Six Degrees of Separation from Less Than Zero to Prince of Shadows

It’s Saturday, so it’s time for another Six Degrees of Separation. This took a pretty wondrous turn. In case you don’t know, 6 Degrees of Separation, hosted by hosted by Kate @ Booksaremyfavoriteandbest, is where we connect the book Kate gives us to six other books. You can follow the activity on Twitter with the hashtag #6Degrees.

The chain starts with Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis this month. This book is about privileged guy who comes home from college and gets into the seedy side of L.A. Similar in location, Nancy Jo Sales’ The Bling Ring focuses on the six teens who were accused of stealing jewelry and clothing from celebrities when they knew they wouldn’t be home.

Another book that features theft is K.A. Holt’s House Arrest. After Timothy stole a credit card to buy his brother’s medication, he is placed under house arrest and has to write in this journal for a year to keep himself from being sent to juvie. In the novel-in-verse, we discover his mother’s financial issues too.

Crenshaw, by Katherine Applegate, is also about a kid with parents who are struggling financially. This kid has an imaginary friend named Crenshaw. This imaginary friend is a cat with a skateboard. Crenshaw reminds me of another cat who disappears and reappears at will: the Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

QuinRose and Soumei Hoshino’s manga, Alice in the Country of Hearts, Vol. 1, reimagines and parodies Carroll’s famous novel. To complete the chain, I am choosing another retelling of a famous tale. Prince of Shadows, by Rachel Caine, retells Romeo & Juliet with an alternate background on Benvolio.

The chain started with books set in L.A., continued with children whose parents have financial issues, and ended retellings of famous stories. Less Than Zero is separated six degrees from Prince of Shadows. What does your chain look like?

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