Imagine, if you will, an aspiring YA writer.
Imagine that she has returned from a long day at the office and chooses to unwind by catching up on her blog reading.
Imagine that as she's browsing the blog of debut YA author Carrie Ryan she finds this post linking to this article.
Imagine how she feels.
Embrace rage.
And now back to your regularly scheduled program...
1 comment:
I think one reason critics tend to look down upon the entire YA genre is that there have been very few outstanding books within that genre.
Yes, Harry Potter was a great series, but the first few books didn't have complex characters or plotlines. They were written like Nancy Drew novels (and I love Nancy Drew) or a Scooby Doo episode. It wasn't until later in the series (book 4 specifically) that the plot lines got more complex and the characters became more than 2D.
Now you have the Twilight series (no offense if you love Twilight) and teenage girls raging over badly written fantasies. Yes, they get young girls to read, but do they encourage much thought? Do they make teen girls go: "I would like to know more about *insert subject here.*?"
It sounds like the author and book they're talking about has written a novel that actually shows that teenagers can be complex and creates a character outside the stereotypical YA book.
Yes, it sucks that the entire YA genre is discriminated against in th literary would, but the only way to change that is to force publishers to publish something worth reading and not the worthless, brainless crap that gets placed on bookshelves every day. And that's not going to happen any time soon.
So the practical thing to do is to write good stories and try and get a YA label placed on them. And slowly but surely, hopefully, teenagers (boys and girls) will be reading great stories that make them want to read more and more.
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