Tiktok video hielp auteur aan grote ya boeken- en filmdeal

Alex Aster had al twee boeken op haar naam staan toen meerdere uitgeverijen haar nieuwste boek, Lightlark, afwezen. Ze maakte een 15 seconden filmpjes over het plot van haar boek en deelde dat via TikTok. Door de enorme hoeveelheid aan positieve reacties heeft Aster alsnog zowel een boekendeal weten te bemachtigen! Dat is nog niet alles: Universal en Temple Hill hebben de filmrechten van het boek al gekocht voordat deze in de schappen ligt. Asther wordt de executive producer. Ben je benieuwd naar Lightlark? Lees dan snel verder! 

Alex Aster
Lightlark is haar debuut binnen het Young Adult genre. Ze heeft eerder al twee middle grade boeken uit weten te brengen, namelijk Curse of the Night Witch en Curse of the Forgotten City. Nadat meer dan een dozijn uitgevers haar hadden afgewezen is ze naar TikTok gegaan. Ze had de sensatie niet verwacht, maar na één dag had het meer dan een miljoen vieuws en comments. Het boek is toen tussen een paar uitgevers gegaan voor het hoogste bod. Ze hield er een zescijferig bedrag en een twee book-deals aan over! 

Bekijk hieronder de video die Alex Aster op TikTok heeft gedeeld: 

@alex.aster It’s called Lightlark #booktok #bookstan #bookclub #yabooks #books ♬ original sound - yeah

Lightlark
Lightlark vertelt het verhaal van een mysterieus eiland dat iedere honderd jaar tevoorschijn komt om het decor te zijn van een gevaarlijk spel. De wedstrijd biedt de leiders van de zes koninkrijken de kans om de vloek te verbreken die de koninkrijken al eeuwen in zijn greep houdt. 

Bron: Abrams & Chronicle Books

Lees hieronder een stuk van het boek Lightlark: 

Grim sat at one of the benches in the abbey, elbows on his knees.  He watched her—she could feel his gaze on her but couldn't bring  herself to look back. 

In an instant, he was behind her. She felt his breath on her bare  shoulder and tensed. 

"When I left my chambers, everything was burning. And all of the  rulers were dead." She turned and found his face drawn, more serious  than she had ever seen it. "I was a ruler of realm. When all I had ever  trained to be was a warrior." 

Darkness billowed out of him in waves, snuffing out even the limited  light creeping in from the window. A flash of lightning struck outside,  but its light did not reach them. 

Isla swallowed. Turned to face him fully. "I know what it's like  to have responsibility you never wanted . . . and never thought you  deserved." 

Grim's hands were tightly wound by his sides. She tentatively reached out and opened one of them. Ran a finger across his palm and felt him  tense in front of her. 

"Will you show me?" she asked, knowing she shouldn't. He seemed to know she meant his powers. The extent of them,  beyond the simple demonstration he had given weeks before. And she  seemed to know that he needed a release. 

Grim looked intently into her eyes. "Are you sure you want to see?"  he asked. 

She almost said yes immediately, then remembered the bite of dis appointment she'd felt at his answer the last time he had prefaced his  response. He was warning her, she realized. 

Warning her that she might see something she wouldn't like. Still, Isla nodded. She wanted to see it. Raw power. The thing she  wanted more than ever. 

He was so close his nose almost touched hers. "Not here." He glanced  at the window. Isla heard the rain, still raging, but not as violently as  before. "Do you mind going outside again?" 

She shook her head and followed him back out of the abbey. Isla felt it all once more, the water in sheets, but she was already  wet, already cold. Her eyes stayed glued on Grim as he walked to the  cliff, to its very edge. His back was tense, his cape glued to his shoulders,  and the muscles there rolled back. 

Fast as lightning, he turned, hand shooting in front of him—and  darkness erupted in a violent line, a wall of ink that rippled like water,  peaked like flames. It whipped right past her, inches from her face. She  stumbled back, the force of it almost making her fall over. 

As quickly as it had struck, the darkness dissolved. Isla took an  unsteady breath. In the places night had touched, life had been ripped  away. The grass sat charred and matted; trees were reduced to hulls that  decayed into ash right before her eyes. 

If that power had been unleashed on a human, she could imagine their skin would melt right from their bones. And those bones would  splinter and crack until they were fragments in the wind. This was worse than fire. 

Grim's darkness left nothing behind. 

He had turned back to the cliff, hand fisted at his side. A hand that  wielded terrible, terrible power. 

Grim went still when she trailed two fingers over the back of that  hand, against her better judgment. When she said, "Show me more,"  he grinned. 

And gripped her by the waist. 

They shot off the cliff, to the sand below—and this time, Isla didn't  scream. Because somehow, they had skipped the entire middle of the jump. The sea foamed and raged like a crazed animal in the storm, clouds  bubbling and frothing above, melding together to form a gray gradient.  She couldn't see where the ocean ended and the sky began. They both  churned and eddied, desperate to touch. 

Isla stood close enough to Grim that she heard him over the rain,  over the wind that blew in from the sea, whipping against every inch of  exposed skin and leaving it numb. She still had her crown in her hand  and, for a moment, considered simply throwing it into the angry ocean,  wondering if that would solve her problems. 

"Hearteater," he said. 

She looked up at him, only to see something peculiar in his expres sion. He looked worried. Devastated. 

Worried that she would cower from his terrible display of ability?  Hate him for what he was? 

She remembered his words. 

I am the monster. 

Part of her was afraid of it. 

But she wasn't afraid of him. Even though part of her screamed  that she should be.

"Tell me how I'm feeling," she whispered. She could try her best  to control her thoughts, her actions—but if the Nightshade had taught  her anything, it was that her emotions were far more difficult to bridle. Rain fell from his hair and onto her cheeks. 

He swallowed, reading her. "You're feeling . . . intrigued." She motioned toward their surroundings and shrugged. She had  asked him to show her more. "Well?" 

Instead of grinning again, Grim's expression darkened. The ocean  curled with a giant wave that crested before them and collapsed into  cliffs just feet away. His mouth was suddenly at her ear. "I could open  a black hole that would swallow the beach. I could turn the sea dark as  ink and kill everything inside of it. I could demolish the castle, brick by  brick, from where we stand. I could take you back to Nightshade lands  with me right now." His voice was deep as dreams, dark as nightmares.  "I could do all of those things." His lips pressed against the top of her  ear, for just a moment. "And I might—if I didn't think you would hate  me for it." 

Isla's shoulders and fingers shook—from the cold, or the rain, or  his proximity, or his proclamations, she wasn't sure. She looked down  at their bodies, pressed close. Just flimsy, drenched fabric between them.  Red dress against black, a rose dipped in midnight. Like tea in boiling  water, darkness still seeped from him, around him, ribbons of it that  reached toward her before recoiling. "Why do you care what I think?  You barely know me." 

Grim's shadows flared, though his expression did not change. "I  know enough," he said. 

"What about staying away from me?" 

His lips were right above hers now, his words practically pressed  against the corner of her mouth. "I gave it an honest effort," he said.  "But it turns out . . . I'm not that honest."