My first post about books...I'm so excited!
For those of you that know me, I'm a voracious reader--I read just about every genre, whether it's adult fiction or young adult fiction. I tend to have streaks where I read nothing but one type of book then I switch and read something else. AS of now I'm on a bit of a YA fiction kick--which is so funny to me because the looks I get from the librarians when I'm scoping out the YA section make me laugh. I'm sure they think I'm strange. Whatevs, I read what my kids read (or what they may want to read) so I can make recommendations. I'm not ashamed...
I've noticed that YA authors are trendy and the "hot" books at any time will spawn a bajillion other books of the exact same type. It's fascinating, really. From the loins of Twilight (dog vomit, if you ask me) sprung a million other teen vampire/werewolf/preternatural being books and series. Don't get me wrong, I love the vampires. I've been a Buffy fan from the get go and two of my favorite book series are the Anita Blake books (before they got all soft-core pornish) and the Hallows series. But, one AMAZINGZOMGTHISISSOCUTTINGEDGE series is great. Twelve of them...it's just overkill and unoriginal.
The other trend I've been seeing lately are the "dystopia" books...you know instead of a unicorn and rainbow utopia, everyone is living in Hell. It seems like everyone is trying to emulate what I consider the ultimate of the genre, Lois Lowry's The Giver. Books like The Bar Code Tattoo, the Uglies series, Fearless (just to name a few) are trying to recreate the horror and wonder of Lowry's book.
They fail.
What we're left with is a bleak look at "what could be" with no hope for things to get better. As with everything, there are exceptions to the rule--I'm totally digging The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games series. I think what's different is that these are well-written, the characters are well-thought out, and while the plot points are a bit dark, they're dealt with in a humorous, empathetic manner.
I really don't know the point of this post...it's not really a rant, not a book review...just some musing about what all the kids are reading right now.
I'm not at all a dystopia fan. It's incredibly depressing and not at all enjoyable to read, their endings all suck.
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