Ghosts, Shapeshifters, and Vampires, Oh My!
by Little Willow

Trick or treat: Which do you prefer? I’ll take a treat myself. If you’re looking for a spooky story to read on Halloween, you’ve come to the right place, because all of the following books are definitely treats. Get ready to sink your teeth into these spooky supernatural stories.

A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb offers a new take on the concept of ghosts and haunting. It will certainly appeal to those who like a ghostly romance, and I recommend it to both teens and adults who appreciate an intriguing ghost story rather than a super scary one – though I like those, too, and I’ll talk about some creepier books later! For now, let’s focus on the Light that Whitcomb has offered up: For over a hundred years, Helen has been a ghost with no way to communicate with the living. She can see people, but they can’t see her – until one day, when someone looks right at her. He’s a teenager, alive and well, and he wants to know her. The more they talk, the more is revealed about Helen’s past, as she struggles to remember her life. With beautiful writing and wonderful, intriguing mysteries – How did Helen die? Why can James see her? – A Certain Slant of Light is truly memorable.

If that sounds appealing, you should also read The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick, another ghostly romance. This pair is even more unlikely: The Ghost is a gruff sea captain who loves blood, gore, and swashbuckling, while Mrs. Muir is a prim and proper woman, a widow who moves her family into the Captain’s old house. She discovers his portrait before meeting his ghost. She is at first scared by him, then offended by his fondness for violence and roughness. However, the more she encounters him, the more she is drawn to him. As he tells her stories about his adventures and his life on the sea, she writes them down and types them up. While working on the book, she keeps the secret about the ghost and their romance from the public and from her kids. This book inspired a classic black-and-white film as well as a TV show. The film is surprisingly similar to the book; other than removing one of the children, it’s actually pretty accurate. It should be noted that the book was written by a woman named Josephine Leslie, but she had to (or chose to) use a pseudonym in order to get her story published. I wonder what Captain Gregg and Lucy Muir would think about that…

Most of the action in the Gemma Doyle trilogy by Libba Bray takes place at an all-girls boarding school in Victorian England. However, the first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty, begins in India. It is there that Gemma lives, though she is English and has always wanted to travel to her homeland. At the age of 16, she gets her wish when tragedy strikes: Shortly after fighting with her mother while at a street bazaar, Gemma is struck with a vision – which she’s never had before – and her mother is struck down. Is it suicide or murder? Before she can investigate the circumstances of her mother’s death, Gemma is sent off to school and must adjust not only to life on campus but to life with her new power, which is unwelcomed, untrained, and seemingly uncontrollable. She soon befriends three girls, Felicity, Ann, and Pippa, each of which has her own secrets and abilities. The group finds a diary from a long-gone student and learns about past events at Spence which may have been tinted with magic and mayhem. This trilogy is incredibly impressive and engrossing. Bray’s writing is as gorgeous as the covers of the books. Read the books in order: A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and The Sweet Far Thing.

When the mortal Bella met the immortal Edward, romantics around the world were drawn to their story. Love it or not, there’s no denying the popularity of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It has vampires, werewolves, drama, and romance, with a definite emphasis on the star-crossed romance. In fact, when compared to other vampire stories, it’s actually fairly light on gore and violence. Read the books in their proper order: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. I actually recommend Wuthering Heights instead, but that's another story.

Carrie Jones’ first supernatural story, Need, follows three memorable contemporary dramas, including Tips on Having a Gay (Ex-) Boyfriend. Though this book does not connect to any of her previous efforts, if it were to follow imitate that title format, it may be called Tips on Having a Shapeshifter Boyfriend . . . but I don’t want to give too much away. In Need, a teenaged girl named Zara (pronounced like Sara with a Z) moves to Maine to live with her grandmother after losing her stepfather, who raised her as if she were his own. Zara’s phobias and grief are very real – and soon she learns that dark faeries, werewolves, and other partially-human characters are real as well. While the fantasy genre is a departure for Jones, her writing style is just as enjoyable and recognizable. I like the fact that her protagonists tend to be active in their communities and support good causes, such as Amnesty International, even if these projects aren’t a main part of the story. The story of Need continues in the sequel, Captivate, coming out in January 2010.

Want another girl-meets-(inhuman)-boy story? Try books by Holly Black, such as Tithe, or by Melissa Marr, like Wicked Lovely. You’ll never look at faeries the same way again.

What do you do when your girlfriend grows fangs? Check out Peeps by Scott Westerfield. This dark comedy is a nice counterbalance to Twilight. This isn’t your typical vampire story – It’s better. A young man named Cal moves from Texas to New York, falls for a seemingly nice girl, then discovers that she’s a vampire – and their relationship has infected him. Really. Vampirism is a disease, and now Cal’s carrying the parasite. This book has snark, science, rats, cats, and more. Peeps is well-written and well-researched, with really cool sub-chapters that detail real parasites and diseases. Knowing those things are real will make you squirm! Peeps has a companion book (not a direct sequel) called The Last Days that’s less about cowboys and vampires and more about rock music and the apocalypse.

I highly recommend a highly underrated series: Prowlers by Christopher Golden. This quartet of novels rocks, simply put. This is urban fantasy, urban horror. I cannot think of a better shapeshifter story. After going on a double date with his best friend Artie, nineteen-year-old Jack comes home to the place he has shared with his older sister Courtney ever since a car accident that crippled Courtney and killed their mother. The next day, he learns that Artie has been killed. The police say it was a freak attack by wolves, the sort of thing that never happens, the sort of thing which will never happen again. Then Artie appears to Jack as a ghost and tells him about Prowlers, creatures that look human but are really shapeshifters that look more like giant dogs or wolves. Unlike werewolves, who need a full moon, Prowlers can shapeshift at any time - and they do. Jack, Courtney, their friend Bill and Artie’s girlfriend Molly must take matters into their own hands and believe the unbelievable. These books have fully developed characters; even the villains have backstories, connections, and relationships. Throughout the series – Prowlers, Laws of Nature, Predator and Prey, and Wild Things - Molly and Jack grow close, but because Artie has sworn Jack to secrecy about his ghostly appearance, this creates a love triangle. Best of all are the action sequences, which pretty much leap off of the page. I wish these books came in a boxed set!

If you like Prowlers, don’t forget to check out Soulless, a zombie story not for the faint of heart, also by Christopher Golden. Zombies are a Halloween staple, and Soulless is, without a doubt the best zombie story I've ever read. Read my review and learn more about Soulless.

Halloween comes but once a year. Remember to be safe and have fun!


This piece was originally published at the SparkNotes website in October 2008. Please do not reprint this article without my permission. Thank you.

This article was originally written for SparkNotes and is related to my booklist Shakespeare Spinoffs.

Shakespeare spoke another language. At least, that's how it might seem the first time you crack open one of his plays and see a lot of lines peppered with thee, thou, and thy. The who with the what and why? Let me tell you a not-so-secret trick: it's a lot easier to understand the plays of William Shakespeare when you say the lines out loud and use the other lines and stage directions to figure out what’s really been said. Also, his works are just as witty as they are romantic (and tragic), and you can get some great vocab (and insults!) from them.

Personally, I have always enjoyed Shakespearian plays: reading them, watching them being performed, and putting them on. But I know some people who positively flip out when I recommend them. In that case, I give them novels that are related to Shakespeare in some way and hope that these fresh new stories will encourage them to give the Bard another try.

Julie's best friend Ashleigh would literally bounce off of the walls if possible. She's nothing if not enthusiastic. Whenever she's into something - a book, a song, a style, anything - she's really into it. I am really into this book. Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman is about best friends, new friends, boyfriends, and good books. Towards the start of the story, Ashleigh finally takes Julie up on her recommendation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and Ashleigh absolutely loves it. Later on, Ashleigh and Julie join in the fun of A Midsummer Night's Dream at a friend's school. This is a new Dream: a contemporary musical that sounds like a lot of fun. Of course, I might be partial, since it's my favorite Shakespearian comedy and I'm a musical theatre actress, but I digress...
Read my full-length review of Enthusiasm by Polly Shulman.

The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year I Truly, Completely Lost It by Lisa Shanahan is sweet, hilarious, and serious all at once. Gemma, already overwhelmed by all that's going on around her - mainly her older sister's upcoming wedding - adds one more thing to her cluttered plate when she auditions for The Tempest at her school. She is surprised to be in the show, then even more surprised by all that she learns about herself and others (especially Raven, a boy whose entire family is infamous in their gossipy town) in the process. This book is really underrated, and I recommend it whenever I can. Note that it was originally published in Australia under the title My Big Birkett, so you might try to look it up that way, too.
Read my full-length review of The Sweet, Terrible, Glorious Year I Truly, Completely Lost It by Lisa Shanahan.

If you’re looking to learn more about Shakespeare’s life but prefer fiction to non-fiction, try Loving Will Shakespeare by Carolyn Meyer. I often say this historical novel ought to be called Being Anne Hathaway, because that’s what it is: an account of the life of Shakespeare’s wife. (Trivia time: The modern-day actress was named after William’s lady!) Loving Will Shakespeare follows Anne’s entire life, almost, and it really showed how her relationship with Will changed through the years, from her childhood (Anne was a young kid when Will was born) through her teens and into her adulthood. Their marriage was difficult at times, to say the least; once famous, Will was often gone, doing shows elsewhere, while Anne looked after their children. The death of their son Hamnet shook things up even more. (Your teacher may have mentioned this real-life tragedy to your class when you read Hamlet.) This book made me curious to even learn more about Anne and read other books by Meyer.

In a previous feature, Summer Teen Fiction Musts, I reviewed Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson, a delightful book about a girl, her family, and the hotel in which they live and work. Scarlett's older brother, Spencer, is an actor. He gets cast in a production of Hamlet that has all kinds of cool staging and interesting mishaps. Have you ever seen Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on unicycles? You'll want to, after reading this book!
Read my full-length review of Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson.

Shakespeare is even mentioned in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. In the first book, while talking to Mike about an essay they have been assigned for class, Bella reveals her topic: "Whether Shakespeare's treatment of the female characters is misogynistic." While celebrating her birthday in the second book, New Moon, Bella says that she wants to watch the 1960s film version of Romeo and Juliet. (Have you seen that one? It’s definitely a classic. There’s also the more recent Baz Luhrmann version and many, many others.) Breaking Dawn, the fourth volume in the Bella and Edward saga, mentions a certain someone's "tattered collection of Shakespeare paperbacks." It later quotes a line from Act III, Scene i of A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays."

To quote singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik, "That says it all, doesn't it?"

Whether you are hesitant to pick up an actual play by Shakespeare or you are a Shakespearian scholar-in-the-making, grab one of these novels and see what you think. Hopefully, they'll give you a little more insight into the life and works of this famous and intelligent playwright.

Looking for something to read during the flight or long car ride to your grandmother's house this holiday weekend? Maybe you want to devour a romance or escape to a fantasy land after you've eaten but before all that tryptophan makes you drowsy. Perhaps you plan to hole up in your room with a good book while your family’s watching the big football game on TV. Whatever the case may be, you'll want to feel like the weekend will last forever – and nothing makes time stand still like getting lost in a good book.

Read my newest feature article for SparkNotes, which includes reviews of the following titles:

- Baltimore, or, the The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
- Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway
- This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
- The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I hope that you all had a happy Thanksgiving (or a happy Thursday, for those of you outside of the United States). I could greet you informally with "Happy Turkey Day!" but I'm a vegetarian and would rather free the turkeys than eat them.

Need a delightfully spooky book to read on Halloween? Check out my newest feature article at SparkNotes and stock up on supernatural stories!

I discuss many books, including but not limited to:
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Need by Carrie Jones
Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
Prowlers by Christopher Golden
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir by R.A. Dick

Ghosts, Shapeshifters, and Vampires, Oh My! Read the article at SparkNotes.

Soulless by Christopher Golden

The dead travel fast.

Times Square, New York City: The first ever mass séance is broadcasting live on the Sunrise morning show. If it works, all the spirits of the departed on the other side will have a brief window - just a few minutes - to send a final message to their grieving loved ones.

Clasping hands in an impenetrable grip, three mediums call to their spirit guides as the audience looks on in breathless anticipation. Then the mediums slump over, slack-jawed - catatonic. And in cemeteries surrounding Manhattan, fragments of old corpses dig themselves out of the ground . . .

The spirits have returned. The dead are walking. They will seek out those who loved them in life, those they left behind . . . but they are savage and they are hungry. They are no longer your mother or father, your brother or sister, your best friend or lover. They are soulless.

The horror spreads quickly, droves of the ravenous dead seeking out those they left behind - shredding flesh from bone, feeding. But a disparate group of unlikely heroes - two headstrong college rivals, a troubled gang member, a teenage pop star and her bodyguard - is making its way to the center of the nightmare, fighting to protect their loved ones, fighting for their lives, and fighting to end the madness.

Are you ready to join the fight of your life?

Why I Highly Recommend Soulless

With its wide variety of characters, overlapping stories, and fast-paced plotting, Soulless will appeal to teens of both genders and throughout the teen age. Golden's third-person narrative permits the reader to get inside the minds of the various leading characters, who represent different socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, even orientations - but all have a common goal, to bring this crisis to an end, and that is why their crossing-of-paths is inevitable and enjoyable. There's more to this book than meets the eye: it will hook readers with its eerie plotline and keep them turning pages due to the action and great writing, but all the while, it will really make them think. With its exploration of life and death, fear and family, love and loss, Soulless is a memorable book sure to inspire weighty conversations between readers.

Start at the Very Beginning

Chapter 1

Manhattan, New York City

Curtains of punishing rain fell upon the sea of dark umbrellas populating the Manhattan sidewalks, commuters hurrying to get to work on time. From the tenth-floor studio, Times Square looked like a massive, sprawling funeral. The sky above the city hung low and black, a shroud of storm.

"Perfect weather for talking to the dead," Phoenix whispered, staring out through the plate-glass window.

"What's that?"

She leaned her forehead against the glass. Well done. Talking to yourself always helps. For a second, she'd forgotten she wasn't alone in the room. Phoenix turned around and smiled at Katie Phelan, whose job, apparently, was to take care of whoever was in the Green Room waiting to go on the set of Sunrise, the network's morning news show.

"Why do you call it the Green Room?" she asked, ignoring Katie's question.

The woman -- at most four years older than Phoenix's eighteen, though her shortish dark hair made her look younger -- seemed perplexed. "Any time you're on a talk show, or in a play or something, the room where you wait before you go on is the Green Room."

Phoenix smiled. "Yeah, but why is it called the Green Room? The room's not even green."

The lower half of the walls was lavender, the upper half an off-white. There were a trio of love seats in muted colors, a quartet of armchairs that were too fancy for a dentist's waiting room but not quite plush enough for anyone to buy them for their living room, and an entire symphony of end tables, coffee tables, and floor lamps. Snack bowls dotted the tables and an oblong window opened into a tiny bar area, which was dark at the moment. Nobody was going to be mixing Phoenix a drink, but there was a tall, glass-front cooler full of sodas, juices, and flavored waters beside the bar, and one of those little machines that made the perfect single cup of whatever coffee, tea, or hot chocolate beverage you wanted.

Nothing at all green, unless you counted some of the M&M's in the bowl on a round table beside her chair.

( Read more... )

Website Fright

Visit the Soulless website for more information about the book and the author. Also download creepy wallpapers and icons, like the one I'm using on this post!

Publishing Details
Soulless by Christopher Golden
Trade paperback released in October 2008 from MTV Books
Shelved in teen fiction at bookstores and libraries
Recommended for ages 13 and up
ISBN-10: 1416551352
ISBN-13: 978-1416551355

Loving the Undead: My Longer Review and Summary of Soulless

It was supposed to be controlled. It was supposed to be a seance led by the nation's three top mediums, televised for the masses. It was supposed to be a way for the living to get some closure, to move on after speaking to their loved ones who had passed on. It wasn't supposed to raise the dead.

It did.

The corpses that rise from their graves are not compassionate, nor are gentle. They are violent, hungry, and soulless. They are intent on getting home, and will attack anyone that gets in their way. Meanwhile, those directly involved in the seance - the mediums and the two newsanchors - have sunk into a comatose state. Their hands are firmly grasped together, and nothing and no one can separate them.

Christopher Golden's return to young adult fiction ought to be celebrated. Earlier this year, Poison Ink seeped into the brains of readers. Now, the zombies in Soulless seek to feast on those brains, and those who dare to fight the undead may not live to speak of the tale.

I'll speak for them instead. After all, I've been talking about this book non-stop since I finished reading it.

I highly recommend Soulless to fans of horror movies and novels. It is far and away the best of the many zombie-themed books that came out in 2008. Soulless is so action-packed that I've taken to calling it a movie bound in a book. From the start of the ill-fated seance to its bitter end, the pacing never falters. The main characters - including the daughter of one of the mediums, a couple of college students, and a pop singer whose personal business is often splashed across the cover of tabloids - weave in and out of each other's journeys with ease and overlapping storylines. The book's action sequences and rise of average people and headstrong teens as leaders in the fight will appeal to fans of Heroes.

Of course, all good zombie stories have violence, decay, and destruction, and Soulless has all of that without ever being gory for gore's sake. It raised not only the dead, but many thought-provoking questions: Do we want to see our loved ones again after they pass away? If they return as zombies, unlike their living selves, would they be better left to rest in peace?

With its many twists and turns, Soulless kept me guessing. Trust me - You'll devour this book in one sitting.

Spreading the Fear - and the Love

I included Soulless on my Best Books of 2008 list.

I also named Soulless one of The Most Promising October Releases for Teens in an article for SparkNotes.

Soulless was one of the selections for Night Bites, a readergirlz project related to Teen Read Week.

When Eisha, Adrienne, and I talked about Generation Dead, I couldn't help but bring up Soulless.

Read Cynthia Leitich Smith's October 2008 interview with Christopher Golden.

What happens when a guy and a girl discuss this book? Check out He Said, She Said: Soulless.

Watch the awesome book trailer made by Jen from TeenReadsToo.

http://www.christophergolden.com/soulless/

Ever since she was little, Leah's known where she came from: her mother and a donor from Lyons Reproductive Services. She enjoyed life as an only child and didn't mind having a single parent. When her mother got married, Leah gained a stepfather - and later, a little half-brother - who loved her unconditionally. Though very content with her home life, Leah's always had questions about her biological father, questions her mother can't answer. She doesn't know his name, only knows that he was Donor 730, and that her mother selected him based on certain attributes listed in his profile at the clinic.

Shortly after her family moves to a new town, Leah befriends classmates at her new school. That fresh start, along with the family tree assignment given to her little brother, prompts Leah to once again wonder if her donor had any more children. Thanks to an online match system - which she keeps secret from her mom - Leah finds other kids who were fathered by Donor 730. She quickly bonds with a girl her age named Samantha. She is comforted and contented by meeting her half-siblings. She doesn't search for them in an effort to upset her mother, but rather to find what she feels is a missing piece of herself, her history.

I really liked the fact that Leah loved and valued her mother, her stepfather, and her half-brother. She was grateful for her family and never pushed them away. She was frustrated and confused at times, but she was never mean nor difficult on purpose. Instead of having a rebellion or acting out, she truly had a search, something she wanted and needed to do for herself. When she bends the rules, and again when secrets are revealed, she apologizes and she tells the truth.

Sheinmel's young characters sound and act their age. Dialogue between them rings true, as do Leah's thoughts. Each of Leah's new friends - Avery, Brenna and Callie, and, later, her half-sister Samantha - has her own personality and family. Even Avery's college-bound brother Chase factors into the story, as Leah watches him interact with his sister, his father, and his girlfriend, Lizzie. I really enjoyed Leah's stream-of-consciousness narration. She felt so real, so honest. I was utterly delighted by her younger brother. Carefree five-year-old Charlie says the sweetest, smartest things, a combination of intelligence and imagination.

My So-Called Family by Courtney Sheinmel gets my recommendation - and my appreciation. This is a great story about family values and valuing your family. This notable debut has earned a spot on my Best Books of 2008 list.

My favorite quotes from the book include:

Sometimes you know you're about to change you life with just one movement, like the last time I turned off my light in my bedroom at the pink house, or when I saw Mom slip a ring on Simon's finger on their wedding day. That's how I felt when I clicked the link to "Lyon's Sibling Registry." I moved the mouse so the cursor was over the words and I pressed my finger down. - Page 46

Now that I had a secret, I was noticing the secrets everywhere. I couldn't tell anyone what Mom was writing about, and Chase didn't want to talk about Lizzie. Now I wasn't allowed to tell Brenna and Callie about apple picking, and I didn't want to tell Avery what I was starting to think about Chase. My stomach hurt from eating so many apples and from all of the secrets. - Page 98

I wondered what would happen if I just opened my mouth and screamed. Right there in the middle of class. It would be so easy to do. No one was stopping me. I wondered what it would sound like. I don't think I've ever just opened my mouth and screamed like that. [ . . . ] Instead I just sat there with my lips pressed together. - Page 139

"No family is 'normal,'" Samantha said. - Page 181

Related posts at Bildungsroman:
Interview: Courtney Sheinmel (2009)
Interview: Courtney Sheinmel (2008)
Book Review: Positively by Courtney Sheinmel
Family: Courtney Sheinmel
Hope: Courtney Sheinmel

Read my SparkNotes Literature feature article: The Most Promising October Releases for Teens.

As the leaves turn from green to brown, I find myself sitting outside, near the trees, and turning the pages of books. I've declared four new YA books to be The Most Promising October Releases for Teens:

Paper Towns by John Green
How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier
Soulless by Christopher Golden
My So-Called Family by Courtney Sheinmel

Wondering why I selected these as standouts? Read my newest feature article at SparkNotes Literature!

I've posted reviews of three of these titles at Bildungsroman as well.

Summer Teen Fiction Musts, my feature article for SparkNotes Literature, begins:

This summer, readers found themselves marked by supernatural tattoos, chasing dreams, and scarred by tragedies. They got tangled up in mysteries involving detectives, angels, and vampires. They lived vicariously through characters having summer flings, vacationing overseas, and walking down runways. Books were read on beaches, on planes, and in camp bunks. Here are some summertime releases that really shined.

Want to know which books I picked and why?* Click here to read the article!

* Psst . . . I'll give you a hint . . . or five:
Poison Ink by Christopher Golden
Looks by Madeleine George
What Happens Here by Tara Altebrando
A Kiss Before the Apocalypse by Thomas E. Sniegoski
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
- each of which I have reviewed here at Bildungsroman.

In a fun world where many people have fairies that grant them unusual bits of luck, Charlotte (Charlie) feels cursed by her gift: the ability to always get a good parking spot. She's not even old enough to drive yet, so others - such as her mum and a dim bully at her school - drag her into their cars to play passenger. Fed up, Charlie teams up with Fiorenze, a popular girl who has an all-the-boys-like-you fairy, and the two attempt to switch their fairies. Comedic chaos ensues.

As a lifelong fan of fairies, I was drawn to this book by its premise. I love a good dystopic novel, and this one's great. In a story that's part fantasy, part comedy, Justine Larbalestier has created a world that's part America, part Australia, mixing jargon and social aspects from both nations. High school woes such as the eternal desire to fit in and the utter need for a cute outfit are mixed in with unseen fairies, unique abilities (Charlie's best friend has a clothes shopping fairy, so she always finds brilliant clothes at amazing prices), and games galore. The characters are healthy and athletic, and their sporty school, New Avalon Sports High, is very cool.

I was also drawn to this book because of its byline. Larbalestier's Magic or Madness books were more serious, traditional fantasy novels, so I was interested to see how she'd handle comedy. She handled it quite well. In fact, this book earns one of my favorite adjectives: quirky. Charlie's antics truly cracked me up. Even the intros to the chapters, with tallies of Charlie's demerits, conversations with her crush Steffi, and number of public service hours, made me giggle.

I would love to read more books set in this world, especially if they revolve around the irrepressible Charlie. She was so completely fourteen, alternately anxious and paranoid, overly aware of herself and others around her, and totally likable.

How to Ditch Your Fairy is utterly delightful. You won't ditch this funny fantasy -- you'll stay up to finish reading it!

I am Fairy honored. My blurb is printed in this book. Many thanks to the author and publisher for this honor. It means a lot to me personally and professionally. Thank you.

Related Articles
Bildungsroman: Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld Interview
SparkNotes: The Most Promising October Releases for Teens

Related Booklists
Funny Fantasy Novels for Kids and Teens
Fairy Nice
Dystopia

I am pleased to announce that I will be regularly contributing YA book news and reviews to both the SparkNotes website and the SparkLife blog. I will keep you posted - literally! - as new blogs and feature articles become available at their website.

Many thanks to the thoughtful person who recommended me for the position. I appreciate your support more than you know. Thank you so much.