#BlogTour The Love Curse of Melody Mcintyre by Robin Talley

Today it's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Love Curse of Melody Mcintyre by Robin Talley.

About the Author

Robin Talley (she/her) is a queer author who grew up in southwest Virginia and now lives in Washington, D.C., with her wife and their kids. She did digital communications work for LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, educational equity, and other progressive causes for fifteen years before she turned to writing full-time, and is now the New York Times-bestselling author of six novels for teen readers: Music From Another World, Pulp, Our Own Private Universe, As I Descended, What We Left Behind, and Lies We Tell Ourselves.

Her books have won accolades including the Amnesty CILIP Honour and the Concorde Book Award, have been short-listed for the Lambda Literary Award and the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and have appeared on the Junior Library Guild, Amelia Bloomer Project, Kids’ Indie Next, and ALA Rainbow lists. They’ve also been covered in media outlets including Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, The Chicago Tribune, Teen Vogue, NPR, Buzzfeed, Vulture, Huffington Post, Vice, and Bustle.

Her short stories have appeared in the young adult collections Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft, All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages, A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers and Other Badass Girls, and Feral Youth.

Follow @robin_talley on Twitter, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Visit robintalley.com, Buy The Love Curse of Melody Mcintyre

About the book

Melody McIntyre, stage manager extraordinaire, has a plan for everything.

What she doesn’t have? Success with love. Every time she falls for someone during a school performance, both the romance and the show end in catastrophe. So, Mel swears off any entanglements until their upcoming production of Les Mis is over.

Of course, Mel didn’t count on Odile Rose, rising star in the acting world, auditioning for the spring performance. And she definitely didn’t expect Odile to be sweet and funny, and care as much about the play’s success as Mel.

Which means that Melody McIntyre’s only plan now is trying desperately not to fall in love.

Review

First thoughts - goodness how extremely serious do they take their plays, musicals and world of theatre in general. Then multiply that by drama and teenage angst tenfold, add on years of superstition and the result is a bubbling mess of a stage manager called Melody.

Melody believes that curses determine the success or failure of the production she is in charge of. Some of the curses seem to be made up as they go along, such as deciding that Melody's love life has a negative impact on their show, hence her being forbidden from falling in love henceforth. Sounds a lot easier than it actually is, especially when love is closer to her than she thinks.

I took a step back from this after reading it and thought about the story in relation to other work by Talley, who has without a doubt been able to bring social commentary, racism, identity politics, civil rights, sexual identity and discrimination to the table for YA genre - in a way that is both hard-hitting, relatable and empowering. Her thought process is always to ensure something remains long after the read. I will never forget reading Lies We Tell Ourselves. There is a reason she is a critically acclaimed author.

With that in mind I wondered at the seeming simplicity and what appears to be a lot of teenage angst, drama and common YA unicorn fluff. What is it that lurks beneath the surface of the water as the reader bobs for the apple?  

Buy The Love Curse of Melody Mcintyre at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: HQ Young Adult; pub date 12 Nov. 2020. Buy at Amazon com. At Hive.co.uk. At Bookshop.org

Today! Blog-Tour: As I Descended by Robin Talley

My turn on the Blog-Tour for As I Descended by Robin Talley. Her previous novel Lies We Tell Ourselves was a phenomenal success, and it was one of my favourite reads of 2014. I was intrigued to hear the premise, especially because I am a wee bit of a Shakespeare fan.

About the author:
Robin Talley grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, writing terrible teen poetry and riding a desegregation bus to the school across town. Robin lives in Washington, D.C., with her fiancée, plus an antisocial cat and a goofy hound dog. When Robin’s not writing, she’s often planning communication strategies at organizations fighting for equal rights and social justice.

You can connect with robin at www.robintalley.com, on Facebook or follow @robin_talley and @HQYoungAdult and watch out for #AsIDescended on Twitter.

Review
To be perfectly frank you will have to freshen up on your Shakespeare's Macbeth to fully get the gist of this story. Without that reference and prior knowledge, this is just another YA urban fantasy, but with it you see the story in an entirely different light.

Obviously you can't make a literal direct comparison of the bard's work and As I Descended, as Talley has taken a fair bit of artistic license. Saying that, there are quite a few interesting adaptations, starting with the gender and sexuality of the characters.

The author has infused the story with the complexities of sexuality, with a particular focus on same gender relationships. Insecurity is one of the pivotal motivators for Lily. I think her control and influence over Maria is probably underestimated throughout the entire book. Whereas Maria is motivated and controlled by the nefarious ouija summoned presence.

The two girls are driven by different reasons, but both are willing to cross boundaries to get what they want. Manipulation, betrayal and even death. Nothing is off-limits even if it is unintentional.

The common thread between Macbeth and this story is the power of suggestion and whether or not Maria would have made the same choices without it. Lily is perhaps a less assertive choice for the figure of Lady Macbeth. and her character goes from controlling and manipulative to strangely docile.

The stroke of genius was the Macduff of the story, I won't tell you who that is you can work that out for yourself. I really liked the way Talley drew the parallels between Macduff being stripped of his family and the intentional malicious outing causing the alienation of the family.

Again I have to say that this may be more of a treat for readers who like their Shakespeare, and I will spare you any further comparison of the two lest I give away too much. It is a fascinating combination of Shakespeare's darkest tragedy, an en vogue genre and important social justice issues.

I can't wait to see what Talley comes up with next. She isn't afraid of writing about controversial subjects or trying something fresh and innovative.

Buy As I Descended at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Read Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

Blog-Tour for As I Descended by Robin Talley starts today!

The author of the Lies we Tell Ourselves is back with a new novel. As I Descended by Robin Talley is read you don't want to miss..

Here are the links so you can follow the tour and enjoy what my fellow bloggers have to say about As I Descended.

7th Sep at thereaderlines.blogspot.co.uk

8th Sep at bookaholicconfessions.wordpress.com

9th Sep at ziliinthesky.com

10th Sep at emmasbookery.blogspot.co.uk

11th Sep at mmcheryl.wordpress.com

12th Sep at fictionfascination.co.uk

13th Sep at bookreferees.org

Follow at @robin_talley and @HQYoungAdult & look out for #AsIDescended on Twitter.

Hope to see you here on the 11th for my review!

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley

UK Cover

Not many books make me seethe with anger. The injustice and blind ignorance in this story does, especially because the main plot is based on historical fact.

Unfortunately the issue of civil rights is still relevant, alive and kicking even after all these years.

I cannot even fathom treating others with such a level of contempt, hate and anger, just because they have a different skin tone to my own.

Perhaps because I was raised to treat all people equally and base my interactions or judgements about them on their person, their words and their actions, and not on their race or religion.

Children are not born hating others. They are taught to hate. Racism is indoctrinated into generations of people and they in turn repeat the insane cycle with their own offspring.

Again, I just have to repeat, I cannot comprehend how any person could think they are superior to another person based on the shade of their skin. It really does boggle my mind.

I wonder how many of these 'white' people read or watch history programmes or read books like this and recognise themselves in the role of the racist? Many of the teens, children and even adults involved in the events surrounding the civil rights movement are still alive. Do they still believe the mantras of the bigots or have they acknowledged any wrong doing on their part?

Talley has fed some of the frankly quite ignorant and insane statements people believed and repeated, during that time, into the story. For instance, 'Negro brains are naturally predisposed to be submissive.' Very reminiscent of eugenics during the Nazi era.

When you read the dates of events and realise that on the grand scheme of time we aren't talking about very long ago. Based on recent events I would say there is still a huge underlying issue regarding civil rights bubbling beneath the surface of the US.

Talley has mixed two controversial topics together to create a firecracker of a story, which is meant to stretch the boundaries of your understanding of these issues. The reader practically sits inside the heads of both Linda and Sarah , thereby giving a complete view of the issue from both sides.

US Cover

The events take place during the desegregation in schools in the late 50's early 60's. Talley has added the element of not only an interracial relationship, but also that of two girls. A triple whammy for the period of
time we are talking about.

Just so we are clear none of them should be controversial or a problem. Not race, skin colour or sexual orientation.

I can only imagine how scared the children and young teens must have been at the time. Walking through crowds of violent, abusive people, who were bent on getting rid of them no matter the cost. Being subjected to torrents of verbal and physical abuse, being spat on and called an assortment of demeaning names. Day in and day out, a war on the front-lines.

Within this story it becomes apparent that some of the children or teens being integrated into the school, feel as if they are being pushed into the part of role model and spearhead for the movement.

Making a point on behalf of their parents, for the world and the future children to come. Under those difficult circumstance anyone would have crumbled and given in, however I am glad they didn't.

It also puts the civil rights movement into perspective. How courageous these people must have been to stand up for their rights and to weather this unfathomable hatred from each corner.

Sarah is a girl just like any other girl in the process of discovering her sexual identity. Her confusion, her guilt, her shame, all emotions that Linda shares, which shows the identical nature of the human beast, regardless of skin colour.

Linda fights with her own belief system, the reader gets a keen insight into her internal battles. She likes Sarah, more than likes her, which must mean Sarah is different from the rest, right? Of course eventually she comes to the conclusion that perhaps what she has been taught her entire lifetime is wrong. Wrong on every single level, and in turn that realisation makes her regard the people around her in a completely different way.

This is a book I would recommend as scholastic material to teach children what it is like to be confronted with racism, bigotry and hate. It will also give a good insight into the doubts of the indoctrinated few, who manage to free themselves from the repetitive cycle of hatred.

I could go on for hours and pages about how good I think this book is, which of course I recommend you read for yourself.

Buy Lies We Tell Ourselves at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any retailer.