The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

Melinda’s debut, The Sin Eater’s Daughter, was last year’s best selling UKYA debut – a tragic mix of dark fantasy and rich romance that I thoroughly enjoyed. Shot through with a twisted “princess in the tower” idea, but much more sinister, the book hinted at a larger, older and fully fleshed out universe that I was really eager to get more from, always bleeding into the edges of the story but not quiet showing itself. Yeah, well The Sleeping Prince steps it up a gear or five.

Another hypnotically beautiful cover.

Following a new set of characters in a different part of the world, and shortly after the events of the first book, The Sleeping Prince is the story of impoverished apothecary Errin Vastel – the sister of the first book’s character Lief. She lives a meagre life, scraping together potions to sell on the black market to attempt to keep herself fed and with a roof over her head. With her father dead, and her brother away working to try and bring in some extra coin, Errin has to support not only herself, but also her mother, whose rapidly deteriorating mental health is starting to become more and more taxing – and dangerous. War in Lomere, with the mythical Sleeping Prince soon starts to spill across the border and threatens to shatter Errin’s already unstable world, and soon she finds she has no choice but to flee her home with her mother, relying on the help of one of her customers – the mysterious and enigmatic Silas, who she has been selling potions and poisons to. She’s never even seen his face, as he stays constantly cloaked and shrouded in darkness. But who else can she turn to? As the Sleeping Princes army starts to murder and burn its way across Tregellan she must flee, and if the officials found out about her mother’s conditions they’d lock her away in an asylum. Errin can’t lose the only member of family she has left.

ALL BOOKS NEED A MAP.

If I ever had one thing that I struggled with in TSED, it was a heavy romantic plotline – it’s not my usual thing. The Sleeping Prince moves in a very different direction though, examining the rapidly unravelling threads of a family in complete crisis. Errin is a brilliant lead, resourceful and smart, she’s filled with fear and doubt, but she constantly pushes through with the weary determination of someone who has nowhere else to turn. Her world, and the underhanded desperate measures she takes to survive make her feel a much rougher and more worldly main character than Twylla, filled with shades of grey and a ruthlessness that fills her decisions and actions with a manic sense of drive.

Where the first story is the slow burning tale of political subterfuge, book two is an out and out war novel, and it pulls absolutely no punches. Melinda uses the plot to examine the true horrors of war in a fantasy setting, but she never lets it be viewed through a rose-tinted lens. The horrifically brutal war crimes of the Sleeping Prince are told through hushed, terrified rumour, and the painfully close-to-home treatment of Lomere’s refugees that Errin sees on her travels is a stark echo of current events. The whole book is driven forward with the frantic pace of an invasion, with the swirling out of control sense of being just one person swept up in something so huge and impossible to fight against that the whole book is beautifully chaotic.

I stole this photo from Mel’s website but it’s okay. She thinks I’m all right.

The Sleeping Prince was everything that I wanted the next step in this saga to take – it builds on the rich mythology that clearly Salisbury has been developing for years, and it ramps everything up to eleven – the drama is more dramatic, the violence more visceral and animated, and the characters are more ambiguous, cut-throat and determined. This is a world at war, with characters desperate for survival and success, and a story filled with so many twists and dead drops that it’s breathlessly compelling.

Well done, Melinda, you terrible, beautiful Queen.

All hail!

D

P.S. You can follow Melinda on Twitter here, and you should because she’s a wonderful human.

World Mental Health Day 2015 – Some Books to Try

Suffering from a mental illness is a terrifying experience. To the outside world, it seems trivial, harmless and invisible, but to those of us suffering, it’s anything but. And it isn’t just an illness of the mind – It can cause all kinds of physical effects too. 1 in 5 Young People are now being diagnosed with some form of mental health problems, from generalised anxiety and depression, to eating disorders and schizophrenia, and there’s no one-size-fits-all guide to what to expect from these illnesses. Stigma and misunderstanding, confusion and fear, are all rife when it comes to understanding mental illnesses, and I’ve always found that the best way to understand something is to read about people in down to Earth, sensitive and respectable Fiction and Biographical accounts. So as last week was Mental Health Awareness Week, I thought I’d throw together a list of fantastic YA and Teen Fiction titles that either deal with, or have characters who suffer from, mental health problems. Many of these have helped me in the past, and I’d love to know that they’ll go on to help others. People with these illnesses aren’t monsters – they’re not crazy, dangerous lunatics – they’re people struggling with an invisible, but deadly disease.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

Themes – Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Eating Disorders, Anxiety

Inspired by the author’s own experiences of hospitalisation for depression, It’s Kind of a Funny Story is a brilliant mix of genuinely sharp humour and honest, heartfelt emotion that absolutely buzzes in the words he writes. Vizzini’s tragic death at just 32 years old makes the impact of these book painfully real.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Themes – Depression, Suicide, Identity

The quintessential book when it comes to main characters with depression, Plath’s only novel is beautifully haunting and poetic and while it’s dated in some ways, the feelings at the heart of it remain as current and relatable as ever. The book touches on how the pressures of adult life can weigh heavily on young people, and ultimately has a hopeful tone to it.

 

All Of The Above by Juno Dawson

Themes – Eating Disorders, Self-Harm

Juno’s first contemporary novel is by far her most diverse, intelligent and emotionally articulate offering to date. It examines the stresses and pressures that teenagers and young people go through in a chaotic, messy and heartfelt way, never pulling any punches, but always holding your hand, it looks at how people can hide things about themselves and how there is no definitive normal.

All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Themes – Depression, Suicidal Thoughts, Self-Harm

A wonderful, heart stopping, devastating and uplifting book, All the Bright Places is a beautiful tale of friendship and love told alongside some dark, complex themes, all in a sensitive and intelligent way. The words crackle with energy on the page, and the characters are wonderfully real and relatable.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Themes – OCD, Depression, Eating Disorders

Not out until later this year, but I can already tell you that Patrick Ness continues to be one of the finest YA writers working today. In The Rest of Us, our narrator Mikey suffers from near crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, frequently washing his hands until they bleed. Patrick paints his own self-loathing honestly, tackling the concept that OCD is synonymous with being neat head on with a sledgehammer of truth. He also touches on eating disorders with a secondary character, and really captures the helplessness and hopelessness that sufferers of these illnesses can feel.

When Mr. Dog Bites by Brian Conaghan

Themes – Tourette’s Syndrome, Bullying

Shortlisted for this year’s Carnegie Medal for Children’s Fiction, When Mr. Dog Bites is one of the very very few books out there that looks at what it means to live with Tourette’s Syndrome, an often over looked and woefully misunderstood illness. Naturally, it’s rude and funny in places, but it’s also it bristles with an honest energy and has a brilliantly open and genuinely well-intentioned main character.

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

Themes – Depression, Suicide, Eating Disorders

Alice’s debut novel is one of my favourite YA books of all time, and her drive to be inclusive is what makes her book stand out so well. Tory’s brother, Charlie, suffers from a number of mental health problems, highlighting that these things often aren’t as simple as the media makes them out to be. His anorexia is sensitively handled and I feel like having a male character suffer from an eating disorder is so important to have in fiction, and his relationship with his sister is absolutely wonderful. He’s a sensitive, intelligent young person who struggles with the harshness of the world, and Alice never lets him become a stereotype.

Heroic by Phil Earle

Themes – PTSD

Phil Earle is one of the best unsung writers in Teen and YA literature, purely because of just how well he manages to capture the anger and confusion of teen life. Heroic is looks at friendship, the relationships between brothers and the dark and upsetting effects Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can have, not just of sufferers, but on their families too. This book is hauntingly real and gritty, but from there is its power, to overcome the darkness of the everyday and reach the light that we can find in each other. His characters are brilliantly created, snappy and intelligent, and by writing from two perspectives, we get a fully layered and complex look at a harrowing condition.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Themes – Suicide, PTSD

Without any spoilers, I will just say that Perks is one of my favourite ever books ever ever. It made a huge difference for me in my life, and Charlie is the music obsessed, shy and sensitive young man I needed to read about. It’s a book that teaches that it’s okay to be who you are, that gender stereotypes are dumb, and that through each other, we can overcome even the most horrifying events. The way Stephen Chbosky flashes back through Charlie’s life in this book is haunting and gripping all at once.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Themes – Social Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder

Fangirl is a sweet story of love, friendship and coming of age that also works in an underexplored and worryingly misunderstood condition – social anxiety. In an age where everyone can be in contact with one another without ever actually having to see those people physically, Rainbow works it into Cath’s character without being dismissive or painting it too lightly. She also makes sure that we know it’s okay to be shy, to need space or prefer to be alone, and in doing so, she creates a character that is so easy to relate to, in a sweet novel that’s already becoming a massive bestseller.

Other recommended titles:

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick (Depression)

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Suicide, Depression)

Panther by David Owen (Depression)

Every Day by David Levithan (Depression)

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green/David Levithan (Depression)

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle (PTSD)

A Really Awesome Mess by Trish Cook/Brendan Halpin (Eating Disorders)

Butter by Erin Lange (Eating Disorders)

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (Eating Disorders)

Hello Darkness by Anthony McGowan (Psychosis)

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dallaira (Depression)

You can find more on this fab list on Goodreads too.

Part of the best way for us to tackle to misconceptions and stigmas that surround these illnesses is to talk about them, and share our own experiences as well as stories like the ones I’ve talked about here. These books aren’t just for those of us who struggle with these things every single day, they’re also for the people who have never had to cry when they wake up, who don’t know what it’s like to struggle with thoughts and feelings that can’t be controlled, and who can’t put themselves into those lives. Empathy is the key to humanity, and we all need to do our best to understand and care for one another.

Or something like that, anyway. I ain’t a great philosopher, I just read a lot of books.

Obviously, many of these books will contain triggers/upsetting scenes, so please always do some research and never be afraid to stop reading something that’s upsetting you.

If you need someone to talk to, The Samaritans are there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to just listen, and never judge.

Thanks for Reading. I hope you find a book that helps.

D

My Top 10 Book Adaptations I wish they’d make!

Let’s be honest – media adaptations of our favourite books very rarely actually stand up to the original source material. From the pure abomination of The Golden Compass, to the passable fun of The Maze Runner, film and TV adaptations never quite manage to capture the same magic and escapism as the books. But, despite all that, we still *want* to see our favourite stories on the big (or little) screen, to see our heroes and villains played out by talent (and beautiful) actors and actresses, and I am not above all that. Even though I know full well that adaptations are hard to pull of satisfactorily, I still thought I’d make a list of TEN ace YA/MG books or book series that I think would make a fantastic Film or TV Show, if done RIGHT. So heeeeeeeeeeeere GOES –

The GONE Series by Michael Grant 

Format: TV Series

I’ve been a massive fan of the Gone books for years now. Their perfect blend of science fiction, horror and twisting mythology creates a series of books that feels fast, driven and gore-soaked, in a universe that has real depth and history behind it. Author Michael Grant has alluded to the idea of a TV Adaptation on many occasions, and it seems that a deal has been agreed upon, but these things can takes years, even decades to get greenlit, so I don’t think we should be holding our breath. I do think that with a talented young cast and a great set of special effects, the FAYZ could be brought to life superbly, though, creating a dark and unpredictable TV series.

The Three by Sarah Lotz 

Format: TV Series 

Okay, so this one isn’t YA, but it sure has crossover appeal. I feel like Sarah’s subtle, supernatural (but not quite) tale of mania and paranoia in the wake of a tragic set of plane crashes would make the twisting thriller that Lost always promised to be. It’s full of sudden pitfalls and cliffhangers, and teased out in week by week episodes it could create a superb sense of tension. The rise of social media could push people to talk about each sudden shock ending across the globe and turn the story into a phenomenon, and it has just the right investigative angle to drive the narrative along at a good pace, with the right feeling of discovery.

The Strange & Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton 

Format: Film 

The visuals in Ava Lavender are absolutely stunning, creating a haunting sense of magical realism that absolutely sings to the heart of readers. I think done right, with a good sense of cinematography and colour palette, then this book could make one of the most stunning visual feasts for decades. The plot is achingly beautiful, spanning generations and filled with youthful energy and hope, with just the right pinch of fantasy about it to make it feel special. It’s got enough breathless romance and tragedy to make a hugely popular stand alone film, and I’d love to see it on the big screen.

The Wells & Wong Detective Mysteries by Robin Stevens 

Format: TV Series 

Robin’s two books (to date), A Murder Most Unladylike and Arsenic for Tea, have proven absolute smash hits in the MG world and beyond, capturing a Blyton-meets-Agatha Christie atmosphere that’s been just as popular with adults as they have with children. I feel like a brilliant Sunday afternoon series could be made from these shows, or maybe a CBBC afternoon programme? The brilliant mix of strong morals and genuinely gripping mysteries would be brilliant TV for younger viewers, and the retro feeling would really appeal to adults as well. Getting the right young actresses in to play the precocious Daisy and fabulously level headed Hazel would make the whole thing a charming, wholesome murder mystery show for all the family!

Say Her Name by James Dawson 

Format: Film 

When I first reviewed Say Her Name, I geeked out an awful lot about the clear love of J-Horror themes and styles that James brought into the story. So, naturally, I feel like Say Her Name has the potential to make a brilliant supernatural horror film! In a genre saturated by dumb teen slasher movies, intelligent supernatural chillers are very hard to come by. Horror is probably my favourite film genre, but honestly finding great examples is tough, and getting tougher, especially if cheap shocks and gore bore you as much as it does me. Say Her Name has just the right feel of urban myth and creeping dread to understand that what you *don’t* see is the most important when it comes to scaring the bejesus out of people.

Othergirl by Nicole Burstein  

Format: Film 

The world is crying out for more lady superheroes in films, and as Black Widow is constantly being overlooked despite being a legitimate member of the Avengers, it’s high time some original, funny and lovely story came out and took centre stage. Othergirl is Nicole’s debut novel, and I feel like her story of friendship and self -discovery would translate brilliantly to the screen, especially in a down-to-earth way similar to C4’s Misfits. She plays the comic book tropes perfectly, and her passion for the superhero and YA genres really give the story a lovable feeling of fandom and friendship. It’d be a heartwarming and ass-kickin’ flick.

Lockwood & Co. By Jonathan Stroud 

Format: TV Series

I absolutely love Jonathan Stroud’s MG series about paranormal investigators fighting spooks and phantoms on the streets of a Victorian-esque London, and I think the Gothic feeling of frights and fun would lend itself perfectly to a brilliant TV adaptation. Lockwood himself is a teenaged Sherlock if ever there was one, and he’d make a brilliant lead in a TV show, all genius and trouble darkness, and I feel like the mixture of humour and horror would be hugely popular with kids and adults alike. The books have some brilliant historic mysteries to them that would work so well in a week by week episode format, leaving each week with more questions than the last.

The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle 

Format: Film 

The Accident Season is probably the best debut YA novel of 2015, in all honesty. The brilliant chaotic mix of magic, love, tragedy and pure angst is a heady cocktail that breaks readers hearts and fills your soul up with hope and melancholy. In the same way that Ava Lavender‘s beautiful visuals would translate so well to the screen, The Accident Season‘s bleak sense of twisted unease would also create a beautifully haunting treat of cinematography. All the characters are wonderfully messy and diverse, and I think bringing them to the screen would be an important step in breaking the cycle of attractive, well adjusted YA protagonists, as well as representing the LGBTQ spectrum much better.

The Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness 

Format: Film Trilogy 

It’s no secret to anyone how much I love Patrick Ness’ work. Pretty sure the binmen on my street know all about it by now. While we are getting a film adaptation of A Monster Calls soon (and I am SO excited), I feel like The Chaos Walking series (The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask & The Answer and Monsters of Men) would make a truly epic and philosophically important science fiction trilogy. From the wonderful concepts and visuals of a hostile, alien environment, to the themes of genocide, gender and humanity, the three books really look at human nature in all of its brutality and love, and the sense of hope and the message that worlds and societies can be changed is one that is so powerful that it deserves as wide an audience as possible. Plus, the core concept is so unique to YA, it’d really make a big change to a lot of the other big YA trilogies out there.

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman 

Format: TV Series 

“But Darran,” you cry “Didn’t they already make a film based on The Northern Lights?”

SHUT UP NO THEY DIDN’T WHAT EVEN WAS THAT. An Alethiometer is NOT A GOLDEN COMPASS WHY IS THAT EVEN A THING?! That film was SO BAD AND ALL WRONG AND I WILL HATE IT FOR ALL OF MY DAYS.

Ahem. Sorry. His Dark Materials (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) is my favourite set of books ever of all time, and they’re one of the best and earliest examples of YA as a subgenre emerging, with fantastically complex, sprawling fantasy set across multiple universes, powerfully well drawn main characters and deeply complex, intelligent themes that refuse to talk down to their audience. The film-that-shall-not-be-named completely missed the mark, so what I’m suggesting is a TV Series in a Game of Thrones style (no, not like that, you gutter-dwellers). What I mean is a high budget, 10 episodes per season, each episode lasting an entire hour sort of epic show crafted with love for the source material and a dedicated desire to tell the story. So many cable shows have been able to circumnavigate any censorship by being independent channels, and I feel like a lot of the themes of His Dark Materials could be represented in much more bold confidence in a TV series than through a film that relies on funding.

 

Anyway, so that’s my two cents on the whole thing. There’s a few more I could think of I’m sure, and I’m not saying any of those would work… But I’d give them a watch, for sure. What would you want? Feel free to talk in the comments, or write your own blog about it! Let me know if you do – @ShinraAlpha

Thanks for reading!

D

The Lost and The Found by Cat Clarke

I saw Cat Clarke as part of a YALC panel last year, where I think she described herself as “someone who writes books about teenagers being horrible to each other”. If you’ve read any of her books before, you’ll know that the UKYA author was making a pretty massive understatement – Her books are brutal, fast, harsh and emotionally encompassing. The Lost and The Found promised to be just dark, twisting and deeply unsettling, and I dived into it with my heart open and ready to get hurt.

Laurel Logan went missing when she was just six years old, kidnapped from her front garden whilst her and her younger sister Faith played. For thirteen years, Faith’s life has been dominated by her parent’s – and indeed the entire country’s – manic obsession to find the missing Laurel. Her entire existence has taken a back seat to the media’s obsession with her sister, even as her parent’s divorced and her family became more shattered and broken. So, when Laurel shows up at nineteen, clutching her teddy bear, the media storm is unbelievable – might the Logan family finally have the missing piece of their lives back? It certainly seems that way, but Faith soon starts to realise that thirteen long years means that the piece might not fit like it used to…

The Jacket is Striking.

OH MY OH MY OH MY. So yeah, this book is pretty astounding. I often start my reviews by discussing the characters, and The Lost and The Found is a treasure trove of character study and human analysis. Faith, the story’s narrator, is brilliantly realised and wonderfully emotionally complex. Her thoughts are constantly in turmoil, and she’s a fountain of guilt and staggeringly diverse feelings, as she flits between gratitude at having Laurel back, and jealousy at the amount of focus and attention she’s getting. When Laurel’s behaviour is strange or unsettling, Faith is torn between suspicion and guilt over suspecting her traumatised sister, and that creates an unsettling, lilting sense of unease and moral ambiguity. As well as Faith, the book is supported by some wonderful characters, particularly Laurel, who’s dark, meek and haunted behaviour makes her an unpredictable and unsettling presence that settles throughout the book, even when she isn’t there. Michel also deserves a special mention for being such a warm, open and accepting character, frequently reminding Faith that her feelings and emotions are valid, even if they feel monsterous.

The whole book twists and hums with a dark atmosphere that lends the story an unreal and deeply disturbing feel to every page. There’s menace lurking in Laurel’s past, as well as in her present, and her fractured mental state mean that every event in the story is underpinned with dangerous uncertainty. The first half of the book is a slow, burning suspense filled mystery, that teases out little bits of the characters and their past, before dropping in the last third like a rollercoaster of unstoppable, nail-biting tension and horror, which is such absolutely captivating reading that I could hardly blink. The book does speak about hope, though, and the importance and power that hope can have on people… Despite the utterly BLEAK nature to it all.

Thanks for Reading,

D

P.S. – The Lost and The Found isn’t published until July, but you can Pre-Order It HERE.

P.P.S. – You can also follow Cat Clarke on Twitter HERE.

Happy UKYA Day!

What is UKYA? I mean, what does that even mean – UKYA? Okay, I admit, the answer is kinda self evident. It’s Young Adult Books written by UK based authors. The end. BLOG OVER.

Well, I suppose the really important question is – why do I choose to read so much UKYA? I’m a 27 year old “man” who did a Crime Scene Sciences degree, and my other hobbies include video games and abrasive, angry and deliberately esoteric music.

With a stupid face.

There’s a few different answers to that question – a few different threads of happenstance that lead to the person I am today (not a great person, but I suppose I’m okay – if a bit wordy). I took on a Christmas Job as a bookseller for Waterstones, rediscovered my love of Children’s Fiction from my own childhood, & hit upon one of the only things I’ve ever felt like I’ve been good at – sharing a love of stories. It was from this little platform that I discovered Twitter, and fell headfirst into the UKYA community that was so brilliantly welcoming. But we’ll talk more about that in a moment. The real reason I grew such a infectious passion for UKYA novels comes down to a simple, straightforward & obvious answer – The books. Duh.

I guess I couldn’t tell you what the very first UKYA novel was I read… I mean, technically it was probably something like Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, but when I finally started picking up the current wave of authors writing, I couldn’t help but devour as many books as my staff discount card could take. The first proof I requested was Will Hill‘s Department 19, and I think that’s a great example of where UKYA triumphs over the American equivalents. It was just after the real peak of Twilight fever, where vampire fiction was all Anne Rice love and soft, gentle sighs of longing into the lonely night, and here was a story of action, despair and teen angst, driven by a mix of high-octane, high-violence and classical horror overtones (it weaves the works of Stoker & Shelly into the narratives perfectly). It took the try-hard nature of the whole vampire phenomenon and went “Nah, vampires kill people. Let’s take this back to its horror roots.” and I loved it for that. After that, I tried anything I could get my hands on, contemporary, science fiction, horror, I’ll give anything a try. Still, though, the home-grown authors really stood head and shoulders above the rest. Is it because I find the settings, the characters and the voices much more familiar than their overseas counterparts? I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a great start when it comes to engaging with a story, but I think it comes down to more than that.

Such a GREAT series!

In the UK, we have a great sense of self-deprication. Something about the eternal, overcast, rainsoaked environment creates a sense of hopeful, but pessimistic reality. We knows things can get better, but they’ll get a lot worse and they’ll require a lot of work, pain and rain to make it happen. This is brilliantly reflected in the dark, gritty, but oddly wry and quirky stories by authors like Tanya Byrne (Follow Me Down is a superb crime-noir with twists of humour throughout) and Alice Oseman (her debut Solitaire is brilliantly despondent and hilarious all in the same page). UKYA can get seriously dark though, and I feel like it pulls less punches when it decides to get bleak and challenging than other YA out there – Carnegie Medal winning The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks is a stellar example of an unrelentingly bleak and powerful novel that never romanticises the horrific predicament of its characters.

One of the nest debuts of the last year.

I just feel like UKYA novels get realism and the down-to-Earth nature of teenagers down on paper much better than any other books. The honest, ugly and often uncomfortable When Mr. Dog Bites by Brian Conaghan, or the heartfelt and emotionally articulate Being Billy by Phil Earle (an absolute shining star of the community, by the way) are testaments to how authors in the UK are willing to look at complex issues without a rose-tinted lens, and they’re so much more valuable for it. And it isn’t just mental health, either – with the global rise of the We Need Diverse Books mission, UKYA authors are moving forward leaps and bounds when it comes to minority representation in their novels. Malorie Blackman‘s Noughts & Crosses series was just the beginning (using Dystopia to examine racial segregation); Louise O’Neill‘s Only Ever Yours, winner of the UK’s first ever YA Book Award, examines the importance of gender equality by using a twisted dystopian universe, and the stunningly beautiful The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson makes the bold but vital move of tackling the difficult and underrepresented topic of Transgender in Teenagers. Even wonderful works by Patrick Ness drop gay characters into stories where their sexuality is simply a part of their character as opposed to the point of the story (More Than This), and Non Pratt who’s upcoming novel Remix has two racially diverse main characters without it being a big deal in the slightest. James Dawson‘s subtle use of characters, as well as his outspoken support of diversity in fiction is just one of the hundreds of UK based writers who are working hard to include minorities in their work. I don’t for a second think that there isn’t still work to do, but I feel a great sense of pride that our shores are producing such fantastic stories with such a concentrated effort towards letting all young people see characters like them int he books they’re reafing.

Such an IMPORTANT BOOK.

The final thing I want to talk about when it comes to UKYA books though, is their dialogue, their narrative voice and the way their characters interact. One of the biggest reasons I’ve struggled with falling totally in love with John Green novels is because to me, lines like – “My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations…” – sounds nothing at all like me and my friends did as teenagers. That smooth, poetic writing works in points, but I think it alienates me from the characters in a story. I’m pretty much an idiot, and I prefer the characters I read about to stumble over their words and say the wrong things. Non Pratt‘s debut novel, Trouble, uses such realistic, honest back and forth between characters that I laughed and cried constantly, and connected with the main characters on a very fundamental level. Matthew Crow‘s In Bloom managed to be full of sudden bursts of humour and stupidity whilst also containing one of the most powerfully moving sentences I’ve ever read in a book. Dawn O’Porter with Paper Aeroplanes (and its sequel Goose), James Dawson‘s Under My Skin, Tape by Steve Camden, Geekhood by Andy Robb and Geek Girl by Holly Smale – all these books have characters who willfully make bad choices, or make stupid decisions. They make mistakes and they say the wrong things. Unlike any other country, I feel like the UK’s YA is full of less than perfect characters, and for teenagers growing up and discovering their own faults, flaws and quirks, making their own mistakes and becoming their own diverse people, that’s such an important thing to see. UKYA lets its readers know that it’s okay to be less than perfect. It’s okay to try something stupid. It’s okay to mess it up.

Hilarious & Heartbreaking.

The UKYA online community (search #UKYA, #ukyachat and @ProjectUKYA on Twitter) is the passion and the brainchild of the hugely talented and driven Lucy Powrie, herself a teenage blogger, and she’s managed to create a fun, inviting atmosphere through which I’ve met some wonderful people and made some amazing friends with whom I can share my excitement and joy about these wonderfully accessible books. The wonder of social media also means that I can have conversations with the authors I’m enjoying right now – If 14 year old Darran could’ve chatted with Philip Pullman about His Dark Materials, I’d’ve exploded with excitement, and yet now I often chat back and forth with people I have huge amounts of awe and respect for. For someone so far in the North of the country, away from the world of publishing (which is all frustratingly London based), the UKYA community has become a way for me to be involved in the spreading the love of great books and keeping up to date with new authors and debuts that I might otherwise have missed, and the sense of welcome belonging is really important to me.

With initiatives like YALC returning for a second year at London Film & Comic-con, The YA Book Prize and so much more, I honestly feel like we’re just stepping into a golden age for UKYA literature, and I’m glad to be able to say I’ve been involved in a little way.

God, sorry for rambling on for so so long. I did say I was wordy though, up there at the beginning. If you bothered reading all of this… Then erm… THANK YOU AND I AM SORRY.

D 

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

I feel like maybe I’ve mentioned before that Patrick Ness is my favourite writer (YA or otherwise), before? If I haven’t – Hey, Patrick Ness is probably my favourite writer (YA or otherwise).

When I found out he was writing a new YA novel, I was obviously crazy excited. On the morning that proof copies of The Rest of Us Just Live Here became available to booksellers, I’d emailed a plea to Walker for one before half past eight in the morning. Turns out I was not the only one… And Walker had a hard time trying to meet the huge demand for the book. I half jokingly tweeted that I was still desperate to get my copy (after seeing tweets of others holding theirs in their lucky hands)…

Another day, another SUCKING HOLLOW VOID IN MY SOUL WHERE MY @Patrick_Ness PROOF SHOULD BE.

— Words from Darran (@ShinraAlpha) March 25, 2015

…Only to have Mr. Ness respond DIRECTLY to help me get my copy sent to my shop FIRST CLASS. Now, I felt like an absolute arse for having that done, because honestly, I in no way deserve special treatment – I’m an idiot. But it does go a huge way towards highlighting how important fans are to Patrick, and I will forever be grateful to him for that. I will also forever be sorry. SO SORRY. Everyone at Walker are fantastic for being so wonderful about everything.

Such a striking, simple jacket .

The Rest of Us is not the story of the end of the world. I mean, the end of the world is going on, but that’s not what the book is about. The super cool indie kids will probably save the day, and die in the process – they normally do. For Mikey, his Sister Mel, and their best friends Jared and Henna, it’s the final year of high school and they just want to graduate and get out of their boring little town. None of them are the chosen ones, they’re just hoping they can get out before someone blows up the school. Again. But graduating from high school is its own ending – maybe not as dramatic as the end of the world, but as a teenager, it is pretty close. Mikey worries about his sister’s old eating problems coming back with a vengeance without him there to keep an eye on her. He worries about Jared and him drifting apart, going to different colleges in the same city. He worries about Henna’s parents taking her on a mission to an African war zone and about never getting to kiss her. He worries about his obsessive compulsive loops that have started to come back, trapping him in dangerous, painful and infuriating cycles of washing or counting. What if he gets stuck in a loop at college and there’s no-one there to stop him? When weird things start happening in the town, the four friends barely even notice it – strange blue lights, dead teenagers and undead deer are hardly their business.There’s much bigger problems to think about – namely the future.

FLAIL. This book is so excellent. So beautiful. So honest and so painful.

Mikey is the narrator of the story, so we see the world through his perpetually anxious mind set. He worries a huge amount about everything around him and that was something I instantly connected with. He has a controlling streak to him, and it’s brave of Ness to give him this negative, jealous and possessive side, but it’s ultimately all in the name of creating a fully formed, realistic character – and he does, he absolutely does. There’s also some underlying themes of being scared of being the least wanted person in the room, of being certain that compliments are platitudes to make him feel better, and that resonated with me really really powerfully. To the point of crying a lot. Mikey is a broken, messy and confused young person, and Ness manages to make him neither saint, nor sinner, which is ultimately the point of The Rest of Us – real people aren’t always heroes. Real people have flaws the size of chasms and that’s okay. Mel, Mikey’s sister, is a fierce, strident and powerful young woman, but she also has her darker sides, and while her eating disorder is discussed mostly in hindsight, it’s still done respectfully but honestly. Her love and dedication for her brother are overwhelming, even through his negativity. Jared is stoic, but he’s full of passion and understanding, and his relationship with Mikey is beautiful, blisteringly honest and filled with bittersweet sadness, as the two of them come to terms with the inevitable drifting apart that comes with growing up; and Henna is wonderfully sweet and understanding, all while filled with her own doubts and making her own mistakes. She seems perfect from Mikey’s perspective, but there’s hidden flaws hinted at in the story that help give her depth beyond what we read.

Excellent Question.

I absolutely loved the way this story is told. By dropping the “indie kids” story in short snippets at the start of each chapter, we get a glimpse into the epic disaster that’s going on as the backdrop of the coming-of-age story in the foreground. Patrick Ness is able to use trends and stereotypes in YA fiction with a wry sense of irony and a tongue-in-cheek humour, be it references to when all the indie kids fell in beautiful but doomed love with vampires, or when they were beautifully dying of cancer – he captures the tropes perfectly, with just enough of a mix of love and mockery to make the reader smile. It’s a clever way of reflecting our own lives, too, because of course we all live our own little stories against the backdrop of dramatic, awful events that we’re unable to influence.

Ultimately, The Rest of Us is a story of the hope, fear, anxiety and uncertainty that comes with the end of childhood and the trepidation that comes with stepping into the life of adulthood. It condenses the pressures that young people feel at this stage of their life – both from the outside and from the inside, and weaves this sense of melancholy into the very bones of the words it uses. It also portrays mental illness in a blunt, honest and painful way that helps to break up stigmas and stereotypes. OCD is not liking your books in alphabetical order – it’s a dangerous and debilitating disease. In this way, as well others, Ness has created a diversity in his characters that so many books still beg for, and certainly that the community is crying out for.

Look, no-one is surprised in the slightest that I just loved this book. I know, I’m predictable… But it’s going to be another hit.

Thanks so much for reading, always.

D

P.S. The Rest of Us Just Live Here is out on the 27th of August, you can pre-order it here.

P.P.S. You can follow Patrick Ness on Twitter here.

P.P.P.S (is that a thing?) I feel like the reference to blowing up the high school could be a Buffy thing, and if it is then YAY.