Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Dark YA Blogfest!

Hellooooo, peeps! Its me again, and lookie, LOOKIE!! It hasn't been that long since my last post! Whew! I hope I didn't lose any stragglers there... 

So November marks the month of the oh-so-fabulous Dark YA blogfest, hosted by: Kelley York, Heather McCorkleChrista Desir, and E.R. King.Woot, woot! Three cheers for blogfests! Cause lets be honest... for those of us with crazy busy jobs, blogfests give us a reason to give some blog love every now and again ( : Its like having a deadline... I always work better with deadlines. So with no more gilding the Lilly... 

THE RULES:

1. Put the I LOVE DARK YA badge on your sidebar or at the top of each of the posts you do for the fest. Make sure you link it back to the YAtopia linky sign-up.

2. Visit blogs of your hosts and other participants if you can. Interact. Make some friends. It’ll be more fun!
3. Your blog post needs to be up on Wednesday. You can post early if you want, but people will be hopping on Wednesdays.

The themes for this blogfest:



WEEK ONE...
November 2nd: Blog about your favorite dark YA book(s). 



WEEK TWO...
November 9th: Write a 500-word or less flash fiction piece inspired by this picture—





WEEK THREE...

November 16th: Music and Movie Fun—Take a dark YA book and build a soundtrack for it or cast characters for a movie version.



WEEK FOUR...
November 23rd: #YASAVES—Blog about how a dark YA book made an impact in your life.



WEEK FIVE...
November 30th: Waiting on Wednesday—What dark YA book are you most looking forward to? 



On the final day of the blogfest, the hosts will each be doing a giveaway on their blogs. Any of the I LOVE DARK YA blogfest participants may enter. Sign-ups will remain open for the entire month of October. Thanks for joining in the fun! 


So this week, I'm to post my fav. Dark YA book. Aaaaaaand, I'll be honest... this is where I chew my fingernails, stare blankly into the audience and go "Errrrrr?" 

Cause I'm not sure what qualifies as Dark YA. 

I get dark. And I get YA. But it kind of seems to me like MOST YA is dark these days.... doesn't it? Hopefully I'm not missing any specific parameters on what does and does not qualify as dark YA. If I am, just nod and smile. Its what Hubbs does every time I say something blonde-ish ( :

ANY-whooo... moving on! Like many of you, its impossible for me to pick out an all time fav book. Even when you narrow the categories down to genre or a category--like, say "dark YA"--it's still tough. I like books. What can I say? 

In dire, life threatening situations (or during blogfests), I CAN, however, come up with a handful of favs. So, plucked among my handful of Dark YA favs (with no discrimination against my other favs whatsoever), this is the Dark YA book I've chosen to represent me:

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting. 

For me, this book took creepy to a whole new level. Hubbs will tell you (because we often argue the merits of sword-and-dragon fantasy vs. real life fantasy), that I L.O.V.E. books that are MOSTLY real, with just bits of paranormalcy and fantasy thrown in. I like being able to imagine that crazy fantastic things can happen in our world of normalcy. And this book? Is just that: Realistically Creepy.... with a bit of paranormal love.

Did I mention creepy? Oh yeah. I'm talking serial-killer-stalking-and-killing-teenage-girls-in-small-rural-town kind of creepy. The bit of paranormal spice thrown in, is that the main character, Violet, can sense the dead. The killer and the body have identical "echos" that get stronger whenever she is close to either. 

Serial Killer? Girl who can sense dead bodies? You see where this is going. 

Creeptastic. 

This book gave me chills. Probably because I watch too much Criminal Minds, but that's a problem for another day. 

I also adored the romance aspect of the book! (Notice the italics for emphasis? Haha!) What I loved was that Violet and Jay started out as besties. Their relationship was so real. And not that I don't adore the love-at-first-sight stories too... cause I do. But there is something so sweet and honest about two best friends discovering that they love each other.

[cue sappy music]

Plus, Jay is such a stinkin' sweetheart! Their relationship seriously melted me. 

What more can I say? Read it. Love it. I know you will ( :


P.s. Did I mention there is a sequel? [OH YEAHHHHH!]

14 comments:

Tristyn said...

This book was great and so was Desires of the Dead. :)

Julie said...

AGREED! So freakin' fabulous! I devoured both of them in a Harry-Potter-fast kind of way ( : Haha!

Kelley York said...

As one of the hosts, I say "dark YA" can certainly vary from person to person. If you think it's dark...well, then it's perfectly fine. ;)

I enjoyed the concept of this book! I agree, having a mostly "real" setting/storyline with just a little bit of the paranormal in there is fantastic. Good choice!

Heather said...

The Body Finder definitely qualifies are dark ya, great choice! I'm so excited about this blogfest. I can hardly wait to see everyone else's favorite dark ya books!

Lana said...

It looks like such an awesome blogfest but definitely don't think I could juggle work and NaNo with a blog fest . Sigh, maybe in December

Julie said...

Kelly: woot, woot! Glad this qualifies! I think I may have been over thinking it a bit... I was trying to decide if there were some kind of specific dark ya parameters or if it was kind of kust what "feels" dark. Turns out, I got it right! Yay!

Heather: me too! Can't wait to collect more victims for my "To Read" list! Muahahahaha!

Lana: I tip my hat to you NaNo people. Whew! I dont know how you find the time! Good luck!

Brinda said...

The only bad thing about this blogfest is that my TBR is growing at an alarming rate. I'm fairly sure I would like this one. *adding to list*

Julie said...

Brinda: so true! I'll probably never catch up.... but on the bright side, I'm like 99.9% sure you won't be sorry you added this one!

Bidisha said...

I like my fiction dark ;)

I haven't read The Body Finder yet but the book trailer itself gave me the creeps.

Christa Desir said...

The Body Finder ruled. I have the sequel on my nightstand and can't wait to read it. It was so perfectly creepy and sweet at the same time.

Elle Cosimano said...

LOVE Kim Derting! And can't wait to check out her new release, The Pledge. The cover totally grabbed me.

Julie said...

Bee: read it. You'll love it. Cross my heart! (ESPECIALLY if you're a dark YA lover!)

Christa: LOVED the sequel too! *squee!* have fun reading!

Elle: What?! There's another? This I must have!

Anonymous said...

I have a copy of The Body Finder, but haven't read it yet. It sounds awesome. I love dark YA.

Julie said...

Medeia: its fabulous! You should definitely give 'er a whirl!

Musica