Young Adult Literature

So I happen to live in the same city as the National Center for Children's Books, which I finally went to today* for an author talk by Leigh Bardugo and Sara Maas. I haven't read either of their series but the talk was on Worldbuilding in Fantasy Literature so I was stoked to go. It turned out to be a little more informal and less focused on worldbuilding but a pretty good experience. Maas seemed a little too into herself (seriously we don't need a 10-minute story about your high-school livejournal being found out, this isn't the Moth Radio Hour) but I liked Bardugo a lot. I picked up the first of her series, "Smoke and Bone," which has been on my to-read list for awhile. I hope I enjoy it!

*Despite being downtown, the place is in some weird public transit vacuum and it's a huge pain in the ass to get there, otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd be there every day.

Over the weekend, I read the new Stephanie Perkins Isla and the Happily Ever After. I ... didn't love it. I wanted to, but it just seemed super formulaic, and the characters (and setting) didn't pop for me the way they did with Anna and Lola. I don't know if I just wasn't in the right headspace or what. It wasn't awful by any means, and I read it in like a day, but I did find myself starting to skim

Spoiler:

inversed, I read Smoke & Bone in June and loved it. I'm halfway throught the third book in the trilogy and yeah, things are happening! Leigh Bardugo is going to be in Dublin on Friday evening for an author talk and I would love to go but it's Friday evening and I'm already overnight in Dublin tomorrow (Wednesday night) for a guide committee thing and coming home Thursday and I can't stay up there until Saturday. Bah! Glad you enjoyed her talk though.

I've just finished John Green's Looking for Alaska. I was worried that Alaska was going to be just another Manic Pixie Dream Girl and that her big secret past was going to be some kind of victimization so I was pleased that neither of those came to fruition. But I've read some kind of creepy stuff about John Green's cultivation of young female fans and it's kind of tainting my enjoyment of his work - can anyone more in-the-know enlighten me on whether or not there's really a reason to side-eye John Green or if it's just Tumblr making up stuff to get upset about?

inversed, I can't speak directly to your question because I have nothing to do with his online fandom, but my mom is friendly neighbors with Green's parents and all impressions my family has of him is that he's lovely. That's in person, which can be very different from online, of course, but you can add it to the mix of info.

I've never heard about that either, inversed. As far as I know, he's just all about being a proud geek and encouraging others to embrace their inner nerd as well.

inversed, I think you're probably referring to this dustup. My impression of him is that, no, he does not cultivate a fandom of teen girls in a predatory or creepy way. But I do think that he handled this situation poorly, and the way all these other authors leapt to his defense against a teen girl--who simply stated that she personally finds him creepy in the same way she would find a "cool dad" who wants to hang out with his daughter's friends creepy--was shitty. I see criticism of JG on Tumblr occasionally (sometimes along the same "creepster" lines, or with feelings that he can be paternalistic), so I know that he must generally ignore it. He should have done that in this case too. There were no direct accusations, he was not tagged in her post, there was no reason to respond and let loose the attack dogs on this girl.

That article is missing the part where many, many other people tagged that post and tagged JG in it saying, literally, "lets get this enough notes so he has to address it and try to defend himself lmao". THAT was what he responded to. His response was still heavy-handed, but given that, it wasn't entirely unwarranted.

I'm a little put off by this because a whole mess of people dogpiled on Chuck Wendig for having the temerity to retweet someone else's message on this.

Yes, the Buzzfeed take on the controversy leads with that part of the story.

That is the controversy I was referring to. I saw it on Buzzfeed. Thanks for your thoughts yall!

I wonder if the Queen's Thief series is going to have another book? I thought so but maybe not. Megan Whalen Turner may be worse than GRRM, heh.

Stephenie Meyers has a new Twilight book! It is a gender swapped version of the original book. I'm starting to suspect Meyers likes to watch the Internet burn.

big chicken wrote:Stephenie Meyers has a new Twilight book!  It is a gender swapped version of the original book.  I'm starting to suspect Meyers likes to watch the Internet burn.

For real? Okey dokey then.

I'm not 100% sure this goes here, but it was the best fit I could identify: I'm looking for some interesting book options for my 12-year-old daughter. I'm specifically wondering if "The Rookie Yearbook" series is appropriate for a girl her age or if she should be a little older to read it. I've seen mixed reviews on this issue. Thoughts?