Entangled Blog Tour: Cat Clarke on her favourite teenage reads

Today I'm thrilled to be hosting the ninth stop of the official Entangled book tour. As regular visitors to I Was A Teenage Book Geek may have surmised, Cat Clarke's debut novel is already a bit of a favourite of mine (review here). So of course, I jumped at the chance to ask Cat a few questions about her own favourite teenage reads...

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Welcome Cat! I read somewhere that the idea for Entangled came to you in the midst of an A Level English exam. Are there any particular books or authors from that time that have influenced you as a writer?

I was influenced by Christopher Pike when I was about 12 or 13, but I’m not sure whether any of the writers I read in my late teens have influenced my writing. I read a lot of Richard Laymon, Patricia Cornwell and Stephen King. I guess the thing all the books I read back then had in common was that they were proper page-turners. So perhaps they’ve influenced me in that way – I don’t write pages and pages of description, because that’s not what I like to read.

I would definitely say that Entangled is a total page turner. I couldn't put it down! Which YA character would you compare your teenage self to?

Katniss from The Hunger Games – except I was WAY tougher. Um... maybe Cassandra Mortmain from I Capture the Castle? Actually, I think my teenage self was far too dull to be a half-decent YA character. How depressing is that?!

Book blogging has only really taken off in the last few years. As a teen, where did you get your book recommendations from?

Man, I wish there had been book blogs when I was a teenager! I got book recommendations from my mum. And I randomly picked books from the library shelves – the random approach actually served me pretty well.

Some books are a rite of passage for teens. (example: mine was 'Are You There God, It's Me Margaret' by Judy Blume.) What was your rite of passage book?

I don’t think I had one. (I feel all left out now!) Although I did read Judy Blume... you couldn’t not read Judy Blume!

When I was in high school, teen fiction was all about the big US series books like Sweet Valley High, Point Horror and The Babysitter's Club. Have you ever had a series obsession?

Not when I was a teenager. I read a couple of Point Horror books, but I definitely preferred Christopher Pike. Ooh, I did go through a bit of a Gossip Girl phase about four years ago. I practically inhaled those books.

These days, a lot of people in their twenties and thirties are reading YA. Have you always been a big YA reader, or is it something you've left for a while and gone back to?

I’m ashamed to admit that I left the fold for a few years – but I still read things like Harry Potter and His Dark Materials. It’s only in the past six years or so that I’ve really become immersed in YA again. It’s good to be back.

If you could travel back in time and give 3 recently published YA books to your teenage self, which would you choose and why?

If I could travel back in time I’d do a lot more than give my teenage self some books! I think I’d go for...

Before I Fall – Lauren Oliver
The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
Some Girls Are – Courtney Summers

I’d hand them over to teenage Cat and say, ‘Read these ASAP. They will get under your skin and inspire you and make you want to write. Then maybe you could write a book now, instead of waiting years and years to get started. Oh, and get yourself some hair straighteners. And don’t wear those white jeans – ever.’
Thanks for having me on your blog, Lauren! Happy New Year to you.

Thanks for stopping by, Cat. And just for the record, I'm entirely with you on the white jeans thing.

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You can check out the full tour schedule in the banner there below, and I'd also highly recommend stopping by Cat Clarke's blog, website and twitter.