Shadow Games received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Jay J. Falconer.
The name of the book is Shadow Games. It was first published January 8, 2015 under the title of Glassford Girl, but has since been renamed and relaunched with expanded content and an updated story line.
What’s the book’s first line?
Emily Heart pushed through the burning pain in her chest and thigh muscles, convincing her legs to run faster. She dodged a park bench before jumping over a homeless man lying under a pile of cardboard.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
Emily Heart is a brilliant, but troubled teenage girl who’s had everything taken away from her: her family, her friends, and her future. It all started one night when she was kidnapped and genetically altered against her will. Now she’s homeless and trying to control powerful new abilities she’s just beginning to understand, one of which is randomly jumping through time whenever she gets emotional. But staying alive on the streets won’t be easy, not when she’s a social outcast and on the run from deadly gangs, relentless cops, and a determined reporter. All Emily wants is her old life back and she’ll do anything to make that happen.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
A few years back, while I was at a summer barbecue in Northern Arizona, I struck up a conversation with a former homeless girl who’d just been rescued by her church. She told me about her time on the streets, including several terrifying experiences she narrowly survived. Some of the things that happened to her were beyond shocking and I felt compelled to honor her struggles with a novel. Granted, she didn’t have any superpowers or the ability to time jump, but the rest of the Shadow Games story line is based on true events.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
For both entertainment and education. Since the non-supernatural aspects of this story are based on true events, a reader can catch a glimpse of what it was like for a fifteen-year-old homeless girl to live on the streets — and try to survive another day. Most people have no idea what’s going on in the shadows around them. I didn’t. Not until I met the person who’d actually lived it.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would you say the character reminds you of?
Emily Heart’s strength of character and compassion for others even though her life is in total ruins. Emily Heart reminds me of the actual person who lived much of what happens in this book.