Canadian Books Don't Get Enough Buzz

The Fallen World trilogy by Megan Crewe is fantastic. As are many Canadian YA books (Courtney Summers anyone?) so let me introduce you to this wonderful series:

It starts with an itch you just can’t shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you’ll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you’re dead.

When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. But then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for the island’s dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.

The first book is told through journal entires, but that’s just the beginning. This series takes us through the East Coast of Canada to Toronto. It’s a great apocalyptic thriller in a world where something like this could really happen. Love, drama, a girl trying to save the world, this book’s got it all. So what are you waiting for?

The third book just came out a couple of weeks ago and I’m reading it now. I know I’ll be sad to see this series end, but it comes with the chance to meet Megan. She’ll be having a book release party on March 8 in Toronto and I highly recommend you take this opportunity to see her!

Goodreads

Megan Crewe’s Page

My review of The Way We Fall

My review of The Lives We Lost

Review: The Lives We Lost

The Lives We Lost
Author: Megan Crewe
Published: February 12, 2013
288 Pages
5 Gold Stars

(summary from Goodreads)

A deadly virus has destroyed Kaelyn’s small island community and spread beyond the quarantine. No one is safe. But when Kaelyn finds samples of a vaccine in her father's abandoned lab, she knows there must be someone, somewhere, who can replicate it. As Kaelyn and her friends head to the mainland, they encounter a world beyond recognition. It’s not only the “friendly flu” that’s a killer—there are people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the vaccine. How much will Kaelyn risk for an unproven cure, when the search could either destroy those she loves or save the human race?

Megan Crewe's second volume in the Fallen World trilogy is an action-packed journey that explores the resilience of friendship, the ache of lost love, and Kaelyn’s enduring hope in the face of the sacrifices she must make to stay alive.

It's not often I'm this impressed with the middle book of a series. Especially since the format has changed (the first book was written in diary form) and so much has already happened in the first book. The Way We Fall  introduced Kaelyn and her small island off the coast of Nova Scotia. One day everything is fine, the next there is a virus going around called the Friendly Flu that causes people to first get sick, become itchy, then move into a phase where they can't control what they say out loud and ends with violent hallucinations before death takes its toll. Kaelyn struggles to survive as most everyone on her island gets sick, including her family and friends. Each word shows her struggle and with every page, you're not sure what to expect. I finished it quickly because there was no stopping. 

The sequel begins with Kaelyn finding a vaccine her father created before he died and she knows she must find a way to get it to the people that can duplicate it and help the world. She thought the virus was contained to the island, but the whole world is infected and she knows it's up to her to get to Ottawa and give the government the vaccine. Suddenly Kaelyn is living on a deadly planet, holding the vaccine close and trying to survive every day. With her small group of friends, they start across the country, risking their lives to save others. This is one of the most realistic apocalypse books I've erad. Everything our group encounters feels so real. Whenever they ran into someone on the street I was scared for what would happen next. People act crazy when it comes down to only one surviving. It's not just about getting to Ottawa, it's about staying alive. 

Kaelyn is one of the bravest protagonists I've seen in awhile. No one is forcing her to take this vaccine anywhere. She could keep it for herself and live on her small island with her boyfriend, Gav, and her other friends. But she risks everything to do something about it and not a lot of people would do that. There are times when she thinks about giving up, like she did in the first book, but she finds the strength to keep going, and it's amazing. I don't know if I would be able to hold up as long as she does, especially with the group following her when she knows she can give in and just do as they want. Everything she does feels so believable. Her actions, her reactions and how she deals with what comes her way. She's smart and never puts herself above others. She's the perfect role model for the teenagers reading this series. 

Crewe's writing stands out in a subtle way. She doesn't go out of her way to write pretty prose or extreme scenes. She writes so real that it's hard to imagine that the friendly flu isn't a real virus. Her sentences blend together perfectly and softly, lingering after you've read the words and leaving you craving more. The pacing is perfection. The end of every chapter made me read the next and so on until I just had to keep going until I was finished the book. Her characters jump off the page and stay with you even when you've closed the book. I can't get over the intensity I felt reading this, an intensity I haven't felt in awhile. After certain events happened, I had no idea where she would end this book, how far she'd go before giving us a break from the madness, so of course she ends it too soon as usual, and I'm stuck waiting a year for the final chapter, The Worlds We Make, and needing to know what happens to Kaelyn and her vaccine. 

The real world is scary, with or without a virus spreading and Crewe has captured the brutality of the human race exquistly. I can only hope I've done this book justice with this review and that I too can create a world within a world as well as she has. 

In the lives we'd lost, we would both have been hanging out in cafeterias with friends and arguing with parents who were still alive and not worrying about whether we might die tomorrow. But this was what we had.

The Way We Fall Paperback Release

February is an exciting month for us Fallen World fans. Tomorrow marks the release of The Way We Fall in paperback. Now's the time for anyone who's been thinking about reading it but didn't want to pay the hardcover price (I mean who does?) And next week the sequel, The Lives We Lost will be released. I for one can't wait to get my hands on it!

It starts with an itch you just can't shake. Then comes a fever and a tickle in your throat. A few days later, you'll be blabbing your secrets and chatting with strangers like they’re old friends. Three more, and the paranoid hallucinations kick in.

And then you're dead.

When sixteen-year-old Kaelyn lets her best friend leave for school without saying goodbye, she never dreams that she might not see him again. But then a strange virus begins to sweep through her small island community, infecting young and old alike. As the dead pile up, the government quarantines the island: no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for the island’s dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.

Because how will she go on if there isn't?

So what are you  waiting for, go pick up this beautiful paperback! And wait impatiently for the sequel with the rest of us!

Brand New Year!

Happy New Year fellow book lovers!

I'm excited to be starting a new year, getting to start over and leave any bad tidings back in 2012. I don't have too many of those though, as 2012 was a pretty good year. I'm most happy about the amount of books I read. I finished at 73 and my goal was 50. This was the first year that I made the 50 mark and I'm so proud of myself for reading so much (not that it's hard) so this year I've challenged myself even further to make my goal 75. I have no doubt that I'll be able to do it, but it is still a little daunting. But challenges are part of life and this is the sort of resolution I can get behind!


In other news, I'm excited to announce that I'm part of the Fallen World Street Team, hosted by the lovely Megan Crewe, author of The Way We Fall, which came out last year, and the upcoming, The Lives We Lost, due out in February this year. I've posted about her books before, with a review and a contest entry. Now the fun has begun! So if you see me posting my little butt off about this series, it's because A) I love it and it deserves to be read! and B) I get points in the street team for spreading the word. So, as my first order of business, I hereby recommend you look up how awesome this book is and get on reading it! And you love it as much as I do, there's still time to join the street team and have the chance to win some awesome prizes! (If you do decide to join, let me know please!)


Details about the street team are here on Megan's website (check out her other books while you're there)

Seriously, what are you waiting for?

I can't wait to infect my city with the awesomeness that is this book. I'm excited to spread the virus around my town and get everyone involved. This should be tons of fun and a great way to start 2013! 

Happy reading everyone!

Contest: The Lives We Lost ARC Giveaway

I was so pleased when I stumbled upon The Way We Fall at Shopper's Drug Mart one day. Not only did the plot sound enticing and frightening, but the author, Megan Crewe, is Canadian and I love finding new Canadian authors to love. And I was not disappointed. The Way We Fall has everything: horror, disease, a loss of hope and above all a love story that makes you want to read about it over and over again. We all know I'm a sucker for love stories. I read and reviewed in back in April and have been waiting (im)patiently for the sequel, The Lives We Lost, where we will learn more about the disease and the vaccine that Kaelyn discovered before leaving the island.

Here's the official description from Goodreads:

First, the virus took Kaelyn’s friends. Then, her family. Now it’s taken away her home.

But she can't look back—the life she once had is gone forever.

A deadly virus has destroyed Kaelyn’s small island community and spread beyond the quarantine. No one is safe. But when Kaelyn finds samples of a vaccine in her father's abandoned lab, she knows there must be someone, somewhere, who can replicate it. As Kaelyn and her friends head to the mainland, they encounter a world beyond recognition. It’s not only the “friendly flu” that’s a killer—there are people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the vaccine. How much will Kaelyn risk for an unproven cure, when the search could either destroy those she loves or save the human race?

Ya, there's no doubt this book will hold as much strength as the first. It's not told in the same journal format, but as long as Kaelyn's voice is still strong, I know I'll love it.

So Megan Crewe, the amazing author of this series, is holding a contest on her blog for one lucky winner to take home an ARC of The Lives We Lost, and it should even get to you by Christmas! So I suggest you go over there and enter because this series is not to be missed. 

Enter the contest here and stay tuned for the review that's sure to come when I get the book ;)

13. The Way We Fall

Book #13: The Way We Fall

Author: Megan Crewe

Published: January 24, 2012

309 Pages

4 gold stars

(summary from Goodreads)

When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back.

Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest.

Because how will she go on if there isn’t?

It starts with a itch. Then you start sneezing. Then you get super friendly with your neighbours but none of them want to go near you because you're sick. But how do you say no to someone that's smiling and saying everything you want to hear? Well if you're smart, you find a way. Megan Crewe has taken a small vacation island and turned it into the breeding ground for a new virus. Our heroine, Kaelyn, wants to help in anyway she can but it's not as easy as it seems. Told through a series of letters to her friend Leo, who is no longer living on the island, we follow Kaelyn's journey as she discovers the virus, sees the virus and feels the virus affect everyone around her.

She breaks my heart and I was rooting for her the entire time. The journal entry format made this book hard to put down. With its fast paced, action packed plot, with every turn of the page you wonder if she'll make it to the end. Her emotions are real and heartfelt and her reactions to the terrifying events taking place around her are believable. The minor characters react in every way you would think people might react in a situation like this. Some get angry and try to fight their way off the island. Some get even more angry and try to kill the virus through violence. Some hide, hoping to survive. Some help where they can to help others survive. Some die trying. A lot of the characters are too calm at points, points where I know if this was happening to me, I'd be screaming or too terrified to leave the house. But I'm not as brave as Kaelyn, I guess, who in the light of danger and death, keeps a cool head and continues to struggle to survive. She's not a quitter, that's for sure.

I'm excited to read the sequel, now that the virus is spreading it will be interesting to see what Crewe does to advance this new disease. Her voice, dialogue and descriptions put me right onto the island with Kaelyn, and wondering when or if I will ever make it to the other side.

"Most people think the scariest thing is knowing that you’re going to die. It’s not. It’s knowing you might have to watch every single person you’ve ever loved – or even liked – waste away while you just stand there."