Hello my lovelies!
I'm so excited to be a part of the VASSA IN THE NIGHT blog tour and I was one of the lucky ones to be able to ask Sarah Porter a question.
But first, just in case you don't know about the novel, here's some info:
Synopsis:
So I asked Sarah:
Sarah: Hi Sabrina! It’s highly unlikely; Dexter would probably chop off my head inside of ten minutes. I’m spacy and uncoordinated and maybe a little naive. I’d make a lousy hero,
so it’s better if I stick to writing about them!
Ri: I don't know if I'd survive a trip to BY's. I'd like to think that my Slytherin sneakiness and preparedness would help me survive, but who knows. Magic is unpredictable.
I'm so excited to be a part of the VASSA IN THE NIGHT blog tour and I was one of the lucky ones to be able to ask Sarah Porter a question.
But first, just in case you don't know about the novel, here's some info:
ABOUT
Title: Vassa in the Night
Author: Sarah Porter
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release Date: September 20th 2016
Synopsis:
In the enchanted kingdom of Brooklyn, the fashionable people put on cute shoes, go to parties in warehouses, drink on rooftops at sunset, and tell themselves they’ve arrived. A whole lot of Brooklyn is like that now—but not Vassa’s working-class neighborhood.
In Vassa’s neighborhood, where she lives with her stepmother and bickering stepsisters, one might stumble onto magic, but stumbling out again could become an issue. Babs Yagg, the owner of the local convenience store, has a policy of beheading shoplifters—and sometimes innocent shoppers as well. So when Vassa’s stepsister sends her out for light bulbs in the middle of night, she knows it could easily become a suicide mission.
But Vassa has a bit of luck hidden in her pocket, a gift from her dead mother. Erg is a tough-talking wooden doll with sticky fingers, a bottomless stomach, and a ferocious cunning. With Erg’s help, Vassa just might be able to break the witch’s curse and free her Brooklyn neighborhood. But Babs won’t be playing fair. . . .
Inspired by the Russian folktale Vassilissa the Beautiful and Sarah Porter’s years of experience teaching creative writing to New York City students.
So I asked Sarah:
Do you think you would survive a trip to BY's?
Sarah: Hi Sabrina! It’s highly unlikely; Dexter would probably chop off my head inside of ten minutes. I’m spacy and uncoordinated and maybe a little naive. I’d make a lousy hero,
so it’s better if I stick to writing about them!
Ri: I don't know if I'd survive a trip to BY's. I'd like to think that my Slytherin sneakiness and preparedness would help me survive, but who knows. Magic is unpredictable.
REVIEW
Vassa is a purple haired teenager whose constant companion is a talking, kleptomaniac wooden doll named Erg. She lives with her two other sisters of whom she is related to in varying degrees in Brooklyn, where the nights seem to get progressively longer. There is only one store that is open throughout these long nights — BY’s. However, shopping there is dangerous since the owner, Babs Yagga beheads shoplifters and displays the severed heads on stakes surrounding the moving and dancing store.
Vassa is bitter about her circumstances and she really only entered the store out of spite for one of her sisters, who asked her to enter the store on purpose. She wants to be anywhere but Brooklyn and she resents her parents. However, as she is stuck in the store, she learns more about both her past and about the magical circumstances surrounding the store and the elongating nights.
The plot did feel like a fairy tale in that there was a prescribed quest for the hero to accomplish in order to survive and win against the villain. As the novel progressed, it definitely got weirder and I understand why there would be mixed reviews of this novel. Vassa in the Night is a bit ridiculous and weird in the way that Alice in Wonderland is weird and ridiculous. There are bits that are somewhat questionable and don’t really make too much sense at first glance. It has a fairy tale vibe to it that persists throughout the novel and is absurdly fantastical in a way that would seem even out of place in a fantasy novel, but not a fairy tale.
The novel is beautifully written and has that aforementioned fairy tale vibe. The way Sarah personified Night in this novel was so beautiful and I definitely devoured those bits of writing. It’s intriguing and had me constantly flipping pages, wanting to find out what happens next. It’s definitely a unique story and I’ve never read anything like it. Vassa in the Night is wonderfully and beautifully absurd and it will most definitely stick in my mind for a while.
You can check out the rest of the tour at these blogs:
Vassa is bitter about her circumstances and she really only entered the store out of spite for one of her sisters, who asked her to enter the store on purpose. She wants to be anywhere but Brooklyn and she resents her parents. However, as she is stuck in the store, she learns more about both her past and about the magical circumstances surrounding the store and the elongating nights.
The plot did feel like a fairy tale in that there was a prescribed quest for the hero to accomplish in order to survive and win against the villain. As the novel progressed, it definitely got weirder and I understand why there would be mixed reviews of this novel. Vassa in the Night is a bit ridiculous and weird in the way that Alice in Wonderland is weird and ridiculous. There are bits that are somewhat questionable and don’t really make too much sense at first glance. It has a fairy tale vibe to it that persists throughout the novel and is absurdly fantastical in a way that would seem even out of place in a fantasy novel, but not a fairy tale.
The novel is beautifully written and has that aforementioned fairy tale vibe. The way Sarah personified Night in this novel was so beautiful and I definitely devoured those bits of writing. It’s intriguing and had me constantly flipping pages, wanting to find out what happens next. It’s definitely a unique story and I’ve never read anything like it. Vassa in the Night is wonderfully and beautifully absurd and it will most definitely stick in my mind for a while.
You can check out the rest of the tour at these blogs:
Happy Reading!
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