Review of Stitch and guest post - 10 random Stitch influences

Stitch by Sanantha Durante

Stitch by Samantha Durante

Synopsis - from goodreads

Her heart races, her muscles coil, and every impulse in Alessa's body screams at her to run... but yet she's powerless to move.

Still struggling to find her footing after the sudden death of her parents, the last thing college freshman Alessa has the strength to deal with is the inexplicable visceral pull drawing her to a handsome ghostly presence. In between grappling with exams and sorority soirees - and disturbing recurring dreams of being captive in a futuristic prison hell - Alessa is determined to unravel the mystery of the apparition who leaves her breathless. But the terrifying secret she uncovers will find her groping desperately through her nightmares for answers.

Because what Alessa hasn't figured out yet is that she's not really a student, the object of her obsession is no ghost, and her sneaking suspicions that something sinister is lurking behind the walls of her university's idyllic campus are only just scratching the surface...

The opening installment in a twist-laden trilogy, Stitch spans the genres of paranormal romance and dystopian sci-fi to explore the challenges of a society in transition, where morality, vision, and pragmatism collide leaving the average citizen to suffer the results.

Review

Stitch started off as a nice, enjoyable book. It seemed like your average YA/NA contemporary book with a little paranormal romance thrown in. It was an entertaining read, but not anything special. And then….

WOW, just WOW! I have never read a book with such an amazing unexpected twist. This book went from being good to utterly amazing in just a couple of pages. Once I had read further into the book I also saw the beginning in a whole new light and the first half is just as good as the second

I have to applaud the author for writing this book; the idea behind it is so unique and original. I can honestly say I have never before read a book that basically changes genres halfway through. In fact it changes genres twice. Whilst the genre thing may sound a bit odd, trust me that it really does work and it makes the book incredible.

There is so much more I want to mention about this book but I don’t want to give anything away about the storyline so you will enjoy it as much as I did – I already feel kind of bad for mentioning that there is a huge twist. This is a book that you simply cannot miss out on.

There is so much left unanswered and so much more I want to know. I wish I could read the sequel now! Despite the book being quite action packed I can tell that the real excitement has only just started and the next book will give us so much more.

*I recieved a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an HONEST review, this has not affected my opinions in anyway*

 

10 Random Stitch Influences

As an avid consumer of media from books and TV to movies and the internet, it was impossible not to be influenced by the various innovative stories and shows I’d seen/read over the years.  Following is a random list of things that either directly or loosely inspired the plot of Stitch:

1. Twilight. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I loved this series.  And judging by its success, so did a lot of other people.  When I started thinking of ideas for the book that would eventually become Stitch, paranormal romance was the first genre I considered.  However, since I didn’t have a new take on vampires/werewolves to contribute, I decided to go with ghosts, which I thought offered a lot of neat possibilities.

2. The Hunger Games. 

I was no less than captivated by some of the classic dystopian books I read as a kid, but for some reason I never looked into finding more of this genre until The Hunger Games took the world by storm.  This series has singlehandedly ignited a new generation of dystopian lovers and I wanted to hop on that bandwagon!

3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

There’s nothing I love more than a kick-ass female lead, and Buffy is the ultimate.  Other favorites of mine include: Lizzy Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, Hermione Grainger of the Harry Potter series, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, Arya Stark and Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, Susan Pevensie from Chronicles of Narnia, Claire & Jill from Resident Evil, and many, many others.  I knew that my book would have a strong female protagonist who was confident and self-reliant, but who was also still grounded and realistic with her understandable moments of self-doubt, and Buffy and the valiant women listed above were my templates.

4. Lost.  

My next favorite thing after an awesome female protagonist is definitely a mind-blowing, out-of-left-field twist, and who did it better than Lost?  This show kept me on my toes for 6 great seasons, and – though I was as confused by the ending as everyone else – I appreciated all the care that had gone into weaving us viewers through this insanely complex and inventive plot.

5. Sharon Shinn's Samaria Series.  

This was the first book series I ever came across that featured a genre-bending twist that took the story from an angel romance all the way to futuristic science fiction without warning.  I totally was not expecting it, and it was totally AWESOME.

6. Reality TV. 

Despite my rampant addiction to The Bachelor, something about reality TV really just makes my skin crawl.  It seems as these shows get ever more extreme, the contestants continue to submit themselves to whatever degradations the producers come up with and we all sit happily glued to our screens.  What's wrong with this picture?  I also have to give a nod here to The Truman Show for raising this question before the reality TV phenomenon even really exploded.

7. Brave New World.  

It's been years since I read this, but it must have made an impression because I still very distinctly recall being creeped out by the concept of the "feelies" and the idea of controlling people through drugs and entertainment.  I hadn’t really seen this concept used elsewhere, so this was definitely one of the more direct influences on how things work in Stitch.

8. Battlestar Galatica.  

Here’s another amazing sci-fi series that did an admirable job of placing realistic characters in a frighteningly plausible futuristic world and mixing them up with compelling moral dilemmas and big ethical questions that really made you think.  I hope to achieve the same over the course of the Stitch trilogy.

9. College. 

Why are there so few books that take place at college?  I never understood it.  There are so many possibilities in a college setting, so many ways for characters to make mistakes and learn and grow, so many choices, so much potential drama…  Plus, college is a transitional period that unites readers both young and old.  I decided that Stitch would happen in a college setting since I felt this environment was inexplicably underutilized in books.

10. Zombies.  

Okay, there are no zombies in Stitch.  But I've always been intrigued by the whole zombie apocalypse thing, not necessarily for the zombies themselves, but for the way the outbreak happens (and the way that people react to it).  Pandemics are SCARY, and – as we're seeing with the flu in the Northeast US right now – very, very real.  A word of advice: don't take a Catastrophic Risk class in college if you worry about these kinds of things, because there are SO MANY WAYS the world can end and NONE OF THEM are outside the realm of immediate possibility.  Viral outbreaks (whether they cause zombie-esque mutations or just plain old sickness), are one of these possibilities, and this ended up being a key piece in the backdrop for Stitch.

By Samantha Durante

About the author

Samantha Durante lives in Westchester County, New York with her husband, Sudeep, and her cat, Gio. Formerly an engineer at Microsoft, Samantha left the world of software in 2010 to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams and a lifelong love of writing. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, Samantha is currently working full time for her company Medley Media Associates as a freelance business writer and communications consultant. Stitch is her first novel. Learn more about Samantha at www.samanthadurante.com.

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