Contest: Win a copy of Stalker Girl by Rosemary Graham

Rosemary Graham and Penguin are offering one finished copy of STALKER GIRL to a lucky winner at The Hiding Spot!

Please be sure that you read through the information and rules below.

Prize:

(1) finished copy of STALKER GIRL

How to Enter:

You MUST comment on my review of STALKER GIRL or the interview with Rosemary. (One comment is required.) Then you MUST fill out this FORM. If you neglect to comment on the post or fill out the form, you will not be entered to win.

Extra Entries:
Not required. Extra entries are detailed on the entry form as well.
+2 Comment on the other post (either review or interview).
+1 Tweet this contest. (Leave a link.)
+1 Link this contest on your sidebar, in a post, or on FB. (Leave a link.)
Extra entries will not be awarded for following The Hiding Spot, but it's always appreciated!


Details:
Contest will close November 17th, 2010. Open to the US addresses only!

Good luck!

Interview: Rosemary Graham (Author of Stalker Girl!)

Rosemary Graham's STALKER GIRL is one of my favorite 2010 Contemporary YAs, so I was very excited to ask her a few questions about the novel. In addition to the interview, be sure to check out my review of the novel, here.

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A Brief Bio

Rosemary Graham is the author of Stalker Girl, as well as Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude and My Not-So-Terrible Time at the Hippie Hotel. Her books have been among the International Reading Association “Young Adults’ Choices,” the Chicago Public Library’s “Best of the Best,” and the New York Public Library’s “Books for the Teen Age.” Her essays and commentaries have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Santa Monica Review, and on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” She teaches English and Creative Writing at Saint Mary’s College of California and lives in Berkeley with her husband, the writer Kevin Griffin, and their daughter.

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The Interview

Give a short statement describing STALKER GIRL.
Broken-hearted girl learns that her ex—her first and only love--has found someone new just a few short weeks after they’ve broken up. Who wouldn’t be curious?

Carly’s still hoping that Brian will come back to her when she hears—directly from him—that there’s a new girl in his life. The first thing Carly does after hearing this news is look up the new girl—Taylor—on line. But Carly’s curiosity is only made worse by the information she picks up from Facebook and other Internet sources. She decides she needs to see the new girl live and in-person. Then—she tells herself—she’ll put it all behind her. Each step Carly takes to satisfy her curiosity only makes things worse. Soon, she’s behaving in ways that lead a popular blogger to dub her “Little Miss Psycho.”

Was there a particular story or idea that influenced the writing of STALKER GIRL?
I “saw” Carly before I knew what her story would be. I imagined her sitting in a café, watching another girl her age wondering what it would be like to be that other girl, wishing she could be that other girl. I wanted to explore the way human beings are always comparing ourselves to others, thinking we come up short. One of my favorite reviews of STALKER GIRL (from Caught in the Carousel) says it’s a “story about how we always seem to be chasing the parts of ourselves that we think are missing.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

I was surprised at how easily I could identify with Carly; was it a challenge to see the situation from Carly’s point-of-view?
No, it wasn’t hard at all. A line printed on the back cover of STALKER GIRL goes, “There’s a little stalker in all of us.” A high school student said this to me when I visited her school to talk about the book. That statement led to a debate—girls versus boys—about who was more likely to behave stalkerishly (not a word, people, don’t use it in your book reports!). The boys said girls, the girls said the boys. But I think we’re all capable of stepping over that line between interest and obsession.

Notice how I keep speaking in generalities about all of humanity? Thereby avoiding the opportunity to incriminate or humiliate myself? 

Carly is not a crazy person. I felt like her obsession and subsequent behavior would have been kept in check if she would have had someone to confide in and a few other details had been changed. Do you think there are aspects of an individual’s life and personality that can amplify a similar situation that might otherwise be prevented?
Absolutely. I start the second part of the novel with the words “She wasn’t always like this” in order to get readers thinking about how Carly’s circumstances have contributed to her actions. This is why she’s so obsessed with Brian’s new girlfriend, Taylor. From the outside at least, Taylor appears to have everything Carly doesn’t: the boy, the cool mom, the great house, money and just enough fame. Carly is a fairly happy person, but she’s experienced a lot of loss and so when she loses the best thing that’s happened to her in a long time—Brian—she goes a little nuts. But she is not a crazy person. She is doing crazy things, but she’s not mentally ill.


As you wrote, did you have a specific message in mind, regardless of the message readers ultimately end up taking from the novel?
I love the title of Peter Cameron’s novel, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You. I had a message something like this in mind. Carly wasn’t always like this and she won’t always be like this. While it would have been great if Carly had confided in someone about what was really going on in her life, if she had, I wouldn’t have a novel here. But more than that, I do think that there will come a point in Carly’s life when she will look back on her actions and be able to understand them far better than she can currently. And she won’t be ashamed of her actions. She’ll have empathy for the girl she was.


My blog is dedicated to my personal hiding spot, books. Who, what, or where can be credited as your personal escape from reality?
Ah. Well. I love reading, too. But I kind of do it for a living. (My day job is English Professor) so I don’t think it counts.

I guess my hiding spot is UNDER WATER. Three, four or five days a week, I start my day with a one-mile swim. (After coffee!) Things don’t seem to bother me as much when I’m propelling myself through water. Luckily, I can swim outdoors all year round here in Northern California. I love to swim in the rain.

Review: Stalker Girl by Rosemary Graham

Title: Stalker Girl
Author: Rosemary Graham
Publisher: Viking
Pub. Date: 8.5.2010
Genre: Contemporary YA
Keywords: Stalking, Breakups, Relationships, Secrets
Pages: 208
Description (from GoodReads):
How do you know when you’ve crossed the line between curiosity and obsession?

Carly never meant to become a stalker. She just wanted to find out who Brian started dating after he dumped her. But a little harmless online research turns into a quick glance, and that turns into an afternoon of watching. Soon Carly is putting all of her energy into following Brian’s new girlfriend — all of the sadness she feels about her mom’s recent breakup, all of the anger she feels over being pushed aside by her dad while he prepares for his new wife’s new baby. When Carly’s stalking is discovered in the worst possible way by the worst possible person, she is forced to acknowledge her problem and the underlying issues that led to it.

I almost passed on Rosemary Graham’s STALKER GIRL. I couldn’t help but think it might be just a bit too creepy.. a bit too weird... for my tastes. When I browse contemporary YA titles, I generally look for topics and characters I can identify with, and, when I think of words to describe myself, stalker typically doesn’t come to mind. Then I stumbled upon the book trailer and it somehow lodged itself in my mind; I decided to give STALKER GIRL a try. It took only a handful of pages to completely draw me in and I was shocked at what I found.


It turned out that I identified with Carly more than I ever could have imagined. In an interview with the author, I read that STALKER GIRL was originally titled SHE WASN’T ALWAYS LIKE THIS. While I love the straightforward final title and its ability to lure potential readers into browsing the description, I prefer this first incarnation. Like STALKER GIRL, it draws me in, but it also transforms Carly into a more relatable character right from the start. Yes, the main character is a stalker, but she wasn’t always like this. Of course, the reader discovers this as the novel progresses, but, at least in my case, I think I would have been more apt to pick it up right from the start with this title… I would have wanted to know why she had changed.


Understandably, there’s a stigma surrounding the word “stalker.” For me, stalkers just are. There is no before or reason to their creepy, unacceptable behavior. In some cases, like Carly’s, there is a before. And it’s a before that I feel many can relate to. It begins as innocent curiosity. Your serious relationship has ended, perhaps abruptly, and that person you’ve shared so much with has moved on. What does she have that’s so appealing? Why her and not you? Maybe you’ll just look at her Facebook page and glance through her pictures… it’s harmless. Right? But you can’t stop thinking about him. About her. Maybe if you just saw her, you’d understand. So you snoop a bit more and find out that she’s made plans to be here at this time. You’re just going to go for a glimpse… But you still can’t stop.


Of course, most of us wouldn’t take it this far. We’d have friends who would tell us he’s not worth it, that she isn’t even very cute, and that there are plenty of fish in the sea. But if you’re alone, if those thoughts keep bouncing around in your head… multiplying… intensifying - would you be able to hold yourself back? Or would you find that things have twisted in your mind and you now somehow think it might be alright to watch just a little more…?


If Graham had only shown Carly after the breakup, I might not have identified so strongly with this story. But Graham handled this intense material with skill. The novel is divided into three sections: after the breakup, leading up to and during the relationship, and the consequences of Carly's obsession. It was the middle section, which comprises the bulk of the volume, that made Carly three-dimensional and a character with traits I could identify with. I drew parallels between Carly’s personality and mine, but was cognizant of our differences as well. I appeared to share a number of personality traits with Carly: jealousy, a tendency towards almost obsessive attention to certain subjects or objects (like books). I found myself analyzing why I’d never wound up in Carly’s position… After all, she’s not crazy, at least, not in the traditional sense. She’s been through a lot, her mind is completely overwhelmed, and things just … start to go a bit haywire.


What I mean to say, is that I understand Carly. I found myself wanting to reach out and help her, guide her, let her know she wasn’t alone. I thought I’d feel protective of the new girlfriend, the stalked, but, in the end, I didn’t. Yes, I understood her feelings as well, but it was still Carly that I felt the connection to. Perhaps it was simply Graham’s phenomenal writing that cast a spell and pulled me into Carly madness… or perhaps it was the fact that we all have that small, dark part of ourselves that threatens this crazed behavior... and Carly’s fate.


Grade: A+


Be sure to check out the book trailer... it won me over!