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Lucy Powrie

YA Picks

March in YA | Top Picks

When I first sat down to look over all the March YA releases, I was amazed at all the brilliant books that are being published. The following books are the ones I’m most excited to read – but I could have featured lots more!

The Scarecrow Queen by Melinda Salisbury

I can’t believe that the final book in the Sin Eater’s Daughter trilogy is out this month. It only seems like yesterday that I first met Melinda at a Scholastic blogger event and eagerly got her to sign my copy of The Sin Eater’s Daughter, which I immediately read and fell in love with. Now, The Scarecrow Queen is here and I’m anticipating lots of heartbreak.

Melinda is the queen of UKYA fantasy, with The Sin Eater’s Daughter being the bestselling UKYA debut of 2015. So many people have read and loved this series, myself included, so whilst it will be painful to say goodbye, we’re also in for a treat with Mel’s lyrical writing style and ability to weave a magical, unputdownable tale.

Damage by Eve Ainsworth

I’ve read both Seven Days and Crush, Eve Ainsworth’s previous titles, and love the way she writes. She’s so honest and puts teenagers inner feelings and emotions at the heart of all of her books.

In Damage, main character Gabi has a secret that she can’t tell anyone – not her family, not her friends. She turns to self-harm and I have no doubt that Eve’s portrayal will be done sensitively and accurately, just as her other books have proved.

TRIGGER WARNING: Self-harm. 

Optimists Die First by Susin Nielsen

When the press release of Optimists Die First came through my door and mentioned “Wuthering Heights with cats” I was sold. As a die-hard Brontë fan, even the smallest mention of Wuthering Heights will probably guarantee that I will love your book. It’s true.

I really enjoyed We Are All Made of Molecules, which is also by Susin Nielsen, and this one sounds like it’s for slightly older readers, so it sounds right up my street! It tells the story of Petula who experiences a family tragedy and so has to go to mandatory art therapy classes. It’s there that she meets Jacob, who inspires her to face her fears, but a hidden secret also threatens to ruin everything.

Seven Days of You by Cecilia Vinesse

I’ve already loved Seven Days of You and I loved every second of it. I started it one evening and stayed up all night to finish it because it was impossible to stop reading; I kept telling myself “only one more page!” but it didn’t work and eventually I’d read the whole book.

Set in Tokyo, it follows Sophia who only has seven days left before she leaves to move back to the United States. She has one week left with her friends, one week to say goodbye to the city she’s fallen in love with. Her departure, however, coincides with the return of an old friend, and his arrival kicks off a chain of events that means that Sophia’s last seven days are unforgettable.

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

I’m not a huge fantasy fan, but I do love Laini Taylor’s books. I loved the setting and world she created in A Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of the same in Strange the Dreamer. Excitingly, this is the first book in a duology about the aftermath of a war between gods and men.

I’m trying to keep away from too many details about the plot because I want to go in fresh, but I have complete faith in Laini’s incredible talent for creating beautiful words and worlds. I can’t wait to delve right in!

The Jungle by Pooja Puri

The Jungle is incredibly topical, being set in the Calais Jungle and told from the perspective of Mico who has left his home and his family. When Leila arrives at the camp, she shows Mico that hope and friendship can grow in the most unusual places.

I think The Jungle is going to be an incredibly important novel that everyone will love. Plus, look at the gorgeous cover! How could you resist that?

Following Ophelia by Sophia Bennett

I’ve recently been very upset at the disappointing levels of historical fiction being published. It’s one of my favourite genres, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find any new YA books. That meant that I was very happy to hear about Following Ophelia, written by one of my favourite UKYA authors, Sophia Bennett.

It’s set during the Pre-Raphaelite period and discusses art, betrayal, secrets, and achieving your dreams. I can’t wait!

What are you looking forward to reading in March? Let me know in the comments!

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Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt

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I didn’t intend to read Unconventional in a day; it just happened. One minute I’d started the first page and the next I was scrambling to find time to read the rest because I rapidly became obsessed.

Unconventional is told from the perspective of Lexi Angelo, who has grown up helping her dad with his comic convention business. What started as a small gathering has now turned into multiple huge, national events and Lexi is a teen superqueen and helps run the whole thing. When Lexi turns up in the greenroom one day, though, she finds Aidan Green there. He should not be in there, and this starts a string of events that sees Lexi fall in love – with a mega-hit book series and maybe with a certain boy too…

Maggie Harcourt is the UK’s answer to Rainbow Rowell – her books are original, funny and SO CUTE. They’re the perfect way to escape for an afternoon, caught up in the world of conventions and cosplay. It really is impossible to only read one chapter, so when you do read it, beware: you’ll want to clear a whole day in order to finish it.

Unconventional is the YA equivalent of the “hand-touching” trend in romantic period dramas: slow-burning but passionate. I felt myself screaming at parts in the book because I got so invested in the story, particularly the burgeoning romance between Lexi and Aidan. Harcourt writes this very well and in a way that will make you want to shake the book and shout, “KISS ALREADY!” I loved getting so wrapped up in the story, where the only thing that mattered was the book and the characters in it.

Lexi was amazing, especially at the points where she freaked out about how much she loved Timekeepers – I could relate to the feeling of obsessing over a book to the point where I felt like I was Lexi. I love books within books and Harcourt writes this brilliantly – there are enough references to understand Lexi’s excitement, but not so many that you have no idea what’s going on.

Unconventional is the book for all book lovers, nerds and convention-goers. I wish I could transport myself into it, amongst all the characters who stole my heart right from the beginning.

For fans of Fangirl and Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell 

Other Writing

A Life Update | Writing, travelling, baby guinea pigs

Hi, everyone! It seems like it’s been a very long time since I last sat down to write an update post or something a bit more informal and chatty. I thought I should probably catch you up on everything that’s been going on, especially as I have lots of blog posts planned for the next few months.

The blog has been a bit quiet for the past few months. In fact, that’s an optimistic look because it’s been very quiet for the past year. Since finishing my GCSE’s in the summer, I’m now doing my A Levels at college – English Literature, Creative Writing and Sociology. I love college more than I ever expected; it’s completely changed my life.

The other draining thing that’s been taking up lots of my time is the novel I’m working on. I started my second draft in January and am currently 15,000 words in. I’ve set a self-imposed deadline of finishing this draft by the end of May, but with my AS exams I don’t know if that will be entirely possible. I’m going to try and get as close as possible though!

Here’s a sneak peek at a scene from the first chapter for you:

I adore my characters – they feel like my best friends and are so much fun to write. For those of you who don’t know, the book is a YA contemporary road-trip novel about friendship, books and figuring out who you are when your entire life has been thrown upside down. It is my favourite thing ever.

Another very good thing to happen is this little ball of joy who was born last week. I LOVE HIM. His name is Engelbert because we have a theme of ‘bert’ names going on – his grandfather is called Bertie and his father is called Gumbert (don’t ask). As you can probably guess, baby guinea pigs are extremely distracting when they look that cute.

I also went up to Waterstones Birmingham recently to see the Love and Fandom panel with Lauren James, Maggie Harcourt and Miranda Dickinson. I had such a lovely time and got to spend time with my amazing friend Lauren before the event. It was so nice to sit down and chat about writing, books and, of course, guinea pigs.

It was my first time travelling alone to a place I hardly know at all, so I was extremely proud afterwards. It shows how far I’ve come with my mental health and I still can’t quite believe I did it. It’s definitely given me the confidence to travel more in the future!

Current favourites:

 

  • Running #ukyachat every Friday at 8pm! I sit down every Friday evening to meet up with my amazing online friends, who always amaze me with their sensitivity, insight and opinions on a range of different subjects. Getting to host the chat every week is one of the greatest pleasures, and I love it!
  • I’m loving the new series of Call the Midwife at the moment. It’s so obvious that the writers and producers are women – they create beautiful stories that are at the heart of women’s lives, and it never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Seriously, you need to watch this if you haven’t already!
  • Netgalley. For those of you who don’t know, Netgalley is a sight where bloggers and book industry people can request to review books and I am OBSESSED. I check it every day without fail and can’t help but click the ‘request’ button when I see something I like the look of. I really do need to have a big marathon read soon of all the books I’ve been accepted to review! It’s also a habit I need to break… I can’t keep requesting all of these books!!

What have you been up to lately, bookish or otherwise? What are your current favourites?

 

 

Cover Reveal

EXCLUSIVE COVER REVEAL: Girlhood by Cat Clarke

I can remember the moment I finished reading Undone and let out a big wail. My heart was well and truly destroyed. From that moment on, I knew that Cat Clarke was a seriously special talent in the YA world. That meant that I was extra excited when I was asked by the lovely people at Books with Bite to reveal the cover of her next book, Girlhood.

Only recently was I lamenting the disappointing lack of new boarding school books in YA. I was obsessed with them when I was younger but the trend has slowly died out. In comes Cat Clarke to the rescue, however, which has made Girlhood a must-read for me.

Girlhood follows Harper, a teenage girl who tries desperately to fit into an expensive boarding school, while struggling to escape the guilt of her twin sister Izzy’s death and her part in it. But a new girl at the school seems to understand Harper, and she’s lost a sister too. Finally Harper feels secured and…loved. But then Kirsty’s behaviour becomes more erratic…Why is her life a perfect mirror of Harper’s? And why is she so obsessed with Harper’s dead sister?
Girlhood is a darkly compulsive story, about girl cliques, love, death, friendship, anorexia, and growing up under the shadow of grief.

The cover has been designed by Sinem Erkas and Girlhood will be released on May 4th by Quercus Children’s Books.

Here’s a sneak peek of the first chapter:

CHAPTER 1

We always have a midnight feast on the first night back. Because that’s what you do at boarding school, right?

When we were younger, Jenna and I were obsessed with boarding-school books. We desperately wanted to be the twins at St Clare’s. Almost every night I’d sneak over to her bed after Mum turned out the lights. We’d put the duvet over our heads and take turns reading to each other by torchlight. Two peas in a cosy little pod.

And somehow I ended up at Duncraggan Castle, just like in the stories. But Jenna’s not with me. I had to come here alone.
I wasn’t alone for long though.

‘Would you rather . . . have muffins for hands or squirrels for feet?’ Rowan leans back and crosses her arms, smug as you like.

Lily snorts with laugher while Ama clinks her mug against Rowan’s.
‘Well, that depends,’ says Ama, now mock-serious. ‘Do the muffins regenerate? Can I choose what flavour? Can I choose different flavours, depending on the day? Oh, and are the squirrels red or grey?’

Rowan’s ready. ‘They regenerate on a daily basis. You can choose any flavour. Grey squirrels. Those poor little bastards have such a bad rep.’

Lily starts on a rant about the plight of the red squirrel, and I put my hand over her mouth to shut her up.

I think I’ve decided, but I have a question that needs answering first. ‘Can you control the squirrels though? Like, with a tiny pair of reins?’

Rowan gives that some thought. ‘Yes. But they don’t come already trained.

It’s a lot of work, you know. Squirrel-training is a very serious business.’

‘Then it’s easy! I’m Team Squirrel. Ama? Lil?’

Lil votes muffins (as long as they’re made with organic flour). Ama goes for squirrels ‘because it would be like having pets with you WHEREVER YOU GO.’

I ask Rowan what she’d choose. ‘No idea,’ she shrugs. ‘It’s a really stupid question.’ I throw a pillow at her head.

‘I’ve got one!’ Lily pipes up. ‘This one’s for Ama.’

 ‘Uh-oh,’ says Ama. ‘This is never good.’

Lily stands up, between the two beds. She coughs as if clearing her throat. ‘Allow me to set the scene . . . It’s the night of the Christmas concert. The packed auditorium is hushed. The audience has sat through screeching violins and off-key oboes, but now things are looking up. Ama is set to take the stage, to dazzle and delight with her peerless piano playing . . .’

‘Bit overboard on the alliteration there if you ask me,’ Rowan stage- whispers.

‘Hush!’ Lily kneels down in front of Ama and takes her hand. ‘Ama, my dear, very bestest friend in all the world, would you rather . . . play your piece while your parents have sex on top of said piano . . .’

I can hardly hear Ama’s disgusted retching over our laughter.

‘Or would you rather have sex with a person of your choice up on stage, while your mum plays the piano?’ Lily’s ‘Would you Rather’s are always about sex.

The laughter escalates and I’m half worried Miss Renner will come knocking on the door. But last year Rowan somehow managed to find out that Miss Renner listens to Sounds of the Rainforest on her headphones to help her sleep. Maddox wouldn’t be too happy about that if she found out.

‘You are disgusting, Lily Carter. Disgusting and depraved.’

‘That may be true, but I’m afraid I’m going to need an answer. You know the rules.’

‘I can’t!’ Ama wails, but she knows we won’t let her get away with that. ‘OK, OK! I just . . . waaaaaah!’

‘Got any supplementary questions this time, Adebayo?’ Rowan asks, an eyebrow raised.

‘OK, first of all, I’m pretty sure my parents never, ever, ever have sex.’ Ama grimaces. ‘But I’m going to have to go with Option A. There is no way on earth I would ever have sex in front of anyone. ANYONE.’

‘But you’re perfectly happy for your parents to go at it like rabbits while you play Rachmaninov?’ I smile sweetly, but I’ve crossed the line. Ama hates Rachmaninov.

Our midnight feasts aren’t so much ‘lashings of ginger beer’ as ‘whatever booze we can smuggle in’. Sometimes – if someone remembers – we even have food. Tonight, we demolished a whole tin of yakgwa made by Rowan’s mum. Whoever invented deep-fried biscuits was a genius, no question.

Lily grimaces every time she takes a sip from her tiny bottle. ‘I fucking hate whisky!’

‘It’s better than nothing!’ Ama pouts. She was the one who managed to blag twenty miniatures on her flight back from Lagos.

‘Well, you should learn to love it. We are in Scotland, after all.’ I can’t stand the stuff either, but loyalty to my country wins out.

‘I’ll start liking whisky when Ama starts liking haggis,’ says Lily with a grin.

‘Aw, come on, Lil! It’s hardly the same thing! A sheep’s innards should stay on the inside as far as I’m concerned. And I know you agree with me, Little Miss I was a vegetarian before I could even spell the word.’ Ama’s not exactly slurring her words, but one more bottle and she will be.

‘I’m sure the sheep agrees with you,’ Rowan says, leaning past Ama to take one of the bottles. She opens it and sniffs deeply. ‘Ah, can’t you just see the purple heather in the glens? The noble stag surveying his kingdom . . .’

‘Right before he gets shot by some idiot banker who thinks that killing defenceless animals makes him more manly.’ Lily’s voice drips with disdain; it always does when she talks about her dad.

‘I bet Sharp-Shooter Kent over here could teach your dad a thing or two. She’s fucking deadly.’ Rowan jostles my shoulder.

‘Clay-pigeon shooting isn’t quite the same thing, Rowan. And I’m crap at it anyway.’ This isn’t strictly true. I’m now approaching the dizzy heights of ‘mediocre’, although Miss Whaite prefers to describe my skills as ‘solid’. Dad was appalled to find out the activities I signed up for when I started at Duncraggan. ‘Shooting?! Why did it have to be shooting? And rock-climbing? What’s that all about? Don’t they do any normal things there? Like . . . rounders!’ He had a point, but I’d made a promise to myself when I came here. I wanted to do the kind of weird shit you only get to do at boarding school. I gave up on the climbing after a few months, but I still shoot every week.

By two a.m. the whisky is gone and Rowan’s eyes are drooping closed every couple of minutes. ‘Come on you, let’s get you to bed.’ I drag her up into a sitting position. ‘Tomorrow’s going to be brutal.’

We say good night to Lily and Ama and creep next door to our room. The corridor is dimly lit – just enough light so you can find your way to the toilet in the middle of the night. The green ‘emergency exit’ sign glows incongruously above the door to the stairs. I wish they didn’t have to have things like that – fire doors and official-looking signs and strip lighting really don’t belong in a building like this one. So many changes and additions have been made over the years that it’s only in certain places that the building still feels like a proper castle. Those are the parts that get photographed to death and plastered all over the website. Those are the parts that made me want to come here.

‘Home, sweet home,’ I say, turning on the bedside lights. Our room is slightly smaller – Lily got the pick of the rooms after being elected Head Girl last year. And Rowan managed to convince Hozzie and Sylvana to swap so that we could stay next door to Lily and Ama for our last year at Duncraggan. It felt right. The four of us have been a little unit since Rowan took me under her wing when I arrived.

I think about that day a lot. How I felt when the car pulled up in front of the castle, tyres crunching on the gravel. How Dad patted my leg and said, ‘Well, this is going to be an adventure, isn’t it?’ even though the look on his face said otherwise. How everything seemed so strange and new and not like something a person like me should ever experience.

On my first night, lying awake and listening to the wind rattling against the windows, I wondered if I’d made a terrible mistake. I looked across the gloom towards the other bed and everything about the silhouette was wrong.

Jenna should have been there, sharing everything with me, like always. That’s what twins do. That’s who we are.

**

We all have our reasons for being at Duncraggan; some are more interesting than others. Most people are just here because their parents are filthy rich, and apparently the first thing you do when you’re filthy rich is make sure your children live as far away from you as possible. Bonus points for remote location in the wilds of Scotland. Terrible weather builds character, apparently.

Ama wanted to come here because of the reputation of the music department, but Lily had no choice in the matter. Rowan, Lily and Ama all have rich parents, but it’s not something we talk about. The clues are there if you pay attention. If you look at the labels on their clothes and listen closely for key words like ‘trust fund’ and ‘driver’ and ‘yacht’. I try not to hold it against them – the fact that money is meaningless to them, no matter how much they try to convince themselves otherwise. They don’t care about money because they’ve never had to think about it.

Rowan’s parents moved to South Korea when she was eight years old. Most kids would be upset by that, but apparently she had no fucks to give. She went to another boarding school in London before transferring here for senior school. She stayed here even when her parents moved back to Surrey last year, saying she’d never dream of abandoning us. ‘Together till the bitter end,’ she said.

Rowan’s the only one I talked to about why I came to Duncraggan. I asked her to tell Ama and Lily, because I thought they deserved to know but I couldn’t face telling them. It’s too tiring, telling the story over and over again. Working so hard to make sure you don’t tell the whole truth.

I hate talking about it, and the girls understand that. If one of them finds herself veering into dangerous conversational waters, the others will yank her back to safety. Rowan’s usually the one to do the yanking; I don’t know what I’d do without her. Sometimes I feel bad that I’ve never told her all of it. The worst of it.

The worst of it is simple. You can strip the excess flesh of the story down to the bare bones. You can shrink it and starve it and whittle it down to almost nothing.

That’s what happened to her.

Jenna died two years ago. Heart failure. Other things too: a perforated ulcer, a collapsed lung. But it was the heart that gave up on her. It couldn’t do the job it’s supposed to do; it didn’t have the fuel.

My twin sister was fifteen years old when she died. She weighed just under five stone.

It had started as a post-Christmas diet. A diet that was my idea.


You can preorder Girlhood at:

Amazon | Waterstones | Hive | The Book Depository

How amazing is the cover?! Have you read any of Cat Clarke’s other books? Let me know which one is your favourite in the comments below!

Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: This Beats Perfect by Rebecca Denton

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I read contemporary YA for that fuzzy feeling you get in your stomach after you’ve finished reading a book, that satisfying feeling that makes you want to climb inside it and hug all the characters. That is exactly how This Beats Perfect made me feel.

Denton perfectly shapes a world where The Keep are the biggest boyband in the Universe. Amelie Ayres is an aspiring musician who writes and produces her own songs within her bedroom, but she also has awful stage fright. When Amelie goes backstage at one of The Keep’s concerts, things spiral out of control when one of the band members tweets her and suddenly there are hordes of fangirls and the press on her back. It’s about normality in an otherwise totally not-normal world, ambition, and following your heart.

This Beats Perfect is one of the best boyband-related books I’ve read so far because it took time to give equal attention to the inner emotions of all involved, rather than being a whirlwind, clichéd romance. I’d go so far as to say it’s one of the most feasible too; it was very easy to imagine that Amelie and Maxx were real characters because Denton took lots of care to develop their back stories, to give them lives outside of their music, but also involving it. It’s very clear through Denton’s writing that she knows what she’s talking about when it comes to music.

The main character, Amelie, was quirky and individual without conforming to your typical Manic Pixie Dream Girl stereotype, which I do tend to watch out for when reading these types of novels – I find that the main characters are either Manic Pixie Dream Girls or mega, over-the-top fangirls – but Amelie felt very realistic and I could imagine myself being friends with her.

Speaking of friends, one of my favourite parts of the book was the friendship that Amelie and Maisie have. I love strong female friendships in YA and think they’re so important, so it was lovely to see how supportive they were of each other. There was also just the right balance of friendship and romance – neither dominated, but worked alongside each other to create a well-rounded story.

Something unexpected that I liked about This Beats Perfect was that it was written in third person. The majority of contemporary YA novels I read are written in first person, but I love third person and I think this was a great choice of Denton’s – it added to the story and maintained a strong voice throughout.

I read This Beats Perfect in one sitting – I’d only originally intended to read one chapter, but somehow one chapter turned into the whole book and I loved every second. It was the perfect way of spending a lazy Sunday afternoon, when I should have been concentrating on college work. I have no regrets!

The only problem I had with This Beats Perfect is that I didn’t want it to end. I could keep reading about Amelie and Maxx forever very happily and Rebecca Denton is an author I’ll be watching in the future – I wouldn’t hesitate to read any of her future novels.

For fans of: Songs About A Girl by Chris Russell and Non Pratt.

What are your favourite boyband books? Who are the friends you look up to most in YA? Let me know in the comments!

 

Setting Aside the Books

Call Me A Teenager | A Response to Judd Apatow

Hello. My name is Lucy and I am a teenage girl. I’ve had 4 years to get used to this fact, but it seems as if the rest of the world hasn’t.

A recent tweet from producer and writer Judd Apatow, in response to Donald Trump, a man who has used his time in the White House so far to isolate and segregate those who do not fit into his ideal America, saw him compare the President to “a fourteen year old girl”.

I’d like you to think back to when you were a teenager. Our reality is: we live in a society where house prices are likely to always be out of reach, where tuition fees are rising, where we have to work harder than our parents in order to achieve less. All the while, we must study for exams, dealing with pressure heaped on by the education system, and work on our “employability” skills if we are to be in with the chance of acquiring a job in the future. Let’s not even go into the acne problems…

At fourteen, I was running a successful blog, stood on stage at a sold-out event at one of the UK’s major literary festivals, and started a Twitter chat which regularly trends nationally in the UK. Guess what? I tweeted like a fourteen-year-old girl.

17-year-old Amandla Stenberg is quickly becoming one of the biggest talents in Hollywood, perhaps best known for her role in The Hunger Games, but also as a Black Lives Matter and intersectional feminism activist. Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, is one of the most famous teenagers in the world, after being shot for daring to speak out about girls’ rights to education. They are only two names from the millions of teenage girls living in the world right this second.

Being a teenage girl is not an insult. It’s a massive compliment. Watch as we take over the world, one tweet at a time. We are the next doctors, lawyers, journalists, caregivers, world leaders. We are the future.

#CallMeATeenager

Writing

A Tour of my Writing Desk

When Virginia Woolf said “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write“, I am sure she meant to include a writing desk in that sentence too.

I work best in clutter – I like big piles of books, paper strewn everywhere and disorder. Tidying and cleaning are my worst enemies, so you know something’s up when I decide to do either — or both — of these things. I did, however, recently go through my desk and clear it of all rubbish, so I thought I would show you the place where lots of the magic happens.

My book towers are amongst my favourite things in the world. I pile them as high up as I can without the risk of them toppling, and every time I want a book from the middle or bottom, I get to play a game of Book Jenga. My Penguin English Library collection, centre of stage on my desktop, is a thing of awe – I’ve been building my collection for ages, and am now a bit worried that I won’t be able to fit any more on without it falling down. I’m sure I’ll work out a solution though because I can’t resist them!

On either side of my Penguin English Library stack sit two parts that make up a very huge and ever-growing to-be-read pile. There’s no real order to it, except I try to group authors together, and they probably aren’t books I’ll read immediately either, but I like displaying them anyway, because I like to keep my read and unread books separate.

I love to display cards and postcards I’ve been sent. The card on the left is a lovely one sent to me by Anna McKerrow, one of my favourite authors, and it’s a lovely reminder of how much I love her books, plus I love receiving letters and cards in the post.

The postcard on the right is one that I bought when I visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth back in the summer. The Brontë’s are my favourite authors, my inspirations, so this picture of their writing table motivates me to keep going. There’s also a scene in the book I’m working on that is set there, so it keeps me on track too!

Another card here from my lovely friend Lauren James (please go and read her books if you haven’t already!). Lauren always sends the best cards so I end up rotating them all on and off my desk. Handwritten correspondence really is the best!

To the left, I have a few bookish mugs where I keep lots of random bits and pieces. The front one contains all of my SD cards that I use for filming videos and taking pictures, but ultimately I forget to use it and they end up littered all over the house, usually tucked down the sofa or gathering dust in a forgotten corner.
Behind, I have the mug where I keep all of my bookmarks. Most are from Wordery, who send them with every book you buy (so, yes, there are LOTS of them. More than I like to think about!), but I have a few that I’ve picked up from other places too. I need lots of bookmarks or I start using other objects, like receipts and sometimes even my phone…

The main drawer can basically be summed up as: NOTEBOOKS. NOTEPADS. MORE CARDS. MORE NOTEBOOKS. I like my stationery, okay? I own way too many notebooks – many half-filled, many others with only one hastily scribbled page filled up. I have a diary (it’s very secret, shhhh) that I use to write all my thoughts down before I write – I find it really useful to get rid of all of my emotional rubbish before I start writing about totally different characters.

My favourite thing by far is writing late at night with only a tiny light, my laptop backlight and my fairy lights to see by. It’s cosy, I can tuck myself away, and it feels like I have my own writing cave. I get most of my writing done at night – it’s the time I work the best, for some reason. I can spend all day writing and get minimal work done, but then it passes 10pm and suddenly I get a rush of creative energy. I love it!


Do you have a place where you like to write or get work done? Tweet me pictures @LucyTheReader or tell me in the comments!

Book Review UKYA

REVIEW: Wing Jones by Katherine Webber

 

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Wing Jones is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time and I’d love everyone – absolutely everyone – to read it.

Set in Atlanta in the 90’s, it tells the story of fifteen year old Wing who has a grandmother from Ghana and a grandmother from China; she’s caught between two worlds, not quite fitting in like her older brother Marcus seems to do. When tragedy strikes, though, Wing takes up running and she’s not just good at it, she’s amazing. Running is a way for Wing to escape, but it could also turn the life around of her struggling family.

The first thing that struck me as I started reading Wing Jones was just how beautiful Webber’s writing style is. It’s something that I haven’t come across before in YA, something that makes you linger on each sentence so that you can absorb every word. Her use of metaphor, in particular, is so well done. It’s made me even more excited to read Webber’s future novels because I can’t get enough of her writing; I could read anything of hers.

I have to admit: I’m not really a fan of magical realism. The aspects in Wing Jones, though, were perfect. I think it’s converted me! It adds a feeling of hope, of awe, to Webber’s wonderful words, and makes you love the main character, Wing, even more. It didn’t feel forced or unrealistic; it felt as much a part of the book as the setting of Atlanta or the secondary characters.

Speaking of secondary characters, I adored Wing’s grandmothers, Granny Dee and LaoLao. Every scene they were in was a joy to read; they added humour, but the way they cared about Wing was also so special. I love reading inter-generational YA stories, and this one was particularly well-done.

Wing Jones made me realise exactly how important it is for everything that is published to be diverse, for writers to create realistic characters that people can see themselves reflected in. There are going to be so many girls out there who will be inspired by Wing, who will reach for their dreams because she did too. Wing is one of the best YA characters I’ve read in a long time – in fact, all the characters in Wing Jones feel as if they could have actually been walking around when the book was set; and, as Wing was a teenager back in the 90’s, I like to think back every now and again to watch she might be getting up to now.

Wing Jones is, so far, my book of the year and I will not be shutting up about how good it is. There’s no way that it won’t be included in my favourite books of the year list at the end of 2017, and reading it made me so proud to know Katherine, to hold her physical book in my hands.