Blog Tour: Susin Nielsen's Literary Influences

I've got the final stop in Susin Nielsen's UK blog tour! Her books We Are All Made of Molecules and The Reluctant Journal of Henry K Larsen are two of my favourite recent reads. Susin talks us through her literary influences:

Growing up, there were two authors who really stood out for me: Paul Zindel and Judy Blume.  They both wrote about teens in such a realistic fashion. Blume in particular was a huge influence on me and on my writing to this day.  I still remember reading Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret, and feeling such a profound connection to Margaret. I feel deeply indebted to Judy Blume for making me realize “I am not alone,” and that’s something I try to do in my books now, too. Paul Zindel didn’t shy away from tough subjects – for example, in My Darling, My Hamburger, a character got pregnant and had to have an abortion. I’m not even sure that book would find a publisher today. But these authors really helped me negotiate my own teen years, and steered me toward writing realistic YA fiction.

Recently I rediscovered another favourite book of mine from my youth: Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh.  I first read this book when I was eleven. Then I re-read it last year, the 50th anniversary edition. I was blown away at just how much Harriet, and Louise Fitzhugh, had influenced my own writing without my being aware of it. Harriet had clearly lived on in me all those years! Louise Fitzhugh broke new ground with her female protagonist. Harriet is the antithesis of a girly-girl and she can be really mean sometimes – in other words, she is utterly human and believable. My second novel, Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom, has a protagonist named Violet who is eerily like Harriet. I feel forever indebted to Fitzhugh and only wish she’d lived long enough to write a whole pile of books.

Lastly, there is author Christopher Paul Curtis. I read his beautiful novel, Bud, Not Buddy, probably ten years ago now, with my son. It’s a heartbreaking story, set in the Great Depression in the US, and told through the eyes of Bud, an African American boy who’s lost his mom. But it is also laugh out loud funny. CPC artfully uses first-person narrative, and that allows for humor to seep in thanks to Bud’s perspective on things. This book encouraged me to try my hand at my first YA novel, Word Nerd, which is also rather sad in spots but leavened with humor thanks to a first-person narrative.

Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen will be published in the UK in October 2016.

Thank you, Susin! I can't wait for Word Nerd!

Sophie 

The List, Siobhan Vivian

Pages: 352

Publisher: Mira Ink

Release Date: 7^th April 2016

Edition: UK e-proof, NetGalley review copy

Other Titles by this Author: A Little Friendly Advice, Same Difference, Not That Kind of Girl, Burn for Burn, Fire with Fire, Ashes to Ashes, The Last Boy and Girl in the World

It happens every September – the list is posted all over school. Two girls are picked from each year. One is named the prettiest, one the ugliest.

The girls who aren’t picked are quickly forgotten. The girls who are become the centre of attention, and each reacts differently to the experience.

With The List, Siobhan Vivian deftly takes you into the lives of eight very different girls struggling with issues of identity, self-esteem, and the judgement of their peers. Prettiest or ugliest, once you’re on the list, you’ll never be the same.

I’ve been wanting to read The List since it was first released in the US years and years ago so I snapped it up as soon as I saw it was being published in the UK. It didn’t fully live up to expectations, but I did enjoy it.

The premise behind this novel has fascinated me for a really long time and I was hoping for a blistering look at the pressures on girls to conform in their image, personality and social activities. It didn’t even get close to that until the last 50 pages or so as everything began to unwind. I think that was partly due to the restrictions of have 8 POVs examing each 8 girls with the depth and agency they deserved. I did actually really like hearing from all 8 POVs – that many is usually too many for me - but it did mean we couldn’t go as deep as we wanted.

And yet some of the girls were much more present that others. I loved exploring the relationship between sisters Fern and Abby, Candace’s fall from Queen B, Margo’s struggle to keep her friends and Danielle’s battle with accepting the way being a varsity swimmer affected her body and the way she was seen. And then there was Bridget. My heart broke for her. I won't ruin anything about Bridget’s storyline, but it was getting into her head that finally hammered home the horrifying repercussions of being on the list, whether listed as pretty or ugly. It soon steamrollered and effected all 8 girls, causing them to each battle different pressures of being a teenage girl and all of the desires, fears and motives that come along with needing to survive that time.

No more did this make itself known than in the surprising reveal of who was behind the list. I loved the way that this turned the story around and really refocused the cruelty of the list and of high school in general, actually. Though I still can't begin to imagine how the faculty let something so awful and damaging become a tradition at the school. It’s disgusting and it just defies belief a little.

The List is a really interesting read and I read it quickly and easily, it just didn’t give me the punch in the gut I was hoping for.

Thanks to NetGalley and MiraINK for the review copy.

Sophie 

The Girl of Ink and Stars, Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Pages: 222

Publisher: Chicken House

Release Date: 5^th May 2016

Edition: UK proof, review copy

Forbidden to leave her village on Joya’s coast, Isabella dreams of the unmapped heart of her island. When her closest friend disappears beyond the village walls, she’s determined to lead the search party. Guided by an unfinished map, a beloved myth and her knowledge of the stars, Isabella navigates the dangerous Forgotten Territories. But beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a fiery legend is stirring from its sleep…

I've heard nothing but praise for The Girl of Ink and Stars and I was so excited to get my teeth into it that I saved for an afternoon where I could read it all in one sitting. I did, and it was delicious.

Within pages of starting this beautifully written debut I was completely immersed in Isabella’s world. Joya is rich in myth, magic and legend and I almost felt like I was racing through the hot, dusty market town right along with Isabella. The setting was just how I like it: vivid, rich and tangible. I also love it when the setting of the story almost becomes a character in the novel and that definitely happened in The Girl of Ink and Stars. Everything was revealed wonderfully slowly, just drips and drops to tantalise us, and the way it unfurled was beyond what I had imagined for it. Pure magic.

And the maps! Oh, the maps! Isabella’s da is a cartographer and he’s been teaching Isabella to create them. Most of Joya has been sectioned off and marked as forbidden for all of Isabella’s life. Her own island is unmapped and she’s determined to change that. Da’s maps are beautiful and almost alive, and the ones featured in the proof (which is the most gorgeously produced proof I've ever had the pleasure of reading, btw) were just as lovely. I want book maps all over my walls, please.

I love it when friendship becomes a primary focus of the story and I loved the evolution of Isabella’s relationship with Lupe. The clash of the poor girl and the governor’s daughter comes to a head very quickly, but I enjoyed watching them both realise the fault lay with neither of them and they ended up on the most wonderful adventure together. Younger friendships aren’t always portrayed as strong or as long-lasting as those in YA, but The Girl of Ink and Stars proved that wrong. There were a few moments towards the end that they both brought tears to my eyes.

The Girl of Ink and Stars is a gorgeously written debut that’s bursting with adventure and friendship, myth and magic. I can't wait to read more from Kiran Millwood Hargrave.

Thanks to Chicken House for the review copy.

Sophie 

Blog Tour: A Q&A with Francesca Haig

To celebrate to release of the sequel to The Fire Sermon, The Map of Bones, I've got Francesca Haig to answer a few questions as part of the blog tour!

1. Was writing The Map of Bones different to writing The Fire Sermon?
Yes – in every possible way! I wrote The Fire Sermon over five or six years, and during that period it really was just a side-project that I dabbled in from time to time. It was never my main focus, and only right at the end was I spending big, sustained chunks of time on it. But when I wrote The Map of Bones, it was my full-time job. That didn’t mean that the writing process didn’t still have its pleasures, but it did also mean that the process was much more accelerated and intense. It was hard not be aware of the deadlines, and the editors, and the readers – all the stuff that hadn’t been on the cards at all when I wrote The Fire Sermon. But in a funny way, I’m actually prouder of The Map of Bones, because I worked so hard at it, and it demanded so much of me.

2. Was there a specific inspiration for the series?
Not one single moment, person or idea. But the concept at the heart of the series – the idea of twins that are born together and die together – comes from being so close to somebody that you ask yourself the question: how could I even live if this person died? It doesn’t matter whether it’s a twin, a lover, or a child; it’s about what happens when you become so close that it seems impossible to survive without that person. The fatal bond between the twins in the world of The Fire Sermon series is just a (slightly more fantastical) way of exploring that idea.

3. Do you think you would survive in a dystopian world?
I have some skills that would probably serve me quite well – I do a lot of distance running, and I have a very heavy toddler that I’m forever carrying around, so physically I’m fairly robust. But I’m also profoundly lazy, and lost without a good cup of tea and a daily dose of cake, so I have to admit that if the world got really grim I’d probably be a complete liability.

4. Is there a particular cliché of dystopia that really gets on your nerves?

The twitter account @DystopianYA is excellent at parodying the worst clichés of the dystopian/post-apocalyptic genre: ‘Colony Leader Benedair smirked. "I bet you're wondering why I, the Leader of this entire Colony, am meeting with you, a teenager."’ But while there are certain tired tropes in dystopian books, there’s also a lot of excellent dystopian writing out there that undermines those tropes, or plays with them. Emily St John Mandel’s Station Eleven and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road are both astounding and completely fresh takes on post-apocalyptic/dystopian writing.

5. What are you reading at the moment?
I’ve just finished Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing With Feathers, which was astonishingly good. I adored how unexpected it was – the whole time I was reading it, I had no clue what it was (poem? novel? exuberant fantasy, or grim psychological realism?) and that was one its real pleasures. And I’m about to embark on Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, because everyone I know has been singing their praises.

6. Can we get a peek into where you write?
This is my ‘official’ desk – but to be honest I’m just as often to be found working at the kitchen table, or in the café around the corner. The ‘A Room of One’s Own’ penguin books postcard that you can glimpse, stuck to the side of the cabinet, is slightly ironic, as my ‘study’ is actually just the corridor outside the bathroom! But it’s light and cosy and I have a few of my favourite things here, including (top left in the photo) the actual metal brand that HarperVoyager commissioned and used in the making of the original cover for The Fire Sermon. My editor had it framed and gave it to me at the book launch, and I’ll treasure it always. The process of writing can feel so insubstantial sometimes, so there’s something hugely comforting about that heavy great chunk of metal hanging on the wall.

The Map of Bones is out with Harper Voyager now!

Sophie

When We Collided, Emery Lord

Pages: 352

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Release Date: 7^th April 2016

Edition: UK paperback, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: Open Road Summer, The Start of You and Me

Seventeen year old Jonah Davies has lived in Verona Cove, California, his whole life, and only one thing has ever changed: his father used to be alive, and now he's not. Jonah must numbly take care of his family as they reel from their tragedy. Cue next change: Vivi Alexander, new girl in town.

Vivi is in love with life. A gorgeous and unfiltered hurricane of thoughts and feelings. She seems like she's from another planet as she transforms Jonah’s family and changed his life. But there are always consequences when worlds collide.

A fierce and beautiful love story with a difference, When We Collided will thrill fans of All the Bright Places and I’ll Give You the Sun.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating When We Collided since devouring The Start of Me and You in two days last year. It was 100% worth the wait.

This is the most beautiful book I've read in a very, very long time. Emery Lord really stepped it up with this book and I was pretty blown away by the writing, the characterisation and the sensitive depictions of mental illness and grief. It was honest and real. Being in Vivi’s head felt confusing and manic; Jonah was sad and desperate and incredibly tired. Vivi and Jonah are very different people, in very different situations, but they share an experience of darkness. They sparked when they were together and quite frankly, I'd really like my very own Jonah. Vivi was a bit of a different story. Experiencing the battle between the irritation I felt for some of her actions while knowing that towards the end it was her illness ruling her actions was really interesting. It made me reconsider my approach a lot.

Now I'm going to talk about the ending a little bit, so if you haven’t finished When We Collided yet, consider yourself warned. There was so much spark between Vivi and Jonah that an explosion felt a little inevitable. Though it definitely didn’t go down like how I had imagined! Vivi’s accident was shocking, but the way that it was potrayed and then explained really gave me a clearer insight into her experiences of bipolar disorder. I wasn’t surprised that they separated in the end and I was actually really glad. It’s so unusual for a character to make a decision with her health and her friends in mind over the love interest and it was refreshing and mature and so right. Vivi can’t exactly be called a role model, but in that moment, I was in awe of her.

When We Collided is a gorgeous novel about mental illness, love, loss and family. I think everyone needs to read this.

Thanks to Bloomsbury for the review copy.

Sophie