YABookgate

[Gnillik Yot]

Their books are usually apolitical. Lots of anti-woke/right-wing media is apolitical as a reaction to "leftists just have to make everything political". Leftists, on the other hand, will say "Everything is political" or "Respecting people's basic desire for representation isn't political, chud!" If you want to know what right-wing young adult literature looks like, there are a whole bunch of Mormon YA authors.

That's what I suspected, I mean the apolitical part. But tell me about these right-wing Mormon YA authors. That sounds interesting. And please not Orson Scott Card, he comes from a different era and much of his writing is outside the YA market anyway.

 

[Bulk Bogan]

That's what I suspected, I mean the apolitical part. But tell me about these right-wing Mormon YA authors. That sounds interesting. And please not Orson Scott Card, he comes from a different era and much of his writing is outside the YA market anyway.

When I was a wee Mormon lad, I read the hell out of Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, if I'm remembering the title of the first book (of many) right. It's like a weird Mormon isekai by way of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's inherently steeped in Mormonism since it's an isekai into the Book of Mormon setting, but. It's also a pretty old series, I guess, but it's still being written in.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Something I am curious about. Okay, so we all know that modern YA is overwhelmingly dominated by women & read by women. I often see right-wing men in the culture war scene recommending alternatives to YA that are skewed to a male demographic, sometimes these men talk about "infiltrating" YA with their ideas that are clearly not even created with young women in mind. They usually flop spectacularly for the same reason that Anita Sarkeesian flopped when she tried entering the gaming sphere: that demographic isn't the audience for this shit.

The only path I could possibly see would be for some kind of LitRPG variant, with the sexuality and gore toned down. But even then I don't think it is likely. It isn't that young men don't read, though it is clearly a smaller audience than young men, I just don't see how you can sell books like this to big publishing.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

The only path I could possibly see would be for some kind of LitRPG variant, with the sexuality and gore toned down. But even then I don't think it is likely. It isn't that young men don't read, though it is clearly a smaller audience than young men, I just don't see how you can sell books like this to big publishing.

There's a sort of "New Pulp" thing with people taking the trappings of the hero pulps and whatnot and just writing more of it. Other than that, your best bet is to just revert to shilling the good old stuff and pre-woke retardation mass market paperback pulpy genreslop for men.

Or, like, get Robert E. Howard's works in cheap reprints again. That worked before. It'll work again. It just has to be something cool. That's it. Action, good pacing, cool characters. Tarzan, John Carter, Doc Savage, The Shadow, etc. All worked well.

 

[Hirbowedge]

The only path I could possibly see would be for some kind of LitRPG variant, with the sexuality and gore toned down. But even then I don't think it is likely. It isn't that young men don't read, though it is clearly a smaller audience than young men, I just don't see how you can sell books like this to big publishing.

I mean, young men clearly read LitRPGs. And that's on webforums, web fiction sites and translation sites. Obscure places to find stories. They are clearly not being served by the mass publishing market.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

When I was a wee Mormon lad, I read the hell out of Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, if I'm remembering the title of the first book (of many) right. It's like a weird Mormon isekai by way of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's inherently steeped in Mormonism since it's an isekai into the Book of Mormon setting, but. It's also a pretty old series, I guess, but it's still being written in.

This sounds so vaguely familiar I was wondering if Passage to Zarahemla was the teenage girl addition to this. And it fucking is, oh my God.

I won't lie, though, it sounds pretty campy. I may check out the first book if I ever come across it.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

I had to read The Pigman in middle school. I barely remember anything about it. There was a boy and a girl and there was a weird hermit type guy who lived in the town. I think the boy threw a party and there was beer.....he and the girl might have gone to prison?.....

I'm surprised there's no film of it. We also read Bridge to Terabithia several years before the 2000s film version. So we had to make do with the cheesy late 80s Canadian one. ("YEW LIE! YEUR LYING TO MEE. LESLIE AIN' DED!") The boy in it is the irl son of ex actor and pedophile Jeffrey Jones by the way. We also laughed because Leslie
dies by getting struck by lightning. Looking back it feels like a cop out.

 

[Mola Ram]

I had to read The Pigman in middle school. I barely remember anything about it. There was a boy and a girl and there was a weird hermit type guy who lived in the town. I think the boy threw a party and there was beer.....he and the girl might have gone to prison?.....

I'm surprised there's no film of it. We also read Bridge to Terabithia several years before the 2000s film version. So we had to make do with the cheesy late 80s Canadian one. ("YEW LIE! YEUR LYING TO MEE. LESLIE AIN' DED!") The boy in it is the irl son of ex actor and pedophile Jeffrey Jones by the way. We also laughed because Leslie
dies by getting struck by lightning. Looking back it feels like a cop out.

Paul Zindel was very popular in my neck of the woods, because he was from Staten Island (most of his books were set there as well), and young Mola did an extended student exchange program with New Dorp High School many and many a year ago. Just be glad you didn't have to read The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

I had to read The Pigman in middle school. I barely remember anything about it. There was a boy and a girl and there was a weird hermit type guy who lived in the town. I think the boy threw a party and there was beer.....he and the girl might have gone to prison?.....

Been decades since I read it, but the guy's name was something like Arthur Pignatti, (the pigman, get it?) and he figured he'd just embrace the whole thing so he had a huge collection of pig figures, pig artwork, the whole bit. When they threw the party one of their asshole friends smashed them all. Pignatti died literally of a broken heart over this, something like that. I do remember finding the book on the whole deeply depressing.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

 

[neverendingmidi]

Been decades since I read it, but the guy's name was something like Arthur Pignatti, (the pigman, get it?) and he figured he'd just embrace the whole thing so he had a huge collection of pig figures, pig artwork, the whole bit. When they threw the party one of their asshole friends smashed them all. Pignatti died literally of a broken heart over this, something like that. I do remember finding the book on the whole deeply depressing.

That's the kind of shit I remember as YA (and the reason I ran from the kids section to fantasy/scifi in the adult section). Cynthia Voight was another trauma porn author.

For example, we have the heart warming story of "Izzy, Willy Nilly"

One moment can change a life forever.
Fifteen-year-old Izzy has it all -- a loving family, terrific friends, a place on the cheerleading squad. But her comfortable world crumbles when a date with a senior ends in a car crash and she loses her right leg.
Suddenly nothing is the same. The simplest tasks become enormous challenges. Her friends don't seem to know how to act around her. Her family is supportive, but they don't really want to deal with how much she's hurting.
Then Rosamunde extends a prickly offer of friendship. Rosamunde definitely isn't the kind of girl Izzy would have been friends with in her old life. But Rosamunde may be the only person who can help Izzy face her new one.

Or Homecoming

The iconic start to the timeless, Newbery-winning series from Cynthia Voigt.

“It’s still true.” That’s the first thing James Tillerman says to his older sister, Dicey, every morning. It’s still true that their mother has abandoned the four Tillermans in a mall parking lot somewhere in the middle of Connecticut. It’s still true that they have to find their own way to Great-aunt Cilla’s house in Bridgeport. It’s still true that they need to spend as little as possible on food and seek shelter anywhere that is out of view of the authorities. It’s still true that the only way they can hope to all stay together is to just keep moving forward.

Deep down, Dicey hopes they can find someone to trust, someone who will take them in and love them. But she’s afraid it’s just too much to hope for...

Or even better, the "Anonymous" book of "Go Ask Alice"

January 24th
After you’ve had it, there isn’t even life without drugs…

It started when she was served a drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth—and ultimately her life.

Read her diary.
Enter her world.
You will never forget her.

I ran screaming from YA when I was growing out of kids books.

 

[JJLiautaud]

Or even better, the "Anonymous" book of "Go Ask Alice"

Go Ask Alice was fake anyways

 

[SamTheEagle]

When I was a wee Mormon lad, I read the hell out of Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, if I'm remembering the title of the first book (of many) right. It's like a weird Mormon isekai by way of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's inherently steeped in Mormonism since it's an isekai into the Book of Mormon setting, but. It's also a pretty old series, I guess, but it's still being written in.

I read maybe five of those, I'm surprised it's still going on. Even as a kid I remember calling bullshit in the second one when the protagonist is stuck in some jam, no way to make it to his loved ones in time, and prays for help. Next chapter just magically teleports him to where he needs to be without any explanation, and I'm convinced the author had written himself into a corner and had a deadline to meet.
On the other hand, I've always liked a scene in one of the later ones I read where the protagonists wind up bringing a Roman guy back to the present. At first he just quietly looks around. Then he starts asking a barrage of "What is" and "Why is" questions. And then he finally has a breakdown.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Was the decision less "couldn't be fucked" and more "lets not tell her so she keeps working with us."

I doubt somebody who wants to write novels/be a published author would be okay be nothing more than the ideas guy.

You just reminded me Suzanne Collins was not for a romance plot in the Hunger Games series. Against her wishes, the higher-ups literally forced her to put the stupid love triangle in the books after she tried everything she could to avoid it.

Does anyone remember Gary Paulsen? Hatchet where the pilot shits himself and then has a heart attack crashing and dying if I recall. Ned Beaty was the pilot in the TV film. I still remember when the kid swims to the wreckage and finds the pilot's face half eaten off.

 

[World Famous Quasi Payer]

You just reminded me Suzanne Collins was not for a romance plot in the Hunger Games series. Against her wishes, the higher-ups literally forced her to put the stupid love triangle in the books after she tried everything she could to avoid it.

Was her intention to not have any romance at all in the book? I've only every seen the first movie, seemed like a key part of the story, or was that just Hollywood?

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Was her intention to not have any romance at all in the book? I've only every seen the first movie, seemed like a key part of the story, or was that just Hollywood?

The love triangle bullshit specifically was what the publishers forced her to write in.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

The love triangle bullshit specifically was what the publishers forced her to write in.

Interesting. I had no idea. That kind of makes sense with the story ending with Katniss fucking off back to District 13 to settle down with Peeta. Collins kind of gave a middle finger to the publishers by doing that, didn't she? I don't even remember the other dude's name in the love triangle and am too lazy to look it up, but he was the one getting all the fourteen year old girl panties in a twist, IIRC.

Also, the Hugo Awards / Archive happened yesterday, and the YA book award went to...

I know who Garth Nix is, and I know Charlie Jane Anders is a troon, but nothing else about any of the other authors or any of the titles on the list. And after looking through GoodReads I see nothing here worth the effort.

 

[World Famous Quasi Payer]

To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose​

Spoiler: Synopsis

A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy—and quickly finds herself at odds with the “approved” way of doing things—in the first book of this brilliant new fantasy series.

The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.

Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.

For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.

Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it.

Yep, this sounds like the exact type of pseudo-intellectual and leftist approved rebellious wank that would get high marks at a non-event like the hugos.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

Yep, this sounds like the exact type of pseudo-intellectual and leftist approved rebellious wank that would get high marks at a non-event like the hugos.

The goodreads description was unfiltered cringe. The only surprising thing was nothing about being Two spirit/genderfluid/supported by her brave trans friend, etc. Maybe they'll save that for the sequel.

Honestly, Unraveller looks kind of intriguing. Frances Hardinge is apparently a pretty well known author, too, though she's news to me. May actually pick that one up if I remember. Even has that rarest of creatures in a YA novel, a male protagonist.

Everything else -- even the Garth Nix title, sadly -- looks about as tedious and predictable as you'd expect.

 

[Flexo]

Interesting. I had no idea. That kind of makes sense with the story ending with Katniss fucking off back to District 13 to settle down with Peeta. Collins kind of gave a middle finger to the publishers by doing that, didn't she? I don't even remember the other dude's name in the love triangle and am too lazy to look it up, but he was the one getting all the fourteen year old girl panties in a twist, IIRC.

Also, the Hugo Awards / Archive happened yesterday, and the YA book award went to...
View attachment 6298858
I know who Garth Nix is, and I know Charlie Jane Anders is a troon, but nothing else about any of the other authors or any of the titles on the list. And after looking through GoodReads I see nothing here worth the effort.

This is when I wish @Boston Brand would come by and give us selling numbers on those books.