Tag: jay asher

Road Trip Wednesday #10: Getting to Know YOU!

The writers over at YA Highway want to get to know ME! Okay, they opened it up to everyone who visits their site, but I’m sure they’d love me if they knew me. Unless Kate tells them otherwise. Here are the questions they asked everyone ME:

(1)    What are the three best books you’ve read this year?

1. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher – my love letter review with Author Q&A can be read here.
2. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman – My first foray into Gaiman’s world, and it couldn’t have been more entertaining. He has a Dickensian way of creating memorable characters. Richard Mayhew’s adventure through London Below was magical, colorful
3. Academy 7 by Anne Osterlund – I loved these characters and their futuristic world. Aerin, a fugitive slave, is forced to lie about her background to fit in at Academy 7. Dane, the apparent privileged son of a political leader, has secrets of his own. These two meet and a lot of heartache happens. Because I am cynical I kept expecting Osterlund to fall into the cliché path of boy and girl meet and their wounds are magically healed. She proved me wrong. Very smart novel and great writing.

(2)    If you could meet one author (living or dead), who would it be? This is a three-parter since I have living and dead authors I would love to meet and can’t possibly narrow it down to one.

1. First, I have a reciprocal girl crush* on Kate. Every time we chat, we find another obscure detail that we have in common. She’s an amazing beta reader, owns more smileys than anyone I know, and regularly makes me LOL. The real kind of LOL where I actually do laugh out loud. I have yet to see her writing, but I know she will be amazing, if only she gets past the editing stage.
2. Next, I want to go back in time and meet Jane Austen. Her cutting wit is off the scales and her observations about society strike at the heart of hypocrisy. I bet she was a lot of fun in private when she let her hair down.
3. Last, but not least, J.M. Barrie. I read Peter Pan and fell in love. He created this magical world with fantastically original images I’ve never read before or since. Like kisses hidden in the corner of mouths. I’d like to live in his imagination for a day. Seriously, pick up the original sometime and read it. Not the Disney movie, but the actual book. Or read for free here. This book also has a place in copyright law history. Barrie donated all the profits to a children’s hospital so England extended the copyright when it should have gone into public domain.

*as defined by Urban Dictionary – “”Feelings of admiration and adoration which a girl has for another girl, without wanting to shag said girl. A nonsexual attraction, usually based on veneration at some level.”

(3)    What book are you most looking forward to in 2010?

1. Kate’s novel. If she ever gives it to me to beta.

Take a trip of your own! The rules are here.

Book Review: THIRTEEN REASONS WHY (Bonus Q&A with Jay Asher)

Recorded confessions interspersed with observations. A conversation between a dead girl and the boy who might have loved her. THIRTEEN REASONS WHY wins the award for most clever format. Hands down. Let me back up. After a long absence from the Young Adult section in my local Barnes and Noble, I had no idea where to begin to find a good book. I couldn’t take one more book with a vampire on the cover. Where to turn?

Then I saw it. Whoever says you can’t judge a book by its cover has never seen the cover of Jay Asher’s THIRTEEN REASONS WHY. The heartbreaking image of a teenage girl sitting in solitary loneliness on a swing grabbed me. I read the book jacket. The premise pulled me in entirely. A girl commits suicide and leaves behind a series of cassette tapes explaining thirteen reasons why. I immediately planted myself in a chair, planning to read the first chapter to get a feel for the novel. Two and a half hours later, I closed the cover and realized I’d read a book I had yet to purchase.

After purchasing the book, I drove home with the novel and its characters still haunting me. When Clay Jensen receives a mysterious package with several cassette tapes, he is stunned to hear the voice of Hannah explaining why she killed herself. As Clay listens to the tapes, he relives the series of horrible things leading up to the tragedy. The issues presented in the novel are ones that teens deal with on a daily basis, and Jay Asher manages to make Hannah’s problems real for the reader. No one-dimensional character, Hannah flies off the page with her powerful voice, and Clay is her equal with his reactions to her revelations.

If you’ve forgotten the complexity of your teen years, instantly run out and purchase THIRTEEN REASONS WHY.

Jay Asher was kind enough to participate in a little Q&A. Thanks, Jay!

Q. What kind of challenges did the format create? For example, how did you keep the pacing going when the novel is essentially a dialogue between two characters?
A: The first challenge was simply figuring out how to write a book with simultaneous dual-narratives.  Hannah’s narrative, as you know, comes to us via recorded audiocassettes.  Clay’s narrative is made up mostly of his reactions to Hannah’s words.  I originally tried writing it just as it appears in the book, with Hannah saying something and then Clay commenting on what he just heard.  But it was hard to keep their voices distinct that way because I was constantly switching between two first-person perspectives.  So I went back, deleted Clay’s narrative, then just focused on Hannah’s story.  That took about a year-and-a-half.  Then I went back to the beginning and wrote Clay’s point of view.

A lot of the suspense was naturally built into the premise.  Where does Clay’s name appear on the tapes?  What will Hannah reveal next?  Because I was so afraid the book would become too sad for people to want to get to the end, I constantly looked for ways to keep the reader from putting the book down.  I wanted this to be a page-turner and I kept that in the forefront of my mind throughout the entire writing process.

Q: There is an amazing lack of judgment for any of the characters. Is this something you strove for and why?
A: Yes, and I’m glad you noticed that lack of judgment.  For me, the most emotional and effective books are those which allow the readers to come their own conclusions about characters.  And the most realistic characters are going to be seen differently by different people.  Writers shouldn’t be afraid of that idea because it’s just like real people!  I have friends that I enjoy spending time with, but other people find dull or annoying.  Who’s right?  A good book doesn’t mind when readers bring a little bit of their own perspectives into a story.

Now, I definitely had a message I was trying to say.  But if my message ever overpowered my story, I knew it was time to scale back on the message.  I suppose that if my message was more important than the story, I would’ve written a self-help book.

Q: What kind of response have you had to the novel, both from adults and young adults?
A: It’s been extremely positive.  Adults mostly say it reminds them of their own teen years, which makes them more sensitive when dealing with the teens in their lives right now.  Most teens say the book had a positive effects on the way they see things.  They say it’s a good reminder of how important it is to treat others with respect because you never know what else is going on their lives.

There are also people so uncomfortable with the subject of suicide, they can’t see anything positive about a book dealing with it…especially one which isn’t preachy.  But you need to expect that if you’re going to write an honest book about a sensitive topic.  It took a while, but I’ve learned to deal with that kind of criticism.  Whenever someone doesn’t think my book is appropriate for teens, all I have to do is read through some letters actually written by teens and the criticism rolls right off.

Of course, some people just love the book on a purely entertainment basis.  And that’s fine, too!