Aurora: Secrets behind Reality by Marina Latcko

[Sheri, Bookworm]

We will be starting Monday.

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

Is she sending us a copy or do we need to sign up to review it?

[Sheri, Bookworm]

No she's going to send it. I gave her the email addresses you and Alyssia use to sign up for books in Making Connections.

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

Ok, I will keep checking my email.

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

How many chapters/day?

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

I am not a fan of Marc. He has to have some powers. He can definitely influence people's opinions of him. Can he read minds? Poor Maya and Nicole!

I got an early start.

[Lys]

I got mine. I haven't read any yet, but I will later. What's the pace?

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

I was wondering the samething.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Just downloaded it. 26 chapters, so 5 a day?

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

Works for me. I have another book I need to review this week.

[Marina]

Hi ladies, may I please put in a comment? :) The first part chapters are shorter. Just thought you may like to know for better calculation. Sorry for butting in again :)

[Sheri, Bookworm]

No problem Marina. I have to work now, but I'll be back on later :)

[Lys]

5 a day works for me. Even if they do at longer.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I'm not that far in yet, but I can definitely see the language/vocabulary as being a point of concern. It is almost too formal for a regular everyday teenager, too rigid. It does not make for smooth transitional reading.

There are also a few phrases that I'm not sure I understand the meaning of, for instance at location 322 (4%) – "Just a few more efforts and I'd get my burst!" – I'm not sure what that means.

Another one was location 333 (4%) when she is hitting the punching bag – "My subconscious was definitely trying to hint at something. I suddenly stopped realizing it, all exasperation gone." – I'm not sure what "I suddenly stopped realizing it" means.

Other than that, I'm enjoying the story so far. I'm done with work and dinner is cooking, so I'll get some more reading in now :)

[Lys]

I am having similar issues.

The language is not convincing for the age group.
Also, the way the character talks to her mom? The mom's use of "all rightie" and the fact that both best friend and mom call her "darling."
There are phrases that repeat from various sources that seem unlikely to be used by both sources. If your mom says "darling", you probably don't.

It's mostly a stilted/flow issue. I haven't gotten very far, but it's really the only concern I have noticed.

There is also (related) a lot of "tell" rather than "show". In fact, there is hardly any "show" so far. Granted, I am not very far yet either.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Marina - Most of what I see are just language/translation issues that make sense, but not for the setting of a typical American family...

"My mom's voice advised me to go to bed." While this makes sense as a sentence, you wouldn't normally hear 'advised' being used that way. There is a lot of this throughout the story - It's not bad or even wrong, just not very American.

Also, "waited for the time to turn 0:00" - I don't know anyone anywhere in the US that uses a 24-hour clock (what we call military time). She should be waiting for the clock to turn to 12:00.

[Lys]

Oh yeah, I highlighted that part.
The 00:00 thing. It confused me a lot.

I am finding the same thing. Most of the sentences aren't "wrong", but if I were grading, I would constantly be talking to my students about clarity and flow. The writing is choppy and it doesn't "feel" like a story because there's a lack of total immersion.

I completely agree with Sheri, btw. This isn't anything "wrong" in any way. I don't want you to feel that you are being nitpicked. But there is a lost in translation aspect to some of the phrases and structure.

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

I had the same issues but other than the language I am enjoying the story.

What did y'all think of Marc?

[Sheri, Bookworm]

I'm not that far into it yet. I've only seen her spying on him. I'm off to read now, though.

[Lys]

My kindle has a new feature today that I have never seen before.
It keeps "calculating" my reading speed and telling me how long til the next chapter.

It is entirely too distracting, as I keep focusing on "beating" it, and then having to reread things.
I am not pleased.

Where did this come from?

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Alyssia wrote: "Where did this come from?"

Lol! Mine changed to that a couple weeks ago. They 'upgraded' the Kindle system. You should have gotten a message from Amazon about it - maybe they missed you.

They made some other changes, too...I think the main one being they no longer have an 'archives' for books not downloaded onto the Kindle. Instead it is a 'cloud.' The other changes as far as I can tell are just appearance.

[Lys]

It must have been that I turned on my wireless to get this book today and it updated everything.
Because, it is completely new.
So distressing. :/

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Marina,
Another thing I have noticed about the grammar is pronoun placement: "Though interested she seemed in what I said..." In spoken English this doesn't make much sense. It should be - Though she seemed interested in what I said... - I've seen that in a few different places as well.

P.S. I liked the conspiracy theory about the Denver Airport. I have family spread out all over Colorado and have frequented that airport (and actually spent 48 hours stuck there one winter with my then 4-year-old and my sister – it was storming everywhere north of Colorado and no planes were going out – we were stuck!).

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Leigh wrote: "I had the same issues but other than the language I am enjoying the story.

What did y'all think of Marc?"

There is definitely something strange going on with Marc. He's a jerk. Do you think he's hypnotizing the girls or something? That's almost what it seems like since at one minute Nikki is thinking of how great he is and then the next she seems confused as to why she thought that.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Things I Never Thought I Would Hear Myself Say #683: "Chase, don't use The Force on your sister."

Lol! They were playing Star Wars Wii (yes, I've made my kids love it as much as me).

[Marina]

Good morning ladies,

You see how your discussion is helpful :) I never knew about 24 hr clock being 'military time', so interesting!
I wrote the beginning almost a year ago, and since that time my spoken language has improved, at least I hope so :), so after seeing all the comments, I'm going to rewrite certain parts which are incomprehesible and not credible. And could you meanwhile advise me some popular book where I can see lots of dialogues with teenage speech? But it really should be popular, so that I can find it in our book stores. I am ready to read any genre as long as it has these vital samples for me.

Any advice on it is appreciated! :)

Looking forward to seeing more from you!
Thanks a lot for contribution

[Lys]

I think that "Before I Fall" by Lauren Oliver does a very good job with both dialogue and narration from a teenage PoV.
She is a pretty popular author, so that might be useful.
I will try to think of some more popular examples.
I can also send you a message with some of my highlights regarding awkward wording later on in the book, if you like.
One thing I would highly recommend if you are going to go back and edit things early on - check out places like urbandictionary.com and also familiarize yourself with some idioms. Or, it's not like you need to overly "Americanize" your book. The other option would be to have your MC "explain" the idiom. Since she is telling this story, literally, she could say "which means ___" in Russian. It would serve to inform your readers, but it also wouldn't "feel" out of place.

I know that idioms are probably the hardest. When I went to live in France for a few months, I bought several books that were just idioms, cliches adn conversational language (aka slang), because that was more important than knowing the language "proper".

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Before I Fall would be a good one. We read it a couple of weeks ago and were talking about how 'real' it seemed.

Beautiful Creatures and Pushing the Limits come to mind, too.

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

I typed in some comments on my ipad and for some reasons they did not post. I hate that!

What do y'all think about the mysterious iPhone? Do you think Marc planted it? Is he continuing to manipulate Nika through the phone?

Conspiracy theories are everywhere.

Why did Nika faint in the classroom? Did it have anything to do with what Marc did to her?

I am confused about something. Nika and her mother are form Russia so their speech would not be perfect American English, right?

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

I haven't any read contemperary YA books. Most of mine have been paranormal or dystopian. I don't think that would help.

Two of my favorites are and

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Leigh wrote: "I typed in some comments on my ipad and for some reasons they did not post. I hate that!"

Answers to all your questions...
I hate it when I type something out and it doesn't save - especially on a tablet. They are hard to type on!

I was wondering if Marc planted the phone - maybe we'll find out more about it in today's chapters.

I think (maybe Marina can clarify) that Nika's mom is Russian but her dad is American - Nika is American. I was actually thinking about that, too, because if her mom is Russian her language wouldn't necessarily be perfect English.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Alyssia wrote: "The other option would be to have your MC "explain" the idiom. Since she is telling this story, literally, she could say "which means ___" in Russian. It would serve to inform your readers, but it also wouldn't "feel" out of place..."

I like that idea, too. Because she has a Russian heritage, she probably would pick some of that up from her Russian family.

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

Sheri wrote: "Things I Never Thought I Would Hear Myself Say #683: "Chase, don't use The Force on your sister."

Lol! They were playing Star Wars Wii (yes, I've made my kids love it as much as me)."

Both my son and youngest daughter love Star Wars. They also love comics and superheroes! YAY! I have done my job well!

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Leigh wrote: "
Both my son and youngest daughter love Star Wars. They also love comics and superheroes! YAY! I have done my job well!"

Something to be proud of :)

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Okay – Chapters 5-10

What do you guys think of Rick? He reminds me a lot of Marc…He's like Nika's dream guy so she trusts him at first, but after a while he starts getting kind of sketchy. And then she trusts him again…back and forth like she can't make up her mind. I'm not sure what to think of him…is he going to help her save the day or is he going to betray her somehow?

And that chain is strange. Definitely want to know more about that and the pictures. Her father was definitely into something. Time travel??

And why was Marc in Florida? He's getting a little creepy. Same question for him – is he going to end up being the good guy? From the prologue I cannot see that happening, but he is so

The story is great. There is a lot of mystery and suspense. As of yet I have no clue as to what is going on, but the ideas put forth are intriguing enough to keep me interested.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Some other things I like - The story doesn't shy away from teenage sex. We've talked about this before with other YA books - how they don't talk about it or pretend it doesn't happen when in reality everyone knows it does - so I like a book that isn't afraid of it.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Some quotes I like -

"Well, his speaking and thinking abilities had considerably deteriorated since our last friendly chatter…"

"…A very manly technique: to let a girl be the first to face any danger ahead."

[Marina]

Ladies, I'm back :) First of all, thank you very much for your thoughtful comments and suggestions - I will definitely want to check out the titles you mentioned in our bookstores, but they're incredibly slow on getting the latest books, sometimes even quite negligent on old hits, let alone the books I usually need :)
Star Wars have an amusing story in them if you're ready to 'hear' it. Those days we were rather closed to the rest of the world as you know but then some our teen tv program happened to get a copy of SW 6 and they showed it (I suppose illegally) in bits of 1-2 minutes. Can you imagine that? And can you understand my complete devotion to this program? :) That was literally the first movie of the kind I'd seen in my life - so count me in :)

Alyssia, I really used the dictionaries (Urban icl.), but the point is they failed to have any translations into Russian for the most needed phrases, so sometimes I had to just let it be directly translated - I admit.

Sheri, that is sooooo amazing you like my story, and I am wild with joy to see OMG!!! you quote me! That's fantastic :)
And I saw that thread when you discussed premarital sex - so glad I comply (to some extent) with your expectations :)

So, I'm around if you need me and still very curious :)

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

I love the mystery and intrigue! I did not expect that.

What's up with the iPhone? She keeps getting cryptic messages from it. Are "they" tracking Nika with it?

Dad dies mysteriously and leaves a Bilble and a chain with a cross on it. These things evidently have something to do with what he knew and why he died.

Marc blew on Jenny's cut and it miraculously healed? Now he is Nika's grandmother's house. What's up with that? I don't trust him!

Mysterious black van scoping out her grandmother's house.

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

Teenage sex doesn't necessarily bother me in a book but does in real life since my daughter is eleven. I don't want to think about that.

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Leigh wrote: "Marc blew on Jenny's cut and it miraculously healed?..."

I had forgotten about that...

[Sheri, Bookworm]

Leigh wrote: "Teenage sex doesn't necessarily bother me in a book but does in real life since my daughter is eleven. I don't want to think about that."

Exactly! I hate thinking about it in real life, too! I'm actually more worried about my son (13) right now than my daughter (since she's 18 now I have to trust that what we've taught her is enough)- I want to make sure he understands that women are not objects and need to be treated with respect. He's a good kid, though, so I think he'll be okay.

[Marina]

Sheri wrote: ... I'm actually more worried about my son

Sheri, I'm sure he'll be okay with all that reading behind :) but hormones are a very nasty thing - they can hit hard and tooo prematurely.

[Leigh, ⚔️ Wonder Woman ⚔️]

I agree hormones and peer pressure are not a good combination.

[Lys]

I'm behind.
I caught a cold and went to sleep way early last night.
I will try to catch up tomorrow.
Sorry to Marina, and I do promise to continue interacting, but I am not going to read all of these comments until I'm caught up.
I think I'm on Chapter 7 right now.

[Marina]

Alyssia wrote: "I'm behind.
I caught a cold and went to sleep way early last night.
I will try to catch up tomorrow.
Sorry to Marina, and I do promise to continue interacting, but I am not going to read all of the..."

Oh Alyssia, so sorry to hear that - get well soon! What's the weather like in your part of the world?

[Lys]

It's been going up and down like mad. Half my students are ill too, and they have a major project due this week.
Days are in the mid to high 60's, but the nights are leaving frost on the cars.
Not cool.

[Marina]

Nasty kind of weather when the temperature behaves like this. And we're stuck in winter - fresh white snow everywhere :) Live 3 winter months and get a gift of 2 more - that's the most popular saying around here :)

[Lys]

I forgot to plug in my kindle last night (I actually rolled over on top of it from what I can tell), but as soon as it charges I'll try to get in a few more chapters. Tomorrow will definitely be my catch-up day though. I'm gone for about 12 hours on Wednesdays, starting at 8 (1 hour, 20 min from now).

[Marina]

Oh, so many hours! Take good care there among those ill students. And I'm leaving for mine :)