YABookgate

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

It hasn't been published as a book (still a web novel, and a beefy mother at that), but Worm, while seriously on the dark side for a YA book one of the main characters is the son of basically super-Koresh, who psychically torments his twentysomething children randomly to try and force them to gain superpowers, and there's a subplot where one character's secondary powers causes her adoptive sister to involuntarily fall in love with her, with all of the revulsion entailed is an engrossing superhero series and a must-read for fans of the genre (frankly, I think it explores the psychology of what happens when normal people suddenly gain superhuman abilities and "deconstructs" the genre better than some comics that allege to do so). Is it perfect? No: the author clearly has some issues writing fight scenes early on, the inherent nature of it as a prose work means it can't create fluid action like comics can, and there's a couple of minor plot threads that felt unnecessary or poorly-conceived. But it's engaging, creative, and has a female lead that isn't a bundle of hormonal angst or a perfect special snowflake.

The author didn't know when to leave good enough alone, however, and wrote a sequel called Ward. I'm not sure whether Worm was ghostwritten, a fluke, or if Ward was never planned and the author just went back to the well out of desperation. It's a bunch of whiny YA high-school drama pablum with the threadbare trappings of the cape genre attached.

 

[GeorgiaGuidestones]

She's getting crucified on Twitter today for daring to suggest that it's ridiculous to refer to "people who menstruate" rather than "women." I don't know if the regularly scheduled Two Minutes' Hate goes across social media platforms or not.

I was reading that. Fat cousin had a post about how disappointed she was with Rowling but deleted it after getting pushback from other middle aged Potter heads. I didn’t get the screenshot since I was at work.

 

[Puddleduck]

This whole business of YA for boys got me thinking. When I was a wee li'l shitlord, Animorphs was the big thing in the fourth- to eighth-grade range, once you got done with Goosebumps. Harry Potter was a phenomenon for boys and girls alike, but once the movies started coming out, I definitely think the fandom was skewing female. But I really have no idea what guys were reading once we got done with those weird kids who could turn into animals.

Animorphs is awesome! They're "SJW friendly" too as the team is pretty diverse - Jake and Rachel were Jewish, Tobias was trailer trash, Cassie was black, Marco was Hispanic.

Back in the days when such things were just minor details, not entire personalities ...

 

[GenociderSyo]

They should just read the nice books i had as a kid:

Probably gonna be some insane censorship and propaganda ya books when covid is over and done.

 

[Piga Dgrifm]

The author is white? Fuck, one star!

 

[Fictional Character]

The Court of Miracles (A Court of Miracles #1) - Thief chick in post-Napoleonic France doing thief chick things and keeping her little sister safe, 'cuz they're orphans. "Alternate 1828 Paris," so...eh, last of the Bourbons, I guess. The top reviewers don't seem impressed, and much to my surprise there's apparently minimal magic.

This one actually seems kind of interesting, since an alternate history where French Revolution failed and Louis XVII actually became the king of France could be an interesting take. However, the main characters are named Eponine Thénardier and Cosette, so I think that this is just Les Misérables fanfiction.

 

[Elwood P. Dowd]

The 36 Most Popular YA Books of the Year (So Far)

The 36 Most Popular YA Books of the Year (So Far) - Goodreads News & …

archived 14 Jun 2020 14:24:06 UTC

archive.is

More goodies from GoodReads. Scanning through it, so, eh, some of my rambling here may require correction.

I'm a bit mystified how this list was created, aside from obvious stuff like the Hunger Games prequel and whatever turds Cassandra Clare is excreting this year. "Popular" is nowhere defined, and in fact how the list was created seems to be veiled in a mist of Handwavium. TBF, popularity of a book released in February vs. one released in May in terms of ratings and reviews is not a fair comparison, but if some sort of weighed average is used, it is not disclosed. I'm guessing this is a list of "carefully curated" titles, bounded by some view toward ratings and reviews, dunno. I don't think GoodReads would blatantly accepted payola from publishers for book placement, but I'm guessing participation in GR's various advertising programs couldn't hurt?

Interestingly, I only see two instances of out and out gay love (#10 and #24) and no tranny representation anywhere, though I guess I may have missed something. Of the 36 books, only 3 have male authors, and one of those is as a co-author. 2.5/36, or Seven percent. Muh Representation! Where is it? And of those male authors, one wrote the m/m gayness of #10, one is Ransom Riggs and the other is Jay Kristoff, so both established names there. FWIW, I'm not even sure I'd consider the Miss Peregrine's books YA, in the sense they're pretty dense thematically, though they clearly feature teens as characters. Dunno. I finished but didn't really care for the first one, so maybe I'm wrong.

The list seems to be aimed at upper middle class white or Asian (in the American sense of the term) females from 13 to 40, largely. Lots of first love leading to HEA or at any rate Happily For Now. Only one book has somebody black as the MC (#12) and that one is more Latino than African-American, while #21 and #32 are Chinese-American, and # 27 has a pseudo-medieval Chinese setting. This despite 6% of the US population being Asian of all stripes, 13% being African-American and 16% being Latino.

And I see next to nothing that would interest a male who happens to be a Young Adult, without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, whatever. No surprises there. Probably even sexual orientation. I mean if you were a male who worshiped at the altar of dick would you REALLY want a female writing your first love stories? (See # 24)

Oh, well. TBH this whole business of YA as sociological phenomenon is so predictable it is almost scary. I think the biggest surprise on this list was only one black MC, everything else was just more of the same.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

And, again, the reviews remind us of why we should never try to pander to people like this:
View attachment 1346283

what's "aphobia"?

 

[Xerxes IX]

what's "aphobia"?

Not considering asexuality as inherently LGBT. There have been arguments over if "asexual heteromantics" (read: straight, but no interest in having sex) are LGBT. To people who rhink they count, saying straight asexuals aren't LGBT is aphobia.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

Not considering asexuality as inherently LGBT. There have been arguments over if "asexual heteromantics" (read: straight, but no interest in having sex) are LGBT. To people who rhink they count, saying straight asexuals aren't LGBT is aphobia.

If you're not interested in having sex you're not gay. Possibly transsexual but not gay.

 

[Piga Dgrifm]

what's "aphobia"?

There are some people who claim that even though they are exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, since they only want to have sex with people they know really well, they belong in the LGBT community. Anyone who says being straight means you aren't gay is then accused of being an evil bigot because current year is a great place to live in.

Anyway (sorry for the name being blocked out):

 

[TaimuRadiu]

There are some people who claim that even though they are exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, since they only want to have sex with people they know really well, they belong in the LGBT community. Anyone who says being straight means you aren't gay is then accused of being an evil bigot because current year is a great place to live in.

Anyway (sorry for the name being blocked out):

View attachment 1375742

vinca tablets
sumerian tablets
oracle bones
rapa nui tablets

all weren't "colonial european"

 

[Kosher Dill]

View attachment 1375742

Civilization started in precisely 10000 BC, huh.

 

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

There are some people who claim that even though they are exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, since they only want to have sex with people they know really well, they belong in the LGBT community. Anyone who says being straight means you aren't gay is then accused of being an evil bigot because current year is a great place to live in.

Anyway (sorry for the name being blocked out):

View attachment 1375742

Given we don't have someone to trace it back to, I'm going to just assume this is a shitpost.

 

[neverendingmidi]

Given we don't have someone to trace it back to, I'm going to just assume this is a shitpost.

It was somewhere else on this site and was part of a long rant about books being ableist because dyslexia exists. So since some people have difficulty reading all books are tools of white colonial oppression. Plus of course the Noble Savage archetype with everything being passed down verbally obviously being better because not white.

 

[KimCoppolaAficionado]

It was somewhere else on this site and was part of a long rant about books being ableist because dyslexia exists. So since some people have difficulty reading all books are tools of white colonial oppression. Plus of course the Noble Savage archetype with everything being passed down verbally obviously being better because not white.

Astoundingly stupid. Does she think only non-whites have dyslexia? That we should get rid of paintings to avoid offending the colorblind?

 

[neverendingmidi]

Astoundingly stupid. Does she think only non-whites have dyslexia? That we should get rid of paintings to avoid offending the colorblind?

No we don’t have to get rid of paintings, they just all need to have a full description of what they look like in braille labels next to them. Otherwise they’re not inclusive,

 

[Don't Tread on Me]

Animorphs is awesome! They're "SJW friendly" too as the team is pretty diverse - Jake and Rachel were Jewish, Tobias was trailer trash, Cassie was black, Marco was Hispanic.

Back in the days when such things were just minor details, not entire personalities ...

Huh...I knew Rachel was Jewish but I never put two and two together that Jake must have been too. I don't think it was ever explicitly mentioned for him like it was for her. Cousins, right.

 

[SnarkySperg]

I want to go on a mini-rant, because that Hollywood High book reminded me of something.

Back in the mid-2000s, 'Mean Girl' was a popular genre for books. There was Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, and some lesser known books. I'm going to talk about The Clique. This is the one I read. This is about a group of girls living in Westchester, New York, who are 7th graders who act like high schoolers. They're rich and snotty and hate each other, but they're also best friends. I have no idea how, but I managed to read the entire series, including the final book, which came out when I was a freshman in high school. It was very odd to think these girls are middle schoolers because they acted much older. It adds a bit of a creep factor to some aspects too.

Recently, I started getting into watching Booktubers out of boredom. Well, one in particular took serious issue with this series. She didn't have a problem with the lying, or backstabbing, or the way the girls acted, oh no. She took issue with the girl who ate a salad for lunch. She called it fatphobic. Here's where I stopped watching this person's channel completely. The girl in question had severe body dysmorphia and had an eating disorder because she thought she was fat. Her friends all told her she looked fine, but because her sisters bullied her for not being skinny enough, she decided she was fat and thus decided that going on a diet was a good idea. This (very skinny) Booktuber took personal offense to this, claiming it was fat shaming. For starters, fuck you, she had an eating disorder. Two, the girls weren't supposed to be nice. The whole point of the story was that they're shallow, vapid bitches who care more about appearances and material possessions than about being a good person. But yes, let's make it about how they're fat shaming and how horrible of a message it is for young girls. Teaching to backstab your best friends and lie to them? That's fine. Teaching that having a $400 purse is the most important thing? That's cool. Talking about a 16yo making out with a 12yo? Great! But talking about a girl having an eating disorder because her sisters bullied her into it? FATPHOBIA, DO NOT READ.

There are some people who claim that even though they are exclusively attracted to the opposite sex, since they only want to have sex with people they know really well, they belong in the LGBT community. Anyone who says being straight means you aren't gay is then accused of being an evil bigot because current year is a great place to live in.

Anyway (sorry for the name being blocked out):

View attachment 1375742

Has this person ever heard of the game Telephone? There's a reason we don't just pass stories down verbally.

 

[Mola Ram]

I want to go on a mini-rant, because that Hollywood High book reminded me of something.

Back in the mid-2000s, 'Mean Girl' was a popular genre for books. There was Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, and some lesser known books. I'm going to talk about The Clique. This is the one I read. This is about a group of girls living in Westchester, New York, who are 7th graders who act like high schoolers. They're rich and snotty and hate each other, but they're also best friends. I have no idea how, but I managed to read the entire series, including the final book, which came out when I was a freshman in high school. It was very odd to think these girls are middle schoolers because they acted much older. It adds a bit of a creep factor to some aspects too.

Recently, I started getting into watching Booktubers out of boredom. Well, one in particular took serious issue with this series. She didn't have a problem with the lying, or backstabbing, or the way the girls acted, oh no. She took issue with the girl who ate a salad for lunch. She called it fatphobic. Here's where I stopped watching this person's channel completely. The girl in question had severe body dysmorphia and had an eating disorder because she thought she was fat. Her friends all told her she looked fine, but because her sisters bullied her for not being skinny enough, she decided she was fat and thus decided that going on a diet was a good idea. This (very skinny) Booktuber took personal offense to this, claiming it was fat shaming. For starters, fuck you, she had an eating disorder. Two, the girls weren't supposed to be nice. The whole point of the story was that they're shallow, vapid bitches who care more about appearances and material possessions than about being a good person. But yes, let's make it about how they're fat shaming and how horrible of a message it is for young girls. Teaching to backstab your best friends and lie to them? That's fine. Teaching that having a $400 purse is the most important thing? That's cool. Talking about a 16yo making out with a 12yo? Great! But talking about a girl having an eating disorder because her sisters bullied her into it? FATPHOBIA, DO NOT READ.

Has this person ever heard of the game Telephone? There's a reason we don't just pass stories down verbally.

I had cause to mention this on another thread earlier today, but the "writer community" on social media is, to put it politely, batshit crazy. You never saw such a collection of censorious, self-appointed Grand Inquisitors. Fuck writing, these people are roaming the libraries of the internet with flamethrowers in hand. I may have to start documenting the lunacy that scrolls by my Twitter feed in a continuous stream of madness. Personal favorite is a freelance editor who is constantly calling people out for violating "their" ever more arcane code of conduct when it comes to representation and various sorts of -phobias.