You might have noticed I am of late reading a it more of Young Adult literature than other genres. Even though I am trying to keep a balance among all the type of books in my blog, the truth is I have read more YA in the past one year than ever.
I never was into young adult fiction before that and to be honest, I used to avoid them like plague, But then these books happened and the rest as they say is history.
As a result of the surge in the number of reviews I have posted on my blog, the number of unsolicited review requests for YA books have sky rocketed. Not that I complain. But I can’t help but notice some lots of similarities among those novels that I can’t take it anymore.
How many time do you ask yourself these questions when you read these Young Adult novels?
7) Why do you need a public confrontation?
What is with you, kids and the crowd? In real life, most of us would run away from a confrontation like a plague (at least I do). But if there is a problem in your Young Adult drama filled life, every accusation / confrontation / break up has to be in front of your peers and their mothers.
6) Who are you, really?
I am yet to meet someone in real life who is so clumsy and yet so graceful when the tide turns. You drop everything, fall down the stairs and even get lost in your own city, but you are independent and gonna fight the dragons. What am I missing here? How many books have you read about the self proclaimed plain lead who finally realizes that she is beautiful after a make over and the hot guy asking her out? Why do the ‘unpopular’ guy have to fall for the popular, mean girl only to realize the awkward plain girl best friend is all he needs? He has to wait for her to get a make over too, I guess.
I know this is a problem even in adult / contemporary books, but its effect is more jarring in the young adult literature. But I am so done with the dark, brooding bad boy and the popular hot girls as love interests for the protagonists.
3) Where are the parents, teachers – AKA adults?
When I was a young adult myself (not too far past) there is no way that I could get away from the eyes of the adults for even two hours. Befriending rando strangers from the street was a strict no no. And here are kids whose lives are entirely dependent on a random stranger, with no prior qualifications. Seriously if there were one responsible adult around these kids most YA plots won’t even exist.
2) Why are the adults the bad ones always?
If you did have some adults, they are pretty useless or worse -the bad ones. Your Chemistry teacher is probably producing Meth in your school lab. Or they are killing innocent puppies (which I hope is not true.)
Or at the least, they are hiding a big fat secret from you. Like you are a vampire or a princess to some small country. Or that you were adopted. How.could.they?
1) Why are you the only one who has to break the rules?
Out of the entire population in your fictitious world, you are the only one who wants to question the authority. And / or open the damn door. And you do not listen to your friends who repeatedly beg you not to do that.
It doesn’t matter what is lurking in the darkness, you want a part of it, don’t you? Is it because someone said you are the only one who is special? Why are you So.Damn.Nosey?
What are your peeves about the mainstream Young adult books? Do you agree that these problems are irritable or not? Do you have an answers for any of these questions? Leave a comment, let us talk.
I know that sounded like blasphemy. Everyone I know and their mother is in love with one book series or the other. Be it the infamous Fifty Shades series or the awesome Game of thrones. Especially the YA bloggers read and rave about books that are in so many parts that I have clearly no clue any more.
Do not get me wrong. I am not against the format as a principle. But somehow the books that are part of trilogy or series do not work for me. I have had my share of books that comes as a series and have even loved a few of them.
Over the past few years I physically cringe when I see the ‘##’ near the name of the book, because it is one more book that I might never pick it up sadly.
Why do I get so turned off when comes to book series?
I really hate cliffhangers. I have put my time and effort (even if I had loved doing that) in a book and then it ends abruptly only to be continued in the next. Really? I just can’t stand not knowing what happens to them and I usually have to wait for another year or two.
That brings us to the next problem.
2) Would I be alive when your next book turns up?
I am totally impatient. I want everything and I want them now. So forget me waiting to know whom Elena chooses in the Vampire Diaries series. If I can’t have it now, I am not having any. So what do I do?
Solution: When I do read a series I tend to get them all together in go.
3) Would the part two be as good as one?
How many books do you have already on your shelf but haven’t read for years? I am super ashamed about it too. Then why would I want to add another bunch of books that I may or may not read. I can hear you say, try the first book and then get the other ones, right? Read the previous point.
4) I would be far far behind the world.
Waiting for the series to end naturally means I would never read the books with the rest of the world. You wouldn’t believe how much later I picked up the Pretty Little Liar series, only because I wanted it to end before I even got the first book. Sorry folks I am still trying to figure out who is A when you are busy celebrating ‘her’ arrest.
5) Don’t keep toying with my feelings, people.
Pretty Little Liars also taught me another lesson on why I should hate book series that the character arcs suck. (Actually they don’t, they are fabulous.) But it is sheer torture that I can’t make up my mind whether to hate or love someone. Is he gonna be the killer? Or is it just another misdirection?
This definitely would not happen with a standalone because everything ends when you hit the epilogue. Except you staring at the ceiling trying to figure out what you wanna do with the rest of your life!
It is me, not you.
I know I am missing out a lot.
Still I prefer to have my choice books as standalones.
And the only way I can read a series is only when the books can work alone and can be read in any order. I can understand that a group of friends having their own story in a romance novel series like the Rock Chick series by Kristen Ashley or Macgregor brides by Nora Roberts.
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Let us chat
Do you prefer standalones to series? Why or why not? If you read a lot of series, can you suggest me books that would fit my criteria? Let’s chat.
I LOVE BOOKS. But that shouldn’t come as news to you. You are here on my blog, so you would know. I am just not a bibliophile; I love everything related to books. I love the book smell, the library, bookish characters, of course talking to the authors and everything and anything that falls between these obsessions.
While I love talking about books and hearing / reading your thoughts about any book, I can not somehow join the bandwagon that everyone (am looking at you Buzzfeed) calls as being a book-nerd. (Does anyone get as annoyed as I do when people overuse ‘nerd’?).
My unpopular bookish opinions
Why, you ask? I do not conform to the popular (read as mainstream) norms and opinions of the book world according to the Internet. Here are my top 10 unpopular bookish opinions.
10) I don’t give books ‘star ratings’.
Until a short while ago, I rated books too, but I have liberated myself from the obligation to summarize all my feelings about a book to a star rating. I don’t want to be struggling to decide if I should give the book a 3 star or 3.5 star. Or worse, to give two very different books the same rating when they clearly aren’t. Read more about my issue with ratings here.
9) I am rarely a fangirl
It might come as a shocker to some people and even confuse a few. I might love the plot and writing and still hate the characters or feel meh about them. I rarely have a fangirling moment, but when I do, I can not stop gushing about them.
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8) I still have not lost my love for people.
Sure I might be misanthropic sometimes. And even wiggle out of meeting friends because I don’t feel like it. Oh, I might hate talking to you right now because I have a book in my hand and I would rather finish that than gossiping with you.
Well that is me! But none of that is due to my love for books. Not all book nerds have to be introverts or speak like a geek and be adorkable (I am looking at you, John Green). If you do, it is great and if you don’t it is great too!
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7) Some movies are better than books
I find no qualms in saying that there are some movies that have been better than their books. I am not going to deny that. Though I mostly prefer books to movies or TV series, there have been times that movies were as good as the books (like Gone Girl, The shining) as well as some that did better than the books (LOTR, PS I Love you, The room).
6) I prefer stand-alones to series
I don’t read book series. There, I said it. While every other book lover I know reads and obsesses about series after series, but I don’t have the patience to wait for the next book to be released. Or by the time it does get published, I would have forgotten all about it.
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5) Book-nerds are not as judgemental as they seem
The Internet people all over the world seem to love bashing (read as, critique reviewing) titles like Twilight or Fifty shades, etc. Even I am guilty of doing that. I am yet to meet any book lover in real life to judge someone who reads something they don’t approve.
We might do that over the Internet; it is yet one other thing that the big bad mean world of the web makes us do. In real life, I am sure any book lover would feel a sense of bonding to see a book in your hand, whatever kind of reader you might be.
4) I don’t organize my bookshelves by color
I love spending hours gawking at #bookstagram. Come on, who doesn’t like looking at beautiful things? But I know it is not for me. I still arrange my books based on genre and then the size. And I still pick function over design.
This is probably one of the most unpopular bookish opinions.
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3) I am not cover obsessed
I don’t mind your judging the book by its cover; not at all. But I am surprised how far my fellow book people go with their cover obsession. It might have all started with the cover reveal parties; at least these parties, i.e., series of promotional posts have made book covers a huge deal.
I know friends who want the covers of all the books they own in a series to match. And if they don’t, they even buy multiple copies only for the covers. Sure they are pretty, but aren’t they a wee bit overboard? Maybe it is just me.
2) I highlight and dog-ear my books, sometimes… Rarely.. Okay never! But I don’t mind them
I treasure my books. I seldom lend them. And when I do, I may keep politely reminding (nudge or nag, rather) them until they give it back. Yet, I don’t mind an occasional highlight or dog-ear in my books. I don’t get a panic attack when some one does that.
Hey, I love loved books that I find from the thrift stores.
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1) I don’t mind the spoilers
While the entire world is going crazy over the leaked spoilers, I for one don’t mind them at all.
So go on, tell me all about the book you loved, I still would read it without despising you. Spoilers are not a huge deal to me.
Credit: Giphy
#Bonus: My non bookish unpopular opinion
I don’t understand pet parties.
I don’t, but I am almost sure your pets don’t enjoy wearing those party hats. The number of pet party supplies I see around my place is ridiculous. If you want to make them happy, let them be.
Most of us read to escape into new worlds of our own. Imagine curling up in the bed with a cup of coffee and a book on a rainy day. (Scratch that, I don’t need a cup of joe if it would mean I have to stop reading while I sip the drink.) What could be better than that? Maybe sitting in a library amongst thousands of books with your nose buried in a book. Go ahead tell me what else could a book lover enjoy more?
I read comfortably in public, especially during our commute. Many of us do. Some readers put on their headset to drown the white noise, to drown the chaos around them, to focus better on their book. Few of us do not even need a headset, we zone off and turn deaf while we pick an interesting read until your mother (or someone else) pulls you back to Earth. Books and reading are our solaces, a Zen zone where nothing could go wrong or even if it did things would turn better before you reach the last page. Mostly. One way or the other.
As far as I remember I always had a book for a company when the going got any slower. Of course, there have been phases in my life when I enjoyed sharing the passion of reading with others by discussing whatever I read with them, but they have always been short-lived. I even started this blog to primarily talk about the books I read, since I couldn’t find anyone to listening to my rants. But things have changed. A lot. You ask why? Reading became social.
Don’t get me wrong. I love being online as much as do, even more than the average Jane does. But still reading is a lonely activity for me. I like to choose my books to obsess hate or write about on my own. My reading interests do not confine to any one single genre. I read about the Holocaust with as much interest as I have about boys worshiping girls. I love Stephen King and Gillian Flynn as deep as my love for Agatha Christie and Mark Twain. I even read Warran Buffet for the heck of it. You get my drift? This means I get to ‘ ‘ship’ or ‘fangirling’ over too many characters.
Of course, social reading is fun and there is always something on your plate to read. You get to meet so many like minded people who will love join your tribe to defend the character you so much. Someone who keeps you updated with the latest gossip from the book world. A book turning into a TV series? You will know it before others. Oh, and the free books that you get to review!
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Yet, reading these days could be exhausting.
Once I finish reading a book, and after having the proper emotional break down the book deserves, that includes but not limited to crying, grinning, shaking your head ‘cuz you can’t even‘, scared that you would be having nightmares and even understandable relief that it ended, I update that I have finished reading the book and what I thought about it in few words on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook and only because Google is the Lord, Google+. And then talk about it in every one of the Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter groups that I am part of. Defend whatever my thoughts were and defend or accuse the characters’ behavior, as need be, in that book and the series. If someone doesn’t agree, of course, attack another character that the person loves and if you can, make them cry. Well, after all this is done, start the process over by writing a review and posting in all the channels mentioned above.
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Well if you think that is too much, you have not heard the half of it. We just covered the process I go through for a book I read. There are books that I want to read because I do, I have to read because everyone is reading it, I want to own because they look cute and go with my shelf and even books whose cover do not match with the covers of the books I own in the series. Then I follow the authors, their new releases and the requests I have to place and that I have received from the authors for review. Well, it is too tedious even to explain anymore, I give up trying to.
One of my coolest friends was telling me he stopped updating his Goodreads profile after seeing people desperately bumping their ‘read counts’ just to show off. How did a self-satisfying hobby turn into a community driven project so soon? Do we not desire to disconnect from the world anymore? Or have ‘the books’ become the next ‘cool sport’ to bond over? Is reading still a selfish, solitary process or a shared social experience for you? Let me know in the comment section.
I have made it clear to everyone around me – on online and in real life, that I am besotted with The handmaid’s tale, both the book and Hulu’s teleseries. I have not stopped talking about to anyone who would listen about it. You can read my thoughts about the book version of The handmaid’s tale here. Yeah you heard it! There is a book version and a TV version, and there are a lot of differences between them.
In the Hulu version of Gilead most things are the same as in the book. It is essentially about the fertile women called handmaids who have been rounded up and sent to the houses of its high ranking officials to bear the barren couple a child. With Margret Atwood herself on board as an Executive Producer, this tale of feminists’ nightmare has made a few but significant changes. Read on to know what Hulu has done to one of our favorite classics. Plenty of spoilers ahead, be warned.
1) The tale is timeless
Hulu’s series is set in the present age with current technologies like access to Tinder and Uber. The handmaids have a red tag on their ears which serves as a GPS tracker. This makes the series more relatable to us, the . The technologies used by the Atwood’s dystopia set in 1980s like Compubanks, Compucounts (read as electronic banks and credit/ debit cards) etc are pretty usual for us. Of course there are lot more swearing and nudity involved considering the again the age we are in.
2) Gilead is a diverse society
Atwood’s book starts with Gilead where the children of Ham have been relocated and the sect war had solved the problems of the Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Quakers, and other religious sects. Our present day Gilead is a multicultural society. They still are against the gender traitors, ie, the LGBTQ but there are a lot of openly gay and non whites characters in the series including Moira, Nick and Luke.
3) The bolder, less rigid Offred
The difference the two Offred begins with their name. While the readers are left to make their own deductions about Offred’s before name, Hulu’s Offred makes it clear from the start that she was June. Another drastic change is in the character of June/Offred is that bookish June was a passive character who craves for language, books and words, she never took part in any protests before she was captured and whatever we learn about herself and Gilead is through her strong inner monologues. But Hulu’s June, portrayed by one of my favorites Elizabeth Moss of the Mad Men fame, is a bold lady who even attempts to manipulate the Commander. The Season Finale even shows her as a rebel when she defies Aunt Elizabeth against stoning Janine.
4) We know The Commander
Like June, the Commander’s name in the book had been left to the speculation of the readers. But the Hulu’s Commander is introduced as Waterford and is repeatedly mentioned. Oh, the new Commander doesn’t look anything like the ‘Midwestern banker’ we were used to, he is leaner, younger and much better looking. The Commander is nicer to Offred, letting her meet Moira at the Jezebels and even is a little remorseful when Serena is not let to make her speech, making us like him more than his counterpart from the book.
5) Serena Joy is nothing like we read
The character of Serena Joy gets a complete overhaul by the Hulu’s team. She is nothing like the old, limping, detached ex-televangelist that Atwood had in mind. She is an ex-marketer much like her husband and she played a mighty role in creating Gilead. Hulu’s Serena is not passive about Offred, she is indignant that Offred is taking her place. She is not the one who takes his husband’s affair with June slightly. She gives him a piece of her mind and physically hurts Offred, until she learns she is pregnant. She is passionate, strong and woman who knows to get things done.
6) Ofglen is a gender traitor
How could we forget the brave Mayday supporter Ofglen? In the book the last we hear about her was that she hangs herself when the vans were coming to get her. But Hulu has turned her into a gender traitor and has her even punished for that. She is punished for that severely for having an affair with a Martha. She even drives a car around the market. The show ends up saying more than Ofglen than the book and she is taken in a van much like Offred and her fate is to be certain.
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7) Luke survives, so does Hannah
Yes Luke lives in Canada in the Hulu series, whereas his whereabouts are unknown in the book. He is a colored man who divorces his wife to marry June. While the latter fact remains unchanged, the diverse world of Gilead is new. The series also doesn’t speak about the reason behind June’s marriage with Luke is invalidated. Also June’s meeting with Luke has a cutesy story involving Moira and Tinder. I like the TV series’ Luke better than the book’s.
8) Moira escapes the Jezebels
In the book Offred gains her strength from Moira. Moira is a rebel by heart and escapes from the Red Centre alone, not with June as in the series. One of the major change from this theme in the TV series is that Moira is broken down and has lost hope while at Jezebels and Offred is the one who is strong. Moira is seen lastly at the Jezebels by Offred according to the book, whereas Moira escapes to Canada and reunites with Luke.
9) What else has changed
June’s mother plays a bigger part in making up for the courage June lacked, in the book. She is a feminist who fights the system and sent to the Colonies. Cora is a friendlier Martha who finds fainted Offred. Both of these characters are missing in the television series. Likewise Janine’s character is a lot more developed than it is in the book. The time lines are also a bit changed to make it more interesting. Even Aunt Lydia seems to have a heart for Janine, unlike the book.
Have you watched the series? What do you think of it and did you like the changes made by Hulu? Let me know in the comment section.
How often do you drop a book down because you could not take it anymore? Not in the positive, overwhelming, OMG I-need-a-moment kind. But more of a what-in-the-crap-did-I-read way that you reserve when hate books. The kind that made us wish we had the book in its physical form, so that we would have had the pleasure of throwing it against the wall.
We pay for the sin of having not taken the hint when their friends warn us about the book in not so subtle ways. We want to taste the poison for ourselves. We are masochistic. We persevere. We suffer through books with half baked plots, overcompensating sex scenes, subplots that adds nothing but pages and what not.
10 reasons why I hate your books
Yet it does not stop us from reaching to the next book you have not heard reviews or rather not good reviews about. Now that is what they call ‘the adventurous life of a book lover’. We already discussed a few things that would make you stop reading a book, if you can help it. Here we are on the second part. Go on.
6) Show not tell me:
Why would you spend 25 lines saying what a badass your villain is when you can tell me what he did and I could form an opinion myself? We readers like visualizing the horrors your villain could unleash, not just accept your word for it. Now, Twilight lovers do not harm me but I have to add this excerpt hides away under the table
“You know Bella, Jacob?” Lauren asked—in what Iimagined was an insolent tone-from across the fire. “We’ve sort of known each other since I was born,” he laughed, smiling at me again. “How nice.”She didn’t sound like she thought it was nice at all, and her pale, fishy eyes narrowed. “Bella,” she called again, watching my face carefully, “I was just saying to Tyler that it was too bad none of the Cullens could come out today. Didn’t anyone think to invite them?” Her expression of concern wasunconvincing. “You mean Dr. Carlisle Cullen’s family?” the tall, older boy asked before I could respond, much to Lauren’s irritation. He was really closer to a man than a boy, and his voice was very deep. “Yes, do you know them?” she askedcondescendingly, turning halfway toward him. – Twilight, Stephenie Meyer.
I am going to ignore every other problem with the above prose and focus on the topic. What does Meyers tell us? Lauren is unlikeable. Yet she does not show us anything to help the fact. I am annoyed; Period!
We have all read books that have too many things going on. Too many sub plots and too many characters do overwhelm us, the readers. Imagine if only we had had a story for each of the seven dwarfs in the Snow White, would we have enjoyed it as much?
Yet the number of times I had to skim through the story of the side kick because it does not help the story move forward nor to understand the characters better is too many. They simply might have been filling the pages andbe distracting. If so, why would I have to read them to reach the end of the book?
3)What did I read now!:
One of the major issues I have with the YA and fantasy world is that I can’t make myself believe in them, this from someone who adores horror fiction and might possibly be scared that one could walk in and out of a picture frame.
Credibility of the story or plot doesn’t mean that these things should be able to happen in the real world, but they should be plausible in the world that the author has spun for me. For instance, I don’t care if vampires are real or not, but I do mind if you tell me vampires do not drink blood.
I hate books that has characters who are not credible – they do something quite not like themselves at all without proper reasons. Likewise, when books lack cultural and historical authenticity readers tend to stop getting into the characters. Book with no credibility means lazy writing, which is an excellent way to make me hate your book.
2) Plain bad writing and editing:
I linger in the doorway of Command, the high-tech meeting/war council room complete with computerized talking walls, electronic maps showing the troop movements in various districts, and a giant rectangular table with control panels I’m not supposed to touch.-Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.
The above excerpt is a narration by Katniss, how are we supposed to ‘hear’ the ‘meeting/war’ part? Does she say slash? Does anybody around here say slash when you are talking to IRL? Minor quirks like these usually end up to form a huge ball of hatred even before I could even complete the book.
“So today is the day,” she says. “Yes,” I reply. “Are you nervous?” I stare into my own eyes for a moment. ….. “No,” I say. “The tests don’t have to change our choices.” “Right.” She smiles. “Let’s go eat breakfast.” “Thank you. For cutting my hair.”-Divergent by Veronica Roth
Brevity might be the soul of wit. But having to read conversations like the one above or the much infamous
One can be able to tolerate a typo here and there but not those with terrible tenses, senseless smilies and cringe-worthy cliches.
To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope, and the dandelion that reminded me that I was not doomed. –The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
How often do you quit a book that you do not enjoy? And what makes you decide to stop putting yourself through hell? When do you say “I hate your book”? Let me know in the comments.
