Genre: Historical


Friday, October 13, 2017

E.K. Johnston’s Favorite Victorian Woman

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Hey everyone! Welcome to Xpresso Reads’ blog tour stop for The Inevitable Victorian Thing! E.K. Johnston won my heart over last year with Exit, Pursued by a Bear and I’ve been a fan ever since! While I haven’t had the chance to read The Inevitable Victorian Thing yet, I am sure it will be amazing and I am sure I will be a FAN. Anyway! Today! We have the lovely E.K. Johnston over on the blog talking about her favorite victorian woman.

E.K. Johnston’s Favorite Victorian Woman

Okay, so my serious answer to this question is Ada Lovelace for a bunch of reasons that you can look up on tumblr.

But my actual answer is a little different.

The year is 1886. At Oxford, four students and one woman (who is a student in all but name, thanks, misogyny), stand on the brink of scientific greatness (or, like, horrible death, ymmv). The samples are ready. They have jumped right to human testing because, uh, reasons, I guess, and it is the brains of the operation who will be the first test subject. Her name is Helen Magnus. And she is one of the greatest characters who has ever existed.

I love Helen profoundly. We meet her in the modern era (she’s immortal, see above re: human testing), and she has managed to grow. She’s not amusingly out of touch or clinging to outdated ideals. She has lived in the world and watched it change, and she has changed with it, confronting her prejudices as she goes.

Helen messes up. Helen is arrogant and reckless. Helen drives too fast and kisses too many people and probably doesn’t eat enough leafy greens, and Helen does not care. She got over caring about what other people think of her when her fiancé turned into Jack the Ripper (long story), and she hasn’t looked back.

The Victorian era was pretty messed up. Class and race and religion and wealth were all used to separate people, to judge them, to punish them. Helen Magnus is a person who grew up in that system and had the wherewithal to make change happen. She didn’t stop when she got into Oxford. She wasn’t content with just her dreams being realized. She wanted a better world for everything, and she was ready and willing to fight for it.

She can do battle. She is a brilliant scientist. She loves so deeply it’s occasionally dangerous to bystanders. She’ll never be finished. And I love her.

About the Book


E.K. Johnston’s Favorite Victorian WomanThat Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston
Published by Dutton Books for Young Readers on October 3rd, 2017
Genres: Historical, Sci-Fi, YA
Source: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendent of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history. The imperial tradition of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage. But before she does her duty, she'll have one summer of freedom and privacy in a far corner of empire. Posing as a commoner in Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire's greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an extraordinary bond and maybe a one-in-a-million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process.

Set in a near-future world where the British Empire never fell and the United States never rose, That Inevitable Victorian Thing is a surprising, romantic, and thought-provoking story of love, duty, and the small moments that can change people and the world.

About the Author

E. K. Johnston is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several YA novels, including the L.A. Time Book Prize finalist The Story of Owen and Star Wars: Ahsoka. Her novel A Thousand Nights was shortlisted for The Governor General’s Award. The New York Times called The Story of Owen “a clever first step in the career of a novelist who, like her troubadour heroine, has many more songs to sing” and in its review of Exit, Pursued by a Bear, The Globe & Mail called Johnston “the Meryl Streep of YA,” with “limitless range.” E. K. Johnston lives in Stratford, Ontario. Follow her on Twitter at @ek_johnston.

 

 

Giveaway!

Three (3) winners receive:
One (1) hardcover copy of That Inevitable Victorian Thing

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on October 2, 2017 and 12:00 AM on October 23, 2017.  Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older. Winners will be selected at random on or about October 25, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

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A Powerful Novel about Grief: The Girl with the Ghost Machine by Lauren DeStefano

Posted by on 06/30/2017 • 2 Comments

Back in the day, everyone would rave about DeStefano’s YA series but I never really got around to reading the Wither series. Years later, here I am raving about DeStefano’s middle grade series. I honestly cannot imagine if her YA books could be any better or honestly, if any YA book could even tackle grief the way DeStefano does in every single one of the middle grade books I’ve read by her.

So probably there is some book out there that does grief better BUT THATS NOT THE POINT OF THIS REVIEW. The point of this review is so that I can sing The Girl with the Ghost Machine praises because series, this book hits you right in the fucking feels.

Emmaline Beaumont’s father starts building a ghost machine when her…

Blog Tour: Lemons by Melissa Savage

Posted by on 06/01/2017 • 1 Comment

Lemons is an unaccepted gem of a novel. It sounds all cutesy because on the surface it is about two kids searching for Bigfoot but really it is a novel about grief and family. Lemons is about redefining family, dealing with loss and also friendship (because the best ship is a friendship.)

Here are 5 reasons to read Lemons

1. Bigfoot. Whether or not you believe in Bigfoot, it is an interesting conspiracy theory and I love all the fun Melissa Savage clearly had with it. She has done her research and it shows in her writing.

2. Lem. I LOVE LEM and I love how complex her character is. I love that she isn’t just the ‘odd ball’ or a typical, displaced child trope. Lem manages to ‘fit’ in (and not in…

Playlist for The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman + Giveaway

Posted by on 02/02/2017 • 6 Comments

Hello and welcome to Xpresso Reads’ tour stop for The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman AKA the book I created my goodreads OTP OF PAIN shelf for. I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Days Club last year but fell head over heels for The Dark Days Pact. In this book, Goodman really upped the stakes and basically put me through hell :’) It was great. Basically, you need this series on your TBR and to help you do that, I put together a playlist that ~I~ think describes the book/series.

THE PLAYLIST

Feat angsty music + some songs that might not be the best fit BUT SINCE I AM MAKING THE PLAYLIST, you’re stuck with them 😉 Also making playlists is H.A.R.D. If you click on the little thing on…

Blog Tour: The Warden’s Daughter by Jerry Spinelli

Posted by on 01/19/2017 • 5 Comments

The Warden’s Daughter is honestly unlike anything I’ve ever read by Jerry Spinelli. When I was in middle school, Stargirl was one of the most important books in my life so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from a historical middle grade novel written by Spinelli. There is still very much the ‘old Spinelli’ in this book but I can definitely see that he has grown and developed as a writer since I last had the joy of reading a book by him.

The Warden’s Daughter is a heartfelt story of loss and just the general need to find one’s place within the world. Cammie has always felt a little incomplete because she never had a mother growing up. She has made it her summer goal to claim a mother…

Review: Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel

Posted by on 09/30/2016 • 2 Comments

The Airborn series was one of my favs ever growing up so I was immediately like YAAS to Every Hidden Thing but then I saw it was pitched as Indiana Jones meets Romeo & Juliet and was like double YAAS. WHO CAN RESIST THE COMBO of a childhood fav author and INDIANA JONES MEETS ROMEO & JULIET? Not me obviously. Anyway, I loved this book and that is all you’re ever going to need to know in your life. BYE NOW. See you again someday.

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*comes back reluctantly to finish reviewing this book*

Every Hidden Thing is fucking amazing brain candy but just because it was brain candy does NOT mean it was easy to read. This book is set sometime in the 19th century (probably late 19th…

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Posted by on 03/30/2016 • 5 Comments

I don’t usually read anthologies and I find it even harder to review them because there are so many stories and so many different feelings about the stories.

But, A Tyranny of Petticoats did say it was about badass girls and who doesn’t want to read stories about badass girls? If you don’t you have come to the wrong place so toodooloo. It was nice knowing you.

So, I read the stories. I didn’t love all of them yet here I am, reviewing the anthology as a whole. The thing is, whether or not I loved every single story is beside the point. What makes this anthology special is the diversity in it. I think historical fiction has a tendency to privilege white voices over other voices just because that is…

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Posted by on 01/20/2016 • 9 Comments

Passenger AKA the much awaited, highly anticipated time travel romance. I had hoped it would be everything I wanted, I had hoped I would swoon and die because cuteness, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. Passenger was by no means a bad book, I just had a hard time relating to the character and getting behind the romance (which is kind of a big deal given that it is a time-travel romance.)

Etta is really my biggest problem with the book. It isn’t that she is fundamentally flawed, I just couldn’t get behind her as a character. Her privilege, growing up the way she did and in the century she did, is so blatant and her ignorance of it really bothered me. Being with Nicholas did make her realize that she was…