Crescendo - Becca Fitzpatrick

[ceilidh_ann]

 

Comments

[inverarity]

To hell with whiny YA authors who think being admitted to the Cool Kids Club means everyone is supposed to swear a secret pact not to say anything bad about crappy books.

I wonder if Fitzpatrick even has enough introspection to consider such issues, or if her response would simply be, "Nuh-uh." (Or "You're interrogating the text from the wrong perspective.")

[ceilidh_ann]

The YA blogosphere has been...weird lately. It's been really tense and kind of bitter, especially between authors and bloggers. There's this strange attitude that bloggers are the enemy and are somehow inherently inferior that's really worrying me. Bloggers are good enough when they're arse kissing but when it comes to everything else they're not worth your time. The Bitch Media feminist YA list fiasco is a perfect indication of just how cliquey things have gotten.

I have never seen Fitzpatrick respond to these concerns myself, although that's not to say she hasn't, I just haven't read or watched anything to the contrary. I've seen a whole lot of blog posts and reviews and such going on about how hot the book is and how sexy Patch is, with Fitzpatrick agreeing. I've also seen forum posts calling Marcie an STD ridden slut.

[future_guardian]

That post really set me off. So are book reviewers only supposed to say "This author is super duper amazing and everyone should absolutely love her, end of story!"?

What if there was a genuine problem (or multiple problems) with the writing? A book I started reading that has been getting five star and "Oh my god, BUY IT NOW!" reviews is poorly written (choppy sentences, lack of character development, the humor is the only way I could recommend giving it a try). According to this lady, does this mean I can't write a review saying "It will make you laugh/chuckle, but writing wise, it's lacking. Here's why"? I always thought reviews were supposed to be helpful for readers, not authors. I might catch some flak for this, but authors have fan clubs and such for ego boosting/stroking...so let reviewers review.

[inverarity]

According to Dennard, it's okay for book reviewers to be critical (though it's pretty clear that most of the YA author community would be happier if non-squeeful reviewers would just shut up), but if you ever want to be an author, you shouldn't say anything negative or you will never be published.

[ceilidh_ann]

Wow, that's one hell of a compliment. Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed my reviews. I'm not expecting every author I've reviewed to reply to me, it's probably best that they don't, but I do find it worrying that books like Fitzpatrick's went through editors,agents, publishers, proof-readers, and tons of other industry people before it ever reached the shelves and none of them seemed to have raised issue with the rape-culture/misogyny/slut-shaming that's presented not just as normal but acceptable to put in teen lit. I know that romance sells in YA and I've been known to enjoy several of them myself but pretty much every YA book in the paranormal genre right now obsesses over romance above plot, characterisation, etc, and they all follow the same derivative lines of the mysterious, brooding and often jerky boy with the passive young woman and the same damsel in distress-knigght in shining armour dichotomy we've had for way too long. I just think that it's 2011 and we can do so much better than this. We can do so much better than

[ceilidh_ann]

So true. In the hands of a skilled writer, this series could have been a fascinating tale of obsessive, toxic relationships and manipulation (although I doubt it could be a YA novel, probably just an adult paranormal romance) but like Twilight it's played straight and a-okay. There are points in both this and Hush Hush where it's acknowledged how messed up things are but ultimately it's seen as fine because it's true, undying forbidden love and that's worrying.

[tabular_rasa]

I was just having a conversation with a friend about this! If you can step outside and do a sort of meta-reading of Twilight, Hush Hush, etc, I think they do very accurately present the attractive temptation of obsessive love and how it can destroy one's personal identity. Unfortunately, the way these books are written suggests that is good and desirable thing. What we get is worse than high school freshman who think the point of Romeo and Juliet is "suicide is romantic."

[demented2468]

So sad how young adult literature is more romance than anything now and that authors make the guys in them horrible.

[ceilidh_ann]

Of course I don't expect her to respond but my point is that things have become so closed off and cliquey that it's suddenly a bad thing to criticise someone or something, no matter how valid one's points are. This attitude of bloggers and critics being the enemy is completely unfair and I don't understand why pointing out something one sees as problematic is a bad thing, especially when it's in a genre targeted to a younger audience. Why is discussing sexism and other issues in the genre suddenly a no-go area? Look at what happened with the Bitch media story (disclaimer: I was somewhat involved in that

[jadedissola]

I understand that this is a business, I really do, but my worries still stand. If I end up never being published because of that, I'm pretty okay with that, I've had to come to terms with that since I decided to start doing the Project. I have a stupidly high moral standard I'm eager to stick to, which is weird to admit.

This is refreshing to read after all the stuff I've read or seen in my peripheral reading of writing-related blogs as of late. I've come to the same conclusion as you, though I have a long way to go to hone my skills before I consider querying agents and/or submitting to publishers. I'm sorry, I'm not going to shut up if I see rape culture and/or sexism perpetuated in popular books.