[ SECRET POST #3329 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3329 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 055 secrets from Secret Submission Post #476.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

04. http://i.imgur.com/vZDffwm.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Yawn. There are 20 billion posts on Tumblr like that, and anyone who thinks that's a real problem with YA is either only reading those posts and other derivative articles about YA from people who don't read much of it, or hasn't looked very hard at a real bookshelf. I read almost all YA and I have no problem finding books that aren't like that. I don't get why it seems so hard for y'all...

[shortysc22]

Really, you just have to look inside the shelves as opposed to what they put on the end caps. My problem is that there is so much good YA coming out I don't have nearly enough time to read it all.

[(Anonymous)]

How about some recs for YA without love triangles?

[(Anonymous)]

But it IS a real problem with YA. Just because not all YA fits that definition doesn't mean it's not a problem at all. That's like saying crappy plots aren't a real problem in romance novels because some romance novels are very good. They're not mutually exclusive. You can have good YA... and still have lots of duds with silly love triangles in the genre.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe try scouring bookshelves more instead of just going for what's being marketed/piggybacking off of Hunger Games or other pop-YA. I can't remember the last YA book I read that had a love triangle.

[(Anonymous)]

Hell even Hunger Games didn't focus on the romance. It was a C plot.

[(Anonymous)]

The thing that gets me the most about the Tumblr post is "WHITE GIRL." Because other non-YA fiction is so much better with its white men (and white women if it's romance or "chick lit").

[sabotabby]

Even as a teen girl I couldn't abide love triangles. I don't know anyone who likes them, other than presumably YA authors.

[diet_poison]

I think they're okay if they're not a main plot point, but in general I don't much like them either. I really really like romance, even cliché and tropey romance (as long as it's at least kind of well-written), and I like to see people resolving tension/issues in (pre-)relationships, but not if it's coming from a love triangle.

[ketita]

Same. Plot triangles are the absolute worst. The only one I didn't hate with burning hatred was Macross Frontier, but even that was borderline.

[ninety6tears]

I like them a lot, in theory, because people are human and there's no illusion of "there's one person for everyone." But they're done so repetitively and artificially so much of the time, with too much focus on jealousy and defining a character by their choice of boyfriend, etc. and so often come back around to pushing The One as a thing so that any investment in the other relationship amounts to cheap drama. And I believe it can be done in a way that makes characters flawed but not overly selfish or fickle or unfaithful, but that's not a challenge many writers are focused on.

[(Anonymous)]

I like them in fanfic.

[coffeeyoukai]

I feel you there.

Yadda yadda look harder yadda, but when pulling random books off the library's YA shelf has a 99% chance of landing me something with a cliched love triangle...

[(Anonymous)]

Same. Whenever I see someone defending YA with, "not all YA books are like that it's only a small minority!!" I never understand it because I've honestly never found many YA books that don't fall into the same tired cliche formula. It's not impossible to find good YA books, but it's not as easy as everyone makes it out to be. Idk maybe I just go to shitty bookstores and libraries.

[(Anonymous)]

OK, look, you're not going to like this, but it's the truth.

Big publishers will beat a trope to death. They will keep making authors churn this stuff out until nobody is buying it. And yes, big publishers do often buy what's popular right now...even if it's not very good, just to earn money. Wait, they're greedy assholes? Yes, a lot of times, yes.

If you want original, good storytelling you will SOMETIMES have to leap outside your box and try independent authors. Yes, you might get burned sometimes. But indie authors are far more likely to be willing to try new things, to write the stories they want even if it can't fit into a Hunger Games (etc) mold.

If you want original stories, and want them to succeed, you need to find and support them, not wait for the big publishers to start choosing better content. They most likely won't. They want "the next Harry Potter" or "the next Hunger Games," not small name but original content. They have proven that in the way they treat authors for years.

If the love triangles with a super special white girl sell...then many people will write that. Some will even write it well.

But yeah, I don't even bother with YA anymore because I'm just not interested in a romance with teens.

[(Anonymous)]

I would like to recommend the Poison Study series by Maria Snyder. Small love story. No triangle. Mostly kick ass lady.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh god I read a few of these and ... no. I couldn't get past the spelling and grammar mistakes, and the "oh he's so strict he hates me oops you mean he was hiding the depth of his attraction behind a veneer of snark" love interest. And then it turned into a bunch of them with different female leads but swap the names and they sounded like the same woman.

[iceyred]

Maybe you could ask your local librarian for help instead of bitching about how something you don't like exists. That might help.

[(Anonymous)]

Dude, this is a community about fandom secrets. I'm not sure why you're under the impression that it was a community about legitimate complaints related to fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

Okay. Next time, it will be a young SEA girl. Happy?

[(Anonymous)]

Love triangles and insta love bug me so hard. I love reading YA and I really have to scour the shelves to find something where those tropes didn't play a major part of the story. Very few of the books in the new section don't fall victim to those tropes.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I read somewhere that authors complain that the publisher writes the back blurb, so even if there's no real love triangle or very little love story the back will still read "Jane Everygirl is the only one who can save the world, but before she can save the world she must save her heart! From being ripped in two! Because DARK BROODING boy of her dreams and NICE CLEAN CUT boy of her dreams have each laid claim to it!"

Though I was just thinking the other day, why is a love triangle a love triangle? A triangle has two sides. A love triangle generally just has two. A likes B, and C likes B, but A and C don't like each other. It should be love angle or something. I dunno, but it just seems somewhat confusing.

[(Anonymous)]

YA mainly used to be like this, but in the past 2 years, it has deviated from that and has improved immensely. Compared to other genres, they have the most diverse characters, in terms of gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity. That being said, they still do have problems and I'm sure there are YA books that still follow that kind of format.

Well, yeah.

[(Anonymous)]

They are for the age where people are just starting to figure out love/romance/sex. A lot of young adults are interested in romance in their fiction. I read a lot of adult romance novels as a teen, trying to get my fill. I still like romance in my fiction, though not quite as much and I'd like to think I'm a little more discerning (that could be wishful thinking).