Configured
Jenetta Penner is the author of the Dystopian novel Configured. The story follows Avlyn, a strong female lead that is enjoyable and someone you want to root for. I haven’t liked a female hero like this since Hermoine and Katniss. The Goodreads summary is below.
In the future love will make you a traitor. 120 years after a virus decimated earth’s population the survivors thrive in safety, away from the death and destruction of the Outerbounds. Divided into three levels of intellect, Citizens focus solely on duty. Due to her advanced intelligence, seventeen-year-old Avlyn Lark is separated from her twin brother at birth and raised by adoptive parents. She gains privilege, the ideal future. He dies. Avlyn barely knows him yet remains linked to his memory. But following a string of rebel intrusions on the city, Avlyn receives a cryptic message and begins seeing visions of her dead twin. The mysterious radical who urges Avlyn to join their fight becomes her link to answers. Freedom. Opportunity awaits, but if she says yes will she lose it all?
First of all, the concept of being raised by adoptive parents is a nice change of pace for novels out there. I don’t think, at least from what I have read, there are many foster parent story lines out there. Then add the reasoning, and boom, a new, interesting take.
Jenetta has created a vivid world that is so easy to see in my mind. I would LOVE this book to become a movie and yet, I am afraid that a movie would ruin the world my mind created from her words. I gave it a 4 star rating on Goodreads because I cared about the characters enough to stick with the story. I am very much looking forward to Immersed, the second book to see how the story continues. I have enjoyed the Hunger Games and The Testing trilogies for the dystopian world, but was very let down with the Divergent books, the Matched books and the Requiem books. To get excited for a Dystopian novel again was such a joy. I read, Configured betting that I wasn’t going to like it since I had been let down so many times before and then I was pleasantly surprised to have loved Configured like I did.
Fans of David Bernstein’s novel Influence, you should really enjoy this as well. I was very lucky to talk to Jenetta and she sweetly agreed to an interview for my blog. Please continue reading to see what she has to say.
1. I didn't care for the Matched trilogy and was disappointed by books 2 and 3 in the Divergent trilogy, do you feel pressure on how your next books in the series come out now that Configured has done so well in its market and is being compared to both of those trilogies?
This is a huge question for me. Configured is the first book I ever wrote and it was on a whim. I was not a writer before the day I sat down and penned the first scene. After I did it, I literally got up and Googled "how to write a novel." Before that day writing a novel had never crossed my mind and I had no idea what to do next. It took me a month to tell my husband I was writing it because it felt so strange to me.
So, because of the above, I had no idea how Configured would be received. I often jokingly told my husband I planned to sell five books… and two of those would be to my Mom. Because Configured has done so well, I often stare at my reviews and think, "Can I do this again?"
I just finished the second draft of Immersed (book 2), and it's gone back to the editor. And when it's completed I'll do exactly what I did the first time, push it out into the world and let it land where it lands.
I will let you in on a series spoiler, though. I know the ending. I've known it since the day I sat down and handwrote that first scene of Configured. The ending will completely satisfy and bookend Avlyn's journey (and she WILL NOT die. J )
2. Avlyn is a beautiful name. How did you choose it? I know some people think making exotic names people aren't used to, is a wrong thing to do in books now-a-days but I feel this worked, were you nervous about introducing a name that isn't common?
Thank you. I wanted to choose a name that somehow felt familiar and unique at the same time. Doing this made me feel like it was a safe choice. I ended up taking the name Evelyn and spinning it slightly. Avlyn Joy, the main characters first and middle names are a combination of my two daughter's names.
3. This book was very easy to picture in my head. If it were to become a movie, do you have any idea who would be your dream cast?
I do have a dream cast at my blog, JenettaPenner.com. The problem is that the actors I chose span quite a bit of time, meaning some of them visually fit the bill when they were younger, but they are too old now. You can see them here: http://jenettapenner.com/dream-cast-configured/.
4. I am excited to hear you are going to be working with David Bernstein, you are fans of each others work. How did you meet?
Funny story. David and I live 30 minutes from each other and have never met in person. We met in an online writers group and found that our journeys in writing were similar. We are close in age and wrote and published our first books without any prior experience at pretty much the same time. We also have similar taste in humor and like to tease each other a lot. He and I started working together to promote our first books, and it went from there into writing a series together. What's funny is our snarky humor has definitely rubbed off on our two main characters in NeverSea.
5. If you could live in a book, which would it be, but it can't be your own?
Oh goodness. Most of the books I read are dystopian, and I'm not sure I'd want to live in any of those!
6. Who is your ultimate book boyfriend? You can't choose your own characters, however!
Ha. I have a major crush on Peeta from the Hunger Games. What a sweetie!
7. Besides the project you are working on with David and finishing Configured, what other projects do you have in mind?
I recently wrote a short story for a Space Anthology called Plenty. It's a young adult space western with a male lead (a little Fireflyish). It's humorous and slightly dark all at the same time. I'm not sure I'd continue along the space western route, but it has made me consider a YA alien series.
Thank you so much for your time! I really look forward on posting our interview and the review for your book.
You are welcome.
