Today, I am SO so honored to host a guest post from one of my favorite people, Tiffany Truitt, whose third book Creators hits stores today! Without Tiffany, Novel Novice might not exist … so, you know, I have a lot of love for her.
* * *
If you’re a regular follower of Novel Novice than there is no need for me to tell you how awesome this site is—-you already know. What you might not know is that it is my favorite YA site around and not just because I think the site’s founder, Sara, is super rad. Novel Novice is hip, knowledgeable, and the best place to visit for the latest exclusives in the YA world, and I am thrilled to be stopping here today.
Today, I will be writing about…If You Like….You Might Like Creators. CREATORS is the third and final book of my YA dystopian series, The Lost Souls. Think Gattaca meets Frankenstein and you got the basic premise. But if those references are a bit dated for your taste, here are some other novels that share similar conflicts and themes with my series.
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy
Summary: After the first wave, only darkness remains. After the second, only the lucky escape. After the third, only the unlucky survive. After the fourth, only one rule applies: trust no one. Somehow, Cassie has survived and now she is running from monsters who look like humans. By this point, she knows that the only way to stay alive is to stay alone. But then she meets Evan Walker, the teenager behind the one pair of eyes that she can begin to trust. (Summary from B&N.com)
Connection to Creators: What I love about this series is that it doesn’t hold back. War is ugly. It affects not just those fighting it but, instead, touches the lives of all those, both young and old, who live in the war-torn country. I tried to show that in my series, especially this last book. War is not pretty and is not merciful, and that sometimes means that important characters have to die. It’s a scary thing for an author to do, but if you are being truthful to the story that needs to be told, than, sometimes, it just has to be done.
The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore
Summary: The six of us are powerful—but we’re not yet strong enough to take on their entire army. We haven’t discovered the full extent of our Legacies. We haven’t learned to work together. And there’s still so much that we don’t know about the Elders or their plan for us. Time is running out, and there’s only one thing we know for certain: We need to find Number Five before they do. (Summary from B&N.com)
Connection to Creators: Say what you will about the novel’s author, but what the book does well is discuss what it means to be other—-both the alienation and responsibility that comes with having super-powers. In this third book of the Lost Souls Series, we get to explore why the chosen ones, genetically engineered super-humans created by the over-bearing council to control mankind, have been controlled and why they may be ready to revolt.
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Summary: In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. (Summary from B&N.com)
Connection to Creators: What I have always loved about Roth’s series is her strong female characters. The Lost Souls Series explore what it means to be a girl in a world where girls are blamed for everything. With Tess, the series’ main character, I tried to create a character who after learning to find her voice nearly lights the whole world on fire, changing it forever.
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Summary: Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria and she comes ashore with the help of a captain. She loses contact with her twin brother, Sebastian, whom she believes to be dead. Disguising herself as a young man under the name Cesario, she enters the service of Duke Orsino through the help of the sea captain who rescues her. Orsino has convinced himself that he is in love with Olivia, whose father and brother have recently died, and who refuses to see any suitor until seven years have passed, the Duke included. Orsino then uses ‘Cesario’ as an intermediary to profess his passionate love before Olivia. Olivia however, forgetting about the seven years in his case, falls in love with ‘Cesario’, as she does not realise ‘he’ is Viola in disguise. In the meantime, Viola has fallen in love with the Duke. (Summary from B&N.com)
Connection to Creators: From the start of the series, I have tried to reference classic British works throughout the novels. In books one and two, I allude to Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Jane Eyre, and The Merchant of Venice. In this novel, there are quite a few references made to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. I do this because I feel like the conflicts that are seemingly modern really have been explored throughout the history of literature itself, most importantly the age-old question: What does it mean to be human?
* * *
About Creators:
Heartbroken but more determined than ever after a tense showdown in the woods, sixteen-year-old Tess once again returns to the safety of her community of Isolationists. Bolstered by new alliances and desperate to protect those she loves, this time she knows she can return stronger and more powerful than ever to take back what is hers.
As she trains in combat and grows more confident, Tess receives beautiful letters penned by her forbidden love, the chosen one James, from his prison in Templeton. He is now serving as a bodyguard to the creators—the team of scientists who created artificial life in the first place. And what he has discovered about the true origin of the illness that halted natural life could change everything. Enemy will become ally and death will bring new hope in this stunning conclusion to Tiffany Truitt’s epic Lost Souls trilogy.
About the Author:
Tiffany Truitt received her MA in literature from Old Dominion University. Her debut Chosen Ones, first in the Lost Souls trilogy, is a searing look at what it means to be other and how we define humanity, as well as a celebration of the dangerously wonderful feeling of falling in love.
Visit her online:
The digital copy of Creators will be on sale for $.99 for a limited time starting on release day (today)!
Novel Novice 
Leave a comment