What is Elana Johnson reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Elana Johnson, author of the YA novels Possession and the recently released Surrender.

Her entry begins:

Okay, so I read a lot, and mostly what gets sent to me by my publisher or books I’ve agreed to read for blurbage purposes. I will say though, that no matter why I have the book in my hands, I only read it if I love something about it. I give every book 100 pages to make me fall in love with something—the writing, the character, the setting, etc.—and if I’m not hooked then, I typically don’t finish.

Here are a few books I’ve devoured this past month or so:

Forget Me Not by Carolee Dean: This is a contemporary YA novel, written in verse. I have recently fallen in love with...[read on]

About Surrender, from the publisher:

The thrilling and seductive sequel to Possession puts love on the line in a dystopian struggle for independent thought.

Forbidden love, intoxicating power, and the terror of control…

Raine has always been a good girl. She lives by the rules in Freedom. After all, they are her father’s rules: He’s the Director. It’s because of him that Raine is willing to use her talent—a power so dangerous, no one else is allowed to know about it. Not even her roommate, Vi.

All of that changes when Raine falls for Gunner. Raine’s got every reason in the world to stay away from Gunn, but she just can’t. Especially when she discovers his connection to Vi’s boyfriend, Zenn.

Raine has never known anyone as heavily brainwashed as Vi. Raine’s father expects her to spy on Vi and report back to him. But Raine is beginning to wonder what Vi knows that her father is so anxious to keep hidden, and what might happen if she helps Vi remember it. She’s even starting to suspect Vi’s secrets might involve Freedom’s newest prisoner, the rebel Jag Barque….

Visit Elana Johnson's website and blog.

Writers Read: Elana Johnson (August 2011).

My Book, The Movie: Possession.

Writers Read: Elana Johnson.

--Marshal Zeringue