Sometimes reviews tell you things you hadn’t realized about your book, that you can later nod sagely and claim, “Oh yeah, that’s totally what I was doing. Planned it all along. Glad you picked up on that.”
Sometimes reviews teach you cool new words, like uchronia, which was casually bust out in this write-up by Elena Edv on Ridemente for the Italian edition of The Shining Girls.
Uchronia is sort of like alternate history, or alternate present, constructed worlds, and sort of not easily defined, really.
Of all the genre labels that have been assigned to my novels, uchronic seems to fit all of them. Especially the not easily defined part.
Sometimes reviews are more of a group recommend, rendered in a cool and crazy way, like the All Hallow’s Read video Matt Imrie aka @teenlibrarian made, featuring Lego Han Solo in the library beset by monsters… and books.
Click to watch: Lego Han Solo Halloween
And sometimes reviews include recipes for cookies! Like this one by Saniya Husain on the Paperplates blog (which apparently does this kind of thing regularly, pairing books with dishes).
“Because I was so intrigued by the different elements in the story, I was inspired to try my hand at cayenne chocolate chip cookies. I have a sweet tooth that can sometimes only be satisfied by homemade cookies, and the spicy kick takes these simple treats to a gourmet level. Lesson learned: opposites do attract, and together they can create unexpectedly wonderful results.”
And isn’t that what any author wants?
To inspire someone… to make cayenne chocolate chip cookies.