Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Back in August, the teen book world was all abuzz about Lauren Oliver's Delirium, a dystopian title in which love has been cured. I thought it sounded super cool and made one of the Junior Junkies buy it on a bookstore trip. And have been waiting to borrow it. So when I had the opportunity to review Oliver's debut, Before I Fall, I jumped!

Samantha Kingston and her friends are popular. They can get away with just about anything. It's Cupid Day, a day they've all been waiting for. A day when popularity can be measured by the number of roses received. It's also the day Sam will die. But then Sam wakes up on Cupid Day again. The day starts the same as before, but as Sam's reactions change, the day begins to change as well. For Sam, every day will be Cupid Day until she gets it right. Save herself? Save her friends? Prevent the accident altogether? The options are endless and Sam's actions are the key.

I liked this book. I thought it had a lot of depth to the story. I've seen this sort of "what if" scenario in part before (and Sam even mentions Groundhog Day in the book), but this was a case where the author got it right.

One of the things I liked most was the way Oliver touches on sensitive subjects -- topics that are around us everyday and can easily become overwhelming or overly preachy. She handles them with ease and in a way that teen readers should appreciate.

As for Sam and her friends, it would be easy to paint the popular girls as the bad guys. And they aren't. They're teens and they're friends and they each have problems of their own. Oliver portrays them as whole characters rather than caricatures of Mean Girls, appropriate since they're the main characters of the book. Those kinds of flat stereotypes work fine with peripherals, but in this case they carry the story. The reader gets a chance to know them and connect with them, making them more real.

Lauren Oliver is definitely an author I'd like to see more of. You can bet I'll be snagging my sister's copy of Delirium as soon as I can, especially with its sequel, Pandemonium, due out next March.

Time travel Stephen King style

When Jake Epping is given the chance to go back to 1958, he sets his sites on changing a few things in hopes that they'll create a better future. His biggest goal is to prevent the Kennedy assassination in 1963. In order to do so, he'll have to live in the past, studying the facts known through history, and planning the best way to stop the president's death with the least ramifications. And his particular worm hole (or rabbit hole, as he refers to it), only comes out in 1958. Each entry is a complete reset, so if he fails, he'll have to start all over again in 1958.

This is somewhat the story behind Stephen King's latest, 11/22/63. I say somewhat because I'm not sure how to do it justice.

First off, this is an 849 page whopper. But, as has been my experience with King all along, size doesn't mean an intimidating read. I knew going in that I would want to set aside a fair chunk of time and this past holiday weekend was the perfect opportunity. Even with the Thanksgiving day feast preparations (for two, but a feast nonetheless), a little bit of holiday shopping (NOT on Black Friday), and a couple of movies, all in all it took me just four days to finish the book. And actually, my preference would have been even less time than that -- there were a couple of long sitdowns with the book, and that's what it really begged for. This is my way of saying that it looks long, but it doesn't take long -- even so, you're going to want to read it through once you start.

I am always in awe of King. I'm sure that his process is by no means effortless, but the finished product certainly seems so. He's a storyteller that I really think compares to no other (*fangirl*).

I will also say that this latest is definitely less horror than a non King reader would expect. If you think that you're not a fan of his typical work, this would be a great one to try. For longtime fans, there's a return to Derry and some great It references.

In other King news, the Bag of Bones tv movie premieres Dec 11 on A&E, Spring 2012 sees a new Dark Tower installment (DT world, but not part of the actual series to my understanding), and King's working on a Shining sequel as well. I also hear that King's son Owen has a novel in the works (he has a short story collection already out). And not to leave out Joe Hill, he seems to have a newly released Locke & Key out on shelves now.

New Releases 11/29/11

Some of the new titles hitting shelves this week are (and it's pretty slim pickings):

The Scottish Prisoner: A Lord John Novel by Diana Gabaldon

The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards (pb)

The Drop by Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch)

Within the Flames by Marjorie M. Liu (Dirk & Steele)

Legend by Marie Lu

New on DVD:

Tucker & Dale vs Evil

5 Days of War

The Smurfs

One Day

30 Minutes or Less

Friends With Benefits

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Bliss by Lauren Myracle

The Lost Book of Mala R. by Rose MacDowell

Pre-Pub Book Buzz: Everneath by Brodi Ashton

I've got another teen title for you in this week's pre-pub post. Everneath is another one my sister has her eye on and I think it looks super fun. Here's some info from Brodi Ashton's site:

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath, where immortals Feed on the emotions of despairing humans. Now she's returned- to her old life, her family, her friends- before being banished back to the underworld... this time forever.

She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can't find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these months reconnecting with her boyfriend, Jack, the one person she loves more than anything. But there's a problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who first enticed her to the Everneath, has followed Nikki to the mortal world. And he'll do whatever it takes to bring her back- this time as his queen.

As Nikki's time grows short and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she's forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole's...

It sounds so Persephone! Everneath is the first in a trilogy and is due out January 24.

To add to your TBR: Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente

Whew. I got this one for my birthday this year. It's on my bedside table. Here's the description from Amazon:

Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.

Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.

I love anything based in folklore and I really love folklore that goes beyond the standards that I'm readily familiar with. Plus, I'm not seeing a whole lot of stuff delving deeply into Russian folklore, so Catherynne Valente's latest was a super cool one to come across.

So that's a peek at my TBR stack and hopefully some intriguing reads to add to your own.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Morning, all! It's Turkey Day! Hope yours is fantastic and food and family filled!

To add to your TBR: A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough

I've raved about Sarah Pinborough before, and it was with great anticipation that I ordered A Matter of Blood from the UK. Unfortunately, I brought the book on vacation and didn't get to it. And then it sat in my unpacked carry-on bag for a ridiculous amount of time. Ridiculous.

Sadly, in my lapse, the book is still only available via UK ordering sites. On a positive note, ordering from the UK is really pretty easy these days and there's a second book out. OHMYGOD, this is a 2010 release! I'm getting new bookshelves.

The recession has left the world exhausted. Crime is rising; financial institutions across the world have collapsed, and most governments are now in debt to The Bank, a company created by the world's wealthiest men. But Detective Inspector Cass Jones has enough on his plate without worrying about the world at large. His marriage is crumbling, he's haunted by the deeds of his past, and he's got the high-profile shooting of two schoolboys to solve - not to mention tracking down a serial killer who calls himself the Man of Flies. Then Cass Jones' personal world is thrown into disarray when his brother shoots his own wife and child before committing suicide - leaving Cass implicated in their deaths. And when he starts seeing silent visions of his dead brother, it's time for the suspended DI to go on the hunt himself - only to discover that all three cases are linked . . . As Jones is forced to examine his own family history, three questions keep reappearing: what disturbed his brother so badly in his final few weeks? Who are the shadowy people behind The Bank? And, most importantly, what do they want with DI Cass Jones?

These aren't the worst crimes in my TBR stack. Not by far. Jane Austen -- yeah. I have read 133 books so far this year and I'm not the only one with an ambitious and growing reading goal :) Lordy, I hope no one holds this week against me.