The Teen Fiction Genre
I'm quite familiar with the Teen Fiction Genre...
... I really am!
....
I swear!
Okay, so I haven't really enjoyed reading anything from the Teen Fiction genre that's been written and published in probably the past three to five years. It's not for a lack of trying, however.
I really wanted to see what everyone liked about Twilight. I really did! I couldn't read the book because... well, the first chapter left me wanting to read a book about characters I actually like (also why I can't read Nora Roberts despite my grandmother's best efforts to find something of hers I'd enjoy), but I did listen to is on tape and I will admit, there were a few parts that made me sort of see why people might enjoy it a bit.
Okay, basically anything between Bella and Edward or Bella and Jacob made me want to remove my eyes with a sport and shove pens in my ears as far as they would go, but there was a line of spoken dialogue or two that genuinely amused me... and not for the wrong reasons. I also enjoyed most of the side characters and I constantly wonder why they weren't the ones I was following.
I also picked up the House of Night series which was kind of like watching Charmed in every aspect. First, you know it's not the greatest, but the plot is interesting and it might improve as the show or books go on. Then the show or books go on and all the good points go away leaving you with detestable characters that you're supposed to like just because they're opposing even more detestable characters. So, I stopped reading it because who wants to relive Charmed unless they're bored or trying to find a way to fix the whole mess?
That's not to say I never liked Teen Fiction. When I was a teen, I loved the Teen Fiction Genre. I read it, wrote it, wanted to see it in movie form. I was the weird kid in school before liking Teen Paranormal Romance was the "in" thing.
That's right, I'm the Book Hipster.
Deal with it.
I read: The Mediator Series (can't remember the author's name), Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith, EVERYTHING by Christopher Pike, Fingerprints also by some author, Sweep by Cate Tiernan, Circle of Magic series by Isobel Bird, EVERYTHING by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, 1-800-WHERE-R-U?, and so many more that I can't even remember them all. My friend Chris and I would absorb them and copy them and model stories after them. It was insane!
It was also when I was between the ages of eleven and about seventeen with some years added on for the phase-out.
During that time I also read a lot of other books. I was a bibliophile. I knew those books weren't the greatest, but they were there and they were about people like me, so they got a free pass when I thought they got a little unrealistic or all had similar plots. I was fine with that because for every L.J. Smith book I managed to find (because they were out of print when I was trying to find and read them) I also read Classic Literature like The Three Musketeers (unabridged), Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, and Dracula. For every Amelia Atwater-Rhodes book I bought, I also raided my aunt and uncle's collection for Dune, Interview with the Vampire, and Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. Inc.series.
Yes, I liked Teen Paranormal Romance, but I liked so much more. I tended to read the first page of anything anybody gave me. Usually I wouldn't go on to finish the book unless that first page really wowed me, but I would read that first page.
So, I don't feel I completely understand the fantasy behind modern Teen Paranormal Romance because, well, my fantasies were always quite different from that stuff. Yes, I did want the man or person of my dreams to come and sweep me off my feet, but I was more interested in the stories where the girl has some hidden potential that she unlocks on her own and there happens to be a guy that she falls in love with.
More like Hunger Games than anything else if you think about it.
I didn't just want to have a vampire fall in love with me, turn me and have us live forever in our young bodies. I wanted some twist of fate to make me a special vampire and have troubles controlling whatever made me special and maybe also have people hunting me down for my blood and I have to fight them off while fighting my own hunger while trying to trust my lover who could've just been using me all along and in the end everything turns out fine.
I didn't want to just be an uber-powerful witch who finds love, I wanted there to be twists and turns.
Heck, even watching teen movies growing up, I preferred the ones where the best friends ended up together in the end because it made the most sense in my mind.
Sadly, I never had a best friend to end up with....
So, writing anything Teen Paranormal Fiction with some Romance is going to be a bit difficult to me... or it'll be different from anything anyone's seen in a while because my perspective is a bit skewed.
It doesn't help that my actual teen experience included me not having any actual romance until I was eighteen/nineteen.
... I really am!
....
I swear!
Okay, so I haven't really enjoyed reading anything from the Teen Fiction genre that's been written and published in probably the past three to five years. It's not for a lack of trying, however.
I really wanted to see what everyone liked about Twilight. I really did! I couldn't read the book because... well, the first chapter left me wanting to read a book about characters I actually like (also why I can't read Nora Roberts despite my grandmother's best efforts to find something of hers I'd enjoy), but I did listen to is on tape and I will admit, there were a few parts that made me sort of see why people might enjoy it a bit.
Okay, basically anything between Bella and Edward or Bella and Jacob made me want to remove my eyes with a sport and shove pens in my ears as far as they would go, but there was a line of spoken dialogue or two that genuinely amused me... and not for the wrong reasons. I also enjoyed most of the side characters and I constantly wonder why they weren't the ones I was following.
I also picked up the House of Night series which was kind of like watching Charmed in every aspect. First, you know it's not the greatest, but the plot is interesting and it might improve as the show or books go on. Then the show or books go on and all the good points go away leaving you with detestable characters that you're supposed to like just because they're opposing even more detestable characters. So, I stopped reading it because who wants to relive Charmed unless they're bored or trying to find a way to fix the whole mess?
That's not to say I never liked Teen Fiction. When I was a teen, I loved the Teen Fiction Genre. I read it, wrote it, wanted to see it in movie form. I was the weird kid in school before liking Teen Paranormal Romance was the "in" thing.
That's right, I'm the Book Hipster.
Deal with it.
I read: The Mediator Series (can't remember the author's name), Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith, EVERYTHING by Christopher Pike, Fingerprints also by some author, Sweep by Cate Tiernan, Circle of Magic series by Isobel Bird, EVERYTHING by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, 1-800-WHERE-R-U?, and so many more that I can't even remember them all. My friend Chris and I would absorb them and copy them and model stories after them. It was insane!
It was also when I was between the ages of eleven and about seventeen with some years added on for the phase-out.
During that time I also read a lot of other books. I was a bibliophile. I knew those books weren't the greatest, but they were there and they were about people like me, so they got a free pass when I thought they got a little unrealistic or all had similar plots. I was fine with that because for every L.J. Smith book I managed to find (because they were out of print when I was trying to find and read them) I also read Classic Literature like The Three Musketeers (unabridged), Frankenstein, Pride and Prejudice, and Dracula. For every Amelia Atwater-Rhodes book I bought, I also raided my aunt and uncle's collection for Dune, Interview with the Vampire, and Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. Inc.series.
Yes, I liked Teen Paranormal Romance, but I liked so much more. I tended to read the first page of anything anybody gave me. Usually I wouldn't go on to finish the book unless that first page really wowed me, but I would read that first page.
So, I don't feel I completely understand the fantasy behind modern Teen Paranormal Romance because, well, my fantasies were always quite different from that stuff. Yes, I did want the man or person of my dreams to come and sweep me off my feet, but I was more interested in the stories where the girl has some hidden potential that she unlocks on her own and there happens to be a guy that she falls in love with.
More like Hunger Games than anything else if you think about it.
I didn't just want to have a vampire fall in love with me, turn me and have us live forever in our young bodies. I wanted some twist of fate to make me a special vampire and have troubles controlling whatever made me special and maybe also have people hunting me down for my blood and I have to fight them off while fighting my own hunger while trying to trust my lover who could've just been using me all along and in the end everything turns out fine.
I didn't want to just be an uber-powerful witch who finds love, I wanted there to be twists and turns.
Heck, even watching teen movies growing up, I preferred the ones where the best friends ended up together in the end because it made the most sense in my mind.
Sadly, I never had a best friend to end up with....
So, writing anything Teen Paranormal Fiction with some Romance is going to be a bit difficult to me... or it'll be different from anything anyone's seen in a while because my perspective is a bit skewed.
It doesn't help that my actual teen experience included me not having any actual romance until I was eighteen/nineteen.
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