Bethany Larson

Title: Saving June
Author: Hannah Harrington
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release Date: November 22, 2011

When her older sister commits suicide and her divorcing parents decide to divide the ashes, Harper Scott takes her sister’s urn to the one place June always wanted to go: California. On the road with her best friend, plus an intriguing guy with a mysterious connection to June, Harper discovers truths about her sister, herself and life.—Goodreads

This is a book I probably never would have read. I shy away from death books. I don’t necessarily have an issue with death, I just don’t like to surround myself with lots of death-type things. Ok, that’s not true since I watch A LOT of really gory, death-related television. Maybe it’s because when I read, I want to have a good time. That sounds silly, I know, but I honestly don’t normally read books that are forthcoming in their being about (let’s be honest: non-supernatural) death.

So what changed my mind? The Twitterverse EXPLODED with nothing but praise and love and YOU-MUST-READ-THIS. And because I don’t like to be left out, I decided to give it a shot.

Verdict: the Twitterverse was right.

Hannah Harrington’s debut novel, Saving June, is great. And while it’s about death, it’s more about coming to grips with things out of your control than it is about, you know, death. In a lot of ways, it’s a coming of age book. It’s also a ROAD TRIP novel, and y’all know how I feel about those.

So while I was basically hard-wired to like this book, there were a couple things that really endeared it to me. First are the CRAZY amount of Tom Waits references. (Harrington! We need to HANG OUT!) Because this is a road trip novel, there is the requisite amount of music in this book. And the music selections are (in the words of Ferris Bueller) choice. A mix of indie and classic rock and heavy metal and country and guilty pleasures. It’s perfect.

 Then there’s Laney, the best friend of Harper, the main character with the awesomesauce name. Now, Harper is pretty great (though completely lost) in her own right, but for some reason I really, really latched on to Laney. I felt for the girl, who’s dealing with the loss of June herself, but also in the midst of some really heavy stuff of her own. And though she allows her focus on being a loyal friend to Harper to be an excuse to NOT deal with her shit, I still really adored her. I wanted to give her a giant hug and bake her cookies and then adopt her as my little sister. (Not that my little sister needs to be replaced. Au contraire actuellement. My lil’ sis is THE BEST.)

Ok, so there’s another component to this book that can’t be ignored: Jake. Jake is Saving June‘s resident mysterious music snob who was connected to June in a way that no one but he understands. And, really, he’s the key to the entire book. He’s the one who offers to drive Harper and Laney and June’s ashes to California. And he’s one of those guys who is frustratingly perfect—good looking, but dangerous; smart, but reckless with his education; easy to open up to, but impossible to get to open up. You know, that guy. But y’all. The slow burn of it all is SO worth it.

Overall, Saving June is both everything and nothing that you expect. Yes, there are shenanigans. Yes, there are meltdowns.Yes, there’s growth. But it’s also highly comedic and surprising and warm and honest. I’m very glad that I listened to Twitter and gave this book a shot. If you’re smart, you will too.

But don’t take my word for it! Check out these other reviews:
Ginger at GReadsBooks
Carla at The Crooked Shelf
Tara at Fiction Folio
Anna at Anna Reads

Title: The Future of Us
Authors: Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Publisher: Razorbill
Release Date: November 21, 2011

It’s 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet.

Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM.

Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on—and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future.

Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.—Goodreads


I don’t know how, but this book has totally flown under the radar for me. I KNOW that I’ve seen the title, but I never realized what it was about. I think maybe I thought it was something else I wasn’t interested in? I don’t know. But what I mean is this: THIS BOOK SOUNDS AWESOME.

Seriously, who hasn’t thought about what it’d be like to be able to go back and talk to your younger self? Even if you’re the kind of person who wouldn’t want to change the outcome or any of the mistakes you’ve made, it’d still be incredible to let your younger  know that everything will be ok, or that they should probs study a little bit harder for that one test, or go to that party instead of studying.

Anyway. I’m in love with the premise of this book. And I’m sort of glad that I’m hearing about it late so that I don’t have all that long to wait for it.

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 342
Release Date: November 15, 2011
Format: ARC Tour from the lovely Tara at Fiction Folio

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.—Goodreads 

Reader-Bethany’s Reaction to Shatter Me 
This book is crazy-good. Everyone should read it. Like, you should be at your favorite bookstore when it opens on the morning of November 15th and you should RUSH into the bookstore and buy all the copies so you can give them to people as presents. You and yours will thank me for telling you to do so.

You should follow the above advice for these reasons:

1. Tahereh Mafi is a very, very gifted writer. Her verbs and metaphors are gorgeous and creative and curious and gut-wrenching. Instead of telling you how her characters feel, she forces you to feel it right along with them. She also employs the use of the strikethrough better than any way I’ve ever seen it used. It’s inspired, really. 
2. The story is wonderful. I described it to a friend as a dystopian X-Men.*
3. The world building is really cool, but subtle. Which is nice. 
4. ADAM. Oh holy bazoo, Adam. 
• (Related: I have a bit of a thing for Warner, who is presented as the villain. Like, a weird Stockholm Syndrome thing for him. But, then again, I tend to over-sympathize with villains. However, I’m not sure if I think he truly is a villain. DO YOU SEE WHAT THIS BOOK HAS DONE TO ME?!)
5. The characters are so well-crafted and Mafi allows them to evolve. 
6. Juliette is real damn kick-ass too. 
7. It’s just really frackin’ great. Entertaining and intense and emotional and unforgettable. 

Writer-Bethany’s Reaction to Shatter Me 
This book shook me.

Reading this has made me think differently about how I write. The way that Mafi uses her words is completely different from anything I’ve ever read. She takes words that I would never, ever, ever think to put beside each other in a sentence, lines them up, and forces you think about those words in a different way. It’s truly masterful.

And then there’s the way Mafi uses verbs. Her verbs are violent and inventive and magnificently gory. (e.g., “There are wire cutters carvingholes in my heart.”) I was fawning all over myself  and bouncing up and down and calling random people to read them sentences from this book because of the verb usage. SRSLY.

If I’m being completely honest, Shatter Me is the first book I’ve read in a long time where I’ve thought “I want to write LIKE THAT.” And I’m sure that this book will inspire many young or aspiring writers to think the same thing. Mafi’s voice is fresh and evocative and so, so, so inventive that I wish I could adopt it. But that would be weird and forced and disingenuous. So I won’t.

But! What I can do is re-examine the way I write. Mafi’s writing has made me look at my own and think “How can I make these words really come alive? And how can I make my reader feel what my character is feeling? And, ok, this section here is a little dry, which words can I use to shock my readers and keep them attentive?”

But let’s be clear here—I’m not modeling my writing on Mrs. Mafi’s. Her voice is hers and I will never write the way she does. But reading Shatter Me has definitely made me think about it differently, and, I’d like to think it’s made both my writing and editing skills sharper and more attentive. Because, y’all, it’s really easy to be lazy about your words or to find crutch words that feel natural, and then employ them over and over again. That’s not fun. Mafi has fun with her words. She splashes around with them like a little kid. It’s refreshing and eye-opening and jealous-making and OH-MY-GOD SOOO YUMMY.

In sum, this book is fantastic. Not only will it captivate you and keep you enthralled from page one on, it’ll keep you guessing and laughing and crying. It will have make your heart bleed and break and pound right along with the characters’. But, you know, in a good way. For me, Shatter Me was more than a book—it was a watershed moment as both a reader and writer. Maybe it will be for you too.

 Hey y’all! (Please pretend I sound just like Tami Taylor when I say that. Thanks.)

So, if you scroll down this here bloggy blog, it’s plain to see that I’ve been a bit, um, negligent with the posting.

I hate this right now. But, there are a couple good reasons as to why. (I promise the reasons aren’t OMG-I-MET-THIS-GUY. If they were, I’d give you all permission to come to New York and kick me and steal all my books.)

Mostly, it’s one reason—I’m trying to figure out what the eff I want to do with my life.*

You see, I work in non-fiction publishing at a really, really small publishing house where I edit children’s non-fiction for the school and library market. I really like my job (Really.), but it’s becoming very clear that I don’t really have much of a future here in the way of advancement. This isn’t because I’m not a good employee or whatever but more because of gross business stuff and the sort of uncertain state of publishing today.

So, I know some of you are like, “Ok, so start applying to other jobs.” And while I agree with you on this, it’s not that easy. My current dilemma is this: do I want to stay in New York?

Ok, now some of you are thinking, “OMG are you completely insane?! OF COURSE you want to stay in New York. It’s mother-effing NEW YORK.” And I hear you. New York is fantastic and I feel so, so lucky to live and work here. But, I don’t want to live here forever. And I don’t even know if I want to stay in the editorial side of publishing. And it’s really expensive to live here and I don’t make a ton of money as it is and there’s NO WAY I could quit my job and write full-time and get a part-time gig to cover the bills without making myself sick with worry and concern over monies.

(This is getting long-winded. I have a point. I’m getting close to it. PROMISE.)

Because, you see, I’m one of those crazy writer types. I have all of these stories and characters in my head and I just want to get them on paper. And then I want people to read them and love them and not criticize them. 😉 So! To that end, I’ve been writing like the crazy-writer lady I am. Like, I’ve been telling my IRL friends that I can’t go out because I need to sit in my house and write.**

Because of this, I’ve been reading less and writing blog posts less since all my energy outside of work is put into my works-in-progress (WIPs) because my lease is up in June, and I’d really like to have some of my WIPs finished, and, you know, a plan in action by March.

But! None of that excuses my blog negligence. I need to do better. So I am charging all of YOU in helping me with this. Take to the Twitters and yell at me. Email me your verbal ninja-kicking. I mean it. And I promise I won’t yell back at you. Well. If do yell or get testy, I’ll apologize at some point. 🙂

 Alright, so that’s my story morning-glories. I miss y’all. I miss my blog. But I also need to figure my shit out. But! All things in moderation, right? RIGHT.

*Meaning, I know I want to write, but I need to figure out what I want to write.
**I seriously have five books and a television pilot outlined. Three of the books and the spec pilot have been started.