Book Recommendation- BROKEN FOR YOU

I don't normally recommend adult books here, but I have just finished the most amazing book, BROKEN FOR YOU, by Stephanie Kallos. OMG. Loved. It. Just when I despair that I am a slothful, shallow reader who isn't able to stick with literary books, I find this book and devour it, making me believe that I'm not a deficient reader, but rather a highly selective one. This book is that fabulous.

For one, it pulls me in as a reader and gets past all my writer sensors, that in itself is a huge accomplishment. But another thing that it does is break rules, and I love rule breaking when it's done well. Sure, one has to understand gravity before one can learn to fly, but then, such flight!

And lastly, the book turns my whole writing world on its head in the way it approaches the story: it breaks my writing world wide open, showing me possibilities and approaches I'd never even considered. Sort of a, You can do that? moment. A few other books have done this, Tolkien when I was fourteen, OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon, WAR FOR THE OAKS by Emma Bull, amd KUSHIEL'S DART by Jacqueline Carey, to name a few.

I love it when that happens. It's like looking through a kaleidoscope, then having someone twist it and voila! everything lines up in a thoroughly different, but none the less beautiful, way. It's even given me the courage to tackle a couple of stories that I put on the back burner for not thinking I was allowed to write those kind of stories. (I know, I know--I have no idea where I think all these story police are lurking--I never said I was rational!)

Anyway, when you're in the mood for a rich, funny, tender, emotional story of redemption, read this book. You won't be disappointed!