 |
| "May my heart be kind, my mind fierce and my spirit brave." - Kate Forsyth |
Disclaimer: It's not in any way a generalization nor is it dishing. I don't mean to offend anybody or disparage Young Adult books. I love them and I do believe there are truly exceptional and unique reads in the Young Adult paranormal genre.
I have always considered YA paranormal my favorite genre. A teen girl in a world of beasts and monsters with supernatural powers and love and all the action...It has always appealed to me. But the more I read it, the less enthusiastic I became.
Wait what?
At least the last five YA paranormal books I read contained one or more of the followings:
- insta-love and/or cheesy romance
- childish/annoying/petty/whiny protagonist
- Lot of tropes. I mean a LOT.
- faulty, lacking world-building
- spelling errors. Like, five per page.
Since I started reviewing books, I've become much more eclectic. My peripheral vision widened as to what a wide range of great books exist and I paid more attention to what I was reading. Also, I commenced reading professional reviews; I've learned a lot. However, I imagine it's something similar with most of the book bloggers out there or anybody who gets deeply engaged in a certain part of life. Due to becoming more eclectic, my read-enjoyed rate has decreased somewhat. It's not necessarily a negative phenomenon; developing a defined, refined taste that urges you in the direction of worthy, precious books is good. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself when I'm fussing whether I'm being picky, a snob or am in a reading slump.
Anyway, I'm a tad downhearted that I didn't like a big deal of the YA paranormals I've read recently. I've come to the point where I pick them up with caution and don't dare to get my hopes up for until I'm at least at half of the book.
Now, I know it's not present in YA paranormals exclusively, or in YA at all, however, this is where I've encountered the problems the most. And it saddens me and this kitty-kat.
But to not end this conversation depressed like this, I'll share some of my favorites that I always loved, love and will love.
Have you ever had the same issue? What are your favorite YA paranormal books?
Not all YA is created equal—that's a fact! The list you shared are some of the many reasons why I tend to shy away from this genre unless a title comes highly recommended by several of my go-to blogger peeps. Endings that just stop practically mid-sentence are another aspect that bug me; I get cliffies, but there's a difference between leaving readers hanging and quitting before the story is somewhat complete. Some of my fav YA titles include Stiefvater's The Wolves of Mercy Falls series & Cole's The Arcana Chronicles. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I go through stages where I read YA and then I don't for a while due to the overwhelming sameness of some of the more dominant trends. A lot of them annoy me, like your list, so I tend to run away from the entire YA grouping for a breather occasionally. It's not that these things don't happen in adult books, they just seem easier to avoid.
ReplyDeleteI rarely read anything else, but YA (which kind of sounds sad. I'll need to do something about it.) and yeah, most of them - especially withing the paranormal genre - are very similar. But there are those exceptional pieces that make it all so worth it. Anyway, yeah, even though I firmly believe the same mistakes can be found in any genre or age group, in YA, they tend to be a tad bit more common.
ReplyDeleteI'm fine with cliffhangers...Well, that is after totally being ticked off and then breaking down when I count down the days until the next book. Then I file away my losses and move on. Only to get super-duper excited again when there's only a month or two left until release.
ReplyDelete