Category: Uncategorized
Discussion: Romance in YA Novels
No, this is not a discussion about whether romance is appropriate for YA novels, but rather a discussion of the romance we already find in YA novels.
I, for one, find most YA romances unbelievable and/or just plain creepy. Yes, I know young love is crazy and even a little clingy, but some books take this to a whole new level. In some novels, we see the male love interests take on qualities I would consider to be borderline abusive or worse: controlling what the main character does, who she talks to, giving her mixed signals constantly, etc. The most notable example is, of course, Twilight. However, I’m still seeing some of these behaviours in mostly male love interests in young adult novels. It’s certainly not sending out any great messages to impressionable teens about what is love and what is not.
The other thing I have a problem with in YA romances is that they’re so unbelievable. I know teenagers are particularly hormonal and romantic, but declarations of love after a week or so are just plain ridiculous. In some books, the main character hardly knows her male love interest before she’s saying she loves him. And when she realizes she loves him, suddenly she can’t live without him and has no interests outside her relationship with him. Is that realistic? Not really. Is that healthy? Definitely not.
Okay, I better stop now or I’ll be ranting all day. Yes, there are some great, healthy relationships in YA (Katniss and Po from Graceling), but the trend of borderline abusive relationships is frankly disturbing to me. But now I want to hear your thoughts on the topic: What do you think of romance in YA novels in general? Are the portrayals of relationships healthy? What is your favourite YA couple? Why?
Discussion: Posting Schedules
If you’re not a blogger like most of the people reading this are, you probably don’t know how much work goes on behind the scenes to keep a blog organized, especially for book bloggers. Even small book bloggers like myself with a little over 500 followers are sometimes booked up one or two months in advance! So how do I keep everything straight and make sure the right posts are published on the right days?
I have print out calendars and actually pencil in the posts I’ll be doing for each day. Yes, I’ve tried doing this digitally but it doesn’t work. Having the calendar staring me right in the face helps because I can easily ignore digital calendars. So every Sunday I sit down and pencil in what posts I know I’ll have to do for the week. If I’ve sent out a review to an author who requested one, I’ll have to pencil in that review for exactly one week later. If I’m doing a blog tour, I have to make sure that I have a) read the book, b) written the review for it and c) make sure I don’t schedule anything else for that day. Sometimes it’s hard.
So what I want to know is (whether you’re a book blogger or not): how do you keep your posting schedule straight? Do you have a physical calendar like I do or are you more tech-savvy? Do you even bother having a formal schedule for your posts or do you just have certain days you know you’ll post and wing it?
Exciting Book Deals for YA Lovers
[Full disclosure: I would love to thank Anthea Sharp for tipping me off about these deals. Although I was provided both deals for free from her, I was under no obligation to post about them and would have done it without getting the bundles for free.]
Okay: do you like YA books? Fantasy? Well written stories? Well, if you’re reading my blog you probably love at least two of the three. That means that now’s your time to snap up these awesome deals.
Deal #1: Faery Worlds (Six Complete Novels) for only $0.95 until the end of September!
The Faery Worlds bundle, of course, contains six ebook novels with faeries as the central theme. Although I haven’t yet started on it, I can tell you that Anthea Sharp’s Feyland: The Dark Realm is worth far more than $0.95 alone! I mean, if you love fantasy and/or YA this bundle is an awesome deal. Head on over to Amazon by clicking here. This deal is on only until the end of September, so snap it up while it lasts.
Deal #2: A StoryBundle collection of YA books for a pay what you want price!
Okay, so the minimum payment on StoryBundle is actually $3 and that’s an awesome deal considering how many books are in the bundle. I’ve downloaded this one as well and am really excited to get started on some of these books! Although the image I was sent shows eight books, the bundle on StoryBundle shows only 7 because Open Minds is not there. Still, 7 books for whatever price you want? You can’t get a better deal than that. You have to snap this one up quickly, however: it’s only live until September 17. Click here to see it.
Blogging Goals: Attend Book Expo America
Many, many people have asked me where I’m taking this blog. What are my goals for its future? Do I foresee a time where I’ll have to stop blogging? (Let’s hope not!) What direction do I want to take The Mad Reviewer? Is my goal to monetize my blog?
To tell you the truth, I don’t know the answer to any of those questions at the moment. Right now I just want to talk about books like I always have while building up a following of awesome readers. So far, so good. It’s basically what every other book blogger wants.
But lately I’ve been thinking about book blogging conferences and book fairs. Particularly Book Expo America (BEA), which has a book blogger’s conference in conjunction with the regular show. From what I’ve seen of other blogs it seems like a great place to go: you get some free books, listen to interesting talks from industry professionals and network with other bloggers. So yes, as a dedicated book blogger I obviously want to go. The only question is when.
Looking at my financial situation right now, going in 2014 is out of the question, unfortunately. 2015? Maybe then, but certainly not next year. Right now it’s really only the financial part that’s holding me back. Travelling alone to somewhere like New York is a little intimidating I’ll admit, but it’s not like I haven’t travelled alone before. Just never that far. I may splurge and buy a bunch of business cards for my blog beforehand, but that’s something to worry about in the future when I actually have a permanent logo and more followers.
So yeah, attending Book Expo America is currently my only book blogging goal. If you’re a blogger or an author, would you want to attend something like BEA? Have you already attended it? What was it like?
Discussion: Reading Dealbreakers
Pretty much everyone reading this here on my blog is an avid reader. You guys love books, I love books. I’ll personally read most anything. But what happens when something is just so bad in a book you can’t stand it any longer? Why, you put it down of course. That’s not the point here, though. The point is: what is that one thing that will always make you put down a book?
Personally it’s racism/sexism/homophobia, etc. I’m not talking about when authors tackle these issues in their books—that’s something mainstream authors need to do more! I’m talking about when an author’s views leak into their narrative and ruin the entire book. If I’m reading a book and the author seems to want to write a manifesto about why white people are superior, LGBT people are evil and/or women are inferior rather than actually telling a story, I’m probably going to throw the book at the wall. As much as I hate book vandalism, sometimes it’s justified.
There are actually a lot of things that make me want to put down a book, but it’s blatant discrimination on the author’s part that is the one thing that will make me put down a book immediately. Sometimes books are ‘meh’ but I’ll keep reading because I’m curious to see if it gets better, but any preaching on the author’s part will make me close a book without a second thought.
But enough about me: what are your reading dealbreakers? Why? Do you have lots or just one?