Blog Tour- Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield
"Becca has always longed to break free from her small, backwater hometown. But the discovery of an unidentified dead girl on the side of a dirt road sends the town--and Becca--into a tailspin. Unable to make sense of the violence of the outside world creeping into her backyard, Becca finds herself retreating inward, paralyzed from moving forward for the first time in her life.

Short chapters detailing the last days of Amelia Anne Richardson's life are intercut with Becca's own summer as the parallel stories of two young women struggling with self-identity and relationships on the edge twist the reader closer and closer to the truth about Amelia's death."- summary from Amazon

Wow, this is a really amazing debut. Rosenfield's prose is so atmospheric that it really makes you feel like you're in the small town. It's really a character-based story and I love that you really get to find out a lot about the characters.

The dual narrative is really interesting and I will admit that I always looked forward to Amelia's chapters. I wanted to know what happened! There's an interesting twist at the end that I really liked. But Becca's chapters are just as good, detailing her conflicting feelings and thoughts about her town, her boyfriend, and her future.

Anyway, definitely pick up this book. It's wonderful and I'm excited to see what Rosenfield has in store for her readers next!

and here's an interview with Kat:

1) How did you get the idea for Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone? Was it difficult to alternate the chapters between two different characters?

My idea for AMELIA actually began in the same place that the book does: with a dead girl who nobody knows, lying in the road on the outskirts of a small, isolated town. I think I've mentioned elsewhere during this tour that my book started out as a sentence instead of a story; I was doing a writing exercise in which you forget about the characters, the plot, the setting, and just try to come up with the most perfect, poignant, grab-em-by-the-throat first line you can. So it wasn't until after I'd written that line — which became the first line of the book — that the bigger idea of AMELIA started to take shape. I also didn't plan to use a dual narrative; it was something that just happened, organically, as I began to write. So while it was a challenge later on to figure out where and how to bring those narrative threads together, the actual act of switching between two perspectives felt very natural.


2) What is your favorite Jelly Belly jelly bean flavor(s)? Or, if you don't eat those, is there a snack you like to have while writing or as a reward for getting writing done?

I haven't eaten a Jelly Belly in... wow. Ten years, maybe? I'm not much of a candy person. I also tend to forget to eat when I'm working, so more often than not, I'll finish writing and realize that my entire nutritional intake for the day consists of, like, an almond. At which point I usually order pizza, not to reward myself, but because I can no longer feel my legs and need sustenance brought to me immediately.


3) What are you working on now? Can you tell us anything about it?

I'm still freelancing full-time as a writer for MTV's Hollywood Crush and Barnes & Noble's SparkLife blog, so I've got plenty to keep me occupied. And I'm also working on a second book. It... has words in it. (Sorry, not ready to share any more just yet.)


4) What book(s) are you reading now, or are about to start?

I'm between books right now; I just finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I'm about to start Tara Altebrando's The Best Night of Your Pathetic Life.

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.