Mental Illness in YA Month is Nearly Here! Want to Get Involved?

Mental Illness in YA Month is coming! For the whole month of July, Once Upon a Bookcase will be dedicated to all things mental illness in YA.

There will be a ton of reviews, author interviews and guest posts, guest posts from bloggers, and giveaways. YA novels covering anxiety, depression, bipolar, PTSD, OCD, Schizophrenia, agoraphobia and eating disorders, among others, will be discussed.

I'm very aware that, although I have anxiety, I can't speak for the rep of books featuring other mental illnesses, so I'm inviting you to take part on your own blogs, too. Want to write about great - or bad - rep in YA? Want to rave about the rep in a particular book? Please do! Or maybe you want some suggestions of what to write? Perhaps the following will help:

• A post about how harmful bad representation can be personally.
• A post about The Book that got it right for you / the experience of reading good rep.
• A number of YA novels featuring your mental illness/es that you would recommend.
• The stereotypes you're sick of reading.
• Advice you would give writers of your mental illness, as someone who knows what it's like.
• The importance of #OwnVoices books in regards to mental illness.

Or perhaps you have a post discussing mental illness rep, or a review of a book that featured a mental illness you have that did a sterling job?

Whether you want to write a post specifically for the event, or have a post you'd like to highlight again, let me know by email or on Twitter, and I'll be sure to share your posts on Twitter and on my blog!

I'm really excited for Mental Illness in YA Month and all the discussions we're going to have! I do hope you visit throughout July and get involved!

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Once Upon a Retelling: Sweet Black Waves by Kristina Pérez

Welcome to Once Upon a Retelling! I'm a huge fan of retellings, and I'm really interested in hearing about authors' own love of the original stories, and what inspired them to retell those stories. And so Once Upon a Retelling was born, a feature in which I interview authors about their versions of well-loved tales.

Today, I'm really excited to have Kristina Pérez stopping by the blog today to talk to us about her debut YA novel, Sweet Black Waves, a high fantasy retelling of the legend of Tristan and Eseult.

Can you tell us a little about Sweet Black Waves? What kind of a retelling of Tristan and Eseult is it?

Sweet Black Waves is a retelling from the point of view of Branwen, who is traditionally Princess Eseult’s lady’s maid. In my version, Branwen is also the cousin and best friend of the princess as well as a healer who is developing magic of her own. My retelling is also a second world fantasy in which Ireland has become Iveriu and Cornwall has become Kernyv. I made this decision in order to give myself more flexibility with the source material and to make it fully Branwen’s story.

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My Most Anticipated 2018 Releases From July Onwards

So the first half of the year is almost over! Where has the time gone? I really don't know - I'm sure it was only January last week! But with the second half of the year comes more books! Inspired by Cait of Paper Fury's How To Be Buried Alive By Books, I'm sharing the books being published in the second half of 2018 that I'm really excited for!

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The Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2018

I'm taking part in the Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag again this year, which I originally stole from Cait of Paper Fury - who has also taken part again this year.

THE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR

It's a toss up between White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock (which I'll be reviewing next month as part of Mental Illness in YA Month) and The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty.

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Once Upon a Retelling: The Unbinding of Mary Reade by Miriam McNamara

Welcome to Once Upon a Retelling! I'm a huge fan of retellings, and I'm really interested in hearing about authors' own love of the original stories, and what inspired them to retell those stories. And so Once Upon a Retelling was born, a feature in which I interview authors about their versions of well-loved tales.

I'm really excited to have Miriam McNamara stopping by the blog today to talk to us about her retelling of the life of historical female pirate, Mary Read, The Unbinding of Mary Reade.

Can you tell us a little about The Unbinding of Mary Reade? What kind of a retelling of Mary Reade’s life is it?

The Unbinding of Mary Reade is based on the life of Mary Read, a pirate who was part of Jack Rackham’s crew near the end of the Golden Age of Piracy. When I originally set out to write her story and began researching, I discovered that what many people take as fact about Mary’s life comes from a book called A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, which was published under the pseudonym Captain Charles Johnson in 1724. But this book is full of information that conflicts with confirmed historical record, and there is still no consensus on who actually wrote the book (Daniel Defoe is often listed as the author, but many experts believe that it was almost certainly not him). Most of what we know about Mary’s life is little more than a story, so I decided to retell that story by putting what drew me to Mary’s character front and center.

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Discussion: Book Blog Pet Peeves

We all have our individual ways of book blogging. And at the same time, we all have things we like and dislike when we read other people's blogs. There are some things that I find really frustrating  when it comes to other people's blogs, and I thought I would share them with you, today.

Reviews

I am a fan of long reviews. Long, detailed reviews that really talk about the book. That get right to the heart and the meat of the book. I'm not so much a fan of reviews that talk only about how the blogger enjoyed - or didn't enjoy - a book. Reviews that give no inkling as to the plot, reviews that don't mention the characters and who they are. I don't really understand how a review is supposed to help me decide whether I want to read a book or not by simply reading about how someone else liked or disliked a book. I need to know why, and to tell me why, they need to go into some detail. If a blog only features short reviews, I struggle.

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Discussion: Bookish Pet Peeves

I've been a reader for around two decades now, and over that time, I have discovered certain things about books that annoy me. They don't necessarily ruin the overall reading experience, but there are definitely certain things that bother and frustrate me. So today, I thought I'd share with you some of my bookish pet peeves.

Hardbacks

I'm fortunate enough that I live in the UK, and with YA, bar the odd book here and there, most books come out in paperback. However, I'm unfortunate enough to live in the UK, and the US is always publishing such incredible books, that aren't always published in the UK - and they are always published in hardback first. Now, I can absolutely agree that hardbacks are very pretty and look so gorgeous on a shelf. As an object, hardback books are just wonderful to look at. A bookshelf full of hardbacks is, in itself, I think, something pleasing to look at. However, as a reader, there a number of things about hardbacks that make me grumble.

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Discussion: Representation Matters on Covers, Too - And the UK Doesn't Always Get It Right

Last week, the UK cover for A Blade so Black by L. L. McKinney was released on The Book Smugglers. It's a gorgeous, gorgeous cover. I love the nods to Alice in Wonderland in it; the rabbit with the clock top-left, the club and spade symbols on the left among the roses. Though, if I'm honest, I'm not crazy about the placement of the Entertainment Weekly quote, but that's a conversation for another day. Despite how beautiful this cover is, it did remind of something that UK publishers don't seem to do brilliant at - representing marginalised people on covers.

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A Novel Cover Up: Sophie Burdess on the Cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews

A Novel Cover Up is a semi-regular feature that looks at how covers are designed.

Thanks to Orchard Books, I have been fortunate enough to interview Book Designer Sophie Burdess about how she designed the cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews for my stop of the Blog Tour for this YA #LoveOzYA debut novel. Other than the cover, all images in this post are copyrighted to Sophie Burdess and used with permission. They can be clicked to be enlarged.

Can you tell us about the cover for A Thousand Perfect Notes by C. G. Drews? What do you hope it tells readers about the story?

The book is emotionally hard-hitting: it’s both a story of violence and abuse but also of hope and coming to life, so I wanted to find a way to try to convey both to the reader. I hope the image gives a kind of visual punch - something violent and in your face, but also beautiful and fragile, to play with that tension in the story. With any luck the reader will also feel a contrast of the imperfect type and the ‘perfect’ in the title and get the sense that something is amiss.

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