Once in a blue moon, I will chat about a book I’m working on at HarperCollins. I’ll be sure to be transparent about that when it happens, so here you go: Wings is a HarperTeen book, and I work for HarperTeen, and when I was brought on I was giving a gigantic stack of shiny YA books which I intend to plow through little by little.
So! Wings by Aprilynne Pike is the first in a series of YA books about Laurel, a girl who moves to a new town, starts going to public school for the first time, and discovers she’s a faerie. Except instead of sprouting gossamer butterfly-like wings, her “wings” more resemble a huge-petaled flower. That’s because she’s more plant than animal, as she discovers through her sciencey human friend David and her mystical faerie friend, Tamani. Both these dudes are way hot and want to smooch Laurel tons. Oh! And there’s also some evil trolls trying to find the hidden gate to Avalon, the faerie kingdom.
A quick word on love triangles: they’re a really good way to incorporate conflict into a story, and maybe you’re sick of seeing two guys fight over one gal. But what I liked about this love triangle was that Laurel was a strong enough character to say, “Geez guys, I think we have these huge evil troll things to worry about right now. I dunno, maybe we can worry about who smooches who when we’re out of certain danger?” Fist pump, girlfriend!
Laurel is a gentle character who still manages to make tough decisions about things like her relationships with these boys, her identity, and her place between the human and faerie world. I know last week I said I worried about how young heroines were sometimes portrayed as boy-crazy airheads, but Laurel isn’t that girl. She’s pretty level-headed, and I think that’s really refreshing.
Can I just say I love books about girls who discover they’re WAY different than all the other kids at school? It’s such an indulgent, delightful kind of story. When I was 6, I believed I was a robot from outer space sent to record human behavior. It was the biggest disappointment to hear from the doctor every year that I was normal, normal, normal. Nobody feels normal, ever, and I think that’s why I love stories that turn that universal anxiety into something concrete.
The other thing I didn’t like about this installment was the long buildup to the action at the end, but that could have just been my geeky propensity to skip the origin story and get straight to the adventure, comic book style.
If you want to check out the first few chapters of Wings, click the widget above. And if you want to sneak a peek at the next book in the series, Spells, click here:
Currently reading: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee