ACID by Emma Pass

Title: ACID

Author: Emma Pass

Release Date: 25th April 2013

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID – the most brutal, controlling police force in history – rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed – or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember.

The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID – and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago.

In A Nutshell:
Set in a futuristic UK, ACID explores themes of science and technology, government regimes and human rights. ACID is fast-paced with a feisty heroine in Jenna Strong. Dystopian fans will want to read it all in one sitting as the secrets of Jenna’s life are uncovered as she fights for freedom in an isolated, police-run nation.

My Review:
ACID is a dystopian novel following the pitfalls that sabotage and shape the life of Jenna Strong. The story covers seven different periods of Jenna’s life, beginning with her time in prison and her subsequent escape, aided by an unknown group. It is impossible to outline the story without spoilers but I will say she has the opportunity to start her life afresh a number of times, meets a variety of people, some earnest and trustworthy, others manipulative, psychologically scarred and harbouring ulterior motives. She spends a lot of time on the run and is subjected to multiple brainwashing techniques, with and without her consent, as the secrets of her complicated life begin to reveal themselves to Jenna and the reader. To say Jenna endures a lot in a very short space of time (8 months!) would be quite the understatement.

I really enjoyed the majority of the book however there was a lull in the story for about 50 pages (out of 400+). While this was frustrating, it was also necessary for the story arc to be pieced together. I liked that there was no cliff-hanger ending and that the story was wrapped up, even if it was a little abrupt for me.

For the most part, I was on edge with the pace of the novel, desperate to find out how Jenna would get out of the situations she found herself in. It’s the kind of novel you have to sit down and read all at once because you just want to know how it ends and make sure the bad guys get their comeuppance. ACID explored themes of science and technology, government regimes and human rights. Set in a futuristic UK, this is definitely one for dystopian fans.

Zac & Mia Book Launch!

Last Thursday I went to the book launch of Zac & Mia by A.J. Betts. Zac & Mia is the third novel by Amanda Betts and was selected last year as the winner of the 2012 Text Prize. Held at The Lane Bookshop in Claremont, Western Australia, the event saw the bookshop bursting at the seams with excited friends, family and readers alike as WA author Meg McKinlay officially launched the novel.

Meg launching Zac & Mia

Both Meg and Amanda had the crowd in fits of laughter with tales of the novels difficult beginnings, Amanda's disbelief when it was first short-listed for the Text Prize and then when it won, Amanda's reluctance to write a romance (which she has successfully avoided, as the basis of Zac & Mia is friendship) and with Amanda's conception and pregnancy analogies as to how the novel progressed. Emotions were also running high as Amanda explained her inspiration for the novel and the amazing teenagers she has worked with in the Oncology Ward at Princess Margaret Hospital. 

A 'full house'

 

Star author A.J. Betts

Congratulations Amanda!

Amanda signing

I absolutely loved Zac & Mia and you can read my review here. It is a very special book and I urge everyone to read it.

You can also enter to win a copy of Zac & Mia via my blog thanks to Text Publishing.

Other links

Amanda's website

Amanda on Facebook

Zac & Mia on Goodreads

Zac & Mia by A.J. Betts - Blog Tour Review and Giveaway!

Title: Zac & Mia
Author: A.J. Betts
 

Release Date: 24th July 2013

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

The last person Zac expects in the room next door is a girl like Mia, angry and feisty with questionable taste in music. In the real world, he wouldn’t—couldn’t—be friends with her. In hospital different rules apply, and what begins as a knock on the wall leads to a note—then a friendship neither of them sees coming.

You need courage to be in hospital; different courage to be back in the real world. In one of these worlds Zac needs Mia. And in the other Mia needs Zac. Or maybe they both need each other, always.

In A Nutshell:

Zac and Mia is a heartfelt, emotional, uplifting and raw novel about cancer, friendship and hope. It is an amazing story and I hope you’ll love it as much as I do.

My Review:

Upon finishing Zac and Mia, words failed me. I can’t think of a book more deserving to win the Text Prize. Set in Western Australia, the novel is the story of Zac and Mia, two seventeen year olds with different types of cancer. The story, told in their alternating perspectives, illustrates two very different journeys that these kids must face at such a young age.

It is honest and raw and doesn’t hold back on the brutality of cancer, sharing what Zac and Mia experience: the chemo, losing their hair, the isolation (both physically and mentally), boredom, medications, the debilitating effects, statistics, overbearing parents, stages of denial, feelings of hopelessness and a desire not to be pitied.

But the story is also heartfelt, emotional and uplifting. It is not a miserable ‘sick-lit’ about two teenagers dying. It is a story about Zac and Mia, who, under horrible circumstances, meet and form a bond that can only be created when experiencing something significant together.

It is a story about how people react and handle the challenges they are faced with. A story of hope and not giving up. It is recognising and appreciating life and the simple things that others take for granted. It is about helping one another and offering support in any way, shape or form and being there even when they push you away. It is finding someone who understands you and coming to terms with your own reality. It is recognising that your life has changed but you don’t have to be defined by the cancer.

Please read Zac and Mia. You will not regret it.

I wash my hands, amused by the reflection in the mirror.

My head is bald, lumpy and asymmetrical, but my eyebrows are thicker than before.

I appear to be morphing into one of those creepy guys from Guess Who.
– Zac page 18

Also by A.J. Betts
Shutterspeed
Wavelength 

 

To celebrate the release of Zac and Mia, the third book by Australian author A.J. Betts and winner of the 2012 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing, I am participating in a blog tour along with a bunch of other lovely bloggers. You can see the other tour stops here. Thanks to Text Publishing, I have a copy of Zac and Mia to give away!

To enter, you must be a follower of this blog and live in Australia. Please fill out the form below. Entries close 27th August 2013 and the winner will be contacted via email.

**Update**
This competition is now closed. The winner has been contacted via email.
Thank you to all who entered :)

Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil

Title: Life in Outer Space

Author: Melissa Keil

Release Date: 1st February 2013

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

Life in Outer Space is a romantic comedy about a movie geek & the dream girl he refuses to fall in love with. Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft – and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, worry about girls he won't. Then Camilla Carter arrives on the scene. She’s beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his plan. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a plan of her own – and he seems to be a part of it! Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies. But perhaps he’s been watching the wrong ones.

In A Nutshell:

Life in Outer Space is a story about acceptance, loyalty to friends, appreciating differences, recognising first love, and the crazy awkwardness that is teen life. It also covers the fear of potentially ruining an amazing friendship when you fall for a friend and also realising that as long as you have a couple of close friends, you can survive anything. This geek rom-com is funny, adorable and sometimes awkward and I totally fell in love with it.

My Review:
Oh gosh, I loved Life in Outer Space and spent the whole book with a goofy smile on my face. I love stories about geeks/nerds coming into their own and finding ‘their people’. The story of Sam and his friends Mike, Adrian and Allison, is filled with geek-tastic references from World of Warcraft and Star Wars to old school horror movies, Dirty Dancing and Harry Potter. And you don’t have to be a fan of these specifically, to appreciate and love the book. Anyone who has ever loved something that goes against what is said to be ‘popular’ will be able to appreciate and fall in love with the characters found in Life in Outer Space.

High school, as Sam and his friends have come to expect, features daily doses of suckiness aimed at them by ‘The Vessels of Wank’ and their minions (read: the ‘popular’ kids) and they spend their lunch breaks hanging out with the IT guy in what they call their ‘Neutral Zone’. But when quirky but ‘cool’ new girl Camilla arrives, everything they have come to expect goes haywire as Camilla assimilates with all the social groups at Bowen Lakes Secondary High. At first Sam is suspicious of Camilla and questions why she wants to spend time with him and his friends, while she still hangs out with the 'Vessels', but he slowly comes to realise that she is somehow impervious to the social cliques around her. As Sam, Mike, Allison and Adrian navigate their way through the change of social structure and a drop in ‘Vessel’ attacks against them, they also discover that Camilla is a closet geek and begins spending exponential amounts of time with them.

Some things I love about Life in Outer Space:

• Sam’s dislike of exclamation points and glitter
• The tasks Camilla sets Sam to keep his mind busy when he is sad
• Sam’s attempts at writing a cult classic and his screenplay for Killer Cats from the Third Moon of Jupiter
• Camilla’s hidden musical talents
• Sam, after realising he has a crush on Camilla, tries to make it go away by avoiding her, thinking three days should be sufficient
• How Allison evolves throughout the book
• Mike showing off his abs at the beach as the ‘popular’ girls fawn over him, not realising he is gay
• How Adrian just gets on with life and doesn’t let the little things worry him
• Camilla’s stage fright

 

Life in Outer Space is a story about acceptance, loyalty to friends, appreciating differences, recognising first love, and the crazy awkwardness that is teen life. It also covers the fear of potentially ruining an amazing friendship when you fall for a friend and also realising that as long as you have a couple of close friends, you can survive anything. This geek rom-com is funny, adorable and sometimes awkward and I totally fell in love with it.

“I know that a habitual grimacer is one of my people.”

“I don’t understand this kissing business”

Second Opinions
inkcrush
ALPHA reader
Claire Reads

2013 WA Premier's Book Awards Shortlist

Yesterday, the shortlisted books for the 2013 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards were announced.

The competition was open to works published throughout 2012. As usual, I'm just sharing the YA nominees but you can view the all the categories here.

Young Adult Fiction

A Corner of White - Jaclyn Moriarty

Friday Brown - Vikki Wakefield
Sea Hearts - Margo Lanagan
Fog a Dox - Bruce Pascoe
Night Beach - Kirsty Eagar
The Ink Bridge - Neil Grant
 

The winners will be announced on September 16, 2013.

 

Wildlife by Fiona Wood

Title: Wildlife
Author: Fiona Wood

Release Date: 1st June 2013

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Life? It’s simple: be true to yourself.
The tricky part is finding out exactly who you are…

In the holidays before the dreaded term at Crowthorne Grammar’s outdoor education camp two things out of the ordinary happened.
A picture of me was plastered all over a twenty-metre billboard.
And I kissed Ben Capaldi.

Boarding for a term in the wilderness, sixteen-year-old Sibylla expects the gruesome outdoor education program – but friendship complications, and love that goes wrong? They’re extra-curricula.

Enter Lou from Six Impossible Things – the reluctant new girl for this term in the great outdoors. Fragile behind an implacable mask, she is grieving a death that occurred almost a year ago. Despite herself, Lou becomes intrigued by the unfolding drama between her housemates Sibylla and Holly, and has to decide whether to end her self-imposed detachment and join the fray.

And as Sibylla confronts a tangle of betrayal, she needs to renegotiate everything she thought she knew about surviving in the wild.

A story about first love, friendship and NOT fitting in.

In A Nutshell:
I absolutely adored Wildlife! It is a companion novel to Six Impossible Things that focuses on friendship, bullying, self-confidence, fitting in and navigating the ins and outs of relationships. A must read for all teenagers (and the young at heart).

My Review:
I absolutely adored Wildlife. For those of you who don’t know, it is a companion novel to Fiona’s first book, Six Impossible Things. It is told from two alternating POV, Sibylla, and Lou (from Six Impossible Things). For one term a year, students spend their time at their school’s outdoor education campus, staying in 6-bed dorm rooms/huts and getting involved with the great outdoors. The story follows Lou, the new girl at school, and Sibylla, the once-‘invisible’-but-now-visible-girl, through their term amongst the wildlife.

Sibylla, ignored by her classmates for most of her highschool years, experiences a social status change at the beginning of the term after she appears on a billboard for a new perfume, hand-picked by her aunt who is in advertising. Suddenly, people know who she is and the boy she has liked for ages decides to start something. She worries about all the new-found attention but her scheming best friend Holly tells her ‘so what?!’ and to make the most of it…and make the most of it Holly does.

Lou struggles to fit in, not only because she is the new girl but because she has suffered a loss that she would prefer to keep to herself, rather than with the gossip-hungry girls of her dorm. She eventually makes a connection with Sibylla’s oldest friend Michael, a quirky ‘outcast’ who Lou recognises as a kindred spirit. Lou is the kind of girl who knows who she is and doesn’t care what people think of her. At Reading Matters, when discussing why she included Lou in Wildlife, Fiona said that she felt Sibylla needed a friend like Lou, and this is so true. Sibylla’s best friend Holly is the classic definition of a ‘frenemy’. She uses Sibylla’s new found fame for her own agenda and doesn’t fulfil the criteria that a ‘friend’ should. She is fake, inconsiderate and with no thought for other people’s feelings except for her own entertainment and social climbing.

I think the relationship between Sibylla and Holly is really important and I am positive that everyone will know, or has known, a person like Holly. The difficulties of navigating highschool and friendship groups are so hard because at that age you are still figuring out who you are and are being pulled in all directions: old friends and new collide and the popularity contest clashes with loyalties, respect and the right thing to do. Hopefully when it all ends up in the inevitable blender of highschool, the worst bits will filter out and you will be left with the person you want to be. And while in hindsight it is an easy choice, at the time, it can feel like it’s the be all and end all. Fiona Wood manages to portray these dilemmas perfectly. Wildlife is a novel every teenager should read. It is a story for both boys and girls however I think it is especially important for girls because it directly relates to the complexities of female friendships that can cause so much distress.

Wildlife is a realistic novel with some loveable characters. I can imagine being friends with Sibylla, Michael and Lou and the whole novel just gave me warm fuzzies, although I did want to bitch slap Holly a number of times (and I am so not a violent person!). A tale about friendships, bullying and fitting in, Wildlife makes it onto my unofficial list of amazing Aussie YA (hmmm… maybe I should make a list…) and I will forever read anything else Fiona Wood writes.

Also by Fiona Wood:

Six Impossible Things

Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2013 Shortlist

The shortlist for the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Awards were announced today.
As usual, I'm just mentioning the YA titles but for the full list click here.

2013 YA Shortlist

Everything Left Unsaid by Jessica Davidson

The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett

Grace Beside Me by Sue McPherson

Fog a Dox by Bruce Pascoe

Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

Big congrats to Jessica Davidson and Vikki Wakefield who wrote two of my favourite books!

 

The Text Prize 2013 Winner

So I realise I am a couple of weeks last posting about this but I've had a lot going on so better late then never I say!

As I posted on 22nd May, the short-list for the Text Prize had been announced and the winner was to be revealed on the 29th. Well it was and the winner was...

Diana Sweeney for The Minnow (formally Flood Damage)!

The Minnow explores a young woman’s struggle to regain control of her life after a devastating flood claims the lives of her parents and sister. The Minnow will be published August 2014.

Text Prize 2013 winner Diana Sweeney with Text Publishing's Michael Heyward.
Image courtesy of Bookseller and Publishing Facebook page

Text also announced they would publish Waer by runner-up Meg Caddy, an intricate fantasy novel set in an imagined land of waerwolves, thieves and magic.

Last year's winner Zac and Mia by AJ Betts will be available as of 24th July.

Diana joins these previous winners of the Text Prize:

2012: Zac and Mia - AJ Betts 

2011: Fire in the Sea - Myke Bartlett
2010: The Bridge - Jane Higgins
2009: This Is Shyness - Leanne Hall
2008: The Billionaire’s Curse - Richard Newsome

The 2013 Text Prize Shortlist Announced!

 

Last week, after reading over 350 manuscripts, Text Publishing announced the four finalists for the 2013 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing.

 

Waer by Meg Caddy
An intricate fantasy novel set in an imagined land of waerwolves, thieves and magic. Twenty-one-year-old Perth student and childcare worker Meg Caddy has been working on the novel since she was fourteen, and is following in the footsteps of her author father, David Caddy, who has published several books with Fremantle Press.

Lost Vegas by Jo Hegerty
A funny, heartwarming story for younger readers about a bullied boy and his second-hand, far-from-ideal dog, Vegas. Jo Hegerty is a Brisbane-based journalist, editor and blogger.

Elizabeth and Zenobia by Jessica Miller
Elizabeth and her imaginary friend Zenobia suddenly find themselves living in the haunted home of Elizabeth’s distant father, Witheringe House. Brisbane-based Jessica Miller has written a fantastically imagined story for eight- to twelve-year-olds about all the different ways we can be haunted.

Flood Damage by Diana Sweeney
A timely novel for older readers, Flood Damage explores a young woman’s struggle to regain control of her life after a devastating flood claims the lives of her parents and sister. Diana Sweeney has published a number of papers in academic journals, but Flood Damage is her first novel.

The winner will be announced on 29 May. 

 

The Text Prize is awarded annually to the best manuscript written by an Australian or New Zealander for young adults.

Both published and unpublished writers of all ages are eligible to enter with works of fiction or non-fiction. Judged by a panel of editors from Text Publishing, the winner will receive a publishing contract with Text and a $10,000 advance against royalties.

The previous winners are:

2012: Zac and Mia - AJ Betts (to be published August 2013)

2011: Fire in the Sea - Myke Bartlett
2010: The Bridge - Jane Higgins
2009: This Is Shyness - Leanne Hall
2008: The Billionaire’s Curse - Richard Newsome

Source: Text Publishing

Girl Defective by Simmone Howell

Title: Girl Defective
Author: Simmone Howell

Release Date: 1st March 2013

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

We, the Martin family, were like inverse superheroes, marked by our defects. Dad was addicted to beer and bootlegs. Gully had "social difficulties" that manifested in his wearing a pig snout mask 24-7. I was surface clean but underneath a weird hormonal stew was simmering...

It's summer in St Kilda. Fifteen-year-old Sky is looking forward to great records and nefarious activities with Nancy, her older, wilder friend. Her brother – Super Agent Gully – is on a mission to unmask the degenerate who bricked the shop window. Bill the Patriarch seems content to drink while the shop slides into bankruptcy. A poster of a mysterious girl and her connection to Luke, the tragi-hot new employee sends Sky on an exploration into the dark heart of the suburb. Love is strange. Family Rules. In between there are teenage messes, rock star spawn, violent fangirls, creepy old guys and accidents waiting to happen. If the world truly is going to hell in a hand-basket then at least the soundtrack is kicking. Sky Martin is Girl Defective: funny, real and dark at the edges.

In A Nutshell:

Mysteries and music in Melbourne. Enough said.

My Review:

I think the mark of a good book is one where you keep thinking about it long after you have finished it. I read this ages ago and I still find my mind wandering back to it.

I really loved Girl Defective. In the interests of full disclosure, I didn’t think I would. I didn’t enjoy Everything Beautiful which everyone else seemed to, and so I didn’t have high hopes for Girl Defective. But, I liked the premise so I thought I would give it a go and I’m so glad I did. It just proves that you can’t judge an author on one book alone. Some stories will speak to you, some won’t. Girl Defective was un-put-down-able.

Sky Martin lives with her wannabe detective younger brother Gully and their record obsessed Dad above his beloved record store. Their mother, who went through a ‘bird faze’ naming them Seagull and Skylark, walked out on them three years ago to ‘find herself’. She now lives in Japan and works on her creative outlets, which currently involves performance art while covered in tampons.

At 15, Sky is a bit of a loner. She’s lost in the world, searching for her place and her own identity. She spends her days either at school in the computer lab vandalising her mother’s website, at the record store, watching over Gully who has taken to wearing a pig-snout mask and pretending to be a secret agent, and arguing with her dad who refuses to move with the times in order to save the store. Her only friend is 19-year-old Nancy who is a bit wild and carefree, somewhat unreliable and the complete opposite of Sky. But she makes Sky feel alive and Sky holds onto their unlikely friendship like a lifeline.  

“Sometimes I thought if it wasn’t for music I wouldn’t be able to cry or laugh or feel giddy or wild.” 

Set over the course of six weeks, the lives of the Martin family takes a little detour down the seedier streets of St Kilda as Gully tries to investigate who threw a brick through their shop window, Nancy becomes obsessed with rock star Otis, and Sky’s dad, Bill, hires new-comer Luke to help out at the store. While Sky is originally grumpy about Luke employment, she can’t help but be intrigued by him, watching him over the top of her Record Collector magazine. Luke is quiet and sad and we learn very early on that he is in town to try and piece together the last months of his sister’s life, a life that seems remarkably similar to Nancy’s.

With Luke searching for answers about Mia’s death, Sky becomes fascinated by the life that Mia appears to have led and does a little investigating of her own while pondering her feelings for both Nancy and Luke. Her character evolves through the story and by the end of it I was so proud and happy for her with the way things eventuated, with the risks she takes and the realisations she comes to.

I loved both Gully and Bill. Gully is eccentric and quirky and I love him to bits. I think it is implied he has Asperger’s but I’m not knowledgeable enough about the condition to say for sure. Bill’s dedication to records and his refusal to stock CDs or sell online, let alone stock anything released after 1995, is endearing, even if he is running his business into the ground.

Last but not least, I love mysteries and novels that incorporate music. The Martin family are music snobs but we love them anyway. I really enjoyed the music references, even if I only knew half the bands mentioned, but I could still appreciate the love and dedication they had towards their favourites. 

“I like watching people’s faces when they listen to music. I like how it’s private. Even at a gig if you’re all hearing the same thing, you’re really all hearing something different.”

Thank you to Macmillan for this review copy.