Here's the third post in my series of posts on authors on fan-fiction vs. retelling. Today's authors is one of my favorite fairy-tale retellers: Zoe Marriott!

What do you consider fan-fiction?

I've always understood fanfiction to be any piece of writing which utilises a world or characters that already exist (in whatever form) under copyright to the original author. So, for example, if I were to feel a sudden passionate need to write a new version of Twilight from Jasper's point of view, in which Jasper actually does bite Bella at the birthday party and then the two of them fall in love and Edward goes insane and joins up with Victoria to bring a newborn army to forks, that would be fanfiction. What makes it fanfic is that you're playing with fictional elements which legally and morally belong to another person. That other person may not mind - I certainly don't! - but you're still only borrowing, because no matter what you do, the author is the only one who has the right to change the 'canon' or profit from those creations.

Something is not fanfic if the world and characters that you use are out of copyright - if they no longer belong to someone else. If I decide to write a new take on Pride and Prejudice in which Darcy is an emotionless cyborg and Lizzie is the brilliant mechanic who installs his Heart Chip, that would be a retelling rather than fanfic, because Lizzie and Darcy, and the plot that binds them together, and their fictionalised Regency universe, are all out of copyright and no longer belong to anyone. As a reteller, I still can't change the canon of the original story. But since the author isn't able to profit anymore from that world and characters, it's OK if I do.

Do you consider your book to be fan-fiction? If not, what sets it apart from your definition?

I don't think that fairytale retellings count as fanfic, no. Firstly, folklore and fairytales are not only not under copyright - they've never been under copyright to anyone (not even the brothers Grimm, or H.C. Andersen, although they of course owned their personal takes on those stories) because they're part of a tradition of oral storytelling that stretches back hundreds of years, and those stories have already been told and retold more times than any human could count. In a very real way, the folklore and myths of each individual culture form a part of the identity of its people, and those stories are a birthright, to be dipped into at will. Fairytales and folklore form archetypes, and there's a part of the human brain which is hardwired to seek out and respond to those elemental archetypes. We see the same story shapes and the same kinds of characters crop up over and over again because of that. Cinderella, for instance. There's a Cinderella element in Twilight and one in Pride and Prejudice. That doesn't even make those stories retellings, let alone fanfic. People have been retelling and re-imagining folklore and myths and fairytales in their own ways since we started painting on cave walls. The term fanfic has only existed for about fifty years. I think it's a bit presumptuous to come along and slap that label on stuff which has been a natural part of our cultural evolution for millenia.

Based on your definition, should fan-fiction ever be published?

This is a tougher one. It's in the nature of creative work that you take inspiration from all kinds of sources. There are books of mine which couldn't exist if I hadn't taken inspiration from other books (ME: Argh, I can't believe the author did that to her strong girl warrior! I'm going to write a strong girl warrior of my OWN and mine won't turn into a wimp!) or films, or music, or pieces of art. There's nothing mortally wrong with this process. West Side Story wouldn't exist without Romeo and Juliet. Some of Shakespeare's plays wouldn't exist without the work of Marlowe. My The Name of the Blade Trilogy wouldn't exist without the Robert Graves poem 'The Bedpost'. Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices series might not exist without A Tale of Two Cities. And I've read fanfic which diverged so wildly from its source material that it felt exactly the same - like original fiction which had merely taken a spark of inspiration from something else.

Any work of original fiction which started life as fanfiction can't legally be published unless someone comes along and 'files off the serial number' so to speak. If that's merely a case of (for example!) removing the names Edward and Bella from your all-human, zany, college comedy, and if no one would ever guess that the book was originally inspired by Twilight unless you told them, then I think it's OK. You're not profiting from someone else's work there, but from your own original creations - creations which were merely sparked to life by your reaction to the source material. But I think if your characters are exactly the same as the source characters, and anyone reading your work could see exactly where those serial numbers have been filed off - and most especially if your new book is *promoted* using the fact that it used to be fanfic, and benefits from that - well, then morally you may be on thin ice, even if you can get away with it legally.

The true test, I think, is that fanfiction relies on the reader having familiarity with the original material. It falls flat or feels nonsensical to readers that don't. Original fiction, even fiction that was inspired by another work, can stand alone. It's strong enough - it's characters and world and plot are strong enough - to mesmerise a reader who has never read the story from which the inspiration was drawn.

(NOTE FROM ENNA: River is going to be helping me a lot with reviews for a little while. I'm doing my senior project this semester, and it's kind of consuming my life. I'm in class/work/rehearsal from about 9-9 every day until March. Hopefully I can get my act together on the weekends and schedule some stuff. Until then, enjoy another River Review!)

Release Date: August 28th, 2012
Genre: Dystopia, Sci-fi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 320
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been a victim of the system ever since her parents died. Now living off the grid and trusting no one, she uses her computer-hacking skills to stay safely anonymous and alone. But when she wakes up on a table in an empty warehouse with an IV in her arm and no memory of how she got there, Noa starts to wish she had someone on her side.

Enter Peter Gregory. A rich kid and the leader of a hacker alliance, Peter needs people with Noa's talents on his team. Especially after a shady corporation called AMRF threatens his life in no uncertain terms.

But what Noa and Peter don't realize is that Noa holds the key to a terrible secret, and there are those who'd stop at nothing to silence her for good.

Review: I wasn't blown away by this book, but it was still fairly good. I had really high expectations for it at the beginning when the first chapter was so action-packed, but they slowly slipped away as the protagonist seemed to spend a fair amount of time perched on her Apple laptop (This is a complete exaggeration, but I feel like the words "macbook" or "apple" were used more than the main character's name, which was annoying- there were just way too many references to her computer!) in coffee shops, wondering where she was going to sleep for the night. In all fairness, considering Noa's circumstances and her history as a computer hacker, it made sense that she would be rotating coffee shops and that she would be fairly obsessed with her laptop, but it still made for boring reading for me at times. 

However, it wasn't all boring, and in retrospect, most of the book was lively and fast-paced. When I first discovered what had happened to Noa, I admit I was fairly unimpressed, but the author managed to turn it into something interesting and curious, dropping mysterious hints about future sequels as I read. Noa herself was a likable protagonist, even if she wasn't the usual kick-butt, hard-edged heroine that I like. She was still smart and the other main characters were equally well-written.

Michelle Gagnon vanquished most of my doubts about the novel in the last few pages when she completely turned the tables on me, which frustrated the snot out of me. Things were finally looking for the main characters and for humanity as a whole, and she viciously squelched my rising hopes with a crusher of an ending that, of course, made me feel obligated to read the next book to find out what happens. Overall, I guess my final description for the book is that it was pretty good, and I ended up liking it for a book that really didn't seem like my type from the get-go.


*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

I have a treat for you guys today! To celebrate the release of the NEW KIKI STRIKE BOOK(!!!!!) Kirsten Miller is going on a blog tour and I get to participate! Check out this awesome interview from her and then enter the giveaway for the first two books in the Kiki Strike series!


You have two series that are quite different from each other (THE ETERNAL ONES and KIKI STRIKE). Can you write two such different stories simultaneously, or do you only write one story at a time?

I don’t think The Eternal Ones series really represents me as a writer. (Writing romances does not come naturally to me.) If I had to choose two books in order to demonstrate my true breadth, I’d pick the latest Kiki book, The Darkness Dwellers and my new teen novel (out in February), How to Lead a Life of Crime.

I wrote them back to back. (Sometimes I’ll edit one book while writing another, but I never write two at once.) And while the two books are VERY different (How to Lead a Life of Crime is extremely dark and violent), they share many similarities. They’re thrillers/adventure stories with kick-butt characters and a weird sense of humor. That’s what I do best. I honestly believe that my two latest books are by far the best novels I’ve written.

What were your worst and best subjects in high school?

Best: English
The One I Loved Most: Chemistry
The One I Despised Most: Gym
Worst: Staying Out of Trouble

Do you read your books after they've been published? On a similar vein, do you read reviews? Why or why not?

I will occasionally ready my own books. But only the good parts—and I know just where they are.

I try to avoid reviews, although I’m not always successful. Writing books is one of the most difficult things a person can do for a living. (At least it is for me.) In order to keep going, I need to believe that people will enjoy the results of my labor. From what I’ve gathered, most readers have been quite happy with my novels. But there are always a few folks out there whose reviews seem to be designed to make me miserable. And you know what? They can—at least for a little while. So I do my best to stay away.

Are you a Vespa riding dare-devil like Kiki, or do you prefer transportation with four wheels?

It’s so funny you ask! I live in New York, where you don’t really need personal transportation. But I did have a cherry red Vespa for years. Just yesterday, I mentioned to a friend that I’m thinking about getting another one. (And yes, I am an AMAZING driver. Watch out, pedestrians. Ha.)

What's the single greatest piece of advice you've received since you sold your first book?

Here’s the piece of advice I wish I’d received . . . Always stay true to who you are as a writer.

Do you read the same kind of books that you write? Do you ever worry about accidentally "copying" another author's voice?

I read mostly non-fiction these days. (I’m always on the look-out for weird facts that can provide fodder for my books.)

No, I never worry about copying another author’s voice. Every writer has his/her own set of insecurities, and I don’t possess that particular one. My biggest problem is a lack of patience. I expect everything to be perfect the second it spills out of my brain. (Something that almost never happens.)

If you could jump into the world of Kiki Strike and join her team, would you do it? What if you had a guarantee that you would live?

I would LOVE TO. I don’t need a guarantee, either.

And finally, can we do a mad-lib? Please provide 3 random nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Reptile
Cadaver
Wig

Excavate
Lick
Tangle

Hidden
Sassy
Fiendish

I haven't had time to get my hands on one of Kirsten's book to fill out her mad-lib. But I will soon, and it will be AWESOME!


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Here's the second post in my series of posts on authors on fan-fiction vs. retelling. The second author is the Jane Austen master re-teller: Amanda Grange!

What do you consider fan-fiction?

I think everyone has their own definiton of fan fiction. I've never thought about it in any great depth but I suppose to me fan fiction is something based on other people's creations, written solely for the pleasure of the fan fiction author or possibly the pleasure of the fan fiction author's family and friends as well ,and then posted online. It doesn't have to meet any standards so it can be good, bad or anywhere in between.

Do you consider your book to be fan-fiction? If not, what sets it apart from your definition?

I think my books are different for a number of reasons. Although I get a lot of pleasure writing them and they are based on someone else's creations, I was a published author before I started my retellings (I'd had about ten Regency romances published), so I'd already spent years honing my skills, whereas a lot of fan fiction is often the author's first experience of writing. There's nothing wrong with this, in fact it gives a lot of people a taste for writing and they go on to become professional authors, but it means that for the most part the fan fiction authors don't have a control of their writing skills and so the results can be uneven. My books can't afford to be uneven. They have to meet professional standards and they also have to meet publishers' requirements. I have to deal with a whole variety of things like accuracy, length, deadlines and consistency, as well as adding something new while being true to the original. I have to do a lot of research to make sure all my historical details are correct, the language is suitable for the Regency period etc. and my book has to pass muster with an experienced editor before it sees the light of day. If I'd written the diaries as my first attempts at writing a novel, they wouldn't have been anything like the published novels they are today. They would have had problems with pacing, style, characterisation, narrative flow and everything else, so I'm glad the idea didn't occur to me until I'd already been through the process of writing my own books.

Based on your definition, should fan-fiction ever be published?

I really can't say. Some fan fiction authors don't want to be published, some publish themselves and some are picked up by mainstream publishers. But it's an interesting topic. I think anything that gets people writing and reading is a good thing!

Here's the first post in my series of posts on authors on fan-fiction vs. retelling. The first author is the amazing Diana Peterfreund!

What do you consider fan-fiction?

Fanfiction is unlicensed derivative work. Derivative work is a legal term, which is why you get workarounds like "filing the serial numbers off" something that might have once been fanfic and then selling it. So that's the legal POV. Here's the personal one. I used to read and write fanfiction when I was a teenager, and to me, the essence of fanfic was sending established characters in established worlds out on new adventures that the creators didn't or wouldn't or hadn't or had only hinted at. The important part of the term is it's being produced by "fans", for fun.

There are currently things being called "fanfic" and posted on fanfic sites that I personally wouldn't consider fanfic. For instance: someone who types up the words of a published novel and then changes the names of the characters in that novel into the names of the characters in the "fandom" -- that is not fanfiction. That is not "crossover fanfic." That's not "AU fanfic." That's just plagiarism. (It's happened to me and it's just baffling -- they're missing the whole point!)

I suppose there were genuine "AU" (alternate universe) fanfics around when I read and wrote them, but they never interested me at all. I was in that fandom for those characters and that story. Why would I want something totally different with the same names? Like why would i want to read Buffy fanfic where Buffy wasn't a vampire slayer, but just a high school student named Buffy? I'm not sure why people would even call it fanfic, except they want the established fandom. I've read that's how 50 Shades started. Had I not been told that, I probably would not have seen the connection between the stories. There is almost no similarity in plot and only vague and generic similarity in characters. (this is how they got away with publishing it with the names changed).

Finally, I wouldn't call the people writing fantasies about meeting and dating rockstars or other real people fanfiction either. They are fans, and it's fiction, but that doesn't make it fanfic.

Do you consider your book to be fan-fiction? If not, what sets it apart from your definition?

It is not unlicensed derivative work because there is no license. All of Jane Austen's works are out of copyright. But beyond the legal perspective, I think it's different because of the "essence" I talked about above. When I personally think of Jane Austen "fanfic", I actually think of books like Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife or Lost in Austen any of the other sequels or books that feature the actual Jane Austen characters in the actual Jane Austen stories and put them on new or different adventures. But I think we all have a lot in common, in the sense that we are all fans writing fiction inspired by Austen's works. So you can call it fanfic if you want. I don't have any moral feelings about that term. I'm in the same boat as "fanfic" like West Side Story... and that's a very happy place to be!

Based on your definition, should fan-fiction ever be published?

It's not a "should" question. If one attempts to publish and profit from unlicensed derivative work, the owners have the right to come down on you. But it's important to recognize that there is plenty of LICENSED derivative work going on. When you see a Star Wars novel, it's because Lucas (or I guess, Disney now) has hired someone to write it. (Just like Lucas hired someone to write the scripts of the original Star Wars movies.) When you have something like a movie or TV show, there are dozens of creators who have already gone into that production, and novelists working with Lucas to bring forth a particular vision (I know a few Star Wars novelists) are doing the same thing a scriptwriter or a production designer are.

Same thing with the new Bane Chronicles where other writers are writing in Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series.

Release Date: September 18th, 2012
Genre: Dystopia
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Pages: 304
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:

Radley just wants to get home to her parents in Vermont. While she was volunteering abroad, the American People's Party took power; the new president was assassinated; and the government cracked down on citizens. Travel restrictions are worse than ever, and when her plane finally lands in New Hampshire, Radley’s parents aren’t there.

Exhausted; her phone dead; her credit cards worthless: Radley starts walking

Blurb: The quickest and most simplistic way I can sum this book up is to say that it's a slightly less depressing, more feminine version of "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy-- with the added bonus of pictures.

Review: I didn't dislike the book. In fact, I kind of liked it. But it wasn't a "wow" book-- it wasn't different. Hesse seemed to recognize this while writing it, and decided to try and differentiate it from all the other post-apocalypse novels by supplementing the simple plot line with pictures she'd taken herself. The thing was, the pictures didn't always fit the story. At first, the pictures were pretty, artsy and in some places, invoked a moment of deeper consideration when they actually seemed to juxtapose nicely with the story. After the first few chapters though, the pictures only served as a reminder that the book was actually several dozen pages shorter than I originally thought. It took me a solid hour to sit down and read a 300-something page novel due to the full page pictures.

Even if I hadn't read it through in one sitting, the book was short enough that it didn't allow me time to get into the characters, or the setting. I was merely an emotionless observer in a story that had the potential to grip me. However, although my review is pointing towards failure, the book did redeem itself in the last twenty or so pages when it made me bawl. Up until the end of the book, the feel had been off. It had been relatively calm and for the most part, everything that happened to the two main characters was pretty lucky. Let me just tell you though, that book got REAL in the last twenty pages in a way I should have expected, but didn't. And I cried hard. I curled up in bed and cried, mostly because I felt like the author had betrayed me in setting up a nice, cozy little world, but had then bashed it all in the head in the last chapter.

Few books make me cry, and the ones that do nearly always earn a spot on my bookshelf, however, I passed the book onto my little sister instead. In the end, despite a few adult circumstances the main characters deal with, the book was somewhat juvenile in it's length and content. When my twelve year old sister read it, her only comment was that the pictures were distracting to her. She also has the emotional capacity of roadkill, so I doubt she did much crying at the end, either. If you're looking for a short, easy and interesting enough book for a road trip to Grandma's house for Christmas dinner, you probably couldn't go terribly wrong with this book. And when you get car sick and throw up all over it and render it unreadable, you won't even be that upset.


*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

Welcome to a special edition of Unfinished Friday! Today I'm featuring some books that my guest reviewer River just couldn't quite get through. Read what she has to say about each!


Daughter of the Centaurs, Kate Klimo (Goodreads)

I honestly can't believe I even tried to read this book. I looked at the cover, and despite my obnoxious optimism, even I couldn't resist judging it by its cover. Still, I read the back of the book, was mildly interested and flipped it open to begin. I hadn't even finished the first paragraph and I already knew that this particular venture was doomed. Dear blog-reader, know that it was for you that I struggled on. I waded through three more pages of the book before I gave up and simply stared blankly at the pages with a bemused sort of expression on my face. It's been a while since I tried to read this book, but I needed time to heal from the weird tense, and style of writing that the book used before writing this review. I suppose if you were a book-hipster (I really don't even know what a book-hipster is, it just sounded appropriate) you could give it a try and perhaps enjoy it, but it's definitely not your regular novel....


The Pledge, Kimberly Derting (Goodreads)

"Strangely unremarkable for a promising book" would be my tag-line if I were a famous person who you would see quoted on the back of this novel (well, if publishers actually put criticism on the back of books...). I actually read the majority of this book, but even if it wasn't a tortuous read, it wasn't terribly enjoyable either. The setting was a weird mash-up of the middle-east and some post-apocalyptic world; the characters were tired; and the plot, however hard it tried, was rough at the edges, but thinning in the middle. I had less than a quarter of the book left to read before I was distracted by a hot football player. And in the books defense, he was really hot--I'm pretty sure this guy would have distracted me from finishing the last Harry Potter book even. But, even after my crush had died down, I didn't have the desire to return to the book in the slightest. In the end, it was just simply a boring story.


Glitch, Heather Anastasiu (Goodreads)

"Do, done, did" would be the tag line for this book, because it's short, catchy and it makes just enough sense that readers would be left wondering what the heck I meant by it. What I actually mean by it, is that this book's been done before. It's another post-apocalyptic world where everyone is controlled by little brain chips and some overarching leader with a complex and self-confidence problems. I got about a quarter of the way into this book, before it struck me that even I had written a story just like this when I was younger. Maybe I'm jaded and it's just too juvenile for me, but I ran out of interest before I realized the book hadn't even created interest in the first place. It wasn't that it was poorly written like the Centaur book, but it was boring like The Pledge. I ended up passing it on to my sister who practically swallows books whole (actually, she ate ten pages of my copy of "Anna Karenina" because she was mad at me once...), and even she couldn't summon the interest to read it.

So there you go! What do you think of these books? Have you read them? Did you like them?

Have a great Friday!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on fan-fiction and an interesting question was brought up: where is the line between fan-fiction and retellings?

I spent a long time talking with Nicole on twitter about this issue. And she just wrote a post on her opinion on the matter. I agree with pretty much everything she said, so rather than restate a similar opinion I decided to take it to another level.

I have contacted four authors of "retellings" and asked them the following questions:

What do you consider fan-fiction?
Do you consider your book to be fan-fiction? If not, what sets it apart from your definition?
Based on your definition, should fan-fiction ever be published?

Their answers are very interesting and very different. Here's a preview of each of their answers, and then I'll be posting their individuals answers over the next few weeks.

Marissa Meyer
Author of the fairy tale retelling Cinder

To me, fanfiction is when a work takes specific characters or settings from an original work and re-uses them. Alternatively, a story about a boy who discovers that he's a wizard or a band of magical beings who go on an epic journey to destroy a dangerous artifact - while they may have very direct and obvious influences - wouldn't be considered fanfiction in my opinion, because they aren't making use of the world and characters from the original.

I've always understood fanfiction to be any piece of writing which utilises a world or characters that already exist (in whatever form) under copyright to the original author. Something is not fanfic if the world and characters that you use are out of copyright - if they no longer belong to someone else.

Amanda Grange
Author of numerous Jane Austen inspired novels

I suppose to me fan fiction is something based on other people's creations, written solely for the pleasure of the fan fiction author or possibly the pleasure of the fan fiction author's family and friends as well ,and then posted online. It doesn't have to meet any standards so it can be good, bad or anywhere in between.

There are currently things being called "fanfic" and posted on fanfic sites that I personally wouldn't consider fanfic. For instance: someone who types up the words of a published novel and then changes the names of the characters in that novel into the names of the characters in the "fandom" -- that is not fanfiction. That is not "crossover fanfic." That's not "AU fanfic." That's just plagiarism. (It's happened to me and it's just baffling -- they're missing the whole point!)

Want to see more of their answers to the other questions? Check back each Wednesday to see what each of them have to say in more detail

Author: Laini Taylor
Narrator: Khristine Hvam
Genre: Supernatural/Middle Grade
Producer: HarperCollins Audio

Story Review: I adore this book. I love Karou with all my heart. She's such a strong character. And the whole world building of chimera vs. angel. I especially loved it because there is absolutely nothing religious about it. Angels are just another species, not heavenly beings. That was a cool take on it.

The twists were my favorites. There are so many twists in this book that I was gasping every other page. The characters are all so highly developed that they can't help but have twists!

There is some PG-13 stuff in there. Laini's books are always a little edgy. In terms of language, there is primarily the different uses of the a** word. And the book is about a war so there is a bit of violence. Most of it is in flash-back form, though, and fairly vague.

There isn't ANY drinking and drugs, but there IS sexual content. At the beginning the main character talks briefly about her regret over losing her virginity to a jerk. And near the end there's some talk of the leading man's old flame and them "loving" each other. This isn't explicitly sexual, only some short mentions of them not wearing clothes. It was awkward, but brief. And again, most of this stuff is flash-back-y, because the girl in question has been dead for years, so it's just him remembering their time together. This is only for the last 50 pages, and the reason why he's remembering is so sad and action-filled that it didn't bother me.

Audio Review: To be honest, at first I didn't think the narrator had a strong enough voice/personality to voice Karou. But by the end I felt like she had really grown into the character. The narrator was also really great at doing accents. She gave Brimstone a Carribbean accent, which I never would have thought of myself but totally fit him! Definitely glad I listened to the audiobook before reading the second one. The refresher was great and the listening was a pleasure!

Release Date: November 15th, 2011
Genre: Didactic, Non-scary Horror
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 523
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Summary:

They say the dead should rest in peace. Not all the dead agree.One night, Silas Umber's father Amos doesn’t come home from work. Devastated, Silas learns that his father was no mere mortician but an Undertaker, charged with bringing The Peace to the dead trapped in the Shadowlands, the states of limbo binding spirits to earth. With Amos gone, Silas and his mother have no choice but to return to Lichport, the crumbling seaside town where Silas was born, and move in with Amos’s brother, Charles.

Even as Silas eagerly explores his father’s town and its many abandoned streets and overgrown cemeteries, he grows increasingly wary of his uncle. There is something not quite right going on in Charles Umber’s ornate, museum-like house—something, Silas is sure, that is connected to his father’s disappearance. When Silas’s search leads him to his father’s old office, he comes across a powerful artifact: the Death Watch, a four hundred year old Hadean clock that allows the owner to see the dead.

Death Watch in hand, Silas begins to unearth Lichport’s secret history—and discovers that he has taken on his father’s mantle as Lichport’s Undertaker. Now, Silas must embark on a dangerous path into the Shadowlands to embrace his destiny and discover the truth about his father—no matter the cost.

Blurb: Yes, we get it: honor your ancestors. Please MOVE ON!

Review: 80% of this book was just the author going on and on about how the living should always remember the dead. Respect your ancestors and history and whatnot. I often found myself rolling my eyes as the author said this AGAIN and AGAIN just using slightly different words.

The other 20% was filled with irrationally emotional characters, ONE zombie who was actually really boring, a creepy relationship with a dead girl, and three ghosts who I think we're supposed to be some version of the fates. This was only slightly more interesting than the other 80%.

If it wasn't a holiday, and if I hadn't been able to read about 250 pages a day, I would NOT have finished this book. It was just dreadfully dull.

Other Reviews:

• Ageless Pages (Loved it!)
• Mon Palais (It was okay)
• Allyson (Didn't Like It)

*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

Release Date: February 7th, 2013
Genre: Romance, Dystopia
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Pages: 464
Rating:
Amazon Link*: Click here
Goodreads Page: Click here
Series: Lunar Chronicles #2 (Review of #1)
Summary (Spoilers, highlight to view):

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother and the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she has no choice but to trust him, though he clearly has a few dark secrets of his own.

As Scarlet and Wolf work to unravel one mystery, they find another when they cross paths with Cinder. Together, they must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen who will do anything to make Prince Kai her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Blurb: Original, French, and a non-stop jaw-drop.

Review: So I already loved the first book in this series, and I wasn't sure that Marissa could top it. Oh me of little faith, she did a lot more than top it.

What made this book so great (aside from the fact that it had lots of Frenchy things. That always makes a book a lot better for me) was how original it was. Many people complained about how Cinder was too much like the original tale, or too predictable. Well, I'll tell you right now that this book is NEITHER of those things.

While Cinder was a fairly close retelling of Cinderella, Scarlet really is its own book. And Scarlet herself certainly isn't a wimpy chick like the girl from Little Red Riding Hood. The girl carries a handgun in the waistband of her pants 24/7. That's pretty hardcore. And the wolf... well, let's just say that Wolf isn't exactly what he seems. He's a very conflicted character/villain. And you know how I love conflicted characters/villains.

I think I've covered the major points. If you haven't yet read Cinder you totally should. And if you have and you didn't like it for either of the reasons I mentioned before, you should still give Scarlet a go. I dunno what happened, but Marissa's writing improved a lot in between these two books, and it was already great so that's saying something.

Other Reviews:

• TC closer to the release date. (I couldn't find any other reviews in my GoodReads friend list! If you have a review, leave a link in the comments and maybe I'll link to you!)

*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.

Hey local yokels (and non-locals too)! Would you do me a favor? Would you please go here and vote for some awesome authors to come to SLC, UT? I would love you forever. Seriously.

Anyone can vote! DO IT!

Want to know the answers to the best of 2012 contest? Here it is! The winner is below!


And the person who got them all right the fastest is...


The other winner is taking me a little bit longer to figure out. So that person will get an e-mail within 48 hours. Check your inboxes!

Before I get to my 2013 goals, let's see how we did with my 2012 goals: