more thoughts about trends in young adult literature

[deborah]

I've heard a lot of people griping lately about all the mermaid books, but I can't deny that they are vastly preferable to the glut of angel/demon books. And of course, every mermaid or angel book is one less werewolf.

<shameful confession>I never have gotten sick of faerie books, as long as they are decently written.</shameful confession>

Which is not to say that I currently am not craving realism in a way I never have before. Last night I read Cecil Castellucci's Beige (teen from Montréal, daughter of a recovered groupie, has to spend the summer in LA with her punk rocker dad) and loved it, and I've got an Interlibrary Loan copy of Tanita Davis's Mare's War sitting on my desk for next, which, if it is half as good as her À la carte, will be gorgeous. I suspect it's in the same family as Beige, as well, When the protagonist has to spend the summer with an estranged family member and in doing so, learns something about his or her past and becomes a better person. It's a pretty common theme in middle grade and young adult literature, but you can go a lot of different directions with it.

My point is, we need a paranormal romance where one of the boys is a abbey lubber and the other is a mind flayer.

Comments

[in_parentheses]

I have been consistently underwhelmed by Cecil Castellucci, actually -- love the concept (Boy Proof, Plain Janes, her Geektastic story/comics), but the execution always seems gimmicky and unsubtle. I'll have to give Beige a try, maybe. She seems like a cool person with similar geeky predilections; I want to like her writing!

[in_parentheses]

I also have a big stack of ARCs from BEA that you can borrow! ...virtually none of which are realism. Never mind. It really is thin on the ground these days, isn't it?

[deborah]

Seriously! I've been going through my own ancient to be read pile in desperation. Yesterday I finally got around to Konigsburg's The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World, which was a nice palate cleanser.

I read Friesner's Nobody's Princess yesterday as well, and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Why does the mythical Helen, of all people, need to strap on a sword and adventure across Greece? ...also she is a total brat.

[deborah]

I was underwhelmed by Plain Janes and thought Boy Proof's main benefit was how unusual the protagonist was, but I did love Beige. Probably because I'm so realism-starved. :D