much as I once did, but it's changing my reading life for the better. Choosing to be intentional about reading backlist this summer and slowing down to drink in the words, language, and stories makes me even more excited to discover new favorites.



Without doubt, making this choice will encourage more excitement and engagement with those fall titles when I'm ready for them.



What are you reading this summer? What backlist should I be looking into? I am open to YA and adult fiction, as well as really solid, engaging non-fiction -- memoirs by people of color or microhistories are especially appealing to me. Tell me your reading plans and what should be on my radar.




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This Week at Book Riot

Over at Book Riot this week...


In honor of LGBT Pride month, here's a look at 7 YA books featuring bisexual characters
I talked about four trends I noticed at this year's Book Expo America
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On Expectations of Female Characters: Guest Post by Trish Doller, Author of THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

Today we have a guest post from Trish Doller, with a piece about why she decided to write her latest release, The Devil You Know. It's a post about expectations we put on female characters, and why Cadie, the main character in Devil, came from those expectations. 



Bonus: a giveaway, including a signed copy of The Devil You Know and a paperback of Where The Stars Still Shine to one US/Canadian resident. 







I have a confession: I haven’t read any goodreads reviews of The Devil You Know. Because having already written two books, I can probably guess what the bad reviews might say. Cadie is a slut. She is a horrible daughter for not obeying her father. She is selfish. She is too stupid to live. She makes bad decisions. She deserves every terrible thing that happens to her. (You can go look to see if I’m right. I’ll wait here.)

I expect some readers to not like Cadie because the inspiration for her character was all the similar, terrible things readers said about Callie in Where the Stars Still Shine. Those reviews…I read them and it was so painful to see how unsympathetic people can be. Here was a broken, abused girl who was called a slut for the way she coped with her abuse. She was called a bitch for not always being nice to someone who was trying to be a friend. She was accused of being an ungrateful brat for not immediately embracing the good life her father gave her. 

Let me be clear, though...I’m not angry at those reviewers. They brought their own experiences and belief systems to their readings and they're allowed to have their opinions. But I am pretty sad that we live in a society that makes it okay to call a girl “slut” for having sex or “bitch” for not being nice. I’m sad at how much we pass judgement on things that rub up against our beliefs, rather than practicing empathy.

Arcadia Wells was born from that sadness, a direct reflection of how it made me feel to see the hate heaped on Callie. If readers couldn’t muster sympathy for a brave, broken girl, I was going to give them a character who isn’t asking for their sympathy. If they had no difficulty labeling a girl who had been sexually abused a slut, I was going to give them a character who was unapologetic about her desires.

So I know there are going to be readers who hate Cadie. That’s fine. Because the readers who love her are going to see the girl I see. One who is brave and stupid. Strong and weak. A girl who wants to love and be loved in return. A girl who isn’t seeking permission or forgiveness from anyone but herself. 

I have another confession: I will probably never read any goodreads reviews of The Devil You Know. Because I wrote the girl I wanted the world to meet. She’s here for the sluts and the bitches and the selfish girls who dare to live.





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The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Fixer is Jennifer Lynn Barnes' YA answer to Scandal. Tess is the younger sister of a successful "fixer" in Washington, DC, Ivy (the Olivia Pope analogue), who takes Tess to live with her after their grandfather's mental state deteriorates. Ivy is much older than Tess, and Tess is not thrilled to be uprooted from her grandfather's farm and taken to live with the sister whom she feels abandoned her when their parents died many years ago.



Tess starts school at an elite private institution also attended by the children of politicians, dignitaries, and the very wealthy. She initially prefers to dissociate herself from her sister, but her classmates won't let her. After she inadvertently helps the vice president's daughter out of a tight spot, everyone seems to think that she's a fixer in training.



While the book starts out by following Tess as she tries to avoid helping with her classmates'  problems, it quickly becomes more national in scale. Ivy tries to shield Tess from what she does, but Tess finds herself drawn into her sister's problems and soon she's caught up in a conspiracy involving the murder of a supreme court justice. More bodies join the first, and the suspect list includes the president of the United States.



This is a really fun political thriller just right for a teenage audience. The politics aren't party vs. party and the book doesn't really even broach touchy political issues like climate change or healthcare. The plot focuses more on politicians' desire to acquire and then keep power, which is something anyone with a basic understanding of our political system can follow. You don't need to be a fan of C-SPAN to know what's going on, you just need to know that presidents appoint supreme court justices for life. This also means the book shouldn't date too quickly.



At the same time, it's not written down to the teenage readers either. The Goodreads synopsis initially led me to believe that Tess' adventures would mostly be relegated to high school, but she actually ends up affecting events at the national level, and she has a great amount of agency outside the high school setting. This is not to say that Tess fixing her classmates' problems wouldn't have been enough to sustain a novel, but I think it's very gratifying for teens to read about kids their age making an impact on a much larger scale. The plot is fast and the twists are many, and Barnes assumes her readers are smart enough to follow along.



The comparisons to Ally Carter's Heist Society are apt, though the tone is a bit more serious, and the consequences are too. The best comparison really is the "meet" description provided by the publisher (and I don't say that a lot) - Scandal meets Veronica Mars. I can't say if today's teens watch either of those shows, but the book's got enough present-day teen appeal without the comparisons to be necessary anyway.



Review copy received at TLA. The Fixer will be published July 7.
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On The Radar: 12 Books for June

One of the most popular posts I do over at Book Riot is the round-up of upcoming YA fiction titles, and one of the most popular questions I seem to get on Twitter and in my inboxes is "what should I be looking out for in YA?" For a lot of readers, especially those who work with teens either in classrooms or in libraries, knowing what's coming out ahead of time is valuable to get those books into readers' hands before they even ask.



Each month, I'll call out between 8 and 12 books coming out that should be on your radar. These include books by high-demand, well-known authors, as well as some up-and-coming and debut authors. They'll be across a variety of genres, including diverse titles and writers. Not all of the books will be ones that Kimberly or I have read, nor will all of them be titles that we're going to read and review. Rather, these are books that readers will be looking for and that have popped up regularly on social media, in advertising, in book mail, and so forth. It's part science and part arbitrary and a way to keep the answer to "what should I know about for this month?" quick, easy, and under $300 (doable for smaller library budgets especially).

For June, here are 12 titles to have on your radar. All descriptions are from WorldCat, and I've noted why it should be included. 











The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker: Set in an alternative 16th-century England, Elizabeth Grey is the only girl in the king's elite group of witch hunters. When she's framed for being a witch herself, Elizabeth finds freedom at the hands of the world's most wanted wizard and her loyalties are tested. 





Why: This one has gotten some solid buzz, along with a sizable distribution of review copies. I've heard positive things, though I haven't picked it up myself. 





The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler: After a boating accident takes her beautiful singing and speaking voice from her, Elyse d'Abreau, the youngest of six sisters, leaves her home in Tobago to stay in an Oregon seaside town where Christian Kane, a notorious playboy, challenges her to express herself and to overcome her fear of the sea.





Why: Sarah Ockler is a mainstay in contemporary YA fiction. Bonus points for a great cover. 





Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway: Sheltered seventeen-year-old Emmy's childhood best friend Oliver reappears after disappearing with his father ten years ago. 





Why: Like Ockler, Benway is a staple name in YA. Her new book looks to be no different. 















Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older: When the murals painted on the walls of her Brooklyn neighborhood start to change and fade in front of her, Sierra Santiago realizes that something strange is going on--then she discovers her Puerto Rican family are shadowshapers and finds herself in a battle with an evil anthropologist for the lives of her family and friends.





Why: An urban fantasy novel featuring a girl of color. Let's talk about that killer cover, too. I am dying to read this, even though it's not my usual genre. 





Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas: Ollie, who has seizures when near electricity, lives in a backwoods cabin with his mother and rarely sees other people, and Moritz, born with no eyes and a heart defect that requires a pacemaker, is bullied at his high school, but when a physician who knows both suggests they begin corresponding, they form a strong bond that may get them through dark times.





Why: If there were one book I got more review copies of than any other this year, it might be this one. Interestingly, there are some parallels between this one's description and the forthcoming Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon. 





Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella: Fourteen-year-old Audrey is making slow but steady progress dealing with her anxiety disorder when Linus comes into the picture and her recovery gains momentum.





Why: Sophie Kensella is a huge name in adult fiction ("chick lit," though I loathe the term) and the reviews for her first YA title have been solid. This one features a younger-than-usual teen, too, which is a bonus. 













The Devil You Know by Trish Doller: Exhausted and rebellious after three years of working for her father and mothering her brother, eighteen-year-old Arcadia "Cadie" Wells joins two cousins who are camping their way through Florida, soon learning that one's a murderer. 





Why: Trish Doller has been building a name for herself in contemporary realistic YA, and her first foray into the thriller genre is going to keep her reputation going in a positive direction. This is a fast-paced read, perfect for summer. 





The Stars Never Rise by Rachel Vincent: 





Why: Another urban fantasy title for shelves by Rachel Vincent, who made a name for herself in the adult urban fantasy realm. 





The Book of Spirits and Thieves by Morgan Rhodes: A mysterious book and ancient magic bring together four young people in modern-day Toronto and the ancient kingdoms of Mytica. 





Why:  Morgan's kicking off a new series with this one, and her previous series, "Falling Kingdoms," has been popular. 













I Am The Traitor by Allen Zadoff (book three in "The Unknown Assassin" series): After breaking free of The Program, Boy Nobody is on a mission of his own to reclaim his life and rescue his friend Howard from the secret organization that has turned him and other orphaned children into trained assassins--but he has no idea who, if anyone, he can trust, or what the consequences will be if he succeeds in bringing down The Program.





Why: This is the third book in Zadoff's "Unknown Assassin" series, which is great for those more reluctant readers who want a fast-paced thriller. 





More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera: After enduring his father's suicide, his own suicide attempt, broken friendships, and more in the Bronx projects, Aaron Soto, sixteen, is already considering the Leteo Institute's memory-alteration procedure when his new friendship with Thomas turns to unrequited love.





Why: A "light science fiction" title by debut author Silvera features a queer character. 





Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn: When nearly killing a classmate gets seventeen-year-old Sadie Su kicked out of her third boarding school in four years, she returns to her family’s California vineyard estate. Here, she’s meant to stay out of trouble. Here, she’s meant to do a lot of things. But it’s hard. She’s bored. And when Sadie’s bored, the only thing she likes is trouble.



Emerson Tate’s a poor boy living in a rich town, with his widowed mother and strange, haunted little brother. All he wants his senior year is to play basketball and make something happen with the girl of his dreams. That’s why Emerson’s not happy Sadie’s back. An old childhood friend, she knows his worst secrets. The things he longs to forget. The things she won’t ever let him.



Haunted is a good word for fifteen-year-old Miles Tate. Miles can see the future, after all. And he knows his vision of tragic violence at his school will come true, because his visions always do. That’s what he tells the new girl in town. The one who listens to him. The one who recognizes the darkness in his past.



But can Miles stop the violence? Or has the future already been written? Maybe tragedy is his destiny. Maybe it’s all of theirs.  (via Goodreads)





Why:  Kuehn is the 2014 winner of the Morris Award for a debut novel, and her third offering takes all she's done well so far and amps it up another notch. This is a diverse read, and it's super dark. 










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Reading Fatigue

Last year was my first year as a Round 1 judge for the Cybils, and I think it contributed a lot to just a feeling of general reading fatigue. Aside from school, reading has never felt like a chore to me, but it got to be that way sometimes during Cybils season. This is not to say I didn't enjoy it, but I definitely read a lot more, a lot faster, and a lot of it was stuff that I didn't much like.



I knew I'd need a switch in my reading habits for a while afterward to recover. What I didn't count on was how long that switch would last. I don't know if it's permanent or not, but I haven't been reading much YA speculative fiction at all this year. My hands aren't itching for the sequel to the book I loved so much last year, and I've picked up stuff I'm usually guaranteed to like and set it back down almost immediately.



This is not to say I've stopped reading YA SFF completely. I still have several books in that category going at a time, but I don't consume them at the rate that I used to, and often I'll put off finishing the last 50 pages of a YA fantasy to instead start something else completely different. Below are the categories that I've been reading a lot more of lately - let's just call 2015 (or at least the first half of 2015) the year of the audiobook and the romance novel.



Audiobooks

I'm a fidgeter. I can't just sit and watch a television show or movie, I also need to be doing something with my hands, like putting together a puzzle or playing Candy Crush. Sometimes when I'm reading a book, I'll feel like I also need to be doing something with my hands, and holding up the book doesn't cut it. Audiobooks fulfill this need so well, because I can listen to a book while also messing around on my phone or doing laundry. While I've listened to some YA on audio this year, most of my audiobook listening has been in the categories below.



Romance Novels

I love romance novels for many, many reasons, but the primary one this year has been the guaranteed happily ever after. There's a lot of changes (and potential changes on the horizon) happening in my life right now and I just don't want stress from my fiction to contribute to stress in my reality. I read everything Courtney Milan has written that I could get my hands on, dove back into Julia Quinn, brushed up on Sarah MacLean, and gave Scribd a trial run so I could consume a bunch of other authors in short order. I've finally overcome my aversion to e-books thanks to my romance reading, since a lot of what I want to read is only available in e-formats. But I've also listened to a lot of romance on audio, which isn't actually as awkward as I thought it would be. Though I do tend to put my headphones in when the sexy times happen. Even if no one's around.



Nonfiction

I've listened to some really heavy nonfiction, but most of it is narrative nonfiction, meaning that I can actually go and research what happened so I'm not surprised going into it. It removes the suspense, which may seem boring to some readers, but is really reassuring to me at this point in my life. I've read a lot about cults, including some memoirs of people who have escaped some really awful stuff. But that's the important part: they've escaped it. I've also read some really fascinating science nonfiction that has enabled me to learn more about my world and myself. Most recently, I inhaled Emily Nagoski's Come As You Are , which is a book about women's sexuality. It's awesome enough that it deserves its own blog post, so I won't go into a lot of detail here, but if you are a woman and/or have sex with a woman, you should read it.



Mysteries

I've always loved the classic sort of mystery where an amateur sleuth solves a whodunnit, bonus points if there's lots of humor (which is why I tend to stay away from mysteries featuring actual detectives or FBI agents or whatnot). Again, these sorts of stories provide a lot of comfort, much in the same way romances do: I know the sleuth will catch the bad guy by the end of the book. My Elizabeth Peters binge belongs in this category. I need an Amelia Peabody in my life.



Subtitles

OK, this one doesn't really count. But I've been watching a lot of Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Bob's Burgers. I'm not saying Tina Belcher is my hero, but I've known since early this year that I'll be dressing as her for Halloween.
             

Blogging Vacation

With Book Expo America here, we're on vacation! We'll be back next Monday with our regularly scheduled books and mayhem.
             

Debut YA Novels of May

It's time for another round-up of debut YA novels of the month.



Like always, this round-up includes debut novels, where "debut" is in its purest definition. These are first-time books by first-time authors. I'm not including books by authors who are using or have used a pseudonym in the past or those who have written in other categories (adult, middle grade, etc.) in the past.



All descriptions are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. If I'm missing any debuts out in February from traditional publishers, let me know in the comments. As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. 











Tracked by Jenny Martin: Phee Van Zant, an orphaned street-racer on the corrupt planet Castra, gets swept up in the corporate rally circuit and an even bigger revolution.





Immaculate by Katelyn Detweiler: Mina, seventeen, has everything going for her until she discovers she is pregnant and no one, especially her boyfriend and her father, will believe that she is a virgin except for the few who have faith that miracles are possible and that her unborn child could be the greatest miracle of all.





The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh: In this reimagining of The Arabian Nights, Shahrzad plans to avenge the death of her dearest friend by volunteering to marry the murderous boy-king of Khorasan but discovers not all is as it seems within the palace.











Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton: Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance, but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.





The Novice by Taran Matharu: When blacksmith apprentice Fletcher discovers that he has the ability to summon demons from another world, he travels to Adept Military Academy where must decide where his loyalties lie. The fate of an empire is in his hands.





Becoming Jinn by Lori Goldstein: Behind closed doors, sixteen-year-old Azra is learning how to harness her powers and fulfill the obligations of her destiny. Mentored by her mother and her Zar "sisters," Azra discovers she may not be quite like the rest of her circle of female Jinn ... and that her powers could endanger them all.













5 to 1 by Holly Bodger: In a dystopian future where gender selection has led to boys outnumbering girls 5 to 1 marriage is arranged based on a series of tests. It's Sudasa's turn to pick a husband through this 'fair' method, but she's not sure she wants to be a part of it.





Love, Fortunes, and Other Disasters by Kimberly Karalius: Devastated by a "love fortune" indicating that she will be a spinster, fifteen-year-old Fallon decides to take control of her own fate, even if it means working with Sebastian, a notorious heartbreaker.





The Cost of All Things by Maggie Lehrman: When her boyfriend dies, a grieving Ari uses a spell to erase her memories of him, but this spell triggers a series of events that reveal hidden, and sometimes dangerous, connections between her friends and the boyfriend she no longer remembers.













Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert: A small-town boy questions everything he holds to be true when his father is accused of murder. 





Made You Up by Francesca Zappia: Armed with her camera and a Magic 8-Ball and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college





Emancipated by M. G. Reyes: The good girl, the bad boy, the diva, the hustler, the rock star, and the nerd. Six teens legally liberated from parental control for six different reasons, all with one thing in common: something to hide. 



Now they’re sharing a house in Venice Beach, acting like a family, and living their lies. No parents. No limits. No alibis. One witnessed a crime, another might be a murderer—and one’s been spying on them all.



As they cling to a fantasy of freedom and slowly let down their guards, the past creeps up on them. And when one of them gets arrested, everyone’s carefully constructed facade comes crumbling down. 



In this steamy, drama-filled series, relationships are tested and secrets revealed as lies threaten to destroy their perfect setup.  (via Edelweiss) 









Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham: Scarlett, a sixteen-year-old private detective in the fictional city of Las Almas, finds herself at the center of a mysterious case--involving ancient curses, priceless artifacts, and jinn--as she discovers that her own family secrets may have more to do with the situation than she thinks.



Anything Could Happen by Will Walton: A phenomenal debut about a gay Southern boy in love with his straight best friend. 













Material Girls by Elaine Dimopoulos: Teens Ivy Wilde and Marla Klein, both minor celebrities, face major lifestyle changes as pop-star Ivy questions the rampant consumerism required to maintain her image, and fashionista Marla sees first-hand the appalling working conditions that allowed her to be a trend-setter.





The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell: In Japan, teenaged Abe Sora, who is afflicted with "Lou Gehrig's Disease," finds friends online and elicits their help to end his suffering.






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This Week at Book Riot & Disability in Kid Lit

Over at Book Riot this week:







I talked about the Belmont Public Library for Birds, my current favorite Twitter feed in the world. 



This week's 3 On A YA Theme showcases three YA diverse speculative short story collections.





Over at Disability in Kid Lit, I shared my story about depression and why we need more depictions of how depression functions in YA lit. I've been completely overwhelmed by the response to this piece, both over there and privately. Thank you for everyone who read, shared, and reached out to me. I've tried to respond to every person, but if I missed anyone, it was totally accidental.



Please spend time reading through the entire Mental Illness series over there this week. It's fantastic.
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Giveaway: Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone + $25 Visa Giftcard

Earlier this week, I reviewed and raved about Tamara Ireland Stone's Every Last Word. Today, I've got a fun giveaway. One lucky person will win two copies of the book, one for you and one for a friend, along with a $25 Visa Gift Card. This is a US-only giveaway, with prizes provided by Disney-Hyperion.



Here's the official description of the book:



Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand:  Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.

Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.

Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

I really thought this was a stand out contemporary novel about mental illness, with a really nice romance included.



If you're curious, I can't encourage you enough to enter the giveaway. Winner will be pulled in early June so you can get your prizes around when the book publishes June 16.



LEARN MORE

Learn more on HyperionTeens.comFollow Disney-Hyperion on Twitter and TumblrFollow Tamara Ireland Stone on Twitter and Tumblr#EveryLastWord



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