Judge This Book by its Cover: I'll Give You The Sun

So, while I absolutely adore what's on the pages of books, I also have deep love of the covers. They are works of art, and while the phrase never judge a book by its cover sends an important message, it doesn't really apply to books anymore. In an age where book reviewers – of the blogger and vlogger variety – are contributing to the success of books, covers are what sell books. 

I remember seeing The Selection all over the internet and fell in love with the covers, the pretty dresses and perfect colours. If I hadn't seen the covers everywhere, it could have taken a lot longer for me to pick the series up. 

I appreciate books that are beautiful inside and out. With this series "Judge This Book by its Cover" I want to basically fangirl at the work of book cover designers everywhere. 

I'm going to kick it off with I'll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson. This book is without a doubt one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. I had high expectations after The Sky is Everywhere and it exceeded them. So, let's take a look at the cover.

UK

This is the cover on my copy, the UK version. I think my favourite thing about this cover is the way it looks like paint. With both narrators being artistic, it represents them both. Throughout, there are paint splatters and strokes, as well as the full page quotes. Having not read the US version, I don't know if those inside pages are styled the same way but the fact that they match in the UK version is perhaps one of my favourite things about this cover. Plus, it looks great with my copy of The Sky is Everywhere.

US

As much as I love my copy, I do really like the US cover. It's got the same sun-like design but less obvious. It doesn't hint at the huge part art plays in the novel as much, but the colours do a good job of indicating how vibrant the novel is in terms of characters and emotions. I also really like the font. Researching the cover of The Sky is Everywhere, there is a US version that goes with this one, with the same brightly coloured stripes and a similar font. 

I'm struggling to pick a favourite. The colours on the US cover are something I'm more drawn to than the boldness of the UK copy. Having said that, I absolutely love my copy and would feel like I was betraying it to say I preferred the other cover. 

Which one do you prefer?

My Adventures in Writing: Inspirations

They say inspiration is everywhere and for me that is true. Here are just a few of the things that really get my imagination going.

Music

I find inspiration in songs because often they tell a tiny snippet of a larger story. Listening to music, I just start to fill in the gaps, imagining the before and after the moment of the song. I also like songs that tell a more complete story. One that I'm really intrigued about is Taylor Swift's The Moment I Knew.

Films

I suppose in some ways, films and books inspire me in the same way. It's about the stories. By watching films, despite them being fiction, I learn about situations that I haven't experienced first (or second) hand, but could be interesting to explore. In a similar way, I meet characters with personality traits that hadn't ever crossed my mind.

Books

While books offer stories and characters, they also offer something more than films: the words. My love for words means that not only do I find inspiration when they are perfectly strung together into a novel length story, I am sometimes inspired simply by one word and it's definition. I've written a short story before simply because I wanted to write about wanderlust. I think wanderlust is one of my favourite words in the world.

People Watching

I find people watching to be a great way to get my imagination going. We often don't think about how the strangers that are background characters in our own stories have lives on their own; lives in which we play the background part. I like to imagine the lives that other people lead.

Photos

I like scrolling through sites like Pinterest and Tumblr. If I see a photo I like, I'm instantly thinking about why I like it, and often it's because I can see a story in it.

So, there it is. Inspiration is everywhere. It's a common thread through all artistic and creative outlets; creativity feeds creativity. Where does everyone else find their inspiration?

My Adventures in Writing: Mary Kole

One of the most infuriating things about writing an essay on a subject you know, is not being able to say things without referencing them. Even if you know it's a fact, you have to find somewhere official that states it. Even worse than that is having your own opinion on the subject but unless someone else has already had the same thought, you can't say it.

When I was writing an essay about relationships in YA, my tutor recommended Mary Kole's Writing Irresistible Kidlit. I flicked through it, looking for quotes to back myself up, and I found them. In abundance. And not just quotes to back me up, quotes that stated perfectly things that I already knew just from reading and writing YA.

Mary Kole has such great insights into how young people feel and what they want to read about. So many of the pages I marked were because she managed to sum up everything I've ever felt about my teenage years and YA books. 

As an aspiring writer, there's some invaluable advice, ranging from things as simple as word-count to the tricky business of writing a novel that young readers will believe in.

I haven't managed to read it cover to cover yet, but I'm excited to. More than that, I'm excited to apply her ideas to my own writing and see where it takes me. 

Review: Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Title: Glass Sword

Author: Victoria Aveyard

Edition: Orion, 2016

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis

If there's one thing Mare Barrow knows, it's that she's different. Mare's blood is red - the colour of common folk - but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court wants to control. Pursued by the vengeful Silver king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join the rebellion. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

DISCLAIMER. THIS REVIEW WILL HAVE SPOILERS.

It's been a while, but my lovely friend over at booksandclevernxss.blogspot.co.uk has finally finished Glass Sword and now we're going to talk about it together like we do with so many books.

My Love Affair with YA

Anyone who knows anything about me, should know two things…Disney is everything and books are everything else. Specifically YA. I don’t know if I can pinpoint why YA resonates with so much, why I can’t and won’t let it go, but I’m going to try.

It could be because I have a thing about the idea of teenagehood(?) It’s a whirlwind of freedom, love, hate, stress, summers, friends, endless possibilities. I will always regret how fast I grew out of it. Not that I could have changed that. It could be because I still feel 17. I like to think I’ve grown since then. I certainly have a clearer idea of where my life is heading now than I did at 17. But I don’t feel as though I’ve changed. I still understand all those feelings that teenagers experience.

It could be because I’m not interested in reading about grown-up things. I wanna read about first love and first kisses and friendships that build and break and build back up again. I wanna read about people who have their whole lives right in front of them. It could be because, looking back, that time of my life was good. It was better than good. It was fun, despite all the times I might have cried or got hurt, and I will always remember the way I felt.

My Adventures in Writing: How I Write Best

“What is your writing routine?” and other similar questions are often asked of authors. And a lot of the time they have a definitive answer; a place they write, a time, things that they need on the desk to do it. As an aspiring writer I sometimes feel like I need to develop my own routine. As I am now, it’s an, ‘I write when I write’ kind of situation. There are a few things I’ve noticed that get me writing more than my when-it-happens-it-happens outlook.

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Title: Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, Book #1)
Author: Marissa Meyer
Edition: Penguin, 2012

Rating: ★★★★★

Synopsis

A forbidden romance. A deadly plague. Earth's fate hinges on one girl...CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She's reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister's sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai's, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen - and a dangerous temptation. Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth's future. This is not the fairytale you remember. But it's one you won't forget.

Review

Ever since I first saw and heard about this series, I’ve been intrigued and I finally bought it at Christmas, only just now finding the time to read it.

I’ve always been a lover of fairytales. I’m enchanted by the notion of true love, of royalty, of magic, and more recently I’ve fallen in love with the way princesses are being rewritten into warriors, no longer damsels in distress, stuck in high towers. I love how timeless they are and how they are so easily rewritten. I don’t know how Marissa Meyer came to a point where throwing fairytales into a steampunk dystopia sounded like a good idea, but I'm glad she did.

One of the things I loved about reading Cinder was finding and recognising the elements from the original Cinderella. The prince, the stepsisters, the ball, but also the little things, like the foot that replaces the glass slipper and the car that acts as the pumpkin coach.