An anon on tumblr recced Halsey to me, and ever since I’ve basically been listening to her non-stop. She is so. good. Especially Trouble, which is literally a summary of the novel I’m writing at the minute.
Halsey describes her music as being like a horror movie, and that’s exactly right. I love it.
Hannibal is destroying my life. I had to make a new tumblr just so I could complain about all of my Hannibal feelings without everyone in the world unfollowing me. HANNIBAL, GUYS. I can’t handle it. It’s too much for me. Just – in every way. Help me.
The series so far is best summarised by this headline from The Onion:
Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her “our little genius.”
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh.
Honestly, I just love this because it reminds me of The Passage, which is one of my favourite books. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s already one of the best books I’ve read in 2015, I think. I’m such a sucker for this kind of storyline. Give me more.
I went to a thai restaurant for my friend Clare’s birthday last week and tried sticky coconut rice for the first time. I think it changed my life. How have I never had coconut rice before? How?!? Why didn’t you guys tell me about this?
Alice draws the most amazing art of her characters (and mine!) and posts something new and incredible almost every day.
She completely knocked it out of the water this time, with a comic about the characters from her new e-novella Nick and Charlie. It’s very short but hard hitting, and I highly recommend you check it out, along with basically everything else on her art blog.
Plus, we filmed a video together at YALC which is hopefully coming . . . some time soon? So brace yourself for that magic. It’ll probably be something like this.
1. He regularly refers to you as a “poor man’s Janet”: Sorry, but if your guy constantly calls you a “poor man’s Janet,” referring to his ex named Janet, chances are he’s still hung up on her.
2. When he says his ex’s name he points at the sun, but when he says your name he points at the sewer: Not much else this could mean. He’s definitely not over her yet.
I would usually aim for something a little more highbrow that a spin-off Onion site (The Onion is clearly a theme today). However, I haven’t been so genuinely tickled by something as I am by “poor man’s Janet” in a long time.
Lauren James is the twice Carnegie-nominated British author of many Young Adult novels, including Green Rising, The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker and The Loneliest Girl in the Universe. She is a RLF Royal Fellow, freelance editor and screenwriter.
Lauren is the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League, and on the board of the Authors & Illustrators Sustainability Working Group through the Society of Authors.
Her books have sold over a hundred thousand copies worldwide and been translated into six languages. The Quiet at the End of the World was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and STEAM Children’s Book Award.
Her other novels include The Next Together series, the dyslexia-friendly novella series The Watchmaker and the Duke and serialised online novel An Unauthorised Fan Treatise.
She was born in 1992, and has a Masters degree from the University of Nottingham, where she studied Chemistry and Physics. Lauren is a passionate advocate of STEM further education, and many of her books feature female scientists in prominent roles. She sold the rights to her first novel when she was 21, whilst she was still at university.
Her writing has been described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal and ‘a strange, witty, compulsively unpredictable read which blows most of its new YA-suspense brethren out of the water’ by Entertainment Weekly.
Lauren lives in the West Midlands and is an Arts Council grant recipient. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the Guardian, Buzzfeed, Den of Geek, The Toast, and the Children’s Writers and Artist’s Yearbook 2022. She has taught creative writing for Coventry University, WriteMentor, and Writing West Midlands.
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8 thoughts on “July Favourites! Hannibal | The girl with all the gifts |”
LAUREN JAMES 
That pencil case is so cute! 🙂
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I love it so much! I think it’s the best present anyone’s ever gotten me, actually!
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