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#young adult novels
headspace-hotel · 2 years
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do you have any advice for someone who writes urban fantasy and sword and sorc fantasy and for some reason, always gets compared to YA? I don't write YA. My characters tend to be in their late 20s or 30s-40s. And yet people keep comparing it to YA. Is there just too much YA in our collective lexicon now? Is there something I should avoid doing? I realize this is a bit vague but I also don't want you to have to read my plots or something.
People like to say "if you write diverse books they'll label your work YA"...but also there absolutely is a stylistic YA Voice
YA tends to ONLY use active voice, even when it's objectively weird in context, use very "visceral/bodily" descriptions for every sensation (e.g. "Anger pools in my gut," "Ice climbs up my spine,") have very short/choppy paragraphs, and utilize little to no narrative distance (the writing is very 'grounded' in the POV character—so a description of a character slipping on a banana peel would be describing the sensation of hitting the floor on your back, instead of being like a camera panning over someone slipping on a banana peel).
YA also tends to have very adjective-heavy description that makes things very vague. For instance, a robe being described as "plush" and "sumptuous" but not giving the color, material, style etc.
If you have to say "A staircase climbs the wall" instead of "There was a staircase on the far wall," you may have YA Style Disease. And yes, I will maintain that "There was [x]" is sometimes superior to somehow working an active verb in there. Sometimes things are literally not doing anything except "being."
Like, "There was an explosion," is a bad use of passive voice, because exploding is not very passive, but "There was a shed out back" is not wrong because it's just a fucking shed. It sounds weird to say "The shed slumbered/loomed/squatted in the back yard" every time. Sometimes an object literally is just existing and inventing a metaphor every time you describe the thing just to avoid passive voice gets into soggy purple prose territory.
Also, using present tense and/or first person is pretty particular of YA in today's environment. Especially either of these things combined with multiple POVs.
My main advice is to read books that 1) aren't YA and 2) aren't influenced by the "contemporary" YA. So like. Anything 20+ years old.
But maybe the people telling you this just don't know what they're talking about. Or maybe they've only read YA books of your category/genre themselves.
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fin-de-seel · 8 months
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I MIGHT BE YELLING OUT TO NO ONE RIGHT NOW BUT
HEY
IF YOU LIKE SCI-FI AND SPACE AND HEISTS AND TEENAGERS DOING SHENANIGANS READ THE AURORA CYCLE SERIES IT'S SERIOUSLY GOOD
Like seriously, go check it out. Even if you're not a super fan of all the things I just mentioned. Just go have a look and see what you think. Help a small fandom out.
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rainreads · 1 year
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perhaps a bit late to the club but better late than never!
can't wait to dive in 💕
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godzilla-reads · 2 years
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May 25, 2022
Ngl I haven’t read a non-fantasy YA book in a minute, but I am eating this book up like it’s a four-course meal.
📖 Solitaire by Alice Oseman
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phil-are-go · 11 months
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https://phil-are-go.blogspot.com/2023/05/catfishing-my-dad-dweema-franshesco.html
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libofalilwoman · 1 year
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annotations in progress 🥹🌹
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decarath-s · 2 years
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So- I don't know what triggered this but I have been seeing some very concerning takes on the "anti academia" stuff recently. Most of you just sound incredibly bigoted.
Most of the discourse I have seen around this issue centers around hating on queer, poc,or feminist young adult novels-- which seems very convenient. I don't think there is anything wrong with reading young adult novels or weirdly adapted queer myths- just say you don't respect young women, poc, or queer people and go home.
I think it is very beautiful that literature has found the power to heal and has given a voice to groups who historically have lacked one. I also think that glamorizing the books that have been fed to us as classics by a very racist, sexist, etc institution is much worse than indulging in a badly written young adult novel.
Of course the concerning thing about this 'anti-intellectualism' thing (which I can't believe is even a phrase that exists btw) is that it romanticizes the idea of not caring to learn any more. This is obviously incredibly concerning because how can we move on and grow as a society if we do care to learn? Historically, knowledge has been our most powerful tool. So of course there's something very wrong with us the second we decide that we are willing to drown in our own ignorance.
However, I do believe that this idea of using knowledge as a tool could and should coexist with the understanding that the 'academia' that we are fed in Western culture has been incredibly hostile towards queer people, poc, women, disabled people, etc.
I don't think there is anything stopping people who actively enjoy and identify with more recent young adult novels from also being intellectuals. Especially because there is so much to learn and study about these cultures that have been completely excluded from academic contexts for centuries. Not only that but there are also some incredibly good classics that anyone could appreciate without the constant discomfort of feeling excluded. The problem is not reading a YA novel or Rupi Kaur or even having rainbow coordinated bookshelves, the problem is the active refusal to learn which leads to counterproductive and hazardous ignorance.
So @ whoever tf is falling for the 'anti intellectualism' shit: don't, the assholes you are trying to fight with this "act of rebellion" actually thrive on your ignorance. Strive to learn for yourself and the good of our society.
And @ the shitty people who can't seem to reconcile the idea of reading for education while also reading for entertainment: stop finding such irreverent reasons to hate on oppressed groups and go fetishize your crusty white men somewhere else. You have to understand that 90% of the world's population could never relate or is actively threatened in most of the books that Western culture has claimed to be classics.
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koala2all · 1 year
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I’ve got an idea for a young adult fantasy novel I’ve been kicking around in my head… queer characters, pirates, and a quest to find a missing love… making notes so I’m ready for this year’s NaNoWriMo!!
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jamietukpahwriting · 2 years
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And this, perhaps more than his fleet-as-the-wind feet, his quick mind, and his quicker tongue, was what had kept him alive and healthy all those years growing up in the slums: endless optimism. If he just kept his eyes and mind open, anything was possible. Even dinner.
A Whole New World by Liz Braswell
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glassdollhouse · 1 year
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ivanovaili · 2 years
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BCL o Leyendas del Cúmulo Azul es una saga de light novels o novelas ligeras de ciencia ficción y fantasía juvenil escritas por Iliana Ivanova durante todo 2020 y 2021 mientras tenía lugar la cuarentena apocalíptica del COVID 19.
El primer volumen de ésta historia se puede conseguir en español en 14 marketplaces de Amazon a nivel internacional tanto en formato ebook como en libro físico.
Se tiene previsto lanzar el volumen dos a mitad de Noviembre de 2022 y si todo va conforme a lo previsto, la versión en inglés del volumen 1, ¡qué emoción!
¿Qué puedes esperar de éste libro?
Bueno, si quieres engancharte de una efervescente y adictiva historia de acción con robots gigantes tipo anime, ¡ésta saga es para tí! Si te gustan los romances slow burn, caramba, me atrevería a decir que comprarás los siguientes números si acaso lees el primero, jaja.
Lo mejor de todo es que BCL es una serie única y honesta. Apta para toda la familia. ¿Qué dices? ¿Estás list@ para unirte a éste fandom nuevo? No olvides seguir las hashtags #ivanovaili y #BlueclusterLegends en Instagram y otras redes sociales para obtener más actualizaciones.
Disponible en los mercados de: USA, Canada, México, Brasil, España, UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland, Rzeczpospolita Polska, Australia, 日本, Sverige, Republic of India & Italia.
¡Cómpralo ya!
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dafuzzz · 2 years
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The Morganville Vampires 1&2 (2009) - Rachel Caine
Rating: 4 / 5
(No Spoiler Review)
The Morganville Vampires series has absolutely risen to the top five in my blood-sucker favorites list, and trust me when I say I have read a lot of vampire novels so this is not a small decision. Can you tell I have absolutely CRUSHED a good portion of this series on the DL? I know, I know, I am late as heck to this party, but I think experiencing this after a hefty twilight phase makes the whole thing so much better. Lets talk about it!
Glass Houses (Book 1) was a wonderfully strong hook into this series. Within the first few pages alone I was latched on to the concept of Claire and this world she resides in. Mean girls that would make Regina George herself look like a member of the lollipop guild? Vampires? Vampire HUNTERS? Fed up humans? Yes, Yes, Yes, and YES. This novel is packed full of colorful characters who are easy to love or completely loathe with every fiber of your being, keeping a reader around for the long haul. 
To top it all off, I present to you an /organized vampire hierarchy/ and humans who have to abide by their rules to survive. Human families who pledge their blood to a vampire for protection presented a dynamic that was new to me and something I didn’t know I craved to see. Without effort this book filled a hole in my vampire loving chest. Oh, and did I mention there is romance in this series? I could not believe how easily it fit into the story without completely overriding all of the meaty bits that drove this book forward. It sounds a little chaotic but I promise everything blend perfectly into a tall drink of water I wouldn’t recommend missing. Should you choose to partake, have the second book on standby because the cliffhanger on that ending will leave you frothing at the mouth for more. 
The Dead Girl’s Dance (Book 2) had my jaw denting the floor over its never-ending action and awe-inspiring turns. I would liken the events unfolding to that of the famous boulder that raced after Indiana Jones, in the best possible way. This novel will make you hurt, love, gasp, and scream...although maybe not in that particular order. We are talking murder, revival, betrayal, and a huge look into the vampire hater side of this dispute. Now I pride myself on giving honest book opinions without dramatically spoiling the inside, since I think the experience of reading should be something for you all to enjoy, but WOWEE. I don’t think there is much I could say without thumping a hornets nest of spoilers, but I’ll do my best to get across just how intoxicating this was.
We find ourselves learning more about Shane and the crew’s unfortunate residual consequences of living in this society, and watch as the return of these traumas explode havoc not only in the life of our lovely Claire, but all across the city. It adds another layer of complexity icing to the dark underbelly of this already rich vampiric cake to watch as she attempts to pick up the pieces of not only her boyfriend’s life as it goes to crap, but the shattered routine “peace” of Morganville that just barely kept her friends out of trouble. I’m talking unwanted family meetings, kidnappings, and deals that would put devils to shame. 
~~~ I cannot commend this series enough, if that wasn’t already painfully obvious, and admit that I am much further ahead than these books on the review so let me know if you really want me to lay each book out here because I think I will be leaving here otherwise. Those two really speak for themselves once you start them. ~~~
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kingdomfall · 2 years
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Alex is Jerry no matter what Tom (villains) does he always gets away/saves the world
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Captain Thomas “Tom” Hayes / Black Gale
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An ex-vigilante, now the captain of a time ship.
Chaotic bisexual with a lowkey hero complex.
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godzilla-reads · 2 years
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May 25, 2022
I finally found myself a copy of Solitaire by Alice Oseman! With all the popularity due to the Netflix adaptation of Heartstopper, I’ve had trouble locating her books in stores. I ended up buying a 4-book box set of her books from a store in the UK to get my hands on Solitaire (and the others).
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phil-are-go · 1 year
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https://phil-are-go.blogspot.com/2023/03/somebody-destroyed-bathroom-trudy.html
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