By: Mallory Turner
Sophomore Jen Guberman has self-published “Eos”; a young adult dystopian novel about a young thief who shares a name with the title of the book.
Inspired by authors such as Veronica Roth of the Divergent series, and J.K. Rowling of the Harry Potter series, the book takes place in a society where people are categorized into four different towns based on what crimes they have committed. The main character is a young girl, put into one of the areas for being a thief, who has to go to each of the criminal towns in order to find the pieces of a skeleton key that can open any lock.
“I really like dystopian society novels and the idea of categorizing people based on their traits,” Guberman said. “I had the idea of categorizing people based on their bad traits, and I thought, ‘what if they were only categorized if they commit a crime?’”
Guberman has been writing since she was little by making up short stories, but decided to get serious about it after taking a creative writing class in high school. She has been trying to write a novel for four years, and after the end of her freshman year at Gardner-Webb she came up with the concept of her book.
“I wanted to have believable characters,” said Guberman. “They’re not perfect; the main character herself is a selfish thief.”
Guberman came up with the idea of her characters through Pinterest. After seeing a hairstyle that she thought would suit the personality of the main character, she took other features of pictures she saw until they were combined to make the final product. Each character had a different creation process, some starting with their personality and others starting with their looks.
She also decided to self-publish the novel instead of going through a publisher. Friends and family helped with the editing, and not going through a publisher meant that nothing in the book had to be changed from how she originally wanted it. The downside of self-publishing, however, is having to self-market. “I have a website that I run, I have business cards and I do whatever I can to get the word spread around,” said Guberman.
Although Dystopian society novels have become very popular in recent years, they’re starting to oversaturate the market. “Part of me is worried, but there’s a reason so many are flooding the market,” Guberman said. “People are reading them and enjoying them. There’s competition, but that just means that it’s a popular genre.”
Even so, Guberman is confident that her novel will stand out among the crowd because there’s something in it for everyone. “There’s action, comedic relief, a little romance and a backstory for all the characters,” she said. “None of the towns that are visited are alike. You may not like one setting, but you may like the other ones.”
The novel can be bought for $10 plus shipping online at www.EosDawn.doodlekit.com, $10 in person if you contact Guberman, or can be bought as an ebook for $1.99.
