It Only Takes One Click Blog Tour: review+ guest post + giveaway: Send by Patty Blount

Hi guys! So, as a part of It Only Takes One Click Blog Tour for Patty Blount's debut novel SEND, I have on my blog a guest post, giveaway and review! (Yey!)

Title: SEND
Author: Patty Blount
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Release Date: August 2012

To keep his secrets, all he has to do is listen to the voice in his head and just walk away... On his first day at his new high school, Dan stops a bully from beating up a kid half his size. He didn't want to get involved. All he wants out of his senior year is to fly under the radar. But Dan knows what it's like to be terrorized by a bully-he used to be one. Now the whole school thinks he's some kind of hero, except Julie Murphy, the prettiest girl on campus. She looks at him like she knows he has a secret. Like she knows his name isn't really Daniel.

My Thoughts: 

The book is crazy. The story is crazy. It was crazy beautiful.

At first, I had a hard time reading the first few chapters. I was confused and lost, until I got a good grip on the story. Dan was having conversations wuth his other self- Kenny. He was Kenny, but he changed his name. The book is wrapped around one topic-bullying. There was a time cyber-bullying got so famous because of the increased incidence it has. Many teenagers committed suicide because of it. For real. The topic is heavy, and this novel is heavy. It's not one of those for entertainment purposes only YA novels, but it's sending a message.

The story is about Daniel, who made a mistake when he was 13. Sending an embarrasing photo of a classmate. It was funny. But not anymore, when he committed suicide the next day. Dan was committed 9 months of juvie, but since there were no laws under cyber bullying, he was listed under child pornography, with rapists and real bad thugs. As if that's not painful enough, he was bullied and tortured by other prisoners inside (jail). Until he learned how to fight back. That's when he started having hallucinations and conversations with his other self. After he was released, Liam's (the bullied guy) father relentlessly followed him and is out for revenge. His old classmates and everyone turned their backs on him. It was cruel, as if jail time wasn't enough punishment. His family and him transferred home everytime the people knew his past. Until they changed his name. It seems to be working well in Long Island, until he met Julie.

I won't continue telling the story, as I'll spoil everything. Just that the story does not end there. His suffering definitely did not end yet. In his new school, he befriends a bullied guy, Brandon, and his tormentor is Jeff. His trying to help them avoid what he went through. but things are just getting more complicated. The end of the novel was okay and it was an ending but the story is not yet done, let's just say Dan has a future.

The novel felt like it was written with one thing in mind "help stop bullying". It is a fiction story, but after reading and bawling a lot while reading it, I am more determined to share this book to everyone.   It got to me, i hope it will to you too. I realized that if bullies realized the future effects (life and death at that) they mit do, there's a good chance they might stop doing what they do right now. There's a story behind every bully, why they do it, etc. that's why talking and counseling helps.

It's amazing how far clicking "send" goes. Positive or not.

Guest post: Stay or Go? 

Things change. For some of these changes, we’ll camp out and line up a day in advance just for the chance to say we got it (iPhone, anybody?). And others die a lonely little death and we hardly notice. Here’s my list of the things that should stay and the things I wish would just go.

Stay! 

• Social networking – My social activities not only planted the seed for a book idea, but connected me to many brilliant people – authors, agents, publishers, editors, celebrities, moms, PEOPLE. That’s the key – it exposed me to different opinions, different belief systems, different lifestyles and opened my mind in the process. 
• Flat Screen TVs – Oh, how much do I love being able to hang a TV on a wall? 
• The surge in popularity of YA fiction – Rowling, Meyer, Collins – It warms my heart to see adults reading young adult fiction and I hope my own book will add to the ranks. 
• GPS – For someone like me who gets lost in a bathtub, the GPS is the most significant technological advancement of my lifetime. 
• On Demand, HBO2Go, and DVR --  I work a nine or ten hour day and then come home and write novels. There is no time for TV. That’s why these VCR-less wonders that let me watch what I want when I want are the BEST. 
• eReaders --  Writers love books. My eReader lets me carry hundreds with me at all times. Plus, it’s a lot easier to turn pages on an eReader when you’re pedaling an elliptical machine than a real book. That encourages me to actually go to the gym. 

Go! 

• Pants that expose boxers, pants with the crotch down by your knees, baggy pants that hang off your body instead of emphasizing it. I don’t know anybody who finds this sexy so stop. Just stop. Please. I’m begging. 
• Logos on butts – Juicy? Pink? Ladies, guys don’t need another reason to stare at your butt. Really.
• Fake reality TV shows – please, Dear God, MAKE IT STOP. 
• Teens who sit low in their cars so that it looks like the car is driving itself as they go by. 
• Text slang in spoken conversation. 
• Tebowing – I get that you feel blessed and that’s great. But put it in perspective. I find it kind of insulting that God answered your prayers to score that extra point in a game but ignored the prayers of millions of other people praying for things like cures for terminal illnesses, a place to live or a meal to eat. 

What do you think? What fads are you crazy about? What fads are on your Can’t Wait Until They’re Gone list?

Giveaway! 
a copy of SEND by Patty Blount
sponsored by Sourcebooks

a Rafflecopter giveaway