#CaitlinMoranShouldRead – What It’s About

If you follow anyone in the UK & Irish YA community, you may have come across this today: #CaitlinMoranShouldRead

I don’t really know who Caitlin Moran is: comedian, journalist, “social commentator”, who knows? (I’m Australian; I don’t know UK celebrities.) Anyway, her YA novel (or an adult novel with a 16-year-old protagonist), How to Build a Girl, will be published soon, so The Bookseller interviewed her. The full interview is behind a paywall or something, so we’re stuck with this short piece. Possibly the quotes aren’t in context, so we misunderstand. Thus out of context, her words come across as…well, naive and ignorant towards the YA book community. One of the most commonly given writing advice is to READ a lot in your chosen genre, but the article’s quotes seem to suggest that Ms. Moran hasn’t done her research.

…she was moved to write about teenage sexuality…in response to the Fifty Shades of Grey…phenomenon, which she said had made her “angry and despairing”.

She’s not alone with that last point: that E. L. James’s series seems to portray psychological abuse as “romantic” is a major concern. But that trilogy is aimed at an adult audience, or maybe New Adult – NOT young adult. So linking Fifty Shades with teenage sexuality doesn’t really make sense.

…argued that writing about sexual adventures was important for that age group. “…I wanted to get in there before anyone else and talk about sex.”

That quote: derp. Judy Blume, Jacqueline Wilson, Cecily von Ziegesar. And that’s just the stuff I read – there’re probably many more authors that spring to mind for other readers. Ms. Moran is hardly the first author to think, “Hey, teen girls have sex – I should write about that.”

“It’s always about teenage boys going off and having amazing adventures. You don’t see teenage girls anywhere unless they’re being bitten by vampires so I wanted to write about a funny, weird teenage girl having adventures, particularly sex adventures.”

Apparently, Twilight is the only young adult novel ever published. Who knew. *headdesk* (Besides, Breaking Dawn is all about bed-breaking sexcapades that result in the scariest pregnancy since Alien, and the freakiest child who’s “imprinted” upon as a youngster by the mother’s best friend, and supposedly that’s not paedophiliac, though it kind of is… This book’s totally bonkers, which could be why I find it the most entertaining of the saga.)

And thus #CaitlinMoranShouldRead appeared on Twitter, to…well, recommend books that Caitlin Moran should read. Not sure who started it, and I don’t think Ms. Moran has responded to it yet.

(Kind of off-topic: There’s a car ad with a 1980s synth-pop song about “Space Invaders”. The tune is in my head, but the lyrics are now “sex adventures”, due to that article. Thank you, Ms. Moran.)

So, Caitlin Moran should read…which books about teen girls’ sex adventures?

Gabrielle Carey & Kathy Lette’s Puberty Blues: The voice is spot-on, the scenarios believable.

Judy Blume’s Forever: Don’t put aftershave on testicles!

Jacqueline Wilson’s Girls in Love (series): Don’t think I’d heard the term “slag” before reading this.

Mel Sparke’s Sugar Secrets (series): There’s a funny scene (don’t know in which book) about condom-shopping…

Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl (series) Avoid the spinoffs, and stick with the original series. It’s actually quite satirical and hilarious: Vanessa’s pretentious films, Dan’s pretentious writing, and Chuck Bass is all monogrammed scarves and a monkey on his shoulder. (Don’t know if the monkey was in the TV adaptation.)

But all these are no longer being published, and I read adult erotica (Tiffany Reisz, for the win!) so I don’t know about current teen-girl-sexcapades novels…

Huh. In that case, maybe Ms. Moran has a point.

[REVIEW] Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga, Book 4)
Hachette Little, Brown (US: 3rd August 2010; UK: 19th August 2010; Date; AU: September 2011)
Buy (US) Buy (UK) Buy (CA) Buy (Worldwide)

Breaking Dawn was first published in 2008, so we all know the spoilers whether we’ve read the book or not. Well, I’ve read it, and you’ll get the most out of it if you surrender to the crazy:

-Bruise-porn, featuring feathers. Also: breaking headboards, the sequel.
-Edward proposing to Jacob that he knocks up Bella. (Seriously, there’s mention of “puppies”, which had me in tears of laughter, thinking of Bella giving birth to dogs.)
-Foetus is killing Bella. (Pregnancy is freaking effed-up, y’all. You have someone, or something, growing inside you, and it’s FEEDING ON YOU. Damn, nature – you scary!)
-A teenager imprints on a baby. (The werewolves claim it’s nothing sexual, but in the Twilight-verse EVERYTHING is sexual, whether it means to be or not.)

The crazy made me laugh, and if nothing else at least made this novel somewhat entertaining. But my word, this tome is too effing long: 757 pages. A lot of that is unnecessary, repetition, hyperbole, and so on. Cut out the faff, and you’d have a better book.

But perhaps what’s most surprising about Breaking Dawn is it doesn’t feature nearly as much conflict as it should. This is a problem I often have, particularly with romance fiction: the author suggests there could be bigger conflict, but instead takes the easy way out so the story and the readers are poorer off because of it.

At first Edward, Jacob, and whoever else agrees that the foetus must be killed if Bella is to survive. But a magical thing happens in the womb: love, and psychic communication. The foetus loves everyone, and in turn they all love her, regardless that she’s killing her mother. And when Renesmee is born and develops rapidly – including speaking in full sentences, even though no one teaches her English or anything – they love her even more. Where’s the bloody conflict in that?

The Volturi are very disappointing, not fighting to the death. Maybe because Bella’s a vampire now, and she’s the most powerful vampire ever without even training, that of course she can easily defeat her rivals. But the Cullen gang doesn’t even kill the Volturi, though they could. The author’s probably trying to say that it’s possible to achieve a happy ending with minimal death, but it doesn’t make for entertaining reading.

There is one good thing about the happy ending, though: Nahuel. He and his aunt Huilen have the most fascinating story, it kind of makes one wonder why we had to sit through the Cullens when these nomads would’ve made a much more interesting, less anti-feminist, tale. It disappoints me when authors don’t live up to their potential.

November 2010 Releases

Done with October 2010 Releases? Here are November 2010 Releases (behind the cut). To see further into the further, check Reading Wishlist.

October 2010 Releases

Done with September 2010 Releases? Here are the October 2010 Releases. To check release dates further into the future, check Reading Wishlist.

August 2010 Releases

Done with July 2010 Releases? Here are August 2010 Releases. To see further into the future, check Reading Wishlist.

What Someone Typed into Google to Get to My WordPress

twilight convention-melbourne

Haven’t heard of one, and even if there was, I’m not sure I’d attend.

I think some bookstores had launch parties for Breaking Dawn (the closest one to me may have been in Richmond). Release dates around the world were not totally in sync – in some parts it was released on August 2nd, other places August 4th. Australia fell into the latter.

Even though I’ve never read the Twilight series (though I have books 1 and 4 on my shelf in the To-Be-Read pile), I briefly considered attending one of these functions. Because Breaking Dawn was released earlier in the US, and thus I was reading Cleolinda‘s fabulous recaps/snark. (She’s currently recapping/snarking True Blood – who needs HBO when you can have snarkalicious hilarity?)

So, yeah – was thinking of crashing a party and shouting out a spoiler. (I’d even picked a particular one, though others were contenders.) I didn’t go, of course. But I thought about it. Contrary to popular belief, I actually do occasionally use my brain 😉

I totally wouldn’t have fit in, though, because I’m so not a fangirly. Not just of this particular series. I just have a very sceptical brain: when lots of people really love something, I’m more inclined not to like it. Maybe I wouldn’t dislike things so much if others didn’t love them so much. I don’t know.

My reason? Well, the thing better blow my freaking mind if everyone loves it so much. And if it doesn’t? DISAPPOINTMENT. Harry Potter is so overrated. Just didn’t interest me, though I read some of them to at least give them a chance. THEY FAILED.

I still intend to try the Twilight series at some stage – as I said, I own books 1 and 4. As for the middle two, the library reservation lists are probably miles long, so I’ll have to go without.

But by all means, I’m not against Stephenie Meyer. I loved The Host. Generalisations around the Web seem to go that if you love Twilight, The Host won’t cut the mustard, and vice versa. They’re also different genres: one paranormal, one futuristic.

Is it possible to combine those two genres into one novel? Vampires in space…and Anya Bast has done it with The Chosen Sin, which I believe is released October 7th – that’s today. Haven’t read the book myself yet, but Anya’s a dear, and I do like the other books of hers I’ve read (Witch Fire and Witch Blood).

Smooth segue, Tez. And don’t you readers think I made up that Twilight convention thing just so I could sneak in an ad for vampires in space – I’m not clever enough to think up a lie like that 😉

Thank You for the Snark

I was hooked on the hilarity of Cleolinda‘s Breaking Dawn snark. Today we have reason to celebrate, for Cleolinda is now snarking the TV show True Blood. Two episodes in, and I’m eagerly awaiting the next snarky instalment. You can start with the first episode here.

Thank you for the snark – you’ve totally made my day 🙂

August 2008 Releases

Just in case you missed them, here are the July Releases. I missed one, which you’ll find below. And to look into the future, check my Reading Wishlist. Please note that I haven’t found a summary for Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn, but I tried. The only book on the list I own is Chris Howard’s Seaborn, but I haven’t read it yet.

Stephenie Meyer
Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4)
Hachette Little, Brown (US: 2 Aug 2008); Hachette ATOM (UK: 4 Aug 2008)
Pre-order
Questions will be answered and the fate of Bella and Edward will be revealed.

Chris Howard
Seaborn (Saltwater Witch, Book 1)
Prime/Wildside Juno (US: 3 Aug 2008)
Pre-order
There is a world deep under the sea, a kingdom that has endured thousands of years without the modern world knowing it exists. Those who dwell there are Thalassogenêis: SEABORN. Kassandra is the Seaborn king’s granddaughter – the one he wishes he’d killed when he’d had the chance. She comes from the sea, but she has spent her whole life in exile on the surface, learning to control strange and frightening powers she barely understands. But now she’s ready to declare war on the murderous king. Corina Lairsey is a scuba-diving Californian who has freed herself from a controlling relationship…and finds herself in another. Only this time, Aleximor, an ancient Seaborn sorcerer, is literally inside her head and wearing her body. Corina must strive for control of her self, fighting against time as Aleximor trades pieces of her life away in exchange for power over the path between the worlds of the living and the dead. Aleximor wants revenge for his 400-year imprisonment and his dangerous machinations threaten to destroy both young women and the world of the Seaborn.

Richelle Mead
Storm Born (Dark Swan, Book 1)
Kensington Zebra (US: 5 Aug 2008); Random House Bantam (UK: 14 Aug 2008)
Pre-order
Eugenie Markham is a powerful shaman who does a brisk trade banishing spirits and fey who cross into the mortal world. Mercenary, yes, but a girl’s got to eat. Her most recent case, however, is enough to ruin her appetite. Hired to find a teenager who has been taken to the Otherworld, Eugenie comes face to face with a startling prophecy – one that uncovers dark secrets about her past and claims that Eugenie’s first-born will threaten the future of the world as she knows it. Now Eugenie is a hot target for every ambitious demon and Otherworldy ne’er-do-well, and the ones who don’t want to knock her up want her dead. Eugenie handles a Glock as smoothly as she wields a wand, but she needs some formidable allies for a job like this. She finds them in Dorian, a seductive fairy king with a taste for bondage, and Kiyo, a gorgeous shape-shifter who redefines animal attraction. But with enemies growing bolder and time running out, Eugenie realizes that the greatest danger is yet to come, and it lies in the dark powers that are stirring to life within her…

Kat Richardson
Underground (Greywalker, Book 3)
Penguin Roc (US: 5 Aug 2008); Hachette Piatkus (UK: 7 Aug 2008)
Pre-order
Harper Blaine was your average small-time P.I. until she died – for two minutes. Now Harper is a Greywalker – walking the thin line between the living world and the paranormal realm. And she’s discovering that her new abilities are landing her all sorts of “strange” cases. Pioneer Square’s homeless are turning up dead and mutilated, and zombies have been seen roaming the underground – the city buried beneath modern Seattle. When Harper’s friend Quinton believes he may be implicated in the deaths, he persuades her to investigate. But the killer is no mere murderer – it is a creature of ancient legend. And Harper must deal with both the living and the dead to stop the monster and its master…unless they stop her first.

Ann Aguirre
Wanderlust (Sirantha Jax, Book 2)
Penguin Ace (US: 26 Aug 2008)
Pre-order
Sirantha Jax is a “Jumper,” a woman who possesses the unique genetic makeup needed to navigate faster than light ships through grimspace. Jax has worked for the Farwan Corporation her entire career. But now the word’s out that the Corp deliberately crashed a passenger ship, and their stranglehold on intergalactic commerce has crumbled – which means that Jax is out of a job. She’s also broke, due to being declared dead a little prematurely. So when the government asks her to head up a vital diplomatic mission, Jax takes it. Her mandate: journey to the planet Ithiss-Tor and convince them to join the Conglomerate. But Jax’s payday is light years away. First, she’ll have to contend with Syndicate criminals, a stormy relationship with her pilot, man-eating aliens, and her own grimspace-weakened body. She’ll be lucky just to make it to Ithiss-Tor alive…

Caitlin Kittredge
Pure Blood (Nocturne City, Book 2)
Macmillan St. Martin’s (US: 26 Aug 2008)
Pre-order
In the shadows of Nocturne City, witches lurk and demons prowl, and homicide detective Luna Wilder must keep the peace – while living life as a werewolf. Now bodies are turning up all over town, the brutal murders linked by a cryptic message: We see with empty eyes… To make matters worse for Luna, she can’t get wolfishly handsome Dmitri Sandovsky out of her mind. The last time he helped her with a case, Dmitri suffered a demon bite that infected him with a mysterious illness…and now his pack elders have forbidden him from associating with Luna. But she’ll need his help when high-level witches start turning up slaughtered. Because a war is brewing between rival clans of blood witches and caster witches – a magical gang war with the power to burn Nocturne City to the ground.

Marianne Mancusi
Razor Girl
Dorchester SHOMI (US: 26 Aug 2008)
Pre-order
Molly Anderson is not your average twenty-one-year-old. It’s been six years since she and her family escaped into a bunker, led by her conspiracy theorist father and his foreknowledge of a plot to bring about the apocalypse. But her father’s precautions didn’t stop there. Molly is now built to survive. Yes, Ian Anderson’s favorite book gave him ideas on how to “improve” his daughter. Molly is faster, stronger, and her ocular implants and razor-tipped nails set her apart. Apart, when – venturing alone out of the bunker and into a plague ravaged, monster-ridden wilderness – what Molly needs most is togetherness. Chase Griffin, a friend from her past, is her best bet. But while he and others have miraculously survived, the kind boy has become a tormented man. Together, these remnants of humanity must struggle toward trusting each other and journey to the one place Molly’s father believed all civilization would be reborn: the Magic Kingdom, where everyone knows it’s a small world after all.

Lilith Saintcrow
Hunter’s Prayer (Jill Kismet, Book 2)
Hachette Orbit (US: 26 Aug 2008; UK: 4 Sep 2008)
Pre-order
An ancient evil looms over Santa Luz. Prostitutes are showing up dead and eviscerated. And Jill Kismet just might be able to get her revenge against an old enemy. There’s just one problem. Someone wants Jill dead – again. And if they have to open up Hell itself to kill her, they will.

[COVER ART] Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer

(Image taken from here.) I’ve never read any of the Twilight books, but I know some of you have. So here’s the cover art for Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn (2nd August 2008), the fourth in the series. I really like this cover. I still don’t know if the Twilight series will suit me, but I loved The Host (the author’s adult standalone). You can pre-order Breaking Dawn here.