FFBC: Welcome to the club, This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee

This Monstrous Thing
by Mackenzi Lee
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: September 22nd 2015

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Steampunk, Retelling, Historical, Science Fiction, Paranormal, Fantasy

Synopsis:

In 1818 Geneva, men built with clockwork parts live hidden away from society, cared for only by illegal mechanics called Shadow Boys. Two years ago, Shadow Boy Alasdair Finch’s life shattered to bits.

His brother, Oliver—dead.

His sweetheart, Mary—gone.

His chance to break free of Geneva—lost.

Heart-broken and desperate, Alasdair does the unthinkable: He brings Oliver back from the dead.

But putting back together a broken life is more difficult than mending bones and adding clockwork pieces. Oliver returns more monster than man, and Alasdair’s horror further damages the already troubled relationship.

Then comes the publication of Frankenstein and the city intensifies its search for Shadow Boys, aiming to discover the real life doctor and his monster. Alasdair finds refuge with his idol, the brilliant Dr. Geisler, who may offer him a way to escape the dangerous present and his guilt-ridden past, but at a horrible price only Oliver can pay…

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Firefly or Pushing Daisies

Robin Hood (the Disney animated version)

This changes every day! Right now it’s Weeds or Wildflowers by Parsonsfield

Vanilla soft serve ice cream

The Night Circus, The alternate-history turn of the century in Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, Where The Wild Things Are

Oh gosh, so many things. I’m a perpetual fangirl, and it’s most often characterized by a refusal to shut up about the things I love. Lately I’ve been hardcore fangirling Mad Max, the Dead Authors Podcast, and Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee.

Mary Shelley

The collective noun for a group of hedgehogs is a prickle. You’re welcome.

Hello Mackenzi! We are super excited to have you in our FFBC tours.

I am much excited to be here!

This Monstrous Thing is a steampunk Frankenstein reimagining set in an alternate-Switzerland in 1818, about a boy who brings his brother back from the dead. 

Alasdair is a pretty straight-faced guy with little to no sense of humor. He’s right-brained and clever, with a particular passion for mechanical things and how they work. He’s also fiercely loyal, the kind of guy who would come pick you up in the middle of the night on the other side of town if you texted him “come get me.”

My initial exposure to Frankenstein came through a stage production at the National Theater. I’d never read the book before and knew nothing about it other than what everyone knows from pop culture, so I was totally knocked over by their interpretation of the story, and how said story was very different than everything I thought I knew about Frankenstein. That production was definitely in my head when I wrote This Monstrous Thing. When I’m working on a book, I feel like a sponge—so much of what I’m reading and watching and listening to ends up influencing my work. Lots of Gothic literature, lots of Frankenstein retellings, and the music of The Mountain Goats were all rattling around in my brain. 

“It would always be us, dead or alive or alive again, locked like gears so that neither of us could turn without moving the other.”

So many! I really loved writing the scenes between Alasdair and his brother Oliver that take place in the past, because in spite of being the central relationship of the novel, they don’t share a lot of screen time in the present narrative. It was so fun to write them together. 

A song called Autoclave by the Mountain Goats. The Mountain Goats actually have an entire album called The Life of the World to Come which fits the novel really perfectly, but Autoclave is my particular favorite. I didn’t know what it was when I first heard it, and I spent twenty minutes intensely Googling the lyrics I could remember to find it! To me, it’s a song about the fear that you are too broken or cruel or inhuman to be worthy of love. Since there are a lot of characters in this book who think themselves this monstrous, it’s pretty appropriate.

Heat up some wassail, be sure there is a fantastic storm beating down the windows, and have a fainting couch nearby. 

Hearing from readers about their reactions to the book. I don’t think that will ever stop being magic.

I have another book coming out with Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins in 2017 and I am super excited about it! It is unrelated to THIS MONSTROUS THING, but is another historical fantasy set across Enlightenment-era Europe. There is travel and magic and two best friends who are a little bit in love.

Thank you so much for everything, Mackenzi!

Follow the This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Mackenzi Lee holds a BA in history and an MFA from Simmons College in writing for children and young adults. She loves Diet Coke, sweater weather, and Star Wars. On a perfect day, she can be found enjoying all three. She currently lives in Boston, where she works as a bookseller and almost never reanimates corpses. Almost.

Blog Tour Prize Pack (US ONLY):

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A hardcover copy of THIS MONSTROUS THING 

A pair of Frankenstein socks

A copy of the Color Your Own Graphic Novel Frankenstein

THIS MONSTROUS THING postcards, bookmarks, and buttons

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FFBC: Welcome to the club, Love, Lucy by April Lindner

Love, Lucy
by April Lindner
Publisher: Poppy
Release Date: January 27th 2015

Synopsis:

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food...and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation." But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse are over, too. 

In this coming-of-age romance, April Lindner perfectly captures the highs and lows of a summer love that might just be meant to last beyond the season.

Jane Eyre

My current favorite is Downton Abbey. Old favorites: Gilmore Girls and Northern Exposure.

A Room With A View, the 1985 version with Helena Bonham Carter.

Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road.

Cacio e Pepe—a Roman specialty. Three simple ingredients—pasta, romano cheese, and black pepper—make magic together.

Stars Hollow, Connecticut; Cicily, Alaska; and Downton Abbey.

Henry Tilney from Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. He’s kind, funny, and forgiving.

“What you seek is seeking you.” The poet Rumi said it, and I hope it’s true.

So many things! Bruce Springsteen is number one. Some others: The Fault in Our Stars; Gilmore Girls; musicians Butch Walker, Jesse Malin, and Ryan Adams; novelists Francine Prose, Meg Wolitzer, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters; anything having to do with Downton Abbey….and the list goes on and on.

Emily Bronte.

Thank you for loving books! Spread the word: books are the closest thing we have to real magic.

Hello April! We are super excited to have you in our FFBC tours.

Lucy’s a budding actress whose Dad pressures her to study something practical in college. When she agrees to major in business, he rewards her with the backpacking trip of a lifetime in Europe. Lucy falls in love with Italy and with Jesse Palladino, an American street musician/wanderer—but leaving behind Jesse and her acting dreams proves harder than Lucy expects. 

Lucy’s full of love and enthusiasm for all she encounters on her travels, with emotions that live very close to the surface. Jesse’s a free spirit who believes in living out his dreams, and who genuinely wants Lucy to be happy.

Love, Lucy has two inspirations: it’s a retelling of E. M. Forster’s amazing novel A Room With a View. But it’s also informed by my own long-ago European backpacking adventures. 

“Though later she would think she should have seen it coming, she didn’t. Jesse’s arms circled her, tightened around her, and drew her in, and a moment later he was kissing her, his lips soft and warm and searching. This wasn’t Lucy’s first kiss—there had been a few others—but it might as well have been. In a way—in the only way that counted—it was the first.”

When Lucy and Jesse are running around Florence and Rome—riding a Vespa, getting onstage at an underground nightclub, pretending to be Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck on the Spanish Steps…basically any and all of the scenes in Italy were the most fun to write. 

Begin your time in Florence by wandering through the city in the general direction of the Duomo, the city’s central cathedral. You’ll see its massive and magnificent red roof rising from almost every spot in the city. Climb the 463 steps to its rooftop for a glorious view of the city. And when you’re back down on terra firma, head straight to Gelateria Grom and reward yourself. Actually, any gelato would be good, but Grom’s dark chocolate is to die for.

Here’s a website on the Duomo: http://www.turismo.intoscana.it/allthingstuscany/tuscanyarts/how-many-steps-florence-brunelleschi-duomo/

And here’s one for Gelateria Grom!: http://www.grom.it/

I’m not sure I can pick one song, but I’ve made a whole playlist of them. You can find it here.

We would need a time machine! Jesse would be played by Milo Ventimiglia in his Gilmore Girl days. And Lucy would be played by Helena Bonham Carter circa 1985, in her A Room With a View days.

To get into the Love, Lucy vibe, watch Roman Holiday and A Room With a View. Snacks you should have on hand: a cappuccino—even if the Italians don’t believe in drinking it after breakfast—and a cannoli. 

I’ve been working on a retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion set on a prep school class trip to Athens and the Greek islands.

Thank you so much for everything, April!

You’re very welcome! This has been a blast.

Follow the Love, Lucy by April Lindner Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

April Lindner is the author of three novels: Catherine, a modernization of Wuthering Heights; Jane, an update of Jane Eyre; and Love, Lucy, due out in January, 2015. She also has published two poetry collections, Skin and This Bed Our Bodies Shaped. She plays acoustic guitar badly, sees more rock concerts than she’d care to admit, travels whenever she can, cooks Italian food, and lavishes attention on her pets—two Labrador retriever mixes and two excitable guinea pigs. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University, April lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two sons.

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