Welcome to Day #3 of The Tombs Blog Tour!
To celebrate the release of The Tombs on February 20th, blogs across the web are featuring exclusive content from Deborah Schaumberg and 10 chances to win a finished copy and a custom bookmark handmade by the author!
The Tombs by Deborah Schaumberg
Hardcover, 448 pages
Published February 20th 2018 by HarperTeen
Summary:
New York, 1882. A dark, forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers.
Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn’t. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon, Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive.
Like her mother’s, Avery’s powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power–or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own: strange experiments are being performed on ‘patients’…and no one knows why.
Deborah Schaumberg’s gripping debut melds history and fantasy, taking readers on a breathless trip across a teeming turn-of-the-century New York, and asks the question: Where can you hide in a city that wants you buried?
Deborah’s 5 Favorite Historical Fantasy Novels
1. GRAVE MERCY ~ Robin LaFevers
Ismae, a seventeen-year-old assassin, does the work of the god of Death. She must infiltrate the high court of Brittany and deliver Death’s sentencing, but she falls for the man she must murder.
I loved the way LaFever blends the real historical events, people of the court, political intrigue, and claims to the throne, with the imagined convent of assassin nuns.
In 1926 New York, Evie O’Neill discovers she has a supernatural power that leads her down a dark and disturbing path with a serial killer.
Libba Bray captures the atmosphere of the 1920’s perfectly. The historical setting jumps off the page and ties in seamlessly with the supernatural fantasy elements.
Tessa Gray comes to a steampunky Victorian London to find her brother, but instead discovers an underworld of demons, vampires, angels, and magic. And she has a power they want.
This was so up my alley – much of the setting is based on real places but Clare weaves a fantasy world into them.
Verity Boone returns to her hometown in 1867 PA, only to discover her mother and aunt are buried in caged graves. She must uncover the truth – are they to protect the living or the dead?
Salerni discovered a set of real caged graves that inspired her book, and she set it against secrets and superstitions dating back to the Revolutionary War. She blends this history with fears of witchcraft.
A reluctant witch unlocks an ancient magical book, and with a 1,500-year-old vampire, she must prevent an underworld war.
I love anything with witches in it, and this book perfectly combines history and lore, with magic.
Last but not least, I have to add
THE WITCHING HOUR ~ Anne Rice. One of my favorite books of all time! It combines the history of New Orleans with witches and magic. It also made me want to be a writer!
*****
Deborah Schaumberg was born in Brooklyn, not far from where her novel The Tombs takes place. She grew up renovating dilapidated old houses with her family. She and her father would walk the rooms, floor by floor, making up stories about the inhabitants that were filled with dark secrets, monsters, and, of course, ghosts. Deborah is a writer and an artist whose work always has an element of fantasy to it, and since she also studied architecture, settings are equally important. It was on a trek to the Annapurna Sanctuary in Nepal that she imagined a girl with the ability to see energy, and the seed of The Tombs was planted. She collects old bottles, and her favorite holiday is, you guessed it, Halloween. Deborah lives with her family and two dogs in Maryland, just outside DC. Visit her at deborahschaumberg.com.
Follow Deborah: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
To enter, fill out the rafflecopter below to win
- One (1) winner will receive a finished copy of The Tombs and a custom bookmark handmade by Deborah Schaumberg
- US only
Note: Book Briefs Contest Policy applies. All of the prizes, terms and conditions of the giveaway should be contained in the rafflecopter below. No Purchase necessary to enter. Void where prohibited by law.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Note: Book Briefs Contest Policy applies. All of the prizes, terms and conditions of the giveaway should be contained in the rafflecopter below. No Purchase necessary to enter. Void where prohibited by law.
I haven’t read any of the books. Have to check them out.