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quiseralarissa:

So this rant was all going to be on Twitter but then I realzied it was going to take up many a tweet to get the point across. 

Anyway. 

MJ wrote this article for the Guardian about JK’s new book. And the comments. Oy vey. The comments are kind of…giant squid of anger inducing. People think this is a Harry Potter debate. It’s not. 

If you don’t like JK’s writing, fine. Don’t buy her new book. End of.

What this is really about is people having certain expectations of a “YA” author and not thinking they have the chutzpah to write a “proper novel”. Which just shows how stupid and ignorant people are about YA lit in the first place. Calling it a lesser genre is stupid and just..I have no words to describe how angry that makes me. It makes my blood boil and makes me want to punch something. 

Because people who say that stuff, I BET you they haven’t read a YA novel lately. 

And the idea that a reader can either be only an ‘adult’ fiction reader or a YA reader is equally as moronic.  

Because then what happens to the people like me, in their late teens/early twenties when 85% of YA lit doesn’t interest me any more, but 85% of adult fiction doesn’t either. What am I supposed to do? Should I limit myself and only read a very small section of one genre? Or because I can’t fully commit to either “side” does that mean I should just stop reading all together?

There’s not a fucking 38th parallel in literature. You can move between genres as you please.  

Look at TiFOs. It COMPLETELY shatters the standard ‘definition’ of what YA lit is/should be. It’s witty and smart and deals with a VERY serious subject matter and doesn’t go the way of Jodi Picoult. But how many people aren’t going to pick it up because it’s shelved in the YA section? Should we at least be grateful that it has a neutral cover, so on appearance alone it’s rather universal and people won’t ~judge you~ because it doesn’t have teenagers on the cover? 

And why is it only one way? Why is it seen as taboo when the “lesser” YA author tries to play with the big boys. Because trust me, “adult” authors royally cock it up in YA lit ALL THE TIME and NO ONE says ANYTHING about it. And then I almost feel like if the book is a flop, it’s not the fault of the author, it becomes the fault of the audience for “not getting” it, or some other bullshit.

Kathy Reichs COMPLETELY dumbed down her writing in her ‘Virals’ series. WRITE UP! IMAGINE YOUR READERS COMPLEXLY! Don’t fucking box me in and think I can’t read a complex sentences and follow a complicated plot line. And then there’s James fucking Patterson. Not enough time in the day to launch in on him.

Regardless of if they’re success of not, why don’t they get reprimand or criticized for making that transition? Why isn’t it a big deal when they do it? Why is it that when they do it, they’re “broadening their horizons” or “venturing in to the world of YA lit”?

And why the fuck do you “venture into” YA lit? It’s not some fucking uncharted jungle. 

It just makes me crazy that authors are viewed differently and given different levels of respect just because of the genre they write for/ who their target audience is. It’s like literary racism.

Books are books. 

Why do we need to complicate things and attach labels to everything and get in petty debates over stupid stuff like this?

Read what you want. Fuck what other people think. 

Some YA books are rubbish and some YA books are amazing. At the same time, some adult books are rubbish and some adult books are amazing.

Plus, surely it’s better for the bookworld as a whole if more authors traditionally associated with writing YA start crossing over into writing for adults, especially people as prominent as J. K. Rowling—she managed to get a whole generation interested in reading, excellent! Now they have a name to look for if they want to branch out and try something new to see if they like it.

(plus, completely agree with the Kathy Reichs point. I love the Tempe Brennan books, but I haven’t even tried to read Virals yet because flicking through it in Waterstone’s when it was first released to see what it’s like was just depressing…)