Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. They’d love to share their lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!
This week the topic is a FREEBIE for our Top Ten Tuesday so that means I get to pick whatever I want to make a list about 😀
I read A LOT of young adult books. What can I say?! I like them. The characters are fun, mostly innocent and there’s plenty of action. Also they’re usually easy reads, fast-paced and keep my attention. However, I’m going to be thirty next year 😳 and sometimes there are things in these young adult books that make me feel OLD. Not like oh yeah I’m older than you old, but like I sound like my mother OLD!!! So here’s a list of top ten things that make me feel old when reading young adult…
Top Ten Things That Make Me Question My Age In YA Books
Drama – Let’s get real for a second….young adult books that deal with any character in high school means that there will be drama. I’m not talking about the kind of drama you get in books I’m talking about the high school drama. You know the he said, she said. If anything makes me question my age, it’s this. I avoided drama like the plague in high school why would I want to read about it now?!
Love Triangles – Okay I get it, really I do. Especially in a series, you don’t want the heroine to end up with that special person right at the beginning so you throw in this ancillary character you make us love and then crush him or make him a bad guy all so the main character gets her happily ever after….yeah I don’t get it AT ALL!!!! It’s annoying and makes me roll my eyes every time. It’s painful to read and it’s even worse when my ship doesn’t sail. No triangles, got it?!
Mean Girls – This is just so cliche especially the books that deal with characters in high school. I personally don’t remember any mean girls at my high school, and I was the loner type who would rather read as talk to you. Maybe my school wasn’t big enough or maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up in NY or LA I don’t know. These characters though, the catty girls, I can’t stand.
Parties – This makes me feel really old to even admit, but here goes. I will be thirty next year and I have never gone to an all night rager party with drugs and drinking. Just never happened. Not that I wasn’t invited, but I just didn’t hang out with these people. And I don’t know anyone that did. First, who got the beer and how? Second why drugs, don’t you want to keep your braincells? and Last, just why?!
Technology – I can remember a time when I didn’t have a cell phone (((gasp))) and guess what peeps my life went on! The tech these characters have and well in real life too I guess blows my mind. One book the character had a smart phone, iPod, laptop, and a brand new Jeep Wrangler. Really?! I’ve never owned anything that nice, especially as a teen. Are these parents made of money?!
Absence of Adults – Seriously?! Where are the parents in some of these books? Maybe I had parents that were a tad over-protective but my mom knew exactly where I was, who I was with, and what I was doing whether I told her or not. Some of these books make me question the ease in which a parent can be absent. Really?! Why would I let my daughter live by herself at 16?!
School – As I already said a majority of the books I read are young adult. Lucky for me I choose to read fantasy and science fiction so I don’t have to deal with characters in school too much. However every now and then I venture into a contemporary and I cringe when the character starts talking about school. Don’t get me wrong I loved school while I was in it. I don’t ever want to go back though and I sure don’t want to relive it!
BFFs – This is one of those cliches that pop up in every young adult contemporary I’ve ever read. Don’t get me wrong BFFs are awesome and I had them too, but the relationship between characters in a book is usually only face value and the BFF of the main character is mentioned and might show up a couple of times. Yet the MC can’t live without her BFF!
Language – This can go one of two ways. First it really bothers me when a 16 year old character talks like she is 30. I’m sorry I didn’t use big, mature words at 16. I just didn’t AND I was smart people! Second why is it necessary to use “strong language” in a book written for 13-18 year olds? Really is it necessary for your character to say “F—” or “d—” or “s—“? No it isn’t.
Sexual Scenes – perhaps my biggest pet peeve in young adult fiction….sex!!! I read young adult because it should be clean. There might be innuendos or references to sex but there isn’t any actual doing of the act, at least there shouldn’t be. Call me a prude, I don’t mind I own that title well, but why for the love of God would you write a sex scene between two teens? Do you WANT to encourage teen pregnancy, STDs, and sex as a minor?
What makes you feel old reading young adult? Or maybe as a young adult makes you feel too young? Honestly from this post you probably wonder why I even bother reading young adult. Well luckily a majority of young adult books do not include these things. And I like fantasy and science fiction. Usually those characters don’t have a normal high school experience making the book much more enjoyable and the cliches disappear 😉
Many of your reasons are why I don’t really like YA contemporary! Things like high school drama, parties, and general drama don’t really pop up in my genre of choice, historical. I also agree about the absence of adults. The parents of the main characters don’t have to be either the greatest parents or in every single scene, but they at least shouldn’t be completely absent. I actually like when there are fully-developed adult characters in a YA.
I also agree about too much strong language nowadays, and unnecessarily graphic sex (which should be shown as protected). A little goes a long way. It’s a big turnoff if there are F-bombs and other vulgarities scattered about on every single page, or every few pages. Curse words have a greater impact if they’re not used very often, since then you really know it’s serious for this character to swear.
I agree Carrie! My genre of choice is YA fantasy/sci-fi so I don’t get a lot of these things but every now and then they crop up. The thing that bothers me the most is the sex scenes. It’s uncalled for, like another commenter pointed out if I wanted to read that I would read New Adult.
I don’t read YA, but I do teach high school students and all of these reminded me of work, haha.
Christine @ BookishlyB recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday- Free Style
Haha! I taught high school for all of a year and it’s not easy. I salute you!
Yes! Thank you! I want to read YA books to read nice, clean romance but there’s no line between YA and NA anymore. And I’m beginning to believe and fictional parents do not exist.
Savannah recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Weirdest Books EVER
Right?! That fine line between NA and YA has become very blurred. You’ve got to be careful what you pick up these days. And yes fictional parents just don’t exist and when they do, they kinda suck 😉
I agree of with most of your points here! I’ll be 26 this year and I read a lot of YA and sometimes I just feel so dang old… 😀
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I know right?! The whole high school drama in YA contemporary just makes me feel SO old!
I totally understand the points you’re making about YA! Love triangles and drama are two of the worst things I hate to read about!
Chrissi Reads recently posted…Top Ten Freebie: Top Ten British Writers
One of my friends pointed out the insta-love that tends to happen in YA as well and I can’t believe I left it out. Between that and love triangles I’ve been known to DNF books. Lol!
Reading your list made me realize how old I am. Haha! I agree with your YA observations. 🙂
On a remotely related note, Little Women is one of my childhood faves. When I first read it, I was younger than Amy and I looked up to the March girls as my older sisters. Each time I would read and re-read it, I was becoming older than each of them, until one day I realized, I am older than Meg. I think I am as old as Marmee now. 😛
Aggie recently posted…My Top Ten Book Peeves
Haha!!! Little Women is in my top five all-time favorite books 😀 I’m not sure it will ever get old! But I agree with you. I related to each one differently growing up. I think now I’m close to Marmee’s age too
Great list and I have to agree with so many of these! There’s a lot of eye rolling involved when I come across all these in a book 😛 And yes I just don’t get why there are sexual scenes in YA, its so inappropriate :/
Ee @ Bursting Books recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday #8: Top TV Shows Part 1
Definitely some eye rolling involved any time there is unnecessary drama, love triangles, and insta-love! I just can’t stand it. I mean does it really happen in real life?!
I turned 24 a couple of weeks ago and some of these things you listed here definitely make me feel quite old or question my own high school years. Like first of all, do parties like that really even happen? I don’t know whether I have the “wrong” friends or something, but I am not aware of such parties taking place.
I usually don’t mind the sex, but I am not really expecting it either – if I feel like reading something more explicit, I read new adult.
Milka@ReadReadRead recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday (#29): FREEBIE – CASTING CALL aka “IT’S RAINING MEN”
Exactly, it may have been more than 10 years since I was in high school but I don’t remember parties like that at all! And the sex scenes, you nailed it! I would read New Adult if I wanted to read them.
Haha, this post is awesome. The memes are hilarious. And I agree 100% on all of these! Especially, the sex scenes! Get those out of our kid’s books!
Bryn @Gleaningful recently posted…Top Ten Authors I REALLY Want to Meet
Thank you!!! There should be no sex in a tween/teen book. Again I might be prudish but it’s true 😀
I hate love triangles, insta-luv, mean kids, the ditzy best friends you weant to slap, the guy with the secret that you can guess in ten seconds, the school angst…UGH! This is why I don’t read YA paranormal. All the cliches bore me!
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I forgot to add insta-love! I cannot stand that. It causes me to roll my eyes and sigh really loudly (according to the hubby) when I’m reading it. I just don’t get the “I can’t live without him” after you’ve only known him for 2.5 seconds. lol!
LOL I really liked this #TTT as I’m an adult who love YA so I can totally relate to what you were saying.
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Angelica @ Paperback Princess recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday ~ Wild & Wacky (Book Related)
And of all that what drives me majorly insane is like you said…the damn love triangle! There is ALWAYS one!!!!
Angelica @ Paperback Princess recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday ~ Wild & Wacky (Book Related)
Right?! Like in real life the girl always has two majorly hot boys that love her and she has to choose one? Puh-leaze!!!!
Great points! Love triangles kill me! Do girls really have two boys fawning over them at once!? I can’t even get one! The absence of adults is also weird. How else were these characters created?
Lizzie the Sarcastic Blonde recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday #18
Haha!! That’s my point exactly! And the poor boys I always wind up falling for the wrong one in the triangle and feel bad for him. What’s the point in having the two guys just to crush one of them?!
I always spent so much time in books, I spoke like a book! I didn’t even know how to pronounce some words (still don’t) because I read them and never heard them. So sometimes I can believe the complex language from a bookworm or something, but sometimes authors just seem to make teens mini-adults and… it really doesn’t work. So agreed!
My post.
Nikki recently posted…Review – The Buried Life
Yeah I was the bookworm too but sometime like you said the teens are mini-adults even with their emotions! It just doesn’t work at all.
Nice topic. I love YA novels, especially contemporary ones, but sometimes they just bug. And make me — like you — feel very, very, VERY old 🙂
Happy TTT!
Susan (Bloggin’ ’bout Books) recently posted…TTT: Heading Back to School … Wait, What?
I have a hard time reading the contemporary YA novels for the reasons I listed. Luckily not all of them have all of these issues 🙂 Otherwise I’m not sure what I’d read!!
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