Thursday, February 14, 2013

"Poison"

Molly Cochran has written and ghostwritten over 25 novels and nonfiction books, including the Edgar-winning bestseller Grandmaster and The Forever King, recipient of the New York Public Library award for Books of the Teen Age, both co-written with Warren Murphy, and the nonfiction bestseller Dressing Thin. Her most recent novels are the YA titles, Legacy and Poison.

Cochran applied the Page 69 Test to Poison and reported the following:
From Page 69:
I knew that I was having a klutzdown--a meltdown of klutziness, not unfamiliar to me--and that if I stood up at that moment I was sure to stub my toe, spill coffee on my books, and probably poke myself in the eye. "Breathe," I commanded myself. "In, out, in, out..."
This is how Katy Ainsworth--a reluctant mystic who "reads" the past by touching objects from distant times--arrives at her first vision of the legendary magician Merlin and his young daughter, who vainly begs him to stay with her instead of raising the boy who will become King Arthur.

Merlin doesn't listen, of course; everyone knows that Merlin was Arthur's mentor. As for the forgotten daughter--well, unfairly or not, parents sometimes do favor one child over another. One of the questions I pose in Poison is "What happens to the child who is not chosen? How is the spurned one poisoned by knowing that the love she expects is given instead to another? What do any of us do when the people who ought to love us--boyfriends, BFFs, family--betray us? What do we do when there's no one to support us except ourselves?

Despite these troublesome questions, Poison is not a depressing book. Written from Katy's nerdly funny point of view, the story unfolds from the oh-crap moment when she bursts in on some girls in her boarding school dorm and they unexpectedly drop over unconscious to her final confrontation with an evil force that is larger and more dangerous than Katy can ever imagine. In the end Katy must learn how to depend on herself, as sooner or later we all must, giving up thoughts of being rescued by princes or parents, serving as our own best friends, and becoming the heros we never thought we could be.
Learn more about the book and author at Molly Cochran's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: Legacy.

--Marshal Zeringue