TRAILER TUESDAY: UNDONE, THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER & MAGGIE STIEFVATER

Although the purpose of my weekly trailer teasers is to highlight some fab books, I've decided this week to also highlight an author and her writing tips. (Because it's a fab little video!)

First up is Maggie Stiefvater's This is Your Life on Writing, which she did in response to a fan's question about life and college: 

*****

Having finally gotten around to reading Cat Clarke's Torn (which I loved), I can't wait to read her latest book Undone, the paperback of which which will be published by Quercus on 31st January 2013.

Jem Halliday is in love with her gay best friend. Not exactly ideal, but she's learning to live with it.

Then the unspeakable happens. Kai is outed online ... and he kills himself.

Jem knows nothing she can say or do will bring him back. But she wants to know who was responsible. And she wants to take them down.

A searing story of love, revenge and betrayal from a bestselling author.

*****

And finally I also wanted to show the trailer for The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd, which will be published by on 29th January 2013 by Balzer & Bray/Harperteen. I love that this book is based on H.G. Wells story - I can't wait to read!

In the darkest places, even love is deadly.

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island's inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father's dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it's too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father's genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells's classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman's Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we'll do anything to know and the truths we'll go to any lengths to protect.

REVIEW: GLIMMER

Author: Phoebe Kitanidis
Series: No, standalone
UK Publisher: Balzer & Bray
UK Release date: April 2012
Genre: YA
Won via NetGalley

Elyse and Marshall wake up one morning in Summer Falls without any recollection of who or where they are. They must learn to trust each other to find out what happened to them. But as they discover a number of mysterious goings-on in Summer Falls, their situation worsens. What seems like the perfect town is riddled with bouts of amnesia, disappearances and malevolent ghosts. Can they trust each other enough to save the town and themselves?

Glimmer has a very interesting start to the story as Elyse and Marshall wake up  next to each other absolutely stark naked, but without a single memory or who they are or how they got there. The premise of having to re-figure out who you are as a person is very intriguing, and as they try and discover what's going on and get their memories back, they also discover that Summer Falls is very creepy and far too perfect to be true. I enjoyed watching them as they gathered clues about what kind of person they were and trying to reconcile that with how they actually felt. The creepy and sinister elements of Summer Falls, including the mysterious heatnaps and 'forgetful' residents built very well, and I really enjoyed the first half of the book. But despite this very compelling start, I did become slightly confused and caught up in the whirlwind of magic spells, memory loss, disappearing people, unusual glacier climate, spirits, ghosts and so on.

I did feel a little affronted at Elyse's outrage at finding out she was short. ""I'm short." I am, in fact, a shrimp. What a complete and total disappointment." OK so my indignation is only because I myself am short. But she made a huge fuss over this, and to what end? She was also highly offended at being curvy with boobs, a cheerleader, having a boyfriend of two years that she'd slept with and so on. She made assumptions about past herself based on the smallest of superficial clues rather than her actual actions, making her think she must be slutty and childish.

There were a number of serious undertones to the story, with issues of child abuse and domestic violence. When Elyse discovers bruises over her shoulders and no memory of how she got them, it was very disturbing and unsettling. Her determination to stop it from happening again and to try to remember was a positive redeeming feature to her character.

Glimmer is a fast paced, mind bending and creepy thriller that will have you reeling.

Rating: 3.5*