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I thought it made sense to have a seprate section for Young Aduilt Books.


Hatchet
I've spent years carefully not reading this book, despite it's huge enduring popularity among middle school boys. I was right. I hated it. It's well written, mind. It's just an incredibly creepy and insidious piece of propaganda. The older gay man with the tattoos in the class put his finger on what was wrong: It's teaching boys that they should suppress their feelings and suck it up. It's the myth of manhood as closed off emotionally and completely independent of support. It is incredibly toxic. This is one of the most read books by boys in this country, I might add.

Talk, by Kathy Koja. I really liked this. Very short, very fast read. It's about a teenaged boy who lets his best friend talk him into trying out for a play. He agrees because it's another way of hiding, but like the characters in the play itself, he ends up confronting who he is. It's beautifully done, if a touch predictable. I loved the juxtaposition of the POVs of the two leads with bits of the play, which is about fascism, resistance, and identity.

Generation Dead
This reads like any well written teen novel, only with zombies. I rather liked it. it's nice to see Goths positively portrayed, the world background is interesting and it does a decent job with fleshing out the characters. it is not high art, but it certainly is a good read. I found myself thinking of a variety of influences, including Casablanca. It does suffer a little from sequelitis, in that not all the plots are wound up by the climax, but the climax itself was pretty satisfying and it does a good job of talking about hate crimes in a non-preachy way. I certainly liked it enough to want to read the sequel and see what happens next, despite the novel's weaknesses.

I also couldn't help thinking that this would make an excellent movie in te right hands.

Shadow Kissed
I had insomnia last night, so I read Shadow Kissed all the way through. I think I've figured some things out about my reaction to the series.
first off, I wish these were the big tween vampire craze books instead of Twilight. They are not perfect by any means, but I'd much rather have teen girls looking up to Dhampire Rose, kick a** guardian girl who has her own adventures and rescues people and her Moroi vampire friend Lissa who does magic, then some girl you dumps all her friends and aspirations for a stalkery sparkle vamp. Rose has some serious anger and self control problems, but she grows up a lot in the course of the three books I've read. She makes bad decisions sure, but she pays for them and tries to make things right. I rather like a number of the supporting characters and several cool guys pop up in the course of the series too, but while there is romance, these books are primarily thrillers, with Rose trying to figure out what's going on before everyone dies. Again, a smart tough female viewpoint character is exactly my speed. I love the way it captures the feel of living that martial arts lifestyle, the way certain decisions become simple when you are deep in training.

I do have some problems with the intergenerational romance though. I'm not sure this is something I want to see modeled and it makes me rather ambivalent towards one of the main reoccurring characters. Rose's thoughts and reactions about this are as realistic as her anger and her warrior mentality, but I have trouble with looking at it from the other direction where it is inexcusable. Maybe that's just me.

I'm finding Flora Secunda delightful. The narrative voice is fresh and charming.