A List of Demands

They're in the pit and they're trying to get me

Remember when I posted a while ago about being in a book rut? In that particular post, my rut wasn't so much books that I didn't like, it was more about books with endings that didn't satisfy me.

This one is about books that I can't finish (so, you could say I don't like them). There have been far too many of these lately and I'm starting to worry that I'm having an "it's not you, it's me" situation. Maybe it's my fault I can't get into these books. Maybe my standards have just been raised too high by books like The Raven Boys and Unspoken and characters like Augustus Waters and Mara Dyer. Maybe from now on contemporary romances will forever be the only books I can finish in a day.

But I don't think that's the problem.

This here is an open letter to authors, begging them not to fall into the pits that the authors of my recent reads have fallen into and have tried to drag me in with them. Well, maybe it's more like a list of demands. Yes, that sounds right.

1. If you are cowriting a book with another author and you have two main characters, please, please, PLEASE alternate voices. Do not stick me with one [boring] narrator throughout the whole thing when you could just as easily shake it up a little and show the story from two different perspectives.
2. If you don't want to do this, at least pick the more interesting character to narrate the whole thing. You know, like maybe pick the magical and tormented girl over her whiny and mostly-normal boyfriend?
3. It's great if you want to have a heroine who's more average-looking than the average heroine (ha see what I did there). Maybe you even want her to be, gasp, FAT. Huzzah! I celebrate this. I'm all for having females with realistic physical attributes and not contributing to the notion that in order for a girl to be a heroine, she must be gorgeous or skinny or cute. But PLEASE don't make her appearance her defining characteristic, just because she's not perfect. Don't give the fat heroine a food obsession-- don't constantly tell me what she's eating, what she's thinking about eating, what her favorite foods are. I don't care about that. I care about what she's doing. Show me that she is more than the way she looks. Give me a character who celebrates her imperfections, who doesn't let them slow her down. (Kami Glass, Lady Sleuth, is a good example of such a character)
4. Additionally, don't make it necessary for such a character to change her appearance in order to have character development. I realize that the two go well together, but if a guy won't even look at her until she's dropped 20 pounds, and she herself is OKAY with that, I am done with both of them. Instantly.
5. Don't overdescribe. Just in general. Nobody likes that.

It's a pretty short list, so you'd think it would be easier to meet these demands. Apparently not. I haven't finished a book in a week, and this is not acceptable.

2012 favorites: SIXTEEN OF THEM.

This is a post I have been dying to do since the beginning of the month when all the blogs started doing this, but I decided to wait until it was a little closer to the end of the year.

Because this is my FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2012 POST. There are 16 of them, and this list only includes books that were PUBLISHED in 2012, although I cannot say I have read all of the books published this year, nor can I say that I didn't discover some new favorites this year that were published prior to 2012.

These are ranked in decreasing-number style, indicating that my #1 favorite is the last one you'll see. 

16. Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

I have been harsh on this book, but it really is one of my favorites of the year. Not necessarily for the story-- I stand firm in my opinion that it was not what it could or should have been-- but the writing. There's no denying Lauren Oliver a spot in your heart when she wants it, and oh, does she want it. If there's a writer out there who reads Lauren Oliver's words and is not overcome with writer-jealousy, they're lying to themselves.

15. Every Day by David Levithan

One of the most unique and unexpected books I've ever read. It made me think, it made me cry, and it made me glad that David Levithan doesn't shy away from writing about things that seem uncomfortable and teaching you that they really aren't.

14. The Story of Us by Deb Caletti

I love me some Deb Caletti, okay? And this book-- even more than Stay, which I'm pretty sure was intended to make you cry-- made me cry more than any of her others. This is the story that never gets told. This is the story of a couple who was comfortable and happy and perfect together, and their relationship fell apart anyway. Not because they turned against each other, but almost because they were too attached. The thing about this book is that it leaves you with the feeling that Cricket and Janssen's breakup might have actually strengthened their relationship. It leaves you with hope, but doesn't spell anything out for you.

13. Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

There are plenty of books out there that try to combine a light summer romance with a heavy personal story, but none this year have done so quite as well as Second Chance Summer. I was ugly-crying by the end of this book, and at the same time the romance aspect had me internally happy-dancing. Great characters, great story, and a real emotional doozy.

12. Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

(Hey, this book came out on my birthday!) Dystopian novels are kind of considered a dime a dozen these days, and as much as I think this is an oversimplification (there may be a formula to dystopias, yes, but they're all different! My love for the dystopian genre prevails because people are always coming up with new worlds in which we'd never want to live, and they're all pretty fascinating), this one surely stands out in the crowd. It's a strange combination of futuristic techno-society and primitive tribal society. The characters, the romance, the world-building, everything seems to be done well and thoroughly in this book. If you're becoming jaded toward dystopias, try this one before you write off the whole genre.

11. Live Through This by Mindi Scott

I don't really want to say much about this book, because the less you know going into it, the better your experience reading it. I'll just say that it's a really important and powerful book, and you should read it.

10. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

If you had any idea how many books I read this year that wished they were this book, you might be concerned. This is the kind of light contemporary romance I long for and so rarely receive. If I can put your book on the same shelf as my Stephanie Perkins books and not feel like it's contaminating the awesome of that shelf, you're doing something right. (full disclosure: this book actually isn't on the shelf with my Perkins books, but the point is that it COULD BE.) The main character isn't a whiny, boy-crazy uptight brat! The love interest has qualities that make him seem like an actual person! They have witty banter and meaningful conversation! YAAAAY.

9. Promised by Caragh M. O'Brien

I. Love. This series. Promised was the perfect ending: bittersweet, heavy on the bitter. I can't actually believe that there are enough books ahead of it to make it number 9. Gaia! Leon! Commitment with absolutely nothing wishy-washy! Science fiction done believably! Supporting characters getting the attention they deserve! READ THIS SERIES.

8. Middle Ground by Katie Kacvinsky

Why haven't I heard from more people who are into this series? I don't get it. Middle Ground is the ideal sequel: it ain't no bridge book. If you ask me, it's better than the first one. The characters are stronger, the story is more interesting, and the overall concept is darker and more disturbing. Which, you know, is exactly what I want. I'm a big fan of escaping into worlds that make me go all NO THIS IS BAD MAKE IT STOP THIS CANNOT HAPPEN, and this book TOTALLY BRINGS IT. Also: relevant. That's all I'll say.

7. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

This might be higher on my list if I were more of a Mortal Instruments fan, but we all know I'm an Infernal Devices girl through and through. The Mortal Instruments just don't *get* me like the Infernal Devices do, and that's okay because I still love these books. City of Lost Souls made my inner (okay, not-so-inner) fangirl squee and sob and analyze and just generally not want to put the book down. Mostly this was because of the references to TID, but this book really made me appreciate TMI more as well. I particularly appreciated the way the supporting characters (SIMON. SIMON. SIMON.) became more important in this book, and how the relationships you'd never thought about before were brought into light. You can tell an author really knows and loves her characters when they all have their own connections, rather than false connections that come from having someone in common.

6. Insurgent by Veronica Roth

I finished this book the day after it came out, and I would have read it through the night were I not such a big fan of sleep. It is that good. To be honest with you, I don't really care about the minor plot holes and inconsistencies that everyone seems to think diminish the quality of the book. TRIS. AND. FOUR. Just, ugh. If you're looking for a series where there's real character development and a relationship that actually mimics reality, look no further. Allow me to introduce you to Beatrice Prior and Tobias Eaton.

5. Black Heart by Holly Black

This is a series I could read over and over and over, and Black Heart is once again the perfect ending. I just really love this take on magic (if you want to call it that), and how it's given a twisted criminal side in these books. The love story helps, too. And I have to say, this one is probably my favorite in the whole series, because not a single element of the story is left out of place. Everything in this book has a point. Something may seem small and insignificant, so you forget about it, but then later on it comes back and BAM! Ruins everything. Saves the day. Whichever. All of the dots are connected and Cassel's story is wrapped up in an open-ended kind of way, which only makes sense. I mean, I personally never *really* wanted to feel like I was saying goodbye.

4. The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

FOAISDHJFKALSDMARADYERFJAHSDF'

SDOFNOAHSHAWIUJAKBDSF

This has been my comprehensive review of The Evolution of Mara Dyer by the infallible Michelle Hodkin.

3. Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

My first experience with this book was at a signing with Cassie Clare, Holly Black, and Sarah Rees Brennan, during which Sarah read a particularly hilarious (though, really, most of them are particularly hilarious) scene from Unspoken whilst acting it out by unbuttoning her cardigan. And so began my infatuation with this crazy Irish lady (if you're not obsessed with her yet, you soon will be, grasshopper). Fortunately, I had already preordered the book, and then I just had to wait FOR TWO MONTHS for it to come. And oh, I was not disappointed. Sarah said her goal was to give readers something that would make them laugh and cry, and evidently she takes her goals PRETTY SERIOUSLY because I laughed so hard I cried, and then I cried so hard that I went back and reread the parts that made me laugh because I wanted to remember the good ol' times. The times before THAT ENDING. Cruel, evil, and undeniably fabulous.

2. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

THIS. BOOK. I'm about to turn into an incomprehensible mess, because that's what happens every time I try to explain how much I love this book and its characters. The freaking characters, man. To me, every single thing about this book is perfect. It's like, "Hey, I'm going to give you a premise and see what you think: Girl has a prophecy that says she will kill her true love by kissing him. She meets a ghost and finds out that she either kills him or falls in love with him. I know what you're thinking. Obviously she's going to fall in love with him. This is a YA book after all. But oh, I'm going to twist your brain around a little before I tell you whether you're right." The great thing about this book is that no matter what happens, I will love it. I'll love it if Blue falls in love with Gansey, because okay, I'm a little bit in love with Gansey and I want him to have a deep connection with someone other than Adam. But I'll also love it if Blue kills Gansey, because I will be absolutely devastated and I'm a glutton for punishment. And because that would make these books even less trope-y than they already are (which is... well, not at all). It would spin the world's perception of YA on its axis. It would BE TOTALLY GREAT. Allow me to just finish this by listing the numerous other things that make The Raven Boys my perfect book: the friendships, the setting, the magical aspect, the reasonable main character, the weird way my brain connects Gansey and Adam to Gatsby and Nick, Gansey himself (he's a naive teenaged boy with enough confidence and suave to make it okay when he acts like a mature adult), the fact that the characters see each other's weaknesses, the mystery, GOD I NEED TO READ THIS BOOK AGAIN.

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

So it turns out, if I wanted to find my favorite book of 2012, I didn't have to look very far or for very long. This was the first 2012 book I ever read, and it set the bar so high that no other book could really jump over it. So many good things have been said about TFiOS, oh, I don't know, EVERYWHERE (pretty sure it's on every "Best Books of 2012" list in existence), I don't feel the need to explain why it's my favorite. I just had to say that it is. I can't express the gratitude I feel for having been introduced to Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters.

In the book, Hazel talks about how there are some books that you love in a way that makes you feel like the broken world will never be put back together unless and until everyone reads them, and there are some books that you love in a way that makes you feel like they belong to you and you alone, and it would be a betrayal to announce your love of them to the world. This book is both for me. I think the world would be a better place if everyone were to read it, but at the same time I don't want it to belong to everyone. And I'm pretty sure that's how everyone feels about it.

Sometimes Jessamines make their own decisions

This post is in response to this post, which brings up some very good points.

source

But the thing is, I still mostly hate Jessamine. As a character study in the vapid and boring, she's great. (I'm being serious. She is the way she is for a reason). As a real person, even, who makes mistakes and has faults and sometimes wants the wrong things, she's perfect. But as someone that I can bring myself to like? Not so much. And that's fine. I don't need to like a character for him or her to be a good character-- that's not how it works. So let me get this out of the way: I'm not going to argue that you should hate Jessamine, or that she's a villain (she's not), but I am going to argue that maybe we're supposed to love hating her.

Jessamine is everything that was wrong with how women were viewed in the 19th century. She's got this badass streak a mile wide, and yet she pushes it down and gets more miserable every time she has to use it, because she wants to be a meek little kitten. She wants to be like all the regular women she envies because they don't have to get their hands dirty. Now, you may argue that she wants this because of society's conditioning in that time; she believes women are meant to be passive creatures because that's what The Man has taught her. But if you argue that, you're wrong. Jessamine has spent a good portion of her life in the Institute, being trained to kill demons and the like. With a parasol. She's spent all of that time with Charlotte, who has the kind of power that women so rarely saw back then, and who still manages to be a woman. Being a Shadowhunter hasn't turned Charlotte into any less of a female, so it's not like Jessamine legitimately has that to fear.

Jessamine's fear is not being accepted. And she lets it hold her back. And she judges other girls (read: Tessa) constantly for not wanting the same things as her, for wanting more than the life that's been given to them. Jessamine, she wants less than the life she's been given. She wants simplicity and domesticity and to have a man around to affirm her femaleness. Is there anything wrong with Jessamine wanting different things? No, but there is something wrong with her attitude toward it. She belittles everyone who isn't her idea of the perfect human specimen. She betrays the people who have cared for her since her parents died, the people who affectionately call her Jessie (which, you'll notice, I refuse to do), because she has it in her head that doing so will get her what she wants.

Yes, she was tricked. But at the same time, she knew what she was doing. If we pretend that she had no part in her own demise, that she was an Innocent Pawn in a Game of Evil, we're treating her exactly the way she wanted to be treated. As a passive 1878 girl who simply didn't know any better. But that's the thing-- that has never been who Jessamine is, because if it were, she wouldn't spend so much time fighting against her own life. She may not have known that Nate was never interested in her, but she did know that he was planning on handing Tessa over to Mortmain. Tessa had never done anything to warrant that, but Jessamine chose Nate anyway because she saw something in it for herself. She's selfish, and that's a quality that just does not fly with me.

And then, when Jem and Tessa go to visit her in the Silent City, she teases them. She mocks Tessa for having feelings for both Jem and Will, and she teases Jem-- Jem! Tell me, what kind of person teases Jem?!?*-- for not being able to keep his hands off Tessa on the way there. As if she has any right to talk, Miss I-Betrayed-You-All-For-A-Nefarious-Psychopath.

So yes, I do think Jessamine is a victim, rather than a villain. But I'm not just talking about what Nate did to her. She's her own victim because she brought this on herself, too.

To sum up, there are reasons to like Jessamine:

1. She usually says what she's thinking-- especially if it's snarky. (her "perfectly reasonable fear of annoying idiots" quote is one of my favorites)

2. She's a fascinating character.

3. She's not a villain.

But my reasons for hating her are:

1. She wants to be the victim...

2. ...but that's not all she is.

3. She's selfish.

4. The things that come out of her mouth fill my feminist self with such disgust that I almost want her off the page completely.

5. I almost respect her too much to label her as "poor naive Jessamine."

*Other than Will, who is allowed.

Review: Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

This was a book for which I harbored a decent amount of anticipation, due to the fact that it was recommended to me based on my love for Stephanie Perkins (!!!), Sarah Ockler and Jennifer E. Smith. The good news: the comparisons make sense. The bad news: it doesn't quite live up to any of the above.

Characters:

• Julia Lichtenstein, aka "Book Licker," strikes me as one of those characters who a lot of amateur reviewers (myself included) may be tempted to write off as "annoying." But I hate that, as it's not a useful description of any character, so I'm not going to do that. My problems with Julia are a lot more complicated than that, anyway. You see, Julia's a lot like me in the sense that we'd both rather stay in and read a book than go to a party with a bunch of strangers. We don't think we're not fun, but we know that other people might see us that way no matter how much we want to convince them otherwise. But Julia is so uptight all the time, I almost couldn't handle her. The perfectly-aligned bathroom supplies. The memorizing of her phone number via Shakespeare's birthday (highly coincidental, too, considering Shakespeare is her favorite author-- that was a real reach)-- oh, and that one number left over that she just couldn't possibly remember was 4 unless she reminded herself that it was her GPA (also a reach-- you're basically just driving home the point that she's a goody two-shoes, which I already got, thankyouverymuch*). The girl is so rule-oriented that you almost fear she might have Asperger's or something-- until you realize that she's also got a boy-crazy streak a mile wide. All the time she doesn't spend perfectly arranging her messenger bag and taking copious notes, she spends thinking about her MTB, which is text-speak for "meant to be." Because evidently grammatical rules don't apply to text messages for this compulsive know-it-all. She constantly texts her best friend in annoying shorthand that no intelligent people have actually used since 2007. She daydreams about a guy back home who seems not to know she exists, texts with a mysterious guy she doesn't remember, and gallivants around London with a boy who might actually be perfect for her-- but she's too busy judging him and all of his friends to see it! She's in one of those situations where she hates the popular girls because they judge her, so she thinks it's okay for her to judge them (hello? How do you not see that you are doing the same thing to them that they do to you?). Only the problem is that their judgments of her are mostly accurate, while hers of them are not. We have talked about girl-hate, right? Because that's what's going on here. She's assuming that these girls are all shallow, vapid label-mongers with nothing inside their pretty little heads, just because she's never seen them read Austen or Shakespeare. Just because they can find something entertaining about a guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. I understand that this frame of mind is what set her up for the character development she would inevitably experience upon realizing that she was wrong about them, but SHEESH. That pedestal she put herself on sure did make it easy for her to look down on everyone else, and it got old.
• Luckily, Julia's character was my main problem with this book. Jason Lippincott was kind of a shining star here. If not a wholly original character (Logan Echolls, is that you?!), he certainly contributed to the overarching message that people are, in essence, complicated. He brought just the right amount of realism to Julia's romantic ideals, and just the right amount of ridiculousness to her seriousness. I mean, she's walking in the park with her supposed MTB (who is not Jason Lippincott) and he's so jealous he starts doing random cartwheels and running into things, causing her to run into people and general havoc to be wreaked. While Julia's combination of structured and idealistic made next to no sense to me, Jason's combination of carefree and cynical actually worked. Also I loved that he did not instantly fall in love with Julia (because honestly, who would?). He tries to help her. He fights with her. He forgives her. He calls her a pain in the ass. He realizes that there may be other girls who make him feel the way she does, and that's okay, but he chooses her. And he makes her realize that that's what it's about-- not soulmates, not destiny, just choice.

Plot:

• Reminding myself that "all stories have been told before," I'm going to ignore the nagging feeling I had that this book was trying too hard to be Anna and the French Kiss (or even a critique of Anna, with its "blegh, Paris" attitude). The plot was decent. It was not earth-shattering, but it kept me reading. Parts of it almost read like a mystery, but maybe that was just my brain trying to figure out how Jason was finding out all the things he knew about Julia. I hope it was intentional, because that was the part that gripped me the most. I wanted to know what he was up to. You've got one text from Julia to Phoebe saying "What's your favorite line from Shakespeare?" and then almost immediately you've got Jason misquoting that very line. [How Julia didn't remember it, I don't know, because later on she states-- without having seen the response from Phoebe-- that they have the same favorite line.] Suspicious, no?
• There were some plot holes with regard to the twist at the end and how it related to things that happened earlier, but at this point in the review I doubt anyone would be like OMGZ NOOOO  PLOT HOLES THE TRAGEDY I SHAN'T READ THIS BOOK! If you've read to this point and still think you might want to read it, go for it. The plot holes are not *that* major.
• The pacing was pretty good, too. Definitely no insta-love between the two main characters (between the main character and other characters, though...). It pretty perfectly alternates between lighthearted moments and serious ones, and I love that the characters don't dwell on either too much.

Misc.:

• There were some laugh-out-loud moments for me, though I haven't committed them to memory.
• That scene in the rain, on the grass, in the mud... Yeah. That... that was good. [Though, once again, eerily similar to the Anna scene in the park.]

 *an entirely overused phrase/word in the book

Overall Rating: ★★★

Somewhere between "love" and "hate."

A Compendium of Theories

This is going to be my master post of Infernal Devices theories I see floating around. I will put ALL THE THEORIES here, even if they are completely horrible or implausible or make me want to bang my head against things. If you don't see my commentary in small letters after the theory, you can assume that I have no logical reason to object to it.

Also, I will organize them by character.

* indicates a theory I formulated myself (EDIT: crossed out= a theory that was wrong)

TESSA

• She is part-Shadowhunter (in other words, she has some angel blood)*
• Follow-up: her mother was a Shadowhunter, who was switched at birth with a mundane/faerie-- Adele Starkweather. This is why Adele's skin burned when she got her first rune; she's not a Shadowhunter. (I love this theory and think it's probably correct. Also it makes Tessa a Starkweather WHAAAAT)
• Her "second ability" has something to do with visions of the future or visions of present things that she can't see in person*
• it is also somehow related to her clockwork angel*
• OR her second ability is the power to summon angels (which seems probable based on the Clockwork Princess jacket copy)

WILL

• He is Brother Zachariah (possible, but I don't think so, because the clues so obviously point to him. The clues are intentionally misleading; Cassie said so herself.)
• He becomes a Silent Brother as payment to them for curing Jem (unlikely-- if the Silent Brothers knew of a way to cure Jem, they would have done it already, and I'm fairly certain they don't require payment. Also, Jem would never let him do it.)
• He will end up with Tessa but will die of old age or whatever before her because she is immortal
• He will die/sacrifice himself in Clockwork Princess (Nope. Nope nope nope. Just... nope.)
• He will not end up with Tessa and instead will marry someone else in an arranged marriage (right, guys. Because Will is so keen on having other people make such decisions for him. Also, who would make this decision? His parents haven't been a part of his life since he was 12. Charlotte would probably be both morally opposed given her own arranged marriage, and would see no use in even trying to compel Will to do something like this. He sure as heck wouldn't listen to the Clave, and even they probably realize it would be hopeless [I mean, remember the deleted scene where they yelled at him because of his clothes and he showed up naked the next time?] Plus, he says it himself in CP2: it's Tessa for him, or no one. I just... this is one of those theories that makes me wonder if people who come up with theories actually read the books.)

JEM

• He is Brother Zachariah (possible, but again, I don't think so. The clues also point to him, but it's not just that. I don't think Jem would become a Silent Brother just so he wouldn't have to die. He's been living with his imminent death for long enough now that he's made peace with it. Of course, he's not okay with it, but he believes in reincarnation. He doesn't see death as death. He doesn't think he needs immortality to stay in this world forever.)
• He is the Magister (again... there is not really any textual evidence to support this, other than the fact that both the Magister and Jem want to marry Tessa. Because apparently only one man can want to marry her, and it can't be for any reason like he actually loves her or anything.)
• Jem dies in Clockwork Princess (the way one would expect Jem to die, i.e. not of old age)
• He ends up with Cecily (possible, but I don't really think Jem's going to look at any other females while engaged to Tessa. He's not that kind of dude. Though I'm sure Will would be totally for it.)

CECILY

• She is a spy for Mortmain (seems totally possible, except NO because WILL.)
• She is Brother Zachariah. (INTERESTING but as far as I know Silent Brothers are dudes?)
• She marries Gabriel and this is why the Lightwoods end up with Herondale appearances (no textual evidence yet but I don't see why this can't be true, other than the fact that there are several generations between TID and TMI, during which looks can change a lot.)

Why why why why why why

So, I'm kind of unofficially doing NaNoWriMo, except I have no ideas for new stories of my own so I'm mostly just doing things to other people's characters a la fanfiction. I've always kind of thought of it as cheating, and I've never liked the tendency of fanfiction to lean toward the sappy, so I've never written it before. But just for catharsis, I did write a scene with my perfect solution to a problem that has yet to be solved in the actual books, which I probably won't be sharing. And then I wrote this scene to make up for it.

This is my idea of what Will might have been dreaming about the night Aloysius Starkweather showed them his Room O' Warlock Parts and Tessa had the dream about Henry cutting her up. So Will's having this dream right before he wakes up to Tessa's screaming and goes to comfort her and tell her he'd never let anything happen to her.

I am cruel.

            As far as Will could see, there was grass. He was alone, on a hill—he did not know where—and the sky was blue. A perfect day.

            Why was he alone? On a perfect day, he would not be alone.

            Suddenly, Tessa was in front of him. He did not want to question her appearance, wanted to believe it was true, so he simply went to her. She did not say anything, but looked at him as if she could see inside him and liked what she saw. No, she loved what she saw. And it was no danger to her. The smile on her face melted him, turned him into someone he could never outwardly be. He could be that person on this hill. With this girl who loved books and hated chocolate, who was strong and smart and looked at him as if she had been waiting for him her whole life.

            “Tess,” he said.

            “Shh,” Tessa said, and put a finger to his lips, smiling. She held it there and looked over his shoulder, past him. Her smile faded.

            She screamed.

            Will whirled around and saw a dozen automatons marching over the hill, neither slowly nor quickly. It was as if they were taking a casual stroll toward his and Tessa’s impending doom. As if it were inevitable. But there was something else off about these automatons, too. They were completely silent. They came with no warning and they did not stop.

            Will turned around, grabbed Tessa’s hand and pulled her away from the automatons. It was her they wanted, wasn’t it? She was the one they always wanted. They ran down the hill, through the valley, and up the next hill. This hill was no better.

            They reached the top, her hand still in his, and faced it together. Tessa screamed again. There, in front of them, was Jem. He was lying on the ground, wheezing and coughing and barely moving.

        Will stood stock-still and Tessa ran to collapse beside Jem, her head resting on his chest. “James,” she said, “I love you.”

            As soon as the words left her mouth, Jem’s labored breathing stopped. He smiled. He was perfectly fine. Happy as Will was to see his parabatai well, his heart was inexplicably sunken. He felt as if he was witnessing something private, something he was not meant to see. Tessa seemed to have forgotten him there, standing behind her, and Jem did not notice him at all. They were staring at each other in the same way Tessa had been staring at Will what seemed like moments ago.

            This was something he did not expect. It came with no warning, and he could not make it stop. If they were happy, he was happy. Right?

            Will turned around and walked back down the hill, toward the oncoming automatons.

Why I love YA

So, I've used this blog to write about YA for... a while now. Do you ever wonder why?

I'm going to tell you why. Now, to be honest, I'm doing this to enter Beth Revis' awesome giveaway of YA books, but I actually have been thinking about doing this for a while.

YA gets a lot of crap, especially from the hoity-toity type who like to sip tea and read Real Literature and contemplate Things. Yes, Things.

But you know what? Those people don't know what they're missing. Young adult books are just as meaningful as adult books. Don't agree with me? Allow me to direct you to the Harry Potter fandom. Or The Hunger Games fandom. Or pretty much any fandom. I'm not here to tell you why or how they're just as meaningful. That's what fandoms-- groups of people whose lives have been changed in some way by these young adult books-- are for.

I'm here to tell you why I personally love YA. I love YA because I hate tea, and I will never be that person who judges anyone based on what they read, or tells adults that they look ridiculous reading kids' books. I am 21 years old, and I am about to start reading the Percy Jackson books because my 19-year-old Tumblr friend told me I had to. What I love about YA is that that's okay, because the themes in YA are just as adult as those in Real Literature, only it trusts young people to understand them. This genre doesn't pander or talk down to anyone. I mean, I know some adults who refused to see The Hunger Games movie not because it was for kids, but because they couldn't handle the subject matter. The age range for that series? 13+. YA doesn't say, "Oh, you're 13? A baby! Here's your pacifier of ignorance and your blankie of simplicity." YA says, "Oh, you're 13? You're like totez old enough to grasp this and use it. You're young enough to be changed by the things you read. Let's put those two together!"

I love YA because it includes so many subgenres and I can read any of them. Paranormal, dystopian, contemporary, historical fiction, you name it. I will read any of those YA books. A lot of those Adult Literature Lovers are stuck in one genre (for a lot of them, it's murder mystery. What, exactly, is it about murder mysteries that makes it the end-all-be-all for adults' reading habits?), but for those of us who read YA, we know that any book has the potential to be your new favorite book. We know that you can simultaneously love Anna and the French Kiss and The Book Thief,  or The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Mortal Instruments.

Now, why do I prefer YA over Adult, specifically? Basically, in the words of John Green, "I don't give a shit about adults." I've read adult books, and really liked exactly one of them. It's a personal preference; I'm not saying there's anything inherently bad about adult books. But YA books just get me. They crawl into my heart and mind and take up residence. They're full of actual characters and plots and they keep me reading until I should have gone to bed hours ago. I can guarantee you that, back when I bought those first five books that began my obsession with reading over the past two years, if I had started with an adult book, I would not be the same person I am today. I would not have this blog. I would not be a reader. I would not be a writer.

I love YA because it has changed my life, and I know that sounds so cliche and dramatic, but it's true. YA has opened my mind and turned me into a fangirl and a thinker and a creator, and I am grateful.