So it's my first ever blog tour guys!
So I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Mostly on advice from Emily. :D
The blurb:
Title: Creation
Author: Kat Mellon
Genre: Literary Fiction
Who owns what you create? Creation is a provocative exploration of what it means to be free. Set in a dystopian future where creativity is exclusively harnessed for the greater good, two artistically talented individuals remind us all never to take for granted the product of our own work and imagination.
Creation is inspired by Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.
Book Excerpt (well Emily told me to just include any excerpt I liked):
The buzzer sounds. It is time to work. Everyone shuffles into their rooms. The door clicks shut and I know that I cannot leave. I quickly use the restroom, drink a glass of water, then sit down at my table to work.
My room, like all of our rooms, is bare. White. Dull. Vacant. I have a lamp, a desk, and a chair. Nothing else. Our clothing is all the same and is stored in the common changing room. Some of the other
Creators have a work of some sort—a painting, a sculpture, a mural—in their rooms. They had HOF approval. I have never asked because I could never choose one single work. I often wonder how the HOF has time to make so many approvals anyway. I don’t want to bother him.
I open the Slab and begin to type.
Jim stepped into the front door of his five-story home. The fish in his wall-to-wall tank stared back at him blankly. He wasn’t expecting any sign of recognition from these creatures. He merely enjoyed looking at them after a long day at work.
I stop writing. Wes’ words are finally getting to me. What if homes are real? Fish? The capacity to keep fish in a home? What if we truly Create these things? I close the Slab and sigh, and my hands slap the desk.No one will know. The ticket is still sitting at the corner of my desk. I have not filed it yet. I am nervous. I grab the ticket between my thumb and forefinger and pull it toward me. I look around even though I know no one is watching, and then I raise it to my face.
Review:
So this is the first blog tour stop I've ever hosted as I've frequently mentions and BOY AM I EXCITED.
This book, while really short, was amazing. I don't usually read like far-end dystopias such as this (very in line with The Giver and such) but this novella really took the reader into the story.
The first part is confusing, throwing the reader right into the middle of the story. I guess it's pretty common in books lately, especially books set in either fantasy lands or dytsopias. But once you get the gist of the background and the characters it becomes clearer and the story flows nicely.
The writing is smooth and mysterious, perfectly pitched. I've never realized how much I was craving good writing style until now. The world building within those few pages was incredible, as well as the idea in itself being wonderful. There were many references to modern-day technology, that grounded the book and really connected itself to reality, giving the ook a sort of immediacy.
What I didn't really like was that the book was so short, giving us much less time for character development and extended world building (meaning, outside of the immediate setting). I hope there will be another book. Really.
...And...that's it, I guess. I don't really have that much to say about a short story, especially one of such high quality.
Kat is a young author living in Fort Collins, CO. She graduated cum laude from the University of New Mexico with a BA in English at age nineteen and is a master of procrastination and pizza eating. She will soon query agents with her biggest and baddest novel, Flowers When You’re Dead.
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