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Apr. 20th, 2013 03:15 pmHI. I am so excited about the books I've read that I'm not even gonna wait till my next media consumption post to talk about them: Ultraviolet and Quicksilver by RJ Anderson, the first two books of what looks to be a trilogy or a series, I'm not sure.
Here is what I wrote last night before I went to bed and failed to sleep because I was so wound up with glee:
So do you like YA lit with characters who feel like real people, exciting plots, and authorial sensitivity in spades toward things like mental hospitals and their patients, and OH MY GOD YOU GUYS AN ASEXUAL CHARACTER IN QS!!!! AN ASEXUAL CHARACTER WHOSE SEXUALITY IS TREATED WITH RESPECT THROUGHOUT THE BOOK!!!!!! um and good stuff like that? Then you should read these books. Oh my god, you should read these books. Anderson writes with respect for her characters and her stories and her readers and it shines through. It gives these books a sense of realness that is so often missing from the recent spate of genre YA lit. I can't remember how many times I thought, Wow, that sounds like something a real person would say/think/do. I can't tell you how many times Ultraviolet subverted my expectations about what would happen simply because the characters act like real people instead of like characters acting out the plot. [And the only reason Quicksilver didn't is because I knew to expect better.] I can't tell you how grateful I am to see an asexual character period, let alone one who is written with such care and understanding. I want to read everything this woman has ever written.
Here is a SPOILERIFIC SERIOUSLY SAVE FOR AFTER YOU READ THE BOOKS essay Anderson wrote about the asexual character. (Seriously, there's a reason I'm not using this character's name. That in itself is a spoiler.)
You may also be aware of her from this essay about disablism in children's literature, which seems like something I've seen before but can't remember where. This attitude definitely shines through in the way she deals with the psych patients in Ultraviolet, treating them as kids first and mentally ill kids second.
What's not to love?
Here is what I wrote last night before I went to bed and failed to sleep because I was so wound up with glee:
So do you like YA lit with characters who feel like real people, exciting plots, and authorial sensitivity in spades toward things like mental hospitals and their patients, and OH MY GOD YOU GUYS AN ASEXUAL CHARACTER IN QS!!!! AN ASEXUAL CHARACTER WHOSE SEXUALITY IS TREATED WITH RESPECT THROUGHOUT THE BOOK!!!!!! um and good stuff like that? Then you should read these books. Oh my god, you should read these books. Anderson writes with respect for her characters and her stories and her readers and it shines through. It gives these books a sense of realness that is so often missing from the recent spate of genre YA lit. I can't remember how many times I thought, Wow, that sounds like something a real person would say/think/do. I can't tell you how many times Ultraviolet subverted my expectations about what would happen simply because the characters act like real people instead of like characters acting out the plot. [And the only reason Quicksilver didn't is because I knew to expect better.] I can't tell you how grateful I am to see an asexual character period, let alone one who is written with such care and understanding. I want to read everything this woman has ever written.
Here is a SPOILERIFIC SERIOUSLY SAVE FOR AFTER YOU READ THE BOOKS essay Anderson wrote about the asexual character. (Seriously, there's a reason I'm not using this character's name. That in itself is a spoiler.)
You may also be aware of her from this essay about disablism in children's literature, which seems like something I've seen before but can't remember where. This attitude definitely shines through in the way she deals with the psych patients in Ultraviolet, treating them as kids first and mentally ill kids second.
What's not to love?
