A discussion with Mari and P.E.

If you've been reading YA for a while (or a month) you've probably noticed one of the prominent aspects of YA, romance. We all love a little bit of spice in our books, and who doesn't? However, more times than not these romances are surrounded by a love triangle. Love them or hate them?

What if I was incredibly wimpy and diplomatic and said it depends on the context? See, I very rarely read a book for romance. Romance can be in the books I read, but I don't consider it essential to my reading experience. I'd rather a book be based on a character and plot and romance be like a side dish that helps explore the character/plot, but one that can also be discarded without too many ill side effects to the story. Thus, when it comes to love triangles, it depends on whether the romance in general appeals to me. I feel like it's hard to write a good love triangle, and when they're in stories they tend to take centre stage so it's easier to fail at them. That being said, many favourite stories of mine have love triangles (Vampire Academy, The Vampire Diaries, Unearthly). I know you're more of a romance reader than me so what do you think?

Like most things, when done well it is hard to not appreciate it. One of my all time favourites is in Cassandra Clare's, Infernal Devices Series. I was completely ripped between Jem and Will (though my allegiance will forever reside with Will). However, most of the time I prefer not to have a love triangle. I can't help but wonder how this mediocre girl, who never got any male attention before the events of said book, all of a sudden is so attractive she can't choose between two insanely hot guys. It's unrealistic and gets quite repetitive when every story you read has a love triangle. 


There's another side of it too. I feel like it's incredibly cruel. I mean, in theory, it's awesome. Like, this MC is so freakin' brilliant that she has her choice of amazing guys. However, I also feel like it's incredibly selfish and often there is a little cheating which doesn't seem to get the reaction it should get. For example, let's say the girl, while dating guy A, makes out with guy B in the most amazing kiss in the world, people are excited and happy about that in general. I mean, guy B is perfect for her, right? But I don't like it when the girls flip flop around and end up cheating on their guy. It drives me insane because this is seen as romantic, when it's a little tragic. Bloodrose by Andrea Cremer had so much of this that it made me hate the main character. 

OH MAN! The infamous flip flop romance. Respect is important to me in life and in my books. If a MC can't seem to make her mind up on a guy and continues to go back and forth between them, I have no respect for them. In my opinion, a book is not worth reading if you can't even respect the MC's decisions.As for Andrea Cremer's Nightshade series, this is one of the reasons as to why I haven't read Bloodrose and probably never will. 


Sidenote, but I'm probably too harsh on that book... Anyway, how about when it's two girls going after the same guy? I always find that annoying. 

That's less common so I wouldn't mind seeing some action, as long as the roles aren't reversed and it's not the guys turn to flip flop between girls; we get enough of that on The Bachelor. At its core though, it is the same story just flipped and I don't like it. Do it well, don't do it repetitively and I will appreciate it. Add it to every book you write/publish and it's getting too repetitive. As a whole though, I prefer a normal one gal, one guy romance. It's much more relatable because lets face it, we're all normal people and no I don't have three guys who are dying for my eternal love. 

I actually don't really care about how common it is as long as it's done well. I don't feel like every book needs a romance and most seem to have one, and I'm okay with ignoring it if it sucks. Just, if you're going to write a love triangle, treat the characters right, and please don't make it the focal point of the story. This shouldn't be the biggest plot twist anymore.

Overall, love triangles are great every now and then, especially when they're done well and not the main focus point. 

What Do You Think?

The Perception Project is a series of posts on The Sirenic Codex and Pass the Chiclets with the purpose of demonstrating the differences in perception. As bloggers, we know that everyone has subjective tastes but to what extents? We'll look at that throughout the week. There will be three posts here and three on Eden's blog, and every post will feature a label and a cover we think matches the label (so we're only picking based on the visuals, not the content). We'll write a little about our choices, and you can chime in the comments, or pick your own covers.

The first label is "Classic"

P.E.'s Pick

Already, I've run into a bit of a snag. However, I'm pretty happy with my choice. I pick Rumours by Anna Godbersen because of the golden font that reminds me of ages gone by, the stunning dress from another time, and the girl with classically good looks sitting on that super elaborate chair.

Mari's Pick

I strayed to something more subtle but equally beautiful, in my opinion. What I Saw and How I Lied has the period feel going for it. The black and white theme with a dash of colour from her lipstick shows an agelessness that can only be associated with classic.

Eden's Pick

With the blend of deep, rich red and gold, the paper texturing and blocky serif font, this cover feels modern and classic to me at the same time. The silhouette is the perfect teaser of the actual story.

The next label is "Romantic"

Mari's Pick

What is more romantic than a girl and boy innocently holding hands while walking down the shore, watching the sun/moon rise above them and being bathes in beautiful purple light? Moonglass by Jessi Kirby is simple, romantic and sweet.

Eden's Pick 

Tris & Izzie, Mette Ivie Harrison

The beautiful fall colour scheme matches the tranquility of the water shot, and the falling, fluttering leaves add to the atmospheric moment. The posture of the models seems to me as if the photographer's interrupted an intimate moment, which makes it perfect as a romantic cover.

P.E.'s Pick

Of course I'm going with a makeout cover. Duh. This one is in black and white, which I've always thought to be charming, and has splashes of red, the colour of love. There's nobody else on the cover except the couple so it's like they've been completely alone in the world until they met each other... *aww*

P.E.'s thoughts

So far, I think I'm okay with all the choices. I was surprised that all the classic picks had some kind of red on the cover, and Eden's pick, The Scorpio Races surprised me a bit. I expected the romantic covers though- they all featured a couple. 

Mari's thoughts

Interesting that you mentioned the fact that all the classic covers have red on them. Come to think of it, we associate red with many things, love, blood etc., but it's also very classical. It's a colour used throughout history. I was also, surprised by Edith's cover choice, very different from what I would consider classic, but valid nonetheless. As for the romance cover, we all went for the 'couple covers' but curiously they all feature some sort of water; the last one featuring rain. Red and Water, Classic and Romantic?

We hope you enjoyed. Make sure to check out the second part on Eden's blog, Pass the Chiclets!

Have you ever seen a book that seems to have a gazillion pages and does not want to end? And god forbid, someone you like recommends it to you. Horrified, you shamefully turn away, trying to ignore the fact that you can't begin to imagine reading the goliath of a book that is larger than your head!

No! I'm not cracking.

However, every once in a blue moon you find that one book that sounds so compelling, so extraordinary that you don't care what the cover looks like, let alone the 10 billion pages that it is composed of. In fact, you crave more and don't understand how that 10 billion could be insufficient. 

I've had a few of these in my reading life span and they are golden. Recently, I stumbled on another, The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons. I had seen it around before but didn't know what it was about until I wrote a post talking about how I wished to read books set in other places, preferably Russia. Low and behold, an amazing commentator recommended this one and I was done for. Thank you!

I like to think of myself as a moderate paced reader, but a dedicated reader. I'm not too fast, I tend to slow down when I'm really into a book, and that helps me absorb all the details. This also decreases the chances of me forgetting the story. I will forget my favourite biology unit the day after the test but my favourite book, I remember everything. Well maybe not everything, but you know what I mean!

I finished this one in a week. Screw homework, who needs sleep and food? What's that? The characters are starving; do you have no humanity?! I don't know if I'll ever be able to review The Bronze Horseman, even though I've officially plowed through the second book, which took me 2 days and I'm now slowly making my way through the final book, The Summer Gardens as I don't want it to end.

The Bronze Horseman, is not a young adult novel, but it in no way alienates young adults from reading it. The protagonist, Tatiana Metanova is 17 when the book starts but she grows as the series continues and so does the reader. Her pains, sufferings, love and friendship will make you laugh, cry and cheer for joy.

This book has aged me, it has made me dauntless. I no longer fear the size of a book. I remember being like this before, when I first jacked up the courage to read Harry Potter in the 6th grade; I never noticed the length. Same goes to the Gemma Doyle Trilogy back in the 9th grade. Now I'm in grade 12, on the verge of a new stage in my life and I'm happy to say that I have reached another milestone in my reading adventures.

Thank you, Paullina Simons and thank you books of gargantuan capacity for excellence. You are awesome.

-Mari

I'm a little different from most readers because I don't actively seek out romance books anymore. I don't know why but I'm so sick of reading about romance. It's not that it's awful- I can enjoy it. I hate however that it's beyond a norm, almost like a rule in YA. It's almost impossible to find a book without the main character having some sort of love interest. I thought I would do an "experiment".

Procedures 

Look at the last 10 YA books I read and discern whether the main character had any type of romance going on. I'll categorize what I find into four groups. All groups are chosen based on the "end state" of the novel. Everything here is subjective.

• Crush 
• Relationship
• Angst (they broke up, etc.)
• None

Hypothesis

I don't seek out romance so I'm expecting 70% of the books I read to have some sort of romance. 

Observations

Book	Romance Level
The Color of Rain	Relationship
Boy Nobody	Angst
Seizure	None
Black Heart	Relationship
The Madness Underneath	Angst
White Lines	Relationship
Sanctum	Relationship
The Piper's Son	Relationship
Prophecy	Relationship
Pretty Girl 13	Crush

Conclusions

90% of the books I read had some sort of romance in them. The only one that didn't, had a 14 year old main character. There's nothing wrong with romance; it's like sprinkles. Even if there's a lot of them, they can be enjoyable. However, I think 90% is a way too high figure. 

There's a lot more to teenage life than crushes and relationships. Sometimes I get so fed up with romance because it's unrealistic: why can't characters be single, and enjoy being single? Looking at this list, most YA books end off with the characters in a relationship. I can only speak from experience and looking around at my school, but 60% of the teens there don't have relationships. More like 10-20%. There's nothing wrong with being single and enjoying it.

The reason I did this was to say that not every book needs a romance. They're not necessary. Why not have a super strong parental bond? A sibling relation? How about a variety of friends? Epic Reads hosts an event called #TeaTime and they were talking a little along these lines yesterday, about womances (girls that are BFFs) or the lack of womances. It's obvious that most people would enjoy a focus on other relationships.

Would you? Do you think there's too much romance?

-P.E.