Interview: Jennifer Brown

I'd like to welcome Jennifer Brown. Jennifer is the author of two very popular teen fiction novels, Hate List and Bitter End (both of which I've reviewed on my blog). After reading both of these books, I thought it would be a great idea to interview Jennifer and see what she has planned for next.

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Congratulations on your success! What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

Thank you! My advice to aspiring authors is it's all about self-belief. Rejections hurt and can make you doubt yourself and feel like you'll never make it. And you will be rejected, no matter how awesome you are (because sometimes rejections truly aren't about how good or bad the work is). But you have to believe in yourself. You have to believe that you will eventually get published. And you have to keep trying. Don't ever give up. You'll get there.


Both of your books dealt with serious social issues that teens go through. In Hate List it was bullying and a school shooting and in Bitter End it was about abuse. What attracted you to these kinds topics and what makes it interesting to write about?

What makes those subjects interesting to me is that they're real. Teens are dealing with those issues (as well as many other tough social issues) every day, and I think it's important to get people thinking about, and talking about, them. In my mind, thinking and talking about tough social issues are the first steps to making changes, and that's what I'd really like to see--a day when school shootings no longer exist and relationship abuse no longer happens, and many other positive social changes. Teens are powerful--more powerful than they sometimes realize, I think--and are totally capable of bringing about positive changes in this world. I like writing books that reminds them of how powerful they really can be.



Do you think you'll continue this trend with your writing?

I do imagine I'll continue to write about social issues, but I'm also eager to prove that I'm not a one-trick pony, and have some other ideas in the works as well. Ultimately, I'd like to have a nice balance of work in many different genres exploring many different thoughts.



Even though you write teen fiction, do you see yourself writing for other audiences in the future?

I do have an interest in writing for other audiences. Last year I wrote a middle grade fantasy novel that I'd like to see published someday and right now I'm working on an adult literary novel. I'm a big believer in writing the story that wants to be written, and have dabbled in mystery and women's fiction in the past (and am a former humor writer!), so I would never squash a project just because it wasn't YA, or any other genre.


What do you have planned for next?

Right now I'm finishing up copyedits on my third YA novel, which is called Perfect Escape. It's about a sister who runs away with her older brother to try to cure him of his OCD (and also to run away from her own problems, but she doesn't like to admit that). After that, I do have some stories up my sleeve, but those are still in the thinking stage.


If Valerie and Alex met, what do you think would happen?

I'm hoping that they'd be understanding of each other's situation, given all they'd gone through. I'd even like to think they'd find a commonality and would be friends. But, let's face it, Valerie's going to be a tough nut to crack her whole life. It will take a lot to build a friendship with her, and I'm not sure Alex will have it in her to try hard enough, especially since she already has Bethany and Zack in her life.

Jennifer

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For more information about Jennifer and her books, please visit her website: Jennifer Brown

Review: Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

Synopsis:

When Alex falls for the charming new boy at school, Cole -- a handsome, funny, sports star who adores her -- she can't believe she's finally found her soul mate . . . someone who truly loves and understands her.

At first, Alex is blissfully happy. Sure, Cole seems a little jealous of her relationship with her close friend Zack, but what guy would want his girlfriend spending all her time with another boy? As the months pass, though, Alex can no longer ignore Cole's small put-downs, pinches, or increasingly violent threats.

As Alex struggles to come to terms with the sweet boyfriend she fell in love with and the boyfriend whose "love" she no longer recognizes, she is forced to choose -- between her "true love" and herself.

Pages: 368 pages(Hardcover)
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; 1 edition
Released: May 10, 2011

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Cole is the new boy in town and is Alex is assigned to tutor him. Alex is instantly taken by him and it seems Cole likes her two. As the days go by, both of them steal looks at each other while they work. When they start dating, everything is perfect. Cole is a true gentleman and Alex loves being with him. Ah young love, how sweet it is.

The only weird thing is that he hates how close Alex and Zack, one of her best friends, is. And he hates that Zack touches her all the time, so he wants that relationship to stop. Alex understands, I mean, what guy would want another guy touching his girlfriend? She's in a relationship now, so things should be different.

But Alex wants her friends and Cole to get along, so when she gathers the crew up to go to a party she only assumes the best will happen. Too bad things start to go downhill from there.

Alex believes that if a guy ever touched her she'd leave right away, but when the emotional and physical abuse starts to happen Alex finds herself drawing nearer to Cole despite herself.

Overall:

The Bitter End is a tale of abuse, you pretty much get that idea from reading the synopsis, so when Alex first meets Cole you already know what's going to happen. It's a big hard to watch her get sucked in, when it's clear that he's a bad guy. I don't want to say she's stupid for what happened and letting herself get taken away, because she's not. Unless you're in that situation you never know what you'll do. Alex is a great character, but she's a great character that got sucked into a really bad and unhealthy relationship.

I did like reading about Cole's family though. His family life is pretty crummy and even though it's never really said, I did suspect that Cole's mother is being abused by his father.

One of the things that confused me, while reading the novel, was how long the abuse was going. At first, I thought this was going to be simply emotional abuse since it seemed to be going that way, but then he starts hitting her.

The book isn't as depressing as Dreamland by Sarah Dessen, but it does touch on some important points that teens should read about.

4 stars

Teaser Tuesdays: wk3

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I felt even more blood rush to my face, and all of a sudden the room got very serious. I planted both palms on Zack's back and pushed.

~ page 85 of Bitter End by Jennifer Brown

I just started and I know what's to come, but was afraid of jumping in the middle for fear of spoiling myself. I enjoyed Hate List, so I have high hopes for Bitter End. Be sure to be on the look out since I'll be interviewing Jennifer Brown soon.

What's your teaser this week?

Review: Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Synopsis:

Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.

Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

Pages: 432 pages (Paperback)
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Released: October 5, 2010

Once upon a time, I did a project on bullying and the legal side behind it for my law class. Obviously, bullying is a horrible thing, but we never really hear about it until it's too late. Since that project, I've been fascinated by fictional books about bullying and seeing what the author does with that kind of story.

Jennifer Brown took a story about bullying, school shooting, and made it into something different. The story isn't about Nick, the one who was bullied and decided to shoot a bunch of people at school before turning the gun on himself. It's about Valerie, the shooters girlfriend who had no idea that this was going to happen and where everything went wrong.

Even though the shooting plays a huge role in the novel, I liked how it was also about Valerie trying to find herself too. She was the one who came up with the Hate List, the list that Nick and her spent time on writing about everything and everyone they hated. It was also the list that Nick used to target people. She struggles with the feeling of guilt over her part in the shooting and it doesn't help when your family and friends believe that it's partly her fault as well.

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Overall:

The story moves back and forth between what happened on that day and how Valerie moves on afterwards. It was nice watching her grow as a person and getting more in-tuned with herself. When it comes to her friends, Valerie is apprehensive about getting too close. She wants to be left alone, which is perfectly understandable. And even though her new friends are pushing her too move on, I kind of wish we saw some of her old friends doing the same thing. It does make sense that they wouldn't be as close anymore, but the selfish side of me wishes that there was some more scenes between them.

I was also interested in Nick and Valerie's relationship. I do believe that there was a strong love there, but you could also feel like Nick was pulling her down to his level of sadness. I liked how Valerie made a passing comment about how her friend moulds herself to fit in with others, because I felt like Valerie did the same thing when it came to Nick.

I enjoyed my time reading this. It made me tired, because I decided that the best time to read this would be before bed. This was a bad idea, since I slept really late, but it was worth it because this was a great little gem. Definitely check this one out!


4.5 stars