(no subject)

[rachelmanija]

This being said, I have not forgotten that I owe reviews! They are automatically on my list.

[Poll #1610328]

Comments

[heyoka.livejournal.com]

I have no anti-recs for any of these -- I'm not familiar with any of them! I just checked the ones that sounded most appealing to me personally. :D

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

I'm only familiar with Ash - it didn't blow me away but it was a good read.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

The only one I've read is Ash. I wouldn't say I disrecommend it, but it was... not quite what I was expecting, let's say. Entirely readable, weird ending.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Only one I've read was Ash, which I liked, though some of it was a little heavy handed. Still, I found it to be an interesting retelling with some usual twists.

Can't comment on the others.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I've read 'Racing the Dark' (which is apparently adult fantasy, not YA, who knew) and 'Ash'. I liked both of them, but 'Ash' is pretty forgettable unless you're really, really invested in getting to read a lesbian fairytale (which I totally am, so I'm not judging if you are too! ^^). 'Racing the Dark' has very interesting world-building and characters, but is the first part of a trilogy, and so doesn't wrap up the whole story; I know that bothers some people.

Here are my reviews of them, if you're interested:
Racing the Dark (http://wordsofastory.livejournal.com/377064.html)
Ash (http://wordsofastory.livejournal.com/372694.html)

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of them, so i che4cked the ones on my own immense to-read list.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I think you should review The Shadow Speaker. But then I am self-centered. :)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I heard Malinda Lo read an excerpt at SF in SF, and it was very entertaining.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I found Ash flawed but interesting, and I loved The Miles Between. It's...magical realism, maybe? Mostly realistic with subtle hints of magic, I guess -- hard to categorize, really.

[skygiants]

Racing the Dark is all over the place in terms of plot and pacing, but the place that it is all over is interesting.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I really liked Racing the Dark, and the next one is out now too. It is a little scattered, but cool.

I remember liking The Miles Between but can't recall which one it was now, so maybe that's not a very impressive rec.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Of the ones I know, I enjoyed Miles Between most. Ash had a splendid premise, but some first book problems.

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about Ash because I "saw" the author on a YA chat. She didn't say much memorable though, except about showing that two women can be together in YA fiction. The YA target audience tends to be homophobic. A lot of the YA fiction about homosexuality is meant to be open but it makes such a deal about it that it offends people who are GLBT, so I'd like to see how she handles it, and how kids react to it.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

The YA target audience tends to be homophobic.

Do you think the audience is really homophobic, or the publishing world thinks they're homophobic? In my experience, teenagers are the single least homophobic group I encounter. Of course, Los Angeles may not be typical.

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

I think LA teens are probably enlightened compared to MN teens. It's the audience I'm referring too. I work with 6-8th graders in a school with a 25% Latino, 25% Black, 40% white, 10% other demographics. One of the biggest & most common put downs the kids use are to call someone a "he/she" or to imply that someone is GLBT. One kid actually came out two years ago. I didn't know him, so I've got that second hand. The Latino population is stereotypically macho and homophobic, but having watched a lot of Latino movies, I don't think they really are homophobic as a culture. The kids at our school though are. I know one boy spent a long time talking to the counselor because he was being called gay. They go around calling Prince gay, and when I read the opening of one of Holly Black's stories to them, a hand went up. The question was "Is he gay?" I was trying to talk about POV, but well, we had to deal with whether or not the character was gay first.

Gay also means "stupid" or "a policy/practice I don't like" in their slang. Although, consider this. One time I called a boy on insulting a girl by calling her "gay" (meaning stupid, not Lesbian in this case). He said "Oh, I know what you mean. It's insulting to gays but I still use it just to mean stupid. I don't mean anything against gays. I have a cousin who is gay." Then the girl said "Really?" Guy "Yeah. Why? What about it." Girl "I've got a cousin who is gay too. She's a lesbian."

So,maybe it's better to say the kids I work with are confused and need more exposure/dialog. When I read something to them with a GLBT character and treat it like it's just a fact and it's nothing to make a fuss over, they usually get over the squirmy giggles and insults really quickly.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting. The teens I meet are majority Latino/a, from low-income neighborhoods, and - well, it's different. There was general outrage over Prop 8, for instance. I have noticed that hardly anyone seems to formally come out until they go to college, though, so there's obviously still some stigma.

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

It is weird. That's what I mean about thinking being macho and homophobic is a stereotype of Latinos, because I'm not seeing it. Macho a bit, but not to the point of being homophobic jerks, or even jerks. I'm not sure where it's coming from. The Somali boys are the loudest with the homophobia, but of course not all the Somali boys and definitely not the girls. It almost feels like the kids in general are looking over their shoulders to see how everybody else reacts.

[elfiepike.livejournal.com]

repeating what everyone else said about ash: not the best thing you'll ever read, but interesting and different. (i liked it quite a bit.)

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Ash and am looking forward to more/growth by the author.

I do wish she had made it clear how she pictured the characters; I read what she wrote in her blog and I think it's a bit naive, but oh well.