Tag Archives: Thomas

Blog Tour: Circus Summer by Kailin Gow – Dream Cast (@kailingow)

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Today I’m happy to be part of the blog tour promoting Kailin Gow’s newest book, the circus dystopian Circus Summer! I’ll be putting up a review at a later date, but today I have something that I always find rather fun. Kailin is guest posting and letting us know her dream cast if there were ever a movie version of Circus Summer!

And seriously, if there was ever a movie version, it would be super-awesome, because this book has crazy action, monsters, romance, and circus funtimes. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to see that?

So now you’ll know who Kailin had in mind as she was writing Circus Summer, and that’ll make your life easier when you read it. Or at least, it should. That’s how my brain works, at any rate.

As a bonus, if you want to go buy the Kindle version of Circus Summer, there’s a contest/giveaway for the chance to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card hidden in the pages!

Say what?

*Looks ruefully at paperback*

*Considers buying Kindle version in spite of already owning signed paperback*

Ahem.

Oh, also, if you are intrigued and would like to purchase a copy of Circus Summer, email your receipt to info(at) theEDGEbooks(dot)com, along with a comment saying that you heard about the book from me. Whichever tour host generates the most sales gets goodies. And I like goodies. Obviously.

So without further ado, here’s Kailin!

Guest Post  – Kailin Gow

Dream Cast

Circus Summer (Circus of Curiosities #1)

When I thought up the idea of the Circus of Curiosities Series, I pictured a world in sepia and red.  A world that has been devastated by war and poverty, but where people still have the willpower to survive and love despite all the devastation.

Out of the ashes from the devastation in this post-apocalyptic world, emerge the champions of humankind.  Everything is cryptic in Book 1 (Circus Summer), as seen through the eyes of Leela Sinclair, who is kept innocent and ignorant of the Invaders, the War, and the mysteries behind the Capitol.  Like most citizens in the United, this is intentional, as is the Circus’ purpose to entertain and distract while displaying the height of human capabilities as well as faults.  However to those who know a bit more about the War and the Circus, such as Zachary Niles, the Circus presents an opportunity to change things, an opportunity he must keep secret.

Dex Hightower (Dr. Dex)

Dex Hightower is the mysterious and charismatic, handsome, quirky,  and charming ringmaster of the Circus of Curiosities.  He can be cruel yet kind at the same time.  He has a connection to Niles and Leela’s mother, as well as an intriguing bad boy past in Sea Cliff, the little town the Circus of Curiosities have stopped at to perform this summer.  Somewhere in the beginning of writing, Johnny Depp kept popping up in my mind as a strong contender for the role of Dr. Dex.  He has the smoky and sexy quality that gives him an allure that allows him command the attention of all those in the crowd, as well as the circus performers.  He’s also charming, smart, and mysterious.  He can be a villain as well as a hero, which Dr. Dex walks the fine line with in his Circus.

Zachary Niles (Zach)

Zachary Niles is the gorgeous, popular and charming boy in Sea Cliff, whom Leela Sinclair had always had a crush.  His parents own the only marketplace in Sea Cliff, which makes Zachary the richest boy in school.  He volunteers to be in the Circus, although no one can figure why, since he doesn’t need the opportunities, food, and money as the others who enter.

Thomas Tattenbaum

?

Thomas is Leela’s best friend and family friend.  He’s handsome in an All-American boy next door who’s a hunky hottie way.  He and Leela have always been done things together like dive for oysters and go rock climbing together.  He’s Captain of their school’s swim team, and very much in love with Leela.

For some reason, I didn’t picture an actor specifically to play Thomas.  But from reading Circus Summer and about Thomas, who would you cast?

THCW vote: 

or maybe…

(And yes, I realize I cast Matt Lauria last time I did a dream cast too. What can I say, I want to see FNL actors in EVERYTHING.)

Leela Sinclair

?

Leela Sinclair is a hard-working teen living in Sea Cliff with her ailing mother and little brother.  Her older brother has been drafted to the War and her father, who used to be a doctor, was sent to the War to help.  Leela is the provider of her family, which means she couldn’t have time for anything other than school, work, and taking care of her family.  When the Circus of Curiosities rolls into town, she finds the Circus, as morbid and dangerous as it is, a way to help her family and a way for her to do more with her life.   She’s a natural beauty, who is athletic  yet feminine at the same time.

Again, I’m leaving the character of Leela Sinclair open.  Who would you cast after reading Circus Summer and getting to know Leela?

THCW vote:

(Again with my great love for FNL.)

Well, there you have it – the main cast of Circus Summer.

Thank you for letting me share Circus Summer with you!

Kailin

About the book:


In post-apocalypse America, every season, the Circus of Curiosities visits the city, bringing with it the most fantastic circus acts that are beautiful, majestic, curious, and death-defying. Every season performers for these acts are chosen from the young men and women in each town, trained, and sent to perform in a live grand performance, performed literally to the death. Two performers from Sea Cliff, a beach town at the outskirts of The Center find themselves chosen to be in this Summer’s Circus Act. Both must win at any cost, but could they ignore their feelings for each other? Leela Sinclair needs to win in order to get to The Center where she can get medical help from the best physicians for her ailing mother, plague with a condition no one have heard of. For Zachary Nile, his reasons for becoming a performer at the Circus is more mysterious. Only the ringmaster and the Circus of Curiosities owner Dex Hightower (Dr. Dex) knows what the touring Circus is really about amidst the magic and splendor. Despite the Great War and the poverty surrounding the land except for the towns fortunate enough to be near the Center, Dr. Dex and the Circus performers all know, “The show must go on.”

About the author:

Kailin Gow is the author of over 100 books, with the majority of them for young adults. Her most popular series are:  The Frost Series, PULSE Series, Desire Series, Wicked Woods, Steampunk Scarlett Novels, and more.  A full-time author, she is also a producer, having worked in radio, television, and film.  She grew up in Southern California, lived in Texas and England, and had traveled extensively around the world.

Links:

Website: www.KailinGowBooks.com

Blog: http://KailinGow.Wordpress.com

Twitter: http://Twitter.com/KailinGow

Facebook: http://Facebook.com/KailinGowBooks

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/KailinGow

Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner (@jamesdashner)

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I checked out The Maze Runner from the library, having no real idea what it was about other than it was another YA dystopian, and I’d heard it was really good. And people…”really good” just does not do this book justice.

The Plot

Thomas wakes up trapped in a dark box, with no recollection of his past, his identity (other than his name), or his purpose. Soon, the Box is opened by a group of teenage boys he doesn’t recognize, and Thomas emerges from the Box into a bizarre world which is surrounded by huge concrete walls on all sides. No one can tell him who he is or why he is there, because they all started in the Box too.

The boys tell him that the he is in the Glade. And outside the Glade, through the huge doors in the concrete walls, lies the Maze. They have formed a small yet functional society within the Glade, surviving until the time when one of them can find a way out. And the only way they can conceive of to escape is to solve the Maze.

Every day, the doors open. The Runners go out, searching for an exit. Every night, the Runners return, the doors close, and terrifying monsters prowl the corridors of the Maze. To be trapped in the Maze at night is to guarantee a horrific death.

The Runners have been searching for an exit from the Maze for years, but have never found a solution. But Thomas feels an inexplicable pull to become a Runner. And although he can’t explain why, he thinks he can solve the Maze.

My Thoughts

Holy cow, people. This book was insane. I was completely riveted from page 1, something that rarely happens. Even with books I completely adore, it normally takes me a chapter or two to immerse myself in the world of the book. But with The Maze Runner, I was in that Box with Thomas. I was confused and uncomfortable and determined to make sense of the situation.

As the book went on, I, like Thomas, was completely perplexed and frustrated by the mystery of the Maze and why they were trapped in the Glade. But James Dashner had an uncanny ability to predict what I was going to ask, and then have Thomas ask that very question. For example, when they’re explaining that getting trapped in the Maze at night is a death sentence, I wondered if they’d attempted climbing the walls. Then Thomas asks, “Why don’t you just climb the walls?” So although I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how they were going to escape the Maze or why we were there, I was frustrated with the characters instead of at the characters.

The pacing of this book was excellent. While the action doesn’t really kick up until about 1/3 of the way into the book, I still felt my adrenaline pumping right away just because of the strangeness of the situation. There was suspense simply in not knowing why any of this was happening. Then, once Thomas gets his bearings a bit better, the real action picked up. So basically, I felt like I was having heart palpitations for the majority of this book. In a good way.

The characters were also well developed. While not every Glader was fully fleshed-out, the main ones all had their own personalities and layers. I felt like I knew these kids, and I found myself cheering for some and rolling my eyes with Thomas at others.

Even the dialogue, which I sometimes find really annoying in sci-fi/dystopian books when the author feels the need to throw in a bunch of made-up “future” slang, somehow felt natural in this book. Maybe it’s because Thomas draws attention to it almost immediately, saying it sounds weird and foreign. Since it’s acknowledged in the book, I accepted it and moved on. Eventually, it began to sound natural, to me and to Thomas.

Bottom line: I thought this book was amazing. It’s not for everyone. It’s got an extremely high “weird” factor. And the suspense that kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire book may not be what others are looking for. But for me, I completely and totally adored this book. I couldn’t put it down (literally. I read the whole thing in a day, something I was not planning on doing). It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever read. My only complaint is that my library doesn’t have Book 2 available RIGHT NOW.

Content Guide: Contains violence and death of children, constant feelings of suspense and peril.