Dear Victoria Scott,
Your books, Fire and Flood, and Salt and Stone, have impacted me tremendously. Ever since I attended your meet and greet at Woodstown Middle School, I loved your books, especially your first, Fire and Flood which reminded me to not to be a follower, but to be a leader. When I began to read Salt and Stone, I realized this issues continued, and it would be one of the main points of conflict. It stabbed me right in the heart when the ocean portion of the race began! This book series has influenced me the most of any books I’ve read. The lessons you weave into the words on the page fascinate me!
Then, a few weeks ago,Violet Grenade, was released. I was dying to read it ever since you came to our school and gave us a sneak peek of it. I got the bookmark, and listened to every reading you did of the book until finally, it came out. I called it first in our ELA classroom, and I think I had everyone hating me until I finished it three days later. Everything about this book was astounding. From cover to cover, I was never able to set it down. I read for hours at home, and every free chance in classes I’d take it out. The characters were flawless in every way: Domino, Cain, Madam Karina and Wilson.
Overall, my favorite thing about the story itself were the characters. Normally, in a young adult novel, with a female protagonist, you think it would be the ordinary. Skinny, somewhat rebellious, has a boyfriend, everything like that. However, in Violet Grenade, you make the main character someone readers wouldn’t picture being in a book. Right on the first page, you can see she’s different from all other female protagonists. Right in the first sentence, she’s picking out a wig! Well, maybe you’d think she doesn’t have hair, but nope, she does. Now does she seem weird? Then, a little later in the book, Domino begins hooking and unhooking her piercings. No. Not just ear piercings. Ear, lip, gauges, eyebrows. All of that. Just how you make your main character a “freakish” character like Domino, you grab readers right from the first word. Most importantly, thank you for showing the cruelty of bullying and abuse in one book. Since Domino is different, she gets bullied. This is a shame, and it shouldn’t happen. Without a doubt, Violet Grenade, will keep readers on the edge of your seat 24/7.
Usually in YA novels with a feminine protagonist, you’d expect some girly girl. Then Tella and Domino come along. It hits you right on the first page of both books that these girls are not like other girls. In the end, all of your books have impacted me greatly.
From, Tara T.
