THE DARKNESS RISES, by Stacy Stokes, Viking Books for Young Readers, April 9, 2024, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult, ages 14 and up)

A girl struggles with the aftermath of her power to see death before it happens in The Darkness Rises, by Stacy Stokes.

Someone wants revenge…

Whitney knows what death looks like. Since she was seven, she’s seen it hover over strangers’ heads in dark, rippling clouds. Sometimes she can save people from the darkness. Sometimes she can’t. But she’s never questioned if she should try. Until the unthinkable happens—and a person she saves becomes the perpetrator of a horrific school shooting.

Now Whitney will do anything to escape the memory of last year’s tragedy and the guilt that gnaws at her for her role in it. Even if that means quitting dance—the thing she loves most—and hiding her ability from her family and friends. But most importantly, no one can know what really happened last year.

Then Whitney finds an ominous message in her locker and realizes someone knows her secret. As the threats pile up, one thing becomes clear—someone wants payback for what she did. And if she’s going to survive the year, she must track down whoever is after her before it’s too late. —Synopsis provided by Viking Books for Young Readers

“The night was a sweaty palm clamped over my mouth.”

From the very first sentence in The Darkness Rises, author Stacy Stokes expertly sets the scene. And she does it in a comfortable, almost familiar way that makes it easy to settle in to her speculative thriller.

At the center of the story is Whitney, a girl who, since the age of 7, has the ability to see if a person is going to die. And that ability gives her the chance to rewrite history. Saving lives was something she was so proud of. But all actions have consequences. And now the consequences have come back to bite her in the deadliest of ways.

Whitney is a well-realized character, and most of the action plays out through her first-person narrative. She’s immediately the character that you want to root for.

The Darkness Rises is a story about death and, in particular, a school shooting. So, it deals with some pretty heavy stuff. Stokes does an excellent job exploring the emotions a trauma like that elicits. And she explores that trauma on multiple levels — personal, family of those killed, the schools, the community as a whole. It’s all encompassing, and the book is better for it.

The Darkness Rises is a fast-moving mystery, thriller with so many twists and turns, that the assumptions you make at the beginning are obliterated by the end. This one will keep you guessing to the very end.

Copyright © 2024 Cracking the Cover. Unless otherwise noted, all books — digital and physical — have been provided by publishers in exchange for honest and unbiased reviews. All thoughts and opinions are those of the reviewer.

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SONG OF THE SIX REALMS, by Judy I. Lin, Feiwel & Friends, April 23, 2024, Hardcover, $20.99 (young adult)

A young musician finds herself at the center of a battle between divine rulers and demonic beasts in Song of the Six Realms, by Judy I. Lin.

Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a bandit attack, she is devastated to lose her last connection to a life outside of her indenture contract.

With no family and no patron, Xue is facing the possibility of a lifetime of servitude playing the qin for nobles that praise her talent with one breath and sneer at her lowly social status with the next. Then one night she is unexpectedly called to the garden to put on a private performance for the enigmatic Duke Meng. For a young man of nobility, he is strangely kind and awkward, and surprises Xue further with an irresistible offer: serve as a musician in residence at his manor for one year, and he’ll set her free of her indenture.

But the Duke’s motives become increasingly more suspect when he and Xue barely survive an attack by a nightmarish monster, and when he whisks her away to his estate, she discovers he’s not just some country noble: He’s the Duke of Dreams, one of the divine rulers of the Celestial Realm. There she learns the Six Realms are on the brink of disaster, and incursions by demonic beasts are growing more frequent.

The Duke needs Xue’s help to unlock memories from her past that could hold the answers to how to stop the impending war… but first Xue will need to survive being the target of every monster and deity in the Six Realms. —Synopsis provided by Feiwel & Friends

It’s not hard to be drawn to Song of the Six Realms, the cover is beautiful. And the text inside isn’t far from it, but there are some challenges.

In Song of the Six Realms, author Judy I. Lin has created a complex world where there are different levels of divinity and spirits and demons. It’s so complex that she includes a list of all the different groups at the front of the novel. It’s a helpful list, but one you shouldn’t get too caught up in to begin with. It’s much better to refer back to it as you read.

If you’re hoping for Song of the Six Realms to be a romantic fantasy, you might be disappointed. It is a fantasy, and there is a romance, but that’s not the main plotline. Rather, the romance evolves as the story unfolds, and you watch a true relationship develop.

However, if you’re looking for a strong mystery, you’ll find one. There’s lots of twists and turns and it’s unpredictable.

Lin’s writing is full of imagery. And her magical world feels fully plausible. Her ending is perfectly imperfect, and she made it all fit into one novel. At 400 pages, it’s not a short read, but it moves at a good pace. And the musical elements add an extra layer. It’s a good reading option heading into the last month of school and summer break.

Copyright © 2024 Cracking the Cover. Unless otherwise noted, all books — digital and physical — have been provided by publishers in exchange for honest and unbiased reviews. All thoughts and opinions are those of the reviewer.

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KayLynn released her debut novel, Shielded, July 21, 2020, at the height of the pandemic. (Read Cracking the Cover’s interview for Shielded here.) The world had basically shut down, and KayLynn’s publisher, Delacorte Press, was scrambling to convert to a work-from-home environment.

“The pandemic definitely had a huge effect on the publishing industry as a whole, and on my books and experience as well,” KayLynn told Cracking the Cover. “I wouldn’t say my expectations were altered, necessarily, but the methods of fulfilling those expectations changed.”

KayLynn found herself left without any marketing plans or much support. It was stressful and overwhelming, but the author quickly learned to focus on what she could control rather than what she could not.

“Since I couldn’t do any in person events, I celebrated my launch by sending out really fun swag I had designed — travel posters from locations in Shielded, which now hang over my desk and inspire me whenever I write,” she said. “I joined TikTok and found new ways to connect with readers.”

Now, a year later, she’s back with the book’s followup, Untethered (July 20, 2021), and is hoping to return to some normalcy. “I still don’t know how to do in person events or book signings, but I hope that’s something I get to experience this year.”

Shielded follows Princess Jennesara, the second-born heir to the throne of Hálendi. Jenna is set to marry the prince of neighboring Turia in exchange for resources Hálendi needs. But when the royal caravan is ambushed, Jenna realizes her father’s worst fears are true, and she may be her kingdom’s last chance at survival.

Untethered follows Ren, Jenna’s brother, as he settles in as king of Hálendi and Princess Chiara of Turia as she struggles to find a place for herself in court. Both are facing enormous odds, and when their paths cross, they learn how dangerous their foes really are.

Though the books are deeply intwined, readers will immediately discover different points of view in the sequel.

Changing the storytellers for Untethered keeps the overall story moving forward without detracting from what was accomplished in Shielded, KayLynn says.

“It was always my plan to have different point-of-view characters telling the story for the second book,” KayLynn said. “I think I first saw this done with the His Fair Assassins series by Robin LaFevers, and I loved it. I enjoyed seeing different point-of-view characters with different focuses within the same world.”

The main voices are Ren and Chiara, who are essentially opposite sides of the coin.

In Shielded, Ren appears polished, carefree and confident, said KayLynn. But as she delved further into his character, she realized most of it was a façade.

“[He’s] a guy who gets things done and doesn’t fail. But everyone fails. So, as I got to know him better, as he struggled through the things happening in his world, I found he was hiding things beneath the surface. Things we all struggle with — not knowing what to do, who to trust, being overwhelmed and unable to make decisions. And going with him on that journey of being okay with who he was — failure and all — was really important to me.”

Chiara, on the other hand, is often in the shadows, even ignored by her own family.

“Chiara’s voice was very quiet, and it was easy to lose her in the big stakes of the events of Untethered,” said KayLynn. “But her story —being strong without wielding a sword, without being in-your-face or combative — was just as important to me. There are so many different kinds of strength in the world, and kindness is one of the strongest.

With new voices, KayLynn’s worldbuilding expanded exponentially, but her approach remained the same — pulling emotion from her own travels into the world.

“I start with the characters, who they are, and a basic idea of what happens in the story,” she said. “I think about themes and conflict and figuring out what’s most important to the characters so I can take it away from them and see how they grow. Then, as I draft, I think about what would make a scene more interesting, how the setting could add more conflict or set the tone or represent what’s happening within the character. I always try to get the world to show more than just their surroundings.”

Now that the pressure of publishing her first book has eased, KayLynn is focusing on other elements —namely sales, reader expectations and her own expectations.

“As a writer, I’m trying to go deeper, to stretch my skills, reach farther,” she said. “I’m trying to work on my writing weaknesses and overcome the self-doubt that always creeps back in as soon as I think I’ve banished it.

“But there’s also so much possibility. New worlds to explore, new characters to meet, and that’s really exciting.”

Though Shielded and Untethered are a complete duology, KayLynn hopes to one day return to this world, but she’s got no set plans at the moment. Instead, she’s got a new project underway.

“I’m working on a new YA fantasy about a boy and girl in forgotten village nestled between a desert and a sea of monsters,” she said. “The boy accidentally curses his sister and has to go into the desert and find the gods who cursed her and get them to take it back, and the girl has to stop him from taking back the curse in order to save the village from destruction.”

Mini Review: UNTETHERED, by KayLynn Flanders, Delacorte Press, July 20, 2021, Hardcover, $17.99 (young adult)

Untethered is one of the books I genuinely was looking forward to reading. I thoroughly enjoyed Shielded and had high hopes for its sequel.

Untethered builds on Shielded and they’re best read one right after the other. I didn’t have time to do this, and though I remembered a lot, I feel as if I missed some of the more nuanced elements.   

KayLynn remains an excellent worldbuilder, adding to what she already had in place and expanding to new lands completely. Her settings have a sense of place that help the reader feel as if they are standing in the same space as her characters.

Magical elements continue to feel fresh even while there’s a sense of familiarity.

While most of the plot twists are strong and surprising, there are a few that you’ll know before they happen.

The pacing is on-point, making Untethered an exciting read you’ll want to gobble up in one sitting.

*Learn more about KayLynn Flanders, including her favorite reads during the pandemic by reading the complete transcript of her interview with Cracking the Cover.

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There’s a message central to all of Jennifer Donnelly’s books — a message specifically for young adults:

“You have to choose your own path, and then walk it. No matter who’s telling you it’s the wrong path. No matter if it’s a hard, lonely path at times,” Jennifer told Cracking the Cover. “I want young readers to hear that their choices, their goals and dreams, matter. That they matter.”

Jennifer is the award-winning NYT-bestselling author of 13 novels, including Stepsister, Lost in a Book, the Waterfire Saga, These Shallow Graves and Revolution. Her latest novel, Poisoned, is a Snow White retelling.

Once upon a time, a girl named Sophie rode into the forest with the queen’s huntsman. Her lips were the color of ripe cherries, her skin as soft as new-fallen snow, her hair as dark as midnight. When they stopped to rest, the huntsman took out his knife … and took Sophie’s heart.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Sophie had heard the rumors, the whispers. They said she was too kind and foolish to rule — a waste of a princess. A disaster of a future queen. And Sophie believed them. She believed everything she’d heard about herself, the poisonous words people use to keep girls like Sophie from becoming too powerful, too strong…

Jennifer says she enjoyed building Sophie’s world and spending time with all the characters, but at its core, Poisoned is a story of two women leaders with differing views of how power is won and held.

“That’s what I really wanted to explore. I wanted to know how each had come by her convictions, and what it cost her to stand by them.”

That understanding comes in part through the book’s narrator — the huntsman. In order to humanize the evil queen and share her backstory, Jennifer needed a storyteller who truly understood the queen. 

“No one else has the insight into her that he does, and he shares what he knows directly with the reader,” Jennifer said. “Death and time have given him perspective, but he and the queen are both tragic figures, and his narrative is weighted with sadness and remorse.”

Sophie, on the other hand, is constantly evolving. She begins the story boxed in, but is given the choice to stay or grow.

“It’s a choice that we all face at times in our lives, and it’s what fascinates me as a writer,” Jennifer said. “I want to know how strong female characters get strong.  How do they grow? How do they summon the courage they need? How do they come back from the mistakes and bad choices made along the way?”

Poisoned is not the first time Jennifer has forayed into the world of fairytales. In 2019, she reimagined Cinderella in Stepsister.

Jennifer says she’s always been drawn to fairytales, especially the “no-punches-pulled versions by the Brothers Grimm.

“The Grimms acknowledge something profound and essential — that the woods are real, and dark, and full of wolves. That I will, at times, get hopelessly lost in them. But they told me something else, too — that I can beat that darkness. Gretel was just a kid, but she beat the witch. Jack outran the giant. Red Riding Hood escaped from the wolf. The brothers showed me that I am all I need, that I have all I need, to get out of the dark woods and find my way home.”

“Fairytales are so beloved because they tell us that if we have hope and faith, things will come good, no matter how difficult our present circumstances might be,” Jennifer said.

“And right now, for most of the world, circumstances are pretty damn difficult. I think fairytales were a sort of therapy before Freud, Jung and co. existed and they still serve that purpose. They allow us to safely voice our deepest fears and desires, and see them happily resolved.”Revisiting traditional fairytales so we can see them through our own eyes is important.

Jennifer is planning to revisit another fairytale in the near future. She says that it’s too early to talk about it, “but I’m in love with the characters and their journey, and I can’t wait until it’s far enough along that I can share it with you.”

Mini Review

POISONED, by Jennifer Donnelly, Scholastic Press, Oct. 20, 2020, Hardcover, $17.99 (young adult)

Going into Poisoned, I knew that if it was anything like Jennifer Donnelly’s Stepsister, I would love it. I wasn’t disappointed. This isn’t your typical Disney fairytale. It’s deliciously nuanced and blurs the lines between good and evil, black and white.

Sophie begins her journey scared and unsure, but as she learns and experiences new things, her confidence grows. She always thought being nice was a handicap, but her kindness turns out to be her greatest weapon.

In this Snow White tale, the prince isn’t a prince, and it’s up to the princess to decide her own fate. This is the sophisticated fairytale teens and parents alike will appreciate.

*Learn more about Jennifer Donnelly, Poisoned, and what book from her youth still resonates with Jennifer today by reading the complete transcript of her interview with Cracking the Cover.

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“[Words] opened my eyes. Created shared emotions and safe places to experience new things,” she told Cracking the Cover.

But putting words to paper is different than reading them, says KayLynn, whose debut novel, Shielded, comes out July 21.

“Every time I tried to write my own stories, I’d quit five pages in,” she said. “Because writing is hard. But I never lost my love of reading and words, enough that I studied editing in college.”

Instead of writing, KayLynn found herself on the other side of publishing, working as a freelance editor and book designer. Seven years later, two things happened that changed her way of thinking: a dream and a conference.

First, came the dream: “Three girls were in extreme danger, and I woke up right before something bad happened. In that moment between dream and awake, while my heart pounded and those characters were still real, I needed a solution to save them. Some way for them to escape the danger chasing them. The only answer I could think of was magic.”

The dream didn’t go away. Its danger and magic stayed with KayLynn over the next few months as she questioned the whos, whys and hows.

“The dream was really different from what the book turned into (there were neon yellow tanks in the dream that obviously didn’t make it into the book), but that first scene that came as inspiration for the rest of Shielded stayed through all the many drafts,” she said.

Next came the conference. KayLynn and a friend attended a writing conference together — the friend wanting to write a book and KayLynn looking for more editing clients.

“While at that conference, the keynote speaker talked about how powerful stories are,” KayLynn said. “How they create connections in a world fixated on dividing. Sitting in that hotel conference room, feeling dissatisfied with most of the books I’d read recently, I felt like maybe I had light to share with the world. That maybe I could add my story, and maybe people would connect with it.”

But KayLynn knew if she was going to write a book, she had to do it right. She’d read enough to know what she did and did not like. She was also new to the process and knew there would be ups and downs.

“My first full draft of Shielded was not great,” KayLynn said. “It wasn’t even that good. But I kept going to writing conferences, kept asking my friends and family to read and give feedback, found a writing group, and kept at it. There were ups and downs as I worked on the manuscript: two miscarriages, two babies born, vacations, and even a puppy joined the family. But my nights were filled with Jennesara and her struggle to find herself and protect those she loves.”

As a writer with an editing background, KayLynn embraced the revision process, not afraid to toss anything out, as long as her writing improved.

“It took years of work, and about 14 massive revisions, before I signed with my agent. After I signed, I did another huge revision — even took out a point-of-view character — before my agent pitched the manuscript to editors at various publishing houses. And it was another year before we found an editor who loved Shielded as much as we did. So from start to finish, including the edits with my editor at Delacorte Press, Shielded has been through about 20 different variations over the past five years.”

Shielded tells the story of Princess Jennesara, the second-born heir to the throne of Hálendi. With war at its borders and a greater threat on the horizon, Hálendi is in danger of falling. The king has promised Jenna’s hand in marriage to the prince of neighboring Turia in exchange for resources Hálendi needs. When the royal caravan is ambushed, Jenna realizes her father’s worst fears are true, and she may be her kingdom’s last chance at survival.

At the center of Shielded is Jenna, someone who is expected to be one thing but is, in fact, someone very different. Jenna’s voice was always fairly clear in KayLynn’s head, although Jenna bloomed with each revision. And in the end, Jenna’s journey comes full circle.

One of the most important elements in Shielded is Jenna’s hair. A streak of white hair marks her as someone with magic, but she has to keep that magic hidden. It’s a plot twist straight from reality TV … sort of.

“In college, I had a roommate who loved a show called What Not To Wear (I grew to love it too!),” KayLynn said. “Stacy London was a co-host on that show, and she has a natural grey streak in the front of her hair caused by Poliosis. I always thought it was really cool, but then one episode it was gone! Stacy explained that it was only visible if she parted her hair in the right place, and … it stuck with me. It was like a really cool secret identity. And with Jenna and her magic, I wanted another layer of tension — not just that she had magic and wasn’t supposed to, but that there was a big tell-tale sign of it that she’d have to work to keep hidden.”

Shielded ends with some unanswered questions, and luckily for fans, there’s another book in the works that will answer them. The series will be a duology, and the second book will be a companion novel that carries the story from where Shielded leaves off, but from two different point-of-view characters.

Mini Review: SHIELDED by KayLynn Flanders

It was back in April when I first learned of Shielded. It came up on my NetGalley dashboard, and I immediately knew I wanted to read it. It had the fantasy elements I was looking for with what looked like a strong foundation on which to build.

I wasn’t wrong.

KayLynn is an excellent worldbuilder. Nods to medieval settings create a familiarity while magical elements feel new and exciting.

If you are looking for high fantasy, you won’t find it here. It’s a good middle road for readers who already have their feet wet but don’t want to wade in too deep. It’s not groundbreaking, nor is it predictable.

Shielded is a fast -paced, engrossing read that’s a strong addition to the YA fantasy lexicon.

*Learn more about KayLynn Flanders, including why she writes YA and what she’s working on now by reading the complete transcript of her interview with Cracking the Cover.

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Sadie, a new novel by Courtney Summers, follows a similar format while telling the fictional story of a missing girl determined to avenge her sister’s death.

Sadie hasn’t had an easy life. Growing up on her own, she’s been raising her sister Mattie in an isolated small town, trying her best to provide a normal life and keep their heads above water. But when Mattie is found dead, Sadie’s entire world crumbles. After a somewhat botched police investigation, Sadie is determined to bring her sister’s killer to justice and hits the road following a few meager clues to find him.

When West McCray—a radio personality working on a segment about small, forgotten towns in America—overhears Sadie’s story at a local gas station, he becomes obsessed with finding the missing girl. He starts his own podcast as he tracks Sadie’s journey, trying to figure out what happened, hoping to find her before it’s too late. —Synopsis provided by Wednesday Books

Sadie was in part inspired by the way society consumes violence against women and girls as a form of entertainment, Courtney said in a press release Q&A. “When we do that, we reduce its victims to objects, which suggests a level of disposability — that a girl’s pain is only valuable to us if we’re being entertained by it. But it’s not her responsibility to entertain us. What is our responsibility to us? I really wanted to explore that and the way we dismiss missing girls and what the cost of that ultimately is.”

As with most things, the finished version of Sadie isn’t exactly how Courtney envisioned it.

“Regina Spektor said something really interesting about writing songs that I’ve always loved and related to as an author,” Courtney said. “She said, ‘[A]s soon as you try and take a song from your mind into piano and voice and into the real world, something gets lost and it’s like a moment where, in that moment you forget how it was and it’s this new way. And then when you make a record, even those ideas that you had, then those get all turned and changed. So in the end, I think, it just becomes its own thing and really I think a song could be recorded a million different ways and so what my records are, it just happened like that, but it’s not like, this is how I planned it from the very beginning because I have no idea, I can’t remember.’

“I feel something similar when writing — the heart of my idea remains intact, but the way it takes its ultimate form is always a little different (or even a lot different) than I might have been expecting, which makes it difficult to recall the starting point,” Courtney continued. “But that’s okay as long as the heart is still there and you’re satisfied with and believe in what you’ve created.”

Courtney’s first book was published in 2008. She’s since written a number of novels and short stories, and her writing style has evolved with experience.

“Each book I write teaches me something about my craft, and I carry that forward into my next books,” Courtney told Cracking the Cover. “I think a result of that is my ideas have become more ambitious and their approach and execution has benefited from what I’ve learned.”

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The Raging Ones follows three teens who should have died young: Franny Bluefort, a young orphan who lived fast and hard, only to wake up the next morning after her death day in the cold, unforgiving city streets; Mykal Kickfall, who was meant to die at 8 but instead was forced to flee his rugged home to avoid questions of his survival; and Court Icefort, the mysterious boy who acts like an Influential, but has a terrible secret. And, for some inexplicable reason, they can feel each other’s emotions as if they were their own.  

With the threat of people learning the teens have dodged their deathdays, they must flee their planet, Saltare-3, to survive. Who knows what will happen if people suddenly think they might be able to escape death? But to do so, all three will have to hide their shared bond as they vie for a highly sought after spot in the newest mission to space. Against thousands of people who are far smarter, will live longer, and will never fear death the way that they do. —Synopsis provided by Wednesday Books

The Raging Ones features three teens who can feel each other’s emotions. Krista and Becca said the process of creating this connection and its evolution went pretty quickly.

“We call their emotional connection ‘the link’ and it first originated in a draft that Becca wrote in college,” Krista told Cracking the Cover. “We love raw, visceral writing, and when dealing with emotions, it takes us to that place.”

The link pretty much stayed the same from the get-go, Becca said. “We always knew that they’d share only three senses — touch, taste, and smell. We’d written a version of the link before, so we knew how we wanted to write the emotional beats in The Raging Ones.”

Becca and Krista have been writing together since high school so they’ve been able to “fine-tune” their process over time.

“Being sisters seems like we’d bicker a ton, but we find our bond a huge strength,” the sisters said in a press release Q&A. “We understand each other’s vision and welcome varying opinions and ideas. We always describe what we have as a mini ‘writer’s room’ where we constantly bounce thoughts off one another and try to improve our work. When we have different opinions, it kick-starts discussions, which often ignites better stories.”

The Ritchies are already best-selling authors of more than 10 new adult and contemporary romance novels. The Raging Ones is the twins’ debut YA, but they’ve been thinking about it since college. Back then, Krista worked out a concept about “a world where everyone knows the die they’ll die, but three teens don’t die on their deathday.”

Becca and Krista are sci-fi and fantasy nerds. Once Krista agreed to add a fantasy element, Becca jumped on board. “While writing The Raging Ones, we were really inspired by character-driven stories with science fiction backdrops. From movies like Interstellar to television shows like The 100.”

Though The Raging Ones is the Ritchies’ fist published YA novel, it’s a genre they know well. In their childhood, high school and college, they almost exclusively wrote YA. The shift to contemporary romance was much more difficult for them than returning to YA.

“In a lot of ways, The Raging Ones was like returning to something we’d started but hadn’t finished yet,” they said. “We always attribute our romance books as the reason why we’re better writers, and when we went back to this other genre, we realized how much more we could do and push ourselves.”

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The author of Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now is passionate about changing the narrative facing people of color in film and TV.

“I was so tired of auditioning for stereotypical roles and shaking my head in confusion at the way some writers are writing black women that I decided if I really wanted change, I needed to BE the change I wished to see,” Dana told Cracking the Cover. “That ultimately guided me to start taking my writing to the next level.”

The next level was/is Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now. The young adult novel follows 16-year-old Tiffany Sly whose mother just passed away from cancer. After her mom’s death, Tiffany moves from Chicago to California to live with the biological dad she’s never known.

What Tiffany is about to learn is her father has four other daughters, rules that make your head swim and a strong devotion as a Jehovah’s Witness. The only thing that makes this new, super-strict home bearable is Marcus McKinney, a strange boy who lives across the street. Add to everything else, there’s another man who’s claiming to be Tiffany’s real dad, and he wants a paternity test to prove it.

Dana describes Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now as a “coming of age story offering hope, love and laughter for all.” But there’s more to it than that. The book comes, Dana says, from her own personal experience with trauma.

“My daughter is on the spectrum of autism and I had to stop working to tend to her needs,” Dana said. “No one can understand the pain of dealing with a child with a disability … unless of course you’re dealing with just that. And I’m a single parent! The trauma of losing my career and everything I’d [worked]for along with the trauma of not knowing if I would be able to help her … it took a toll on me and I developed an anxiety disorder.

“I think if I had heard a message of ‘at some point life may break your heart … but you’ll be OK!’ when I was young, it would have served me so well. I wanted to tackle trauma with a young audience. Let them know that sometimes they will lose. But we need to redefine that word. It’s like getting fourth place at an Olympic event. You can call that losing if you want … but to me it’s winning big!”

Tiffany mirrors that anxiety disorder in Dana’s book. Anxiety disorders and autism are similar in how people can’t “see” them at first glance, Dana says. When you have autism and don’t appear to be “disabled” people expect different things of you.

“Anxiety is similar in that you don’t wear it,” Dana said “No one can tell. And yet if affects you in so many ways. And people can be so judgmental and unforgiving. I used to go to a park with a friend and would get tense and nervous when my daughter climbed ladders. Of course, imagining her plummeting to her death from a one-foot fall! And I do remember my friend’s eye rolls and annoyed mutterings of ‘She’s fine.’ It made me feel so alone and misunderstood.

“I wanted to bring light to anxiety in hopes to educate about it. And there was definitely a substantial amount of research that went into creating Tiffany’s personality, but as a sufferer of anxiety, I used my own experiences as well.”

Music is a part of Tiffany’s life that calms her, helps her feel grounded. Once again, Dana felt this was an important place to push against black stereotypes.

“Not all black girls are the same, so we shouldn’t write them that way,” Dana said. “I wanted her to love a genre of music that people don’t necessarily associate with African-Americans. I thought about classical but that was too much like me since I’m a classically trained musician. I got my B.F.A in music from Loyola Marymount University. So, I chose rock ‘n roll! Thankfully, my dear friend, Travis Lee Stephenson helped me with my research. He is a talented guitarist and performs in a band around LA. He gets a lot of credit for Tiffany’s love of music!”

Dana hopes her writing will make an impact in the lives of young adults. “Young minds are so impressionable!” she said. “It saddens me to see celebrities with such a large platform and so many fans who are young. And all they say and do and tweet revolves around their hair or their clothes or their expensive purses. It’s almost like they don’t understand these young minds are forming and they have this amazing opportunity to contribute to the world. I am so passionate about connecting to people and making a difference. I always say if I can help one person … even one … then I’m so happy.”

Dana just started outlining a YA fantasy, and is currently working on edits for her second contemporary YA, The Voice In My Head, coming out next spring from HarlequinTEEN.

Learn more about Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now and Dana L. Davis — including why and how the author included religion in her book — by reading the complete transcript of her interview with Cracking the Cover.

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Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer became friends in middle school, trading books and CDs. After college the two both became assistants in Hollywood. People kept tossing them “teen” scripts to read, but a lot the material didn’t ring true, so Amy and Emily decided to try writing their own screenplay. Their first script was a contemporary adaptation of The Great Gatsby set in high school that sold to Sony.

After 10 years of working together on movies and TV shows, Amy and Emily decided it was time to stretch beyond screenwriting. The natural leap, they decided, was writing for young adults, and Layover, their first YA novel was born.

“The coming-of-age films that inspired us to write weren’t get made any more, so we found ourselves with all of these movie ideas and nowhere to put them,” Amy and Emily told Cracking the Cover. “We’ve always loved books and the process of adapting, and obviously read so much YA so it felt natural take Layover, which is an idea we had had for some time, and turn it into a book.”

Layover is road trip romance that begins with an unplanned flight layover in L.A. and turns into a wild adventure. The book features Flynn and her step-siblings Amos and Poppy.

Layover was born out of escape fantasies from Amy and Emily’s youth. “There’s a lot of wish fulfillment in the idea of disappearing for a little while,” the pair said. “Plus, we grew up in L.A., so in a lot of ways, we see Layover as a love story to the city of angels.”

Amy and Emily’s book is told from the siblings’ alternating points of view. Flynn and Amos are both teens, but Poppy is still a child. The authors debated a lot about including a younger voice but ultimately heard her voice so clearly they had to include her.

Flynn, Amos and Poppy come from a life of privilege, and their layover is a direct result of their upbringing. That shouldn’t deter readers, Amy and Emily said.

“Despite their wealthy upbringing, the book focuses on the ways in which Amos, Flynn and Poppy haven’t had the most privileged lives — particularly in relation to their absent [parents]. In their own ways, they’re all are really isolated, and we think that’s something everything can relate to. There’s also a lot of wish fulfillment in the idea that there’s people out there you can really connect to, and they can become your chosen family no matter what.”

Amy and Emily began writing Layover on a whim. Almost like a writing exercise, they would alternate turns adding to the story. “When we’d receive each other’s pages, we’d happily surprised at how much it felt that these were characters we had always known,” they said.

“Our process for writing books is pretty much the same as our screenwriting process. We outline everything together, split up sections to write separately. We then trade and polish each other’s pages, and move forward. We do edits and notes together. This process also involves a lot of snacking and Internet procrastination.”

The authors love losing themselves in fiction and say they’ve “always been passionate about the coming of age moment when you’re walking the bridge between who you are and who you are going to become.”

The two secretly wanted to become writers when they were younger, but were too afraid to try. “Pairing up to do it together, gave us the courage to take the leap.”

Learn more about Amy Andelson and Emily Meyer by reading the complete transcript of their interview with Cracking the Cover.

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“[Art is] a piece or pieces specifically created with intention to cause intellectual and emotional reaction and stimulation.” —Kayla Cagan

Piper Perish author Kayla Cagan has been keeping a diary/journal since the fourth grade, but she never considered writing a novel as a journal. That changed when Kayla woke up one day and said, “I want to write the year in the life of a senior in high school and her name is Piper and that’s all I know.”

That thought eventually panned out into Kalya’s debut novel, Piper Perish, the story of a senior in high school whose whole life revolves around art. The plan has always been for Piper and her friends to graduate and leave Houston behind in a trail of glitter dust. As Piper nears her dream of going to art school in New York, life gets in the way. Drama with her friends, messed up relationships with boys, and Piper’s own sister threaten to erase everything Piper has worked so hard to attain.

When Kayla began writing Piper’s story, she had no idea what to expect. She didn’t yet know Piper’s voice, or why she appeared in her head. “I did not know if I would ever try to publish it or have anyone outside of my writing critique group read it, but I do know it was a natural fit to write it as a journal, and I loved it and didn’t want to stop,” Kayla told Cracking the Cover. “I worked on it every day, Monday through Friday, for a year.”

Though Kayla doesn’t work in the same mediums as Piper, Kayla could relate to her through the lens of a theater artist. “I have directed plays and directing is extremely visual,” she said. “Making pictures by using the set design and moving the characters around the stage to tell the playwright’s story is called blocking in the theater, and blocking can be very artistic. When I direct, I think I’m an artist.”

Despite being an artist herself, Kayla still collaborated with her publisher to really translate the visual art into written form.

“I wrote the ideas I had in my head for what I thought Piper would sketch or scribble in her journal and the amazing creative team at Chronicle, along with Maria Ines Gul, a Rookie Magazine illustrator, brought the images to life and the page,” Kayla said.

Kayla did not have a physical piece of art to work from when writing about the artwork throughout the book, but she relied on many influences. “Everything from magazine layouts to visits to my local museums and galleries in LA — The Broad, LACMA, Regen Projects,” she said. “Because Piper’s main influence is Andy Warhol, I was referencing his diary entries and artwork often.”

Central to Piper’s story is her relationship — or lack thereof — with her sister, Marli. Kayla knew Piper needed a “monster” to battle, but she didn’t want that monster to be Piper’s parents or art itself. Art, Kayla said, had to be her savior and hero.

That left Marli. Kayla has always been fascinated by sibling stories. She likes examining siblings and why they are either very close and reliable or very distant and almost unrelated. In the case of Marli, mental illness plays a major factor.

“Though strides have been made in mental health awareness, there are a lot of families who for whatever reason are not able to get the help they need and I wanted to address that,” Kayla said. “Not everyone can be or is ‘fixed.’ Not everyone gets the help they need.

“I don’t think Piper is a perfect protagonist in any way, she’s a teenager and an artist and messy and romantic and smart and creative and silly and ridiculous. I didn’t want Piper to be the ‘good’ kid and Marli the ‘bad,’ but I wanted to examine how Marli’s mental illness controlled the family, and how everyone identified or fit into other roles because they worked around her constantly. Piper only looks good in comparison to Marli. It doesn’t mean Piper is perfect. It just highlights how much work she has to do to stay alive and survive around her.”

Kayla hopes her book will give readers who at some point have felt trapped creatively or physically — no matter what their age — an assurance that they can change their circumstances. Those changes can happen even if it takes longer than they thought or they have to follow a different path than originally imagined.

“I hope the art and Piper’s passion for what she does encourages people to chase their dreams or whatever moves them, and helps them make a positive difference in their own lives,” she said.

GIVEAWAY ALERT!

Win a copy of Piper Perish + a cool  tote bag, pencil and bookmark!

Tell me in the comments what your favorite piece of art is and why. (Open to U.S. residents only. Giveaway closes Wednesday, March 22. Winner will be chosen at random.

Learn more about Kayla Cagan, including why she writes, by reading the complete transcript of her interview with Cracking the Cover.

Download the Piper Perish discussion guide.

Piper Perish (Excerpt) by ChronicleBooks on Scribd

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