SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY Outbreak!!

The winner of the 7/24 Giveaway on Pub(lishing) Crawl of a finished copy of SOMETHING STRANGE AND DEADLY is…Sydney R.!!!! Shoot us an email at SSADOutbreak@gmail.com to receive your prize! :D

Yesterday, a fantastic book written by a very good friend of mine came out. Since I’m guessing you’ve seen the banner at the top of this post, you probably already know which book I’m talking about :)

I first heard about SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY about two years ago, when I first met Susan, so I was able to cheer along with her as the manuscript quickly netted her an agent and a book deal for the trilogy at Harper. I also feel really lucky to have been able to read the book early so I can tell you all how awesome it is!!

I’m not usually a big zombie person. I don’t like zombie movies, and for the most part, I don’t like zombie books. Admittedly, this is purely because they freak me the hell out! The “dead” in SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY manage to keep all the scary, creepy, (kinda gross) properties that make zombies such terrific monsters, while imbuing a twist to the “zombie” story that I really enjoyed. Think more SABRIEL than the usual zombie terror flick, and you know how much I love SABRIEL!

Even more than the special take on zombies, though, I love SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY for its characters. If you pop on over on the book’s main site, you can see some really fabulous full-color drawings of the main team, plus some information on them. Characters have always been one of the most important parts of a story for me. I like the sort of characters who are so interesting and vivid that I’d pay just to see them locked up in a room somewhere—and that certainly is the case for the cast of SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY! (Though considering the amount of talent in said cast, they’d probably finagle their way out of any locked room in less than ten minutes!)

Eleanor Fitt, our main character, is unlike any other leading lady I’ve read about recently. She’s not much for adventure at first, preferring a nice sit down with tea and buttered toast and a book, but she quickly arises to the challenge when her brother is kidnapped. Like other heroines trapped in a victorian society, Eleanor chafes at her restraints—the limitations put upon her as a woman of relatively high birth but little money. 

However, her struggles to do what she needs to do never feel out of place for a girl born and raised during her time period. Her position as a girl during the 1870s feels real, as does the rest of the world crafted in this novel.

Susan is an amazing friend, and an amazing person, but that’s not why you should keep an eye out for SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY. That you should do because her debut is an amazing book :)

And now, because we’re celebrating the release of SOMETHING STRANGE & DEADLY, on to the giveaway! Today, you can enter to win an ARC of ORIGIN by Jessica Khoury and an ARC of SKINNY by Donna Cooner. The giveaway is only open to residents of the US only and lasts until midnight tonight.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The winner of this contest will be announced tomorrow on the next stop of the blog tour, so be sure to check back! Here’s what’s still ahead:

• Thursday 7/26: Leigh Bardugo dishes about SS&D and setting
• Friday 7/27: Amie Kaufman chats about SS&D and love interests
• Monday 7/30: Marie Lu takes a look at SS&D and action
• Tuesday 7/31: Susan Dennard will announce the grand prize winner!

In the meantime, help us spread the word on twitter with the #SSaDOutbreak hashtag. And don’t forget to enter the grand prize giveaway for a chance to snag some epic prizes! (An amazon gift card, highly coveted ARCs, crits from authors Erin Bowman and Sarah J. Maas and agent Joanna Volpe, and more!) For details on how to enter, click here.