So I've been putting off this book for a while

[crankyoldman]

I actually wanted to read this book like, back in Freshman year of college because it had a bright green cover. No, really, that's why. Marketing people, I am your demographic. Hi!

So I finished the audiobook of The Perks of Being a Wallflower because YA novels are quick like that. I've been reading a lot of, well, older books lately and it's nice to have something in my ears between classes.

However, my reaction? What the fuck.



Alright, I can believe a sweet, kind, emotional boy. Sure, it kind of gives me the eye rolls once in a while (even the sweet boys I knew at his age weren't that sweet, and I say this with no cynicism). I figured maybe he was impaired, and once I thought that, hey, it worked out.

But this sex, drugs, and rock and roll crap for high school freshmen? Am I honestly the only person at that age who REALLY never got into that? I mean, I read advanced books too and liked my English teacher, and hey I hung out with older kids, but come on. Anytime I see that, it's like, what an adult THINKS youth is, or something. All the kids that were into drugs at my school weren't intellectually cool and challenging types, they were burnouts that had to repeat grades. One ended up living in his van as a "philosopher".

This is in no way a jab at anyone, by the way. I just think these sorts of MTV generation types are highly exaggerated and relied on far too much.

I liked Patrick, and honestly, if it weren't for him I might not have kept reading the book. He felt the most real, and I could have known someone like him. I kind of secretly wish the book had been from his perspective. No, not so secretly. If the book had been The Gay Adventures of Patrick the Wonder Teen, I probably would have bought it. Hardback. XD

This is frustrating to me, because I'm really not a cynic. I swear. I'm just old enough now that I can look back on being a teenager without being bitter about it or looking back on it like the "golden years".

And just when I'd gotten comfortable with Charlie's Tripping Through High School, the ending hit me. Which is where I said what the fuck. And don't even get me started on Sam.

Why, why, why, why do these always turn into abuse/molestation stories? Seriously. I'd like to know why. Was his family too normal? Because I really liked that. I was warming up to it the more normal his family felt, because hey, it's one thing to be messed up from a messed up family, but it's another to feel displaced when everything outside is normal, which is what I think is at the core of a lot of good teen literature. At least my favorites.

It just felt... cheap. I felt used. There's emotional investment and then there's emotional fucking with your head. If I wanted mindfuck I'd be reading To The Lighthouse!

Positive points for eliciting an emotional reaction and making Patrick so awesome, and the not high moments of profoundness, minus points for, well, what I ranted above. Also negative points for The Catcher in the Rye references. Maybe I should have known better, considering my visceral reaction to Catcher, though for opposite reasons. Bah!

I'm so disappointed. I think tomorrow I'm going to keep reading Sunshine which is being really awesome.

~Cendri

P.S. This is also really awesome.

Comments

[astralavator.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if this would fit the context but sex and drugs were in the least fairly popular coversation topics during my junior high years and give the pregnancies I'd say at least one of them was more than that. It was one of the reasons I started avoiding people I'd known prior.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

ex and drugs were in the least fairly popular coversation topics during my junior high years

Yeah, conversation. And we had a couple knocked up girls too, but I figure a lot of it was just talk.

I dunno, this book was like one thing after the other after the other and felt a little like an after-school special. Like he coincidentally hung out with all the school screwups, only they were also cool.

was one of the reasons I started avoiding people I'd known prior.

That's more of what the more intelligent kids I knew did. I think I went to one party, because the college kids at my movie theater invited me, and I remember that it sucked really bad and left early. XD

~Cendri

[firefly99.livejournal.com]

Argh. I am so with you on the abuse/molestation thing. It's the reason I hardly read any YA without at least one fantasy or sci-fi element.

[firefly99.livejournal.com]

When I'm smart enough to write stuff which isn't gay fanfiction about confused soldier clones, I'm going to have to write a YA novel about an arrogant shiftless teenage boy who thinks he's amazing, tells everyone he HAS SEX ALL THE TIME and does MORE DRUGS THAN ONE PERSON COULD PHYSICALLY HOLD and all that stuff, but is actually pretty innocent and not into that stuff anyway. Eventually he's going to work out that he just doesn't care and just happily accept his life as a totally apathetic person. No-one will get pregnant and none of his family will abuse him. No-one will run away from home. Maybe they'll be some death but nothing more traumatic than a grandparent passing away of old age; no murders or car crashes or overdoses.

[first-seventhe.livejournal.com]

I'd buy your book, because that's pretty much what my high school was like. All talk. XD

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

~Cendri

[t3h-w0lfy.livejournal.com]

This guy sounds like a couple of people I know, and I'm in high school right now.

[cumuluscastle.livejournal.com]

I know people who survived actual sex drugs and rock and roll in high school to become decent citizens; however, I am with you on the fact that it doesn't happen so often. I agree that many kids are all talk and that others talk more than they actually act, but I wouldn't discount it altogether.

I . . . really don't want to read this book now because I know I will be just as disgusted and heartbroken as you by an ending like that.

[venefica-aura.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know some of those now, too. It's just... I'm tired of it being the artsy edgy thing that sets apart the independent thinkers and the like.

And yeah. Really... just pass this one up. It's very full of after-school special material and shock tactics and yeah. THE ENDING. God.

I don't mind Issues books, but they're not SO dense.

~Cendri