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Showing posts with label Joan Frances Turner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joan Frances Turner. Show all posts
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Contest Winner - Frail
I would like to thank everyone for stopping by That’s What I’m Talking About for the FRAIL giveaway.
Every person that commented on the post was entered into the contest - one entry per person. The winner was selected using random.org.
The Winner:
Kelly M.
CONGRATULATIONS!!
I am sending the winner an email to contact me with their full name and mailing address. Please email me at twimom227 (at) gmail (dot) com with your information so I can send you the book. You have until Wednesday October 5, 2011 (end of day) to contact me. If I don’t hear from you by then, I will draw another winner.
Thank you and Happy Reading!
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Thursday, September 29, 2011
ARC Review: Frail
Today I have a special guest here at That’s What I’m Talking About. Please welcome Rum from Books in the Spotlight. Rum’s blog primarily focuses on the Young Adult genre, and she brings us today’s review of...
Frail
Author: Joan Frances Turner Release Date: October 4, 2011
Publisher: ACE
The Resurgam Trilogy #2
ISBN: #978-0441020706
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format(s): Hardcover (384 pgs), e-book
Book Source: Publisher
About the book: |
In a post-apocalyptic world, life is what you make it…
Since a devastating, morphing plague swept through human and zombie populations, almost everyone who survived is an “ex” these days. Ex-human. Ex-zombie. Both creatures crave flesh, have the strength and speed of predators — and what seems like immortality. Pierced skin and broken bones mend, but their all-consuming hunger never dies…
Amy is the only purely human survivor from her town — a frail. Her mother is gone, but Amy won’t believe that she’s dead. Feral dogs stalk her, in reality and in her imagination. Amy thinks she’s losing her mind. But when an ex-human named Lisa saves her life, a fragile friendship forms, a bond that will save Amy over and over again when she and Lisa are abducted into a makeshift community run by exes who use humans as their
slaves.
slaves.
For a girl used to going it alone, trusting anyone isn’t easy, but Amy will have to. She has secrets from her past she can’t afford to face by herself, and secrets in her future that could cost her almost everything … including her humanity.
What Rum is talking about: |
Let me preface this review by saying I don't read much contemporary horror with lots of blood, violence, and gore. I prefer psychological horror like Edgar Allen Poe's short stories and poems where you don't notice how scary it is until you stop to think about it. I'm also not a zombie fan. It's not that I hate them per se but they are not my first choice when it comes to the undead. If you're unlike me and actually enjoy reading about zombies, Frail by Joan Frances Turner will happily take you on a horrifying and gory ride. Frail is actually a companion novel to Turner's debut novel, Dust, but it is not necessary to read the first book in order to enjoy it.
As Frail begins, we are decades in the future where a plague destroys most of humankind along with zombies and the undead. Amy is our narrator. She is a 17-year-old frail, a human, she believes, who struggles to survive along the shores of Lake Michigan. She meets a group of undeads and zombies, some of whom don't seem to have her best interests at heart. Actually, the zombies may not have hearts at all, as they neither bleed nor breathe but are in constant search of food to in order to satisfy their never ending hunger. Amy is a likable character. She is a fighter who is fierce when she has to be, but it's hard when you're fighting the undead who just won't stay dead. While she's physically struggling to stay alive, she is also internally battling her own demons from her past. She believes she's done something very wrong and needs to atone for her sins. The only way Amy can cleanse her conscience is to find her mother, who she certain is still alive and escape various dangerous creatures along the way. I found myself very interested in Amy's story and it's what really made me want to continue to read the book, especially when I found myself losing interest.
While Turner's writing is exceptional, I did think it was a little over-the-top with nihilistic similes and passages that were graphic and gory that I had to skim due to my sensitive stomach. Despite the action scenes that took primary focus in the second half, I found this part of the book a bit too slow. You literally lose Amy and her story when Turner infuses so many secondary characters. I had a hard time keeping track of who is who. None of the secondary characters made any impression and they didn't stick with me after I finished the book. While some may like the plot twists along the way (and there are a few good ones), I was a bit bored with the tedious group mentality and impatiently waited until we got back to Amy's mindset so I could find out all the sordid details of her past.
As I mentioned earlier, I'm definitely not the right reader for Frail, but I really think that fans of horror, especially of the zombie genre, will have much to like.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Frail Giveaway
Halloween is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with a ZOMBIE book. That’s why I’m giving you a chance to win FRAIL by Joan Frances Turner.
In a post-apocalyptic world, life is what you make it…
Since a devastating, morphing plague swept through human and zombie populations, almost everyone who survived is an “ex” these days. Ex-human. Ex-zombie. Both creatures crave flesh, have the strength and speed of predators — and what seems like immortality. Pierced skin and broken bones mend, but their all-consuming hunger never dies…Amy is the only purely human survivor from her town — a frail. Her mother is gone, but Amy won’t believe that she’s dead. Feral dogs stalk her, in reality and in her imagination. Amy thinks she’s losing her mind. But when an ex-human named Lisa saves her life, a fragile friendship forms, a bond that will save Amy over and over again when she and Lisa are abducted into a makeshift community run by exes who use humans as their
slaves.
slaves.
For a girl used to going it alone, trusting anyone isn’t easy, but Amy will have to. She has secrets from her past she can’t afford to face by herself, and secrets in her future that could cost her almost everything … including her humanity.
One lucky winner will receive FRAIL for some spooky Halloween reading.
Be sure to check back on THURSDAY for a guest review of FRAIL from Rum at Books in the Spotlight.
The Rules: To be entered, please leave a comment telling me about your favorite Halloween costume. You do not need to be a google follower of my blog, but it always appreciated. Contest is open from September 26, 2011 until Friday September 30, 2011 at 9:00 PM EDT. If your email is not part of your profile, please leave it so I may contact the winner. One entry per person. Contest is restricted to US mailing addresses only. One (1) winner will be selected from eligible entries using random.org. I am not responsible for items lost in the mail.
Thanks and Happy Reading!
Monday, September 6, 2010
DUST Giveaway
DUST
Author: Joan Frances Turner
Release Date: September 7, 2010
Publisher: The Berkley Group (Penguin)
ISBN: #978-0-441-01928-1
Genre: Young Adult - Paranormal/Zombies
Format: Hardcover
Nine years ago, Jessie had a family.
Now, she has a gang.
Nine years ago, Jessie was a vegetarian.
Now, she eats very fresh meat.
Nine years ago,
Jessie was in a car crash and died.
Nine years ago, Jessie was human.
Now, she’s not.
After she was buried, Jessie awoke and tore through the earth to arise, reborn, as a zombie. Jessie’s gang is the Fly-by-Nights. She loves the ancient, skeletal Florian and his memories of time gone by. She’s in love with Joe, a maggot-infested corpse. They fight, hunt, dance together as one—something humans can never understand. There are dark places humans have learned to avoid, lest they run into the zombie gangs.
But now, Jessie and the Fly-by-Nights have seen new creatures in the woods—things not human and not zombie. A strange new illness has flamed up out of nowhere, causing the undeads to become more alive and the living to exist on the brink of death. As bits and pieces of the truth fall around Jessie, like the flesh off her bones, she’ll have to choose between looking away or staring down the madness—and hanging onto everything she has come to know as life…
This is synopsis of a new Young Adult book by Joan Frances Turner, titled DUST.
Thanks to the folks at Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin), I have 3 copies of this exciting new release to giveaway! (books will be mailed directly from publisher)
Contest Rules:
* Answer the following question by leaving a comment at the end of this post: Are Zombies evil creatures or just misunderstood undead?
* Comments accepted between Monday Sept. 6 and Friday Sept. 10, 2010 11:59PM EDT.
* Open to US residents only.
* Winner will be selected using random.org and posted on my blog shortly after the end of the contest. Winners will have 3 days to contact me with their mailing address. If a winner does not contact me within the allotted time, a new winner will be selected.
* Comments accepted between Monday Sept. 6 and Friday Sept. 10, 2010 11:59PM EDT.
* Open to US residents only.
* Winner will be selected using random.org and posted on my blog shortly after the end of the contest. Winners will have 3 days to contact me with their mailing address. If a winner does not contact me within the allotted time, a new winner will be selected.
EXCERPT
My right arm fell off today. Lucky for me, I’m left-handed.
In the accident that killed me I rocketed from the back seat straight through the windshield–no seatbelt, yeah, I know–and the pavement sheared my arm to nothing below the shoulder. Not torn off, but dangling by thin, precious little bits of skin and bone and ligament. I had a closed casket, I’m sure of it, because they never wired the arm or glued it or any other pretty undertaker trick. I managed to crawl back out of the ground without its help anyway, and of course after nine perfectly uneventful years of fighting and dancing and hunting and getting by fine with the left arm, the right finally shuffles its coil right on the banks of the Great River County Park’s not-so-Great River, smack in the middle of a meat run. Joe, my boy, my backup, was not sympathetic in the least….
My right arm fell off today. Lucky for me, I’m left-handed.
In the accident that killed me I rocketed from the back seat straight through the windshield–no seatbelt, yeah, I know–and the pavement sheared my arm to nothing below the shoulder. Not torn off, but dangling by thin, precious little bits of skin and bone and ligament. I had a closed casket, I’m sure of it, because they never wired the arm or glued it or any other pretty undertaker trick. I managed to crawl back out of the ground without its help anyway, and of course after nine perfectly uneventful years of fighting and dancing and hunting and getting by fine with the left arm, the right finally shuffles its coil right on the banks of the Great River County Park’s not-so-Great River, smack in the middle of a meat run. Joe, my boy, my backup, was not sympathetic in the least….
Be sure to check back tomorrow for my review of DUST.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Preview: DUST
Did you ever wonder what it might be like to exist as a zombie?
Nine years ago, Jessie had a family.
Now, she has a gang.
Nine years ago, Jessie was a vegetarian.
Now, she eats very fresh meat.
Nine years ago,
Jessie was in a car crash and died.
Nine years ago, Jessie was human.
Now, she’s not.
After she was buried, Jessie awoke and tore through the earth to arise, reborn, as a zombie. Jessie’s gang is the Fly-by-Nights. She loves the ancient, skeletal Florian and his memories of time gone by. She’s in love with Joe, a maggot-infested corpse. They fight, hunt, dance together as one—something humans can never understand. There are dark places humans have learned to avoid, lest they run into the zombie gangs.
For a review and giveaway of this new story, check back here September 7-10, 2010.
Nine years ago, Jessie had a family.
Now, she has a gang.
Nine years ago, Jessie was a vegetarian.
Now, she eats very fresh meat.
Nine years ago,
Jessie was in a car crash and died.
Nine years ago, Jessie was human.
Now, she’s not.
After she was buried, Jessie awoke and tore through the earth to arise, reborn, as a zombie. Jessie’s gang is the Fly-by-Nights. She loves the ancient, skeletal Florian and his memories of time gone by. She’s in love with Joe, a maggot-infested corpse. They fight, hunt, dance together as one—something humans can never understand. There are dark places humans have learned to avoid, lest they run into the zombie gangs.
For a review and giveaway of this new story, check back here September 7-10, 2010.
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