Tuesday Ten: Rebellious Characters

This week's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is literature's rebels, defined as "those people who stood up for what they believed in despite the cost of doing so." I really love this topic yet had a surprisingly difficult time with it and wasn't sure how well many of the people I chose actually fit the bill, because a few of my rebels are a bit different than you might expect.

In no particular order...

1. Stargirl

Jerry Spinelli

Stargirl was just so different and the first time I read this book, back in fifth grade or whatever, I didn't quite get it. She just annoyed me. It wasn't until years later when I reread the book that I saw the genius of Stargirl -- this is definitely an out-of-the-ordinary character who in the end refuses to be anything different than who she is. Total rebel girl.

2. Julia James

Ally Carter

This cute, clean romance novel is my favorite Ally Carter book. Julia's rebel streak comes in when the single woman self-help guru, famous for writing books helping erase the stigma of living the solo life falls in love... and then has to decide how to handle her personal life and the career that she still loves. She's such a great character (and a rebel!) not only because of how she handles the possibility of having a boyfriend in her life, but also how whole-heartedly she believes in all of her self-help stuff. I'm sad this book is out of print (and that more people haven't read it!)

3. Guy Montag

Ray Bradbury

The reasons for this one are obvious and if you're someone who, for some crazy reason, hasn't read this book -- I suggest you get on that STAT. That means right away.

4. Peeta Mellark

Suzanne Collins

I love pretty much everything about Peeta and his character is refreshingly consistent, but the reason I think of him as a rebel is because of how startlingly honest he is throughout the Games. Not just honest to Katniss and Haymitch, but to everybody, including television interviewers and the bloodthirsty public. It's kind of insane, honestly.

5. Rhett Butler

Margaret Mitchell

Again, do I really need to explain this one?

6. Atticus Finch

Harper Lee

Atticus is maybe my favorite rebel -- or at least my favorite good-guy-in-the-face-of-badness -- character in all of literature. Not only does he defend a man that nobody else will, knowing full well that winning the case would be a miracle, but he does it while teaching his children the difference between right and wrong, and that the right thing is often difficult.

7. Aunt Peg

Maureen Johnson

Alright, I know Aunt Peg is never actually alive in these books, but I couldn't let a little detail like that stop me from including her in the list. Aunt Peg is artistic in the craziest, most stereotypical crazy-wandering-woman sense of the word. She rebels against everything that's expected from her and even in death she makes her inheritance into a zany game for Ginny.

8. Melanie Hamilton-Wilkes

Margaret Mitchell

I know sweet little Melanie isn't what people think of when they hear "rebel," but she does defy expectations quite a few times. (The main one I can think of is when she suggests putting flowers on the graves of fallen Union soldiers.) Continuing to be friends with Scarlett is a defiance throughout a good part of the book but Melanie, though sweet, never backs down.

9. Julianna Baker

Wendelin Van Draanen

I love Juli. She's awesome. Her rebelliousness comes in the form of, mostly, refusing to allow a sycamore tree that she loves to be chopped down, and her commitment to this is amazing, even if it makes her an outcast among her peers.

10. Frankie Landau-Banks

E. Lockhart

I won't bother explaining this one because if you've read the book it's obvious. And if you're a YA fan who hasn't read this book then all I can say is WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Thoughts on Small Town YA

Lately I've been noticing a lot of YA novels set in small towns. Since I'm a sucker for settings and an even bigger sucker for small town settings, this should be awesome. I should love it. And kind of I do love it, but also kind of I don't. It's complicated. I tend to agree with what Donald Maass says about setting in Writing the Breakout Novel, which is this...

In my experience there is no advantage in either being pro-setting or anti-setting: however, one is at a distinct disadvantage by feeling indifferent to the time and place in which one's story is set. Relegate setting to the backseat or make it the chassis on which everything else rides, but do not ignore it. [bolding mine]

 That says it better than I can and it illustrates my problem with many of the small-town novels I've been reading: I get the feeling that the settings are being ignored. That they're there, but they don't actually matter. It sometimes seems as if the small town setting is just a device, a reason for the character to go after that scholarship (to get out of the town) or a reason to dislike the (familiar, annoyingly nosy, possibly uneducated) people around. It often feels more like an excuse than a setting, which always ends up ruining a part of the book for me. Because the thing is that a book doesn't need to devote time to talking about setting. It can slide setting to the backseat and let the characters and their story take over completely. But when a setting is involved? Especially one that is specific and often demanding? I want it to live up. I want it to be handled well. I want to get a feeling from it. Because the setting isn't just the size of a school or whether roads are paved or dirt or if there's a mall, but also -- and overwhelmingly -- a feeling of culture, of community. A sense of place. An atmosphere.

Some books set in small towns pull it off spectacularly. The setting serves as a centerpiece, almost a character in its own right. It feels authentic, like a real place, even if it isn't. More importantly, you can really tell that the setting has affected the characters. That they fit --  or don't fit -- in this place. And unless a setting has its own atmosphere and feeling to it, who really cares if a character fits there? How can you even tell?

When a setting is part of the story it should be part of the story. A part of the plot or characters, not an excuse for the plot or characters. I don't think this would bother me except for the fact that so many books I've read recently have had the same type of setting, for the same type of reason, and it doesn't feel real. In an otherwise awesome book a shabby setting can make me shake my head and wish the book was just a little bit more.

Fellow readers (and authors!) -- what do you think of all the small town settings in YA? Like? Or not? Do you feel, as I do, that some of the stories would work better if the setting had been relegated to the backseat altogether?


Also! Here are some YA books (both older and newer) with phenomenal small town settings. Seriously, bravo.

In My Mailbox: BOOKS!

BOOKS.

For Review: This book actually came to me from the author, who sent me an email pitch. The premise of the story is right up my alley and it sounds super-cute. Hopefully I'll love it.

Bought: I kind of definitely feel bad about the fact that it took me this long to snag Gayle Forman's debut, especially since I've been meaning to ever since If I Stay came out. I'm (predictably) nervous about reading this one because of how much I love her other two books. But I'm also excited and anxious to see what I think of it. 

On the Books I Don't Want

This past week I got a surprise book in the mail for review. It fell perfectly within my review guidelines, yet I immediately knew (based on what I'd heard about the book as well as its back-cover pitch), that I wasn't going to be reading it. There was just too much that was going to bother me. I packaged up the book to send on to another book blogger who's been wanting to read it, but while all of this was happening I had a thought, one that's been slowly brewing for a while.

Lately I've read quite a few books that I either didn't finish or finished but wasn't that jazzed up about. I don't get a ton of review books sent to me out of the blue, but I get enough to realize that the books I get out of the blue aren't always ones I'd otherwise read. A lot of times this is great because there's a good chance I wouldn't have read the incredible books The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June or The Unwritten Rule. It's just that sometimes it takes a lot to get through a review book; not because the books are badly-written, but just because the particular stories/characters/writing doesn't appeal that much to me personally. There have been quite a few books that everyone absolutely adored while I didn't quite "get it." There have been others I haven't finished or have finished out of a sense of obligation more than anything else.

This isn't right with me. I love reading and I want to keep it fun. The second my blog becomes obligatory work is the second a huge part of my love and joy for reading dies, and I don't want that to ever happen.

I love getting books for review; it's awesome. But I do have to set a few ground rules for myself--

• I'm no longer going to finish a book out of that sense of obligation, that feeling that I "have" to write a review for it. If the only reason I'm reading a book is to write about it, I'm wasting my time.
• If there's a book that I know I'm not going to be reading (or sometimes if I don't finish a certain book), I'll do my best to get it to someone who does want to read it -- blogger, author, librarian... someone who might also write a review or talk about it if they like it.

So, if you're a fellow blogger -- what do you do about "review" books you find it hard to get through?

Review: The Detention Club

THE DETENTION CLUB
David Yoo
Balzner + Bray

For Peter and his best friend, making the switch from elementary to middle school means going from popular to being seen as losers. When it becomes obvious that everyone else in the sixth grade has moved on from collecting mica and started going to parties on the weekends, Peter relies on his "out of the box" thinking to come up with scheme after scheme to become popular. Finally he lands on a "detention club," which involves framing influential students so that they can be in detention with him and become friends with him. The problem with this plot is that it takes such a long time to really come together*. Though the title of the book comes directly from Peter's detention plot, a good deal of the book follows Peter as he explores other ways to become popular as well as works on an idea for an invention for a competition. I'm definitely the type of reader who prefers plots to be focused, without a lot of wandering or subplots that often overpower the main plot, and in this regard The Detention Club disappointed me. The various subplots -- involving not only Peter's inventions but also a school thief, his overachieving sister, and his best friend -- often seemed to be fighting for my attention and a few of them seemed very underdeveloped until coming together in the book's conclusion.

Peter himself was a character I wasn't quite sure how to feel about. He was annoyingly arrogant and self-absorbed, but in a way that's completely realistic to the type of kid he was. Having easily sailed through his elementary years, Peter regards himself as much smarter than his fellow students and enters middle school thinking he doesn't need to study or try because things come so naturally to him. He finds out, of course, that middle school is not as easy as elementary school was, but it took quite a while to get there and in the meantime his superiority complex grated on me. While normally I'd dislike this type of character, Peter's age (he's in the sixth grade) gave it a different twist because I recognized bits of my former fellow classmates -- and maybe even myself -- in him and his predicament. It didn't make me enjoy his character exactly, but it did make for a better understanding of him. However, the extent that Peter's arrogance overshadowed his relationship with his best friend felt excessive, especially when it became clear that the best friend considered himself stupid next to Peter. In this area there was definitely relationship growth, but compounded with the other part of the novel that didn't work quite right together, it made for an iffy read. The book is definitely funny; many of Peter's conversations with his best friend seem to be an exchange of witty and weird thoughts. It made me laugh, but it also felt incredibly forced and took me out of the story.

All of that said, though I didn't love The Detention Club, it did have its moments. It's a funny book with offbeat characters, and while I admit I'm a sucker for family dynamics, the role Peter's sister played in the story was very interesting; I only wish it had been a larger part of the book.

*Like a few other middle grade novels I've read recently, this one took a while to really get going, so I'm wondering if this is less a flaw and more just a function of the genre. Maybe MG is a slower read than YA and because YA is what I primarily read I'm more sensitive to stories that take quite a while to get going. Thoughts?

Faves of 2011 (so far): The Characters

1. Best Female POV: Cisco and the Bean (otherwise known as Isabelle and Annie), from Flirt Club. I count these two as a package deal as they're just so great together. I love their friendship and their unique outlook and take on everything that happens to them and the people they know. This book is written as notes between the two girls and their voices are just so, so, so great. LOVE!

2. Best Male POV: Adam, from Where She Went. The brilliant thing about this POV is that because it's a sequel we already know what happened three years earlier but getting the story and its aftermath from Adam is so incredibly, insanely powerful. I can't say enough good things about this book, how it's told, or Adam himself. 

3. Best Couple: Anna and Etienne St. Claire, obviously. I mean really. <3

4. Who I So Want to Be Best Friends With: This is a difficult category as I have a whole list of characters here (including the inspiring Kurt Brodsky and sad-faced Ari), but in the end I have to go with the package deal once again -- Cisco and the Bean (Flirt Club) are my kind of people and exactly the girls I would have loved to meet and be besties with back in junior high. 

5. Who I Fell Completely in Love With: This category is actually for literary crushes, but my answer here seems a bit off-base. Leverage isn't one anyone would consider a swoon-worthy type of book... and yet... KURT BRODSKY. I absolutely love him. He is the best of humanity -- strong, humble, honest, kick-ass, and just a little off-beat.

6. Worst (Best) Villain: The captains from Leverage. UGH. I hate choosing them for anything, even this. THEY ARE HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE. AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL. They are scum. They are everything horrible and bad. I hate them so much there aren't even words. 

7. Best Character Twist: Hamilton Best, from Popular. Just. Omg. Just read this one, you guys, and you'll see what I mean. I loved her and hated her and then OMGWTH. Twisty all over the place.

8. Best Kick-Ass Female: Mel, from Rain. You kind of have to actually read the book to get Mel, but she's definitely one of the fiercest, most loyal, most bad-ass characters out there. Smart, bitingly witty, and absolutely determined. Love her. (Plus, you know, she's a spy.)

9. Best Kick-Ass Male: Obviously Kurt Brodsky, from Leverage. I mean, come on. No contest. Kurt's whole life is basically about weight training so that he can kick people's asses if the need arises. 

10. Broke My Heart the Most: Once again I have to go with Adam, from Where She Went. Adam's pain is so real, so palpable, so obvious and aching. Just brilliantly written.

11. Best/Worst Character Names: 

BEST: Rhine Ellery, from Wither. Just... so... pretty. Loooove it. 

WORST: Ginny Blackstone, from The Last Little Blue Envelope. I don't know why, but her name has always rubbed me the wrong way. Gin or Ginny is fine on its own, but with Blackstone it just... isn't.

12. *Character That Reminds Me of Me: (*Note that I added this EXTRA category for my own list.) Ari, from Other Words for Love. She's just so out-of-step and different and awkward and something in all of that really reminds me of myself and my own eternal weird/awkwardness. I love her, of course.

((BONUS)) Five Favorite Covers: These are in no sort of order. I tried to arrange them at first but Blogger kept giving me guff so I had to just let it be.

Part 3 of this "faves of 2011" will be coming soon.

Literary v. YA... WAIT, WHAT?

I rarely ever highlight books of genres other than YA and MG here; it's not the focus of the blog and while I feel somewhat qualified to talk about YA, having read so much of it, with other genres I feel less steady on my feet. That said, the topic of literary novels has been coming up again and again, often in articles comparing YA (negatively) to literary fiction. And then in the comments of those articles that compare literary fiction (again, negatively) to YA.

I DO NOT LIKE THIS.

My dislike is based not only on the fact that (obviously) I love YA lit, but also because I also kind of love literary books. I mean, I'm allowed to like both, right? The problem with many of these articles I've read is that it sets up an us vs. them mentality, as if YA lit and literary fiction are on opposite ends of the spectrum, battling it out. As if YA is a threat to literary novels, is somehow diminishing them, as if there's no overlap between the people who enjoy YA and those who enjoy literary fiction.

But it's just not true. It's true I've read more YA than any other genre, but it's also true that some of my most cherished books fall under the category of "literary." I can't help it. I have a thing for pretty words and complex characters and beautiful beautiful breathtaking settings. Just like not all YA is vampires/dark/badly written, not all literary novels are dry/pretentious/boring. I don't like feeling as if the two facets of publishing are enemies because I don't like choosing sides, because both of these genres have greatness in them.


The History of Love? Brilliant. Beautiful.
Sea? Again, brilliant. Beautiful.

I have as hard a time believing that literary writers are all pretentious artistes as I do thinking that YA authors don't care about the quality of their stories and words. After reading certain articles this past week I almost feel like shouting can't we all just get along?? Because, really.

What are your favorite literary novels (if you read them)? What can you recommend for someone who loves The Lovely Bones, Downtown Owl, and The History of Love?