YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK
Sorrow’s Knot
by Erin Bow
Hardcover Giveaway
Arthur A. Levine Books
Released 11/1/2013
From the acclaimed author of PLAIN KATE, a new novel about what lurks in the shadows, and how to put it to rest…
In the world of SORROW’S KNOT, the dead do not rest easy. Every patch of shadow might be home to something hungry, something deadly. Most of the people of this world live on the sunlit, treeless prairies. But a few carve out an uneasy living in the forest towns, keeping the dead at bay with wards made from magically knotted cords. The women who tie these knots are called binders. And Otter’s mother, Willow, is one of the greatest binders her people have ever known.
But Willow does not wish for her daughter to lead the lonely, heavy life of a binder, so she chooses another as her apprentice. Otter is devastated by this choice, and what’s more, it leaves her untrained when the village falls under attack. In a moment of desperation, Otter casts her first ward, and the results are disastrous. But now Otter may be her people’s only hope against the shadows that threaten them. Will the challenge be too great for her? Or will she find a way to put the dead to rest once and for all?
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Sorrow’s Knot?
That is SUCH a hard question – it’s like asking me to choose my favorite thing about my kid. I like the way the setting came out, the creep of the haunted forest. I like the new monsters, the Ones with White Hands, with their bodies made of clotted shadow and their hands of “twigs and fingernails.” I like the way that magical power belongs to women, which leads everyone to underestimate and misunderstand the boys, without the book falling victim to Matriarchy as an Overwhelming Metaphor syndrome. I even like the food.
But in any book of mine, my heart will always belong to characters. They are very real to me – and Otter, particularly, I’ve known for ten years now. She’s born to power and privilege, and you could read her as a high priestess or a princess, and yet she came to the page warm-hearted, playful, a practical joker. She doesn’t look it on the cover, I know, but she’s short and sturdy, which I just love – take your image of an magical princess and stuff that in it.
Otter has two friends, quiet-until-you-get-to-know-her Kestrel, and silly, clumsy Cricket, who is full of hidden power. Kestrel’s a girl and Cricket’s a boy (one of the underestimated ones). Together they make one of those classic threesomes, like Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They are so much better as a triad than they could ever be alone, and it’s hard for me to remember how late in the drafting process they finally came together. I love them so much.
Here they are goofing around on a big rock in the sun:
Cricket, meanwhile, was holding his arrowhead up against the bright sky. He kept pinching it between two fingers and closing the fingers to tuck the little object into his palm. The third time the arrowhead dropped and went skittering down the slope of granite Otter sighed at him. “Cricket, you know that I love you, so trust me in this: that’s hopeless.”
“It’s part of my work,” said Cricket, which was true: many storytellers used sleights of hand and other small tricks to knot a gasp or a laugh into a well-know tale.
Kestrel picked up the arrowhead and handed it back to the sprawling boy. “That doesn’t mean you’re not bad at it.”
Cricket grinned up at her. “Do you think so?” He turned his hand over and opened it. There was an arrowhead there already. He closed his hand again, flipped it, righted it, opened it, and there were two arrowheads. He closed his hand a third time, and when he opened it there were three. “Keep near me, Kestrel,” he said. “I’ll show you wonders.”
As the Animaniacs said about Czar Nicholas: What nice people! I see nothing but good things in their future.
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The Eye of Minds
by James Dashner
Hardcover Giveaway
Delacorte Press
Released 10/8/2013
An all-new, edge-of-your seat adventure from James Dashner, the author of the New York Times bestselling Maze Runner series, The Eye of Minds is the first book in The Mortality Doctrine, a series set in a world of hyperadvanced technology, cyberterrorists, and gaming beyond your wildest dreams . . . and your worst nightmares.
Michael is a gamer. And like most gamers, he almost spends more time on the VirtNet than in the actual world. The VirtNet offers total mind and body immersion, and it’s addictive. Thanks to technology, anyone with enough money can experience fantasy worlds, risk their life without the chance of death, or just hang around with Virt-friends. And the more hacking skills you have, the more fun. Why bother following the rules when most of them are dumb, anyway?
But some rules were made for a reason. Some technology is too dangerous to fool with. And recent reports claim that one gamer is going beyond what any gamer has done before: he’s holding players hostage inside the VirtNet. The effects are horrific-the hostages have all been declared brain-dead. Yet the gamer’s motives are a mystery.
The government knows that to catch a hacker, you need a hacker.
And they’ve been watching Michael. They want him on their team.
But the risk is enormous. If he accepts their challenge, Michael will need to go off the VirtNet grid. There are back alleys and corners in the system human eyes have never seen and predators he can’t even fathom-and there’s the possibility that the line between game and reality will be blurred forever.
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YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS
Reality Boy
by A. S. King
Hardcover
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Released 10/22/2013
Winner: Jeri Baird
Gerald Faust knows exactly when he started feeling angry: the day his mother invited a reality television crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he’s still haunted by his rage-filled youth-which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle-and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school.
Nothing is ever going to change. No one cares that he’s tried to learn to control himself, and the girl he likes has no idea who he really is. Everyone’s just waiting for him to snap-and he’s starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that.
In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, highly acclaimed Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child “star” who finally breaks free of his anger by creating possibilities he never knew he deserved.
Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Reality Boy?
I have a few favorite things about REALITY BOY.
First, I like the epigraph. You’ll have to read it yourself (It’s like a treasure hunt!) but it says a lot for me.
Next, I like that the book explores our reality TV culture and how it might affect us, and not just the people on these shows. Sure, the book is about a boy who appeared on reality TV as a young child, and whose reputation was molded by that appearance, but I hope it pushes readers to explore their own realities and ask questions like: What, on TV, do I believe? Why do I choose to believe what I believe? What shows on TV are real? How do I know when I can trust a source?
And last, I think my real favorite thing about REALITY BOY is that like many of my books, it attempts to show a way out to anyone who is in pain. Through Gerald’s struggle it illustrates that there is life after something that seems insurmountable. And who knows? Maybe a reader might understand that the lies people see and hear on the Internet, TV or even though gossip are not all that entertaining after all.
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MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK
Altered
by Gennifer Albin
Hardcover
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Released 10/29/2013
Life. Possibility. Choice.
All taken from Adelice by the Guild-until she took them back.
But amid the splendid ruins of Earth, Adelice discovers how dangerous freedom can be. Hunted by soulless Remnants sent by Cormac Patton and the Guild, Adelice finds a world that’s far from deserted. Although allies are easy to find on Earth, knowing who to trust isn’t. Because everyone has secrets, especially those Adelice loves most. Secrets they would kill to protect. Secrets that will redefine each of them. Torn between two brothers and two worlds, Adelice must choose what to fight for.
In this thrilling sequel to Crewel, Adelice is about to learn how tangled up her past and future really are. Her parents ran to protect her, but nothing can save her from her destiny, and once she uncovers the truth, it will change everything.
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Horde
by Ann Aguirre
Hardcover
Feiwel & Friends
Released 10/29/2013
The epic conclusion to the USA Today bestselling trilogy.
The horde is coming.
Salvation is surrounded, monsters at the gates, and this time, they’re not going away. When Deuce, Fade, Stalker and Tegan set out, the odds are against them. But the odds have been stacked against Deuce from the moment she was born. She might not be a Huntress anymore, but she doesn’t run. With her knives in hand and her companions at her side, she will not falter, whether fighting for her life or Fade’s love.
Ahead, the battle of a lifetime awaits. Freaks are everywhere, attacking settlements, setting up scouts, perimeters, and patrols. There hasn’t been a war like this in centuries, and humans have forgotten how to stand and fight. Unless Deuce can lead them.
This time, however, more than the fate of a single enclave or outpost hangs in the balance. This time, Deuce carries the banner for the survival of all humanity.
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In the Days of Love and Chocolate
by Gabrielle Zevin
Hardcover
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Released 10/29/2013
All These Things I’ve Done introduced us to timeless heroine Anya Balanchine, a plucky sixteen year old with the heart of a girl and the responsibilities of a grown woman. Now eighteen, life has been more bitter than sweet for Anya. She has lost her parents and her grandmother, and has spent the better part of her high school years in trouble with the law. Perhaps hardest of all, her decision to open a nightclub with her old nemesis Charles Delacroix has cost Anya her relationship with Win.
Still, it is Anya’s nature to soldier on. She puts the loss of Win behind her and focuses on her work. Against the odds, the nightclub becomes an enormous success, and Anya feels like she is on her way and that nothing will ever go wrong for her again. But after a terrible misjudgment leaves Anya fighting for her life, she is forced to reckon with her choices and to let people help her for the first time in her life.
In the Age of Love and Chocolate is the story of growing up and learning what love really is. It showcases the best of Gabrielle Zevin’s writing for young adults: the intricate characterization of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac and the big-heartedness of Elsewhere. It will make you remember why you loved her writing in the first place.
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Relic
by Heather Terrell
Hardcover
Soho Teen
Released 10/29/2013
The truth will test you…
For fans of Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games: high fantasy and dystopia meet in this high-stakes tale of a civilization built on lies and the girl who single-handedly brings it down.
When Eva’s twin brother, Eamon, falls to his death just a few months before he is due to participate in The Testing, no one expects Eva to take his place. She’s a Maiden, slated for embroidery classes, curtseys, and soon a prestigious marriage befitting the daughter of an Aerie ruler. But Eva insists on honoring her brother by becoming a Testor. After all, she wouldn’t be the first Maiden to Test, just the first in 150 years.
Eva knows the Testing is no dance class. Gallant Testors train for their entire lives to search icy wastelands for Relics: artifacts of the corrupt civilization that existed before The Healing drowned the world. Out in the Boundary Lands, Eva must rely on every moment of the lightning-quick training she received from Lukas-her servant, a Boundary native, and her closest friend now that Eamon is gone.
But there are threats in The Testing beyond what Lukas could have prepared her for. And no one could have imagined the danger Eva unleashes when she discovers a Relic that shakes the Aerie to its core.
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