Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. For the list of past topics and future schedule, click here.
Unpopular Bookish Opinions
Looking for Alaska – A “Bad” Novel
My middle school had the novel Detour for Emmy, about a girl who winds up pregnant her freshman year of high school. It was a book checked out back to back. It never stayed on the shelves. We read this in middle school.
Looking for Alaska is no different. Adults freak out about one scene in the book. If analyzed closely, the scene is a paradoxically juxtaposed with another scene in which what Alaska taught Pudge doesn’t end up working out very well at all. And that’s the end of it. It died right there. This is a book written about high school students doing high school-age things.
Vampires and Werewolves – OOO LA LA!
Vampires and werewolves do not make books better. In fact, that’s just a bandwagon trend to sell books. It’s its own form of trashy novels. I can’t even with them. Get out.
Annotating Your Books is BAD!
UHM. The greatest minds of all annotate things from legal briefs and contracts to their own works. What is the issue here, people? Responding and interacting with your text is the sign of a sophisticated reader. It’s your book. It’s their book. Why are you all bent out of shape about what someone else does with their own property? Go press your pages or something.
Hype Hype Hype
I am so over the “popular” series that roll out. They all look the same to me with such similar or synonymous titles and covers. Sadly, not one single one of them piqued my curiosity enough to want to read.
The first novel I thought of for this post was a book I read in middle school. I remember the book’s title and premise spreading like wildfire through our school. It was the whispered talk of the town. And I had to get my hands on it. Walking into that library up to Mrs. Almquist to ask if Detour for Emmy was in was one of the scariest moments of my life. I was sure I was going to be struck down or she would deny me to have it. Even better, she knew the book and what it was about – she had to buy it – and her facial expression didn’t change whatsoever. She was most helpful in getting me the book. What is more of a moral and social lesson than becoming pregnant as a teen? Being ostracized and criticized was a great learning lesson for me. It opened my eyes beyond the friendships, loyalty, and back-stabbings I’d already experienced.
Sometimes maturity, growth, and morals comes in direct conflict with what a character has been taught or raised to believe, including sex and sexuality. In Luna by Julie Andrew Peters, Liam is a teenage boy who transforms into Luna in his basement bedroom at night. It is a coming of age that is solely focused on sexuality, gender, and identity.
The last YA novel that comes to mind that contains a sexual element is a beloved series, Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer. In this series, young Mary Faber goes through adolescence. She learns what it means to have her monthly cycle while at sea with a bunch of men. She grows up at sea and learns all she needs to about the birds and the bees there, while experiencing some compromising situations and exploring her own identity as a budding woman. For me, the story of Jacky’s notorious fame as a pirate was a stronger pull than the sexual identity and content.
