tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-307591012011-04-21T18:51:52.842-07:00One snarky reader's opinion of what she's reading. Do not read if you're easily offended.Discerning Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05565571363713639954noreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759101.post-1152415830057938242006-07-08T20:25:00.000-07:002006-07-08T20:30:30.066-07:00In my last post, I wrote about Charles de Lint's <u> The Blue Girl </u> which wasn't impressing me with its genuine depiction of real teenagers. Well, I finished that particular book and then read Rebecca Stowe's <u> Not the End of the World </u>. I have to say, the Stowe book was impressive. It chronicles the story of Maggie Pitsfield, a troublewd twelve-year-old girl, and the terrible secret she harbors. In the Stowe novel, the author actually does get the voice right. I just want to hug Maggie and tell her everything will be OK, and that's the sign of a good book, when the author can, with great skill, make me care about the characters.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30759101-115241583005793824?l=discerning-reader.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Discerning Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05565571363713639954noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30759101.post-1152233588602245592006-07-06T17:41:00.000-07:002006-07-06T17:53:08.613-07:00So this is my first post ever. I've played around with Blogspot before, but finally decided to get serious and just start posting my thoughts about what I'm reading. As I read everything from young adult fair to erotic romance, hopefully someone somewhere will get something useful out of what I'm writing.<br /><br />So, let's start out with a discussion of young adult novels, shall we?<br /><br />It could be argued that I'm not all that far away, agewise, from the target audience of these books. So perhaps it bothers me, reading a YA novel in my mid-twenties, when the characters fail utterly to act like teenagers. The author will do anything--anything--to try to portray a young teenage voice--and often it rings false.<br /><br />Ah, fuck it, let's go for an easy example. At the moment, I'm reading Charles de Lint's YA novel, <u> The Blue Girl</u> and, while the story itself is compelling, the protagonists in no way resemble sixteen-year-old kids I've ever seen. Our main protagonist, Imogene, is supposed to come off as smart but streetwise. She instead comes off like a 50-year-old trying very hard to be hip. In some ways, Imogene is almost a little too childlike, but then, she has the habit of making sweeping social pronouncements and displaying a maturity I'm not buying from someone of her age.<br /><br />It's something I've seen often in YA novels. The authors simply can't get the voice right, and if they can't manage that, they're not going to have much of a readership.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/30759101-115223358860224559?l=discerning-reader.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Discerning Readerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05565571363713639954noreply@blogger.com0