The Book Lantern

Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister is #5. I: -read...

2011-07-23T23:20:10.480-06:00

Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister is #5. I:
-read the prologue and assumed one thing.
-read the rest of the book through and kept my assumption.
-read the epilogue, and all assumptions went out the window.
-stared at the book.
-read the prologue & epilogue again.
-praised Gregory Maguire's brilliance.

You know I'm 100% behind the idea of YA inside...

2011-06-06T13:59:24.145-06:00

You know I'm 100% behind the idea of YA insiders to be able to give and accept legitimate criticism of their work. It's a big deal, and I think it's necessary if we want to be legitimized as a literary subset.

Coming from the position of an unagented, unpublished, but still deeply ingrained YA writer, it is a little unnerving to raise your voice against the crowd. There are

Sorry, I edited because I'd been wordy, and mu...

2011-06-02T05:12:19.452-06:00

Sorry, I edited because I'd been wordy, and must have caught you in a reply. You're surely right that most everyone (not extremely drunk at the time) approaches their first time as , if not a major event, at least a milestone.

Your example above would work as a great character hook for me. If I read a book starting with that I'd definitely want to know why she felt

Sex. Definitely sex. In my first language, whenev...

2011-06-02T04:49:11.066-06:00

Sex. Definitely sex.

In my first language, whenever people refer to their "first time" without specifying what was it exactly that they were doing for the first time, it is always implied that they are talking about their first sexual experience. Sorry for being so vague!

... and now I discovered that the passage I quoted in my reply is gone, because I cannot find

Just for clarification, are we talking about sex o...

2011-06-02T04:32:09.482-06:00

Just for clarification, are we talking about sex or about drugs?

"Not everyone's first time is the besttim...

2011-06-02T02:11:46.926-06:00

"Not everyone's first time is the besttimeever (indeed, I thought anecdotally that it was supposed to be the opposite)."

Well, I know a grand total of two people who admitted to having had a great first time. The rest was more like: "Eh... it got better".
But, still - the first time is such a big staple in our contemporary culture, that it's difficult

I like to have different things in different books...

2011-06-02T01:44:10.367-06:00

I like to have different things in different books, but on the whole a realistic teenage experience is more interesting to me. Which doesn't mean that sex/drugs/etc is mandatory for a teen story, but could merely mean an awareness that such things happen, though not necessarily in this story.

Teflon characters (all the bad things slide off them) can be irritating if handled badly,

Yeah, but there's a difference between trying ...

2011-06-01T17:37:02.564-06:00

Yeah, but there's a difference between trying pot and deciding it's not for you and snorting cocaine enough times to make metaphors about chasing the first line and then going off your seperate ways. Same is with alcohol - Ever drinks steadily for a whole week. That's not having a few beers at a party. I'm not even sure it's realistic.

I'm all about MC's

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" also ...

2011-06-01T17:29:11.002-06:00

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" also handled drugs realistically, I think. And "Sister Mischief" by Laura Goode (highly recommended).

It truly is powerful, and I recently discovered mo...

2011-06-01T16:51:24.231-06:00

It truly is powerful, and I recently discovered more and more aspects of it.

I may actually get around to writing the review of it!

I love a novel that addresses an issue well, such ...

2011-06-01T08:11:10.693-06:00

I love a novel that addresses an issue well, such as Living Dead Girl or anything by Halse Anderson. But I can also really appreciate a novel that doesn't make everything into a big issue. I like a story when a teen has some kind of sex for the first time and their life isn't different afterwards. Or when someone tries alcohol or drugs or dating a different kind of person

Oh wow. Thanks for elaborating... this is much mor...

2011-06-01T01:22:57.098-06:00

Oh wow. Thanks for elaborating... this is much more disturbing then I thought. Drinking heavily at parties or crying into a pint after work/school is one thing, but... lying around all day, doing nothing but drinking smacks of clinical depression. In which case, the alcohol dependence looming on the horizon is probably not the biggest issue the person might have right now. And shaking it off,

Well, I'm not entirely sure, but Ever starts d...

2011-05-31T15:34:15.094-06:00

Well, I'm not entirely sure, but Ever starts drinking steadily after a weekend where her friend introduces her to vodka. Then, on the next Monday (I think), she gets herself a week's suspencion, which is right before the Winter holiday. She then spends the time before December 21st lying around in her room all day and drinking steadily (no kidding). On the 21st, she drinks so much she

"Since Patch was obviously the hero, I didn’t...

2011-05-31T14:42:21.338-06:00

"Since Patch was obviously the hero, I didn’t believe for a minute that his behavior was NOT disguising underlying attraction"For me, it didn't matter. Underlying attraction or not, he was still bullying Nora, scaring her and constantly putting her down. No amount of underlying attraction could justify that sort of behavior, and the fact that the heroine was still attracted by his

You made a lot of really great points! And I agree...

2011-05-30T22:38:55.982-06:00

You made a lot of really great points! And I agree that often, YA authors skim over these issues because they want the book to seem "edgy" and "relatable" to teens, but instead of actually discussing the topic, they throw out these tiny grains of nothing that only confuse the reader. For example, it's one thing to have a character drink alcohol once at a party, but it'

Reading that about Evermore.. wow, I'm glad I ...

2011-05-30T17:19:25.051-06:00

Reading that about Evermore.. wow, I'm glad I couldn't finish the first book because that's just.. well.. too freaking ridiculous. Whenever people discuss "issue" books, I always recommend Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert, because she doesn't try to make it "a book about issues" it's, as you said, "author understands just what she’s writing

I did: http://ceilidh-ann.livejournal.com/69958.ht...

2011-05-30T16:09:42.210-06:00

I did: http://ceilidh-ann.livejournal.com/69958.html

Did you review that one for the Sparkle Project?

2011-05-30T15:34:41.851-06:00

Did you review that one for the Sparkle Project?

Yes, yes you did. But what doesn't kill us mak...

2011-05-30T15:32:44.426-06:00

Yes, yes you did. But what doesn't kill us makes us stronger, and I think I needed to read more than books about sparkly vampires and feminist manifestos.

Another example of a YA which knows what it’s ...

2011-05-30T15:25:10.062-06:00
Another
example of a YA which knows what it’s doing is “Living Dead Girl” by
Elizabeth Scott, a truly terrifying novel that sent me hiding under the
covers with my thumb in my mouth. Seriously: Don’t go reading this if
you’re depressed, it will not help your case.

I warned you, didn't I?

Anyone, complete agreement. I had the same reaction

I think if you're going to throw alcoholism in...

2011-05-30T15:11:16.915-06:00
I think if you're going to throw alcoholism into a story then you handle it with the sensitivity and honesty it deserves. Alyson Noel chickened out and used it as a throwaway plot device for added drama when the story was getting dull. Not only was it terrible writing, it was irresponsible and insulting, not to mention pretty laughable. If nothing else, it served to show just how terrible a

Well said! It is, unfortunately, all too rare to s...

2011-05-26T15:57:01.454-06:00
Well said! It is, unfortunately, all too rare to see sex treated openly and honestly in YA. One of the few that I think handled the issue of teen sex well was " Pretty Face" by Mary Hogan. The two teens actually *talk* about having sex and making sure they are ready. And even the very limited description of what happened is pretty realistic.

"The vibrant difference that draws us to an a...

2011-05-26T14:45:50.265-06:00
"The vibrant difference that draws us to an ancient culture so unlike our own, gets lost in the all-round homogenisation common to YA lit today."

As another classics student: thank you thank you thank you. I love ancient cultures because of the difference in values and morals and general way of life. So please, YA writers, don't try to transfer them to high schools

I love this post so much I want to hug it. I'...

2011-05-25T22:49:22.096-06:00
I love this post so much I want to hug it.
I'm in love with the idea of retelling, but I have found very few authors who did it successfully. Honestly, I am not going to be original here, but the one I can think of is Juliet Marillier. I think it's because for me, she basically made these stories plausible, instead of using them to compensate a lack of creativity.
So I keep

I was just ging comment that Juliet Marillier wasn...

2011-05-25T03:01:12.310-06:00
I was just ging comment that Juliet Marillier wasn't mentioned! I LOVE her books, she's my all time favourite author, and nothing has managed to push Daughter of the Forest off the top of my favourties list! (and I've read alot!) :-D Everyone has to read her books!!!!