Has anyone else noticed a growing trend in YA books that feature female lead characters where, in the summary, it tends to go something like this
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Yes, most YA books rn seem to be like this...oh, or have a fucking vampire thrown in.
I'm glad I was only intrigued by the Georgia Nicolson series over the years when it comes to books in the YA section. I don't think I can handle that other bullshit.
Funny you should mention vampires, because I'm of the opinion that the Twilight craze actually started the whole "omg a girl needs a dark and handsome guy in order for it to be an awesome book!!!" thing. Or, at the very least, it made that sort of thing more popular and widespread. Publishers saw what happened with Twilight and immediately started finding stories that had a romance of a similar vein, hoping to cash in on it. Which is understandable, because people aren't really buying books in this economy, so they're doing everything they can, but...
I dunno, it just has uncomfortable implications for me. Like a lead girl character can't carry her own story; she has to share it with a guy and have a hot, maybe even forbidden romance with him to make it interesting. Because that's all girls are interesting in reading.
Oh, no, I definitely agree. You pretty much summarised the problem I've been seeing in a lot of YA fiction lately: unhealthy relationships written off as often "perfect", often "forbidden" romance. Some of these "dark" guys are downright abusive, controlling, and patronising, which really bothers me. Edward from Twilight, Patch from Hush, Hush, Daniel from Fallen--all are supposed to be the hot male leads but I just find them repulsing. The authors write like it's normal for a guy to be a total ass and the girl to still run after him as if it weren't a problem to be treated that way. And, regardless of gender or the nature of a relationship, I think books should promote equality between two people, not one person always getting the upper hand. (Well, in friendship and romance, anyway; you're not exactly on equal standing with authority figures
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Yeah, I hate the whole writing abusive boyfriends to be seen as the perfect romances ever thing. As someone who comes from a family that had problems with abuse, that really just gets under my skin. Way to promote more situations like what my Mom grew up in, authors! *sarcastic thumbs up*
This just makes me happy I write kickass relationships where the guy and the girl are on equal footing, and if the guy ever treated his girlfriend like Edward treats Bella or Patch treated whats-her-name... yeah, he'd probably get bitchslapped. Or punched, depending on the girl. My girls don't stand for that crap. XD;
And yeah, I'd like to see more best friend or close sister type relationships. I can honestly think of only one book I've read where the best friend relationship was the main one, and romance was a very distant second. I need more books that focus on best friends or close sisters. :(
I think the main reason I dislike Twilight is because I can't stand stories about damsels in distress. As long as said damsel becomes kickass and self-sufficient by the end of the story, that's fine, but if her uselessness is never resolved and she spends the entire book relying on and being rescued by a hero, it's not a book for me. I think Twilight had the potential to be really great, but by making Bella so reliant on Edward and Jacob, she wasn't a very interesting character. If she learnt to fight the evil vampires herself, that would have been awesome, and many more people might have liked the series rather than dismissing them as anti-feminist.
So, in short, I agree with you. Although I must say, I wouldn't mind getting magic powers and being taught how to use them by a dark handsome stranger ;)
Well... Bella did become a ~~super special snowflake~~ of a vampire midway through BREAKING DAWN, so... I guess that's something. It only took her four books to get there, and she never stops being a whiny, manipulative, lying sorry excuse for a character, and she gets everything she ever wanted and then some by the end of it, but there you go.
Sure, I'd like magic powers, but I want to be able to figure things out for myself instead of having to rely on some dude for anything and everything. I'd rather be his equal instead of some silly little girl who runs to him for everything. XD
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I'm glad I was only intrigued by the Georgia Nicolson series over the years when it comes to books in the YA section. I don't think I can handle that other bullshit.
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I dunno, it just has uncomfortable implications for me. Like a lead girl character can't carry her own story; she has to share it with a guy and have a hot, maybe even forbidden romance with him to make it interesting. Because that's all girls are interesting in reading.
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This just makes me happy I write kickass relationships where the guy and the girl are on equal footing, and if the guy ever treated his girlfriend like Edward treats Bella or Patch treated whats-her-name... yeah, he'd probably get bitchslapped. Or punched, depending on the girl. My girls don't stand for that crap. XD;
And yeah, I'd like to see more best friend or close sister type relationships. I can honestly think of only one book I've read where the best friend relationship was the main one, and romance was a very distant second. I need more books that focus on best friends or close sisters. :(
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So, in short, I agree with you. Although I must say, I wouldn't mind getting magic powers and being taught how to use them by a dark handsome stranger ;)
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Sure, I'd like magic powers, but I want to be able to figure things out for myself instead of having to rely on some dude for anything and everything. I'd rather be his equal instead of some silly little girl who runs to him for everything. XD
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I totally agree though.
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Glad to see someone else agrees. Lets me know I'm not being totally unreasonable about this, lol.
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