Interview with Ilona Andrews

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Y'know, I love being a blogger. I really, really, really do.

Case in point - I was recently drooling over the cover art for 7th 'Kate Daniels'  book, 'Magic Rises' and reciting a typical mantra of "hurry up July, hurry up!" when I got this wacky idea to shoot off an email to Ilona Andrews. I just wanted to ask them some questions, you see. I wanted to pick their brain. Between waiting for 'Magic Rises' ... I just thought I'd ease some of my rabid fan-girl anticipating by shooting off some questions to the authors. 

So I emailed them. 

But I know they have crazy deadlines. And I'd really much rather that they concentrate on writing their amazing stories than answering my rabid reader questions. And they must get a heap of fan-mail every single day, and to answer every single one would result in carpal tunnel and would, again, take them away from their writing. 

I did not expect them to write back to me. I just figured I'd try it to say I'd tried.

... But then I got a reply.

A REPLY! 

FROM ILONA ANDREWS! 

ILONA ANDREWS ANSWERED MY RABID FANGIRL QUESTIONS!

... And this is why I love being a blogger - because now I get to share their answers with you.

Enjoy.

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Q: Are you ‘plotters’ or ‘pantsers’, respectively? That is, do you meticulously plot your novel before writing, or do you ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ and let the story evolve naturally? And did you have to change your plotting/pantsing ways to suit each other?

A:  No we plot everything out, well at least the beginning and end.  Usually while floating in the pool and drinking yummy beer.  We know how it starts and how we want it to end, the rest is getting it there.

Q: And to the actual nuts and bolts of duo-writing – is writing a book together a case of someone writing chapter one, and then handballing chapter two off to the other person? Or do you write together line-by-line?

A:  We sit in the same room, our desktops about five feet apart.  I do a lot of the plotting & male voice, especially Curran.  Ilona will usually do a scene then send it to me and I add or change whatever I  think needs and send it back.  Other times we just talk it out.  If it gets in the book, we both went had our hands in it.

Q: Kate and Curran’s infamous romance has sort of become an urban fantasy bookish legend – you certainly set a high benchmark for tension & snark, and ‘will they or won’t they?’ romance. How did you handle the building tension – both between Kate and Curran, and from fans wanting them to get together – I imagine you must have received many rabid fan emails demanding satisfaction, now!

A:  We didn't want them to fall into bed together in the first book.  We wanted it to be as realistic or believable as it could be, given the circumstances.  Our fans are great and I don't recall any negative emails.

Q: I think you write some of the best action scenes – sometimes books so filled with action can demand skim-reading, but with ‘Kate Daniels’ and ‘The Edge’, I’m gripping the cover in my hands and my heart is racing with every sword-swipe and body-slam. What sort of research do you do to ensure your fight scenes are so gloriously detailed and riveting?

A:  Thanks, we both have some martial training.  Ilona has taken some self defense & classes in Russian schools.  My background is in wrestling, Judo, Ju Jitsu and some Army training.  We also enjoy watching cheesy martial arts movies.  When we do the action or fighting scenes we actually physically go through it to see if it makes sense, if we need more people we will recruit the kids.  As far as research, we highly recommend "Meditations on Violence" and "Facing Violence" by Rory Miller.  The tv show "Human Weapon" is also great.

Q: Which has been the hardest ‘Kate Daniels’ book to write so far, and why?

A:  Probably the first because we had no idea what we were doing and when we got a deal the totality of our edits was "cut it by a third."  Didn't matter what, we just had to make it shorter.  We had to go through it carefully, almost line by line, and find stuff we could take out, without changing the story.

Q: I loved the ‘Magic Tests’ young adult short story in the anthology ‘An Apple for the Creature’. It was great to read Julie apart from Kate and the pack, and by reading about her on her own we were able to see how much she’s grown over the books/years. Are you now contemplating writing a Julie YA spin-off series? And, if so, would Derek feature prominently?

A:  We've talked about it.  We would like to write an older Julie, maybe a love triangle between her, Derek and Ascanio.  Lately though, my money is on the dragon guy.  We're not YA writers though, and it might not work as well as we'd like.

Q: You gave readers Andrea and Raphael’s incredible story with ‘Gunmetal Magic’. How long have you known that this couple would get their own world-book? And did you ever anticipate fan’s level of adoration for these secondary characters?

A)  Andrea and Raphael probably since Magic Burns.  Jim and Dali came later.  We wanted to sort of hint at it before Hexed and Magic Dreams.  No not really,  we are always surprised at how enthusiastic and supportive our fans are.  They are great.  

Q: As to the end of the ‘Kate Daniels’ series … do you have an end in sight? Is there a finale ‘plan’ already in place that you’re writing towards?

A:  Hmmm, well originally it was only going to be the seven books and the two spinoffs, or set in Kate Daniels worlds books.  However, I am only allowed to hint at new and exciting things to come, as our agent Nancy put it.  We do certainly have an end game.  We know how we want the series to end.  That said, if people still wanted to read the books, we would still write them.  We just don't want to drag it out until people get sick of it.  I hope that makes sense.

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Thank you so much for replying, Ilona Andrews.

'Fate's Edge' The Edge #3 by Ilona Andrews

From the BLURB:

Audrey Callahan left behind her life in the Edge, and she's determined to stay on the straight and narrow. But when her brother gets into hot water, the former thief takes on one last heist and finds herself matching wits with a jack of all trades... 

Kaldar Mar-a gambler, lawyer, thief, and spy-expects his latest assignment tracking down a stolen item to be a piece of cake, until Audrey shows up. But when the item falls into the hands of a lethal criminal, Kaldar realizes that in order to finish the job, he's going to need Audrey's help...

The ‘Edge’ universe is a complicated one. It is our world infused with magic and with other dimensions and universes. There is the ‘Weird’ and the ‘Broken’ - alternate universes that are mirror images of each other. Same continents, same oceans – only slightly skewed. Then there is the ‘Edge’ – a thin strip of universe that divides the Weird and the Broken. It is in the Edge that those with little or no magic exist – aware of the alternate universes, and having longer life spans, but most of them are unable to cross over to the more magical Weird.

‘The Edge’ is the third book in Ilona Andrews’s urban fantasy series, ‘The Edge’. 

Audrey Callahan was destined for burglary. She has a magical gift that allows her to open any lock, crack any safe . . . get behind all closed doors. She is a most valuable asset – as her family can attest to. Coming from a long line of thieves and grifters, Audrey’s family put her skills to use many times throughout her childhood. But when her older brother became a drug addict, they started putting her life in danger in order to steal enough money to continually send him to ineffective rehabilitation facilities. 

And then Audrey had enough, she ran away and abandoned her family

Or, at least, she thought she did. 

When Audrey’s father turns up on her doorstep, with an idea for one more heist to help get her brother clean, Audrey agrees. But only on the condition that he forget he ever had a daughter.

Unfortunately for Audrey and the Callahan clan, what they stole was priceless . . . and dangerous. And now a very powerful organization wants it back. 

Enter Kaldar Mar – a thief himself, he has recently turned into a spy and now works for the very powerful organisation that want the stolen item returned. He must work with Audrey to retrieve the item, prevent all hell breaking lose and save her neck. 

I have been very bad. I have not read an instalment in Ilona Andrew’s fantastic ‘The Edge’ series since 2010. This, despite absolutely loving both ‘On the Edge’ and ‘Bayou Moon’. And I really don’t have an excuse for my long absence from this series – I even had ‘Fate’s Edge’ patiently waiting on my shelf since 2011. I was excited to read ‘Fate’s Edge’ (possibly because I kept thinking that floating-head on the cover was Richard Armitage . . .  PHWOAR!). I really have no reason for being away this long . . .  but my deserved punishment is what a fantastic book ‘Fate’s Edge’ is, reminding me what I've been missing and why I should hurry up and finish the series with ‘Steel’s Edge’.

Something I've loved about this entire series is the heroines. I honestly can’t choose a favourite amongst them – but Audrey Callahan is probably edging (ha!) close to the top spot. She’s not had a great life, especially after her brother became an addict and her parents all but forgot about her (except when they needed her skills). She had no childhood to speak of, and in adulthood she has really been abandoned. But she never feels sorry for herself – she is hard-working, independent and when Kaldar Mar turns up to tell her what a complete catastrophe her theft has caused, she takes full responsibility and is keen to make amends. 

All of ‘The Edge’ heroines – Rose, Cerise and now Audrey – have been these great, tough, down-but-never-out women. They’ve all come from hard background for various reasons, but they rise above their situations, take control and reveal themselves to be pillars of strength to those around them. 

And, all of the women have had prickly beginnings with their hero’s. Audrey and Kaldar are no different – in fact, she both tasers and shoots a crossbow at him within a few hours of meeting him. Audrey knows Kaldar’s type – the slick Casanova conman who’s too handsome for his own good. Audrey knows his type, because she grew up with it. 

This man was a rogue, not because circumstances forced him to be a criminal but because he was born that way. He was probably conning his mother out of her milk the moment he could grin. He’d charm the clothes off a virgin in twenty minutes. And if the poor fool took him home, he’d drink her dad under the table, beguile her mother, charm her grandparents, and treat the girl to a night she’d never forget. In the morning, her dad would be sick with alcohol poisoning, the good silver would be missing together with the family car, and in a month, both the former virgin and her mother would be expecting.

Kaldar, for his part, tries treating Audrey like all the other women he’s ever come across – but he quickly discovers that she is nothing like any other woman he has ever met, and what starts out as a flirtation with ambition to conquer, turns into genuine affection and a desperation to win her heart.

Two characters from ‘On the Edge’ also feature heavily in this book - Rose’s brothers; necromancer George and changeling, Jack. Not really fitting in at their new home as young royalty ‘edgers’, Jack is coping particularly badly – his inner beast wants to break out and the confines of civility and politicking are grating on his last, wild nerve. So they both stow away with Kaldar and become part of his spying team, much to his chagrin and without Rose and Declan’s knowledge. 

I kinda forgot about Jack and George for a while there – but their appearance in ‘Fate’s Edge’ reminds readers of how far these characters have come since book one, and that there’s still plenty of surprises in store for them as they get older. George, in particular, is developing a reputation as a dashing young man who catches girl’s eyes. But it’s Jack I have a soft spot for; he feels so out of place and unwanted, and he can’t grasp girls yet or figure out how to make friends with people. I have high hopes for these two, I really do. The same way I’m hoping for a Julie spin-off in the ‘Kate Daniels’ world, I’m now hoping for a George & Jack young adult spin-off series in ‘The Egde’ world.

‘Fate’s Edge’ was a fantastic kick in the butt – just what I needed to remind me why I love this series and wish I hadn’t taken quite so long to get back into it. 

5/5 

'Hooked' by Liz Fichera

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

When Native American Fredericka 'Fred' Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school's golf team, she can't say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done.

But Fred's presence on the team isn't exactly welcome — especially not to rich golden boy Ryan Berenger, whose best friend was kicked off the team to make a spot for Fred. But there's no denying that things are happening between the girl with the killer swing and the boy with the killer smile...

Fredericka 'Fred' Oday has just been offered the chance of a lifetime – to join her school’s golf team and possibly get noticed by some college scouts. Fred can’t believe it, that she could be the first person in her family to go to college and all because Coach Lannon says she has the most natural swing he’s ever seen. Especially since Fred taught herself to play golf from watching the club house members playing where her dad works, as groundskeeper. 

But Fred knows her mum won’t be happy with Fred getting grandiose ideas of college scholarships – especially since she thinks Fred is destined for a dead-end waitressing job at the casino with her. And she definitely won’t like her joining the boys’ golf team at school, playing with those rich white kids.

Because Fred is of the River People, and lives on the local Indian reservation and, like all other ‘rez’ kids, she doesn’t have a lot to do with the white class populace at school. 

And then Fred joins the golf team, unknowingly taking the place of Seth Winter whose bad attitude and partying helped to get him kicked off. By taking Seth’s place, Fred has incurred his wrath, and that of his best friend and fellow golfer, Ryan Berenger.

But golf is Fred’s one escape – from the nights her mum drinks and gets mean, from her dad maybe leaving again, from feeling invisible at school and hopelessly dreaming about a life off the reservation.

This is Fred Oday’s one chance, and she’s going to try her best to seize it. 

On the flipside is Ryan Berenger – golf star, golden boy with a girlfriend called Gwynith. Except Ryan’s home life isn’t so great – his mum is always at work, probably because his dad is holding hands with his hairdresser at the mall. His little sister, Riley, isn’t a fan of his friends, but they’re all Ryan’s got when his family life feels so hollow. Then Fred Oday comes along and takes his best friend’s spot on the golf team, not to mention she has him thinking about her and her kind eyes, tanned shoulders and curling hair all the time and inching closer to betraying his best friend. 

‘Hooked’ is the first book in a new young adult series by Liz Fichera. 

I had issues with this book. They started with these small, niggling and unsettling thoughts that I managed to push aside because I was enjoying the bones of the story…but by book’s end those niggling, unsettling thoughts were piled atop one another and pretty hard for me to ignore. 

First, let me say that I love a good ‘wrong side of the tracks/Romeo and Juliet’ story. I have done ever since I saw ‘Pretty in Pink’ and developed a wee crush on Andrew McCarthy, whose cool-guy character Blane (such a pompously cool name!) fell for sweet social sub-set, Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald), though he was momentarily swayed by his best bud’s diversionary tactics (James Spader as Steff – “that girl was, is, will always be nada!”). So, I loves me a good opposites-attract, upstairs-downstairs high school romance. Love it! That’s why I had high hopes for ‘Hooked’, which is not only a ‘wrong side of the tracks’ romance, but is also of the sports-themed YA variety. I really liked the pitch – of a Native American girl joining her school’s all-male golf team. I like this because of the incongruity of a young woman dominating in a sport that is often associated with middle-aged white guys wearing plaid pants and talking business-mergers between tee-offs. However, while I liked the ‘bones’ of this story and think it had plenty of potential, it all fell apart for me in the execution.

First off, I have an issue with the cover (both US and international). When I found out this book had a Native American protagonist, I took umbrage at both covers not depicting the character’s ethnicity – it reminded me of a recent post by the Young Adult Library Services Association who wrote a column called ‘It Matters If You’re Black or White: The Racism of YA Book Covers’. ‘Hooked’, unfortunately, is another example of YA book covers that miss the mark by not representing the minority characters within. Never mind that neither cover reveals this to be a golf-themed book, let alone sports-related at all (that’s another insult – that this book has clearly been marketed to the romance YA sector when YA sports books, especially with a young female in the sporty lead, are also under-represented!). 

On the topic of ‘Hooked’ being a sports book… I would have actually liked more of the sport, since that was what ‘hooked’ me in the blurb. Fred doesn’t really get too much into the terminology of golf (a sport many young readers would be unfamiliar with, and I, for one would have liked to be educated). The closest this book gets to being a really immersive, sports YA is at the end with the ‘Golf Girl Gab’ glossary of golf terms. I just found myself wishing that Fichera had revelled more in this being a golf YA book – and what a quirky hook that is, particularly when it’s a Native American girl who is the stand-out golf star of her school’s all boy team. 

The coach stayed with me till we reached the tee box. “Don’t mind those sports reporters, Fred. I’ll keep an eye out for them. They’re only doing their job.” 

I nodded. “But why aren’t they asking anyone else questions?” 

“They will. For now you’re the novelty.” 

“Because I’m a girl?” Or an Indian girl? 

Coach Lannon smiled and pushed his sunglasses above his forehead like he wanted to make sure I saw the meaning in his eyes. He leaned closer. “Because you’re good.”

My second, but ultimately smallest issue, was with the teen lingo Fichera has in the book. She has her young male characters saying things like “sweet deal” and “chillax” and I just cringed every time I read such words and phrases. It’s like when your mum says; “cool” or your dad says; “dude” – it’s wrong, just wrong, and dates a book rather quickly.

No, my biggest complaint I reserved for the entire Native American aspect of ‘Hooked’. 

Look, I loved the idea that this book had a minority protagonist – LOVED it. But the book unsettled me for Fichera’s portrayal of life on the ‘rez’. For one thing, she lets a few racist remarks lie. Like when Seth repeatedly calls Fred 'Pocahontas', and while that's establishing his character in the beginning - I found myself waiting for Ryan or Fred or one of the other rez kids to pipe up and call Seth out on his racism. Nothing. This also happened when young characters (repeatedly) claimed that they could buy alcohol easily on the rez because Indians will do anything for money, including letting underage kids buy beer. I really think Fichera needed an anti-racism rant by one of the characters (preferably Ryan) at some point in this book, instead she let those racist remarks lie. 

Then there's the fact that she gave Fred’s mum a drinking problem. Yes, it’s a nasty stereotype – but Fichera could have potentially justified it if she’d made it a real focus and explored the reasons behind the addiction. Instead Fred talks vaguely about her mother being bitter about how her life has ended up, and that’s why she drinks – but we get no more explanation than that and there is absolutely no (believable) resolution to her mother’s problem except that she decides to turn over a new leaf by book's end. Furthermore, Fred mentions in passing that her devoted father already left the family once before coming back for Fred and her brother Trevor (we’re led to believe he reached a breaking point with his wife’s drinking) but this subject is never broached again. I was left wondering if Fred was always walking on eggshells around both her parents – afraid of one’s drunken ire, and the other’s potential to walk out again. 

Fred’s mother and her problems further confused me when Fred and Ryan bond over their mutual terrible family life. Except Ryan’s idea of a terrible family is his doctor mother who works all the time and his father who he catches at the mall with another woman (though his father has a reason for what Ryan saw). These, to me, were not equal family struggles. Fichera lumped Fred with the majority of familial problems (again, I wondered if this was because she thought her ethnicity deserved a heap more ‘issues’?!) and turned Ryan into a ‘poor little rich kid’ in the process. I mean, the Oday family get their power cut off, don’t own a phone and the mother is an alcoholic, but Ryan practically lives in a mansion and is sometimes hunkered down by fleeting thoughts of his dad’s infidelity. And, on the topic of Ryan and his father’s cheating – this was another plot point that got left by the wayside and completely forgotten by book’s end. In fairness, I know Fichera has a sequel book coming out in 2014 which is about Ryan’s little sister, Riley, and one of Fred’s friends from the rez, Sam Tracy – so it’s possible that Riley could pick up the baton-plot of their cheating father. But if that was the case then I needed a cliffhanger to that secondary plot to carry over into Riley’s story. As it stands, the forgotten plot of Ryan’s cheating father (which was his big ‘issue’) worked to further highlight how Fichera heaped Fred’s character with the bulk of ‘woe is me’.

And then there’s the romance… Urgh. There is a pinch of ‘insta love’ to Ryan and Fred, which is awful since there was great potential for enemy-turned-crush what with Fred getting off on the wrong foot with Ryan for taking his best friend’s spot on the golf team. What troubled me with the romance in Fichera’s book is that she essentially had what should have been a sports book with a hint of romance but turned it into a romance book with a hint of golf. The ‘insta love’ between Ryan and Fred was so coy and insipid that it made certain events in the novel seem blown WAY out of proportion. For instance, Ryan and Fred share one kiss, quickly followed by a spanner in the works for their budding romance but Fred takes the hit so badly that she mopes for a month. Now, I could believe moping for a month if she and Ryan had entered into a relationship and the first plot hurdle came a couple of months into their courtship. I could believe it if good girl Fred had lost her virginity to Ryan, or was at least getting so serious with him that she was considering it. But, one kiss? Seriously? Considering that these kids are nearly seniors, I found it hard to believe that they’d get into such a heartbroken funk when the entirety of their relationship was a make-out session. 

I also hated the ‘bad guy’ of the book, Seth Winters. He’s a one-dimensional villain, and all he was missing was a moustache to twirl and an evil cackle. 

I really wish Fichera had melded the golf and Native American aspects of the book better. And it’s even more frustrating because I think she had an opportunity to do so. She gives us two citations in the text, one in chapter one, the other in chapter eleven – things like explaining that a Grass Dance is a Native American ceremonial dance expressing harmony with the Universe. But after those two, we never see the citations again. I thought that could have been a clever way to incorporate both golf terms and Native American factoids throughout the book for an interesting mash. And the second citation used is not clinical, it brings Fred’s voice into it as she’s explaining that ‘rez’ is short for reservation; “It’s what all the cool Indian kids say. I try to be cool when I can.”  That was great – but that personalized citation is used once. ONCE! It both made me wonder what the point was, and why it was allowed to go to waste. 

But back to the Native American aspect… yeah, this bugged me. From the white-washed front cover, to the mother’s racist stereotype drinking problem and a character called George Trueblood, who is portrayed like a caricature of a Native American, but Fichera explains this away by saying not even the elders of the community take George seriously but let him think he’s an Indian chief. Seriously? In the book’s acknowledgements, Fichera thanks: “The Native American communities throughout Arizona and the American Southwest. Thank you for sharing your enduring spirit, beautiful cultures and lands.” – I’m still not sure if that means Fichera actually went out and spoke to Native Americans and got involved with their culture and maybe gave the 'Hooked' manuscript to some elders to read and offer suggestions, or if she thought simply being from Arizona and in close proximity to Native American lands would suffice. 

This book had good bones. The young adult readership would have benefited from a book that not only featured a Native American female protagonist but one who was also a rising star in an unlikely sport. Unfortunately what we get is a romance book with a pinch of golf, some questionable stereotyped characters and a plot that falls so flat it’s in the bunker.

1/5

'Penelope' by Rebecca Harrington

Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

When Penelope O'Shaughnessy arrives on the Harvard campus she is amazed: she has never seen such a vast and majestic Au Bon Pain. She has also never met anyone like her fellow freshmen. Everyone is overwhelmed and overworked, striving to get into the right social clubs and frantically pulling all-nighters at the library - and classes haven't even begun.

Penelope's roommates aren't exactly the soul mates she had hoped for (Emma is a social climber intent on punching The Pudding, while Lan is a misanthrope who paints her room black). Meanwhile, her 'Images of Shakespeare' class seems mostly to involve angry discussions over whether or not the Bard was overweight; the dorm room 'pre-game' sessions never seem to lead to a real game; and the aristocratic upperclassman she has admired from afar never seems to be eating in the freshman dining hall, where she might woo him alongside the make-your-own waffle bar. When Penelope finds herself roped into a production of Camus' Caligula, she begins to worry that her entire college experience is beginning to resemble an absurdist play.

Penelope O'Shaughnessy is a quirk of a girl; she still harbours her childhood crush on Hercule Poirot, prefers playing Tetris on her phone to social encounters, feels a spiritual kinship with Whitney Houston and knows Morse code by heart. It’s no wonder her mother is concerned that Penelope is now a freshman at Harvard; where she’ll have to share a dorm with other girls, make new friends and generally ‘interact’. . . so she gives Penelope the advice to be herself (but not too much). 

Now Penelope is at Harvard – the beginning of the rest of her life. Except she’s been roomed in Pennypacker; a notorious ‘outcast’ dorm above a radio station with a girl called Lan who continually paints her room and a social butterfly with a barking laugh called Emma. 

Across the hall are a collection of boys who have ‘pre-games’ every night and drink whisky from morning till noon. One of the boys is Ted, of the curling Roman bangs, who latches onto Penelope early on, much to her curious surprise.

Penelope expected Harvard to look like it did in the catalogues – with Abercrombie models playing rugby on the quad, where men dress down in bowties and boat hats to stroll around leisurely with their sweaters tied around their shoulders and girls participate in random games of croquet. Just about the only person who fits this description is a mysterious and handsome student called Gustav, who wears white linen suits and talks about his family’s arboretum (they have wheelbarrows decorated with a crest!). 

Just about the only thing that saves Penelope from a semester of isolated boredom is her participation in a modern interpretation of the absurdist play ‘Caligula’ – questionably improved to include a marionette act and light show. 

Penelope may have no people skills to speak of. She may be a social outcast of the highest order – but that doesn’t mean everyone around her isn’t absolutely absurd.

‘Penelope’ is the debut novel by Rebecca Harrington.

This book is a pretty impressive amalgamation of other things I love. The omniscient narrator reminded me of the voice in ‘500 Days of Summer’, with a pinch of Wes Anderson storytelling style (think: 'Rushmore'). There’s a certain whiff of ‘Gilmore Girls’ for Rory’s college days, particularly her interactions with the ‘Life and Death Brigade’. It’s also a modern spin on the ‘Brideshead Revisited’, but instead of depicting a Golden Age, Harrington is more pointing out the insipid, over-educated middle-classers of the modern Ivy League era (there's a character called Bitty, nuff' said). In short: this book is brilliant, I think Penelope is my fictional soul-mate and I pretty much want to live inside Rebecca Harrington’s brain, (if that isn’t too weird). 

I’m calling this book ‘New Adult Satire' – because it’s really the first young adult/new adult book I’ve read that isn’t all about the complications of love and sex in your early 20’s, but is rather an absurdist look at the entire university experience, through the eyes of an astute social outcast who is thrown into the societal deep-end at University. Needless to say, shenanigans follow. 

One of Penelope’s more unfortunate qualities was her tendency to view social occasions, such as parties, as cataclysmic events that would shape her destiny. She was often disappointed. Disappointment, however, did not lead to greater insight. Penelope still applied her eyeliner with a certain fatalism even before the most banal of activities, such as grocery shopping.

Penelope is sublime. She’s an exaggerated version of me (and every other bookworm misfit) who deadpans to perfection, has a ‘Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights’ poster (P.S. – I own the DVD and soundtrack!) and has never really understood the concept of ‘friends’ or how to acquire them. And, really, Harvard is the worst possible place for Penelope to learn the in’s and out’s of human interaction – because all her fellow classmates are high-strung over-achievers who have been planning their careers since they were in the womb. 

“Did you hear about Nikil?” asked Catherine, encasing Penelope’s arm in a viselike grip. 

“Um, no?” said Penelope. 

“He didn’t get on the Crimson Business Board. He got cut.” 

“Oh, that’s too bad,” said Penelope. 

“He’s really upset,” said Catherine with relish. “I feel awful for him.” 

“It’s too bad that even things that seem so un-fun are also so competitive,” said Penelope, “This was why I have always been against the Olympics, as a rule.”

Then there are the upper-crust darlings for whom Harvard is a pleasant jaunt between gap-years and settling into a cosy job in their parents business, never to work again. Unfortunately, Penelope falls for such a character in the illusive-fop, Gustav, and with him she encounters her first stirrings of lust and wanting; she hasn’t felt this intensely about a person of the opposite sex since Poirot! 

But, really, ‘Penelope’ is all about mapping the rough terrain of friendship. It’s blown hilariously out of proportion for Penelope, who’d rather play Tetris than interact with people at a party, but everyone who has made the transition from high school to university can appreciate that dreaded moment when you ask yourself; “how do you make friends again? Do handshakes work? What did I do on the playground in primary school? Should I hold up a sign? Put out an ad?”

What was the secret? How do you have friends? How do you make people want you around? Penelope always thought that if a person just said “Hello!” and “Cool” and “Awesome” and didn’t get mad that everyone would like that person, because what can you say about them except for positive things? They were inoffensive, like a beloved butler or cook. But even that didn’t guarantee anything. Maybe you were just the type of person that people liked well enough but not well enough to invite you to an arboretum. It was almost as if they didn’t like you at all. 

Harrington’s writing is sublime – her absurd characters are pitch-perfect and it’s not at all surprising to discover that she is Harvard alum. She’s sometimes uncomfortably astute, particularly when it comes to capturing voice, so you’ll find yourself wincing from the accurate overuse of words ‘like’ and ‘literally’. Example: “I literally don’t even know why. They were like my really good friends.” 

I’m recommending this book to all my friends as a must-read for the sake of our friendship. Seriously; ‘Penelope’ is the sort of divisive book to obsess over that will make-or-break a friendship if they don’t love it as much as you do. I’m calling it as a favourite book of 2013, and I’m crossing my fingers for a trilogy (Penelope as sophomore and senior – just MORE PENELOPE, please!) 

5/5

'Life in Outer Space' by Melissa Keil

Received from the Publisher

From the BLURB:

Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft – and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, he doesn’t have to worry about girls. 

Then Sam meets Camilla. She’s beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his life. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a life of her own – and she’s decided that he’s going to be part of it.

Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies ... but now it looks like he’s been watching the wrong ones.

For Sam Kinnison, most of life’s predicaments can be nutted out with a full-proof ‘Top Five Greatest Movies’ list, tailored to specific occasions. For instance, when he needs reminding why he’d rather be stabbed “in the nuts with a blunt pencil” than attend the Spring Dance, he calls on his Top Five All-Time Greatest Movie School Dance Scenes. This includes ‘Carrie’, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, ‘Prom Night’, ‘Footloose’ (for “sheer lameness”) and ‘Grease’ (because he believes “the flying car is symbolic of a journey to the afterlife, which means that Sandy and Danny were probably shoved off the Ferris Wheel”).

Sam finds comfort in movies – especially those from the horror genre. And continuously watching slasher-flicks and cult classics is helping his screenwriting career, his current project being Killer Cats from the Third Moon of Jupiter (KCftTMoJ).

If it sounds like Sam is a geek, you’d be right. He plays World of Warcraft, hangs out with the school IT guy to avoid a beating at lunch and sunlight rarely touches his hoodie-clad skin. But Sam is secure in his geekdom, especially because his group of friends are fellow nerds.

There’s Mike, who Sam has known forever. Mike is proudly gay, and a black belt in karate – although something has recently happened to turn Sam’s usually laid-back friend grumpy, and that something has also made him quit the dojo.

Then there’s Adrian, who was just suddenly in Sam’s life one day and hasn’t left since. Adrian tends to have more bravery than sense, but he’s loyal to a fault and over-packs food provisions for just about every outing. 

Allison is a big manga fan but she sort of fails at being a girl – she’s quiet and shy, but wicked smart.

Sam has his core group of friends, his WoW universe and his movies. And all of these things serve to distract him from the looming-catastrophe that is his parent’s crumbling marriage.

But then a new girl arrives at Bowen Lakes Secondary – a girl called Camilla Carter who wears Princess Leia buns, op-shop dresses and mega-sized headphones. Her dad is a famous music journalist, and her mother owns a modelling agency. She has lived in New York and London – and her presence changes everything, the moment she slips Sam a note with her World of Warcraft character name – AltheaZorg.

Sam devleopes a theory that Camilla is a reverse demon-spawn, who instead of reaping carnage and destruction is performing social miracles by hanging out with both Sam’s group of nerds and the popular clique at Bowen Lakes Secondary. She somehow brings the two factions together into complete harmony.

Camilla Carter forces Sam and his friends to live outside their stereotypes and see their world differently. She challenges Sam, most of all – and she terrifies him just a little.

This is Sam’s second-to-last year of high school, and Camilla Carter is going to change everything for him. 

‘Life in Outer Space’ is the inaugural winner of Hardie Grant Egmont’s young adult ‘Ampersand Project’. It is the debut novel for Melissa Keil, and heralds a new and exciting wave of Aussie YA discoveries.

It’s hard to pinpoint when Keil had me in her grasp and truly suckered in. Was it when she specified the original ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ movie in one of Sam’s numerous top-five lists? Was it when Camilla quoted my favourite line from ‘Say Anything’: “I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen”? Was it when Hardie Grant Egmont revealed the lovely cover, and I drooled just a little? Honestly – it was probably all these little things amounting to a great big book of gooey-awesomeness that had me declaring Melissa Keil a hot new Aussie YA talent.

The book is narrated by Sam Kinnison – in such a pitch-perfect and endearingly nerdboy voice that Keil had me fooled right from the get-go. He’s a sweet guy, if a little awkward and frustratingly content to rest on his laurels. When the book begins he has slotted himself firmly into the role of ‘geek’ and given the likes of popular-douche, Justin Zigoni, a lot of power over him and his friends. We spend just enough time inside Sam’s screenplay-writing-slasher-flick-watching mind to know that when Camilla Carter walks into his classroom, the tremors are felt deep down.

What I really, truly loved about this book was that Keil plays with a lot of young adult contemporary tropes – she sets them up to knock them down and in doing so, she happily wrecks Sam’s entire outlook on life, and forces him out of his comfort zone bit-by-bit.

Take, for instance, Camilla Carter. Initially readers may figure her for the Manic PixieDream Girl archetype. She has the prerequisite kooky dress sense, a firm belief that ‘Star Wars’ is for everyone and not just boys – and she’s trying to level-up her Dwarf in World of Warcraft. She is every nerdboy’s dream girl. But the book becomes about Sam digging deeper into Camilla’s surface-perfection – he discovers that her home life is not ideal, she’s become adept at convincing herself that she’s content and she has talent beyond just making other people happy. I loved Camilla – because while she starts out as this vehicle for Sam to change and better himself, she turns into a far more interesting and flawed character with as many messy life lessons to learn as impart.

Keil also starts Sam out as this nerdy archetype – and in the beginning readers may think the entire book will just be about him finding his ‘cool’ and getting the girl. But, actually, Sam is dealing with a pretty crappy home life while also worrying over what’s making his best friend so sad. There are more important things in life than popularity, as Keil brilliantly outlines with Sam’s journey that is far more interesting for not being a pursuit of vapid coolness.

I also liked that Keil played with more minor tropes – like Mike as the gay character, and Justin Zigoni as the bully. Neither of these secondary characters ends up following their stereotypes, and they’re more memorable and complex because Keil wrote the unexpected.

I also just loved ‘Life in Outer Space’ because it’s a pop-culture extravaganza. I had to jot down a few of Sam’s movie recommendations, because the way he talked about them with such love and obsession got me interested in watching them. And, of course there were the moments when Camilla expressed her love of 80s rom-coms and my John Hughes/John Cusack fangirl just had to squeal at certain scenes;

 ‘Say anything!’ she barks. 

'What?’ 

‘Say Anything. Late 80s movie, John Cusack – it’s one of my go-to happy movies. Find it. Promise you’ll watch it.’ 

‘It … doesn’t sound like a guy-movie, Camilla?’ 

'That doesn’t matter. The point is, it’s a feel-good movie. You don’t need to be watching people having their brains splattered right now. And I don’t need to be on a plane for eighteen hours worrying about you watching people having their brains splattered. What you need is an old-school 80s rom-com.’

‘Life in Outer Space’ is a triumph on three counts; for Melissa Keil as a brilliant debut, the Ampersand Project for setting the benchmark and the Aussie YA scene who can now claim an interesting new contemporary voice. This book is heartfelt, unexpected and features characters you kinda wish were real so you could have movie nights with them.

5/5