Stefan Petrucha's Journal

Originally published at Stefan Petrucha News. You can comment here or there.

Murder of crows, mob of kangaroos?  Hate to start the new year with a bad joke, but having spent ’08’s end mailing copies of Rule of Won to sundry bloggers, eleven reviews and interviews have appeared just in the last few weeks!  As any author will tell you, promoting a book is a very difficult process.  This is working out so well, as soon as I get around to it, I’ll post a new link at my site so book-bloggers and reviewers can request copies of my work (when available).  I want to thank everyone for their warm, welcome support and all the great words. Details follow.

Fellow writer Cynthia Leitich Smith isn’t only a fantastic YA author with far more energy than I, she’s a tireless literature advocate with an award winning website.  She’s also just posted a full interview with yours truly,  discussing my career and Rule of Won.

That One Girl Emily has both an interview and review. The review reads in part, “It makes you think, which is the best thing a book can do. I highly highly recommend it to high school students. Anyone younger might not be able to grasp it as well.”

Amanda Marasco at That Teen Can Blog! reviewed not one, but two of my books, saying: “The Rule of Won exceeded my expectations, and left me with a long lasting impression, and questions that can’t be answered. Heh maybe I should imanifest the answers coming to me.”  AND:
“I never thought that a corporation was a person, or could raise a child. But after reading Teen, Inc. I see that a corporation IS made up of a bunch of people. Jaiden was a very humorous main character and kept my attention through out the entire novel.”

Beyond that another eight reviews for Rule that I know of, listed below with brief quotes…

Heather Grove at Errant Dreams Reviews:   “..a wonderful tale of desires, greed, selflessness, selfishness, sacrifice, mystery, and slackness. Sure there are lessons you can take away from it, but the book is so fun & fascinating that I never felt like I was being preached at.”

Douglas R. Cobb for Curled Up With A Good Kid’s Book:  “The Rule of Won is an enjoyable critique of The Secret. But it’s also much more - a suspenseful page-turner that’ll has you guessing to the end about what will happen to Caleb (especially when he agrees to fight Ethan in one of the novel’s most climatic scenes) and if the rest of the students will finally wake up and realize that the beliefs taught by The Rule of Won are just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.”

The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books: “Beneath Caleb’s laugh-out-loud, self-deprecating observations lies a slick parody. …getting to know Caleb is both instructive and entertaining, and his primer on slacker psychology is well worth the price of admission.”

Teresa Konopka at Front Street Reviews: “This book is excellent for young readers since it juxtaposes teen angst with the globally faddish craze called positive thinking.  The overall tone of the novel is blithe yet escalates as the novel progresses.  It is definitely a page-turner as readers wonder what will become of the run of the mill teenage boy quarreling with an increasingly popular cult”

Amanda Bauer at Reading is a Drug:  “I absolutely loved this book. It was far different than anything I have ever read. The plot kept me going, surprises on every page. The whole line of the story was extraordinary, and was one adventure I will never forget.”

Mehnaz Alam at YaBookRealm:   “I thought it was an awesome read. And if any of you have reluctant reader friends that hate to read I suggest recommending this book because it’s hilarious and an easy on the head kind of book.”

Kelsey Fleming at JustBlinded Book Reviews:  “Caleb was such a great character to read—he had the perfect mixture of sarcasm and sweetness, skepticism and belief. He was the perfect character for a book like this; he made the entire situation so much more believable, he added this extra kick to the entire book. There were times when I would laugh out loud at things he said, or did, or though and would make certain situations more fun to read.”

Ashley Bzdel at Ashley’s Bookshelf:  “Grade: A  This was a really good book. It was kind of slow at first, but once Caleb joined the club, it picked up its pace. I really enjoyed Caleb’s character. He was really funny, and seemed like one of my friends! The story flowed really well, and I was sad the story came to an end.”

That’s all this week!  Hope January’s been good to you all so far.  Pax.