Gimme More DUFFS

by Mari

Whilst reading The Wrath and the Dawn I realized how much I despise beautiful protagonists. Beauty is the biggest cheat in YA romantic fiction. Why does the Caliph of Khorasan, the man known to kill his bride's by dawn get wooed by Shahrzad?

Psst. Mari, Mari, Mari. Haven't you heard? SHE IS BEAUTIFUL, ELEGANT, QUEENLY!

Honestly? Where are all my DUFFs at? Whats wrong with being the "average" looking girl next door with an epic personality? Nothing. I want more romances where little or no focus is on looks and more on personality and wit. Please, take pity on me and send some recommendations my way. Will be eternally grateful.

(Psssst Mari, check out The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson! (From P.E.)) 
(Psssst. P.E. already read it. (From Mari))

Who Runs the World? GIRLS.

by P.E.

I read The Mime Order about a week ago, and I'm still obsessed with it. You see, my favourite new thing to read about is girls in charge. Ambitious types. Girls that lead. We've had enough reluctant heroes. I want protagonists that want to take charge and change the world. Especially girls that are like, "I got this." College has exposed me to many powerful women, and the dilemma of few women at the top. It's tough for women to get there, and stay there. That's why I'm so up for reading about women that are ready to not only fight for rebellion, but lead it. 

Paige does that. Elisa from the aforementioned Girl of Fire and Thorns is another example. Jodi Meadow's The Orphan Queen has that too. Queen of Someday, Queen of Tomorrow both feature this. I'm further hoping Celaena gets there too! (She's powerful, but somewhat reluctant... c'mon Celaena, GO FOR IT.)

100 Bloglovin Followers

Also, we'd both like to make a quick note of reaching 100 followers on Bloglovin! To be honest, we're stunned. We haven't been as active as we want to be, but we've always wanted to post quality posts. We hope you enjoy what we've written, and we'd like to thank you for following us on this blog, and through our lives. We started this blog in high school, and now we're in college. Thank you for joining us on our journey, and you are awesome and deserve lots of wonderful things. 

This is a TSC feature that looks at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

Physical Books are Forever

by P.E.

Let me get my crystal ball out...

Ah, here it is. Today, I will make what I consider to be a totally reasonable prediction, but one that might be considered bold in some circles. I predict that there will always be physical books. I know that ebooks are big and most people turn to them to read. But, there is real value in a physical book. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than on Bookstagram. The artful pictures of books and the massive followings have changed books from something uncool to something hip. Books are a part of an aesthetic; they are colourful, novel, and there is a whole culture of reading in the modern day. I think that the rising prominence of ebooks will only eradicate paperbacks (I hate them, so good riddance!) and leave us all with shiny hard covers that cost a lot more than they do now. And these books will be kept because keeping books is cool and unusual, so they will be kept for something other than a functional purpose. 

Who knows?

Katie M. Stout

by Mari

Lately, I came by a twitter issue that arose over a reader who confronted Katie Stout over the racial issues present in her book Hello, I Love You. I don't think the issue was too big but here is my take.

I've read quite a few reviews about Hello, I Love you as I was someone who wished to read the book. The majority of the reviews I've read, however, did find issues with the representation of Korean culture and the main characters racial ignorance. Personally, that doesn't sound like my cup of tea. A lot of freak out sessions have been taking place with social media users saying unfavourable things about certain authors. When it comes down to it, I wonder why every other form of art is allowed to receive criticism besides YA books. There is a big uproar every time someone saying something unfavourable about an author's work. Why? People definitely shouldn't be mob attacking anyone but there should be room for criticism even if its done not so eloquently. This protectionist attitude isn't very helpful. 

This is a TSC feature that looks at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

Peevy Dialogue

By Mari

In my mind, there is a very thin line separating quality dialogue from "trashy". It's not very common in YA but there is the odd book that contains this type of dialogue masked as teenage talk. The most common sources of Mari peeving dialogue are romance novels and my reading slump mind picks up every peevy phrase and freaks out over it. For instance:

".. he has suck-me-in blue eyes that wander over my body like he's seeing me with my clothes off."

-Nowhere but Here by Katie McGarry

Ugh, I've been begrudging this terrible compilation of words for a day and a half now. I hate suck-me-in eyes. What are you trying to accomplish with this besides instalust? And if I think a guy I barely know is visualizing me naked, I run the heck away. Call me a prude, but that's a turn off for me.

Don't tell me about your character, show me

by P.E.

Speaking of pet peeves, it irritates me when authors don't show me character development. Telling me a character is fierce is not enough. You can't just say, "this character is shy" and then call that character development. It's lazy. I should infer qualities about a character-- whether they're fierce, brave, dangerous, as I read about what the character is doing. First, give me some proof. Give me lots of it. Then, you can have side character or alternate POVs remark on this. Otherwise, I read another character's description and instead of my own thoughts being affirmed, I become confused, then critical. Don't make me a critical reader. I hate being forced out of the story to contemplate authenticity. 

This is a new feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

Notes while Reading

by P.E.

I never write notes when reading except for school. I'm currently doing it for a class, and it is exhausting. Every time I write a note, I feel like I'm being jarred out of the story. It's hard to be consumed with what's happening when I constantly evaluate myself on what I read, why was it written that way, what rhetorical devices were used, etc. The one benefit seems to be that my memory for the story is very good: through 250 pages, I can clearly remember every quote my teacher mentioned as significant because I wrote about it. How do some people write notes for reviews?

Giving NA Another Go?

by Mari

Disclaimer: This has nothing to do with the content of the following paragraph....

So I've been a lot little cautious of the NA category. I like romance, I don't mind steamy scenes, and I really like the intended age. However, when NA first started out it acquired this teen erotica reputation with the never ending supply of: "Troubled girl meets mysterious hot playboy who won't settle down because of his dark and mysterious past. Of course no one but said troubled girl can save him." While 2 or even 3 of such reads can be fun, especially if spread out nicely, too many gets old. You start to wonder if what you're reading is quality fiction especially when it seems like the book has no plot and wasn't even edited properly... Still every now and then I've stumbled on some gems and they give me hope. I wonder if now that the category has been around for a couple of years if it has diversified to include more stories and if so then I'll have to start digging in. Any suggestions?

Narrative Journalism

by P.E.

I've been reading so much narrative journalism recently that I could puke. It is not a genre that suits me, with it's excessive focus on the minutiae. It's really one of the only types of writing that calls for infodumping because the author has researched so extensively and feels like all these characteristics bring the story to life. Narrative journalism is non-fiction, and I very clearly feel it is nonfiction because it is very heavy to read with many details that must be remembered. I miss first-person prose. For reference, I read Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink and am reading Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt. Both deal with quite heavy subject matter and are worth the read. What do you think of narrative journalism? Is it a genre you've explored?

-P.E. and MARI

This is a new feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

The Excitement for Gone Girl (The Movie!)

by P.E.

I don't often watch trailers and I think I need to watch a movie. Except I saw the trailer for Gone Girl and fangirled very hard. It seems incredible, with lots of suspense, and darkness. I love the creepy voice of the wife saying he could kill her, and the mood from this trailer is phenomenal. I know the book came out already and I haven't read it. I'm planning to see the movie first, even though that's totally not cool.

Will Today's YA Beat the Obstacle of Time?

Kids react to a cassette walkman

by Mari

At some point in the past few years Rainbow Rowell exploded into the Young Adult book scene and dominated. I don't remember much about the 90s and my family never got into any of the Western 20th century pop scene, so I might as well have been born in 2000 because that is where my memory starts. As a result, I don't have much of an interest in modern contemporary fiction books set pre-2000. Until now, I used that as the reason as to why I wasn't interested in Rainbow's acclaimed Eleanor and Park. Now, that I've been listening to the novel for the past few days, I'd like to say that I understand the hype. She is a good writer and her books have a very strong character presence. But I have to say, my initial misgivings about the time period is a problem. The comics and music that Eleanor and Park formed a friendship and then a romance over are things I can't even fathom. Of course, I can search them up and try to understand what they are talking about, but something in my mind tells me that it's not the same as having already had those experiences either in first person by being around at that time or second person like hearing it from a parent. This makes me wonder with all the books set in the present, involving our modern technology and music, references like Lady Gaga or the iPhone, what will the young adults or the readers of tomorrow think of them. Will they have trouble connecting like I do? Will the era turn them off?

-P.E. and MARI

This is a feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

Where's the YA?

by P.E. 

Montreal is a rather bilingual city, and it's gorgeous and fun. My only complaint is that I'm having a hard time finding the YA community here. In high school, I had Mari and a bunch of others. In university, I've met so many people that read, but not YA. To make matters worse, locating a library with a large collection of English YA reads that isn't too far has been hard. They exist, but they're all about thirty minutes away. And when that thirty minutes includes a ridiculously steep hill. It really makes me miss living in a primarily English speaking city with a library five minutes away. It's hard to feel connected to the YA community sometimes, except then I read tweets and posts and I realize how much I miss it. So, I'll soldier on with my BFF NetGalley!

Bring Them Recommendations On!

by Mari

People don’t often realize it but once you become known as the booky, you can never go back.

Once upon a time I would be speaking with someone and in the conversation they would recommend a book for me. Now, they take a moment reason it out and ask if I’ve read said book.

Yes, I’ve probably read or heard of most of the YA stuff you can think of but hey, we can still share our common interest in them. If I haven’t heard of them, then all the more awesome because I want to hear about new books. Believe it or not, bloggers and bookys do end up missing a lot of the books that come out. So don't be shy and recommend away.

Pronouns and YA

by P.E.

When you live in residence, you're required to take what's called "Rez Life", which is a workshop dedicated to creating a better environment in res. It mostly focuses on sex (assault), and questions of gender. The biggest thing I learned from this, and from my school in general, is not to assume someone's personal pronoun before they define themselves. In floor meetings, we introduce ourselves like, "My name is P.E., and I prefer 'she'." It's a big thing in society, and I guess the concept that genders aren't binary was something that I very well knew, but I never really thought about it to some depth until the workshop. So naturally I started thinking of real world applications, and I realized that there are major problems in writing. First, what kind of pronoun can you use that won't assume people are binary, and that supports a spectrum? And, how can it be portrayed in writing that the person may have the sex of female, but not identify as female? Because writing is all about she and he. In real life, you can say, "Hey you!" or gesture towards someone. When an author is attempting to describe a character, they always include "he" or "she". And well, I feel like more can be done. I'm not an expert on this subject, so I'm very curious to see what you guys think should happen. 

-P.E. & MARI

This is a new feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

Maybe Some Endings Should Be Final

by P.E.

There are some series that, after the original story is over, continue with spinoffs and movies and short stories and the like. Recently, I have come to the opinion that although I may have enjoyed the original series, I don't want any more. Let the story end. It was nice while it lasted, and it's over. Let's move on. Often, the extra isn't as good as the original series, so it feels a bit like its taking something away from the quality of the original. All's this to say, sometimes endings really should be endings. I don't want any more Veronica Mars, or The Vampire Diaries, and I'm sad to say this but the Bloodlines series has really done nothing for me.

The Power of Books

by Mari

I've never really given this much thought but it's a very big part of reading. That is, the power books can have on a reader, both negatively and positively. The power I keep mentioning can be any kind but the one I've come to identify is the emotional type. Books really know how to pull at our emotions and sometimes even settle into my mood. I'm think about all of this because of If I Stay and Where She Went. I was sitting in a dark cinema with one of my friends ecstatic to finally have the chance to see the book come to life and while I choked up quietly my emotions were nothing to the girl who was sitting down the aisle from me she was bawling. This was the movie. Fast forward to the present in which I'm listening to the Where She Went audiobook, a favourite from a couple of years ago, and I'm rushing into a sort of angry sadness. I'm in the depth of Adam's grief and sometimes it's hard to pull away and realize that, I'm not sad, it's Adam. This power is very brilliant but also terrifying at the same time.

Kiersten White Confuses Me

By P.E. 

I've written features about authors I really like. And surely, there are also authors I avoid because their work doesn't appeal to me. It seems to lack depth, it is light and shallow, and I don't think it's very much quality. There is no author that confuses me more than Kiersten White. I'm pretty much ready to write off her books, and then she writes Mind Games, and the even better Perfect Lies. These stories are dark, morally ambiguous, layered, and so engrossing. In short, they are everything I wanted from the Paranormalcy series or The Chaos of Stars. It's what I like in them that is missing from her other books. It becomes clear to me that White is perhaps using different styles, and it's a little hard to know whether I want to read books by her, because she is capable of writing stories that I love and that resonate with me and she has also written stories that I can't stand. In any case, I love her writing in Mind Games and Perfect Lies. 

-P.E. and MARI

This is a new feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

Amazon is Evil?

by P.E.

I assume everyone has heard of the Hachette/Amazon dispute, and the letter that was sent out, and I suppose everyone has formed their own opinion. I can't really comment on what's happening between Hachette and Amazon because frankly, I don't know enough. However, I'm more inclined to want to limit the power Amazon has. That's because Amazon is building a monopoly. They are a retailer and they're trying to become the seller of ebooks. And as a Canadian already screwed because our phone/tv/internet companies overcharge because there's only a few options, I don't think it's safe for the book industry to have Amazon dominate them so much. They'll build a monopoly, there will be little viable competition, and then there will be little incentive to have good prices or continue to progress. I guess I want to see some alternatives to Amazon, and am hoping for good things from places like Smashwords. 

The Invisible Threads Attached: Reviewers POV

by Mari

It's always horrible when we come to dislike a book. But it's worse in the case of books that have been sent to us for review. We're pumped because we obviously thought it was going to be good and the publisher and authors are also pumped because they can share what they love with us and through us, also get some attention. Then everything goes wrong and out comes the negative review. We as reviewers feel bad and I know some sites have even adopted a positive review only policy like I Eat Words. Here at The Sirenic Codex we like to share our negative reviews because we like to read them. I always go through a positive and negative review to decide if I want to read a certain book. However, this doesn't help the sense of guilt. I've recently started using Net Galley more because I want to build my profile and as a result I'm even more concerned when I rate a book negatively because in that case, it's not just my readers who are seeing my review but also publishers.

Back to Business

By P.E.

So I took one week off the blog when I visited my aunt's house, and now getting back into blogging is hard. There are posts that need to be written (especially some discussion posts that just aren't happening), books to be read, comments to make, social media, emails to respond to, and gosh you don't realize how much work blogging is until you're away for a bit and then get back to it. It's hard because I'm so overwhelmed with getting back into the rhythm I was before, and it's hard to get back there because there's so much that needs to be done, for the blog and for school. Due to the upcoming commencement of university, I feel this need to make sure a lot of TSC posts are prepped and ready so that I don't have to worry as I'm figuring school and residence out. And I feel all this stress even with a co-blogger. *sigh*

This is a new feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

All or Nothing

by P.E. 

I've been seeing publishers post samples to their books and to put it simply, I'm wondering if there is actual interest for that sort of thing? I don't like reading samples because I would rather read the book all at once, but I suppose for some people, samples help them become much more excited for a book. I also think that in some weird way, teasers are spoilers for me because I don't like doing anything twice. Do you like teasers? 

I'm Not A Book Club Person

by P.E.

I don't know what this says about me, but I've never been someone that likes book clubs. Maybe it's my inner rebel that can't bear the idea of a reading schedule. I can't prolong my reading. Most books are read in massive chunks, so unless it's for school and I have an educational read with lots of topics, I don't like forcing myself to slow down. It's strange because I'm pretty well known as a bookworm at my school and I've been a part of book club ever there: Harry Potter book club, and that was only because I thought the teacher was great and I wanted to go on a field trip to watch the Deathly Hallows. Mari on the other hand has joined lots of book clubs.

Is It Ethical?

by Mari

I've always heard and have preached that reading does no harm and I like to believe that, however sometimes I wonder if that statement is 100% true. Recently, I've been reading Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman, a pre-WWII novel. It contains a very close view of Hitler, his regime, and his book. There are some horrendous quotes as well that makes a reader wonder what else the man had written. Despite my curiosity there is a sense of ethics? that keeps me from buy/borrowing this book. Just searching for Mein Kampf at Chapters made me nervous and uncomfortable. Is it ethical to read a book written by such a horrible person even if your intentions are pure. In a way, will I be supporting him and his crimes?

-P.E. AND MARI

This is a test run for a new feature that will be looking at blogging, books, and anything of any relevance to the YA Blogosphere in short form. It's meant to start a discussion by offering quick thoughts from Mari and P.E. on a variety of topics. 

The Importance of Blog Designs

by P.E.

Judging by the reaction to our post on our new blog design, it seems like a lot of bloggers care a lot about their design. I think one underrated thing a new design does is rejuvenate your love for your blog. It's clean and new. It's like the blog underwent spring cleaning. The content of the blog is the same, but it's like renovating a room: there are differences, and that's exciting.  

Review Book / Required reading?

by Mari

There is no feeling like the one a book lover gets when she/he gets offered a book for review. It's one of joy, accomplishment and eagerness. However, I find that after a few days and a few chapters the eagerness dies down to a pang of requirement. The review book no matter how good turns into required reading. It's too bad because if my mind would get over the required part and journey onto just focusing on the story, I would enjoy the books a lot more and same could be said to all the books I've had to read for school.

I Have a Netgalley... Now What Do I Do?

by P.E.

I signed up for a Netgalley account, because I think it's a great way to access more books. Except now I'm in Netgalley purgatory because I am clueless as to what to do next! Wait, let's correct that. I know all about what to do, I'm just undecided. The thing about Netgalley is that I feel like it's an enormous honour to be able to do this. It means you are no longer just a blogger, but you are taking an active role to promote books. So, I want to make sure I do it right. I want to have an awesome Netgalley ratio, I want to pick books I feel like I'll not just like, but love. So, you can probably tell it's taking me a while to get going.

Fairy Tales

by Mari
I realize that our blog is named after a fairytale -esque mythical creature but I've come to realize that I don't know many fairy tales (excluding Cinderella, Snow White, Mulan, The Little Mermaid). "Don't know" in the sense that I don't know details because I've never really read many. I'm currently reading Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge and I'm mesmerized. I know the general idea but I didn't know that the beast asked the princess a question each night. At the same time, I like not knowing too much because it lets me enjoy a commonly known story with fresh eyes.