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Feral Youth by Shaun David Hutchinson

Sep 052017
 

Cover of Feral Youth by Shaun David Hutchinson.Ten teens are left alone in the wilderness during a three-day survival test in this multi-authored novel edited by award-winning author Shaun David Hutchinson.

At Zeppelin Bend, an outdoor-education program designed to teach troubled youth the value of hard work, cooperation, and compassion, ten teens are left alone in the wild. The teens are a diverse group who come all walks of life, and were all sent to Zeppelin Bend as a last chance to get them to turn their lives around. They’ve just spent nearly two weeks hiking, working, learning to survive in the wilderness, and now their instructors have dropped them off eighteen miles from camp with no food, no water, and only their packs, and they’ll have to struggle to overcome their vast differences if they hope to survive.

Inspired by The Canterbury Tales, the characters in Feral Youth, each complex and damaged in their own ways, are enticed to tell a story (or two) with the promise of a cash prize. The stories range from noir-inspired revenge tales to mythological stories of fierce heroines and angry gods. And while few of the stories are claimed to be based in truth, they ultimately reveal more about the teller than the truth ever could.

 September 5, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Starred Review: Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda

Aug 152017
 

Cover of Kaira Rouda's BEST DAY EVER.Library Journal: This latest psychological thriller from bestselling Rouda is destined to fly off the shelves, enticing readers to ride along as this multifaceted day in the life of the Stroms unfolds.

 August 15, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: Feral Youth by Shaun David Hutchinson

Aug 012017
 

Cover of Feral Youth by Shaun David Hutchinson.Publishers Weekly: Nine perspectives interweave in a novel composed of divergent, unsettling stories from authors that include Brandy Colbert, Justina Ireland, Alaya Dawn Johnson, and Stephanie Kuehn. A group of delinquent teens is sent to Zeppelin Bend, an outdoor education program that dumps them in the wilderness to teach lessons about hard work and connection. There, they take turns recounting maybe-true stories in an effort to win a promised $100 from Hutchinson’s character, who guides readers through their haphazard three-day trip. The kids are considered “human garbage,” as Hutchinson’s character puts it, but their choices and situations are born of sharp, complicated moments and realities. Though the voices are distinct, it’s the overall experience of disparate people finding common understanding that lingers.

 August 1, 2017  Tagged with: ,

July Translation Deals

Jul 312017
 

Czech rights to Robert Jackson Bennett’s CITY OF MIRACLES, Book 3 of The Divine Cities series, to Host, by Milena Kaplarević at Prava I Prevodi, in association with Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maass Literary Agency on behalf of Cameron McClure.

Rights to Hugo and John W. Campbell Award Finalist and Compton Crook Award Winner Ada Palmer’s TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING, to Edesviz Kiado in Hungary, at auction; and to Mag Jacek Rodek in Poland, in a two-book deal, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Spanish rights to Patricia Anthony’s HAPPY POLICEMAN, to Gigamesh, by Maru de Montserrat at International Editors’, in association with Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Polish audio rights to NYT bestselling author Jim Butcher’s STORM FRONT, FOOL MOON, GRAVE PERIL, SUMMER KNIGHT, and DEATH MASKS, to Storytel, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Jennifer Jackson and Michael Curry.

German rights to Daniel Stashower’s THE ADVENTURE OF THE ECTOPLASMIC MAN, to Luebbe, by Sarah Knofius at Thomas Schlueck Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Hungarian rights to World Fantasy Award winner Nnedi Okorafor’s WHO FEARS DEATH  to Agave Konyvek, by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Katie Shea Boutillier at Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Spanish rights to New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s STORM FRONT and FOOL MOON, the first and second books in the Dresden Files series, to Nosolorol, in a two-book deal, by Maru de Montserrat at International Editors’ Co. in association with Jennifer Jackson.

Spanish rights to New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s and Evil Hat LLC’s Dresden Files RPG Accelerated to Francisco Castillo at Nosolorol by Jennifer Jackson.

 

 July 31, 2017  Tagged with: , , , , ,

Review: Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda

Jul 252017
 

Cover of Kaira Rouda's BEST DAY EVER.Kirkus: A husband and father has a very, very special weekend planned for his wife in this creepy little chiller. Ohio couple Paul and Mia Strom are heading up to their lake house on the shores of Lake Erie for the perfect weekend, and Paul is determined to make it the best day ever. Their two young sons are with a babysitter, and Mia, who has been struggling with a mysterious illness, is feeling better. And why shouldn’t it be a perfect day? Paul and Mia have a perfect family, and Paul is the perfect husband (he even says so) and Mia, the perfect housewife. All is…well, perfect.

Or so Paul would have everyone think. After 10 years, the shine has worn off for Paul…Paul’s skeletons are falling out of the closet in droves, and Mia isn’t the wilting housewife he thought she was. The Stroms seems to have it all and are a king and queen of their suburban domain, but there’s a creeping rot underneath, and his name is Paul. Rouda’s (The Goodbye Year, 2016) choice to have Paul narrate is a compelling one…He laces his narrative with just enough snippets about his fraught childhood to give his warped pathology some psychological heft. The conclusion even leaves a little bit of uncertainty for readers to chew on. Darkly funny, scandalous, and utterly satisfying.

 July 25, 2017  Tagged with: ,

Review: Feral Youth by Shaun David Hutchinson

Jul 032017
 

Cover of Feral Youth by Shaun David Hutchinson.Kirkus: Ten teenagers have been blindfolded by their camp counselors, taken into the woods, and left to find their way back to the main camp, in three days. Camp Zeppelin Bend isn’t a fun summer camp. It’s a mandatory camp created for teens whose lives have led them there as a last stop before jail or juvie. As a coping strategy, each teen takes a turn to tell a story, and no one knows what is true and what isn’t.

The main character who carries the narration of this book, Gio, prompts the storytelling challenge. In alternating chapters, written by different authors, each teen shares the disturbing experiences that led them to Zeppelin Bend. Wealthy, white Georgia shares a ghost story connected to being bullied. Jenna, also rich and white, reveals the deteriorating mental state that led her to pyromania. Tino, who’s Mexican, like Gio, boasts of the actions he took to avenge his father’s death in a haunting tale set in a small California college town.

As the collection progresses, each story grows more fantastical, with many that allude to mythology and fairy tales. From the first sentence (“I’m not a liar”), collection editor Hutchinson grabs readers with a raw, spot-on monologue that invites readers into heavy issues teens are struggling to navigate, many with distant or absent parents. Due to the mature, often raw content, this is a book that would also be valuable for adult readers who have the courage to face the darker things teens don’t tell them. A compelling, uncomfortable narrative that lets readers know that the tragedy the world can bring to teens transcends socio-economics, gender, and race.

 

 July 3, 2017  Tagged with: ,

June Translation Deals

Jun 302017
 

German rights to Shaun David Hutchinson’s THE FIVE STAGES OF ANDREW BRAWLEY, to Arena, by Anna Diekmann at Thomas Schlück Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier and Michael Curry.

French pocket paperback rights to Ekaterina Sedia’s THE ALCHEMY OF STONE, to PocketSF (Univers Poche) via Le Belial, by David Camus at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Jennifer Jackson and Michael Curry.

French pocket paperback rights to Ada Palmer’s TOO LIKE THE LIGHTNING and SEVEN SURRENDERS, to J’ai Lu via Le Belial, by David Camus at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier and Michael Curry.

Spanish rights to the Nebula and Hugo Award winner for Best Novella, Nnedi Okorafor’s BINTI, to Crononauta, in a two-book deal, by Maru de Montserrat at International Editors’ in association with Katie Shea Boutillier and Michael Curry.

 June 30, 2017  Tagged with: , , , ,

Deal: Eliza Maxwell

Jun 052017
 

Photo of author Eliza Maxwell.Author of THE GRAVE TENDER and forthcoming THE UNREMEMBERED GIRL, Eliza Maxwell’s THE WIDOW’S WATCHER, about a woman who loses her entire family and is ready to end it all when an unlikely savior gives her reason to live again as she untangles the mystery of his children’s disappearance, to Chris Werner and Danielle Marshall at Lake Union Publishing, by Katie Shea Boutillier.

 June 5, 2017  Tagged with: ,

May Translation Deals

May 312017
 

Spanish rights to Nalo Hopkinson’s Locus Award-winning BROWN GIRL IN THE RING, to Apache Libros, by Maru de Montserrat at International Editors in association with Katie Shea Boutillier and Michael Curry.

French rights to USA Today bestselling author Kaira Rouda’s forthcoming BEST DAY EVER, to Charleston Noir, a new imprint of Leduc, at auction, by Victoria Villemur at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.

German renewal rights to New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s CURSOR’S FURY and CAPTAIN’S FURY, the 3rd and 4th books in the Codex Alera series, to Blanvalet, by Bastian Schlück at the Thomas Schlück Agency in association with Jennifer Jackson.

German rights to NYT bestselling author Annika Martin’s “The Ski Mask,” to Lyx, by Julia Aumüller at Thomas Schlück Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier and Michael Curry.

 May 31, 2017  Tagged with: , , , , ,

Review: Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda

Apr 202017
 

Publishers Weekly: A tensely written, shocking book that will hold readers on the edge of their seats to the very last page.

Read the rest of the review here!

 April 20, 2017  Tagged with: ,
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