Usually I do not read self published books but when I was just starting out as a blogger an author sent me a copy of her newest YA novel for me to read, and being who I am I decided to read it. What I found was a really good, emotional novel that I would never have found if I hadn't taken that chance, so when that same author asked me to read her upcoming YA release I decided that I would take that chance again. When it comes to books with difficult subject manners (this one deals with child abuse and drug and alcohol abuse) I usually find that it takes me a while to get through them because they're so intense. Now, while this book is intense, quite intense actually, I didn't find it difficult to read at all. In fact despite the slightly strange formatting (which might have been because it was an early uncorrected copy) and jarring voice of the male POV (which made sense in terms of the story) it was a really quick read. I found that the pages just flew by and I was invested in what was going to happen to the characters next. I also loved being able to see things from both character's POV, and trust me when I say there was no mistaking one character for another, which I know can be a big problem for some people. There was one thing that was slightly irritating but after thinking about it I realized that for the character it made sense. That was the fact that the female character seemed a little young, but like I said after giving it some thought I realized that it wasn't as big of a problem as I thought it was, that it fit with the idea of the character. Overall I was very pleased with this book and I'm interested in seeing what happens to the characters next. Like I said I don't rarely read self published books, and even rarer do I recommend them to people, but this book managed to touch me in just a way that makes me think I will be thinking about it for quite some time, and on top of that it's a quick read that sets itself apart from other things that are currently on shelves.
Out November 6, 2014
4/5 dust spirits
*Thanks to Selene for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I'm so happy you enjoyed it, too. MELT is such a powerful story, that almost a year later I STILL think of these characters! This is actually Selene Castrovilla's first self-published title through her new company, Last Syllable Books. :) She chose to go this route, she had a publisher for all her other YA and children's books.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds pretty good! Great review!
ReplyDeleteThis blog is self-published. Just wanted to remind because it seems you've forgotten. I don't mean any offense whatsoever, but it's just a fact that this blog is in fact self-published, with self published content on each page for people to read. The way you said you didn't usually read self-published material sounded like you see this blog as something other than self-published as well, when it is not. I'm not for or against self-published work but let's just keep things in perspective.
ReplyDelete