Bookcase Bizarro: MG/YA Book Reviews, May 2024

MG/YA Book Reviews by a MG/YA Writer

Author News

Welcome to the May edition of Bookcase Bizarro!

The Big News this month is that I’ve launched the eBook and paperback versions of Shadow Apprentice to the world. By the time I took the story down from Wattpad, I’d clocked just over 100 reads. I left 3 sample chapters posted and set up a payment link on my Wattpad page. I used a universal book link, which directs people to their preferred online retailers where they can buy the book. This turned out to be a lot easier than setting up a Patreon store, and I don’t have to pay any extra payment processing fees.

Many people have asked me how I handled my book launch. Answer: very quietly.

When I was in my early 20s, The Crossing Press, a prominent independent publisher, acquired a book written by my friend, Molly Barker (THE SECRET LANGUAGE). Not only that, but the great sci-fi author, Ursula K. Le Guin, wrote the book blurb.

“Do you know what happens after you publish your first book?” Ursula K. Le Guin asked Molly.

“No, what?” Molly asked. I can imagine her poised on the edge of her chair, ear jammed against the telephone receiver, eager to hear what the famous author would say. Something about advances, or how to handle increased attention from readers, or how to invest/spend her new riches.

There was a brief pause before Ursula K. Le Guin answered. “Absolutely nothing.”

There is so much to unpack from those two words. Temper your expectations. Don’t pin all your hopes on this one book. You are still unknown. (In my case, I’ve written the first book in a series, which typically doesn’t sell until other books in the series are available.)

Hence a quiet launch for this first-time author.

Frankly, it was more than enough work learning all the business and publishing skills necessary to run a publishing company without coordinating a big book launch at the same time. So I decided to use the fact that I’m an unknown to my advantage. I released my book without fanfare (and caught the numerous mistakes I’d made along the way), and started to experiment with different kinds of marketing to find out what works best for me and my brand.

So what exactly am I doing to get my book out there?

First, I produced the best book I could (hiring editors and a book cover designer, investing in premium formatting software). I maintain a monthly blog/newsletter. I posted my book as a serial on Wattpad. I am now focused on getting my book into libraries and gathering reviews. (And writing my next book!)

So why exactly am I so jazzed up about libraries?

Libraries are non-algorithmic, reader-centric spaces where word-of-mouth recommendations can be leveraged to build interest and reader engagement and drive book sales over time. (Also, I love and believe in libraries. People shouldn’t have to buy books in order to read them.) My job was to make it easy for libraries to learn about and to stock my books. I submitted Shadow Apprentice to the Indie Author Project, which distributes approved indie titles to libraries across North America, and I entered their annual contest, where the best indie books of the year are profiled and given special promotional opportunities.

I also made sure that my metadata was bang on (I invested in Publisher Rocket for keywords and categories) and I chose payment models that wouldn’t alienate librarians. I disabled DRM (digital rights management), so libraries won’t be forced to keep on re-purchasing my digital books, and enabled the cost-per-checkout option, which makes it possible for libraries to lend out a single copy of a book to multiple patrons.

In return, I get my book in front of more readers and have a better chance of cultivating a fan base through word-of-mouth recommendations, all while getting paid. Another thing about libraries: the number of patrons is growing at an incredible rate.

I’ll talk more about reviews in the June newsletter.

Before we get to this month’s book reviews, a quick note to new readers: books that are available from the Toronto Public Library are marked #TPL, because books don’t have to be new or owned in order to be loved. And BTW, you can now request SHADOW APPRENTICE through Overdrive at your local library.

Middle Grade Book Review

The Tale of Truthwater Lake, by Emma Carroll. (Faber & Faber, 2022)

It’s summer in the year 2032, and Polly is tired of having to stay indoors all day because of the hot weather. The government lockdown makes her desperate enough to sneak out of the house with her older brother for a late-night swim in the sea. Polly’s swimming skills are rudimentary, and she nearly drowns trying to keep up with her more athletic brother. With her fear of the water firmly entrenched, Polly wonders if she’ll ever swim again.

She’s beyond relieved when Aunt Jessie invites them for a holiday in the country. She can hardly wait to escape the steamy city for the grassy banks and shady apple trees of Aunt Jessie’s home, and longs to wade in the wonderfully cold water reservoir called Truthwater Lake. When she arrives, she discovers the heatwave has dried Truthwater Lake to a trickle, revealing a drowned village beneath. Polly’s curiosity about the mysterious village overpowers her fear of swimming. As she cautiously dog paddles through what’s left of the water, her feet touch the roof of a sunken church. She’s yanked back in time to 1952, just before the village was flooded. She becomes another girl, Nellie, who loves to swim and longs to become the first child to cross the English Channel.

Nellie will have to compete against the strongest swimmers in the village if she wants to be chosen for the honour, and that means training for hours in freezing cold water. Nellie is swimming for more than glory, though. The prize money will allow her and her best friend, Lena, to stay together. Money is too tight for Nellie’s adoptive family to keep both girls, and they’re planning to send Lena home to her own parents now that she’s recovered from tuberculosis.

The village will soon be flooded to provide more water for neighbouring towns and villages. Nellie will soon have a lake at her doorstep to practice on, but she will lose her beloved home. When the son of the water works official who is responsible for flooding the village enters the competition, Nellie’s determination to win swells to epic proportions.

The story is told in alternating viewpoints, and it’s to Carrol’s credit that Polly’s story starts off being evenly matched to Nellie’s. The enemies-to-friends trope is played to good effect in Nellie’s story and gets a reverse friends-to-enemies twist in Polly’s (whose best friend has ghosted her). A subplot involving Polly’s brother, who is himself the victim of bullying, dilutes this connective parallel. I liked the brother-and-sister dynamics, but Polly’s fears are never honed to the same sharpness as Nellie’s. It’s Nellie’s story, with its keening urgency, that pulled me in. I found myself skipping ahead to Nellie’s chapters, eager to find out what happened next.

This is a problem for a time travel story, which is triggered by some event or critical conundrum in the main character’s life. The past story provides a parallel way for the main character to come to grips with the conundrum in their own time.

Carroll complicates things by having two main characters, then complicates things even further by having Polly become Nellie. Polly’s struggles don’t dovetail tightly enough with Nellie’s, so the time travel element loses its transformative power and makes Polly’s story feel almost superfluous. (A book that handles time travel and becoming another person exceptionally well is Penelope Farmer’s Charlotte Sometimes.)

I wonder if Caroll might have been better off writing a straight historical fiction from Nellie’s POV. I think contemporary readers could draw parallels between the unexpected disaster of flooding a village to provide a stable water supply and the water shortages due to climate change in our own time.

The book is still very much worth reading, however. Nellie’s story is a compelling one, with richly-drawn characters and a haunting setting. Carrol’s descriptions of the swim are visceral and gruelling, and Nellie’s determination shines through even when confronting failure. (To say more would spoil the story.)

For MG readers, especially sporty types and water bugs. Charlotte Sometimes will appeal to MG time travel enthusiasts and historical fiction fans alike. (#TPL)

YA+

Meet Me at the Lake, by Carley Fortune. (Viking, 2023)

I don’t often read romance (I’m too busy keeping up with MG and YA), but I enjoyed this realistic take on what happens when a girl meets the right boy at the wrong time.

I was beyond thrilled that a romance title made it onto Canada Reads 2024. Way to go, Carley!

SHADOW APPRENTICE IS NOW ON SALE!

Thirteen-year-old Ermin is a gifted mechanic and the worst student at St. Anselm’s Training School for Orphans. She’s just failed her exams for the third time—something nobody’s ever done. Worse, Ermin’s been running her own repair business for money—something that’s expressly forbidden. If the headmistress finds out, Ermin will go to prison. Her future will be over before it’s even begun.

But that’s not her only secret.

Her best friends, Colin and Georgie, are wizards in a world where magic is strictly controlled. Ermin worries that her friends will be captured, drained of their power, then banished. When Georgie’s caught aiding the Wizard’s Resistance, Ermin repairs a broken flying carpet so all three of them can escape.

Hesitant to join the Resistance because of her lack of magical power, Ermin steals an experimental device from a wizard hunter that could destroy every wizard in the Creek. She’s faced with a choice: either smash the device or convert it into a different kind of weapon—one that not only helps wizards but just might get her an apprenticeship at the prestigious Guild Academy.

Ermin’s got one chance to get it right. If she fails, she risks losing her two best friends… and her dreams.

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Thanks for being a Bookcase Bizarro reader! I’ll be back next month with more author news, and more MG/YA book reviews. See you then!

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