Book Review: Student Bodies (Poltergeeks #2) by Sean Cummings + tour wide giveaway

Welcome to my stop on the Student Bodies blog tour hosted by YA Bound Book Tours. Click HERE to see the full blog tour schedule!

Student Bodies (Poltergeeks #2)
By: Sean Cummings 

Whoever said being a teenage witch would be easy? For fifteen-year-old Julie Richardson and the city’s resident protector from supernatural evil, the Left Hand Path doesn't give a damn if you've found true love for the first time in your life. There’s someone lurking the halls of Crescent Ridge High School with enough malice to unleash an epidemic of Soul Worms – supernatural larvae that feed on the very fabric of a victim’s humanity. 

After witnessing the death of one of the most popular kids at school, Julie and über genius boyfriend Marcus are in a race against time to find out who is behind the attacks. All the evidence points to a horrifying plot at the City Weir during the Winter Solstice; the place where icy waters of the Bow River and a thunderous spillway will mean the deaths of more than a hundred of Julie’s classmates.

If she has any hope of saving their lives, she’ll need a little help from a coven of white witches and an Aboriginal mage whose snarky attitude is matched only by her magical prowess.

  

I want start out with how much I adore the covers of both Poltergeeks books! Okay, moving on...

There are very few young adult books out there getting a lot of attention that don’t dwell on angsty romance. Sean Cummings is providing a different option for those who like mystery, action and teenager/parent angst that most of us deal with. This is a series boys and girls can enjoy. One problem parents face with the whole young adult genre is which ones are appropriate for 13ish teens vs the 16ish teens. I feel like the writing in this series is geared for the 13ish crowd, but there is some language like the F-bomb. In reality this is exactly how this age group talks with each other (I would know, I have two of them <G>).

Student Bodies is a darker book than the first one Poltergeeks, but with more fast paced page turning action. It deals heavily with the topic of bullying and there is a lot of magical violence against the students. I think it got a little preachy about bullying, but this is an emotional issue that so many young adults deal with and the author did a great job with it.

Cumming’s has done a lot of research into magic of all types and it shows. Julie teams up with a young girl who uses a different kind of magic than her and her mother. One tied to the earth and very old. This makes Julie’s world bigger and she grows from the experience. 

The book focuses on relationships: mother/daughter, classmates, boyfriend/girlfriend. Julie, like most teens, is dealing with all these at once and sometimes she makes the wrong decisions, but she learns from her mistakes and tries to make things right.

There was an unexpected turn of events I didn't see coming in Julie and Marcus’s relationship at the end of the book. I am looking forward to finding out how she deals with it.

4 “Grizzly Bear” Sheep

Sharon Stogner

About the Author:
*Author Links*
  
Sean Cummings is a fantasy author with a penchant for writing quirky, humorous and dark novels featuring characters that are larger than life. His debut was the gritty urban fantasy SHADE FRIGHT published in 2010. He followed up later in the year with the sequel FUNERAL PALLOR. His urban fantasy/superhero thriller UNSEEN WORLD was published in 2011.

2012 saw the publication of Sean’s first urban fantasy for young adults. POLTERGEEKS is a rollicking story about teen witch Julie Richards, her dorky boyfriend and race against time to save her mother’s life. The first sequel, STUDENT BODIES is due for publication in September 2013.

Sean Cummings lives in Saskatoon Canada.

Sean Cummings Book Tour guest post + contest

Today we have Sean Cummings, Canadian author of urban fantasy and now...young adult! I had the privilege of snagging an early review copy and I think Sean has something special here. We have interviewed Sean before here and my review of Poltergeeks is here. I wanted to ask a few things about the writing of Poltergeeks. 

isn't this a gorgeous cover?!

Sharon: Why did you decide to write a YA?

Sean: To see if Icould do it, mostly. I had a cool ideafor a book and there was just no way on earth that it could ever be an adultstory so I decided to write something for young adults. I’m pretty luckybecause POLTERGEEKS is my first young adult novel and it’s the book that foundme an agent and got a great publishing deal as well. I think most authors arewanting to grow as a writer and to explore the boundaries of their writing –that’s another reason why I wanted to take a stab at writing YA. I found thatthe first draft, however, sounded too middle grade so I rewrote it. Even thefinal product needed a lot of tweaking – my editor Amanda Rutter urged me toinclude swearing, for example. I’m forty five – I’d forgetting that I used tocurse up a storm when I was in my teens. Things like that helped Julie’s voicebecome more believable – more authentic.

Sharon: Why did you choose a female POV?

Sean: A couple of reasons – first, it wouldn’t have workedwithout a female protagonist. I really wanted to write a teen witch story and Ijust couldn’t see a boy in Julie’s place. The second reason is because I wantedJulie to have an uncomplicated romantic life with a dorky boy who adores her.That was in there from the very first draft – a wickedly smart nerd who lovesher with all his heart,

Sharon: Did you have to change your writing style to move toYA?

Sean: Yes and no. Iknow, that’s not really an answer, but yes because I had to write for what Ibelieved a young adult audience would want to read. That meant I had to make mycharacters sound younger. At the same time, there are a huge amount of adultfans of YA out there, so I had to strike a balance between writing for them becauseI didn’t want to disappoint. It’s acurious balance, that.

Sharon: There have been lots of great reviews forPoltergeeks from bloggers, have you gotten any feedback from actual YA readersyet?

Sean: Not yet. Idon’t know if that’s because there are fewer YA bloggers out there or not.

Sharon: Are you working on any other YA projects?

Sean: I’ve completedthe second in the series, STUDENT BODIES. Amanda Rutter, my editor at StrangeChemistry has it and I expect to begin revisions some time this fall. I’mplotting a third book right now – no title yet. I’ve also got a YA novel calledTHE NORTH which I have to start revisions on for my agent. That would be thefirst book in a trilogy – a post-apocalyptic series in the aftermath of azombie apocalypse. The book features a teen army reserve unit that goes hatchesdown and bust out of their zombie infested city only to find the zombies aren’tthe only enemy they have to deal with if they intend to survive.

Sharon: Anything else you would like to add?

Sean: I hope everyonefalls in love with POLTERGEEKS. It’s a wild ride of a book! Thanks for theinterview!!

Releases October 2, 2012

15-year-old Julie Richardson is about to learn that being the daughter of a witch isn't all it's cracked up to be. When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it's pretty obvious to Julie there's a supernatural connection.

In fact, there's a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie's high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it's a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won't just lose her mother's soul, she'll lose her mother's life.

about the author:

website-fb-twitter

Sean Cummings is a comic book geek, superhero junkie, zombie fan and a total nerd. (He’s also a gold mine of completely useless information about films made prior to 1960. Don’t get him started on “Arsenic and Old Lace” because he won’t shut up about it. ) He’s been writing since 1978 (as a means of liberating his “inner nerd”).

His interests include science fiction, the borg, cats with extra toes, east Indian cuisine and quality sci-fi movies/television. He’s a Barclay’s Premier League fan with a soft spot for Blackburn, Norwich City FC and Tottenham Hotspur. (Though the latter consistently break his heart more often than not.) When he’s not collecting comic books or attending the latest science fiction convention, he can be found in his home office, writing away like a man possessed.

Strange Chemistry is a global imprint dedicated to the best in modern young adult science fiction, fantasy and everything in between.

We launch in September 2012, with physical books across a wide variety of formats, e-books as standard, and with selected titles made available as audiobooks.

The Strange Chemistry editor is Amanda Rutter (interview with Amanda about SC) and agents with appropriate YA titles to propose can offer them through amanda.rutter@angryrobotbooks.com
Please note: We are not currently accepting proposals except through an agent.

http://edgeauthors.blogspot.com/2012/08/setting-up-strange-chemistry-by-edge.html

Contest

Go to Sean's website here 

comment on that post

to enter to win all 4 books by Sean.

Sean's adult urban fantasy novels

Sheep ARC Review: Poltergeeks by Sean Cummings

Releases October 2, 2012

15-year-old Julie Richardson is about to learn that being the daughter of a witch isn't all it's cracked up to be. When she and her best friend, Marcus, witness an elderly lady jettisoned out the front door of her home, it's pretty obvious to Julie there's a supernatural connection.

In fact, there's a whisper of menace behind increasing levels of poltergeist activity all over town. After a large-scale paranormal assault on Julie's high school, her mother falls victim to the spell Endless Night. Now it's a race against time to find out who is responsible or Julie won't just lose her mother's soul, she'll lose her mother's life.

Sean Cummings, Canadian author of adult Urban Fantasy, has written a young adult paranormal for Angry Robots’ new YA imprint, Strange Chemistry. Poltergeeks is about Julie, a young teenage girl trying to prove to her mother and herself that she is responsible enough to use her magic on her own, but she quickly gets in over her head, dragging her best friend Marcus along for the dangerous ride.

This is an action/mystery story with a sweet romance woven in. What impressed me most was Cummings’s knowledge of magic and his use of it in this story. I don't know much about magic, but I know when something doesn't ring true and his system was very believable. Add fabulously written action scenes and you have a fast-paced kick-butt story. Even though Julie has to deal with a few serious issues, the author keeps it light and angst-free, giving the reader a fun reading experience. (And any story with a talking dog is winning in my book.) I am a fan of first person POV and enjoyed experiencing things through Julie’s eyes. She has the makings of one of those snarky heroines I love in urban fantasy novels.

It is a little difficult to say what age group would enjoy this most. The story will definitely appeal to the 13-15 year old crowd. There is a little bit of profanity in it, but let’s face it, any 15 year old would cuss while being attacked by a malevolent sprit <G>. If you don’t mind your middle grader watching PG-13 movies, I think they will enjoy this story too.

One more note, have you checked out this cover? It is fabulous! Strange Chemistry is off to a great start with Poltergeeks (and isn’t that a clever title? <G>) in its line up so be sure to check them out. Sean will be doing a blog tour for the release of Poltergeeks in October and will be stopping by I Smell Sheep, maybe he will give us some hints about about book two Student Bodies releasing Spring of 2013.

SharonS (edited by BAK)

4 sheep

Find Sean online

FB-website-blog-twitter

and Pinterest
(where you can get clues about Poltergeeks)

Sean Cummings is a comic book geek, superhero junkie, zombie fan and a total nerd. (He’s also a gold mine of completely useless information about films made prior to 1960. Don’t get him started on “Arsenic and Old Lace” because he won’t shut up about it. ) He’s been writing since 1978 (as a means of liberating his “inner nerd”).

His interests include science fiction, the borg, cats with extra toes, east Indian cuisine and quality sci-fi movies/television. He’s an English Premier League fan with a soft spot for Blackburn (Gah! Relegated!!), Norwich City FC and Tottenham Hotspur. (Although Spurs consistently break his heart more often than not.) When he’s not geeking out online or watching football (soccer) on the dish, he can be found in his home office, writing away like a man possessed.

Sean’s published works include Shade Fright (Snowbooks 2010) Funeral Pallor (Snowbooks 2010) and Unseen World (Snowbooks 2011). He is currently working the follow up to his forthcoming debut Young Adult novel POLTERGEEKS.

Poltergeeks is only $6.01 for the kindle

Strange Chemistry is a global imprint dedicated to the best in modern young adult science fiction, fantasy and everything in between. We launch in September 2012, with physical books across a wide variety of formats, e-books as standard, and with selected titles made available as audiobooks.