Book Review - Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

By Ian Acheson

Jessica Townsend is a Brisbane girl and if you weren’t aware she is the latest given the moniker “next JK Rowling”. Nevermoor is the first in an eight or nine part series and has been getting big raps since a bidding war took place at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2016. It’s already been sold in multiple languages, hit the New York Times Besteller list in its first week and the movie rights have been optioned, a director and scriptwriters been assigned.

So I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I don’t usually feature non-Christian works on ACW but I thought this was a good one to be an exception. I apologise if this is an issue for anyone reading the blog.

BLURB

A breathtaking, enchanting new series by debut author Jessica Townsend, about a cursed girl who escapes death and finds herself in a magical world--but is then tested beyond her wildest imagination 

Morrigan Crow is cursed. Having been born on Eventide, the unluckiest day for any child to be born, she's blamed for all local misfortunes, from hailstorms to heart attacks--and, worst of all, the curse means that Morrigan is doomed to die at midnight on her eleventh birthday.

But as Morrigan awaits her fate, a strange and remarkable man named Jupiter North appears. Chased by black-smoke hounds and shadowy hunters on horseback, he whisks her away into the safety of a secret, magical city called Nevermoor.

It's then that Morrigan discovers Jupiter has chosen her to contend for a place in the city's most prestigious organization: the Wundrous Society. In order to join, she must compete in four difficult and dangerous trials against hundreds of other children, each boasting an extraordinary talent that sets them apart--an extraordinary talent that Morrigan insists she does not have. To stay in the safety of Nevermoor for good, Morrigan will need to find a way to pass the tests--or she'll have to leave the city to confront her deadly fate.

Perfect for fans of the Harry Potter series and Neil Gaiman, this fast-paced plot and imaginative world has a fresh new take on magic that will appeal to a new generation of readers.

MY REVIEW

This isn't my typical read and have had little experience with reading middle-grade lit but I loved Nevermoor. It was just so much fun to read. Even though 450 pages I found I couldn't put it down as I wanted to find out the next development in Morrigan's trials.

Morrigan Crow is an 11-year-old girl who has been led to believe that she is cursed and is the cause of many things going wrong around her. She's been born on a special date (think 29 February me thinks) and told that on her next birthday she will die as all children born on that date do. It's soon Eventide and as she prepares to die she is soon whisked away by the strangest man, Jupiter North, who kidnaps her to another world. A world full of surprise and fantasy where magical umbrellas transport you.

Jupiter has apprenticed Morrigan to apply for the Wundrous Society where entry requires passing 4 different trials (hence the book's title). Along the way Morrigan meets various characters including Fen, a Magnificat (a big cat) and Hawthorne who she befriends, he being another entrant in the trials. She stays in Hotel Deucalion that is full of mystery and wonder. I particularly love how her bedroom changes based on her mood.

Throughout this Morrigan wonders what her "knack" is, a prerequisite for the final Show Trial and entry into the Society. She presumes it's her cursed nature. But Jupiter won't tell her requesting she simply trust him as her guardian.

The story moves at a good pace, Morrigan's inquisitiveness gets her in spots of bother, and her friendship with Hawthorn is delightful.

Besides the magic and the fun, there are some good topics explored including we're not all that we appear, evil manifests itself in different ways, some seemingly innocent, others not-so and the notion that we all have a "knack" irrespective of our upbringing or position in life.

I thoroughly enjoyed Morrigan and can't wait to see where Jessica takes her in Book 2.

So you want to write a bestseller?

Photo courtesy of bplanet/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Yes? Of course you do. I know I do.

Now, there’s an algorithm that’s been created that can help de-mystify what it takes to produce one. Why did Fifty Shades of Grey sell so well when by all accounts it has many issues from a writing craft perspective? (That’s what I’ve been led to believe not having read it myself)

Well, a couple of people in the publishing/academic biz decided to find out if there was a DNA to what makes a bestseller. I stumbled across this book, aptly titled “The BestSeller Code”, the other week when I was reading the review section of Saturday’s paper. So I decided to investigate a little further.

The book was released September last year and the data used was taken exclusively from the New York Times bestseller list, which is as good a list as any I guess. The model has data supporting 20,000 titles captured over a five-year period. I presume the NYT picks up Christian fiction bestsellers, well those that compare in sales numbers to all other fiction. Do let me know if this is a poor assumption.

I read a number of reviews of the book both from Amazon and others in overseas papers and was a little surprised there wasn’t a nice little summary of what the key attributes were. I’m very happy playing in data (hey, I’m a Chartered Accountant by trade!) and hence the left side of my brain went looking for that nice summary that I could share with you.

A winning formula?

Judging from the various reviews I’ve read the book does not arrive at a formula. Which is no real surprise. If there was one the whole concept of bestseller would have to be redefined, however, by all accounts it does provide some interesting insights into some key commonalities that are typically found in those novels that top the charts. Here are a few that I’ve been able to discern:

• A well-paced plot and engaging characters do matter, while the setting is less relevant,
• A compelling inner struggle and closeness between the main characters are important,
• Characters presented in unexpected and non-traditional ways who “make things” happen,
• The use of everyday language and active verbs,
• Consist of “shorter, cleaner sentences, without unneeded words”.

Nothing startling. I like how the review in The New Yorker sums the book up: “… there’s an awkward charm in watching an algorithm discern the things that humans appreciate instinctively.”

Oh well, back to what we know: write the best novel you can utilizing the “key tenets of craft and style.”

By the way, apparently our own Liane Moriarty and Graeme Simsion both rate exceptionally well according to the model.  

Anyone read a good bestseller recently?

Ian Acheson is an author and strategy consultant based in Sydney. Ian's first novel of speculative fiction, Angelguard, is available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Angelguard was recognised with the 2014 Selah Award for Speculative Fiction.You can find more about Angelguard at Ian's website, on his author Facebook page and Twitter

Paying to be Number One: The Power of Paid Advertising

Paying to be Number One: The Power of Paid Advertising 

by Lucy Thompson

Stats for Land That I Love box set, Aug 11, 2016

I have a secret: my books were bestsellers because I paid for that title. 

😱😧Shocking! 😧😱

Let me backtrack just a little before y'all start boycotting me on facebook or throwing my books back at me. 😉

Amazon releases many, many books each year. Like hundreds of thousands of books on Amazon. Some to very famous authors whose name alone sells a gazillion books. Others to housewives whose dream it is to see a book in print, but who isn't well-known apart from family, loyal friends, and shopkeepers who I gush to…umm…where was I again? Oh, yes. Amazon also releases books of authors who aren't very well known.

How do I find readers and convince them to buy my book?

Enter the middleman. 

Advertisers.

Companies with a well-padded subscription list of readers hungry to fill their Kindles with new books. 😍📚📲 
I'll put some links to advertisers who've worked for me at the bottom of this post.

Yay! Let me find that ASIN number and hit "send". Oh. Wait… They want me to pay money for the privilege of sharing my awesome book with lucky readers? (That was sarcasm, btw.) 

In this day and age, to get books in front of new readers (that's readers outside of the people you know personally or see down the shops) you have to pay for them. Approximately $30+ per ad. For one day. To a couple of thousand people who may or may not even open their email or click the link. It's a gamble, people. And sometimes it works. Works really well.

See that picture at the top with the #1's? Where it says #897 in Kindle Store? That was a box set my first book, Mail Order Surprise, was a part of called Land That I Love. Sadly, that box set is no longer available, but when it first came out, myself and the other four authors paid a ton of money for a whole bunch of ads--thirteen different advertisers if I recall correctly, which well and truly paid for themselves. We hit #1 in all our listed categories and crept up to #784 in the entire Kindle Store. That means that (at that time) our book was the 784th bestselling Kindle book in the whole of Amazon. Yay! 😃 Lots of new readers. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of page reads. Thousands of book sales. Yay!

But only because we paid for that. 

Call me jaded, but when I see books, particularly box sets, with Bestseller banners and high Amazon rankings I immediately think "paid advertising" not "well-crafted book". Ouch. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for those authors and cheerfully applaud them. But I'm more aware of what it takes to get to those numbers now.

Does that mean that I should rest on my laurels and not pay attention to craft? NO. Not if I want readers to read anything else I ever write. Because they're watching. 😏

 Yes, there is power in paid advertising. But there is also power in a well-crafted book that speaks to the soul. The Lord has the power to open doors that would otherwise seem impossible (hello, there was my name next to Lynnette Bonner! Next to Janice Thompson!). 

Our words have power. Let us use that power wisely. 

All the best as you write for His glory,

   Lucy Thompson
Writer of Words, Worth, and Wit
Email: dingo4mum@yahoo.com.au
Blog: http://lucythompsonauthor.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lucy.thompsonauthor
Pinterest:  https://au.pinterest.com/lucythompsonaut
Books: A Cowboy's Dare: http://amzn.to/2ikiUm1

P.S. As promised: some links to helpful paid advertisers. 😊 Prices are approximate and in US$.
Robin Reads $60  FKBT $30 for a .99c ad. Fussy Librarian $26+ Faithful Reads $25
BookBub (the best and most expensive, but hard to get into) $190