The Sea of Tranquility - Updated! YA March Madness Championship Round

Theres's an awesome competition for readers of Young Adult going on right now, YA March Madness, and my favorite book of 2012 has made it to the Championship Round. Here's the web site for Chick Loves Lit blog, where you can vote now, and again each day through Wednesday. I'd like to encourage you to vote for The Sea of Tranquility, and to read it if you haven't yet, it's an amazing book!

I'd also like to just pause for a second to bask in the glow of making it this far, from an initial field of 64 books, here to the final round of two. The first round was tough for fans of indie contemp, because TSoT was facing another awesome indie author. And when it survived that round to face The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green, honestly, it was tough to be optimistic. But Nastya and Josh's story kept going, and now here it is, facing The Golden Lily, by Richelle Mead.

I didn't know much about Richelle Mead's world until now, but it's kind of intimidating, yo! In its last round, TSoT survived a challenge from "Shadow and Bone," by Leigh Bardugo, an NYT bestseller with a movie deal, a sequel cued up, and a bunch of bloggers campaigning on her behalf. Richelle's book is even more heavily credentialed - it's a spin-off from the hugely popular 6 volume Vampire Academy series, one of YA PNR's most epic franchises (over 3.5 million sales, and is being filmed by the producer of the Transformers series!) TGL debuted as a number 1 bestseller on the USA and NYT best seller lists, it even has its own frickin' Wikipedia page! We are still relying on our slightly used six inch stilettos of insanity, a pile of sawdust, and an ache in our hearts where the echoes of a now silent piano are still half heard, half remembered. Oh yeah, we've got a lot of love, too, for the most awesomest book most of us have ever encountered. It's strikingly ironic to me that The Sea of Tranquility is up against a book which features such a richly imagined supernatural world where powerful protagonists wield wild and weird talents against fantastical foes. Here are the very first words I read from The Sea of Tranquility, a brief excerpt Katja published on Goodreads, before the book itself was even available:

I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.

If that sounds harsh, depressing or grim, let me assure you that it is anything but. It's dark, but lyrical and intense, a richly imagined and beautifully written world that will become part of your internal landscape forever.

If you haven't read The Sea of Tranquility, please take a look at this cool video made by my friend Mollie Kay Harper. It will def give you a feel for the vibe of the book (enough to vote on in anticpation of loving it!)

Thanks to Maryse's Book Blog for the awesome TSoT image above!