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OTHER (Flux, July 1, 2010)
I can’t last much longer. It’s been one week, three days, and I forget how many hours.
My belly cramps, and I curl on my bed, staring out at the stars. A delicious breeze glides through my window and cools my sweaty forehead. The air smells of summer–mowed grass, recent rain, lingering barbecue–and tempts me more than I want to admit. Shards of moonlight and shadow shift on the wall. I clench my teeth and toes and try to ride out the pain. My bedroom drifts counterclockwise, and I shut my eyes.
It can’t be good for me, not shapeshifting.
Seventeen-year-old Gwen hides a dangerous secret: she’s Other. Half-pooka, to be exact, thanks to the father she never met. Most Americans don’t exactly roll out the welcome mat for Others, especially not the small-town folks of Klikamuks, Washington. As if this isn’t bad enough, Gwen’s on the brink of revealing her true identity to her long-time boyfriend, Zack, but she’s scared he’ll lump her with the likes of bloodthirsty vampires and feral werewolves.
When a pack of werewolves chooses the national forest behind Gwen’s home as their new territory, the tensions in Klikamuks escalate–into murder. It soon becomes clear a serial killer is methodically slaying Others. The police turn a blind eye, leaving Gwen to find the killer before the killer finds her. As she hunts for clues, she uncovers more Others living nearby than she ever expected. Like Tavian, a sexy Japanese fox-spirit who rivals Zack and challenges her to embrace her Otherness. Gwen must struggle with her own conflicted identity, learn who she can trust, and–most importantly–stay alive.
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Designated Ugly Fat Friend. The girl who’s not as pretty or as skinny as her friends, but might get chatted up by a man-slut who wants to win brownie points in pursuit of getting laid. At least, that’s what Wesley (the man-slut) tells Bianca (the Duff). She promptly throws her drink in his face and publicly reams him, but Wesley’s words stick in her head like ugly words tend to do. And Bianca, trying to figure out why being called “Duff” hurts so much, decides that there must be at least a grain of truth to the label.
I hadn’t heard of the term “Duff” before I read this book, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know exactly how Bianca felt, exactly why she believed Wesley even though she should have let his words evaporate, and exactly why all the frustrations in her life threw her into an unexpected “enemies-with-benefits” relationship with—believe or not—Wesley himself. What happens next? The plot goes through twists that made me scrunch up my toes in anxiety, hoping everything would work out. Expect hilarious moments of sarcasm, heaps of tension, and some of the best sex/romantic scenes I’ve read in awhile. Seriously, I was completely surprised by how much I liked the romance in this one—rather than sappy characters falling on bended knee and proclaiming their star-crossed true love is forever, we have realistic passion and understanding with all its lovely flaws. Finally! This story has provided me with a new favorite fictional couple.
I had a hard time writing this review, partly because I didn’t want to spoil the story, and mostly because I really just feel like The DUFF explains itself better than I ever could. Read it if you’re a girl. Read it if you’re a guy. Read it if you’ve ever felt like Bianca does, and I’m sure all of us have, which is what makes this book brilliant.
(The publisher sent me this ARC for review.)
On July 22, I had my official book launch for Other at Uppercase Books, and it was fab! I’ll let the photos speak for themselves:
Why, of course I had to pose beneath the sign.
And pose with the fab people of Uppercase Books!
The pretty display of Other copies.
Me, going “Hmmm…” during the Q&A. Avec la Pooka!
The audience, actually intrigued by my “Hmmm…”
Author Mindi Scott dropped by. Go Tenners!
So did book blogger Sarah and her sister Elizabeth!
For those who couldn’t make it out to Snohomish, WA for the Uppercase Books signing, never fear! I’ll be signing Other and schmoozing with readers in Olympia, WA (my college town!) at Orca Books on August 14, from noon to 3 pm. More info here. Hope to see you there!
If you’ve read my review for Beautiful Creatures, the first book in the Caster Chronicles series, you will know that I gobbled up that book like delicious cake. Therefore, when I discovered ARCs of Book #2 at the ALA Annual Conference, I may have squealed with glee and snatched a copy greedily. (Okay, so I did.) Afterward, I lovingly squirreled away the book as a special treat for when I finished my revisions on my own novel. That didn’t last very long.
Beautiful Darkness is 512 pages, a fact that alarms me when I consider that I read the book in two sittings. I couldn’t help myself, though, because the story wormed its way into my imagination even when I was doing mundane activities like eating cereal or watching TV. If you haven’t read Book #1, go read my review for that. If you have read Book #1, then continue reading this review for Book #2.
Beautiful Darkness satisfies my need for:
(1) Twisted magic that draws upon voodoo and curses from the Civil War. Also, twisted magic in the hands of a likely dangerous girl, rather than a ubiquitous brooding guy.
(2) Romance. But not easy-peasy, standard-issue, star-crossed “we must be together every second of our waking existences!” romance, the bittersweet kind that involves people getting pissed and not talking to each other for realistic reasons.
(3) New characters who are just as crazy fun as the last batch. Though I will admit to liking the new L better than the old L. (Shhh! No spoilers.) Just because the new L is fabulous.
(4) More exploration of the South and its patchwork of cultures. For example:”Decorating graves was another one of Gatlin’s contests–a way to prove that you and your family members, even the dead ones, were better than your neighbors and theirs. People went all out. Plastic wreaths wrapped in green nylon vines, shiny rabbits and squirrels, even birdbaths, so hot from the sun they could burn the skin right off your fingers. There was no overdoing it. The tackier, the better.” I adore paranormal fiction well-rooted in reality.
I will stop this review right here, since I don’t want to tread into the realm of spoilers, and believe me, Beautiful Darkness is chock-full of twists that you will just have to discover on your own.
(I got this as an ARC from ALA, if you didn’t see that above.)
