Cresta McGowan: Literary Musings and Manuscripts - Media Journal #6

Cresta McGowan, while being an English high school teacher, is also a literary review blogger and writer. Writing opinions about Young Adult novels to Classic Literature, she varies in her reading habits, hence, giving well rounded reviews. Although she has given up blogging at the moment, due to lack of time, the posts throughout the past six years have developed a well read blog. Most posts are at minimum a paragraph or two per book review, while some run much longer. The variation in genres is a refreshing and interesting aspect of McGowan’s blog, appealing to several audiences.
Thus, while McGowan holds various opinions on books regarding liking or disliking them, she also gives consistent information throughout her reviews. For example, she has a series throughout her blog called “Back on the Shelf”, and reviews several books she has read or is currently reading. Similarly, she reviews books individually to include stand alones as well as those within a series. Two reviews I found particularly interesting were Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell and Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff, both books I have read and was able to read the reviews for without being spoiled. Both of these reviews, while on her “Battle of the Books” list, were written to be surprisingly enjoyable. Likewise, both novels are contrastingly different within the Young Adult genre, showing again, McGowan’s versatile novels.
McGowan’s post each contain a basic amount of information within each post. Generally, the title of each post is the title and author of the novel, unless the post is part of one of her blog series, such as “Back on the Shelf”. Following is her personal rating of the novel, accompanied by her goodreads link; a website dedicated to tracking one’s reading progress and personal book shelves. Next will be a summary of the book, either from another website or the back of the book cover. It is only after all this information is given that McGowan provides her personal analysis and opinions. Lastly, there sometimes is information of the author or an inserted advertisement for the book, however, this component varies throughout the blog.

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