Tagged: zeinab alayan
Giveaway: Puppet Parade by Zeinab Alayan
After I read Puppet Parade and absolutely loved it, I asked Zeinab Alayan if she would like to do a giveaway with me. Obviously she said yes, but she went the extra mile and came up with a great question that relates to the whole premise of her novel.
RULES:
1. You must answer the question below and provide an explanation for your answer.
2. It can be as creative/thoughtful/serious/whatever as you like. Truly, there is no wrong answer.
3. You may only enter once.
PRIZES:
1. Two Smashwords coupons. Zeinab will pick one winner and I will pick the other based on their answer.
Now here is the question you must answer and it’s one that Zeinab herself answers in Puppet Parade:
You broke free after being locked inside a single room for years, what would you do?
This giveaway begins today, November 12, 2012 and will end on November 19, 2012. I will be announcing winners on November 20 at 12:01am and Zeinab will contact them via email, so be sure to have a valid email address connected to your account! If one or both winners do not respond within 7 days of being contacted, new winners will be announced.
My Interview with Zeinab Alayan
The following is my interview with Zeinab Alayan, author of Puppet Parade. Read on to see us discuss talking puppets, self-publishing and Andrew the Annoying Ass.
1. Walking, talking puppets aren’t something you would normally see in fantasy. Where did the idea for Puppet Parade come from?
I always feel a little awkward answering that question, because I actually have no idea where it came from. I just wanted to write something for NaNoWriMo, and I started out with the idea of a girl who’d never seen her face, and then suddenly Oliver and his puppets appeared and I liked the direction in which the story was going, so I continued with it. I never plan my story ahead of time, so almost all the events in the story were just a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.
2. Why did you decide to self-publish? Would you recommend self-publishing to any other aspiring writers?
I queried some agents before I went with self-publishing, but I kept receiving the “This is not what we’re looking for” response. I guess Puppet Parade is pretty unconventional and nobody wanted to place their bets on it. However, it still remains the first book I completed and I wanted others to read it, so I figured self-publishing would be my best bet. I do recommend it though to those who are willing to put every bit of effort into it; self-publishing offers you a lot of freedom, and the community is great! Continue reading
Puppet Parade by Zeinab Alayan
(Cover picture courtesy of Zeinab Alayan’s website.)
The life of a puppet master is never ordinary. Oliver Deere knew this when he ran away from home to take up the trade of puppetry, but he had no idea just how much his life would change.
After his puppets come to life and flee town, Oliver meets up with a masked girl who hides a mysterious past. As they travel together in search for Oliver’s lost puppets, they find that the line between puppet and master is becoming much less clear – and much more deadly.
As Oliver and his companion enter the strange world of The Parade, they begin to realise that their journey will lead them to discover the truth behind a dangerous villain’s path, and in the end, discover more about each other.
[Full disclosure: Zeinab Alayan sent me a free ebook in return for an honest review of her novel.]
When I saw the title Puppet Parade I must admit I was skeptical. Why? For no logical reason, really. I just thought it sounded stupid.
Yes, I judged a book by its title. I’m a terrible person, I know.
However, once I actually started reading Puppet Parade I was pleasantly surprised. Zeinab Alayan has a very nice, easy to read writing style and although she slips from past to present tense once or twice (especially near the end), I didn’t find nearly as many mistakes as I would have expected in a self-published novel. The only error that really threw me off was in the beginning where there was ‘nut’ instead of ‘but’ on page 8.
Sophie and Oliver really are great characters. In normal novels a man and a woman travelling together would pretty much fall in Insta-Love, but that’s really not the case with this odd pair. Zeinab Alayan took time to fully develop their personalities as they journeyed together through the mysterious Parade and discovered that despite its outward appearances, it had a much more sinister purpose. Sophie’s backstory is pretty incredible, but Puppet Parade does seem to be based in a fairytale-like setting so it does make sense in the context of the story. Oliver can be pretty eccentric but really is an interesting character who is very determined to protect Sophie, even before he admits to himself he has feelings for her.
The world of Puppet Parade is a refreshing break from all of the high fantasy I’ve read lately. Yes, it is fantasy, but it really doesn’t stick to any of the traditional fantasy tropes and clichés. It seemed to be pretty cliché at first, but Zeinab Alayan put an incredible twist on the mysterious world of the Parade that made sense, but was surprising at the same time.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.