Title: FACELESS
Pub. Date: September 29, 2015
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 288
Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook, audiobook
Description:
When Maisie gets into a terrible accident, her face is partially
destroyed. She's lucky enough to get a face transplant--but how do you live
your life when you can't even recognize yourself anymore?
She was a runner, a girlfriend, a good student...a normal girl.
Now all that has changed. As Maisie discovers how much her looks did--and
didn't--shape her relationship to the world, she has to redefine her own
identity, and figure out what "lucky" really means.
From Alyssa Sheinmel, the acclaimed author of Second Star, this
is a lyrical and gripping novel that will challenge readers to think about how
we create and define ourselves.
Guest Post:
1) There is a movie out about a woman whose brain gets put
into another body because her body is failing. When she first sees herself, she
freaks out because she doesn't recognize her own face. Would you ever have a
"body transplant" if yours was failing the technology was available?
In Faceless, when
Maisie’s doctors first tell her that she is a candidate for a face transplant,
she can’t quite believe that it’s a real procedure. Maisie thinks that a “face transplant” sounds like something
out of a sci-fi movie, a horror story, an action thriller. And let’s face it: to some extent, she’s
right. The idea of switching
body-parts or faces or brains has been featured in movies from Freaky Friday to Face/Off to The Man with Two
Brains and Soapdish. We’ve read about it in books like Starters and Enders and even Frankenstein. Clearly the concept has fascinated us
for years! It sounds out of this
world. And yet, face transplants
are real procedures that have helped patients with devastating injuries, as
Maisie comes to discover.
In an article I read when I was researching face
transplants, one expert said that body-transplant patients – people who’d
received strangers’ arms and hands, for example – often had a harder time
adjusting to their lives post-op than face-transplant recipients. Doctors thought it had something to do
with how much more you actually see
your arms and hands than you do your own face. I can’t even begin to imagine the psychological impact of a
full body-transplant!
The funny thing about considering whether I would want to have a body transplant –
if my own body was failing and the technology was available – is that I spent a
big chunk of my life absolutely hating my body. I spent so much of my adolescence and young-adulthood
wishing I had different hair, different skin; that I was skinnier, shorter,
that my lips were fuller, my nose smaller. I tried (and failed) to starve myself and sometimes forced
myself to throw up. I used to sit
around thinking about all the people whose bodies I’d rather have than my own, wondering
who had the best legs, the best stomach, the best arms and so on and so
on. There was a time in my life
when I probably would have loved to hop into someone else’s body just to get
rid of my own. Anything had to be
better than the skin I lived in.
Back when I was struggling with my body-obsession, I thought
of my body as something other than
me; I never felt completely comfortable in my own skin. But now, my body and mind don’t feel
quite so separate. Of course there
are plenty of bodies out there that are “better” than mine – healthier,
stronger, younger, fitter, whatever – but I can’t imagine living in someone
else’s skin.
On the other hand, if my own body was failing, maybe my
survival instinct would kick in.
The desire to live might trump the desire to stay in my own body. The truth is, I don’t really know. But at least I do know that right now, I’d
rather stay put in this skin than to try living in anyone else’s.
I was born in Stanford, California, and even though I moved
across the country to New York when I was six years old, I still think of
myself as a California girl.
Like so many writers, I grew up loving books. I loved stories so
much that when there was nothing to read, I wrote my own stories just to give
myself something to read. And when there was no pen and paper to be had, I made
up stories and acted them out by myself. I played all the parts, and I was
never bored.
Giveaway Details
3 winners will receive a finished copy of FACELESS. US Only.
Tour Schedule
Week One:
9/21/2015- Bookhounds ya- Interview
9/22/2015- I'm Shelf-ish- Review
9/23/2015- The Cover Contessa- Guest Post
9/24/2015- Enchanted Excurse- Review
9/25/2015- The Book Bratz- Interview
Week Two:
9/28/2015- My So-Called Book
Reviews- Review
9/29/2015- Paranormal Book Club- Excerpt
9/30/2015- Once Upon A Twilight- Review
10/1/2015- Curling Up With A
Good Book- Interview
10/2/2015- Me, My Shelf and I- Review
No comments:
Post a Comment