Po(sey) Sessions

Dystopian February is great because it enriches my love of reading other people's takes on dystopian books. As always I would like to express my appreciation to Lenore for coming up with the idea in the first place! Her posts and those who have shared their posts on her blog make it fun to see what everyone is reading and reviewing for dystopian fiction.   Today I am honored to have  Joanne Renaud  visiting on the blog for a review of an adult dystopian novel she recently read. I think Joanne definitely has a unique (and honest) view on what she reads. For another example of this you can check out her review of The Hunger Games . Thank you Joanne for sharing your thoughts with me and the rest of my readers! I picked up "Filaria" by Brent Hayward as part of ChiZine 's Friday the 13th giveaway. The book stood out to me because I was in the mood for a science fiction dystopia, as it seems that many young adult dystopias these days are, more or less, Sweet Valle...

The problem and the promise of a dystopian novel both stem from the same place. When we start a book with dystopian themes we generally recognize much about the dynamics of the world, whether it is like ours or the opposite of ours, we as readers understand it through the lens of our current world. All speculative fiction, but especially dystopian novels, rely heavily on world building. This has long been the keystone to beloved fantasy and science fiction novels.  The issue with the dystopian novel is that the world building in away has to be even more detailed. I think it is easy to assume that the reader is able to fill in the blanks more easily when they are presented with a world that is like their own, but different. But actually I find the opposite to be true; the more like our world the future world is the more questions I have about the transition between the two. Previous to my recent exploration into speculative fiction I had never really heard of the conce...

It has been over a year since I first met Elana Johnson . It was one of the most exciting author meetings I have ever had! I think because it took me by surprise. When you go to a book event you know the authors who are going to be there. But Elana was attending an event and I had no idea she was going to be there. I remember my hands shaking while holding an ARC of Possession . I loved the cover so much (and still do)! I think this will always be one of my favorite book related memories. The cover was so striking and appeals to my personal aesthetics, on the front of dystopian book, written by a Utah author. I talked with Elana once about the pressure of reviewing a book by an author you have met and feel friendly with. I know I am not the only blogger who feels an obligation to give a better review because an author is overwhelmingly awesome, but a person are not the words on the page. Though they are intimately entwined they are not synonymous. But this pressure had me conce...

It has been a busy couple of days for me here. February has definitely not stat out as I had hoped reading wise and the month feels like it is racing by faster than I can catch up. I am worried I have stumbled across another reading slump. I am pushing to get through it but every day I am losing more reading time. Life gets busy and those kind of distractions don't bother me but not FEELING like reading concerns me. The year has started strong reading wise. I finished 12 books in January, which is just under half of ALL the books I read last year. But my slump started to peek in on me at the end of the month and I have felt it like a presence looming over me ever since. I really hope I can break out of it soon because there are so many great books I want to read. One of my favorite aspects of February is Presenting Lenore 's dystopian themed month filled with reviews, interviews, and giveaways. Please make sure you check it out along with my own reviews of dystopian books...