Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Top Things on My Reading Wishlist

1. Intelligence Ships: First off I love smart characters and I really appreciate when a series allow for someone's intelligence to be consider an asset rather than a reason not to date them. So I really love when one of the basis of a relationship is mutual admiration for each other's intellect and also I believe that a highly intelligent person probably wouldn't be content with a relationship with someone who isn't smart. I feel like with someone of the relationship like this it's almost that the two characters speak their own language due to how smart they are like Fitzsimmons from Agents of SHIELD who also have the whole they've been by each other's side through everything and they're massively adorable that makes me love their relationship. On the other hand there are other relationships where the characters don't really have their own language but they do have a pretty good understanding of each other and see things similar and therefore know how to motivate each other I'm more referring to Stiles and Lydia's relationship from Teen Wolf in the vaguest terms possible but if you want me to more specific about my love for them feel free to ask.
2. Adorkable Characters: I really love characters that are kind of nerdy or quirky or dorky and I find it weird that despite the fact that YA books are obviously marked to people who read and that's something many people consider a nerdy hobby there are barely any characters in books that fight the definition of adorkable. It's strange that the characters in books seem to be popular or brooding loners or bad boys or cool loser characters(who are really just characters that think they're better than everyone else) but never adorkable despite the fact that when these kind of characters appear in TV shows or movies they're usually the fan favorite but weirdly enough if someone geeky appears in YA books they're usually deemed a pathetic loser that no one can see as a romantic lead which once again is super weird because books are considered geeky so it seems stupid that so many YA authors either insults adorkable characters or simply don't write them. I love adorkable characters and I would love to see more of them in YA books because I think they belong there more than anywhere else and I also think that there needs be more girl adorkable characters in general.
3. Semi-realistic effects of how the supernatural effects your life: I'm not talking about the initial reaction to the supernatural but more how having to keep this secret effects your relationships with people not in the know such as your parents or how it effects your school life if you're out fighting the supernatural all night you probably don't have time to finish your English paper so how are you going to balance the supernatural world and your new life sounds like a great uncontrived source of conflict to me so how about writing about that instead of a love triangle. I would also really love to read about the psychological side effects of being in life or death situations constantly and see how that effects the characters past the fear they feel in the moment but how it changes how they think about their life. I would also really love if more of these series actually admitted that teenagers have no idea what they're doing most of the time and even if they are dealing with supernatural attacks in the story that doesn't mean that they wouldn't at least consider finding an adult to guide them in these type of situations.
4. Friendships: I think that friendships offer another layer to the story with their being chances to know more about a character through their friends because it's someone to confide in about everything that is going on it the story and someone that can tell stories about what life was like before the story started. Friendships can also be complicated and have interesting stories to tell because while friends understand you more than anyone they can also hurt you more than anyone else so there are lots of chances for conflict as well but unlike romantic relationships the reader knows that friends will only fight for a little bit before the make up. I feel like having friendships in stories allows for there to be lighter moments and makes the series more fun and could give the series it's heart. For example the TV show Revenge would've felt pretty heartless without the relationship between Emily and Nolan because she would've always be pretending to be someone else and never able to speak of her true feelings or her motives and she probably would've been a lot darker without anyone to confront her about the collateral damage she's causing. I think that friendship adds depth to a story and it's characters and I really need to see it more in YA books.
5. That the girl never ends up with the Bad boy: I've never really been a fan of the bad boy character as a romantic lead but as time as went by I find that I dislike them more probably because they bad boy went from a rebel to a serial killer within the past couple years and well no sane person would date one of those so they can't of lost their appeal entirely for me. I don't understand or like when they heroine chooses to be with the guy that treats them like crap for no reason it's especially disturbing when they have the option of dating a much nicer guy that's equally attractive and actually respects them, I just really hate seeing characters I love put in bad relationships or when everything likable about the character is destroyed for the sake of having the heroine hook up with the bad boy. I also think that considering how much worse the bad boy has gotten over the years(remember when Ryan from The OC was consider a bad boy and now a bad boy is Damon Salvatore from Vampire Diaries look at the difference between these two characters and think about how much things have changed in the past 10 years when it comes to bad boys) it's wrong for them to be reward for their bad behavior.
6. That life-saving doesn't come second to romance: One problem that I have with paranormal YA is when people are dying to up the tension in the story but the main characters aren't really all that concerned about this even though they know that it's a supernatural being killing people which means the police can't stop them. This kind of makes me dislike the main characters because they seem to put the whole people being murdered on the backburner in favor of their relationship which makes them come across as selfish so I really just wished that in these type of series the main characters just put more effort into stopping the bad guys they can still have romance just have that be the thing that's more in the background.
7. Witches: I know witches aren't unpopular but on the other hand there aren't a ton of books about them either and since their my favorite supernatural being I really would love to see more stories about them and I think that there's a lot of stories to tell. There's the kind with having the powers to save the world or something grand and heroic like that or we could have them just be teenagers with magic that they use for whatever they want but often ends in mishaps or they could be cruel and totally abuse their powers and use them to hurt other people or a mixture.
8. Vengeance: I always tend to love stories about revenge especially when the character seeking vengeance is a girl and I really wished I could find more books about this topic but I suppose that I could probably find more of this type of story if I read more adult books because vengeance is cruel, merciless and all consuming thing that probably isn't consider a subject that teens should be reading about.
9. Family relationships: I find it weird that in YA books that in-depth family relationships are hard to find because whether you like your family or not they're a big part of your life when you're a teenager and if they aren't around that's a big deal as well and needs to be dealt with. Whenever I read YA books especially paranormal ones(for some reason) I'm always interested in how the rest of the story is affecting the characters home life and especially the relationship with their parents but I'm always disappointed by how it's almost never really address in the story. Although two books I read dealt with very interesting parent-child relationships, White Oleander which dealt with a mother-daughter relationship even though the main character was separated from her mother for most of the book and went through many different foster homes the relationship with her mother was always present even though they weren't together and than Reading in the Dark which had an interesting mother-son relationship which while not the main focus of the book was really interesting with how learning his mother's secrets and keeping them just caused a rift in their relationship because his mother didn't really want him around anymore after he found them out. Interestingly enough neither of these books are YA books but they do show how one could make family relationships interesting in YA books. I also really wished that there were more focus on sibling relationships because those are also a big part of being a teenager and not everyone is an only child like most YA characters seem to be.
10. High School popularity: I know that most people hate catty mean girls but I've always been very interested in the girls who spend hours each day getting ready for school(because they have to look perfect every single day), who chooses there friends based on status(rather than whether or not they actually like the person and most times they kind of hate each other), who chooses their boyfriends on how much it will increase their popularity(rather than how well they treat you) and that pretty much everything they do or say is dictate by how it will make them look. I think that the whole popular clique girl thing is terrible unhealthy when it's based on these kind of standards but that also means that there has got to be a great story to be told about how much it takes to be a queen bee and how mean everyone can be about it.

6 comments:

  1. I love witches too! They are such a versatile paranormal being & plenty of fun! :) I think your #3 is really intriguing - it's a point I never thought of!

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  2. Wow, you've got some fabulous things on this list! Three cheers for numbers 2, 4 and 9. Fabulous ideas. :)

    Thanks for visiting Dreaming Under the Same Moon! :)

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  3. I'd actually love the high school popularity story, especially if it was told from the man girl's perspective. I think that's actually a really interesting angle to tackle it. Also, amen to the bad boys things. I generally don't like that trope. I think that's so unhealthy and I think it's unattractive personally.

    Thanks for stopping by!
    Aly @ My Heart Hearts Books

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  4. I would love reading about a high school popularity story! As much as we all hate those mean girls, let's be honest, I love the movie Mean Girls and would love to read a book about these girls.

    And yes to more witches! Have you heard of Hexed by Michelle Krys. It's my Waiting on Wednesday today (about witches) that I'm really looking forward to!

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  5. I always like books about witches, too. The Salem witch trials fascinate me for some reason, no matter how many times I read about them.

    Susan
    www.blogginboutbooks.com

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  6. Excellent list! All of the things you list would be on my wishlist too.

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