Book Love: Where She Went

WHERE SHE WENT
Gayle Forman
Dutton

If I Stay was an amazing novel. It was intense, emotional, and gripping. It was an entirely new take on the theme of grief in YA (at least for me) and it handled everything so well. Obviously the sequel, Where She Went, has a lot to live up to - not only because of how great the first book was but also because If I Stay is not a novel that demands a sequel. It told a complete story that ended, not with a cliff-hanger, but with various threads that didn't really need to be sewn up. I didn't finish If I Stay hoping for a sequel; I finished it thrilled at what a great story it was and how much I was drawn in and wrapped up in Mia's life-or-death struggle.

So while I knew that Gayle Forman is a talented storyteller, I wasn't quite sure what Where She Went would be like. Told from Adam's viewpoint and picking up three years after Mia's accident, it somehow manages to do the impossible. Not only is it just as emotional and gripping as its predecessor, but it also takes a story that is complete and made it even better, delving deeper into what happened when Mia went into her coma. It made a sequel to If I Stay seem not necessary, but inevitable... all while telling a completely different story from a different character, in a different place, and a different time.

I picked up Where She Went one afternoon and didn't put it down until I had read the entire thing. I didn't close the book, check the clock, or reach for a bookmark even once. I just kept turning the pages, holding my breath and crossing my fingers right along with Adam.

I love this book. I hesitate to say it's better than the first, because opinions will vary on that, but it's definitely a worthy sequel as well as being absolutely brilliant in its own right. It's amazing, incredible, and absolutely stunning. 

I'm back...

over here.

:)

What's the Point of Reviewing?

A few comments on a few different blog posts during this whole mafia kerfuffle have called into question why an aspiring writer would even want to write reviews. Why, as someone who wants to be an author, would you spend your time reviewing books (time that could be spent writing your own stories), why would you be upset if someone tells you that you shouldn't be reviewing or sharing your opinion on the internet? Really, what's the big deal with giving it up and where's the merit in reviewing anyway?

Looking at books critically, thinking about the different aspects of a work and finding out why it did or didn't work for me has always helped with my own writing. When I conscientiously notice how vital and wonderfully-written the setting in Daisy Whitney's The Mockingbirds is, I can also look at how she did that and how I can do the same thing with my novel. It's been said that the only apprenticeship writers have is reading and I would argue that reviewing takes that one step further by looking more deeply at a book. It's like taking a book apart, looking at all the pieces, finding out what makes them fit together the way they do, and then trying to build your own book. For this analogy to work you really must imagine books as clocks.

So yes, reviewing does take time that could be spent writing. However, that time could also be spent eating, watching television, going to the grocery store, doing laundry, or a hundred other things that don't help writing the way reviewing does.

I reviewed books because I love them. It's easy to ask why on earth I'd want to both write and review others' writing, but my love of books doesn't stop at writing them. I love reading them and I love talking about them - blogging and reviewing allowed me to do this. Though my friends and family read, almost nobody reads the same genre as I do and none of them can endlessly discuss books the way I love to. I don't have reader friends and it was nice to be a part of a community (YA bloggers) that are similarly passionate about books, about the YA genre, and like discussing the same things that I do.

Blogging about books, either through reviews or discussion posts, is something that I loved. Giving up something that you love or being told that you should give up something that you love or that it conflicts with something else that you love -- that's hard.

*I'm cross-posting this on my former blog, Ten Cent Notes.

Topics of the YA Mafia

I came home from school today and opened Twitter to find a plethora of tweets about the YA mafia, a topic that both Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier had discussed on their blogs. I've spent most of this afternoon reading all the blog posts and comments about the YA mafia, as well as a bunch of related, older posts.

I have so much to say. There's so much here to discuss.

First, what is the YA mafia?

It's the idea of a tightly-knit group of YA authors who blurb, promote, and review each others' books who can also ruin your (possibly non-existent) career if you insult them or give them a bad review. It's a concern primarily for those who are both book bloggers/reviewers and aspiring authors.

It's also not real. But the issue is a bit more complex than that. There are a couple of facets at play here and some of them are legitimate concerns that I'd like to talk about.

1. The idea that there is a clique of YA authors who blurb and promote each other's books because they are friends.
2. Negative reviews harming the possible writing career of the reviewer.

CLIQUES IN YA

I may be in the minority of readers/aspiring authors here, but I don't care if YA authors are cliquey. Do I think they are? No. I think that authors who are, after all, colleagues, have every right to be friends with each other, read each others work, enjoy each others books and blurb and promote them. The idea that a blurb on a book cover should be accompanied by a disclaimer that the two authors are friends strikes me as ridiculous. 

Authors are allowed to be friends. As a reader, writer, aspiring author, I'm glad they're friends. Writing is lonely. Having somebody understand how difficult it is, sympathize, talk you off the ledge and discuss books in your genre with is great. If an author likes a friend's book better than another author's book, maybe they honestly think their friend's book is better. Everyone has a bias. Knowing the person behind the book often does help you appreciate the book more. That's not a bad thing. To me, there's nothing ethically wrong about authors sticking together and cheering each other on.

NEGATIVE REVIEWS ARE BAD FOR THE ASPIRING AUTHOR

I don't know if this is true, but I don't know it's not. Many authors that I hugely respect and admire, including Maureen Johnson and Justine Larbalestier, say that authors don't have the power to make sure that their agent or editor doesn't take on a blogger, even one that gave them a scathing review. But by the same token I've been told (me, personally) by agents that they won't take on a client whose publicly spoken against another client's book. I've also been told by an author that she'd be offended if her agent took on a blogger who hated her books. 

Whether or not reviews can harm your writing career, it is a legitimate worry. For some, there is an undercurrent of fear running through all of this. Though I gave up reviewing I second-guess nearly every. single. thing. that I say on this blog because of what happened last month during the #querychat and ensuing posts by Stacia Kane. It may be true that the only one who can ruin my (nonexistent) career is me, but it's equally true that there's a fear that I could ruin that career without even realizing it. That's the terrifying part. Not that there's a secret YA mafia out there, not that an author is going to be offended by something I say, but that somehow I'm doing something terribly and obviously wrong and there's no way to take it back. 

My personal opinion on this is that there's not actually anything wrong with aspiring authors reviewing books honestly and critically, but I have no power. And obviously as much as I see nothing wrong with it, I don't have the fortitude to stand by that and continue reviewing books myself. If I don't think I was doing anything wrong, why stop? Because honestly I have heard enough that makes me worry that I'm hurting myself and burning unbuilt bridges with those in the publishing world by reviewing. Not that there's a "blacklist" of publishing or a YA mafia, but that I would step on the wrong toes and hurt my relationships with authors who might someday be my colleagues. 

IN CONCLUSION...

I know I'm not the person to talk about this, but I wanted to toss my hat into the fray because this is an issue that's close to me and since I was mentioned in Larbalestier's post (in Phoebe North's comment), I wanted to give you my perspective on the surrounding issues. 

The Good & Bad of Not Reviewing

THE GOOD:

• I no longer feel so required to finish books I'm bored by or don't like. In the past I would often continue reading a meh sort of book, knowing that I was going to read it, after the point that it ceased to be interesting to me. Now I don't feel as obligated to keep going with these books and it's easier to put them aside earlier.
• More time. Writing reviews is time-consuming. Now I get to spend that time doing awesome stuff like watching Friday Night Lights and Cute Win Fail videos on YouTube.
• I don't have to think about how someone might respond or react to my reviews.
• I get to focus so much more on those books that I absolutely love.

THE BAD:

• I miss it; I really liked reviewing every YA book I read, in spite of the time it took.
• My blog is unfocused. This, in case you haven't noticed, is something that really bothers me. When I was reviewing I knew who my target audience was - other readers of contemporary YA and MG - but without reviews I honestly don't know if I'm blogging for readers, fellow writers, or just to hear the sound of my own keyboard click-clacking.
• Less blogging material. Just like I don't know who I'm blogging for, I'm also still trying to figure out what I'm really blogging about.

Where is the Magic Writing Formula?

I love looking at all the books on writing and publishing. After the YA section, it's probably my favorite part of the bookstore. I mean, there's so much promise there. Write your novel this year! Write your novel in a month! No plot? NO PROBLEM. How to write science fiction. How to write short stories. How to write a sentence, a scene, a character. Plot-building, world-building, inspiration. I go into this part of the bookstore and I just feel like I need everything. I need to know how to create scenes and outline a plot and do writing exercises, right?

Right. Totally. Definitely.

So I start going through these books and flipping to random pages the way I do when I'm shopping for books and most of what I read is stuff I've heard before. Where is all the new information? Where is the magic formula for the perfect plot/character/scene/novel? Is it not here in this bookstore? OMG.


It always takes a while before I remember that reading another book on writing won't actually write my novel for me. It won't make it easier. It won't get me an agent or editor. It might give me more information, but without actually writing even that information won't be worth anything.

Thinking about writing won't finish the book.
Reading about writing won't finish the book.
Only sitting down and writing will finish the book. Or edit the book, rewrite it, polish it. Nothing accomplishes this except for actually working on it.

Of course, having said all of that... I actually did end up buying another writing book this time. I'm about a third of the way through The Art of War for Writers and so far I really like it.

Stealing Time for Reading

I read very often. I read while eating, while online, between classes, and while watching television. Because apparently I think my mind can multitask like that.

But I hardly ever just read. Without doing something else, without paying attention to what time it is or what else I should be doing or anything else.

Last night though, I was so tired. I meant to come home and study and watch Friday Night Lights but I was too tired to even get my computer out of its case. I was like well, I'd have to plug it in. And then I'd have to go to Netflix. And I'd have to take all these books off my bed to have a place to put the computer... aw, forget it. So I just curled up among all those books on my bed and, because I was too tired to do anything else but didn't want to go to sleep (it was like eight o'clock) I started reading.

I don't know how long I read for. I know I got up eventually, took a shower, then came back and finished the book.

It was so much fun. I rarely take the time out to just focus on reading without having any other distractions and doing so reminded me of how great reading really is and how much I love it. So often I feel like I should be doing something else, usually schoolwork or my own writing. Honestly one of the reasons I loved reviewing books was because I felt that obligation to reading, like it was something else I had to do instead of feeling like it was taking away from other things.

Without that, I often feel like I'm "stealing time" to read (That said, I do steal a lot of time) and I'd like to get away from that viewpoint. I'd like to be able to devote even a little bit of time to reading without feeling like I should be focusing on something else instead.

What about you? Do you often feel like you should be doing something else with that time you spend reading? Do you tend to multitask read like I do or are you better at focusing on reading and nothing else?