Book Details:
Book Title: Blind the Eyes: A Dystopian-Gothic YA Urban FantasybyK.A. Wiggins
Category: YA Fiction (Ages 13-17), 300 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy, crossover to dystopian, paranormal, contemporary fantasy, gothic and post-apocalyptic.
Publisher: K.A. Wiggins (Imprint: Snowmelt & Stumps)
Release Date: June, 2018
Tour dates: November 26 to December 17
Content Rating: PG-13 + M. No on-page sex, low romance, minimal bad language, underage drinking, significant fantasy violence, scenes containing emotional manipulation, depression, and (light/brief) physical abuse.
Book Description:
A haunted teen outcast and her snarky ghostly best-frenemy outwit enforcers, monsters, and the scars of the past in a race to take expose a deadly conspiracy and escape a bloody end. A lush, award-winning debut to a captivatingly eerie YA Urban Fantasy trilogy. Discover a labyrinthine, post-climate-collapse dystopian Vancouver overrun by monsters and magic in this intricate and startlingly original journey of discovery, restoration, and revenge.
It's hard not to be a little obsessed with survival when your only "friend" is an unruly ghost and the wrong thought could get your soul devoured by eldritch horrors. Haunted 17-year-old outcast Cole wants nothing more than to hide her forbidden fascination with the monster-taken and blend in with the (dreary) scenery. Her plans for a peaceful life take a turn for the deadly when a mesmerizing stranger and his dangerously tempting offer drive her into the middle of a grisly
conspiracy.
But Cole hasn't yet uncovered the biggest secret of all, and it might just have something to do with the mysterious threads tugging her into horrifying visions—not to mention the shimmering boy at their dark heart. Uncovering the truth will cost her dearly as she fends off scheming enforcers, dreamjacking ghosts & soul-sucking nightmares in a desperate quest for survival and retribution. Can she escape the scars of her past and expose the lies before she's the next to die?
Blind the Eyes is the first book in a lush and labyrinthine trilogy of paranormal-meets-gothic-dystopian YA Urban Fantasy filled with glittering underworlds, delicious-and-deceptive strangers, and facing down the voices in your head. This slow-burn fantasy with an edge leads readers on a captivatingly unexpected journey of self-discovery, reclaimed identity, and conflicted sisterhood for those who like a little sparkle with their monsters (it glistens so nicely on all the blood.) Fans of post-climate-collapse dystopias, monsters-and-magic, and genre-bending dark fantasy will love this award-winning series starter in a complete and 100% binge-ready trilogy.
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1: What is your favorite
genre to read & write?
I used to be much more of a high/epic and contemporary fantasy reader, but I’ve really developed a taste for paranormal/gothic/horror and urban fantasy! I have a terrible habit of mashing up all of the above in my books, but so far monsters, ghosts, and fae seem to be the most common tropes, with accidental ecopunk dystopias and gothic vibes creeping in around the edges.
2: Out of all of your
books do you have a favorite character or couple?
For standalone character, Dinner, from a gross-out body-horror-comedy short story on sub is a clear favourite. She’s a not-so-hot mess with a strong stomach and a plan to outsmart a demon. Also Songstress/Rhymes from A Song of Dark Things and also my next series. She tries to outsmart the fae with very mixed results, but hey, at least she’s a rockstar?
For a favourite couple . . . probably Ange and Cass, which is a shame because (spoiler) I killed him off in book one before realizing all the potential there. They’re adorable together. Lots of sparring, grumpy/sunshine dynamic, big height difference . . . yeah, killing him off was a dumb move. On the plus side, I went back and wrote a dystopian romance prequel about them and it’s free to newsletter subscribers (Sign up at kawiggins.com for a free copy of Under!)
And it’s maybe a little weird to have a non-canon ship of your own book, but IDK, I kind of thought Cole and Cass’s absent-minded-professor-type younger brother had some sparks in Burn the Skies, too. Maybe I’ll write an A/U short where they end up together someday. It’d be very amusing to watch them ignore each other from opposite ends of the room or snark at each other in passing. :)
3: What are your
favorite types of heroines? Do you like the damsel in distress who needs saving
or the kick-ass variety? Why?
Both, really. I enjoy a good fainting now and then. I think I’m better at smart-asses than ass-kicking characters, but they’re also fun to write. But, on the balance, I think my favourites are the ones who think too much, wrestle with angst, and are quietly working away in a corner being smarter then everyone else . . .
Brenna Yovanoff is a master at layered, overwhelmed girls and I find her writing very aspirational. Or maybe it’s just cathartic to write prickly, overwhelmed girls taking back their power because *gestures wildly at the whole world.*
4: Did you always want
to be a writer? If not what did you want to be?
I always wanted to be around books . . . and very little else. I wanted to be a writer from middle school on, but struggled between pursuing that and a career in music. However, I was waaay too awkward to be a rock star and couldn’t quite figure out how to start teaching, so I settled on “writer.” It just took me a good decade of flailing around trying to finish school and get a “day job” before I managed to get here!
5: Are you currently
working on a new book at this time?
I just wrapped up a whirlwind of a messy zero draft on a spooky middle grade for NaNoWriMo21. It’s about a tween pretending to be a famous paranormal influencer who finds out his basement opens into the mountain—and it’s haunted down there.
There’s some local history, betrayal, monsters, and dealing with toxic family legacies, white supremacism, and the literal ghosts of your past. I actually busted out the first draft in 11 days, which I’m really proud of, but rewrites may take a while, because I want to do justice to the historical research and anti-racist themes. Tentatively, maybe it’ll hit shelves late in 2022?
And for older audiences, my next series will rockstar-fae UF roadtrip inspired by Supernatural, Patricia Briggs, and Kelley Armstrong’s Cainsville series, with a sprinkling of Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely and Holly Black’s The Modern Faerie Tales. Fingers-crossed, that’ll also launch in 2022!
6: What are you
currently reading? Are you enjoying it? What format is it in (ebook, hardback
or paperback) and who is the author?
I’ve been reading a lot of ARCs (early review copies) for friends lately!
Where Blind the Eyes has some subtle ecopunk and anticapitalism themes with monsters, B.A. Bellec’s Pulse goes all out. It’s a wild plague-apocalypse horror thriller set at a music festival. High body count, but more gross body horror than chilling terror, IMHO. Definitely worth checking out, and he’s doing some really neat stuff in the multimedia world, producing music to go with the book. I’ve got that in both ebook and paperback form. Definitely check it out at babellec.com!
And on the spooky middle-grade front, I just read my friend Mahtab Narsimhan’s fantastic upcoming series starter Warned as an ebook ARC, from Eerie Tales From the East. It’s about a city boy who gets sent to live with his estranged grandfather in the countryside of India. There are death prophecies, class-based discrimination, a spooky mansion and servant, and ghosts, and the author takes on the lingering abuse of the Dalit or “Untouchables” caste in rural India. Awesome for upper elementary and middle school readers. Look for it in February, 2022!
Thanks so much for having me, Victoria! I just want to remind everyone to I just want to encourage everyone reading this to scroll over to the giveaway before it ends and join me at kawiggins.com (and join the newsletter for some free short reads!) or on social @kaiespace!
Meet the Author:
K.A. Wiggins (Kaie) writes award-winning speculative fiction for young people and adults that explores the tangled webs of society, environment, and identity through intricate, dreamlike tales of monsters and magic.
Her debut novel was a Page Turner Awards 2020 Book Spotlight Prize winner and a Barnes & Noble Press "20 Favorite Indie Books of 2018," kicking off a celebrated and recently completed YA Urban Fantasy trilogy set in a gothic-dystopian post-climate-collapse Vancouver. Her short fiction has appeared in small press anthologies, genre magazines, and in translation for international audiences.
She's also the President of the Children's Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia society, co-founder of marketing and business services consultancy The Creative Collective, and a creative writing coach with the Creative Writing for Children society, and was recognized in the 2021 Arty Awards, taking first place in Literary Arts category.
connect with the author: website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ instagram ~ goodreads
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Enter the Giveaway:
BLIND THE EYE by KA Wiggins Book Tour Giveaway
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