The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

So the opening chapter of this book starts out with a ouija board surrounded by three girls, one being the main character, Mara Dyer. When her best friend asks how she's going to die, and the board spells out the name 'Mara', I knew this was going to be one hell of a book. And it was. Not in the way I expected, but it was.

So after her friends die in a freak accident, Mara and her family move off to Miami. But since the accident, she hasn't been quite right, having hallucinations due to post traumatic stress disorder. It was interesting seeing a teenage character with PTSD, since someone close to me has it. Mental illness isn't something that's covered a lot in YA, so it was pretty refreshing. The insides of Mara's mind are laid out in the pages (that sounded grotesque, but I meant in a metaphorical way and not in a hi-brain-matter-on-page-7o way,) which makes it a book that's of the mental thriller variety. One of my favorite genres, and one you also don't see a lot of in YA. I think The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is so well-liked because it goes outside of the norm for its genre, and it does that in aces.

Anyway, in Miami, Mara meets this arsehole Noah, who, of course, has to be HOT because most arseholes are. And I've generally become one of those people who rolls their eyes at bad boys with 'sensitive insides' just because guys in real life who act like that are just jerks. So when a character comes around and is "different" and changes said arsehole's life, it makes me want to laugh a little bit. But then Noah was just so BA, it was hard not to like him. He was laughably rebellious. Very tra la la I'm sexy and I know it. I went through phases where I wanted to punch him and phases where he was manically my hero. It was very lovehate.

I also loved Mara's family dynamic. Brothers. Did you know people have BROTHERS? Siblings? That are in their LIVES? It's funny how little you see of siblings in books, and it wasn't until Mara's were so absolutely present that I noticed the lack of them in most books. I'm all for present families, instead of the whole independent teenager thing.

And it's also funny. Mara was kind of a firecracker. Almost Amy Pond-ish. I wanted to reach my hand through the pages and high-five her too many times to count. It was definitely a very different book. Even though the latter half of the book took off in a direction I wasn't a huge fan of, it's incredibly unique. It doesn't give me anything to relate it to - no kind of resemblance to any other book or movie, which I adore. Generally a pretty groundbreaking and original read.

-----

To enter to win a copy of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer PLUS the other three books I discussed in October, just leave me a comment. I'll end this contest sometime mid-Novemberish. You can say anything, but I'll always leave a discussion question. If international, I'll have to order through Book Depository, so if we run into any issues (not having a book, etc) we'll sort it out, but you are welcome to enter. Also, if there are any books you already own/have read out of the four in October, leave a comment anyway, because you can replace it with any book ever discussed on Coffee & Cliffhangers. If you don't leave a way for me to contact you, (Blogger profile, twitter handle, etc) then please check back at the start of next month, or you can subscribe by email, etc in the sidebar.

Again, I'll always leave a discussion question, but you can comment about whatever you want:

What are some books dealing with mental illnesses that you've read before, and what did you think?

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

I generally like books that use different forms of storytelling, like Cathy's Book, which in hardcover comes with a packet of evidence including pictures, numbers you can call, websites you can visit, etc.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children initially interested me because I knew it had photographs throughout the book, and I thought that was a brilliant way to tell a story. I've been interested in reading more multimedia tales, and since I kept hearing about this one, I finally picked it up. But when I read about it, detailing an abandoned orphanage full of children with peculiar abilities, I knew I would be interested even if it didn't have anything extra.

It firstly reminded me of the show Heroes, but with a younger generation full of misfits. The "peculiar" kids have abilities that are completely original, like a miniature circus show. The characters in this one seemed both oddly full-fledged but also somehow distanced. Regardless, there was a quirky, gritty undertone through the entire book that I loved. It was almost a James and the Giant Peach-ish feel, not because of anything related to the plot, but because of the dark quirky bitterness of both.

The pictures were a nice touch, but sometimes the plot seemed to revolve around them instead of the pictures being included to match the story. But the mixture of both words and photos had a creepy effect. It's almost like finding a leather-covered book based in cobwebs in your attic and flipping through it with an expectancy of ancient mysticism.

It was definitely an interesting book, although it could have done with more imagery. Imagery in pictures is no match for the setting words can create, and I felt like it had such a generally different, unique setting, it could have been more wordfully painted. But it definitely had something entirely unique about it, and I know the series will deservedly earn a lot of fans.

There's something special about this one.

-----

To enter to win a copy of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children PLUS the other three books I discuss in October, just leave me a comment. You can say anything, but I'll always leave a discussion question. If international, I'll have to order through Book Depository, so if we run into any issues (not having a book, etc) we'll sort it out, but you are welcome to enter. Also, if there are any books you already own/have read out of the four in October, leave a comment anyway, because you can replace it with any book ever discussed on Coffee & Cliffhangers. If you don't leave a way for me to contact you, (Blogger profile, twitter handle, etc) then please check back at the start of next month, or you can subscribe by email, etc in the sidebar.

I'll always leave a discussion question, but you can comment about whatever you want.

What are your thoughts on mixed media books? Have you read any?

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

So I picked up my first Neil Gaiman book. I think it was a pretty smart move. I mean, I'd read tons of his interviews and opinions on writing and I always thought he had a brilliant mind, but I hadn't actually read anything until now. So I started with Anansi Boys, which is about the trickster god Anansi and his two sons: Fat Charlie Nancy, who just found out that his father is a god, and Spider, who is very well-versed in the way of arachnid magic.

Folklore and mythology has always been something that's interested me. There are a lot more YA books coming out revolving around or retelling popular myths, so it's always exciting to see a fresh, original take on one that's less popular. Anansi Boys isn't YA, but Neil Gaiman is such a genre / age rulebreaker, it doesn't really matter what I compare it to.

I actually first learned about Anansi when I took a mythology class my first semester of college. I fell in love with trickster myths, because they're witty and mischievous. Anansi Boys is definitely both of those things.

Gaiman does a fantastic job of mixing the mythological pages alongside modernity. It's not easy to have something so fantastical inside a modern setting, but the two clash in a way that's both hilarious and somehow not offputting - or, at the very least, it's offputting in a good way. Fat Charlie Nancy is well-meaning and calm and his poor self is hit in the face when he meets Spider. Spider, on the other hand, is mischievous and falls into the trickster role pretty damn well. He talks to spiders and crashes Hollywood parties and charms everyone around him. Could you think of two more perfect people to put under the same roof? Yes. Which is how I realized Gaiman is funny. I didn't expect to laugh during this book, but I did. Decently often. I also cringed a lot, in the way you do for characters who you wouldn't want to trade places with (the best kind of characters.)

Neil Gaiman is just a fantastic writer. The way he puts words together is mythological in itself. But what's so great about him isn't just his writing, it's his storytelling. The pacing, the way in which the characters intermingle with the scenery and the animals and each other, all interwoven into words, is freaking brilliant.

It wasn't exactly what I expected. I expected something almost a little darker - not that it wasn't dark, but it wasn't as dark as I had in my head. For some reason, I had the idea that Gaiman would be to writing what Tim Burton is to filmmaking. But I wasn't disappointed, because the tiny bit of lacking darkness was made up by brilliance.

It was my first Neil Gaiman, but no way in hell will it be my last.

----------

To enter to win a copy of Anansi Boys PLUS the other three books I discuss this month, just leave me a comment. You can say anything, but I'll always leave a discussion question. If international, I'll have to order through Book Depository, so if we run into any issues (not having a book, etc) we'll sort it out, but you are welcome to enter. Also, if there are any books you already own/have read out of the four in October, leave a comment anyway, because you can replace it with any book ever discussed on Coffee & Cliffhangers. If you don't leave a way for me to contact you, (Blogger profile, twitter handle, etc) then please check back at the start of next month, or you can subscribe by email, etc in the sidebar.

I'll always leave a discussion question, but you can comment about whatever you want.

What are some dark writers/books/movies you enjoy?

The Desperation of Tea Kettles

I was making my morning cup of tea, with morninghair and zombieeyes, when I picked up the container and read the side of it. This is a tea I'd just picked up at World Market the other day and it's pretty damn delicious. It's Blackberry Sage and it's made by The Republic of Tea, which sounds very fancy and pretentious. But this side writing? It was deep. It was like my morning tea was trying to reach out of the container and drink itself, the advertising was so good. This was cannibalistic tea, guys. Or at least it really wanted someone to buy it. So it was hooker tea. I don't know. But here's what it said:

"I say you can trace the whole mess on this planet to the fact that we lose ourselves in ideas for living while life awaits us to inhabit it. Tea is not an idea, but the end of all ideas. With a single sip the cloud of busy mind is made to pass and the light of life breaks through to show us what we have kept concealed from ourselves all along."

Guys, this is some deep tea.

And it got me thinking - not about tea, but about what makes it. And I realized something in the haze of morningbrain that made me pretty happy. You can tell what kind of writer a person is by how long they let their tea kettle whistle.

See, I like my tea kettle to whistle until it's out of breath. There's something about the desperation of tea kettles that makes it so...god-complex-y to be able to cut it off. So I let it whistle for a while, and I let my characters suffer for a while. Maybe indefinitely. Until the tea is steaming in a mess of condensation and then I say alrightalright maybe you need some joy in your life, here have a pony. I imagine Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden) was this kind of tea drinker, as Mary was a pretty ripe brat of a child when the book started out, a very miserable creature with a bitter almond aftertaste, but the tea added a couple heaps of sugar as the book went on and the burner was long turned off.

Then there are the people who cut it off before it even gets to whistle, those who maybe can't bear their characters hurting. Or maybe they just don't have the patience to wait for caffeine. That's not a crime. Meg Cabot probably drank tons of lukewarm tea while writing The Mediator series. Not that her characters didn't get put through embarassingly awkward scenarios, but there's always a bit of comic happiness behind it. And I imagine she needs to get her caffeine QUICK and constantly, with as many books as she's hammered out. (Or maybe she is half robot and doesn't need caffeine at all.) Nonwhistlers I understand.

But then. THEN. There are the lazy lazy hooligans who use A MICROWAVE to make tea. This is just unacceptable. These are the kind of writers who are practical and logical, but who have hearts of cruel steel and no time for nostalgia. They get down to business and manipulate the writing. I think microwaves were just being invented when William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies, and I'm sure he used one.

Regardless, tea drinkers like a variety of flavors and I think, will always be varied in writing. If you're more of a coffee drinker, which I am as well (any and all kinds of caffeine appeal to me) then I say to you: coffee drinkers generally seem a little tougher than tea drinkers in certain aspects, and will torture their characters a little more, but may tend to stick to a certain genre of writing. If you like both coffee and tea, like me, then you're just an overcaffeinated procrastinator, stop reading this and get to writing.

Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

I like to keep up the appearance that I have a heart of ice cold steel, but Stephanie Perkins' books tend to melt through that ice and burn through that steel.

There's a distance between people and characters that Perkins jumps in both of her books. The people she creates are so real; they have the little quirks of eccentricity you find in life but don't often read about. Such as Cricket, Lola's neighbor who moves back into their house after years MIA. He wears pinstriped pants and creates little inventions, filling his room with trinkets and contraptions. He always has writing on the back of his hand and rubber bands around his wrist. These are just little details, but they're ones not every writer writes about: the tiny little things about a person that make you fall for them.

Lola herself is a pretty fierce character. If she weren't, I probably wouldn't like this book as much. As much as I love Cricket, I hate books that center around one character - like he/she is the epitome of life, leaving everyone else to trollop along their dirt trail in wonder and awe. But Perkins wouldn't do that. Lola dresses in whatever she wants, putting on a new facade every day - wigs and all. She has a rockstar boyfriend and two dads and a life that's always looking for adventure.

The clash of these two characters and all of the people in their lives creates one hell of a story.

This is one of those books that let's you become completely enthralled in someone else's life. It's like it somehow skipped the introductory part of getting to know someone and led you to these people whose lives you feel entangled in. It's like being on the fifth series of your favorite show, when you know every detail about the characters, but it somehow manages it in only one book.

I didn't know how this one would compare to her first, but it was just as good. Stephanie Perkins can write a book.

----------

The winner of September's prize pack of books is Angel, who commented on The Name of the Star. Congrats! I'll be emailing you soon.

To enter to win a copy of Lola and the Boy Next Door PLUS the other three books I discuss this month, just leave me a comment. You can say anything, but I'll always leave a discussion question. If international, I'll have to order through Book Depository, so if we run into any issues (not having a book, etc) we'll sort it out, but you are welcome to enter. Also, if there are any books you already own/have read out of the four in October, leave a comment anyway, because you can replace it with any book ever discussed on Coffee & Cliffhangers. If you don't leave a way for me to contact you, (Blogger profile, twitter handle, etc) then please check back at the start of next month, or you can subscribe by email, etc in the sidebar.

I'll always leave a discussion question, but you can comment about whatever you want.

Discussion Q: If you could have any (*cough* PG) invention made for you (by the cute pinstripe-pantsed neighbor) what would it be? (I think mine would be a laptop with a tea/coffee button)