A NY Times blog on books posted “The seven deadly words of book reviewing.” I have a young adult review column coming out in the Sunday Oregonian, but I can’t lay my hands on what I sent my editor. Let’s hope it didn’t include the words: poignant, compelling, intriguing, eschew, craft, muse, lyrical. Pretty sure I’m good on everything with the possible exception of compelling.

Readers added their own words. What would you add?

In addition to a regular young adult column in the Oregonian, as a freelancer I sometimes review mysteries, thrillers, and literary fiction.

Last night I settled down with two literary novels and after about 30 minutes on each, decided that neither one was for me. I thought you might be interested in how one reviewer makes decisions.

The first had a nice cover that looked like a trade paperback. On the back, it was clear they were putting a lot of effort into the book - a tour, a large number for the announced first printing, freqently reminders that this was the author of "Really Popular Book 10 Years Ago." [No mention of last book, which got mixed or worse reviews, and which seemed to mostly perplex reviewers.] The story line is about two men's friendship, traced from 1972 to now. The more interesting character was not the narrator, but his friend, who becomes like a Bill Gates/recluse. I'm not sure how much the plot reflects The Great Gatsby, but it reminded me of it.

Why did I give it up? There didn't seem to be a story question for the narrator. Plus there was a lot of debate about "gnostics" and away from the computer, I wasn't even sure what that meant. [Full disclosure: no wonder, Wikipedia reveals "Gnosticism (Greek: γνώσις gnōsis, knowledge) refers to a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect spirit, the demiurge, who is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God." OOOOkay.]

The second had a plain pink cover. Underneath was a copy of the dust jacket, with an eye-catching image. It's about a family dealing with an 11 year old girl who has chosen to be mute. At first there were chapters from the mom's POV, then the dad's, then the kid's. The 11 yo didn't ring true to me at all (my kid is just a year older - jacket flap copy reveals author probably not to be a parent) but I decided to keep on. But then it started switching POV every few paragraphs. I would be reading along, thinking I was in the mom's head, then halfway through a paragraph, I would realize it was the dad's or the kid's. I would have to re-read the paragraph (there were no ## or space breaks to mark the change) to put myself in the right head, and then three paragaphs later, it would happen again.

So I bagged it.

Just watch - both will go on to be best sellers.

I have published one young adult thriller, with two more in the works. I've also published five adult mysteries and thrillers, with four more contracted for.

In the adult world, there are four places that review your book BEFORE it comes out: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist, and Library Journal. Each has its own idiosyncracies. Like Kirkus is seen as snarky, and Booklist only reviews books they like. Reviews might appear months before pub date, or, for a less well-known writer, might come out shortly before or after. But not a long while after.

In the YA world, it seems to be completely different. But why? Usually, the only pre-publication reviews are from
Kirkus.

School Library Journal, the Bulletin, Booklist, VOYA, Horn Book and PW often take three months or more AFTER pub date.

But a lot of these are the same publications or sister publications to magazines that manage to review adult books before they come out. Does any one know why there is such a long gap for YA?

At least now I know to expect it.

And so did I. The book is Con Ed by Matthew Klein. Click here to see my review from the Sunday Oregonian. And the NYT said it was "funny, full of tricks and very, very hard to put down." Even so, when I walked into my local bookstore, they weren't carrying it. (After I walked out, the shop had it on order to stock.) Sometimes it seems so hard to be an author. If your book's not on the shelf, people are much less likely to buy it. But bookstores can't carry everything. Maybe it all comes down to fate and luck.





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A friend asked me if I had seen Mystery Scene, which had a review of Shock Point in it. When I said no, she offered to send it to me. She didn't say whether it was good or bad, or answer when I asked that question.

Even when I get a normal review, I hate to look at it. My eyes skitter over it seeking out the bad parts. It's just plain scary to read. There are some autistic kids in my family, and they can't make eye contact. It's like your eyes and their eyes are magnets with mis-matched polarities. That's how I feel about reviews. I can only look for a second or two. And even that is painful.

Although this one had no bad parts at all:
"The latest variation on the 'teens in peril’' scenario is used by April Henry in Shock Point. Cassie Streng’s world has already been badly shaken by her mother’s divorce and subsequent remarriage and pregnancy. Now Cassie has been kidnapped and hauled off to a remote school in Mexico, supposedly because she has a supply of crystal meth under her bed. Cassie suspects that her step-father, a child psychiatrist with a connection to a major drug company’s testing program, may want her out of the way after she starts asking questions about the deaths of some of her high school classmates. Her remote father and feckless mother are no help, and Cassie must escape from prison, get back to California, and face down her tormentor on her own, before more youngsters are endangered. Many of the scenes are disturbing, but Cassie is a fearless and resourceful heroine, who will surely have teen readers rooting for her to come out ahead and foil the plots of one of the most villainous stepfathers since Mr. Murdstone sent little David Copperfield to the bottling factory."

If you ever see a good review of a book in a local publication, do the author a favor. Email them and ask them if they know about it. Often they don't - and the publisher doesn't, either. You could make their day! Become their new best friend! Garner bonus points in heaven!





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