The Cellar by Natasha Preston Blog Tour GUEST POST

I'd like to say a great, big thank you for Natasha Preston, who is the author of The Cellar, for taking the time to write a guest post based on the following prompt: What was the journey like going from writing online to getting your book out in print? I've posted a review of The Cellar on the blog already.

Now onto the post!

My journey from writing online to getting my book in print was fairly smooth. When I first found out Sourcebooks wanted to publish The Cellar I had been writing for a little under two and a half years and had already self-published two books.

Amazingly I’ve had a very easy time publishing-wise. I think most of that is down to having some pretty amazing readers who have always there to support me and whatever else I write.

Having a book traditionally published has been a dream of mine since I became serious about writing in 2012. I think my cheeks hurt from smiling so much when I first spoke to my editor at Sourcebooks. There was more pressure, the deadline was tight so I had to put online updating on hold, which I hated to do because I’ve built up a great relationship with my readers.

Since I’ve published already I knew I’d be editing and editing and editing. I was prepared for that. When you’re online you have the freedom to leave it and move on to something else.

I love writing online and Wattpad is the perfect place for me to share whatever idea pops into my head. I’ll continue to upload Wattpad only material on the site but my career as a writer comes first; after all, nothing beats that feeling of holding your own book in your hand!

What do you think of Natasha's journey from online to print? 

 

Tori's Review: The Cellar by Natasha Preston

The Cellar by Natasha Preston
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: ★★★★
Pages: 368
Published by Sourcebooks Fire on March 1, 2014
Amazon | B&N

"Lily?"

My stomach dropped as a tall, dark-haired man stepped into view. Had he been hiding between the trees? "No. Sorry." Gulping, I took a step back. "I'm not Lily."

Before I could blink, he threw his arms forward and grabbed me. I tried to shout, but he clasped his hand over my mouth, muffling my screams. My heart raced. I'm going to die.

_____

For months, Summer is trapped in a cellar with the man who took her-and three other girls: Rose, Poppy, and Violet. His perfect, pure flowers. His family. But flowers can't survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out...Nothing ever happens in the town of Long Thorpe – that is, until sixteen-year-old Summer Robinson disappears without a trace. No family or police investigation can track her down. Spending months inside the cellar of her kidnapper with several other girls, Summer learns of Colin’s abusive past, and his thoughts of his victims being his family…his perfect, pure flowers. But flowers can’t survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out….

NOTE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I remember this book when it was on Wattpad. I have to admit that I never read it, but my friend did, and she said that it was scary as hell and that I shouldn't read it in the dark at night time. Because of this, I expected something way more scary than what I got. Yes, The Cellar is creepy on many levels, but it wasn't downright scary. It didn't make me want to pee my pants. For some reason, scary movies and TV shows scare me way more than books do, and I'm seriously waiting for that one book to pop out and scare me so bad that I loose sleep over it (thank you to The Grudge for doing that to me. I appreciate it). 

I honestly didn't care that the book didn't scare me; I just anticipated for it to scare me, and it didn't. It's not even a real problem that I had with the book. A real problem I had with The Cellar was the fact that the psychological issues weren't that severe for Summer. She was locked in a cellar for nearly a year, witnessed girls being murdered, and was raped. I just thought that the psychological impact on her mentality would've been worse that just, "Oh, I feel a bit woosey. Ooh, I can't really remember you. Ooh, I don't want you to touch me." I sort of wanted her to have a panic attack or something. Going into this book, I even thought she would develop Stockholm Syndrome. (She didn't.) 

On the other side of the spectrum, the POV change was refreshing and nice. At first, I thought that I was going to hate the POV changes (I usually do), but I didn't in this case. I'm actually glad that the author decided to do them. If she hadn't, I would've gotten bored with Summer's POV after so long of her being locked in a cellar day in and day out. 

If anything scared me in this book, it would be Clover's point of view. It showed that he wasn't completely all there. He honestly believed that murdering people was okay. I think that this part of the novel was done very well. Another part I thought was done really well was Rose's (Shannen's) attachment to Clover. It was explained adequately, which I appreciated (apparently I appreciated a lot of things regarding this book). Also, I really enjoyed watching Clover's obsessive compulsive disorder span out through the entire book. It was fascinating. 

I have to admit that I didn't really like the flashbacks because they got a bit confusing at time, but as time wore on, I started liking them more often than not, and by the end of the novel I was completely fine with them. 

Preston might have sort of glossed over the psychological aspects of the book, but she sure didn't gloss over Clover's murdering, which I also loved. In my search for a book that really scares me out of my wits (it's safe to say that I haven't read Stephen King yet...), I've noticed that books really don't scare me much, so I appreciated the fact that Clover did managed to creep me out more than I liked. 

In the end, this was a solid novel for Natasha Preston, and I'm glad that I requested it on NetGalley to review. I'm really glad that I read it, and I learned to never go out at night in the dark looking for a friend because I might get kidnapped and shoved into a cellar. I'll most likely be ordering this online once it comes out so I can showcase it proudly on my bookshelf!