'The Kiss Quotient' by Helen Hoang

From the BLURB: 

Stella Lane thinks mathematics is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases?a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with and far less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. 

It doesn't help that Stella has Asperger's and French kissing reminds her of a shark getting its teeth cleaned by pilot fish. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice?with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. Gorgeous and conflicted, Michael can't afford to turn down Stella's offer and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan, from foreplay to more-than-missionary position. 

Before long, Stella not only learns to appreciate his kisses but to crave all of the other things he's making her feel. Their no-nonsense partnership starts making a strange kind of sense. And the pattern that emerges will convince Stella that love is the best kind of logic . . .

'The Kiss Quotient' was the debut romance novel from Helen Hoang, in what has now become a mini family-saga that continues with 'The Bride Test' and will likely conclude with 'The Heart Principle' out in 2020. 

So, I really loved this book and can't believe I didn't write a review after I finished reading! Though I will say that having read it ages ago (July 2018) and now seeing more reviews of it, it's interesting to step back and see how divisive this book is. It's very much a love or hate, but not much of in-between it would seem ...

The story follows successful algorithm-whiz Stella Lane as she tries to overcome her intimacy anxieties and please her disappointed parents by "practicing" having a relationship ... with an escort. That escort ends up being Michael Phan - who is more than he appears, and more patient than Stella could have hoped for and also too close to being the perfect guy she could actually fall for. 

A large part of what made 'The Kiss Quotient' a stand-out romance title of 2018 was two-fold: it featured a racially diverse couple, and neuro-diverse heroine. Stella is on the autism-spectrum, and since autism is under-diagnosed in women and girls, this in itself was a welcome bit of representation, and particularly in the romance genre. 

I thought Stella's autism was handled well, and that it was integral to the romance sparking and evolving was, I thought, genuinely lovely and a unique angle I'd never really seen played for female characters before. 

I see quite a few reviewers who found the sex to be ... distasteful in the book. And, look - different strokes for different folks but also: in Australia and the nature of our market, 'The Kiss Quotient' was publicised and positioned as much more of a Women's Fiction title, when in actuality I'd say it's an out and out romance. As such the sex and romance *does* take up a fair chunk of the story and does a lot of heavy-lifting in the characterisation - which I fully welcomed and expected, given that I'm a romance reader and pretty quickly adjusted to this being firmly of that genre. For others though, I can imagine if they went in looking for more ... exposition, and less "sex-position" - then they'd be thrown. It's definitely a gear-switch if you're not prepared to welcome it. 

All in all; I was totally delighted by 'The Kiss Quotient' - from its representation, to the titillation - it ALL worked for me, and I was glad to find a new favourite author in Hoang.

5/5

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'Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books' by Megan Daley

From the BLURB: 

Some kids refuse to read, others won’t stop – not even at the dinner table! Either way, many parents question the best way to support their child’s literacy journey. When can you start reading to your child? How do you find that special book to inspire a reluctant reader? How can you tell if a book is age appropriate? What can you do to keep your tween reading into their adolescent years? 

Award-winning teacher librarian Megan Daley has the answersto all these questions and more. She unpacks her fifteen years of experience into this personable and accessible guide, enhanced with up-to-date research and first-hand accounts from well-known Australian children’s authors. It also contains practical tips, such as suggested reading lists and instructions on how to run book-themed activities.

Raising Readers is a must-have guide for parents and educators to help the children in their lives fall in love with books.

'Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books' is the non-fiction how-to book that the Australian publishing industry needed - written by teacher librarian, 'Queensland Teacher Librarian of the Year' and recipient of the national Dromken Librarians Award AND blogger over at 'Children's Books Daily' - Megan Daley (phew!) 

This book was not written specifically for authors, but in my role as a literary agent, editor, author and youth-literature advocate that was the way I came to view this resource ... and though it was not intended as such, I found it to also be a great stockpile of info for new and emerging authors; so that's the point from which I'm reviewing it. 

Straight up in the introduction, Daley explains the purpose and usefulness of the book; 

'Raising Readers' is a guide for parents and a resource for educators. Like all good non-fiction books (my teacher librarian hat is on now), you can dip into this book as needed or you can read it from start to finish. I will walk you through each stage of a child's literacy development - from birth to adolescence - and offer advice, connect you with the right books at the right times, share pieces of wisdom from my literary friends, as well as some tips and tricks to ensure your family's or classroom's reading journeys are as memorable and as engaging as they can be.

All of which is true, and means this book is for *anyone* who cares about children becoming readers for life, and having their imaginations constantly expanded and nurtured. 

But there are ways that the book can be used as a call-to-arms and a guiding-light in lateral ways too, which I am sure Daley was also aware of when writing. Like how she constantly highlights throughout, the overwhelming importance of teacher librarians in schools and what a well-managed and cared-for library does to a school community, especially in improving literacy (something that literally *all* of the studies and science show correlates too). 

Coming from a family of mostly primary-school teachers from the public-schools sector, I know that not every school has a funded library, and not every child has access to what is essential learning and living in books. 'Raising Readers' has some great guides and how-to's in talking about the need for thoughtful library collections and teacher librarians to manage them, should any parent reading this want help in appealing to a school board or funding committee. While a chapter on 'Acknowledging and Reflecting Diversity' can even be used by those school communities for whom funding and access is *not* the issue, but broadening horizons and being mindful of inclusion *is.* 

Likewise for any educators and librarians struggling on ever-tightening budgets, Daley's words will be both balm and lightning-rod for talking-points and back-up! 

As Daley mentioned, the ability to dip in and out of the book is there, or even flick through and look for breakout-boxes offering lists of recommended-reads and activities, etc. Though I will say that some of the books listed did run a little old, dating from the 90s and early-00s ... but I guess this was an attempt to actually *not* date the book by only listing current "hot-reads" that may not stand the test of time like many "classics" Daley mentions. And, look, if you actually want to keep up-to-date on YouthLit trends (which you SHOULD, if Daley's messaging leaves any mark on you!) then use the ever-evolving and vital resource of her: Children's Books Daily blog - and the focus on #LoveOzYA and #LoveOzMG recs is truly fabulous! 

'Raising Readers' as I said,  is also an invaluable resource for new and emerging authors. I'd say that on the writing and creativity front, 'Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers' by Mary Kole (my FAVE!) is one-half of the conversation for the just-getting-started side, and Megan Daley's 'Raising Readers' is perfect for the next phase of an author's life, when they have to work and monetise their writing career. In this the final chapter of 'How-To Guides' is brilliant, particularly the section on 'How to host an author or illustrator visit'. 

In this, Daley will give authors some idea of what is expected of them (how to talk about their books in terms of curriculum, what kids get out of visits with creators etc.) but more importantly, Daley having shown "the stakes" as they are for teacher librarians and schools, gives authors an appreciation of how *on-point* their presentations and interactions have to be; how rehearsed (but not *too* rehearsed) fun, engaging, educational, and above all - worthwhile. Because schools and libraries work to tight-budgets, and sometimes they're even battling against wider communities and adults who don't yet understand the value and importance of investing in nurturing a love of reading in children, at all ages. 

Highly-highly recommend 'Raising Readers' for everyone and anyone who thinks that a world full of well-read kids engaged with their imagination and empathy is in everyone's best interests! 

5/5

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'The Last Widow' Will Trent #9 by Karin Slaughter

From the BLURB:

The routine of a family shopping trip is shattered when Michelle Spivey is snatched as she leaves the mall with her young daughter. The police search for her, her partner pleads for her release, but it's as if she disappeared into thin air.

A month later, on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, medical examiner Sara Linton is at lunch with her boyfriend Will Trent, an agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. But the serenity of the summer's day is broken by the wail of sirens.

Sara and Will are trained to run towards an emergency, not away from it. But on this one terrible day that instinct betrays them. Within hours the situation has spiralled out of control. And the fallout will lead them into the Appalachian mountains, to the terrible truth about really happened to Michelle, and to a remote compound where a radical group has murder in mind ...

‘The Last Widow’ is the ninth book in Karin Slaughter’s ongoing crime-thriller series, ‘Will Trent’.

It has been three years since we got a new ‘Will Trent’ instalment – and truth be told, last book ‘The Kept Woman’ didn’t quite tide me over satisfactorily. It read like a filler-book in the series, with little progress or advancement for the characters and their relationships – which is the whole reason I keep coming back to Slaughter, for the relationship of Will Trent and ‘Grant County’ expat, Sara Linton.

Well, I am happy to report that ‘The Last Widow’ left me a lot more satisfied – but also built my hunger and renewed my interest in this series overall, to the point where I know that I’m going to be painfully desperate for the tenth book  – which will probably be another three years coming!

Slaughter is very clever in how she sets up the parameters of this story – which hinges on an upcoming catastrophic event that none of our players know precisely what it is, only that it’s coming. There’s a countdown that the timeline hinges on, and from the get-go Slaughter uses it to set up the personal fractions and factions within the series world too.

We see a small window of time from both Sara and Will’s perspectives – the calm before the story – as they respectively deal with nuances in their relationship within an ordinary day. What’s brilliant is that we get the internals from both of them and see the same scene play out from both their perspectives – to realise that Will and Sara are currently out-of-step in their relationship, without even realising it. This is characterisation minutiae, and it’s Slaughter at her absolute best – because these small details will echo throughout the book, until they become loud as church-bells by the end.

From there, the book picks up a frenetic pace and a chilling whodunit – the crux of which I don’t want to give too much away, because it’s a great premise and plot for the entire book. You’d think a storyline like this when Will and Sara are on rocky ground, would further fracture them for readers but it actually does the opposite – solidifying their relationship, and what’s to come in the series.

I’ll only say that ‘The Last Widow’ is a book of the times. Slaughter has done her research – as always – but in doing so she’s looked into the dark-heart of the current American political and social climate, and it’s nor pretty. This book deals with Neo-Nazi’s, domestic terrorism and homebred militia. It’s honestly one of the most frightening scenarios and back-stories Slaughter has hit on in recently memory, for the very fact that it feels uncomfortable contemporary;

From what Faith could tell, most of the men were just looking for a reason to camp out, get away from their wives, and pretend they were more important than their actual lives as accountants or used car salesman would indicate. The more dangerous factions were steeped in the theories of the Posse Comitatus, who believed that the government should be violently overthrown and returned to white Christian men.
Apparently, they lacked access to photographs of the majority of the United States Congress, the president, the cabinet, and most of the judges packed onto state and federal courts.

Amidst all this are Sara and Will, caught up in these factions with far-right extremists – though I won’t say how. I will however, say that what Slaughter illuminates on the true-background of such groups is terrifying. And it essentially boils down to; war breeds home-grown terrorists. There is a direct correlation, in fact, between white nationalist domestic terrorists and those with US military-backgrounds; men who come home from war feeling disenfranchised, broken, and discarded by their government – who have seen up close how grassroots terrorist organisations work from their fighting abroad, then apply those “lessons” to their own disillusionment and anger. And the fact that the US Government knows about this correlation – a comprehensive report was gathered in 2009, but “conservative politicians and media outlets jumped on the report,” the backlash was so severe DHS publicly apologized for the report and dismantled the team responsible for tracking far-right threats.

This is the breeding ground for bad-guys in ‘The Last Widow’, and it sees Sara go toe-to-toe with a Neo-Nazi militiaman;

She asked, “You ever notice how George Clooney never goes around telling people how handsome he is?”
Dash raised his eyebrows, expectant.
“It makes me curious – if you’re really a patriot, do you have to put it in your name?”
Dash chuckled, shaking his head. “I wonder, Dr. Earnshaw, if I was a writer, how would I descrive you in a book?”
Sara had read books by men like Dash. He would list the colour of her hair, the size of her breasts and the shape of her ass.

There are so many little asides throughout this book, when Slaughter absolutely goes to town on the likes of khaki-clad Charlottesville Nazis, and media pundits who think racism should be given parity. It’s delicious, sinister, sometimes overwhelming but so very accurate as to be remarkable. This is Slaughter at the top of her game – taking the real world and distorting it with just enough truth to make the crime-thriller notes that most more astute.

‘The Last Widow’ was an absolute thrill from beginning to end – but the characterisations within are also bang on, and the best they’ve been in the ‘Will Trent’ series for a while now (certainly since Sara and Will solidified their romantic relationship.)

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This is Karin Slaughter at her very best, and I just want more.

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'Things Without a Name' by Joanne Fedler

From the BLURB:

At 34, Faith has given up on love. Her cleavage is disappointing, her best friend is clinically depressed and her younger sister is getting breast implants as an engagement present. She used to think about falling in love, but that was a long time ago. Having heard one too many love-gone-wrong stories from the other side of her desk, Faith is worn thin by her work as a legal counsellor in a women’s crisis centre. Then one night, an odd twist of fate brings her to a suburban veterinary clinic where she wrings out years of unshed tears. It is a night that will slowly change the way she sees herself and begin the unearthing of long-buried family secrets so she can forgive herself for something she doesn’t remember, but that has shaped her into the woman she is today. Faith will finally understand what she has always needed to know: that before you can save others, you have to save yourself.

‘Things Without a Name’ is the 2008 novel by Joanne Fedler.

This novel was gifted to me and I really didn’t know what to expect, but I ended up *inhaling* it in about two-days, and now I’m looking around for anything and everything else the author has written!

First of all: this is not an ‘easy’ novel. Protagonist Faith is a woman dramatically altered by two deaths that book-ended her childhood. When we meet her, Faith is in her 30s and working as a legal counsellor at a women's rape and domestic abuse agency. And despite everything in her life pointing her to the contrary, Faith is still a woman who believes in love and the ability for one’s fortunes to change … which is exactly what happens when a strange sequence of events turns her world upside down.

Beyond seeing this as a ‘Women’s Fiction’ offering, I was really surprised at the heights and depths ‘Things Without a Name’ took me to. On the one hand it is a deeply moving and serious literary fiction novel, but on the other there is romance, a certain gossamer lightness, openness and hope that I think makes it a wonderful general-fiction offering.

For these reasons, I actually found Joanne Fedler to be reminiscent of Jodi Picoult for me – not necessarily in the voice and style of writing, but in the way they both take the personal and political to weave an incredible story. And the same way Picoult immerses herself in research for her books, I was impressed (but not in the least bit surprised) to learn of Fedler’s background as a volunteer legal counsellor at People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA) before setting up and running a legal advocacy centre to end violence against women. She was also appointed by the then Minister for Justice to sit on a project committee of the Law Commission to design new domestic violence legislation.

That this is Fedler’s life absolutely sings through the story – sometimes in sombre tones, and then occasionally with a piercingly lovely tune. There is a tenderness and rawness to this story that I so appreciated;

I fantasized that by the time my little girl was a teenager, violence against women, like concentration camps and gas chambers, would be a shameful nightmare of history, a phase we’d look back on with lofty ‘it’s- hard-to-believe’s’ and ‘how-did-society-allow-it-to-happen’s?
At times it feels like we are circling the same hopeless strategies, never making it through this particular circle of hell.

And it makes the love within resonate that much louder and lovelier, because it’s hard-won for Faith and readers alike.

I’m going to pass this book around to friends and family, and hope they get the same jolt out of it that I did. A somewhat unassuming story – as some of the best ones are – that shook me and reassembled me in the best possible way. Magnificent.

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5/5

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'Storm Cursed' Mercy Thompson, #11 by Patricia Briggs

From the BLURB: 

My name is Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman, and I am a car mechanic. And a coyote shapeshifter . . . And the mate of the Alpha of the Columbia Basin werewolf pack. 

Even so, none of that would have gotten me into trouble if, a few months ago, I hadn't stood upon a bridge and taken responsibility for the safety of the citizens who lived in our territory. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. It should have only involved hunting down killer goblins, zombie goats and an occasional troll. Instead, our home was viewed as neutral ground, a place where humans would feel safe to come and treat with the fae. 

The reality is that nothing and no one is safe. As generals and politicians face off with the Gray Lords of the fae, a storm is coming and her name is Death. 

But we are pack, and we have given our word. We will die to keep it.

'Storm Cursed' is the eleventh (!!!!) book in Patricia Brigg's 'Mercy Thompson' series. 

Following on from 'Silence Fallen', 'Storm Cursed' is all about Mercy and the pack readjusting to a new world order in which Fae are public and deadly; but a coven of witches coming to town and wreaking havoc provides a sinister distraction for the entire Tri Cities area ... 

I really liked this storyline, straight off the bat. I hate, hate, HATE the Fae stuff and I was glad to see Briggs largely put that gangly, cumbersome back-story aside and focused on introducing a one-off "big bad" in the form of this witch coven. I especially liked this "episodic" supernatural quandary for Mercy and the gang, because it pulled in the vampires too - and everyone's favourite Stefan actually makes a satisfactory appearance! 

Yes, this instalment still feels like "filler" (as have the last four or so Mercy books of late) and Briggs is clearly still beholden to somehow making the Fae stuff work as the next story-arc even though it's dull, silly, and I still don't feel like I know any of the players or particularly care about them. 

But 'Storm Cursed' gave good pack interactions (though many of our fave werewolf regulars are missing, and the timeline slightly threw me - Mercy at one point has a chat with one of the pack about how she's still adjusting to Christy not being Adam's wife and I thought ... HOLD UP, haven't Adam and Mercy been married for an AGE by now?!) 

So, yes - this is a "filler" book but it's a largely enjoyable one ... even as I'm becoming increasingly worried about how much this series feels like its spinning its wheels. 

I'm having an increasingly mercurial relationship with Mercy Thompson. We're 11 books in now, which is around the time that I bailed out of Laurell K. Hamilton's 'Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter' and J.R. Ward's 'Black Dagger Brotherhood' series - which like Mercy, are all in the paranormal/urban fantasy realms. And the reason I left those two series (which are still ongoing) was becoming the same issue I found myself having with Briggs' Mercy .... namely; that the series had no end in sight (Briggs has also basically said she'll keep writing them as long as they keep selling and the publisher keeps asking for more) and it's a noticeable drop-off from where the series started out with tight storytelling, characterisation and a general sense of goal-posts being set up, and eventually reached. 

The main issue with Mercy is her romance with alpha werewolf Adam Hauptman was SUCH a huge part of the early books, and since their marriage it feels like they (and readers) are in stasis. I always state that I don't believe babies make for Happily Ever After, and that's the case here too - I don't feel the need for Mercy to be barefoot and pregnant for her story to take on gravitas and meaning - but each new instalment has them with fewer and fewer interactions (indeed, book #10 was literally all about Mercy being kidnapped and Adam working to save her - they were separated for the entire book) and it's what I miss most about those early books, was their general banter, heat and *togetherness*. 

I will say that this eleventh book does a much better job of giving us Adam and Mercy's marriage and more daily interactions - but I still feel like Briggs hasn't quite got back the *intimacy* of Adam and Mercy, or their heat. 

I keep coming back to this series for the relationships - and largely the relationship of Mercy and Adam - but it hasn't been clicking for me for about four books now, and I'm getting worried.

4/5

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‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ by Sarah J. Maas - a cautionary review

From the BLURB:

Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ...

Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

The start of a sensational romantic fantasy trilogy by the bestselling author of the Throne of Glass series.

‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ is the first book in an erotic adult fantasy series by US author Sarah J. Maas that has long been miscategorised as young adult fiction … which is the whole reason I’m writing this review/caution.

Look. I wasn’t going to do this. Sarah J. Maas has been around for a long time now – since her debut novel ‘Throne of Glass’ came out in 2012, and ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ released in 2015 – and the issues I’m about to detail have been discussed ad nauseam and probably by more qualified people than me, since then.

Long-time readers of this blog may have also noticed that I don’t really do “take down” reviews anymore – not that I ever did (that was never my thing) but I read a few truly abysmal books in my time and gave them 1 and 2-starratings accordingly, and always justifying my ranking. Sometimes I’d be so disgruntled with a truly terrible book that I’d take it one step further – vis-à-vis my ‘The Anita Blake 'Hit List' Drinking Game’ to mark my officially breaking off with a series that I felt was punishing me as a reader. But never take-down reviews for the sake of it.

But since becoming an author and literary agent myself, I am much more careful with the privilege and “power” I wield (or am perceived to), especially in the Australian books industry. Look; I do not have tickets on myself, but I am especially aware that Australia is a small industry and so is youth literature globally to some degree – so I have no interest in needlessly hurting those for whom I am working in the same small fishpond, or burning bridges in my own backyard. Basically – I step a little more carefully nowadays.

All that being said – I’m writing this because there is no way me sharing an honest review of Sarah J. Maas is going to damage her juggernaut of a brand. She’s a NYT-bestseller and will continue to be for the rest of time, it seems.

This also isn’t intended to be a “take down” on her either.

But I did want to put *something* out there on ‘my solo book club’ blog about Sarah J. Maas and my first encounter with this author … because I’ve put off reading her for a long time, and largely because I didn’t like the things I was hearing about her from other people.

But then I decided that it was high-time I jumped in and gained first-hand knowledge of her series and the problems surrounding it being labelled YA, and I put it out there on my Instagram (via stories) my reading it, and offering but a *hint* of the issues I was having, and … people came into my DMs. Parents, teachers, librarians, guardians – gatekeepers –who had 10, 11, and 12-years-old who were reading or had read Sarah J. Maas and they had no idea what was wrong with the books (because there is a *lot* wrong with them) and they wanted me to explain a little more clearly.

And just a P.S. – normally when talking about youth literature the term “gatekeepers” has weirdly negative connotations, like all librarians are prudish and burning copies of Twilight around a book-banning bonfire … no. That’s not what I mean when I use the term, and I wish we had a better one; henceforth when I write “gatekeepers” I mean those who have a vested interest in what young people are reading, and who want to connect young people with the best books for them.

So I’m writing this review – this “caution” if you will – on the off-chance that some people with young children in their lives may be wanting a little more detail around these books. And specifically; why I think these books are outright harmful for tween readers, and the damage that lazy metadata and marketing could be doing by putting these books in young people’s hands.

So with that in mind;

This series is adult fantasy erotica – not YA – and the publisher should do better

Let’s get this out of the way from the get-go because I don’t know that I’ve ever encountered a book with more murky metadata (a set of data that describes and gives information about other data – basically how books are sold on the back-end to retailers and online marketing places, it’s the categories that determine how a book will be sold, and shelved in libraries etc.)

This series is not YA. It’s adult. But it is marketed as being ‘for children’ – and that’s the fault of the publisher, Bloomsbury  

Exhibit A:

This is a screenshot from the official Bloomsbury (AU) website, and how they categorise ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’.

They label it under ‘Children's > Books for teens 11+’ in two locations on the website, and they also brand it as “Bloomsbury YA”. None of this is clear: books for 11+ are middle-grade (which is a readership for 8-12 year-olds) YA is for 13+.

So even that category “teens 11+” makes ZERO sense; 11-year-olds are not teenagers. Do … do I need to draw a diagram? And on the off-chance someone is reading this and thinking; “great, but MY kid is an advanced reader and very mature for their age,” – to you I’d say, cool. Great story. Happy for you and your kid. But categories are not designed for the exception; they are designed to set the ground-rules.

So it’s concerning and disturbing that the publisher of the Harry Potter series has this so, SO backwards.

Their categories are wrong. They just are. But they are leaders in this market and Sarah J. Maas is just one example of how they’re doing a lot of damage by making deliberately murky age-ranges that do a disservice to readers and the gatekeepers who are trying to give them the best and most appropriate books for them. 

Exhibit B:

It’s not until you scroll all the way down to the blurb, that you see one little note of apprehension at the bottom of the synopsis: “Contains mature content. Not suitable for younger readers.”

Not good enough.

“Not suitable for younger readers” and yet you market is as being for 11+?

You know one real easy way to clear this all up?

Mark it as adult-fiction. Because that’s what it is.  

I’m not going to pretend to have any “insider knowledge” as to why Bloomsbury would so wildly miscategorise these books and this author as being YA when she’s clearly writing adult content. I’ve not read Maas’ original series, ‘Throne of Glass’ but I assume that one started out YA and they were looking for “brand” consistency?

Which – if that’s the case – is gross. Them trying for brand consistency should not become the burden of readers and gatekeepers, which is exactly what’s happening here. I’m sure many gatekeepers whose job it is to put good books in young reader’s hands have probably been led to believe that Maas’ series is fine – they’re for teenagers aged 11+, awesome! But Bloomsbury choosing branding over honesty creates backlash for those gatekeepers who are just trying to do their job, and help readers connect with good books *for them*.

I could also speculate wildly and say they did it in a sleazy cash-grab attempt. Marketing something as YA when it’s really adult-content ensures you get the best of both worlds, to a degree – starting with readers as young as 10 (which – yes, I’ve heard of 10-year-olds reading Sarah J. Maas) as well as all adult readers. Bigger age-range means bigger audience and more sales, maybe?

But as to why these books are most definitely not for “teenagers 11+”...

UPDATE: since posting this something has changed on the Bloomsbury AU website - the '11' age-category has disappeared. But as you can see - it was there from the screenshots I took. The fact also still remains that this is an adult series being labeled as YA. 

Maybe the miscategorising of Maas is misogyny?

Y’know what? Entirely possible!

Mya Nunnally wrote a great piece for BookRiot earlier this year; ‘There's a Weird, Sexist Problem in Fantasy That We Need to Talk About’

In this, Nunnally basically unpacks and asks why the assumption is always that fantasy with sex and romance is *for girls* - and it probably comes down to certain genres having perceived less value (like, romance – and also, YA) and keeping female authors in an almost nurturing/mothering role of being “for children” rather than letting them own sexual agency and placing them in adult fiction (as well as this attempt to keep “proper” fantasy as being “for men”).

But it could also go deeper – like why does YA fantasy for girls get explicit sex scenes, and are we just too comfortable with sexualising young girls from an increasingly earlier age? Why can’t female fantasy heroes have a journey without men and a heteronormative sexual awakenings?!

All of these are very relevant questions and discussions – and they could very well apply to Sarah J. Maas, which is something Nunnally certainly thinks.

But it doesn’t negate the fact that Bloomsbury messed up, and are continuing to – … and maybe it’s also largely because YA female authors make bank, and they’re not going to ever course-correct when Sarah J. Maas is currently one of the most prolific and saleable authors around, even if it means feeding largely sexually inappropriate content to majority young girls?

Age Matters – children’s fiction, young adult, new adult and adult fiction

First of all – protagonist Feyre is 19-years-old when the book begins. She is hunting for her family’s dinner most nights, has already dealt with the loss of one parent, and is open about having been in a mature sexual and casual relationship for about one year when the book begins.

Now, making Feyre 19-years-old is a little bit canny … she’s still technically a teenager. But only for one more year, right? After that she’ll be a fully-fledged adult, no ‘teen’ to it.

Maybe this was Bloomsbury and Maas hedging their bets again to start the series out on a YA platform for consistency in her author profile. Maybe?

And given that Maas’s debut launched in 2012, I’m also going to bet she was around during the murky time of publishers trying to make ‘New Adult’ a relevant sub-category readership; another stepping-stone between YA and adult fiction (for more on this, read a Kill Your Darlings freelance piece I wrote back in 2013; ‘Adults: Young and New’) the main thing you need to know though – is that Fifty Shades of Grey was largely responsible for getting the conversation started around a possible need for ‘New Adult’; that marked a distinct difference from YA for the mature sexual content especially, and a move away from high school settings into university campuses etc.

What really matters in the end though, is that by its content – what Sarah J. Maas has written is for adults, not teenagers and definitely not children.

This is an adult erotic fantasy series – and that’s an issue when girls as young as 10 are reading it

I have no problem with sex in young adult literature.

I just want to make this clear – that my issue with Maas and this series does not lie in a prudish wish for all YA literature to be “clean teen”.

I have no problem with sex in YA, because sex in YA *always* serves a purpose. It has to – because you’re writing for a very specific audience who are at various levels and understanding and awakening within their own lives.

Sexual content is most thoughtfully conceived and laboured over in the YA readership and the romance genre than any other category of publishing – I’m going to say. Because authors in both readerships and genres (and especially that intersection of YA romance) understand the power they yield.

Nobody is having more discussions around consent and the #MeToo movement impacting literature than romance authors, for instance; ‘The Romance Novelist’s Gude to Hot Constent’ – dives into this brilliantly, discussing how the romance genre always has to reflect modern society and changing social-norms back to their largely female readers, to respect their agency. Romance is a feminist genre because it’s women writing about women for women, and it’s largely all about centring female pleasure and observing sex and relationships through the female gaze (prime example: Outlander, something else I’ve written about in the past).  

Young adult literature, likewise, understands that it’s being read by a very impressionable audience – never more so than when sex is involved. And of course it has to be; because YA’s job is (much like romance) to reflect modern-day and social norms back to its readers … and hey: NEWSFLASH! Teens have sex. They think about sex. It doesn’t mean they’re going to *do* sex, but they’re certainly starting to think about it and explore their bodies and their desires.

For that reason – young adult authors wield sexual encounters in their fiction very carefully.

And while I’m a big believer in “just because teens are reading about it, doesn’t mean they’re going to do it” – I do want to make clear that YA authors know there are *some* exceptions. Like suicide – and if you need any clearer an example of miscategorising and misunderstanding target audience and content, look no further than the toxic depravity of the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why – and a recent study from the National Institute of Mental Health, which proved that dire warnings around Netflix’s sloppy portrayal of youth suicide had real-world consequences;

The study stated that “13 Reasons Why” was “associated with a 28.9% increase in suicide rates among U.S. youth ages 10-17 in the month (April 2017) following the show’s release, after accounting for ongoing trends in suicide rates.”

Similarly – those who work with young people know that portrayals of sex and sexual relationships can have undercurrents to the real-world, and how young people form their ideas and desires.

Again – ‘Sex in YA’ is something else I’ve written about for The Stella Prize, when I interviewed a number of Australian YA authors and asked them how they tackle the responsibility of writing sex and sexual encounters very seriously. I particularly liked what author Fiona Wood had to say;

“It’s important to me to present some positive representations of sex and sexuality to the readers. The sad truth is that casual sexism, objectification and crimes of sexual violence are permanent fixtures on the girl-radar. Misogynistic images and messages are prolific and unavoidable. Social media comes with its own set of problems. But fiction can offer some sane counterbalance: young women characters with agency, self-respect, and equal rights to pleasure, to initiating sex, to saying yes or no to sex. I want to show sexual experience in the context of individual identity, not as a stepping stone to happily ever after.”

For all these reasons and more, I want to be clear when I say; I don’t believe that ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ is romance. I think it’s erotica, and there’s a difference.

Romance = Novels of this type of genre fiction place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.

Erotica = comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of human sexual relationships which have the power to or are intended to arouse the reader sexually.

There is a difference between portraying “relationship and romantic love” and largely focusing on “accounts of human sexual relationships”.  And I think ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ largely does the latter (though sub out "human" for "fae" - same thing!) 

The brutal sex

When I started sharing that I was reading ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ on my Insta-stories, I had more than one person come into my DM’s to see if I was aware of a little game the Internet likes to play with Sarah J Maas books … the game is to pick a passage from any given book and have someone guess if said passage is a sex-scene, or a bear attack.

And reader, having now read this book and started the second – I can assure you … it’s not always clear.

Example:

I cried out as his teeth clamped onto the tender spot where my neck met my shoulder. I couldn’t move—couldn’t think, and my world narrowed to the feeling of his lips and teeth against my skin. He didn’t pierce my flesh, but rather bit to keep me pinned. The push of his body against mine, the hard and the soft, made me see red—see lightning, made me grind my hips against his. I should hate him—hate him for his stupid ritual, for the female he’d been with tonight … 

This reads like erotica, to me. And possibly an erotic bear attack? 

And maybe I can justify that as titillating on one level, because I’m a grown-ass 32-year-old woman.

But I know of kids as young as 10 who are reading this. And mostly, tween girls. And they’re having it presented to them as one of the complex romantic entanglements Feyre finds herself in in this series.

That’s a problem for me that I can’t forgive. Because as others have pointed out – the consent in this series is murky as all get out.

Blogger Tiff of ‘Mostly YA Lit’ has got a *wonderful* summary of her issues with the sexual violence within Maas’s book, and I highly recommend you go and read; ‘Sexual Violence, Bad Boys And A Court Of Thrones And Roses’ because that’s it, EXACTLY!

‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ is basically trying to be a fae-version of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ retelling – without any attempts to interrogate the most disturbing aspects of that fairytale (mainly; consent, stockholm syndrome, and the “alluring misogyny” of a captor/captive “romance”).

I can also say that I’ve started reading second book ‘A Court of Mist and Fury’ and 24-pages in there’s already been a very explicit sex scene. How explicit, you may want to know?

Well you determine if this is something a 10-year-old girl will be able to comfortably fathom and read;

Before I could answer, he nipped at my breast, then licked over the small hurt – licked as his fingers at last dipped between my legs. He stroked lazy, taunting circles. “No,” I gasped out. “But I don’t want people …” Cauldron boil me, his damned fingers – “I don’t know if I can handle them calling me High Lady.”

His fingers slid into me again, and he growled in approval at the wetness between my thighs, both from me and him. “They won’t,” he said against my skin, positioning himself over me again and sliding down my body, trailing kisses as he went. “There is no such thing as a High Lady.”

Does that read like it’s for “teenagers 11+”?

Because according to Bloomsbury and barring a small note about “Contains mature content. Not suitable for younger readers.” – it is.

I take issue with this series being read by a disproportionately large female audience under the age of, say, 15. It presents murky consent, rough sex, and an abundance of sex that is really the only motivation and purpose of the female protagonist’s story.

To End

I’m continuing to read this series not because I’m enjoying it – truly; the writing is mediocre at best, downright dull at worst – but because I had no idea of the harm it was perpetuating in the readership, and how rapidly it has distorted youth lit categories.

Maas is writing this series for adults, but I know that kids as young as 10 are reading it – and gatekeepers doing their due-diligence would see Bloomsbury metadata and think that was okay. It’s for those “teenagers 11+” after all.

But I’m going to say that ‘common sense media’ are edging closer to the true age-range as starting at 15+ (even though the issues of consent and rough sex still have me firmly labelling it as adult fiction, not anywhere close to YA).

This a series of flabby writing and lumpy plotting, poor representation and damaging sexual boundaries, particularly for female characters and readers – I cannot wrap my head around anyone younger than 15 reading it, and if you’re an adult on the fence as to whether or not you should be concerned that a young person in your life has delved into this murky world … I’d suggest you be very wary indeed.

1/5

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