Young Adult Literature

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I haven't read or seen Divergent but I read an article before the movie opened asking if it is worth it get into the movies when you know the last book sucked. So yeah, lot of people did not like the conclusion of that series.

For other YA stuff I really liked The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. Its not exactly a happy book either but its really well down and more melancholy than devastating. I haven't read Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell yet but I have heard nothing but good things about it. I follow Rainbow on Twitter and she seems like a really cool, positive person.

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Apr 3, 2014 23:55:33 GMT -4 @bronze said:

I haven't read or seen Divergent but I read an article before the movie opened asking if it is worth it get into the movies when you know the last book sucked. So yeah, lot of people did not like the conclusion of that series.

For other YA stuff I really liked The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. Its not exactly a happy book either but its really well down and more melancholy than devastating. I haven't read Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell yet but I have heard nothing but good things about it. I follow Rainbow on Twitter and she seems like a really cool, positive person.

Yes - that Vulture article hit the nail on the head.

Except I don't agree that we should still see the last Divergent movie unless huge changes are made. Because I felt awful when I read the book Wednesday night and I really have no desire to feel like that again. And I probably will not go see the second movie either because knowing what happens will color my perspective too much.

Going to get spoilery up in here:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}I think that I would be upset that Tris died regardless, but if she died in some honorable way - saving someone she loved (not Caleb who was a punk ass and should have redeemed himself by dying) then I could have gotten past it. But for her to die the way she did was absolutely pointless. When Tori died, Tris realized that who lived and who died is completely arbitrary and while I thought that was an important point, damn it - don't write your series in first person and then kill off your narrator - its cruel. I felt like I had just wasted three days of my life and I really feel for the readers who waited for months for this release and then were so horribly let down by this book.

What is even more cruel is then having to read Tobias/Four's reaction to her death which I could not even get through. This boy had been abused and abandoned and finally found someone who loved him and whom he loved - and they kill her, leaving him, the hero, to be broken and unhappy for the rest of his life. Ugh. Four was my favorite, even though Roth totally mangled his character in the third book. I could not read that part - because I knew there was not HEA, this was his tragic fate.

Plus the plot was utter crap and completely negated everything that happened in the first two books, which made her death even more meaningless.

The writing was sloppy and the changing of the POVs fell flat.

[Deleted]

I'm one of those people who loved the first two books and was originally looking forward to seeing the movie until I read the third. I agree, BoroKat, it wasn't just the plot (which was full of holes), the writing was terrible. I had to keep checking the chapter heading to remind myself which character was currently narrating because they sounded like the same person. Maybe if the writing had been better I wouldn't have hated the ending so much.
If you want to start another dystopian trilogy, there is a new one by Joelle Charbonneau (The Testing) that isn't too bad (even if it mostly is a rip-off of Hunger Games. Otherwise, I can't recommend Bubble World enough--while it isn't dystopian, the setting (and the story behind it) is really neat and unexpected. You just have to get past the first couple of chapters to figure out what is going on.

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I will definitely check out Bubble World, Stargirl - thank you! For some reason I seem to be into dystopian young adult fiction lately - MrB loves dystopian scifi so maybe he is rubbing off on me. Although I have to admit, I am one of those people who like some romantical stuff in my books, not too shmoopy but UST is my jam.

I am reading some incredibly dumb series about light beings right now just to cleanse my palate. After I read a series, I usually spend a few days ruminating over the story and thinking about favorite/important parts. After this one, I immediately deleted the books off of my Kindle.

[Ripley]

I read A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness last December, and I thought it was wonderful. I cried at the end.

I also read and enjoyed The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente.

[Deleted]

Apr 3, 2014 19:16:18 GMT -4 Gigiree said:

You can try another book by John Greene, the author of The Fault in Our Stars. I really liked An Abundance of Katherines.

I like anything that has an abundance of Katherines, since I am one.

[kateln]

Apr 5, 2014 15:13:54 GMT -4 @borokat said:

Apr 3, 2014 19:16:18 GMT -4 Gigiree said:

You can try another book by John Greene, the author of The Fault in Our Stars. I really liked An Abundance of Katherines.

I like anything that has an abundance of Katherines, since I am one.

As another Katherine, I like that he even spelled it correctly.

[chonies]

Apr 6, 2014 11:50:16 GMT -4 kateln said:

Apr 5, 2014 15:13:54 GMT -4 @borokat said:

I like anything that has an abundance of Katherines, since I am one.

As another Katherine, I like that he even spelled it correctly.

AIR HORN. AIR HORN.

As indicated by the title, there is room for more than spelling. I'll even concede a K from time to time.

[Deleted]

Apr 6, 2014 12:33:43 GMT -4 chonies said:

Apr 6, 2014 11:50:16 GMT -4 kateln said:

As another Katherine, I like that he even spelled it correctly.

AIR HORN. AIR HORN.

As indicated by the title, there is room for more than spelling. I'll even concede a K from time to time.

Hahaha, I knew when I read Kateln's comment that Chonies and Cyber C were going to be all, hold up.

[kateln]

Hey, if I can't cause SOME trouble...