A Review of Every YA Book I’ve Ever Read: Contemporary Edition

7 May, 2013 Musing Musers 19 comments

Contemporary CoverA Review of Every YA (Contemporary) Book I’ve Ever Read

Wow.  Double Ue. Owh.  Double Ue.  Owh Em Gee, Guys.

Don’t you just love it how every contemporary novel these days is so dayum different?  Today’s review is of Every Young Adult (Contemporary) I have Ever Read – clearly my favourite so far!

This book was an amazing examination of bullying/slut shaming/dark romance.  All the feels I was given by this insanely original premise set the wings of my heart alight and made me soar through the sky of life lessons that I will probably soon forget.

The main character was so sassy/reminds me of myself as a teen/too stupid to live, whilst being damaged and complex.  Her life story and what she suffers through is just really sad though.  This book is about how she manages to find herself/deal with her past/grow as a person whilst gaining the love of her (short) life.  She just felt so real with her artistic hobby/love of poetry/soulful side.  I find there are so few characters in Young Adult novels who can play a musical instrument/draw/make obscure shadow puppets with their hands.

Luckily, despite all the drama, she had this really hot guy to help her along the way!  The love interest was an asshole/very damaged/the sweetest, most understanding guy ever!  God!  He was just so different from every other love interest!  He had a soft spot/was kind of injured animals/looked after his siblings.  Wow!  I mean, great, right?

Let’s not forget the best friend who was loud mouthed/promiscuous/sassy gay stereotypical, amirite, guys?

The writing was great, almost never using the word turgid – which was a great relief.  Every day I can go through without stumbling across that word is a blessing.

Now that I’ve read Every YA Book I’ve Ever Read, I can’t wait to go out and read more to see what incredibly original ways authors will use all of the above to tell the same vaguely similar story.  I’m so damn excited!

Image by Zaratops

 

19 Responses to “A Review of Every YA Book I’ve Ever Read: Contemporary Edition”

  1. Rashika

    *starts crying*
    I’ve read too many books like this. I’ve wasted so much of my precious reading time which I could have used to read so many other books.
    I’d kill for some originality in this genre (of course there are some gems to be found in this genre as well but they are so rare its ridiculous).

  2. Steena

    I’m sure I have missed out on some great pieces of literature by avoiding this genre. But I have been so disenchanted by lackluster contemporary ya that, by this point, I don’t even bother.

  3. Fangs4Fantasy

    This is why we started drinking games: http://www.fangsforthefantasy.com/2013/04/written-by-numbers-drinking-game.html because the cliches are just awful
    It hit me recently when I was trying to talk about a book with Renee and I couldn’t remember the title. So i described a few plot points and the characters – and realised there were at least 6 books I’d read recently that fit my description. I DNFed a book recently because it had no plot at all. It was a collection of cliches loosely taped together.
    “artistic hobby/love of poetry/soulful side.”
    HAH! This. How come no YA protag likes popular music? Or partying? Or computer games? Or even reading YA! No no, they have to read classical English literature by authors you have to wikipedia (usually with lots of pretentious quotes), while listening to Chopin, playing classical piano (perfectly, of course) and appreciating the subtle nuances of Rembrandt.
    Then along comes their love interest and he’s mean and cruel but GASP HE EXPRESSES HIS PAINFUL LOVE THROUGH LITERATURE QUOTES/SOULFUL PAINTINGS/BEAUTIFUL MUSIC that just HAPPENS to match the heroines pretentious hobby!

      • Fangs4Fantasy

        Steph Sinclair Fangs4Fantasy oh gods I wish it weren’t but it is. You then get 2 choices, EITHER she is an inept Bella Swan style heroine who can never be that good so she just looks on in awe at the perfect/gorgeous/awesome/amazing man who is just too good for her ugly/clumsy/awful/stupid/low-self-esteem. OR you have the DUET where they CONNECT and don’t need words and all of his arseholery just DISAPPEARS!

  4. RSGarcia

    You missed the current obsession with threesomes. As in, one girl, two guys to fight over her. Sometimes, the soul mate has competition, but it’s not serious. He’s just more buff and willing to express himself, you know, with words. He usually says the opposite of the soul mate, whose every line can be loosely translated as, ‘get away from me’.
    But that’s all bullshit, of course, ’cause her soul mate really loves her, and Guy #2 would know that if he was half as tuned into her as her soul mate was. But Guy #2 has never heard of her favourite poet, or read Jane Austen, so it can never be.

  5. tigerlilyrachel

    I want to be you when I grow up.
    No but really, this is all so true. I read a ton of contemporary YA because it’s my favorite genre, but if I read too many all at once, I end up getting so sick of them because they’re all quite similar. Oh and this: “She just felt so real with her artistic hobby/love of poetry/soulful side.” I mean, really. Not every teen is all artsy and deep. I know I sure as hell wasn’t.

  6. InkyReads

    Baha. Hah. Hah. YES. This needed to be  said,  my love for contemporary
     🙂

  7. InkyReads

    Baha. Hah. Hah. YES. This needed to be  said,  my love for contemporary
     🙂

  8. de Pizan

    Every day without the word turgid is indeed a blessing (as is a day without the words moist, puberty, oily, panties and squishy).

  9. LeonieR

    Your post made me laugh out loud.  Thank you!

  10. RachelTsoumbakos

    You forgot the fact that all the MC’s are so ‘plain’ yet always attract the hottest guy on earth….oh, and bad hair…they ALWAYS seem to have bad hair….

  11. Holly Letson

    I absolutely loved this. It made me LOL many times as I read it. 
    Sadly, it kinda reminds me of the Lurlene McDaniel books I read while in JH and HS.

  12. xbooksmartie

    Awesome! As much as I love contemporary, sometimes they are so obviously cliché that I feel personally offended by the author 🙂 I mean, some really know how to always create unique characters and intriguing plot twists,but there are so many books where you read the first page and know how the next 290 are going to turn out 🙂

  13. bookwormdreams

    Haha wonderful review Kat. From now on I do not have to review contemporary romance novels anymore, I can just add link to this text. Very helpful. Thank you. 😉

  15. sophiareads

    Lol great review!  This was hilarious and so true.  🙂