The Rant in Our Stars

[John V]

@ OP: Uhhhh....why do you go see these kinds of movies?

[The Grand Nudger]

The OP mans the wall while we sleep.

[Roxy904]

I'll be honest. I read the book, and I saw the movie with friends. I didn't really care about it. It's obviously an attempt to manipulate most teenage girls' hurricane hormones. (There is a study in which brain scans of teenagers and schizophrenics are found to be similar.)
Anyway, most of my friends enjoyed it. And as long as some people enjoy it, I'm fine with it. Plus, my #hashbrown (get it? Haha.) BFF and I came up with the parody 'The Fart in Our Stars'. I know, we are too mature for your childish minds to comprehend. The main characters are Agastus Farters and Hazy Farts. They go up in space, but they eat too many beans. Don't want to spoil the story for you, but here are some modified quotes:
"The farts humans leave are too often sharts."
"Beans? Beans."
"Some farts are bigger than others."

[thesummerqueen]

I'll be honest too. I never had a desire to read it.

I do, however, enjoy Once Upon a Time, because characters frequently recycle clothing (instead of always wearing some new goddamn thing - this bothers me about TV shows, because most people don't have an unlimited wardrobe), and despite everything being imminently hopeful and Disney-ish, the characters at least have actual arcs and changes about them.

So there, Stealth.

No, I don't consider it to be high art of any sort, but I also don't watch many, or any, of the "brilliant" TV shows like Breaking Bad or whatever other grimdark show someone wants to try and convince me I should binge on. I have enough problems with depression.

[Faith No More]

Has the YA genre ever been anything but garbage? I don't remember ever reading something in the YA that I liked, but admittedly, I didn't read too much of them, either. When I was a teenager, I just read the old adult books.

[thesummerqueen]

I've read several good books that are listed as YA. I think the problem is that any time some two-bit author tries to write anything and manages to get published, book sellers and libraries will put them under "YA" when they're not up to snuff.

[Faith No More]

Well, that's how I've always seen it, as a genre for lesser-skilled authors to find publishing, but it's been so long since I've actually read a YA book that I can't remember the origin of my opinion. I just remember feeling that way.

[thesummerqueen]

Well, that's how I've always seen it, as a genre for lesser-skilled authors to find publishing, but it's been so long since I've actually read a YA book that I can't remember the origin of my opinion. I just remember feeling that way.

It's only legitimate because of how publishers and book sellers funnel those authors through. There are certainly plenty of terrible 'adult' (including XXX) novels.

[Faith No More]

Oh, sure, but what I'm wondering is are there any quality authors that have intended to write good literary works that are geared towards the young adult crowd or is the genre simply full of mediocre authors.

[thesummerqueen]

Oh, sure, but what I'm wondering is are there any quality authors that have intended to write good literary works that are geared towards the young adult crowd or is the genre simply full of mediocre authors.

JK Rowling
EB White ("Charlotte's Web")
Laura Ingles Wilder ("Little House" series)
Philip Pullman ("His Dark Materials" Trilogy)
SE Hinton ("The Outsiders")
Jeanne DuPrau ("Book of Ember" Trilogy)
Kevin J Anderson (An entire series of Young Jedi Knights)
Sherman Alexie ("The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian")
Louisa May Alcott ("Little Women")
Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
Charlotte Bronte
Emily Bronte
Anne Frank
Katherine Paterson ("Bridge to Teribithia")
Richard Adams ("Watership Down")
Brian Jacques ("Redwall" and its sequels)
Motherfuckin' Tolkien (The Hobbit was a children's book, and the Lord of the Rings started out that way)
CS Lewis (Narnia)
John Christopher ("When the Tripods Came")
Harper Lee ("To Kill a Mockingbird")
Ellen Raskin ("The Westing Game")
LM Montgomery ("Anne of Green Gables" series, "The Emily" Trilogy etc)
Lois Lowry ("The Giver")
Madeleine L'Engle ("A Wrinkle in Time," etc)
Lemony Snicket ("A Series of Unfortunate Events")
Lewis Carroll ("Alice in Wonderland")
Robin McKinley ("The Hero and the Crown" as well as several amazing fairytale retellings, including two very different but equally brilliant rewrites of Beauty & the Beast)
Roald Dahl (Do you really need me to list those?)
L Frank Baum ("The Wizard of Oz" series)
Frances Hodgson Burnett ("The Little Princess" and "The Secret Garden")
Norton Juster ("The Phantom Tollbooth")


We can keep going.