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Monday, December 7, 2015

From Where I Watch You

by Shannon Grogan

Shannon writer photo crop 2From Where I Watch You Comp_Final (1)

This past Friday, December 4, 2015, Marcy and I posted our answers to Shannon’s debut novel From Where I Watch You. Today, you get to read Shannon’s favorite's. 

As a special holiday treat, our debut novelist, Shannon Grogan has offered to give away one copy of her novel! All you have to do is leave a comment below with a way for us to contact you (Email, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). If you mention this contest on social media (mention this in the comments), we give you an extra entry. Leave a comment no later than December 11, 2015. We will pick a name out of our Santa hat and the winner will get the gift of an awesome book! Good luck!

Terrific answers, Shannon! We can’t wait for our readers to read the novel. And hopefully to give us a few of their favorites, too. 

1) What is your favorite line or paragraph from the novel as it relates to the main character's development and/or growth?

My favorite paragraph is between page 270 and 271, when my MC Kara, who has spent the whole story resentful and angry with her mom, finally ‘sees’ her mom-- comforting her café customers. Kara realizes how the changes in her reflects her dealing with her own grief:

My mom loves these people.

They are like family. And this is what she does with her family—she feeds them dinner, and asks them about their new project at work, and if they passed their math test, and if they’re speaking to their best friend anymore. She asks them about the best part of their day, and she bribes them with dessert so they’ll finish dinner. She rubs their backs when they are tired, and offers a tissue when their hearts can’t take it anymore. She does this because she doesn’t have her whole family—me and Dad and Kellen—all together to feed anymore.


2) What is your favorite chapter ending or cliffhanger?

At the end of Chapter 28 when Kara receives the most disturbing and threatening note yet, revealing to her who she thinks her stalker is.


3) Who is your favorite secondary character and why?

My favorite secondary character is Kara’s best friend Noelle because she’s such a terrible best friend, meaning she’s really not there for Kara when she needs her. Yet, behind her barbed-wire armor, she’s all heart to the few who can get close enough. She’s dealing with her own unstable home life, and her defenses and on-the-edge behavior reflects that. She cares so much about Kara, but doesn’t know how to show that she cares. The thing I love the most about her is how she defends Kara against her former best friends, and against anyone who intends Kara harm in any way. So if anyone so much as looks at her the wrong way, Noelle will use her sharp tongue to slice right through them.


4) What is your favorite line or paragraph of description?

My favorite paragraph of description is on page 5 when Kara is hiding in the yard of her beloved childhood home, smoking weed and missing her old room and her old life:

On my old front porch, a pile of U-Haul boxes sag from the damp Seattle weather. The boxes haven’t budged since the new family moved into my house, so there’s no room on the porch for a nine-year-old to sit and paint her toenails while her Barbies watch. No room to pretend to do homework while wishing for her crush to ride by on his bike, or to watch a summer thunderstorm and wonder if she should tell her best friends about that terrible secret she’s keeping.


5) What is your favorite line of dialogue?

Truly my favorite line of dialogue is on page 227, something said by Noelle, but it might be too distasteful for your blog! So I am going with my second choice, for it’s creepiness, on page 170 when Kara has snuck away, from Seattle to San Francisco for the baking contest. She’s alone there, and is staying in university dorms, when the RA comes to talk to her.

“Miss McKinley, I’m sorry to bother you but I just wanted to let you know that a boy your age stopped by downstairs a few minutes ago. He claimed to know you?” She tilts and shakes her head a little. “He said he came here with you, but I’m sure I remember you told me you came alone, from out of state, right?”

The exchange goes on a little more between the two of them, and the RA gives her the number for campus security if she needs it, and Kara realizes her stalker probably followed her to the contest, and she’s all alone.



‘From Where I Watch You’
YA Thriller, Soho Teen, August 4, 2015

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Don't forget to leave a comment below. Shannon has generously donated one book for one of our readers. Good luck!

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