Thank you so much to Rockstar Book Tours for organizing this tour
and letting me be a part of it! There is a lot to checkout so make
sure you stop by all the other blog stops and check it all out!!
Ana only knows her name because of the tag she finds pinned to her jumpsuit. Waking in the featureless compartment of a rocket ship, she opens the hatch to discover that she has landed on a barren alien world. Instructions in her pocket tell her to observe and to survive, no doubt with help from the wicked-looking knives she carries on her belt. But to what purpose?
Meeting up with three other teens--one boy seems strangely familiar--Ana treks across the inhospitable landscape, occasionally encountering odd twists of light that carry glimpses of people back on Earth. They're working on some sort of problem, and the situation is critical. What is the connection between Ana's mission on this planet and the crisis back on Earth, and how is she supposed to figure out the answer when she can't remember anything?
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publication date: June 25, 2013
Pages: 240
Guest Post
Five Big Questions PARADOX Readers Will Want to Uncover
By A. J. Paquette
It’s no secret, from the first page of my debut YA novel PARADOX, that this is a story in which there is a lot going on. Our main character, we quickly learn, is named Ana. She is in a rocket. She has landed on an alien planet. And for a while, that’s all that she—and we—know. Question piles on top of question, and the pace accelerates to breakneck speed.
Without further ado, here are the top 5 questions Ana is asking herself right now and wishing she had the answers for:
- “Who am I?”
It’s a biggie! Ana’s got a nametag, but that’s all she knows about who she is. She has no memory of her past, though her body is well trained and her muscle memory takes over on occasion to show her that, maybe, she knows more about her situation than she thinks she does.
- “Why am I here?”
There’s a letter in her pocket, but far from providing the answers she seeks, its cryptic directions leave Ana feeling more confused than ever. “Experience. Discover. Survive.” Those are her instructions. She needs to stay alive. She needs to reach a certain destination. Beyond that? It’s all a blank.
- “What exactly is chasing me?”
If all of that weren’t enough, Ana quickly realizes that she is not the only creature on the planet: some sort of giant monster is hot on her tail. It becomes all too obvious that this will not be the easy alien-desert trek it first might have appeared.
- “What are those memory strands that come out of nowhere and drop me into someone else’s mind?”
It starts as a mysterious twinkling, which cascades down on top of Ana and drops a fragment of memory into her mind—a stranger’s memory, dark and dire and desperate; a memory of an Earth on the brink of destruction. But whose memory is it? And how? And what can Ana hope to do about it?
- “What will happen when the timer reaches zero?”
And here’s the corker. Ana’s got a timer on her wrist, which is ticking down the hours, the minutes, the seconds of her life with eerie efficiency. It’s clear that this countdown is drastic and cataclysmic in some inescapable way. But what does it lead to? And what will happen if she doesn’t reach her goal before time runs out?
There’s a lot that Ana doesn’t know, and even when she gains companions on her journey they can’t—or won’t—give her any satisfactory answers. But the answers are out there, and Ana is a girl who doesn’t let things go. She will find out the truth, no matter how long it takes. No matter what the cost. And even if the end result leaves her longing for those days of blissful unawareness. And that’s a bit of a paradox in itself, isn’t it?
A.J. Paquette has been writing stories since early childhood. She and her sister would spend hours creating masterpieces of stapled paper and handwritten words, complete with pen-and-ink covers and boxed illustrations.
The road to publication was long and winding, peppered with many small successes including: a variety of national magazine publications, being a 2005 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Discovery Award honoree, and receiving the 2008 SCBWI’s Susan Landers Glass Scholarship Award, for the book that would later become Nowhere Girl. Her first picture book, The Tiptoe Guide to Tracking Fairies, was published in 2009.
She now lives with her husband and two daughters in the Boston area, where she continues to write books for children and young adults. She is also an agent with the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
Giveaway
A tour wide giveaway of an ARC of PARADOX to THREE winners.
(US/Canada).
Follow the rest of the stops on the tour!!
June 17th - Parajunkee - Guest Post
June 18th - Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews - Interview
June 18th - In Bed With Books - Review
June 19th - Chapter by Chapter - Guest Post
June 20th - A Dream Within A Dream - Review
June 20th - Escaping... One Book at a Time - Guest Post
June 21st - Coffee, Books and Me - Interview
Week Two
June 24th - Word Spelunking - Review
June 25th - Emilie's Book World - Guest Post
June 25th - Confessions of a Readaholic - Review
June 26th - Nick's Book Blog - Interview
June 26th - Magna Maniac Cafe - Review
June 27th - A Book and a Latte - Guest Post
June 28th - I Am A Reader Not A Writer - Guest Post
Paradox sounds quite interesting due to its setting on an alien world. A protagonist who doesn't remember who she is should also prove intriguing to read about. :) I added this book to my Goodreads TBR list.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds awesome! I love stories that are mysterious and intense, with many questions and not many answers :) This sounds right up my alley - paradoxes, mysteries, not knowing who she is and who or why is chasing her.. I'd love to read it! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Tiff!
Evie @Bookish
Sounds intriguing!
ReplyDeleteI think the whole alien concept of this book is really book. There seems to be a lot of alien lately and I'm always excited about new concepts.
ReplyDeletePlus, the cover looks crazy!
Concept of alien worlds.. sounds awesome.. Looking forward in reading.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by that one boy that seems strangely familiar to Ana ... I wonder what their back story is ...
ReplyDelete