The Age Gap in YA: When Is Young Too Young?

Hi my darlings...time for a philosophical debate (no, not really. I was only trying to impress you).

I was rereading And Then Things Fall Apart by Arlaina Tibensky a few weeks ago, when it struck me that the protagonist is a 15 y.o. girl. Just like in Deadgirl by B.C. Johnson. And both books are among my favourites.

Now, I remember that, back when I was investigating Deadgirl in order to decide if it was worth a try, the lead's age caused me to wonder if I should commit to it. I was used to 16-17 y.o. main characters - who seem to be the standard material in YA novels. They're more mature (um, maybe...), or simply close enough to 18 without actually being that age. They have a driver's license, or are given more freedom by their parents, or are simply more resourceful when it comes to escape their supervision (well, um, one would assume). They are about to graduate and are figuring out what they want to do with their life. They're champing at the bit, defying authority and gravity - so to speak - at the same time...On the other hand, apparently, 14-15 is sort of a no-man's-land - too old to fit in the MG department, too young to be proper YA characters...or is it?

Christopher Pike: "Black Knight"

Title: Black Knight [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: Witch World (2nd of ?? books 2 books - the publisher put an end to the series after the 2nd installment didn't fare as well as expected)
Author: Christopher Pike [Facebook | Goodreads]
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Multiverse, Paranormal, Sci-Fi
Year: 2014
Age: 14+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Unique approach to witches and alternate universes. Faster pace and more cohesion than Book 1. Never a dull moment (with the possible exception of Ch. 1).
Cons: Heroine reads like a slightly different version of Sita (The Last Vampire/Thirst), this time with a penchant for being in love/lust with two men at a time. Most characters are unbelievably skilled for a bunch of newborn teen witches or witch wannabes. We don't get the explanations we need in the end (and it's unclear if we will, because there's no talk of a book 3 yet. I asked Pike himself and he said he wants to complete the series, but apparently his publishers have very little interest in it right now. Or - my take on the matter - maybe ever...).
WARNING! This one has blood and guts. Literally. Sex is mentioned/approached, but we don't really get to see it - only a would-be prelude.
Will appeal to: Those who like feisty female leads. Those who can tolerate some gore and suspend disbelief if a story draws them in. Those who don't necessarily need ALL the answers...

Blurb: Jessica Ralle thought the worst was over. The mindblowing revelations. The terrifying danger. The heartbreaking loss. Turns out, discovering Witch World was just the beginning. The riveting Witch World saga continues in a sequel packed with even more shocking twists and sexy suspense than Book One…(Amazon excerpt)
[BTW - I never comment in this section for obvious reasons but I HATE this blurb. It doesn't say anything about the story, and the "sexy suspense" is there for shock value only, so that this book can be lined out with a stream of supposedly successful and steamy novels (please notice the alliteration...it just popped up, and I decided to keep it...) that have nothing to do with it. Yes, there's sex - this is Christopher-friggin'-Pike after all, the one who was already incorporating sex into his books as far back as the '80s! - but "sexy suspense"? WTH? Someone at Simon & Schuster obviously tried hard to market this book as something it wasn't in order to draw attention to it. And failed nonetheless...]

Review: As my review of Red Queen testifies, I liked the first installment of this series, but didn't unconditionally love it. I've reread it prior to tackling this sequel, and despite enjoying some bits a lot, I still was annoyed at some others. The main problem for me - apart from the heroine Jessica reading too much like an alternate version of Sita without 5,000 years of living under her belt, but sometimes acting like she did - was that the book was all over the place. So I was pleasantly surprised by Black Knight being, on the whole, much more cohesive than its predecessor (which I admit it's not easy for a book set in two different universes, and sporting the addition of a second almost-main character). Also, this novel's got action, blood and guts (not that the first installment didn't, but it was still a crossover between such things and your average high-school aftermath), not to mention a bunch of mysteries of different kinds to keep you enthralled. And curveballed. (Can you say "curveballed"?). Of course, Jessica is still too good to be true - a 18 year old girl who can take care of anything under the sun while barely flinching, and a newborn witch who can fight with the best of them. Because go figure, there are others like her. But once removed from the post-high-school/normal life setting, the fact that six half-dozens of teenagers can be catapulted in the middle of a godforsaken place to be pitted against one another, and adjust to it, doesn't sound that far-fetched anymore...Yes, actually "catapulted" and "pitted". Because six groups of six witches and latent witches each find themselves stranded on an off-the-map island, where they are supposed to fight until only one of them remains. In typical Highlander fashion... [...]

Bloggers to Authors: Where Do You Cross the Line?

My darlings, you may think I'm deep in hibernation, but I assure you, it's not the case ;).

NOT ME

For one, I'm reading my new shiny books and having a blast so far. Two down, eight to go! Though you might say I'm savouring them, as opposed to swallowing the whole pack in a hunger frenzy.

Secondly, I'm bursting with blog ideas, which seem to have a penchant for haunting me when I happen to wake up in the middle of the night. I might as well get up and write my blog posts then, because I swear, they would be enchanting. Too bad I love my bed even more than I love my books and music (I'm not even kidding), so, come morning, I'm left with a bunch of awesome ideas (because luckily, they seem to stick, at least for the most part), but I've lost the equally awesome wording I had come up with during those night interludes. I should probably write the stuff down on a piece of paper at least, but again, my bed is king.

BED IS HEAVEN. PERIOD

Anyway, I was working on my Black Knight review yesterday, but made a point to get distracted by some pleasant errands, not to mention Twitter thought I'd better take care of a few other things first. So, after my usual Goodreads and Twitter routine, I explored a handful of links, came up with some author questions for a blog post, emailed said questions, saved new favourites and documents on a pendrive, then got wild and emailed Christopher Pike. I had a question about Black Knight (or better, the whole Witch World series) that I wanted to take off my chest before actually reviewing the book...plus I added a couple more things. To my utter amazement, I got a reply less than 90 minutes after. Picture me wowed. As usual when it comes to his interactions with fans, Mr. Pike was polite and exhaustive (despite keeping it short), but didn't go out of his way to be what you'd call friendly. It's understandable, I guess, in his position. Though I would have liked him to say a word or two about the page I dedicated to his work on my blog (I sent him the link). Just the "thanks" word, you know. He didn't even need to actually go there and take a look. On the other hand, again, I suppose he has to be wary of giving too much rope to perfect strangers. I think he actually scared himself when he wrote Master of Murder LOL.

I'M WATCHING YOU

Now, you might think I'm digressing, but I'm not. Well, not that much. Because the whole emailing-Christopher-Pike thing is somehow related to the topic I'm bringing you today. [...]

What's New: "Deadgirl" Sequel on Its Way - Did I Tell You How Good the First Book Was?

Hi my lovelies!

So, these latest gray and humid winter-not-winter days have been transfixed by a ray of light, for me at least. I mean, light-light. Literal light. Beware and behold, because I'm about to make a pun.

A few days ago, the author of two of my favourite YA novels, B.C. Johnson, announced the long-awaited sequel to one of them. Now, you're not allowed to ignore who B.C. Johnson is, because I mentioned/reviewed his books Deadgirl and The Bad Rescue of Devon Streeter freely in the past two years or so. So, unless you are a new follower/reader, I'm sure you heard me drop a vague hint about them sometime. But if you need a recap:

Deadgirl review + book trailer

Deadgirl: Puck's background (Puck being a character in the book)

Deadgirl comes back and gets a sequel

Deadgirl blog tour & my interview with B.C. Johnson (I know, NO ONE reads an interview with an author they don't know already - but this guy is fun, I promise)

Deadgirl in A Reader's Quirk #4

The Bad Rescue of Devon Streeter review

Plus, I wrote a guest post on Emily Reads Everything about the Afterlife sub-genre, where of course Deadgirl features prominently...

Christmas/New Year Book (and Music) Haul (FINALLY!)

I FINALLY MADE IT! *squees without shame*

After a long, long time, I was able to order TEN books from my usual webseller as a birthday/Christmas present for myself. (Well, my parents might have had a, um, marginal role in it...because they were generous as usual, what with Christmas coming and my birthday being on Dec. 14th...You know my job pays shitty, right?).

So, I went online and selected ten books from my TBR list that for some reason I was particularly looking forward to reading, plus four CDs/DVDs by Queen and Billy Joel that I had been dying to get my hands on for quite a long time. They stole half of my books budget (which I had set at 200 euros...), but it's not like I could help it, because 1) music is the only thing I spend my money on besides books, and 2) I had to catch up with them before the artists in question came up with more stuff (which seems to happen every Christmas...). Both Queen and Billy Joel are making a whole lot of their old live music available, so it's dangerous to miss a year of releases. I had skipped Queen's Live at Rainbow (CD & DVD) in 2014, so I was already too far behind...

I suppose you're not particularly interested in my Queen/Joel purchases, but I will mention that - besides Live at Rainbow - I ordered Queen's A Night at the Odeon CD+DVD, and Billy Joel's CD+DVD called A Matter of Time-The Bridge to Russia. The latter will also be a trip down memory lane for me, since it records the legendary BJ's Russian concerts and documentary from 1987, snippets of which I remember avidly watching on MTV at the time, when I was still a relatively new Joel fan (though I had been drawn to his music since I was a young teen, and I had already been following Billy's career for about 5 years back then). I haven't seen any of the stuff anymore for almost 30 years, which makes me feel...um...yes, old, thank you for the cue ;P. What I really meant to say was...emotional?
(BTW...my only complaint is that I'll have to wait till late February in order to get my package delivered...since they say one my my books can't be obtained for at least 6 weeks! Ugh).

Enough of that. I know you want books, books, BOOKS! So here goes the list of those I've just requested, broken down by genres/Reading Rooms...