Publisher: HarperCollins
Date of publication: September 2014
When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused –
who in her sleepy little North
Carolina town could have hit her with their car?
Before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a
strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her.
As she recovers from the attempt on her life, an old flame,
Nate, turns up. Eva must traverse their rocky past and figure out how to use
her new power – while the killer grows increasingly frantic. Can she stop him,
or will he claim her?
My thoughts:
I enjoyed Made for You. The premise was different from some of the more recent YAs that I have read recently. After being hit by a car, Eva can now see the deaths of people who touch her. The weird thing is that she can only see it sometimes and if the person touches her first. Eva can also change or prevent their death by asking them not to do certain things that she sees in the vision. I thought that was an interesting twist.
The story is told in 3 different POVs. Eva, her best friend Grace, and the killer keep the story progressing smoothly. I liked that format as it made sense for the story. I also thought that there were just enough suspects to keep me guessing until the reveal. There is a little bit of a romance, but nothing too overly done as in most YAs. I liked Eva and Grace. They both are fairly free thinking and don't follow the crowd, even though they run with the "beautiful" people in school.
This is a well written story for the older YA crowd. While there isn't any explicit sexual content, there is a lot of suggestion and more adult situations then the younger YAs should be exposed to. I definitely recommend this one and look forward to reading more from Ms. Marr.
Kari& Autumn: What inspired you to become a writer?
Melissa: I grew up in a family of
storytellers, living in a rural area where we didn't have cable television (and
in a time pre-VCRs).
Everything’s-a-story, folklore-as-true, and library-visits-not-TV combined
to make my love of story inevitable.
Kari& Autumn: Where do you come up with the ideas for your books?
Melissa: Ideas are everywhere. Sometimes I
get sparks when I read theory, and sometimes it’s experience or dreams or even
a phrase from a song. Made For You is,
in part, inspired by my real-life experience with a stalker when I lived in
Durham, NC.
Kari& Autumn: What exciting projects are waiting in the wings?
Melissa: After Made for You, I have my 3rd
co-authored book (with Kelley Armstrong) out in May 2015 (Thor’s Serpents).
It’s a Norse adventure trilogy for the Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Artemis
Fowl reader. I wrote the series for my
now-fifteen year old son who was lamenting the lack of books on the myths of his
heritage.
I also
have my first picture book out in the first half of 2015. Right now, I think the title is Bunny Roo,
I Love You. I wrote it for my son while we were in the hospital for 7 weeks
as he went through the worst of the withdrawal from the drugs his birth-mother
took during pregnancy. It’s able to be
read as a story about babies and animals, but it can also be read as a book
about adoption.
Kari& Autumn: Who is your favorite literary character and why?
Melissa: I’m not sure I could ever answer
this. I taught university lit for twelve
years before writing, so I have a lot of beloveds. Tess (in Tess of the
D’Urbervilles), Dracula, Calixta (in Chopin’s “The Storm”), both Scout and
Atticus (To Kill a Mockingbird), the Wife of Bath . . . I’m fairly basic
in that I like characters who take risks and act with passion and conviction.
Kari& Autumn: Just for fun, if you could be any animal, what would
it be and why?
Melissa: Dolphin or blue whale. I like the social aspect of the dolphin, but
the blue whale is capable of diving to extreme depths. Either way, I’d love to
be a mammal in the sea.
About the author:
Melissa Marr is the author of the internationally
bestselling Wicked Lovely series (currently available in 26
languages). In adult fiction, she is the author of the award-winning novel, Graveminder,
and the newly released, The Arrivals. With Kelley Armstrong,
Melissa is the co-editor of two anthologies and co-author of the Blackwell
Pages trilogy (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), a children’s
series about the Norse myth of Ragnarök. Her upcoming HarperCollins 2014
release, Made For You, utilizes both her graduate degree in
Southern Literature and her personal experience with stalkers in a story about
a killer who terrorizes a small North
Carolina town.
Melissa lives in Virginia
with her family. You can visit her online atwww.melissamarrbooks.com or on Twitter (@melissa_marr), Tumblr, or Facebook.
Purchase Links
Melissa’s Tour Stops
Tuesday, September 16th: The Best Books Ever
Wednesday, September 17th: From the TBR Pile
Thursday, September 18th: Snowdrop Dreams of Books
Friday, September 19th: Bewitched Bookworms
Monday, September 22nd: Sara’s Organized Chaos
Tuesday, September 23rd: About to Read
Wednesday, September 24th: Lost in a Great Book
Thursday, September 25th: Supernatural Snark
Monday, September 29th: Paperback Princess
Tuesday, September 30th: Bibliophilia, Please
Wednesday, October 1st: Reader Girls Blog
Thursday, October 2nd: Kahakai Kitchen
Monday, October 6th: Writing Whimsy
Tuesday, October 7th: Books à la Mode
Wednesday, October 8th: Sweet Southern Home
Thursday, October 9th: booknerd
Friday, October 10th: Book Marks the Spot
2 comments:
Great interview!
That IS an unusual twist! I'm interested to see how she uses her abilities and how the story turns out.
Thanks for being a part of the tour!
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