I’ve decided that at some point I need to turn my hand to YA fantasy fiction, because it seems like you can throw any compulsively readable crap at the wall and see if it sticks, these days. Add fairies, vamps, or witches, a tense romance, and a not-actually-feminist-but-it-sounds-good ‘Girls can do anything!’–and bob’s your uncle, you’ve got a bestseller and a script option!
I mean, srsly, this stuff makes Rowling look like Tolstoy. And I’m not here to kill anybody’s buzz, because I realize it’s fun, but wow. Just…wow. Not to mention the messages this stuff sends. Though if it’s either that or Rich Young Women In [Big City] Spending Money And Name Dropping, I’ll go with the lame urban fantasy novels any day.
Personal preference. If you DO want to find good YA fantasy, check out Sharyn November’s stuff over at Firebird.
Off topic, you can now catch my Twitter at the top of my sidebar, or directly here.
4 August 2008 at 3:39 pm
Yeah, from what I’ve heard, I think I’m going to pass on the Twilight mania.
Also, they blocked Rav at work again.
I’m not coming to knitting tonight. I need to give my wrists a break (er, maybe I should say “a rest”) in preparation for the Ravelympics, plus I’m not really working on anything right now anyway.
4 August 2008 at 4:17 pm
I think I’m glad I’m not a book-hungry teenaged girl right now. I mean, the cheesy teen romances when I was that age were bad enough, but they didn’t pretend to be anything but cheese.
29 August 2008 at 12:14 pm
I’ll pass on that one too. Give me The Golden Compass (which technically counts as YA fiction) any day. But this stuff? I read the back flap and a couple of sentences and was the opposite of hooked.