Brave Souls

I hear a lot about the Young Adult market, how it's taken off, et cetera, et cetera. Everywhere I go online I come across YA writers. Somehow YA gets sort of lumped in with romance. I'm not sure why - maybe because there's some romance in the books, but more likely because they are being written by women, who are also writing romance. And agents and editors are looking for YA, blah blah. And I can't get past the concept that a whole bunch of grown ups are voluntarily writing about what high school felt like.

Are people out of their minds?

Here is what high school taught me:

1. It is really, really not okay to be different, especially if you wear glasses, dress badly, get A's, and are five pounds overweight;

2. Life is fucking awful.

I am 31 now and have changed my mind about the second one, but at nineteen that was it. You would have to pull out my fingernails before you could get me to write about high school. And if you tortured me long enough to make me write something, my book would be one line that says: "Just get through it, it gets better, sorry. Oh, and read Catcher in the Rye."

The fact that people voluntarily write about this awes me. I speculate they must be one of the following:

1. The bravest people ever;
2. Actually have good memories of high school (someone must);
3. Have deluded themselves into thinking being a teenager was fun;
4. Have finished poking themselves in the eye and are looking for something really painful to do.

I don't read much YA. Okay, I haven't read any except the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. As a teenager, I would have liked that book, but there was no "YA market" when I was a teenager, so it was just Anne Rice, Stephen King, dorky classics, whatever for school, and the Catcher in the Rye. So it's good that people are writing this stuff, unless the stories are about the gorgeous guy falling for the Ugly Duckling, which would piss me off because that will officially never, ever happen in any high school ever. And it's sort of cruel to say otherwise.

Anyway, if I ever meet a real YA author, I intend to ask her what the hell she is thinking, and I will report answers on this blog. You will hear it here first. And if you know of any good YA books, tell me about it, and I'll read 'em, and again I'll report here. Because someone has to report on these crazy people before they take over the world.

Abby