April 29, 2013

Bookshelf Clean-Out

As I close up shop I have a few books that I can pass on to others.  
They are all ARCs. I don't anything for them.  Since they are ARCs and were given to me by publishers (unsolicited!) it would cool if you review them somewhere.

If you want them let me know in the comments.  
First come first serve. 
 I'll email you for your address etc.  

If you have books you could swap let me know what they are, but honestly I just need to pass these on.

They are:

Surfacing by Nora Raleigh Baskin 


Screwed by Laurie Plissner


If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan


Deviant by Helen Fitzgerald

April 25, 2013

This Is A Goodbye

After 3 and a half years of blogging I have decided to call it quits as of June 9th.  I have a few blog tours I've committed to that go through the 6th.  Since my last day of teaching for year is June 7th, I figured it would be a good time for The O.W.L. to soar into new places.  

Why am I doing this???

My life is in a completely different place now than it was when I first started blogging. I've started a new job that is taking a lot of my time. I love it, but it's keeping me really really busy! AND I'm getting married. Spending time with my soon-to-be husband is so very important to me - way more important than blogging.  I'm just in a whole new place now.


AND THIS.........


Me when I FIRST starting blogging.
Yes that's TWILIGHT!
That's not how I feel anymore :(



I've lost the complete joy in it.  Not for reading (well ok for that some too since it has become more like a job for the blog than just for fun), but for blogging.  I used to love sharing and writing about books - the author interviews (ok that's still cool to do!), and guest posts - the contact with writers.  BUT now it seems more like a chore. And to be honest - I'm ok with letting it go because of this reason alone.  If I'm not enjoying it whole heartily I shouldn't do it!

I need time to write.  I've been dabbling in writing for a few years now, and it's time to jump in with two feet or give it up completely.  When it comes to finding time to write I feel guilty not working on the blog.  I can't have that. And I don't like feeling like I'm not giving the blog 100%.  I don't like doing something unless I can devote all the time needed to do it well. I can't do that with the blog right now.  

I want to read just to read.  I want to share with my students like I use to - to have that joy for reading and writing and publishing be given to my students and my classroom and my school.  And, since my students, have started their own book review blog HOOKED ON BOOKS I can get my blogging fix there if I need to :)

I won't lie and say I'll miss blogging, because at this point in my life I won't.  I'll miss the interactions with other bloggers/readers, but I can still get that without blogging myself!  I'm so very excited to go back to JUST reading for the joy of reading. It makes me smile huge when I think of it. I do have a Pinterest account (Jill the OWL) where I pin books I love and am excited about.  It's a quick easy way to still share with the world my love of books.  Feel free to follow me there.  And I still have Twitter (justkeepreading), so I'll pop in there every now and again.  


I wish you all the best of luck in blogging and life.  I'm heading off into a happy place that I'm excited to explore.  
I can't wait to see where it leads!

PS - I will post pictures of my wedding! It's the end of May.  We are doing a book themed wedding, so of course I have to share :) :) :)


April 17, 2013

Author Interivew: T. Glen Coughlin Author of One Shot Away +GIVEAWAY


I have the honor of hosting T. Glen Coughlin author of One Shot Away.  
He is on a blog tour hosted by Kismet Book Tours.  I was lucky enough to be able to participate   As an English teacher I'm constantly looking for "boy" books, and when I saw this one I was very excited.   Especially when I saw it was about wrestling.  Wrestling is huge in my school district!

A bit about the book

It’s senior year and the last season for Diggy, Jimmy, and Trevor on the Molly Pitcher High School varsity wrestling team. And they all want the same thing: to win.
But Diggy’s got to compete with his older brother’s legacy, and now he’s in danger of losing his spot to newcomer Trevor. Jimmy’s got the cops after him, and a girlfriend who looks down on him. Then Diggy does the unthinkable—he betrays a teammate. Can the team forgive him? And can he forgive himself?
Experience the pressure with Diggy, Jimmy, and Trevor as the stakes rise and loyalties splinter. They’ve got just one shot to make weight and get onto the mat. But pinning your opponent is about more than just winning.


About T. Glen Coughlin - Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads
Coughlin’s first novel, The Hero of New York, was finished when he was 23 years old and explored the dark side of the middle class suburban dream. New York Times reviewer, Dennis Smith (1986) wrote, “The Hero of New York is solid tough-guy entertainment, and Mr. Coughlin’s descriptions can be hilarious.”
Coughlin’s second novel, Steady Eddie, is a coming-of-age story set in Long Island, New York in 1977. George Needham wrote “Coughlin neatly captures a person’s essence in the simplest gesture, but each character is drawn with sympathy and wit, even when the characters themselves lack these attributes. A fine novel.”

Coughlin has published short stories in Doubletake Magazine, the South Dakota Review[3] and DUCTS, an on-line magazine. His story, “The Grief Committee” was analyzed in The Politics of Mourning: Grief Management in a Cross-Cultural Fiction.[5] Coughlin”s poetry has appeared in The Dead Mule – School of Southern Literature and Hanging Moss Journal.
In 2012, Coughlin published his first YA novel, One Shot Away, A Wrestling Story, Harpercollins. The novel is the story of three high school wrestlers trying to balance their personal lives, family conflicts and maintain their weight class on the Varsity Squad.

Wecome T. Glen Coughlin to The O.W.L.!!

First lets start with the easy questions

What Point of View -1st or 3rd:
One Shot Away is told in the 3rd person from three different POVs: Trevor Crow, Diggy Masters and Jimmy O’Shea.  This writing style is a departure from my first two novels, which were told in the first person.  This is my first YA novel, although the other two were both coming of age novels.

Boy or Girl main character (or both!):
The novel has three main characters, all boys, and two minor girl characters, Jane and Roxanne. 

Genre:  
One Shot Away is a YA sports related coming-of-age novel.

Middle Grade or Young Adult:  
The novel is more appropriate for a YA reader.  The story line is a little edgy.  The hardships and drama take a look at the serious side of competition, which can sometimes turn ugly.

More boy or girl book (stereotypically):  
I was a bit surprised to learn that One Shot Away appeals to both boys and girls.  Obviously, it has an appeal to anyone involved in the sport of wrestling (yes, girls are now wrestling!).  The novel tells the story of three high school wrestlers living in the same community, but going through the insecurity of high school, a desire for acceptance, the emotional confusion of first relationships, and the pride of achievement.  I know girls can relate to these issues.

The Serious Questions!

For One Shot Away what part/character/event are you most excited/proud about?
I am most proud of the end of the novel, as I didn’t sell out and make it a 100 percent “feel good” ending.  My second novel, Steady Eddie, was criticized for having an ending where the two main characters sort of sailed happily into the sunset.  In One Shot Away, I had many choices to make.  I could have had Diggy, my most controversial character, get forgiven for all the havoc he caused.  He could have wound up a success story (I don’t want to give away the ending here).  But, I chose to tell the story with integrity and truth.  I wanted my readers to learn that acts have consequences.  Jimmy and Trevor are my success stories, which bring an abundance of light to the book.  Diggy, although I do love him, had to pay some dues.

One Shot Away is a book for guys.  One struggle I have as a middle school teacher is getting my boys to read more, so I’m glad to see books like yours.  Can you talk about writing for “the guys” and in particular how this story will interest them? 
From the first page, One Shot Away is filled with conflict that propels the action.  It’s a book where things happen and it’s not always what the reader expects.  The main characters, Trevor, Jimmy and Diggy, have interesting dilemmas.  Each goes about solving their problems in different ways.  Dialogue and all of the slang in the novel was basically pulled from real teens.  The dialogue is snappy and real and boys will enjoy the exchanges.  Lastly, the plot of the novel is more than just wrestling.  It’s about the team concept.  It’s about learning to respect a girlfriend.  It’s about discrimination and overcoming hurtful words and bullies.  Lastly, this novel is a fun read.

Tell about your writing process.  How long did it take you to write One Shot Away from idea to finish?  Please tell about revision if you can!
Good question, as I’m sure there are many potential writers who might read the book.  Start to finish, the writing took about four years.  I know that’s a long time, but I write on weekends and vacation days, as I work a full time job.  I like to develop my characters before I even know my story.  At the beginning of One Shot Away, I put Trevor Crow into motion.  I am a big believer in knowing your character’s back-story.  For instance, I wrote one hundred pages of back-story regarding Trevor’s father’s heritage as a Penobscot Native American. 

At one point, One Shot Away ballooned to 440 pages!  I had to cut it in half in order to increase the tension.  Cutting is tough, but necessary for most writers.  I know writers who fall in love with their own words and are unable to cut.  I try to think of my reader.  What will make the reader stay up late turning the pages? 

My second character developed was Jimmy O’Shea.  I wrote about his house, his room, what he ate.  I gave him a girlfriend, Roxanne.  I wrote a short story about Jimmy leading his wrestling team in practice.  Next, I did the same for Diggy Masters.

Then, I introduced conflict through the plot.  In Trevor’s case, he is facing the loss of his father, and the need to fulfill his father’s vision of being a varsity wrester.  Jimmy’s father leads him down a dangerous path.  Diggy makes his own trouble with poor choices.   
Fine tuning the plot was the hardest part of finishing the novel.  I needed it to be exciting, believable, and compelling, but also have the reader feel like they entered the character’s world.  The plot must carry one chapter into the next.  I wrote about twenty drafts of this novel (I’m not exaggerating).  I would finish it, print it, read it, and then rewrite.  It sounds like a lot of work; lucky for me I love the entire process of creating a novel.

When you were in middle school what kind of student were you?  Did you write then?
I was a mediocre student.  Report card day was always rough.  I’d line up behind my three sisters, who had A’s and B’s.  I never failed, but an A was as rare as steak at the hot lunch menu.  Most of the time, I scraped by with a C or a B-.  By the time I went to high school, I was scheduled into a lot of shop classes.  I worked on cars, built cabinets, learned to weld metals.  In ninth grade English, my teacher assigned Catcher in the Rye.  I read it in two days (it was a half-year study).  She began sneaking me novels by John Steinbeck, S.E Hinton, Claude Brown, Harper Lee and lots more.  I realized I loved to read. 

In the tenth grade, I joined a meat cutter’s union and worked 4 pm to 10 pm weekdays, and 8 am to 8 pm on Saturdays, cutting chickens.  I didn’t have time for sports or much of anything, except work.  After I cleaned the butcher shop at night, scraped all the cutting blocks and put down sawdust, I’d read in the break room.  In my second novel, Steady Eddie, I wrote about my teen life, and was able to get some of it out of my system.

In the eleventh grade, my English teacher assigned the class a writing assignment; a two page fictional story.  I remember writing about the end of the world.  She liked it and read it to the class.  I don’t think anyone ever told me I was good at anything, until that story.  I began to believe that I could write a novel.  I started carrying a notebook.  I wrote scenes in the meat department break room that eventually evolved into The Hero of New York.  I finished the novel about five years later.  It was published when I was twenty-six.

And because it's the owl, my standard question always is: WHOOO do you admire when it comes to writing? OR WHOOO do you like to read or really enjoyed in HS or middle school?
In high school I enjoyed many YA novels that are now considered must reads.  I read To Kill a Mocking Bird and loved it.  I read all of John Steinbeck’s novels, my favorite being Of Mice and Men.  I enjoyed S. E. Hinton’s novels, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish and That was Then, This is Now.  I loved, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, everything by Ray Bradbury, Jack London, John Knowles, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Today, I read a lot of adult fiction, but also enjoy YA novels.  Lately, I have enjoyed The Giver, by Lois Lowry, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, Bird Nerd, by Tracy Edward Wymer, the novels of Terry Trueman, and The Fault in our Stars, by John Green.
Presently I’m reading Ghosts of War, a true story by Ryan Smithson.  It’s a terrific YA novel of a 19-year old GI sent to Iraq.

One novel that really changed my idea of fiction was The Wanderers, by Richard Price.  I read it when I was a senior in high school.  It breaks a lot of rules.

The Fun Questions! (based on what middle school students do!)

Do you chew gum? 
Yes, I chew Wrigley’s “Solstice” –“A warm and cool winter.”  Sugar-free – 15 to a pack. Try it!

Do you text?
Yes, I do text and I carry a blackberry.  My son and daughter are text nuts.

Was school lunch just as yucky then as it is now?!  
My mother wasn’t one to “pack a lunch.”  It was hot lunch or no lunch.  School lunch was a completely sad affair from 1st to 8th grade.  The food was just terrible, watery tomato soup and wet PBJ’s, Sloppy Joe’s with unidentifiable red meat that smelled like four day old barbeque grease.  Chinese night was cream of chicken chow mein!!!  The cream grossed us out.  Oh it was just the worst.  I used to starve and save my lunch money.  I’d buy a sandwich at a deli around the corner about once a week.    

Thank you so much for joining us here on The O.W.L.  I will be sharing with my students how many drafts you wrote!  They  need to hear things like that.  Plus that you're reading Ghosts of War.  I have it, and a few students have picked it up to read as well.

Stay tuned for my review of the book coming up later!


The Giveaway!
Up for grabs is a Kindle Paperwhite skinned in the One Shot Away cover art!

To enter fill out the rafflecopter.
And check out the rest of the stops on the tour!



Author Links: Twitter Facebook Goodreads 
Tour Schedule: 
Monday, April 8th - Mundie Moms 
Tuesday, April 9th - Froggarita's Bookcase 
Wednesday, April 10th - Alice Marvels 
Thursday, April 11th - Chick Loves Lit 
Friday, April 12th - Simply Infatuated 
 Monday, April 15th - I Like These Books 
Tuesday, April 16th - Sweet Southern Home 
Wednesday, April 17th - The O.W.L. for YA 
Thursday, April 18th - Basia's Bookshelf 
Friday, April 19th - Chapter by Chapter 
 Monday, April 22nd - The Book Cellar 
Tuesday, April 23rd - Contessa at the Crossroads 
Wednesday, April 24th - The Bookswarm 
Thursday, April 25th - Buried in Books 
Friday, April 26th - The Page Turners

April 15, 2013

Author Interview: Kimberly Derting Author of Dead Silence +GIVEAWAY


Super excited today because I get to host Kimberly Derting for a stop on her blog tour for Dead Silence!! I love the Body Finder series, so I'm super thrilled to be able to promote it! Stayed tuned for my review later today!



First a bit about the book 
Violet thought she’d made peace with her unique ability to sense the echoes of the dead and the imprints that cling to their killers…that is until she acquired an imprint of her own. Forced to carry a reminder of the horrible events of her kidnapping, Violet is more determined than ever to lead a normal life. However, the people who run the special investigative team Violet works for have no intention of letting her go.

When someone close to Violet becomes a suspect in a horrific murder, she finds herself pulled into a deadly hunt for a madman with an army of devoted followers. Violet has survived dangerous situations before, but she quickly discovers that protecting those closest to her is far more difficult than protecting herself.


About Kimberly Derting

Kimberly Derting is the author of the BODY FINDER series (HarperCollins) and THE PLEDGE trilogy (Simon & Schuster). She lives in the Seattle area, with her husband and three children, who often find the outrageous things they say either in the pages of her books or posted on Twitter or Facebook for the entire world to see. 
You can visit her website at www.kimberlyderting.com.


Welcome Kimberly to The O.W.L.!!!


First the easy questions.
What Point of View -1st or 3rd:  For the Body Finder series, 3rd.
Boy or Girl main character (or both!): Girl, with a cute boy thrown in of course.
Genre: Supernatural-mystery-romance!
Middle Grade or Young Adult: Young Adult
More boy or girl book (stereotypically): Girl books

The Serious Questions

This is the 4th book in the series so the characters are familiar to you, but for Dead Silence what part/character/event are you most excited/proud about?
I love that I’ve been allowed to explore the darker side of the killers’ perspectives as the series has gone on. Dead Silence is the darkest (and bloodiest) so far.

Dead Silence is part paranormal part mystery.  I love the mystery part because so few YA books are mystery books.  How difficult is it to pull a mystery together – to get all the parts to fit?
Because I’m not giving the reader all the clues to solve a crime, they’re really kind of a mash-up between mystery and thriller. But getting all the plot threads tied up and the holes filled is definitely the biggest challenge to the books, which usually takes some serious tweaking during revisions.

Tell about your writing process.  How long did it take you to write Dead Silence from idea to finish?  Please tell about revision if you can!
I had the idea for Dead Silence for quite a while before I actually sat down to write it—I knew I wanted it to be based on a Manson-like cult. But the actual first draft only took me about two months to write (deadlines will do that to you!). My editor and I went back and forth about three times, which is fairly typical for us. The first round is pretty intense. I get what I call “the compliment sandwich letter”. It starts off with something really positive, like, “This is a great first draft…” and then delves into all the bad stuff (eight pages of everything that needs to be fixed), and finishes up with more positive stuff, something along the lines of, “we know you can do it!” That round takes me about a month to turn around. The next round is lighter and takes me about a week, and the third round is generally light line edits (word changes, etc.), and takes me about a day or two.

When you were in middle school kind of student were you?  Did you write then?
I’ve pretty much known that I wanted to write since the 7th grade, when I took journalism as my elective credit. Of course back then I had big dreams of becoming a world famous jet-setting journalist covering wars and famines. When I was older, and realized what being a real journalist entailed (living in tents without showers, malaria, facing gunfire), I realized that writing books from the safety of my home would be a little less…dangerous, and a lot more clean!    

And because it's the owl my standard question always is: WHOOO do you admire when it comes to writing? OR WHOOO do you like to read or really enjoyed in HS or middle school?           
I’d love to say someone very literary, like Harper Lee since To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book ever. But honestly, I have to admit it’s much more likely that it was Stephen King. I grew up reading his books and wishing I could tell the kinds of stories he did (the ones that scared people the way he scared me).  Yes, that sounds twisted.  And yes, I blame Stephen King.


The Fun Questions! (based on what middle school students do!)

Do you chew gum? Yes or No  If yes favorite kind? 
Absolutely. My favorite is Nerds bubble gum!

Do you text?
Of course. I had to learn as soon as my kids became teens. If texting had been around when I was in school, I’m afraid my phone would have been confiscated way too often! :)

Was school lunch just as yucky then as it is now?!
 I think it was even grosser and greasier then. I don’t think we even had salads.

Thank you Kimberly for joining us!  And I will blame Stephen King, but only if I get to blame John Saul for all the stuff that scared me!!!

Ok the Giveaway



 

Thanks to CBB Tours for hosting! Check out the page for this tour HERE.

And check out the other tour stops!

April 1 
I'm a Book Shark ~ Review

April 2
Gizmos Reviews ~ Review
Bewitched Bookworms ~ Guest Post

April 3
Gone Pecan ~ Review & Interview
Vy's Blog ~ Review & Teaser Quotes

April 4 
The Starry Eyed Revue ~ Review & Teaser Quote

April 5
Hope, Love and Happy Endings ~ Review & Teaser Quote
Reading Lark ~ Review & Book BFF

April 6
Paperback Princess ~ Review & Interview

April 7
A GREAT Read ~ Review & Guest Post

April 8 
Books Live Forever ~ Review & Teaser Quote

April 9
Alice Marvels ~ Review & Playlist

April 10 
Fic Fare ~ Review & Teaser Quote
Itching for Books ~ Guest Post

April 11 
TSK, TSK, What to Read? ~ Review & Teaser Quote
Novel Nerd ~ Review

April 12
Books-n-Kisses ~ Review

April 13
Bittersweet Enchantment ~ Review & This or That Interview
Michelle & Leslie's Book Picks ~ Review and Teaser Quotes

April 14 
Dana Square ~ Review & Teaser Quotes
Kindred Dreamheart ~ Guest Post

April 15 
Books With Bite ~ Review & Teaser Quotes
The O.W.L. ~ Review & Interview

April 14, 2013

April New Release Hop


Welcome to my stop on the April New Release Hop being hosted by Book Twirps and Refracted Light Book Reviews.

For my stop I'm giving away a copy of:


The Program by Suzanne Young

In Sloane’s world, true feelings are forbidden, teen suicide is an epidemic, and the only solution is The Program.

Sloane knows better than to cry in front of anyone. With suicide now an international epidemic, one outburst could land her in The Program, the only proven course of treatment. Sloane’s parents have already lost one child; Sloane knows they’ll do anything to keep her alive. She also knows that everyone who’s been through The Program returns as a blank slate. Because their depression is gone—but so are their memories.

Under constant surveillance at home and at school, Sloane puts on a brave face and keeps her feelings buried as deep as she can. The only person Sloane can be herself with is James. He’s promised to keep them both safe and out of treatment, and Sloane knows their love is strong enough to withstand anything. But despite the promises they made to each other, it’s getting harder to hide the truth. They are both growing weaker. Depression is setting in. And The Program is coming for them.

Open only to US residents.  (Sorry I've got a wedding to pay for!)
Must be at least 13

Fill out the Rafflecopter to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To check out the rest of the giveaways on the hop click on the links 
below!!

April 12, 2013

Some Different Publishing News

I don't usually do posts about publishing news, but I get several publishing newsletters and one of the latest from PW Children's Bookshelf had some different news I thought I'd share.


App for MirrorWorld (Reckless) by Cornelia Funke
I was excited to see an article about an app that Cornelia Funke helped created for her series Mirror World - Reckless and Fearless.  The app is titled: MirrorWorld: Past the Reflection of Your World Into a Realm of Magic and Adventure, which releases as an app on April 17.

The article in PW says: "The app, which will only be available for the iPad before expanding to an abridged Kindle format at $2.99 “soon,” is a 110-minute multimedia experience with 16 original standalone spinoff stories based on the MirrorWorld books. There are also characters’ journals, lists of eccentric items maintained in MirrorWorld, enchanted artifacts, and treasures; the Ogre Tavern serves as the hub to every experience."  I'm a bit sad it's only for Ipad now because I don't own an Ipad, but I'm hopeful for it coming to Android at some point. What I'm most excited about is just the idea of the app.  There are several books that I'd love to have an app  - Divergent and The Gone series by Michael Grant just to name a few.  What are your thoughts on book apps like this?  I'm all for them IF they include more reading for people not if they are only for games of some sort.  

Here's a link to the full article: Cornelia Funke Partners with Mirada to Create MirrorWorld App

A New Patrick Ness Book!
This really excited me becuase I love Patrick Ness.  He's Chaos Walking series is awesome and I loved what he did with Siobhan Dowd's A Monster Calls. It's called More Than This.  Here's the summary:
A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and completely abandoned. What’s going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this. . . .
Sounds very interesting! 

Lastly a great book trailer I want to share.

This part didn't come from PW Children's Bookshelf.  I saw the book trailer for Margaret Stohl's new book Icons.  Looks fantastic!  I was lucky enough to score an ARC.  Now I just need to fight over it with my students!! I showed them the trailer, and they all want it.


Here's the trailer



April 11, 2013

Book Review: Hysteria by Megan Miranda

Title: Hysteria
Author: Megan Miranda
Copy Obtained: Bought for blog tour

Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others. 



Ok I LOVED this book.  Really loved it!  

Here is the internal monologue that went on in my head during large chunks of it.

"What?!?"
"Oh wow never saw that coming?"
"No waaaaaaay!"
"O.M.G. wow, wow, wow."
"Oooooooooh I get it!".
"Brilliant."
"Wow."
"How did she put this all together?????"
"Must stay awake and finish!"

Really that's what I was thinking! I was just a great book.  I went into it thinking it was just going to be about Mallory dealing with what she had done - coming to terms with it.  I didn't know all this other stuff was going to be there too.  And to be honest all that other "stuff" is what made it a great book to me.  It's what hooked me in and kept me reading.  It's what made me want to know what the in the world was going on!  I just love when I read a book and the author has constructed it in such a way that I just dieing to find out what really happened.  When an author wraps me up in all the questions and then slow unwinds them pulling me along it's a story I'll love forever.  That was the case here.  Megan Miranda wrote a book that completely hooked me and dragged me along.  She created a world where I didn't know what was happening, who I could trust, and where it would all end.  Time and time again she pulled the rug out from under me when I felt all proud of myself for thinking I knew what was happening.  I LOVED it! I'm not one for clearly predictable books.  When an author pulls out a plot point I never expected AND it fits perfectly I stand in awe.  And I stand in awe of Hysteria.  Just a great book.  

Quickly - what I also liked was Mallory.  Had she been a whiny, weak, sniveling character I would've quit the book.  She was none of that.  Mallory carried this story fully.  Yes she had help from friends like Colleen and Reid (loved Reid!), but it was fully on her shoulders and she carried it well.  If she was a real person I'd love to meet her! So what I'm saying is not only was the plot strong - the main character was just as strong.

Final thought: Read my internal monologue above and then go read the book
Best stick-with-you image: Sooooooo hard to pick!  Mallory's bruises were a big one though
Best for readers: Who love a story where they can't trust everything they read
Best for ages: 12+  There is a bit of "older" ya stuff in it, but not enough for me to see it as fully upper YA

For the Guys?  Yes!  I think guys would like the plot set-up of this one would hook guys just as well as girls.