Hot off the Press: Haunting Violet (Alyxandra Harvey) teaser + Trash (Andy Mulligan) Trailer!

Exciting news from Bloomsbury! Alyxandra Harvey will be coming to the UK in May to promote her  forthcoming book Haunting Violet! Keep checking the Facebook page, event details will be added soon: http://www.facebook.com/myloveliesbleeding

In the meantime here’s a little teaser about the new book from the author herself:

Dear Reader:

I love historical fantasy because I can lose myself in a world where Mr. Darcy might be just around the corner . . . or the ghost of a murdered girl out for revenge. It combines corsets and cravats with paranormal mysteries of every kind.

Haunting Violet takes place in Victorian England, during the 1870's, which was the pinnacle of the interest in mediums and séances. Talking to ghosts was all the rage in private parlours and public halls. The details of clothes and food and the popularity of séances are as accurate as I could make them to create a realistic backdrop for ghosts and spirit possession. But in the end people are people; we still just want to be happy. And 1870 or 2010, I love a girl who can kick butt . . . especially when wearing a corset.

I hope you'll enjoy meeting Violet as she struggles to come to terms with her new gift for communicating with the dead . . . and as she chooses between a traditional safe life and an Irish pickpocket with a wicked grin.

Alyxandra Harvey

Check out Alynxandra's site below for more news!
http://alyxandraharvey.com//http://www.alyxh.livejournal.com/ 

In other news, Andy Mulligan's superb book TRASH is out on paperback on the 31st March! This is a brilliant book which I recommend heartily. Check out the trailer below!



From the publishers who brought you THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS and THE
CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME, comes another story that transcends reading ages and leaps literary fences. Three street boys take on the world in TRASH, a fast-paced, exciting, intensely moving story by Andy Mulligan.

Paperback is out 31st March 2011 - if you haven't read it on hardback yet, wait no longer! Trash will make you laugh, break your heart and will truly uplift your spirit. You can find my review HERE, in any case.



Book Review: Trash (Andy Mulligan)

Raphael is a dumpsite boy. He spends his days wading through mountains of steaming trash, sifting it, sorting it, breathing it, sleeping next to it. Then one unlucky-lucky day, Raphael's world turns upside down. A small leather bag falls into his hands. It's a bag of clues. It's a bag of hope. It's a bag that will change everything.

Even before I read Trash, I knew it will be one of those book that has a strong, immediate connection to me. As a child, I often spent my summer holidays in Manila, where the plot was loosely based. While reading, I came to find out just how much the characters, language and particularly the setting reminded me of the Philippines. But it is not its mere familiarity that made me love this book, it's the way the plot is reminiscent of some of the ugly reality in many, many places, and the brutal honesty in which this fact is presented.

The three characters, Raphael, Gardo and Rat, predominantly tell the story, although in certain key chapters other characters add their own input. The criss-crossing of narratives present different viewpoints which only adds to the magnetism of the whole book. These various point of views gives a broader viewpoint, I think, and allows the narrative to encompass a larger picture to drive home the plot.

I love these three boys - there is something about a child's voice that really captures my heart, but hearing their story is something beyond that. They have suffered so much from the cruel reality and their innocence is so tainted by the harsh world they were born in that each of their words seem too precious to not take to heart. Their excitement and despair is full of that powerful voice that I wanted to sweep them three into one warm hug and hope that that somehow brings enough comfort. I think that holds true in many readers and indeed makes one wonder that if these characters can hold one's heart, then what more the real children living in and with trash at the other side of the world?

Interestingly, many view Trash as a dystopian novel - but I beg to disagree. How can it be a futuristic novel when there are children living, eating, breathing trash? When there is widespread corruption by officials high and low and inhumane abuses in the hands of those who are supposed to protect? When children like Raphael, Gardo and Rat barely survive the next dawn and are in constant danger of dying a cruel, cruel death - of famine, war and diseases? No, Trash is not a dystopian novel. It's a moving, poignant novel about the here and the now. It's a story of the ugly reality.

There was the minor glitch of me not feeling wholly satisfied by the ending. It does not seem to fit well with the plot, although it still makes sense. I will not go into further details for fear of spoilers, but after reading, I wished the ending was a little less smooth and a little more thrilling.

Regardless, Trash is a book everyone should read. I mean it - everyone! No one can read this and say he (or she) did not take anything away from it. Andy Mulligan's Trash is one of those books that shows a picture of exactly how life is in places we don't know, but we should care about.

Four Stars.


* Copy received for review. Thanks to Lauren @ RHCB!