NEW YORK POST – PAGE SIX
Hot new novel is ‘Blessed’
Tonya Hurley’s young-adult novel, “The Blessed,” is being touted as the next “Twilight,” so much so that Simon & Schuster is putting some Hollywood star power behind its launch. Kara Hayward, the young star of the Wes Anderson movie “Moonrise Kingdom,” has signed to narrate the audiobook, and pop legend Vince Clarke has recorded a version of his former band Depeche Mode’s classic “Fly on the Windscreen” for the book trailer. On Oct. 3, Clarke, along with Gus and Scout duo Gus Wenner and Scout Willis and Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt, will perform at the book’s launch party at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn.
Book Review: The Blessed by Tonya Hurley
Brooklyn teens Lucy, Cecelia and Agnes find themselves in the emergency room at Perpetual Help Hospital at the lowest point in their lives. Lucy, the superficial party girl; Cecelia, a drop out rock chick; and Agnes, a hopeless romantic. All rebels running from their lives and themselves, plagued by broken hearts and broken dreams. Enter Sebastian. Mysterious, compelling, seductive. He seems to bring each of them what they long for…
But in the battle for his heart, will they lose their souls? Read More…
Peep EXCLUSIVE Cover, Excerpt From Tonya Hurley’s ‘The Blessed’
Hey, literati! If you loved Tonya Hurley’s “ghostgirl” series, you won’t want to miss her next entry in the YA book world: “The Blessed,” an old-made-new redemption story that re-imagines the martyrdom of three Christian saints through a group of teenage girls in present-day Brooklyn. (Sounds wild, but then again, Tonya is the same talented gal who made us fully believe in the concept of postmortem popularity contests, so…) And for those who are wondering what such a story would look like on your shelf, we’ve got our hot little hands on the first-ever look at the cover…and an exclusive excerpt…AND a special, seeeecret giveaway that’ll bless 50 lucky fans with an advance reader’s copy. Read More at hollywoodcrush.mtv.com
S&S Signs Up New YA Trilogy by Tonya Hurley
By Sally Lodge
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing has acquired U.S. and audio rights to The Blessed, a trilogy by Tonya Hurley, author of ghostgirl and its two sequels. Justin Chanda, v-p and publisher of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, negotiated the deal with Andy McNichol of William Morris Endeavor. The trilogy—a contemporary, supernatural romance that is a reimagining of the martyrdom legends of three saints—will be edited by executive editor Zareen Jaffery; the inaugural novel will be published in July 2012.
Hurley says that her inspiration for the trilogy grew out of her fascination with martyr stories. To create The Blessed, she drew from the legends of St. Lucy, St. Cecelia, and St. Agnes, who were martyred at a relatively young age. “The legends of these martyrs are among the first real YA stories that we have, and I thought it would be interesting to reimagine them in a modern, romantic context,” she says. “These are infamous tales that are so gruesome and so profoundly beautiful at the same time—and so empowering.”
The author views The Blessed, which centers on three teenage girls in Brooklyn who must determine who is good and who is evil in the battle for love and for their own souls, as a “natural next step” for her as a writer. “The story deals with some of the themes in ghostgirl, but it is grittier, more grown up, and probably more Quentin Tarantino-esque—which I’m very excited about.”
With impressive credits in non-print media—she has created, written, and produced two TV series, wrote and directed several independent films, and developed video and board games—Hurley was pleased when ghostgirl was optioned this week by Chernin Entertainment/20th Century Fox. “It certainly is gratifying,” she says. “We’ll see what happens, but I’m hoping to be able to work on it and continue the story in a different medium. For me, it’s all about storytelling and any way you can tell a story interests me.” Ironically, Hurley initially wrote the first ghostgirl novel as a filmscript, which first appeared on the Internet before she decided to reshape it into a novel.
Chanda explains that S&S acquired The Blessed, which was headed to auction, with a preemptive bid—and a speedy one. “I think this might be the fastest we’ve ever moved on anything,” he says. “We received the proposal and bought the book on the evening of that same day. It was like lightning. We all loved it and decided to go for it.”
The publisher, who expects that the first printing of the debut installment of The Blessedwill be in the 100,000 to 200,000-copy zone (“and that’s conservative”), was struck by the inventiveness of Hurley’s vision for The Blessed. “From the first sentence of Tonya’s proposal, this felt different and exciting,” Chanda says. “The story has a religious bent, and these are figures readers may have heard about, but it is told in a very different way. We publish a lot of high-end commercial fiction, but this trilogy doesn’t compete with anything else on our list. It’s very exciting to find something so entirely new.”
Santa Muerte: My Search for the Bony Lady: Guest Post and Photos by Tonya Hurley
Santa Muerte: My Search for The Bony Lady
While in Mexico recently for a book tour, I visited a market in Guadalajara where I encountered a skeletal figure, robed, with long black hair holding a scythe and globe standing in a shop window. A Grim Reapstress of sorts, standing shoulder to shoulder with statues of Jesus, St. Jude and The Virgin of Guadalupe. I’d been doing research into the lives of the saints and martyrs, but here was one I’d never come across. Many revered as saints and martyrs were regarded as misfits and people that actively sought death, however, none actually embodied death as far as I’d ever heard.
She goes, I was told, by many names — Lady Of Shadows. Holy Girl. Lady of the Night. The Skinny Lady. Santa Sebastiana, the female equivalent of St. Sebastian, known also for symbolizing a holy death. Frowned upon by the Church and the upper classes, worshiped secretly for centuries by the working classes, Santa Muerte had become the Patron saint of ‘outcasts’ and the downtrodden, invoked privately by many living alternative lifestyles: gay, transgender, bi-sexual, and even criminal ones – drug traffickers, pickpockets and prostitutes among others – on the fringe of mainstream society, who seek her favor and protection. Read More…
ghostgirl Reviews:
“Tim Burton and Edgar Allan Poe devotees will die for this fantastic, phantasmal read.”
– School Library Journal (STARRED review)
“[Hurley] beats out witty teen-speak like a punk-band drummer, keeping the narrative fast-paced and fun yet thought-provokingly heartwarming. Goofy, ghastly, intelligent, electrifying.”
– Kirkus Reviews (STARRED review)
“Readers with a taste for black humor and satire will feast on Hurley’s crisp, wise dialogue. Anticipate a well deserved cult following.”
– VOYA (STARRED review)
“Glittering comedy, a prime exemplar of what might be called demento mori, a growing subgenre of satire about teens who will not or cannot die.”
– Publishers Weekly (STARRED review)
“Harry Potter’s epic battles against dark forces of evil are nothing compared to Charlotte Usher’s struggles with an even more fearsome foe — high school.”
– Herald-Standard
“Offers the answer to the age old question: Who would come to my funeral? And gives fantasy fulfillment for anyone who wanted to be someone else for a day.”
– San Francisco Chronicle
“Written with deadpan wit… this is a ‘Wonderful Life’-like tale.”
– New York Post
“A sincere (and humorous) exploration of how we all feel invisible at one time or another… a perfect read.”
– CosmoGirl
New York Public Library Stuff for the Teenage List
Indie Next List
Pennsylvania School Library Association award for Outstanding Author 2012
