Two wrongs make a great read

[pbray]

Last night I finished LIVING WITH GHOSTS by Kari Sperring. If you promise to go out, buy a copy and read it, you're exempt from reading the following blog post.

The funny thing is that if I'd been paying attention, I probably would never have read this.

I buy a lot of first novels, despite only managing to read a fraction of them, and this book had been mentioned by someone at Boskone as an interesting debut novel that would soon be released. So when I spotted it at the bookstore, I added it to my stack. At the time I looked only at the front cover, and had the impression that it was urban fantasy. Oops.

Last week I took a break from the great virus meltdown of 2009 and when I picked a book out of my TBR, I chose this one. Mostly because of its cover--I was understandably in the mood for something dark. It took me about a page to realize that no, this was not urban fantasy. It took me only a couple of pages more to be hooked.

LIVING WITH GHOSTS is a satisfying blend of well-developed characters and intriguing worldbuilding. The richly realized Renaissance style city is a perfect backdrop for the blend of ghostly magic and intrigue. The characters are wonderfully flawed, complex and multi-dimensional. One of the things I liked best was how the romantic relationships are handled--unlike many urban fantasies where the character interactions are set on permanent teenage angst, these are adults, with all that entails.

When I finished it, I looked at the back cover blurb. I tend to avoid these because I don't want to be spoiled. In this case the blurb was both spoilery and boring--it read like a laundry list of soap opera motivations, and would have turned me off if I'd picked it up in the store.

So, back to my original point. I picked up the book because I thought it was an urban fantasy and I hadn't read the backcover blurb. I kept reading it because of the skill of the author, who drew me in to a world that was uniquely her own. Proving, I suppose, that in the end the most important recommendation is word of mouth, and thus I'm doing my best to pass it along.

And, of course, a cool cover doesn't hurt either.

Comments

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm so glad you found this; it's been one of my reads-of-the-year thus far...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Great minds think alike! It's also one of my favorites so far in 2009, and I went and reviewed it on Amazon and BN.COM.

[dragonmyst.livejournal.com]

I have avoided picking it up because it looks UF and I am so DONE with UF.

But, I'll check it out now...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

It's a refreshing change of pace.

[shana.livejournal.com]

It is now on my library hold list.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Awesome! There is nothing I like better than finding new authors and sharing them with my friends.

[jemck.livejournal.com]

It's high on my TBR list!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

And it will likely just assassinate the other books ahead of it in line, to jump straight to the top :-)

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

This sounds very cool. And also it sounds like something I wouldn't have bothered with based on the back-cover blurb, which is unfortunate. (If only we could get the good blurbs together with the good books and the bad blurbs with the bad books, I would miss fewer good books and pick up fewer bad ones in the library browsery.) But, as usual, word of mouth FTW!

I went to put it on my library hold list, but discovered to my chagrin that the only copy is in the Merrill Collection (i.e., non-circulating).

So I'll put it on my TBR list instead, and next time there's a gift-worthy occasion I will ask someone to buy it for me :)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

One of the pluses/minuses of discovering a new author in mass market paperback. Good that it's a low cost investment to try, bad in that the book won't be in most libraries.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

That makes me think, though, that I might still run across it in the SFF browsery -- materials there are barcoded but not necessarily catalogued by author and title.

[sarcastic-elf.livejournal.com]

I just read Living with Ghosts this past weekend and was IMing a friend about it when I saw this post. ^_^ I really enjoyed it. I look forward to any future books by Sperring.

[relurk]

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it awesome? There are very few books that you finish reading and then think "Hey, which one of my friends is on IM so I can tell them all about it right now." I wound up torturing jpsorrow :-)

[clothsprogs.livejournal.com]

There's another on the way.

Teddy

[allaboutm-e.livejournal.com]

We are hearing some nice customer responses to this as well -- but I think we are losing some potential readers who are confused by the very, as you noted, suggestive of urban fantasy cover.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

And the backcover blurb, IMO, does the book no favors. Though I generally dislike most backcover blurbs, so I could be biased.

Ah well, all we can do is help spread the word and hope reader to reader recommendations carry the day.

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

I try to buy first novels because of the whole "what goes around comes around thing." If I won't try a new author, how can I expect someone to try me?

Blurbs, alas, often do no favors.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

There's a real art to writing great blurbs. But usually all you can hope for is one that doesn't totally suck :-)

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Or is at least related to your book.
In the first edition of "Dragondrums," the blurb inside the cover ran something like this... "The eggs began to rock... the first one cracked and it was only then that Robinton realized it was not a nameless drudge that had stolen the fire lizard egg."

Right. Except that, you know, Piemur steals the egg *after* the hatching; he's not even at Benden Weyr when he does it...

[fireun.livejournal.com]

the artist for the cover does do a lot of urban fantasy covers (it was odd to see a cover with that art that wasnt Cal or Nik) so i picked it up thinking it was that genre as well.

and then failed to put it down for two days straight as i adored the story and the writing. emailed the author. blurbed it in my journal. shoved it at my genre customers. the usual.

but you are completely right, the back cover is completely...meh.

and this is another instance where cover art can really decide who picks it up when. remember the trouble i had with the first throne book, trying to get adults convinced it wasnt YA? *facedesk*

...i am babbling at you. this is a sign we need to get together for lost dog, fry friend. then i can make a fool of myself in person!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

So I'm totally in the doghouse if I 'fess up that teshilaire and I went out for wine & sweet potato fries after the writing retreat on Saturday?

I'm currently plague girl--think my computer virus migrated into my lungs :-) But we do need a fry run soon.

[fireun.livejournal.com]

....you went for fries without me? *big teary eyes*

the next two weekends i am out of town for concerts, but weekdays...weekdays are always a possibility! (as well as sundays, if you are free. i can never remember if you are. we should go to cyber for enforced work time)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

My freedom on Sundays is variable, some weekends yes, some no.

And it would be fun to go for a writing session at Cyber if we could promise to be good and not spend time chatting or websurfing :-).

[fireun.livejournal.com]

...whatcha doing sunday?

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have the remnants of that. It requires lots of rest. Seriously. I had to spend the better part of four days in bed. And, according to both staff and clients at work, it should have been longer.

Throne is YA? A lot of people think if the character is young, etc. Ender's Game gets shelved that way too, sometimes. Their rule of thumb is, "If your character's a kid, it's YA." My rule of thumb is, "If your character's a kid who kills people, it's not YA."