Top Ten Of The Most Unique Books I've Read
Showing posts with label Shaun David Hutchinson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shaun David Hutchinson. Show all posts
Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Of The Most Unique Books I've Read
Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books That Will Make You Laugh
Ten Books That Will Make You Laugh (or at least chuckle)
It's A Muggle Monday Recommendation!
We are not wizards or witches, but muggles. We don't live in a magical world... Hogwarts is not home. But don't let this put you down. We don't need magic to transform our world. We have thousands lives to explore and dystopian worlds to travels. From the words of JK Rowling, "The stories we love the best live in us forever".
It's a Muggle Monday Recommendation is a new weekly meme hosted by Once Upon a Twilight in hope that this story will cast a spell over you and live with you forever.
This week is dedicated to a book that I am SERIOUSLY in love with.
I completely randomly picked this one to review. I liked the cover - didn't know the story, hadn't heard of the author. The opening line got my attention but my first thought was: this could either go completely awesome or horribly wrong. While the story might be going horribly wrong the book is COMPLETELY AWESOME.
Seriously. There's times when I feel I over-hype books. I'm worried this book won't be as awesome for everyone. But give it a shot. The main character is relatable, he tells things like it is. His story is amazing - an alien abductee who now has a mission from the aliens?! And it's a simple one: to push the red button or to not push the red button?
Seriously. I am now a fan of Shaun David Hutchinson and I now plan on reading all of his books.
Book Review: We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutcinson
We Are The AntsAuthor: Shaun David Hutchinson
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: January 19 2016
Review Source: Simon Pules
There are a few things Henry Denton knows, and a few things he doesn’t.
Henry knows that his mom is struggling to keep the family together, and coping by chain-smoking cigarettes. He knows that his older brother is a college dropout with a pregnant girlfriend. He knows that he is slowly losing his grandmother to Alzheimer’s. And he knows that his boyfriend committed suicide last year.
What Henry doesn’t know is why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.
But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.
The question is whether Henry thinks the world is worth saving. That is, until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that.
Henry has been abducted by aliens, but rather than the usual tests that take place during his most recent abduction he is given a choice. To either let the world end or to save it: all he has to do is press a button and the world will be saved. But can he bring himself to press the button - and if not why can't he?
I want so badly to write such a profound review for this book because of how it impacted me. But I know that, while I review books often, I'm not one to have a way with words. But I will do my best.
We Are The Ants is a soul-shattering book, but in a good way. It breaks you apart to bring you back together as a - hopefully - stronger and better person. Hutchinson has a way with words. He hooks you right from the start; he makes you comfortable in the hilarity of his character Henry. You see a broken boy who is stumbling through life, but you feel as though he has a good grip on things because of the humor that Henry puts into his thoughts. As the story progresses you can see where our story will end, but you have hopes that Henry can hilariously pull us through unscathed. It's not until about 80 pages till the end when you realize that no one is making it out as the same person they were before they picked up this book. I non-stop cried once I got to about page 390; whether it was because I was a part of Henry or because mentally I know how he feels - I'm unsure.
We've all been at the lowest of our lows - if we haven't there will come a time where we have to face the lowest of our lows. And at that point we tend to ask ourselves what we think we mean to the universe. Hutchinson describes us as the ants of the universe. While some might see this as a depressing idea, Hutchinson is able to paint such a beautiful picture that you rejoice in the fact that We Are The Ants.
When starting this book you prepare yourself for a good story, you can tell it's going to be good because honestly the VERY FIRST LINE draws you in RIGHT AWAY. But as you progress you realize this book brings with it a life lesson. It makes you think. I found myself often wondering: would I press the red button? Why wouldn't Henry?
There was such beauty within this story. You experienced moments of heartbreak but they were littered in between the moments of joy. And that only heightens the one thing I want other readers to take from this book. No matter how hard life is, no matter how bad you feel life is, there is ALWAYS something that can make it beautiful. Whether it's a small triumph or just the fact that you're breathing today, that in itself is something. And We Are The Ants makes you realize that; it makes you experience that within the story.
Seriously...if I had to grade this book...I would give it an A+.
Friday Author Spotlight: Shaun David Hutchinson
Friday Author SPOTLIGHT! We will feature a Young Adult, New Adult or Adult Author. These post will contain interviews, author posts, book blasts, fill in the blanks, etc... This is just our way to get authors noticed and out there as much as possible. So we hope you enjoy and stay tuned Fridays to see who we have on and what they shared. To see previous posts click here.
Today OUaT is thrilled to feature Author Shaun David Hutchinson. He is the author of The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley, set to be released January 20th, 2015 by Simon Pulse.
Author Shaun David Hutchinson
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Andrew Brawley was supposed to die that night. His parents did, and so did his sister, but he survived.
Now he lives in the hospital. He serves food in the cafeteria, he hangs out with the nurses, and he sleeps in a forgotten supply closet. Drew blends in to near invisibility, hiding from his past, his guilt, and those who are trying to find him.
Then one night Rusty is wheeled into the ER, burned on half his body by hateful classmates. His agony calls out to Drew like a beacon, pulling them both together through all their pain and grief. In Rusty, Drew sees hope, happiness, and a future for both of them. A future outside the hospital, and away from their pasts.
But Drew knows that life is never that simple. Death roams the hospital, searching for Drew, and now Rusty. Drew lost his family, but he refuses to lose Rusty, too, so he’s determined to make things right. He’s determined to bargain, and to settle his debts once and for all.
But Death is not easily placated, and Drew’s life will have to get worse before there is any chance for things to get better.
Interview
The inspiration for The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley came from some really weird places. I happened to be watching an episode of Private Practice, and there was a throwaway scene where a man who’d recently lost his wife was sitting in the hospital waiting room. He’d been sitting there for hours. When one of the doctors asked him why, he told her that if he left it would mean his wife was really dead. That got me thinking about what would happen if a young man lost his whole family and then never left the hospital they died in. From that, Drew was born. At the same time, there was a story about a young kid in Florida who was set on fire by boys his age because he owed them money. That planted the seeds for the character that eventually became Rusty. Most of the events that happen in the hospital—especially the scene where Drew performs CPR on the little boy—came from my own experiences during my EMT training. I did a couple of shifts in hospitals and a couple of shifts with the local fire departments, riding with paramedics, and those experiences really stuck with me.
2. You really have multiple storylines weaving throughout the novel...was that hard to keep track of? How did you make sure that each character got the right amount of space to tell their story?
Was it ever! The first draft of Five Stages probably had twice the number of characters, many of which I cut or combined. Those secondary characters were so important to me. I often worried that their stories were going to overshadow Drew’s. But throughout the story Drew is essentially assembling his own makeshift family, whether he knows it or not, and it felt important to me to show Drew, through those characters, that he wasn’t alone. That everyone has their own story, their own grief. Not all of them get to tell their whole tale, but I tried to make sure they got to tell the parts that mattered…the parts that would help Drew see that he had a life outside of the hospital.
3. Where did you get the idea of Patient F and including parts of the graphic novel throughout the story?
Patient F had a long evolution. In the first couple of drafts he was known as either The Traveler or Kid Chaos (depending on how I was feeling at the moment), both of which were terrible, horrible names. I’d actually been reading a lot of comic books around that time—Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Locke & Key, and Kick-Ass specifically—and I loved the idea of Drew sort of breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to readers through this comic book character. In the first few drafts, Patient F was a small part of the book. Eventually, I gave him a whole chapter devoted to his story. But it wasn’t until I was querying Five Stages (my first agent and I had parted ways, so I needed to find a new one) that I got a wonderful note from Suzie Townsend, whom I’d queried, suggesting that Patient F needed to have his own comic book. Her suggestion made perfect sense and I felt like an idiot for not seeing it sooner, so I sat down and wrote a comic book script for Patient F. Even when I found my amazing agent, Amy Boggs, I wasn’t sure if publishers were going to respond well to a book with a comic book inside of it and I was prepared to take it out if necessary. However, when I got the call from Michael Strother at Simon Pulse, one of the first things he told me was that they wanted to hire an artist to draw the comic book. I’d never been happier.
4. Where you worried about how fans would react to Andrew being gay?
I’d love to say no…but the truth is that I was terrified. Being gay myself, I’ve always tried to include LGBTQ character in my book but, with The Deathday Letter and FML, I was scared that a gay narrator would limit my chances of being published. When I wrote Five Stages, I was even more scared since Drew’s sexuality isn’t the main conflict within the book. I’m still worried about how readers and fans will react to Drew. I saw a review of FML where the reader felt like I’d made Ben and Coop gay just to tick off some diversity checkboxes. I worry that readers will think I have an agenda or that I’m trying to cash in on the diversity trend. But I first wrote Drew's story back in 2010—it’s been a long process to get to this point—and all I can do is trust my readers. YA has the most amazing readers. They’re so diverse and thoughtful, and I think if anyone’s going to understand Drew it’s going to be them.
5. What message do you want your readers to get from this story?
I never go into a book with the idea of delivering a message. However, I think Drew and Rusty and Lexi and Trevor and Father Mike and Arnold and Miss Michelle are all characters with a lot of things to say, and I hope that readers will find the message they need to find.
6. This book is different than the others you have written, was it easier or harder to write?
Harder in some ways, easier in others. The Deathday Letter was sort of an anomaly, a product of who I was and where I was in my life at the time. I tried, at the urging of my first agent, to write a second book that was funny in the way Deathday was funny, but it felt too forced. I spun my wheels for months trying to be funny, and it wasn’t working. The books I did write between Deathday and FML were much more serious. There was still humor, but the stories were more grounded and sober. When I gave my first agent a draft of Five Stages, I told him that it represented the direction my writing was headed in. I think it was the direction my writing was always going to head toward. So, in that way, it was a much easier book to write. And the books you’ll see from me in the future (like the anthology, Violent Ends, and my next book, We Are the Ants) have much more in common with The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley than with The Deathday Letter or FML.
7. Who is your favorite character in the book and why?
I really do love them all…but I think I have a special affinity for Father Mike. I don’t see a lot of talk in YA books about religion or spirituality, but I do think it’s something that people think about. To me, Father Mike represents the kind of priest who understands that religion is the question and not the answer. There’s a lot of talk in Five Stages about guilt and consequences and punishment, and I sort of love Father Mike for being there for Drew while also admitting that no one has all the answers. Faith doesn’t belong solely to religion. Friendship and love and family all require faith, and Father Mike is the character who helps Drew realize that.
Also, I love my nurses. Jo and Emma and Steven…I just want to hug them all.
Something you should know about Shaun:
I grew up in South Florida and have spent most of my life here. I’m a massive geek. I studied English in college, with a focus on medieval and renaissance literature. I’m a sucker for superheroes, sci-fi, and stories with magic. And I live with my partner and my fat dog, wasting my days writing, reading, and obsessing over Doctor Who.
Check out Laura's review on The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley
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