Epic Fail
I have just finished Forever, the third and final book in Maggie Stiefvater’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series. I read quite a lot of young adult literature, both speculative fiction and realism. I have also read several books, series or parts of series in the paranormal romance subgenre, which has become so alarmingly huge since Twilight was published. I don’t think this genre has actually been good for YA literature - there has been too much trash written, and many of the books contain disturbing and insidious ideas about gender roles and relationships. My feelings about the individual books vary. Some I dislike (Twilight) some I loathe with a fiery passion (Hush, Hush) some I quite enjoy but have problems with (Wolves of Mercy Falls, Fallen, Vampire Academy).
I have varying and various problems with these books, but the one I wanted to talk about, as it ruined The Wolves of Mercy Falls series, is Epic Love. I read romance novels, the kind that unfortunately sometimes has ponies and manboob and swooning, scantily clad damsels on the covers. So I like reading books that contain romance. It’s hardly a requirement, but if it’s there and well written and feels like it belongs and adds to the book, I will enjoy it. However, no romance author worth their salt would write epic love. Epic love is fated, forever, selfless, self sacrificing and adoring. Epic lovers are two parts of a whole, and they are surrounded by almost insurmountable obstacles - their families hate each other, one of them is a vampire/angel/werewolf/doughnut etc. By the end of the book they must convince those around them of the totally Epic nature of their relationship, overcome the crazy obstacles, defy death and achieve their happily ever after. There is generally involves hideous amounts of angst, impassioned kisses and moments when one believes the other is dead. What these relationships lack is much in the way of internal conflict, and that is what makes them both deeply dull and incredibly unbelievable. If there is anything resembling internal conflict ,we’re actually supposed to read it as over protectiveness or selflessness in disguise. I’m behaving like a bastard because I love you, your werewolf friends are bad for you, I’m only trying to protect you.
I enjoyed a lot about the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. Maggie Stiefvater does some interesting things with werewolf mythology and several of the characters are interesting and grow in believable ways over the course of the series. Perhaps best of all, it is a book about the unsettling relationship between Americans and their wild wolves - the fierce protectiveness they arouse in some people and the equally fierce bloodlust in others. In the book the wolves and the townspeople coexist uneasily, and it is clear from the first book that this will be one of the main conflicts in the series. Yes, the wolf pack is actually made up of infected people, but in the end that makes very little difference to those overall themes. Unfortunately all this is let down by the epic love between Grace (an unfortunately bland character) and Sam (who is kind of sweet, in an emo, Rilke reading, muso way).
Fallen, by Lauren Kate was initially fun as well. It’s about a girl starting at a school for juvenile criminals. The school is awesome, full of surveillance cameras, barbed wire and gothic architecture. Detention is served in the graveyard and anyone who behaves violently gets electric shocks from their tracker bracelets. It’s all overwhelmingly gothic, in a sly, amusing way. You can tell that Lauren Kate was having enormous fun coming up with all the details. Unfortunately again, it is let down by the epic love. Reincarnation is involved this time, which must be one of the laziest ways of writing romance.
In my opinion, Epic Love only works when it’s tragic. Romeo and Juliet is the obvious example. I know it was played for a long time with a happy ending, but if it were performed as a love conquers all story today, it would be even less popular than it is already. The best modern example of epic love done well is season two of Buffy. The relationship between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, the vampire with a soul is definitely the stuff of which epics are made. Their relationship is developed from the very first episode, goes through various trials and, uh... climaxes, halfway through season two. You probably know what happens next. It is deliciously nasty and was perhaps the first sign that Joss Whedon doesn’t have a problem with screwing with his characters in particularly sadistic ways. And it works, it really works, in a way that these other works of fiction completely fail to do.
I didn’t have a high school romance experience myself, but I can understand how teenagers would aggrandise their relationships. You do take yourself very seriously when you’re 17. What annoys me is that authors validate this attitude in books like Twilight, Fallen, Wolves of Mercy Falls and Raised by Wolves. Unfortunately, authors are going to continue writing teen epic love. The popularity of these books indicates that not everybody finds it as dull as I do. I just really hope that they don’t also find it believable.
I have varying and various problems with these books, but the one I wanted to talk about, as it ruined The Wolves of Mercy Falls series, is Epic Love. I read romance novels, the kind that unfortunately sometimes has ponies and manboob and swooning, scantily clad damsels on the covers. So I like reading books that contain romance. It’s hardly a requirement, but if it’s there and well written and feels like it belongs and adds to the book, I will enjoy it. However, no romance author worth their salt would write epic love. Epic love is fated, forever, selfless, self sacrificing and adoring. Epic lovers are two parts of a whole, and they are surrounded by almost insurmountable obstacles - their families hate each other, one of them is a vampire/angel/werewolf/doughnut etc. By the end of the book they must convince those around them of the totally Epic nature of their relationship, overcome the crazy obstacles, defy death and achieve their happily ever after. There is generally involves hideous amounts of angst, impassioned kisses and moments when one believes the other is dead. What these relationships lack is much in the way of internal conflict, and that is what makes them both deeply dull and incredibly unbelievable. If there is anything resembling internal conflict ,we’re actually supposed to read it as over protectiveness or selflessness in disguise. I’m behaving like a bastard because I love you, your werewolf friends are bad for you, I’m only trying to protect you.
I enjoyed a lot about the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. Maggie Stiefvater does some interesting things with werewolf mythology and several of the characters are interesting and grow in believable ways over the course of the series. Perhaps best of all, it is a book about the unsettling relationship between Americans and their wild wolves - the fierce protectiveness they arouse in some people and the equally fierce bloodlust in others. In the book the wolves and the townspeople coexist uneasily, and it is clear from the first book that this will be one of the main conflicts in the series. Yes, the wolf pack is actually made up of infected people, but in the end that makes very little difference to those overall themes. Unfortunately all this is let down by the epic love between Grace (an unfortunately bland character) and Sam (who is kind of sweet, in an emo, Rilke reading, muso way).
Fallen, by Lauren Kate was initially fun as well. It’s about a girl starting at a school for juvenile criminals. The school is awesome, full of surveillance cameras, barbed wire and gothic architecture. Detention is served in the graveyard and anyone who behaves violently gets electric shocks from their tracker bracelets. It’s all overwhelmingly gothic, in a sly, amusing way. You can tell that Lauren Kate was having enormous fun coming up with all the details. Unfortunately again, it is let down by the epic love. Reincarnation is involved this time, which must be one of the laziest ways of writing romance.
In my opinion, Epic Love only works when it’s tragic. Romeo and Juliet is the obvious example. I know it was played for a long time with a happy ending, but if it were performed as a love conquers all story today, it would be even less popular than it is already. The best modern example of epic love done well is season two of Buffy. The relationship between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, the vampire with a soul is definitely the stuff of which epics are made. Their relationship is developed from the very first episode, goes through various trials and, uh... climaxes, halfway through season two. You probably know what happens next. It is deliciously nasty and was perhaps the first sign that Joss Whedon doesn’t have a problem with screwing with his characters in particularly sadistic ways. And it works, it really works, in a way that these other works of fiction completely fail to do.
I didn’t have a high school romance experience myself, but I can understand how teenagers would aggrandise their relationships. You do take yourself very seriously when you’re 17. What annoys me is that authors validate this attitude in books like Twilight, Fallen, Wolves of Mercy Falls and Raised by Wolves. Unfortunately, authors are going to continue writing teen epic love. The popularity of these books indicates that not everybody finds it as dull as I do. I just really hope that they don’t also find it believable.