PAST PERFECT Cover!

Remember Leila Sales, author of the hilarious Mostly Good Girls (Simon Pulse, Oct. 2010)? Her next book, Past Perfect, is coming out October 4, 2011, and just got its cover, which Leila has allowed me to share with you guys!

Isn't it lovely? I like the chalked rain, and the girl's emerald green raincoat (emerald green!). And here's the book's synopsis:

All Chelsea wants to do this summer is hang out with her best friend, hone her talents as an ice cream connoisseur, and finally get over Ezra, the boy who broke her heart. But when Chelsea shows up for her summer job at Essex Historical Colonial Village (yes, really), it turns out Ezra's working there too. Which makes moving on and forgetting Ezra a lot more complicated...even when Chelsea starts falling for someone new.

Maybe Chelsea should have known better than to think that a historical reenactment village could help her escape her past. But with Ezra all too present, and her new crush seeming all too off limits, all Chelsea knows is that she's got a lot to figure out about love. Because those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it....

I really like the sound of this. Check out Past Perfect's Goodreads page if you're so inclined.

Thanks, Leila, for sharing your cover with us!

T2T Guest Post: Leila Sales!

Boy do I have something special for you today. As part of her Traveling to Teens tour, YA humor novelist Leila Sales, whose debut novel Mostly Good Girls was recently released, is visiting my blog today to give some advice about humor writing. Welcome, Leila, to Steph Su Reads!

HUMOR WRITING – PART SIX

I’ve already been over my big rules for humor writing: agreement, using gifts, the rule of three, callbacks, and being careful about digressions. I have one last tip for you! If this doesn’t work, nothing will! Ready for it?

6. MAKE THINGS EXTREME

This is probably my favorite of all humor-writing techniques. In practice, for me, it means “write in all caps,” or, “use a lot of exclamation points,” or, “include extreme adverbs that don’t necessarily make sense.”

An example from Mostly Good Girls, that epic tome (“Epic tome”= making things extreme. It’s not actually an epic tome. It’s like 350 pages, and it’s got some substantial margins.):

“Hey, do you want to go out some time?”

“Um.” I was already halfway out of the vehicle. “What?”

“Go out,” he said. “Some time.”

“Like on a date?”

“Sure,” Raymond said. “Yeah. I guess. Like on a date.”

“No,” I answered quickly because, like, why would I want to go on a date with Raymond? Not that there’s anything obviously wrong with him, but he is just some guy, and merely being a) male and b) my age is not reason enough for me to date someone. What I wanted to say to him was, “Are you honestly so delusional as to believe that we have anything in common? Did you consider your fifteen minute-long soliloquy about sports to be a successful conversation?”

But I couldn’t say that aloud. Because that is mean. So instead what I said, to soften the blow of my rejection, was, “Thanks for asking, but I’m actually not allowed to date.”

What makes this passage funny? One, the italics. I love the italics, not as much as I love the CAPS LOCK, but I have found over the years that copyeditors tend to get annoyed when you write in caps lock.

The second thing this passage has going for it is the phrase “to soften the blow of my rejection.” Violet’s rejection of Raymond is not a “blow.” He will not be devastated. He will forget about it by tomorrow. But the overstatement works.

Of course, the reader doesn’t bother to parse sentences like that. All a reader notices is whether something is funny, or boring. They don’t care why. But the writer sometimes has to care.

The best way to write is to learn from example, so in the next post of my blog tour, I’m going to share with you a selection of my favorite humor writers. See you then!

-

Thanks for this Leila! I'm no good at humor writing so I've been learning a lot. Be sure to follow the rest of Leila's T2T tour to find out more about her, her book, and her writing tips!

Review (T2T): Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

Tags: YA, boarding school, humor, friendship

Summary

Violet Tunis and her best friend Katie attend a prestigious all-girls’ private high school in Massachusetts. To deal with the pressure to succeed as well as the eccentricities of their classmates, Violet and Katie love to do projects with one another, planning baking parties gone wrong and “dates” with Scott Walsh, the boy they both love.

Junior year, however, their friendship is changing. Katie, whom Violet has always envied for the ease with which she succeeds, has been pulling away from their old lifestyle. The hypocrisy of their cutthroat school becomes more and more unbearable. Will Violet be forced to give up who she is in order to succeed? Will her friendship with Katie weather the changes?

Review

Humor and heart shine equally bright in Leila Sales’ brilliant debut novel, MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS. Female readers of all ages will laugh and cry as they relate to Violet’s difficulties and chuckle over her mishaps.

It is a sad indication of our times that we are able to relate so well to Violet’s situation. Westfield School is extremely competitive, and Leila Sales beautifully captures the utter ridiculousness of upper-middle-class prep school culture: the democracy that results in no decision being made for the most mundane issues, a lack of perspective, etc.

But what makes MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS so enjoyable is not a focus on its setting: it’s because the two main characters are so real, likable in their flaws. It’s easy to see from just her first-person narration that Violet is intelligent. However, she is also very much her age, and thus lacks a certain degree of perspective that makes her escapades so funny. Whether it’s attempting to gain experience talking to guys, to her confusion over Katie’s seemingly changed personality, Violet tries to solve her problems with typical adolescent gusto. She’s far from being perfect, but we love her all the more because of that.

MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS deals well with the sensitive issue of changing friendships during adolescence, but in a humorous way that is sorely lacking in YA lit. I think if I were closer to Violet’s age I would’ve loved this book to pieces: as it is, sometimes her drama grated on my nerves. But as it is, this is teen chick lit as its smartest and most incisive. It will make you laugh so hard your stomach will hurt, and yet it also brings to light the troubling pressures that high-achieving teenagers are facing these days. I’m looking forward to more from this talented new author!

Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Plot: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5


Cover discussion: 3 out of 5 - One might consider it almost too generic, but I kind of like how it doesn't belittle the book's content, and adds a bit of sass and flair to the novel.

Simon Pulse / Oct. 5, 2010 / Hardcover / 347pp. / $16.99

ARC picked up at BEA, reviewed as part of a Traveling to Teens tour.

Stay tuned for a special guest post from the author!