Fan Club Friday - The Day Before

A few weeks ago I went to an author signing at Books of Wonder here in NYC. There I met Lisa Schroeder, an administrator of the young adult blog The Contemps. I was excited to meet her because I had just applied to be a contributor to that very blog; but after reading her newest novel The Day Before, I am ten times as stoked to be working with her.

The Day Before follows Amber, a young girl who wants to lose herself in her iPod and sneak away from her family and friends to have one last day to herself before her life changes dramatically. Although she had planned on spending the day before this ultra scary life change alone, she meets Cade, who also seems to be escaping something in his life, and the last thing she wants to be is alone... unless it's with him. They decide to spend the day together, asking no questions, but living in the moment.

This book is so great. And what I really love is the concept! Unfortunately, I can't really go into the awesome idea this book is centered around because it would be a major spoiler, but let's just say that by the time Amber reveals what's to happen the day after, we are salivating to know. I loved the suspense of that and really loved that, although I tried to guess as I turned the pages, I was surprised to learn of Amber's situation. (click read more to read the rest of this post)



And I tore through this book. It is actually written in verse, short pieces woven together to create a whole. I love her use of spacing and type, sometimes altering words on the page so that they mimic the action or adjective they describe. I found that to be a very thoughtful and purely beautiful attention to detail that I swooned over. These little words, standing out on the page, at times took my breath away.

In among the verse, she sprinkled her novel with letters whose dates counted down to the day before, and then to days after. I thought that was a genius way to clue us in to what is happening to Amber, how she has no power to stop it, and caused the reader to put themselves in her shoes. My husband and I ended up having a very long conversation about Schroeder's concept when I finished.

So here's my suggestion to you: Read The Day Before, follow Lisa Schroeder on Twitter and Facebook, and start checking The Contemps blog regularly. Yours truly will be pecking away at the keyboard this year to contribute to was is already an awesome blog that spotlights contemporary YA fiction.