Hey, guys!
I was contacted by the lovely people over at Penguin/Putnam for the awesome blog tour for The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante! While I'm only a few pages into the story, I'm really enjoying it so far. The concepts that Villasante touches on through her work is so fascinating and I'm so excited to continue my journey through this book. If you're interested in picking up this book, feel free to follow the links down below! This book came out on the 11th! Thank you Penguin/Putnam for gifting a copy to me!
I'm so excited to share the Q&A that I did with Alexandra Villasante! She's honestly so freaking cool and I'm already in love with her writing style.
Page Count: 320
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Published on: June 11, 2019
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Goodreads // Amazon // Book Depository
Goodreads synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Marisol has always dreamed of being American, learning what Americans and the US are like from television and Mrs. Rosen, an elderly expat who had employed Marisol's mother as a maid. When she pictured an American life for herself, she dreamed of a life like Aimee and Amber's, the title characters of her favorite American TV show. She never pictured fleeing her home in El Salvador under threat of death and stealing across the US border as "an illegal", but after her brother is murdered and her younger sister, Gabi's, life is also placed in equal jeopardy, she has no choice, especially because she knows everything is her fault. If she had never fallen for the charms of a beautiful girl named Liliana, Pablo might still be alive, her mother wouldn't be in hiding and she and Gabi wouldn't have been caught crossing the border.
But they have been caught and their asylum request will most certainly be denied. With truly no options remaining, Marisol jumps at an unusual opportunity to stay in the United States. She's asked to become a grief keeper, taking the grief of another into her own body to save a life. It's a risky, experimental study, but if it means Marisol can keep her sister safe, she will risk anything. She just never imagined one of the risks would be falling in love, a love that may even be powerful enough to finally help her face her own crushing grief.
The Grief Keeper is a tender tale that explores the heartbreak and consequences of when both love and human beings are branded illegal.
But they have been caught and their asylum request will most certainly be denied. With truly no options remaining, Marisol jumps at an unusual opportunity to stay in the United States. She's asked to become a grief keeper, taking the grief of another into her own body to save a life. It's a risky, experimental study, but if it means Marisol can keep her sister safe, she will risk anything. She just never imagined one of the risks would be falling in love, a love that may even be powerful enough to finally help her face her own crushing grief.
The Grief Keeper is a tender tale that explores the heartbreak and consequences of when both love and human beings are branded illegal.
~~~
About Alexandra Villasante
Alexandra Villasante has always loved telling stories—though not always with words. She has a BFA in Painting and an MA in Combined Media (that’s art school speak for making work out of anything). Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, Alex has the privilegio of dreaming in both English and Spanish.
When she’s not writing, painting or chasing chickens around the yard, Alexandra plans conferences and fundraisers for non-profits. She lives with her family in the semi-wilds of Pennsylvania. You can find Alexandra on Twitter and Instagram at @magpiewrites.
~~~
Thank you so much, Alexandra for answering my questions! Enjoy, everyone!
1. What
inspired you to write The Grief Keeper?
I’m something of a science-geek, despite
the Fine Art degrees. I like to read articles about developing science and
technology, especially if there’s a speculative aspect. I read an article about
a wearable device that was being developed to alleviate some of the symptoms of
PTSD—fear, anxiety, grief— in soldiers coming back from war.
Separately, I’d been thinking about my
parents, who were immigrants. Though they are naturalized now and retired, they
worked and sacrificed and suffered loneliness when they first came to this
country. Still, they would have done almost anything to give my sister and I
the best life they could.
Those two ideas collided when I asked
myself: What if there were a way to erase those terrible emotions of fear,
anxiety and grief? Then, thinking of how energy cannot be created or destroyed,
I thought about how those emotions had to go somewhere. That’s when it
came together as an idea for a book. Undesirable burdens are something we as a
society place upon immigrants on a daily basis. It wasn't much of a stretch to
imagine replacing physically arduous jobs like cleaning and farming with an
emotionally arduous job like absorbing someone else’s grief.
2. In your bio, you say that you’re the daughter of immigrant
parents. How did your family’s culture impact your writing journey and your
story in the end?
I’d started writing The Grief Keeper
before the 2016 election (spoiler alert: publishing is a slo-o-ow business!)
and, even though the immigrant experience has always been part of my family’s
story, the results of the election, and the ensuing crack down on immigrants
and asylum seekers, made me think about how differently things could have
turned out for us had politics been different in my parent’s day. Headline
stories of families like mine suffering separation and loss only intensified
the feelings I already had about these topics. Marisol and Gabi’s story became
more fraught, and their sibling love for each other became stronger through
their adversity. The whole book took on more intensity, just like real life
did.
3.
What does diversity in literature mean to you?
I’m on the event committee of an incredible conference called The
Color of Children’s Literature. This year, the closing keynote was a
conversation between Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop and Jacqueline Woodson. Needless to
say, it was a privilege to listen to the wisdom and passion of these women.
When it comes to diversity, Dr. Sims Bishop’s maxim of creating windows where
the reader can see other cultures, races, religions and abilities along with
mirrors so readers can see themselves and their experiences reflected back to
them, is critical in children’s literature. It’s not a nice to have; it’s not a
trend or phase. Diversity is an imperative.
4. What is your favorite way to creatively express yourself and why?
It’s definitely
writing. But I also paint and draw – sometimes when I’ve got writer’s block,
I’ll sketch character or scene until I push through the block. I unashamedly
love karaoke and have just this week started playing D&D for the first
time. I think I’m a half-elf necromantic wizard? But I could be wrong about
that…
5. In The Grief
Keeper, there seems to be a heavy focus surrounding important topics that
are so relevant in our political climate. Human rights and kindness are so
freaking important. I was wonder if you had a message that you would like to
put out to those who will read this Q&A?
The message I have is that Marisol and
Rey deserve to love and be loved and they deserve to live without fear of their
lives. Everyone deserves that, whether they are seeking asylum in this country,
mired in poverty or struggling with mental illness. If you read The Grief
Keeper and want those things for Marisol and Rey, then hopefully, you’ll want
them for people in real life who are, right now being persecuted in one way or
another for who they are and who they love.
~~~
BUZZ ABOUT THE GRIEF KEEPER
"Villasante’s engrossing debut about two Salvadoran sisters recently arrived in the U.S. opens with plenty of tension…[she] builds her novel about undocumented immigrants into a suspenseful story with credible relationships, satisfying character development, and elements of science fiction.”
—Publishers Weekly
“In her debut, Villasante captures the pressures of internalized racism in immigrants…Will grip readers and provoke empathy.”
—Kirkus Review
"Villasante's novel is for the reader who wants to get down and dirty with the emotional landscape, who wants a romance that is hard-earned and sweetly won. The Grief Keeper shows us trauma and grief without ever glorifying the pain or wallowing in the tragedy, creating a realistic yet still hopeful world seen through the gaze of an intelligent, curious protagonist.”
—Shelf Awareness
Happy reading!
Olivia
~Liv the Book Nerd~
