This month's prompt is:
“What is something you feel is generally written well in fiction? What is something you feel is generally written poorly?”
One of my favorite things about young adult/teen fiction (hereafter shortened to simply "fiction") is that many authors are breaking out of the "storybook" mindset-the good guy is perfect, the bad guy is a horrid, irredeemable person, the love interest, no matter how unattainable, falls into the protagonist's arms, and everyone is happy at the end (except for the villain). In life, things aren't always so perfectly compartmentalized, and fiction is starting to reflect that. Of course, there were some books way ahead of the curve in this matter (The Outsiders comes to mind), but these books have become less and less anomalic (is that a word?) over time.
Of course, sometimes this is too much of a good thing. Some authors throw in as many problems for their characters as they possibly can, creating this soap opera-like overload. Plus, it's hard to juggle so many plot lines without dropping a few, leaving lots of unanswered questions. But I even prefer these books to fairy tales, unless I'm in a gloopy romantic mood, because now that I've gotten hooked on contemporary fictions, it's hard to go back to fairy tales.
And what about life with disabilities and chronic illnesses? I don't have one, but I have friends who do, and as a result, I went searching for books with characters whose lives were affected by such things. To my surprise, these were the hardest to find-for example, when I searched "juvenile arthritis," I could only find a couple of picture books and an out-of-print book from the eighties. I can't speak for those who suffer from chronic illnesses, but I know that if I had one, I would want to meet myself in a book more than anything.
Do you agree with my thoughts? Or have any book recommendations? Comment below!
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Check out this website I found while doing some researching/Googling on this topic!