Comic Con 2012!

It’s time for our annual Comic Con wrap-up! aka why Lo and Christina are exhausted and totally scatterbrained this week.

First – and most importantly – we got to squeeze each other…

us.

Next,  Hall H.

Swoontini Interview: TAHEREH MAFI

Hello swoonies!!

We have been so excited for our Swoony Interviews to start, because we have an astounding line up scheduled. Every week, right here! *dancing bears* And, to kick it off proper like, we have TAHEREH MAFI, author of SHATTER ME, joining us!

For the one lonely person out there who hasn’t yet met her online or in person, Tahereh is not only a stellar author and powerful wordsmith, she also happens to be one of the sweetest people we have ever met. Her support for other authors, for aspiring writers, and her connection to her readers had us wearing Team Tahereh FANGIRL t-shirts since day one.

Lo & C: Well, hello beautiful.  *bat bat* SHATTER ME was our first Swoony Rec, and to this day is still one of our go-to for action, swoons, Adam, kissing, and, oh, Adam.  What we really need to know: is Book 2 a kissing book?

Swoony Boy Alert!! Adam Kent (Shatter Me)

Welcome Back!!! It’s time for another Swoony Boy Alert!!

YES

We’ve had so much fun with these posts, and want to thank each and every one of you for the emails, comments and tweets about your favorite swoony boys. We love to hear what you have to say and adore talking to all of you about books, writing, life and of course, swoon.

For the newcomers: What are Swoony Boy alerts, you ask? SBA’s are random posts in which we, and you, YES YOU, awesome reader, gather around a cup of tea/coffee/latte/sparkly pink drink to talk about our favorite male characters in fiction. They can be old favorites *cough*Mr. Darcy*cough* or new boys we’re meeting for the first time. Coming soon, the SBA’s will be joined by the Basass Chick On Boards (BCoB), posts spotlighting the most kick-ass girls in the YAdom.

BUT BUT BUT you guys? The time has come for us to talk about ADAM! *the world faints*

In June, Lo told you all about the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. And while compiling our list of Swoony Boys, we kept squealing over coming back to one boy in particular: Adam (zomgswoonsflailsfaintsTATTOOS!) Kent. And stg, if there’s one fictional boy worthy of the title Swoony Boy, it’s Adam Kent.

Comic Con Wrap-up

First things first: the randomly-selected winner of LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR giveaway was Ruthie! Thanks everyone for commenting and coming by, I know I speak for both of us when I say that it was a ton of fun re-reading the Anna & the French Kiss swoon. We have another giveaway coming up Wednesday – of DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor.

We are so overdue for this post, but Holy Hot Cricket this last week was nuts. Priorities: here’s some swoon:

Anyway, recovering from Comic Con requires at least a week, and of course it was a bananas work week (Lo) and/or everyone in the family got sick (Christina), so I think this week is the one for actual recovery.

The usual SDCC awesome?

THE COSTUMES!

Cool toys!

UPCOMING EXCITEMENT!

Muscles!

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Coming November 2011: SHATTER ME by Tahereh Mafi
Lo’s Review
I’m not actually going to talk much about the story because (1) I don’t want to spoil a single thing, and (2) WHEN you all buy this book (and you will) you’ll read it so fast you’ll get the reading equivalent of a brain freeze. Even writing a review feels kind of teasing and unfair; I’ve had the chance to read this and not everyone has. But it also would feel weird to read this and NOT gush about it. So here goes:

My arms fell asleep while I was reading in bed and I totally did not care even though they still hurt today (who needs arms?). ADAM EQUALS SWOON. Juliette is the best combination of badass and vulnerable and Mafi balances this perfectly. It’s quite amazing. But what struck me most of all is that Tahereh Mafi’s prose is unbelievable.

I read every paragraph of Shatter Me over and over obsessively. Even though it sounds awesome, that might actually be my single complaint about this book: the prose was so rich and full and shapely that I sometimes found myself having to reread something simply because I stopped focusing on the sequence of action and had become transfixed by the way the words rolled around together in my head.

It’s the kind of book that reminds writers that it’s okay, great even, to use fluid language and wild descriptions and, Hey, about all of those words that you want to save for that one perfect sentence? Why? Why not use them right now, even for the simple dialogue tags or tiny sentences buried in larger moments? Mafi even uses common words together in a new way to make something as simple as breathing sound like a spectacularly exciting event. She brings food into metaphors about skin and lips and bodies – and I’m sure that sounds obvious but trust me, she does it in a way that you’ve never seen before. She describes expressions and reactions so perfectly they were visceral for me. Her gift for metaphor is truly incredible.

I want great things for this book. I want rabid fans, and a website dedicated to speculations on movie casting. Maybe called the Reestablishment or [won’t spoil another possible name]. I want two camps to emerge when the movie rumors start – one who loves the casting choices and another who insists they’re all terrible, but both camps end up sleeping on the sidewalk for the movie premiere and afterward they all say that no one could have done a better job with the roles. I want people to feel inspired to write and read and talk about how she took new and old themes in YA and made a really amazing story. And I hope everyone reads her blog because it is truly one of the most uplifting and supportive places for aspiring writers.