Monday, June 10, 2013

Calling All Ottawa Area Book Lovers

Well this is a message to all Ottawa-area book lovers.  I was contacted by Simon and Schuster Canada and told about a fun event happening in this area.  As you know, I often complain that there are never enough book signings in Ottawa. It is a major Canadian city and I often feel like it gets overlooked when the book gods set up signings.  
 Well I can complain no more because Jeannette Walls is coming to Ottawa!  For those of you who don't know Walls' work, she is responsible for the novel The Glass Castle.  It is an amazing novel about a girl growing up in poverty.  It is quite powerful and I really enjoyed it.  She has a new novel coming out and she is here in Ottawa this weekend to sign it.  

A little overview: 

Date: Saturday June 15th
 Where: Southminster United Church, 15 Alymer Ave. 
 Time: 7pm 

For more details please check out this link.

 I'm hoping to get out to this event and I'm hoping to see some of you there.  
 

Monday, June 3, 2013

ARC Review: Another Little Piece by Kate Karyus Quinn

Publisher: Harper Teen
Publishing Date: June 11, 2013
Genre: YA, Thriller
Pages:  432 pgs
ISBN: 9780062135957
Source: from publisher for review through Edelweiss



Summary from Goodreads:
The spine-tingling horror of Stephen King meets an eerie mystery worthy of Sara Shepard's Pretty Little Liars series in Kate Karyus Quinn's haunting debut.

On a cool autumn night, Annaliese Rose Gordon stumbled out of the woods and into a high school party. She was screaming. Drenched in blood. Then she vanished.

A year later, Annaliese is found wandering down a road hundreds of miles away. She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know how she got there. She only knows one thing: She is not the real Annaliese Rose Gordon.

Now Annaliese is haunted by strange visions and broken memories. Memories of a reckless, desperate wish . . . a bloody razor . . . and the faces of other girls who disappeared. Piece by piece, Annaliese's fractured memories come together to reveal a violent, endless cycle that she will never escape—unless she can unlock the twisted secrets of her past.

My Review: 

 Well, I wasn't sure what to expect when I first started this novel and I was kept guessing up until the end.  The premise of this novel is that there is a girl, Annaliese, who goes missing after being heard screaming and seen bleeding everywhere.  After quite some time she returns with no memory of anything.  The novel continues as she tries to navigate through a home she doesn't remember, at a school she doesn't remember and with parents she doesn't remember.  
It is very difficult to talk about this novel without giving too much away.  Let's just say that everything is not quite normal. 
What I really like about this novel is that it is presented at first like a normal thriller/mystery but as you read further on you discover that there is some paranormal element to it.  I also like that this paranormal element doesn't fall under a particular area.  It's  not a vampire, a werewolf, a fairy but something entirely different and new.  
I have to say that this book kept me guessing and wanting to figure out what was going on.  I was never quite sure what was going on.  It is also so incredibly creepy which, as strange as this may seem, is something I love reading.  I like things that a little macabre and gory and this book has just that.  
I couldn't get a read on Annaliese as a character so that was a bit of a drawback.  I just felt like I couldn't connect to the main character (and for good reason considering she is not quite what she seems) and this makes it difficult to connect fully with the book.  
I did like the writing of this novel and I found it entertaining so overall I would say that it's worth a read.  I wouldn't say that it is a must-read but it is a decent story with good writing.