Editor's Note: Sarah Rees Brennan is the author of Unspoken, the first book of her young adult trilogy, The Lynburn Legacy. Kami Glass is an outsider in her sleepy English town mainly because she's in love with someone she's never met -- a boy she talks to in her head. When disturbing events begin happening, Kami realizes her town is hiding secrets, and a murderer. The key to it all might just be the boy in her head, who, it turns out, is deliciously real. Here, Brennan talks about her trilogy, Gothic novels, and reading minds.

Everyday eBook: What inspired you to write Unspoken?

Sarah Rees Brennan: I've seen in a lot of places the idea that reading someone else's mind would be romantic, and always thought it might be much more complicated than that -- shocking and difficult to deal with instead -- so the idea of a girl finding out her imaginary friend was a real guy was the first inspiration for the novel. And I've always loved Gothic novels, in which so often the hero is hiding a Dark Secret from the heroine (wife in the attic, say) and I love trope reversals. The idea of a pair investigating a Gothic mystery who really can't keep any secrets from each other appealed to me greatly. Thus I launched in on a yearlong attempt to read every Gothic novel in the world! Turns out they are absolutely chock-full of people getting buried alive. That's the major theme; I was surprised too.

EE: What was your favorite chapter, or part, to write and why?

SRB: The part where Kami and Jared first meet: the shocking moment when imagination and reality first intersect, with what I hope are surprising and interesting results.

EE: Which character speaks the loudest to you?

SRB: Different characters speak loudest at different times, really! Kami of Unspoken really works for me as a continuous voice, because she’s goofy and sees the world much like I do. I said recently of the hero, "I like it when Jared isn't happy, because he is SUPER FUN to write then." He's a really dramatic guy with many feelings. At one point he tries to strangle a dude with the tie to his own bed curtains. (Oh sorry. That's a spoiler. And it isn't even in the first book. But in the first book he does stage a dramatic break-up with someone he's not dating, so.) I think there's a time for each character to come center stage: I have this one very laid-back, funny character called Rusty who was a real help making the tensest scenes of book two be fun as well as tense.

EE: What was your favorite genre to read as a teenager?

SRB: As a teenager, I read much the same way I do now. (I'm, uh, very mature.) I read everything: lots of teen fantasy, absolutely, and Tamora Pierce and Diana Wynne Jones and Robin McKinley were the best introductions a girl could have, but I also love romance, and crime, and science fiction, and literary fiction, and even poetry when I only have three minutes to have leisure reading. (Yes, I may have just admitted to reading poems in the ladies' bathroom.)

This post originally ran on Random Acts of Reading.

Glen Duncan once again delivers a delectably good read in Talulla Rising, the sequel to his best-selling novel The Last Werewolf. For those who have not read The Last Werewolf, Duncan does a crafty job of bringing us up to speed at the beginning, so do not fret, dear reader; you will not be lost. Once you're all caught up, buckle up -- the action does not brake for anyone.

Jake Marlow, who had been the last living werewolf, is dead. Talulla was Jake's lover and were-companion, but their love affair was cut short, seemingly by the irony and dark humor of the universe: Jake, who had spent years waiting to die, chasing for it even, suddenly found that when death came looking for him, he wanted nothing more than to live.

Talulla Demetriou, now last living werewolf, and pregnant by Jake, has been chased into seclusion by the WOCOP (World Organization for the Control of Occult Phenomena), the same organization responsible for killing Jake Marlow. A group of religious fanatics has taken over the WOCOP -- along with a power-crazed vampire named Jacqueline. Talulla must deal with her new reality, while mourning the death of her lover and coming to terms with her new nature (turning into a furry beast every full moon, and eating humans to survive) -- all with understandable ambivalence.

Meanwhile, Jacqueline wants to steal Talulla's child for two reasons: 1) werewolf blood is said to give vampires the ability to walk in daylight, and 2) she and her followers believe in an old vampire lore that predicts the return of Remshi, a deity who is supposed to induct vampires back into power. No sooner does Talulla give birth to her were-child, though, than the WOCOP takes her child away. Time is of the essence in getting back the kidnapped were-child, and the tale that unfolds is a lavishly elegant, werewolf versus vampire, paranormal thriller.

One of my favorite things to do after finishing a book is to get someone else's take on it. I spoke to a friend who confessed that this genre is not her favorite, but we came to a consensus on two points: Duncan's writing is highly entertaining and imaginative -- and Talulla, despite her otherworldly nature, is the most human heroine to come along in a while.

Hi there. Have you found yourself unexpectedly dead? Do you have some lingering anger or unfinished business that you just can't let go of which is keeping you from moving on? Just so you know, there's a guy who can help. They call him Odd Thomas; he lives out there in Pico Mundo, California. You can usually find him working over in the diner, back behind the grill. He has a reputation for helping out the recently dead. He can see things that others can't. Just to warn you though, he's young — only twenty years old — and honestly looks like he should be hanging out at the beach rather than helping out ghosts, but he has other things up his sleeve and is definitely more than he seems.

If you don't believe me, there are a couple of celebrity endorsements you can look into. Elvis Presley, for one, has been hanging around for years trying to get Odd to understand. Oh, right, one big rule. You're not allowed to talk to Odd. I don't know why, you just can't, so do the best you can with those pantomime skills you've developed over the years. Anyway, good luck.

Oh, wait. Before you go, there are a few other things you should probably know:

1. Odd has issues. What twenty-year-old doesn't, right? Just saying, he's dealing with some stuff so it may be difficult to keep him focused. Do the best that you can.
2. If you're really desperate and really need to get him to pay attention, you can pull out all the stops and become a poltergeist. If you end up with enough pent-up anger, this will give you the ability to start throwing things around. It's very effective, but only use it as a last measure. It's very dangerous and you could end up hurting someone.
3. Very important. There are bad things out there. He calls them Bodachs. They basically look like moving piles of smoke. If you see these guys, run. If you see a lot of them, run really fast. They are attracted to evil and if they're hanging around, you know something awful is about to happen.
4. Fortunately, if you need more information, Dean Koontz has written a number of books about Odd's experiences. You can start with the first book, Odd Thomas. If you feel the need to keep going, you can read Forever Odd, Brother Odd, and Odd Hours. There's also the Odd Thomas Series of all four books if you want to get through them all at once.

As I said, good luck! See you on the other side!

The Gathering Storm is volume one in The Katerina Trilogy by Robin Bridges, and it is thoroughly enjoyable as a young-adult historical fiction read. Our main character, Katerina, hopes to be a doctor someday, but as a Duchess of Oldenburg in the 1800s, descended from the tsars of Russia, she has no business becoming anything other than a royal consort. Fortunately, though her mother seems ready to shove her on any handsome, dangerous vampire-prince that comes about, Katerina's father secretly supports and encourages her dream.

Back to that vampire part … Yes, as seems to be the trend in young-adult fiction these days, The Gathering Storm is also a paranormal story. But Bridges cleverly incorporates Russian folklore and history in ways that make the paranormal addition totally seamless to the overarching story. A big reason that Bridges is able to write a teen paranormal story that actually works is that Katerina is a strong and active female protagonist, unlike in some other supernatural sagas out there. For one, her wish to become a doctor sets her apart from other girls in her time period, and imbues the book with a sort of girl-power vibe. For another, Katerina is not just surrounded by supernatural creatures -- she happens to be one as well.

Gifted -- or cursed, as she believes -- with the power of necromancy, Katerina is caught in the middle of a battle between good and evil forces that all want her powers on their side. She faces an interesting tension between her supernatural side, which is tied to death, and her "normal" side, which is tied to the living and to modern medicine. Her struggle is an apt metaphor for the science vs. superstition dichotomy of Katerina's time period, making the paranormal happenings even more natural to the story and historical background.

Fans of historical fiction will eat up Bridges' details about aristocratic Russia and nineteenth-century folklore, and fans of the teen paranormal genre will appreciate the Darcy-esque Prince George. What I appreciated, however, was a teen female character with agency and ambition, which Robin Bridges has so wonderfully portrayed.