Saturday, November 3, 2012

Sweep by Cate Tiernan

I am a sucker for really cheap books.  It is huge weakness for me.  I will read any book that costs a dollar or less unless it is just a romance book. Not to say the books I just read didn't have some love story element to it. It is safe to say love is everywhere and sometimes love is just the bigger part of the whole story. It is my thought that love is the root of all evil (not money). Why? Look at love- people get jealous, people will kill for it, steal for it and whatever else love possesses people to do. Anyway back on track on cheap books....

While shopping at Ollie's one day, I found myself drifting over to the books and I found Sweep by Cate Tiernan, it is series of novels for teens. This particular book had three separate novels in it, Book of Shadows, The Coven,  and Blood Witch. Thank god, they were the first three books.  Okay this book was $2.99 but it did have three novels so I really only paid a buck a book.

I read all three in one day, there are very quick to read. So lets get to the basic story line. A girl meets this enigmatic hunk who is Wiccan. She is quite taken by him. Eventually, he forms a new coven with the friends he met since he is  new in town. The main girl, Morgan, comes to discover she is a real witch from a witch bloodline. The story weaves love and jealousy, high school drama, spells and circles and magick of discovering of the Wiccan path.

One thing is incredibly evident, Cate knows her stuff. She didn't pull the Wiccan stuff at her ass. I am assuming she probably practices.  I did like that about the book. And I am sure I said something about witch's are cool. Though it seems like Secret Circle a series of books by LJ Smith (same author who wrote The Vampire Diaries). I have not read the books but watched the show on Netflix and there is a lot of similar story lines.

I am not going to rip apart her work at all.  For many reasons: she is published, so who am I to judge her work. I don't have books published. Her novels are for teens and I write more for an adult audience. Her books must be popular because there are 12 more in the series. I do want to share what I learned from a writing point of view.

*When I was a young teen I read The Fear Street series by RL Stine, things have changed as far appropriate content for teens, especially in the sex department. There is mentions of sex but there is not pages and pages of sex. This especially good to know if I want to write for a younger audience

*How the story is crafted. One thing that is harped on almost every writing site is character development and don't tell show. Of course this is a large series so character development can happen over a longer period of time. There is an equal mix of showing and telling. And to me it seems like she wrote these stories because that is the way she wrote them. These novels are more story driven and not character driven, this is how I exactly write. I want to tell a story.

*Description is always awesome. Some of her descriptive passages were just amazing with a beautiful mix of colors and scents especially since all books took place in fall through early winter. She really chose some nice adjectives to enhance color.

And with that I am done. Read a book, stay under the covers and watch shadows dance on the wall.

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