Joy Preble, YA novelist

F***ing Shakespeare

What do you get when you cross clever, sometimes soaring, sometimes heart-breaking, always beautiful prose with immortality, fantasy, and historical themes? Signature Joy Preble. Since 2009, when she published the first book in her Dreaming Anastasia series, she has been writing YA novels that will break your heart, restore your hope in the good things life has to offer, and call attention to the ways in which humans fail one another disastrously.

Sidenote, she’s a master of the meet-cute. There’s a very memorable scene in Finding Paris, in a Vegas diner with a neutron joke and a coconut cream pie that we’ll put up against any Nick Hornby or Four Weddings & a Funeral scene. YA Author Adam Silvera has likened her depictions of plucky teen detectives to Veronica Mars, and we agree. We had similar feelings of escape and sheer doughnut popping sweetness diving into Preble’s two series and her two standalone books — seven books in all. She’s a gem of a writer, a teacher, and a helluva of a bookseller too. We’re lucky to have her on the show.

Topics discussed:

Are we tired of the words feisty and plucky to describe our Strong Female Protagonists yet? We uncover all the ways it makes sense to draw young girls into YA readership with young and perfectly imperfect (read: actually human) characters by speaking with YA author Joy Preble.

We rehash the magical power of the deadline and what do do when your YA fantasy book comes out at the same time as Twilight.

We also gleefully discuss Eli Wallach and his glorious role in the movie Holiday — if you need something to watch for this holiday season.

Special bonus shout-out to the glorious & awe-inspiring pie (not the value or the pizza) buffet on I-45 north towards Dallas at Sam’s.

Check out all of Preble’s books here:

• Dreaming Anastasia (#1 in the series), Haunted (#2 in the series), and Anastasia Forever (#3 in the series)

• Finding Paris

• It Wasn’t Always Like This

• The Sweet Dead Life (#1 in the series), The A-Word (#2 in the series)

Honorable Episode Mentions:

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

• Chicago Public Library system, Bezazian branch

• The Queen of Nothing by Holly Black, winner of this year’s Goodreads prize in YA Fantasy

• The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

Photo credit: Toppel Photography