Indigo Book Preview: Fall 2016 Edition

On August 17, 2016, five months after Indigo’s last event, the team at Indigo Teen brought together the reading/blogging community in Toronto for another preview; this time for Fall 2016 releases.

For worldwide readers, if you’re unfamiliar with what/who Indigo is, they’re your friendly neighborhood Barnes & Nobles, Waterstones, Kinokuniya, Dymocks etc.

But before I delve into the recap, I need to thank the individuals behind @IndigoTeen for extending an invitation for me to attend.

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Bookish Community Members

Prior to gathering at Indigo HQ, I met up with Danielle (@BookieDani) as I was informed that she was chilling at a Starbucks nearby. We had a brief chat before meeting up with Amanda @ Books, Brains, and Brawn and Patty @ Pattycakess20 at the entrance of Indigo’s office.

Side story: most people leaving the building had a ‘wtf?!’ face when they saw the crowd of 20 some-odd individuals chilling by the doorway entrance. We were technically a fire hazard.

Upon entering the room, we were greeted by a sign-in table and another with misc. Indigo knick knacks.

Instead of being in a kumbaya-campfire sitting formation (like last time), we were seated around two tables (one of them is pictured below courtesy of Erika’s POV during the event — her Booktube link is here). I sat between Jesse @ Books at Dawn and Patty.

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Coming in Fall 2016

And with everyone settled in, I recap to you — as verbatim as possible — the presentation that was pitched to attendees. Note: I have marked with a red * the titles I am fucking dying for.

The presentation opened up with featured books in:

James Dashner’s “THE FEVER CODE” (27/09/16)
Cassie Clare’s “TALES from the SHADOWHUNTERS…” (15/11/16)
Lester & Howell’s “DAN & PHIL GO OUTSIDE” (03/11/16)

Followed by not-silent cries of joy with crowd favourites:

Sarah J. Maas’ “EMPIRE OF STORMS” (06/09/16)
Marissa Meyer’s “HEARTLESS” (08/11/16)

— And you can bet your boy thought “lol-I-have-not-read-anything-by-either” but more on this after.

After which, Indigo featured specific authors whom they were excited for their newest releases:

Random Rigg’s “TALES of the PECULIAR” (03/09/16)
*Kendare Blake’s “THREE DARK CROWNS” (20/09/16)
Mindy McGinnis “FEMALE of the SPECIES” (20/09/16)

— and omfg I need Three Dark Crowns so badly. So badly. I also think I would read Female of the Species but it’s not a title that I covet as much as Three Dark Crowns, plus, I still have McGinnis’ duology to power through.

Then we ventured into genre-specific releases:

“Fantasy Debut”

*Jessica Cluess’ “A SHADOW BRIGHT and BURNING” (20/09/16)
Sarah Raughley’s “FATE of FLAMES” (22/09/16)

— A Shadow Bright and Burning might be among top 10 (?) fall releases I require yesterday.

“New Science Fiction”

*S.J. Kincaid’s “THE DIABOLIC” (01/11/16)

— I actually have two ARC copies of this; one of which is the boxed version which I will likely giveaway soon because there is no reality that I cannot see myself enjoying this book.

“New Contemporaries”

Jennifer Niven’s “HOLDING UP THE UNIVERSE” (04/10/16)
*Nicola Yoon’s “THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR” (01/11/16)

— I’m not a contemporary buff but aside from the squees of joy from those in attendance to the outpouring of love from the online blogging community, this book heralds some amazing topics that I cannot see myself not wanting to devour.

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RECO App

Indigo then took a break from all the book conversation to transition towards their RECO App — which I can best describe as an alternative to Goodreads (?) with more of a personal social media flair. I think most attendees had or knew of the app so it was more of a Q&A for them to learn about problem areas. (I actually don’t use this app so there isn’t much for me to add.)

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Fall 2016 Continued

Continuing with genre-specific releases:

“Great New Canadian”

Erin Bow’s “SWAN RIDERS” (20/09/16)
Kenneth Oppel’s “EVERY HIDDEN THING” (20/09/16)

“Great New Series”

P.C. Cast “MOON CHOSEN” (18/11/16)
Danielle Paige’s “STEALING SNOW” (20/09/16)
*Sharon Cameron’s “THE FORGETTING” (13/09/16)
*Sarah Beth Durst’s “THE QUEEN of BLOOD” (20/09/16)

— THE FORGETTING is basically if you take THE PURGE (film) and then add in an amnesia element sans protagonist. And that sounds hella good. I didn’t know about this until the event but damn, I am stoked they passed along finished copies for everyone.

— THE QUEEN OF BLOOD looks wicked. A world that lives and breathes “fuck you” to its protagonists by having nature trying to kill the heroes and heroines? I’m game.

“Great New Fantasy”

*Sabaa Tahir’s “A TORCH AGAINST the NIGHT” (30/08/16)
Marie Lu’s “THE MIDNIGHT STAR” (11/10/16)
Rosamund Hodge’s “BRIGHT SMOKE COLD FIRE” (27/09/16)
*Leigh Bardugo’s “CROOKED KINGDOM” (27/09/16)
Marie Dahvana Headley “AERIE” (04/10/16)
*Scott Westerfelds’ “SWARM” (27/09/16)
Anna Banks’ “NEMESIS” (04/10/16)
Erika Johansen’s “FATE of the TEARLING” (29/11/16)

— How long has it been since I’ve wanted to read An Ember in the Ashes? Too damn long. This isn’t my super hyped title out of the bunch but I still would like to have it?

— Crooked Kingdom is actually the first pre-order purchase I made and I am so excited for this bittersweet ending to squad goals that is the Dregs.

— Swarm is a book I’m both excited for and iffy about and I’m definitely delaying reading the ARC until I must. I don’t know. Retrospectively, as much as I would have enjoyed for this YA X-Men (ish) story line to continue, I would have been fine if the story ended after one book.

“Great New Contemporary”

Jay Asher’s “WHAT LIGHT” (18/10/16)
Krystal Sutherland “OUR CHEMICAL HEARTS” (06/09/16)
*Paula Garner “PHANTOM LIMBS” (13/09/16)
Cohn & Levithan’s “TWELVE DAYS of DASH and LILY” (18/10/16)
M.E. Girard’s “GIRL MANS UP” (06/09/16)
Kathleen Glasgow “GIRL IN PIECES” (30/08/16)

— This might just be the Olympic high in me but I am quite interested in Phantom Limbs.

“Great New Science Fiction”

*Lauren Oliver’s “REPLICA” (04/10/16)
*Kristoff & Kaufman’s “GEMINA” (18/10/16)
*Katherine McGee’s “THE THOUSANDTH FLOOR” (3008/16)
Claudia Gray’s “A MILLION WORLDS WITH YOU” (01/11/16)
*J. Patrick Black’s “NINTH CITY BURNING” (06/09/16)

— Replica. I just want to experience the various ways to read this story tbh.

— Gemina. The same logic applies to this as it did for Torch. Need but not necessarily that soon…mainly because I instabought Illuminae but still haven’t read it yet lololol.

— The Thousandth Floor. I swear it’s the fucking cover that’s convincing me to start this book.

— I love how I have never heard of Ninth City Burning but upon reading the blurb, it’s Enders Game meets Red Rising meets Starship Trooper. Explosive and fun is what it sounds like.

“E.K. Johnston”

Johnston was actually at the event and spoke to us personally about her many [past] books and her many [upcoming] releases. I’ve only ever been graced by her tweets and word-of-mouth positivity for her charismatic personality, so it was great to hear her speak in person.

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Community Mingling

The pre-presentation, break time, and post-presentation mingling are usually the highlights of most events like these. As I typically only see certain bloggers during random bookish events in the city, it was great to briefly catch up with each of them and make some new buds along the way.

Also: I’m  pretty sure I ate half of one of those square party-sized pizzas. The hunger was real.

Also also: thanks, Photographer Mike, for providing me with my new Twitter/IG profile pic. It’s rad and accentuates my eye bags. That’s double winning.

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Swag and ARCs

Unlike the previous Indigo preview event where there was a swag/ARC table and attendees went all Hunger Games on the pile, this time around, they arranged for everyone to get the same general swag bag followed by there being ARC copies available for six promoted books (Swan Riders, Fate of Flames, Holding Up The Universe, The Sun is Also a Star, The Thousandth Floor, and Spindle).

What I am most surprised about is that they gave everyone UK editions of the first three books of the Throne of Glass series. I’ve been spoiled by this book through various outlets (one of them mainly being Liam @ Hey Ashers! snarky read-a-long recaps), but it is surely incentive to read it (maybe).

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Afterthoughts

Long story short: this was awesome, everyone is awesome, and I cannot wait for the next event to happen!

Which Fall 2016 book release are you excited for?

Cheers,
Joey

connect: 
afterthoughtAn // twitter
anotherafterthought // goodreads
picturevomit // instagram