Jared
I am NOT a huge fan of young adult literature, I feel like I've made that pretty clear. I often feel like they approach interesting philosophical thoughts and quandaries before chickening out and talking down to their audience. And that is absolutely what happened in the last quarter of this book.
Fundamentally, this story's ending does not work. Thematically, Faith's entire journey doesn't work when her father was actually murdered. I think he *had* to have killed himself for any of this to really matter.
Faith spends the entire book trying to become her father and defend his legacy, undeservedly so. Erasmus was a horrendous father. He never loved Faith. He saw her as a tool. He used her for her intelligence, but also resented her for it. It makes so much more sense for him to lead her to the lie tree so he could finally kill himself in peace. It makes so much more sense for his suicide to be his final act of resentment, ruining his family's lives as a way to spite his daughter for being a girl.
But that's a fundamental flaw with the YA genre as a whole, especially in the modern era. Suicide is too "icky." Suicide that is directly the fault of a child is even more "icky." And positive reviews from parents and growth stunted adults is more important than genuine thought from the reader. Introspection is put aside so we can sell more copies and study this in schools.
2015 was near the end of Obama-era optimism and the start of Woke 1.0 in the general culture. And one of Woke 1.0's flaws that will hopefully be fixed in 2.0 is a general animosity towards the uncomfortable. It doesn't matter if something is improving your life, what matters is that you don't ever feel "uncomfy" by it. And that's sense of uncomfortability is what's holding this story back from being a truly powerful work of feminist literature.
Kids need to be made uncomfortable. Societal gender roles being so important that it leads a father to kill himself out of spite for his daughter is a very powerful way to prove that point. Ending your story with your main character taking away another woman's final act of pure agency is not. Agatha chose to kill herself, but that's too uncomfy.
I loved most of this book. The first 200 pages had me on the edge of my seat for a majority of it. I was absolutely gripped. And the story was edging the audience towards a tragic and though-provoking conclusion, only for our main character to instantly abandon all darkness within her and turn the book into a vastly childish and safe story about justice and "being yourself."
There's room for feel-good and inspirational stories for teens. General lessons about being true to yourself are not bad. I'm not saying that they are. I'm just saying that you can't have your cake and eat it to. You can't write a story about the darkness within someone and abandon all of that before she even reaches a turning point.
I'm hoping with the resurgence of woke and the general failure of YA fiction, we'll return to literature that challenges its audience. Of Mice and Men was written for teens. The Outsiders was written for teens. The Catcher in the Rye was written for teens. Children are allowed to be uncomfortable. We want children to think. As we get further into the age of aritificial intelligence and the absolute death of critical thinking among our youth, I PRAY that we start writing books that challenge these kids. Depressing, though-provoking, and truly challenging works.
Challenging novels can be fun. I had an unbelievable amount of fun with this book before Faith's 180 into nobility. Some books should leave you feeling icky. The fear of feeling "uncomfy" is what's holding us back from true progress. It's holding us back from thought and it's holding us back from true greatness in fiction.
I am NOT a huge fan of young adult literature, I feel like I've made that pretty clear. I often feel like they approach interesting philosophical thoughts and quandaries before chickening out and talking down to their audience. And that is absolutely what happened in the last quarter of this book.
Fundamentally, this story's ending does not work. Thematically, Faith's entire journey doesn't work when her father was actually murdered. I think he *had* to have killed himself for any of this to really matter.
Faith spends the entire book trying to become her father and defend his legacy, undeservedly so. Erasmus was a horrendous father. He never loved Faith. He saw her as a tool. He used her for her intelligence, but also resented her for it. It makes so much more sense for him to lead her to the lie tree so he could finally kill himself in peace. It makes so much more sense for his suicide to be his final act of resentment, ruining his family's lives as a way to spite his daughter for being a girl.
But that's a fundamental flaw with the YA genre as a whole, especially in the modern era. Suicide is too "icky." Suicide that is directly the fault of a child is even more "icky." And positive reviews from parents and growth stunted adults is more important than genuine thought from the reader. Introspection is put aside so we can sell more copies and study this in schools.
2015 was near the end of Obama-era optimism and the start of Woke 1.0 in the general culture. And one of Woke 1.0's flaws that will hopefully be fixed in 2.0 is a general animosity towards the uncomfortable. It doesn't matter if something is improving your life, what matters is that you don't ever feel "uncomfy" by it. And that's sense of uncomfortability is what's holding this story back from being a truly powerful work of feminist literature.
Kids need to be made uncomfortable. Societal gender roles being so important that it leads a father to kill himself out of spite for his daughter is a very powerful way to prove that point. Ending your story with your main character taking away another woman's final act of pure agency is not. Agatha chose to kill herself, but that's too uncomfy.
I loved most of this book. The first 200 pages had me on the edge of my seat for a majority of it. I was absolutely gripped. And the story was edging the audience towards a tragic and though-provoking conclusion, only for our main character to instantly abandon all darkness within her and turn the book into a vastly childish and safe story about justice and "being yourself."
There's room for feel-good and inspirational stories for teens. General lessons about being true to yourself are not bad. I'm not saying that they are. I'm just saying that you can't have your cake and eat it to. You can't write a story about the darkness within someone and abandon all of that before she even reaches a turning point.
I'm hoping with the resurgence of woke and the general failure of YA fiction, we'll return to literature that challenges its audience. Of Mice and Men was written for teens. The Outsiders was written for teens. The Catcher in the Rye was written for teens. Children are allowed to be uncomfortable. We want children to think. As we get further into the age of aritificial intelligence and the absolute death of critical thinking among our youth, I PRAY that we start writing books that challenge these kids. Depressing, though-provoking, and truly challenging works.
Challenging novels can be fun. I had an unbelievable amount of fun with this book before Faith's 180 into nobility. Some books should leave you feeling icky. The fear of feeling "uncomfy" is what's holding us back from true progress. It's holding us back from thought and it's holding us back from true greatness in fiction.