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. 

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 Best Feelings

A few days ago Khy from Frenetic Reader shared some of her favorite feelings about reading and I love that idea, so I'm stealing it. BECAUSE FRIENDS STEAL FROM EACH OTHER, RIGHT?*

1. I love it when a book pulls me in so well that I can't stop reading, that the pages just keep turning and even though I should do some laundry or homework or sleep or talk to my family I just cant. stop. reading. That's one of the most amazing feelings and even though I look at the clock later and hours and hours have past I so rarely regret spending a day on a truly great book.

2. I love when the title or cover of a book matches the book just so perfectly.

3. I love the lines or passages in books that I just feel the need to write down and save because they're either so pretty or  relatable or hilarious. Sometimes, I confess, I'll reread a book just to find whatever great lines it has.

4. I love totally falling in love with a book. Geeking out, fangirling over it, and yelling about how impressive it is on Twitter and often telling my family and friends that they MUST READ IT OMG.

5. I love that moment right before turning to the first page of a book, that moment when anything is possible and this story could be the best I've ever read. That moment is so full of opportunity and anticipation and a leap of faith that when I begin reading this story I'll be in good hands.

There are so many other things I love about books and reading, but those are for another time.

ennui is a really fun word, but also weird

In case you haven't noticed, and you obviously have, I don't quite know what I'm doing yet. I haven't quite figured out the rules of this blog - what I will talk about, what I won't, what the focus is. I'd love for this to be a blog that is, still, focused on books and YA lit, but I know the problems I ran into last time and I'm wary of posting anything that could cause problems. I still don't know where the line is.

And I know that if this is going to become just another book blog, then what was the point of me giving up Ten Cent Notes (where I had a solid readership and had put years of effort into the blog) in the first place? I have to remind myself constantly that I started this new blog for a reason, a clean start, a fresh perspective. However, as much as I'd love to look at things from the writer's POV... nobody wants to hear that. Or if that's not true here's what is:

I don't feel comfortable having a writing blog, because I am not a writer except in the loosest definition of the word. I'm not okay with giving you writing advice because, really, why should you listen to me? Talking from the perspective of a writer often means talking about writing, and while I love talking writing with friends and family (because my mother is obligated to listen to my writing-related rants), I'm less enthusiastic about blogging about it because I'm pretty sure it's only interesting to me.

So, uh, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. I'm thinking about blogging about TELEVISION TELEVISION TELEVISION because I love television, but even that's something that I feel like would only interest me. And I do feel like, honestly, that small foothold I had into the world of YA lit has dissipated now that I'm not running a book blog and only occasionally talking about books on the blog. That really sucks, because I love YA and I love talking to other bloggers and being part of that community and feeling like I have a reason to talk to authors, like I'm not breaking some invisible wall between me and them. (True, this wall may only be in my mind, but it's still there.) I miss that and I'm not yet used to not talking books every day and sharing my opinions with people and writing book discussion posts about things that are bugging me or things I wish would change.

I'm sure it's just the fact that starting a new blog and quitting another puts you in an in-between, transition-y stage, and it hasn't been that long, really, but right now I do feel like books are the only interesting thing I have to talk about and omg omg what am I doing?


That's the question I'm trying to answer. So things are still going to be a bit rough around here for a few weeks while I figure it out.
But I don't know.
I'll figure it out eventually. Hopefully soon. The unending ennui is killing me slowly.