Review: Dead to You by Lisa McMann

Dead to You by Lisa McMann (May 2013, 288p, Scholastic, ISBN: 1407137239)

Lisa McMann, author of the Wake trilogy and The Missing (apa Cryer's Cross) turns away from supernatural/paranormal elements to give us this heartbreaking psychological thriller.

Ethan De Wilde, was abducted outside his home when he was seven. Nine years later, Ethan is restored to his original family. He spent years with a woman called Ellen before she placed him in a care home from which he escaped. After spending a year on the streets and a lot of time on the library's computer he found himself - listed on the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children's website.

The family unit is now complete. He is welcomed by his mum and dad and new young sister Gracie but his now thirteen-year-old brother Blake has his reservations. Why can't Ethan remember anything about the first seven years of his life?

Dead to You, charts the integration of Ethan back into family life and all the stresses and strains of being found, especially with his memory loss. The main positive thing in his life is his developing relationship with neighbour Cami with whom he wants to be more than just friends.

As tensions mount within the family, you turn the pages faster and faster to see how the story will end and my, does it ends on a bang.

Lisa McMann's books always leave me wanting more. They are quick page-turning reads and in Dead to You you really feel for Ethan and his situation. He was very honest with himself and a believable character. His little sister is adorable. I would love it if this turned out not to be the standalone it was intended to be, as you really want to find out what happens next to Ethan and the family.

Dead to You throws up a lot of questions about the nature of family and the bonds within it and I can see it being a great book for discussion at a reading group.

A cautionary note - there are multiple uses of the f-word and some mild sexual content so probably one for older teens.

Review: Gone by Lisa McMann

Gone by Lisa McMann (November 2010, Simon & Schuster Children's Books, ISBN: 0857070401)

Notes: Review contains some spoilers for Wake and Fade.

Review: Gone is the final part of the trilogy which began with Wake and carried on with Fade. Based on the information she received in Fade, lead character Janie has to make a decision which boils down to: leave everyone behind and live in isolation so she cannot enter anyone's dreams or stay with Cabel whom she loves and become crippled and blind in not many years time.

At the beginning of Gone, Janie is on vacation with Cabel and his family. They are recovering from the repercussions of the events in Fade but Janie is suddenly and urgently called home when her best friend leaves her voice-mail messages saying that Janie's alcoholic mum has had to go to hospital.

Things aren't quite what they seem though and it's not Janie's mum who is ill but a stranger to Janie but one who ultimately, will reveal the right path that Janie should follow.

There's no investigation as such like in Fade, this time it's all about Janie and what she can and should do about her life. It's a sad tale, whatever Janie chooses, but Janie will make the best of her choice and it's also probably best that readers leave the story where we do, whilst Janie is young. This has been an interesting trilogy with an unusual "gift" for a main character; each book has had a different theme and in Gone, Janie finally gets to shake off some of the burdens she should not have been carrying. If you've not read this series yet, do start with Wake so you can follow Janie's character arc. I loved the writing style of these books, present tense with frequent paragraphs of almost free verse at times, it's so immediate and pulls you in just like the dreams suck Janie in.

I liked Ms McMann's Cryer's Cross/The Missing as well and look forward to her next YA novel.

Review: Fade by Lisa McMann

Fade by Lisa McMann (August 2010, Simon & Schuster Children's Books, ISBN: 1847387363)

First Lines:

A NEW YEAR

January 1, 2006, 1:31 am

Janie sprints through the snow yards from two streets away and slips quietly through the front door of her house.

Review: Fade is the sequel to Wake and is the middle part of the Wake trilogy. There will be some spoilers for Wake in this review.

Fade picks up shortly after the events in Wake. Janie has discovered she's a dream catcher and that she can use her talents of entering other people's dreams to help the police. The police have received an anonymous tip-off that there is a sexual predator at the high school. Janie and her boyfriend Cabel are assigned to discover if there is and if so, who is it, amongst the teaching staff at their school.

This assignment causes friction between the two as Cabel does not want her taking on this assignment and wants to protect her. Meanwhile Janie is discovering more about her "gift" from the files and a journal of the previous dream catcher.

Even when the assignment is complete, there are problems ahead for the two's long-term relationship.

I loved Wake and I also enjoyed Ms McMann's standalone, Cryer's Cross very much. I didn't enjoy Fade nearly as much as either of those two. Not because of the writing, which is as attractive and poetic as ever, but, and this is a personal reaction, rather the fact that it covers a dark subject and there are some unpleasant scenes of a sexual nature which left me with a bad taste in my mouth: there is a prolonged threat of rape both actual and in a dream. Subject matter aside though, Fade continues the development of Janie's character as she sees what's ahead for her in her life and makes some hard choices. I'm looking forward to reading Gone to see where the author takes Janie and Cabel and what the set-up will be now that they've finished high school.

Review: Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann (February 2011, Simon Pulse, ISBN: 1416994815)

First Lines: Everything changes when Tiffany Quinn disappears.

Notes: This is reviewed from an a e-galley supplied by Simon & Schuster (US). Cryer's Cross will be published in the UK as The Missing in June.

Review: Cryer's Cross is a small, rural, Montana town, the sort of place where nobody bats an eye if you ride your horse to the local store instead of taking the car.

Kendall and Nico are neighbours and have been friends since birth. As well as being best friends they have drifted into a romantic relationship. Kendall is the only girl of her age at school and she loves soccer and plays in the school team. Soccer is one of the few things that can control the wild thoughts that arise from her OCD.

Their quiet existence is disrupted by the disappearance of a younger class-mate, Tiffany Quinn. Despite a huge search, no trace of her is found. Now it's three months later and school begins once more. There is a minor excitement in the fact that there are two new students: Jacian and his younger sister Marlena.

However it's only a couple of days until Nico begins to act strangely before vanishing without trace just like Tiffany before him.

Kendall is left shocked and out of it. Her only solace is soccer and the curfew imposed on town means she spends more time playing soccer with Jacian and she begins to see the nicer guy behind the gruff exterior he presented on his arrival in Cryer's Cross.

Because of her OCD, Kendall is in a unique position to discover what has happened to the missing teenagers but the answer could come at a great cost.

Occasionally there is a paragraph from the mysterious "We" before a chapter, and these make increasingly more sense as the story progresses.

I loved Lisa McMann's Wake so I jumped at the opportunity to read Cryer's Cross. It's a gripping read with a budding romance intermingled with a dark, very creepy Tales-of-the-Unexpected horror story. I don't want to give anything away, though the cover may give you a clue, but if you are still at school, it might give you nightmares.

However there are one or two things I didn't buy totally, including the romance. Kendall is an unsophisticated, seventeen-year-old who, to me, seems a bit young for her age, whereas Jacian is a year older and seems much more grown-up. I can see why she (anyone) might fall for him, less so the other way round. Also Kendall spends several days at school just crashed out on her desk and nobody, including the teacher, intervenes or speaks to her all day. It is crucial to the plot that they don't and she is in mourning of sorts, but it still threw me out of the story a little.

I did love the small-town setting which I could picture vividly and it's refreshing for someone to have (two) normal parents like Kendall does, though running their farm keeps them out of the picture as and when required.

This is quite a different book to the supernatural YA books I've read before (I can't say any more than that for fear of spoiling it), with rather a dark tone as Kendall is wrestling with loss and disappointment pretty much the whole time, and the town is full of fear, but it's one that will pull at you until you get to the end. It has a creepy atmosphere which will linger in your mind after you've finished your visit to Cryer's Cross.

I did enjoy Cryer's Cross and though I had a couple of small issues with it, which I may be being over-sensitive about, I would definitely recommend it.

Publishing Deal - Lisa McMann

Looks like Cryer's Cross is coming to the UK but under a different name. In today's Bookseller:

HarperCollins Children's Books has bought a "chilling" new paranormal thriller for young adults.

Publishing director Rachel Denwood bought UK and Commonwealth rights to The Missing by Lisa McMann from Stephanie Voros at Simon & Schuster US for an undisclosed sum.

The book, which will be published in June 2011 as a paperback original, is set in the isolated town of Cryer's Cross. The heroine Kendall's friend and boyfriend both vanish and Kendall then begins to receive creepy messages.

Review: Wake by Lisa McMann

Wake by Lisa McMann (October 2009, Simon & Schuster Children's, ISBN: 1847385036)

First Lines:

SIX MINUTES

December 9, 2005, 12.55pm

Janie Hannigan's math books slips from her fingers. She grips the edge of the table in the school library. Everything goes black and silent.

Review: Wake is the first part of a trilogy and it's about Janie, a very unusual seventeen-year-old: Janie can enter people's dreams. As soon as someone nearby falls asleep and starts dreaming, Janie gets sucked in and sees the dream for herself. Wake takes the reader through Janie's childhood, living with an alcoholic mother, and up to the present day, introducing her best friend Carrie and the enigmatic Cabel.

The dreams that Janie experiences range from the "naked in examination" type to nightmares where people become monsters. Janie feels that her life is to be one long nightmare - how can she leave her drunken mum, how can she have a boyfriend, how can she even sleep? But the events in Wake ultimately show Janie that she's not alone and that she can contribute to society in an unexpected way.

I absolutely adored Wake and I couldn't put it down. This is such an unusual idea for a story and is executed perfectly. Janie is likeable and carries such a huge responsibility and Cabel - who is Cabel? Is he the bad boy that everyone says he is? You'll keep the pages turning to get to the answer. A final small point - it was nice to read a book not set in New York or California - this being set in a small town in Michigan. I can't wait to read book 2, Fade.

Cover: I like the psychedelic look of the UK cover.

Bumper Publishing Deals Post

Publishers Weekly listed some new publishing deals back in December. So a bit belatedly - here are the YA ones:

HarperCollins pre-empted world English rights, in a six-figure three-book deal, to a new zombie series by debut author Amy Huntington. The first book, Sleepwalking, follows a 16-year-old who, after losing her parents, is cast off from her Brooklyn life to live with grandparents in Paris. There she meets, and falls for, a French teen named Vincent, who just happens to be a zombie. Dystel & Goderich's Stacey Glick, who sold the book, said the series introduces a new kind of zombie mythology in which the undead are “re-animated humans”—they look just like us—and don't feast on brains but, instead, carry out special missions. She said the Hollywood pitch for the book would be: “Twilight...in Paris...with zombies.” HC is planning Sleepwalking for summer 2011.

Stimola Literary Studio, sold, in a six figure pre-empt, North American rights to a four-book YA series by 2008 Harvard grads Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur to HarperCollins's Greenwillow Books. The first book, The Ivy, is set to drop in fall 2010. The series follows the travails of Callie Andrews, a Harvard frosh who arrives at the storied university only to discover she's ill-equipped to handle the romantic and social challenges awaiting her.

Lisa McMann (Wake and Fade) has signed a four-book deal with Simon & Schuster's Pulse and Aladdin imprints. The deal is for world rights to two YA titles (Pulse) and two middle grade novels (Aladdin). The first title from Pulse, Dead to You, which is slated for spring 2012, follows a teenage boy who, after being abducted, returns to his family nine years later—it's psychological suspense. Aladdin is set to drop the dystopian fantasy, The Unwanteds, in fall 2011; the book follows a group of kids who, after showing sparks of creativity, are banished to a secret world where they're trained to hone their abilities.

ICM sold U.S. rights to a debut YA thriller called Flip to Wendy Lamb at her eponymous Random House imprint. The book, part of a two-title deal Wexler closed at auction for Brit Martyn Bedford, is a psychological thriller about a boy who wakes up in another kid's body and must fight against the clock to avoid being trapped, literally, in someone else's shoes forever. Flip is slated for fall 2010.

Free e-book of Wake

Thanks to The Story Siren's tweet I discovered that the e-book of Lisa McMann's Wake can be downloaded from the Simon & Schuster website. The e-book will be valid for 30 days only and must be downloaded by 31 December.

Sign up here.

There are various other pdfs that can be downloaded here including a short story by Lisa McMann from Cabel's viewpoint (must be downloaded today!).

Trailer Thursday - Wake

The UK edition of Wake by Lisa McMann was published last week by Simon & Schuster Children's.

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams at any given moment is getting tired. Especially the falling dreams, and the standing-in-front-of-the-class-naked ones. But then there are the nightmares, the ones that chill her to the bone...like the one where she is in a strange house...in a dirty kitchen...and a sinister monster that edges ever closer. This is the nightmare that she keeps falling into, the one where, for the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant...

Watch the trailer below: