What You Need to Know About NOVL at YALLFesT 2018
YALLFest 2018 is just around the corner! Katharine, Natali, and I are so stoked, and we hope you are, too! To get you even more excited, I’ve gathered all the books and author panels in one convenient place just in case you wanted more information about each book and author. If you haven’t seen the schedule yet, check here for more information.
This year, we have Brandy Colbert taking over our Twitter for the day, two NOVLboxes that are up for grabs, and our friends over at JIMMY are doing two ARC drops at our booth! And oh, if you attend any panel and post a photo using the hashtag #NOVLatYALLFest, you’ll get an extra entry into the YALLFest-exclusive NOVLbox.
We can’t wait to meet you and talk all things bookish in Charleston next week!
P.S. Remember to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for the passwords to limited edition swag!
Books
I was one of five. The five girls Kyle texted that day. The girls it could have been. Only Jamie–beautiful, saintly Jamie–was kind enough to respond. And it got her killed.
On the eve of Kyle’s sentencing a year after Jamie’s death, all the other “chosen ones” are coping in various ways. But our tenacious narrator is full of anger, stuck somewhere between the horrifying past and the unknown future as she tries to piece together why she gets to live, while Jamie is dead.
Now she finds herself drawn to Charlie, Jamie’s boyfriend–knowing all the while that their relationship will always be haunted by what-ifs and why-nots. Is hope possible in the face of such violence? Is forgiveness? How do you go on living when you know it could have been you instead?
ARC Drops:
Saturday @ 1:30 PM // Lollipop, Lollipop at NOVL Booth
Saturday @ 3:30 PM // Let’s Get Real at NOVL Booth
Note: This is a JIMMY Patterson title.
Ever since her acceptance to UCLA, 17-year-old Raya Liston has been quietly freaking out. She feels simultaneously lost and trapped by a future already mapped out for her.
Then her beloved grandmother dies, and Raya jumps at the chance to spend her last free summer at the ashram in India where her grandmother met and fell in love with her grandfather. Raya hopes to find her center and her true path. But she didn’t expect to fall in love… with a country of beautiful contradictions, her fiercely loyal cousin, a local girl with a passion for reading, and a boy who teaches her that in Sanskrit, there are 96 different ways to say the word “love.”
A modern retelling of the classic Indian legend of Shakuntala and Dushyanta, 96 Words for Love is a coming-of-age story about finding yourself in unexpected places.
ARC Drop:
Saturday @ 3:30 PM // Let’s Get Real at NOVL Booth
Izzy, a practical-minded teen who intends to become a doctor, isn’t happy about her recent move from the Lower East Side across the river to Brooklyn. She feels distanced from her family, especially her increasingly incomprehensible twin brother, as well as her new neighborhood.
And then she meets Tristan.
Tristan is a chess prodigy who lives with his aunt and looks up to his cousin, Marcus, who has watched out for him over the years. When he and Izzy meet one fateful night, together they tumble into a story as old and unstoppable as love itself.
In debut author Shannon Dunlap’s capable hands, the romance that has enthralled for 800 years is spun new. Told from several points of view, Izzy + Tristan is a love story for the ages and a love story for this very moment. This fast-paced novel is at once a gripping tale of first love and a sprawling epic about the bonds that tie us together and pull us apart and the different cultures and tensions that fill the contemporary American landscape.
ARC Drop:
Saturday @ 1:30 PM // Lollipop, Lollipop at NOVL Booth
Rebellions are built on hope.
Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.
With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp’s Director and his guards.
Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.
ARC Drops:
Saturday @ 12:30 PM // Read and Resist at NOVL Booth
Saturday @ 3:30 PM // Let’s Get Real at NOVL Booth
Note: This is a JIMMY Patterson title.
I’ve been chased my whole life. As an illegal immigrant in the territory controlled by the tyrannical Mercer corporation, I’ve always had to hide who I am. Until I found Excalibur.
Now I’m done hiding.
My name is Ari Helix. I have a magic sword, a cranky wizard, and a revolution to start.
When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind.
No pressure.
ARC Drop:
Saturday @ 11:30 AM // Girl Power Hour at NOVL Booth
Magpie Lewis started writing in her yellow notebook the day her family self-destructed. That was the night Eryn, Magpie’s sister, skipped town and left her to fend for herself. That was the night of Brandon Phipp’s party.
Now, Magpie is called a slut whenever she walks down the hallways of her high school, her former best friend won’t speak to her, and she spends her lunch period with a group of misfits who’ve all been socially exiled like she has. And so, feeling trapped and forgotten, Magpie retreats to her notebook, dreaming up a place called Near.
Near is perfect–somewhere where her father never cheated, her mother never drank, and Magpie’s own life never derailed so suddenly. She imagines Near so completely, so fully, that she writes it into existence, right in her own backyard. It’s a place where she can have anything she wants…even revenge.
You Must Not Miss is a twisted and suspenseful tale of magic, menace, and the monsters that live inside us all.
ARC Drop:
Saturday @ 1:30 PM // Lollipop, Lollipop at NOVL Booth
Seventeen-year-old Revna is a factory worker, manufacturing war machines for the Union of the North. When she’s caught using illegal magic, she fears being branded a traitor and imprisoned. Meanwhile, on the front lines, Linné defied her father, a Union general, and disguised herself as a boy to join the army. They’re both offered a reprieve from punishment if they use their magic in a special women’s military flight unit and undertake terrifying, deadly missions under cover of darkness. Revna and Linné can hardly stand to be in the same cockpit, but if they can’t fly together, and if they can’t find a way to fly well, the enemy’s superior firepower will destroy them—if they don’t destroy each other first.
We Rule the Night is a powerful story about sacrifice, complicated friendships, and survival despite impossible odds.
ARC Drop:
Saturday @ 11:30 PM // Girl Power Hour at NOVL Booth
Jonathan Hopkirk and Adam “Kurl” Kurlansky are partnered in English class, writing letters to one another in a weekly pen pal assignment. With each letter, the two begin to develop a friendship that eventually grows into love. But with homophobia, bullying, and devastating family secrets, Jonathan and Kurl struggle to overcome their conflicts and hold onto their relationship…and each other.
This rare and special novel celebrates love and life with engaging characters and stunning language, making it perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson, Nina LaCour, and David Levithan.
ARC Drops:
Saturday @ 1:30 PM // Lollipop, Lollipop at NOVL Booth
Saturday @ 3:30 PM // Let’s Get Real at NOVL Booth
Harriet Price is the perfect student: wealthy, smart, over-achieving. Will Everhart, on the other hand, is a troublemaker who’s never met an injustice she didn’t fight. When their swim coach’s inappropriate behavior is swept under the rug, the unlikely duo reluctantly team up to expose his misdeeds, pulling provocative pranks and creating the instantly legendary Amelia Westlake–an imaginary student who helps right the many wrongs of their privileged institution. But as tensions burn throughout their school—who is Amelia Westlake?—and between Harriet and Will, how long can they keep their secret? How far will they go to make a difference? And when will they realize they’re falling for each other?
Award-winning author Erin Gough’s Amelia Westlake Was Never Here is a funny, smart, and all-too-timely story of girls fighting back against power and privilege–and finding love while they’re at it.
ARC Drops:
Saturday @ 11:30 PM // Girl Power Hour at NOVL Booth
Saturday @ 3:30 PM // Let’s Get Real at NOVL Booth
Authors
Brandy Colbert is the author of Little & Lion, Finding Yvonne, and The Revolution of Birdie Randolph.
Friday @ 3:30 PM
Fierce Friday
at John L. Dart Library
Saturday @ 11:00 AM
For Art’s Sake: Writing Art & Music in Novels
at American Theater - Cinema
Saturday @ 1:00 PM
Second Love
at the Charleston Museum
Saturday @ 2:00 PM
Signing
at the Blue Bicycle Books Tent
Monica Hesse is the author of Girl In the Blue Coat and The War Outside.
Friday @ 3:30 PM
Guest Author
at NOVL S’mores and Pours
Saturday @ 2:00 PM
Feeling Like An Outsider
at American Theater - Cinema
Saturday @ 5:00 PM
Secrets and the Ones Who Keep Them
at American Theatre - Cinema
Kass Morgan is the author of The 100 series and Light Years.
Saturday @ 12:00 PM
Twists and Turns [Moderator]
at American Theater - Cinema
Saturday @ 1:00 PM
Sorry Not Sorry: Prickly Protags
at American Theatre - Ballroom
Saturday @ 4:00 PM
Signing
at Best Friend Train Museum
L.C. Rosen is the author of Jack of Hearts (and other parts).
Saturday @ 1:00 PM
Sorry Not Sorry: Prickly Protags
at American Theater - Ballroom
Saturday @ 2:00 PM
Feeling Like An Outsider
at American Theater - Cinema
Saturday @ 3:00 PM
Signing
at the Blue Bicycle Books Tent