This Isn't So Much Beef But When I Was Back In School We Read The Book Unwind And We Got To The Part

i went to the YA section several years ago since i needed a book to read to pass some time. there was this one called "the border" that had a nice looking cover that i ended up buying (was a good choice for me specifically since it taught me a few things about immigration that i had never exposed myself to, though i don't recommend it otherwise. like, at all.). the only female protagonist offered to show her tits to a kid so he'd buy her something from the corner store, and did the same thing for the main protag in the middle of the desert because she liked him(??? they were both teens, but it was still strange). ended up looking up the author years later, and yes, it is a grown ass man. the A in YA stands for AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH??????

Sometimes I think we need to ban grown men from writing teen girls. I've never seen a demographic so convinced that sexualizing children is super normal and okay

If y'all look around hard enough on tumblr (or just happen to come across it with no effort whatsoever) you will find my old blogs.

If you do find these blogs, I want to say, loud and clear: I AM NOT THAT PERSON ANYMORE!!!!

I know that I said some awful, stupid shit. I fell for some dumbshit propaganda and came dangerously close to being radicalized. The anti-sjw stuff sucked me in hard.

And I am fucking ashamed of it. I wish I could hide it away and pretend it never happened. But it's better to own up to who I was. I like to think that I was better than a lot of the people in the anti-sjw crowd, and I was very willing to call out the worst ones. But that doesn't make my old views any better. It doesn't excuse them.

I sucked.

And I'm sorry.

One piece of Avatar lore I don't quite believe is that most avatars don't learn they're the avatar until they're told on their 16th birthday.

like, POV you're some Earth Kingdom kid who knows the previous Water Tribe avatar died suspiciously close to the time you were born. You CANNOT tell me that that entire class-year of starry bright-eyed children doesn't spend every waking moment trying to prove they're the avatar. "Shut up Hang Lee you're not the avatar I'M the avatar. That stream just moved toward me." "Nuh-uh a fish did that and Avatar Tepek died on the summer solstice and YOU'RE a winter baby." "All the seasons are opposite in the water tribe Hang Lee!" "Nuh-uh"

You're 8 years old with all your other 8-year-old friends at your first day of How To Throw A Rock Class you CANNOT tell me that every kid present doesn't waste half the class trying to catch grass on fire with all the sincerity and conviction of a gas station hopeful snagging a mega-millions lotto ticket with their Mars bar and $30 gas fill-up.

I have no idea how old your book rant post is, but here I am, about to be your problem

I HATED THE SUNBEARER TRIALS

Yeah, okay cool, it’s a book with a trans author and trans main character. EVERYTHING ELSE WAS TRASH

It starts off great, with the MC graffitiing (spelling???) a wall with two birds and then he never does anything interesting again in favor of pining over/think about/hate a guy from his childhood that was mean to him once ten years ago. Before you go thinking the MC’s hatred of him is justified, just know all that is because the guy pulled a mean girls and said YOU CANT SIT WITH US a literal decade ago.

His best friend is a part of a group he hates, but it’s okay because she’s one of the good ones

And now: The cardinal sin

THIS BOOK IS MARKETED AS PERCY JACKSON MEETS THE HUNGER GAMES YET HAS NO CHARACTER DEATHS AT ALL AND SAYS **** IN THE FIRST LINE

WHO IS THIS FOR????????

I adore Hunger Games, but I mean it when I say that if I could travel back in time to stop those books from ever being published, I would do it in a heartbeat just so I would never have to see a book marketed as "X meets Hunger Games" ever again.

If you put even the slightest hint of competition in a YA or YA-adjacent book, it gets called Hunger Games. I could write a full rip-off of Bring It On, but the competition element would guarantee that it would be marketed as an HG style book.

The same thing happens with Mean Girls. Does your book have teenage or early 20s girls being in proximity to each other? Well it's Mean Girls now.

And it's really not doing these books any favors. Cause people pick them up expecting something in line with the brutality and messaging of HG, and end up disappointed as hell when that's not what they get.

I think publishing houses might actually be my mortal enemy

⬆️ Me fighting publishers for all the bs they pull (especially Red Tower - hate them)

Hey guys. Sorry, but I am not feeling well tonight. I'm not horribly sick or anything, no need to worry. But I won't be streaming tonight. I know I said I'd be back on tonight after missing last night, but please give me one more chance and I promise I'll be back to it tomorrow

If I ever have to read The Catcher In The Rye again I will set it and myself on fire, it is the second worst thing I've ever read, right next to the first ten pages of Fahrenheit 451. There was absolutely nothing to that book, so substance, no stakes, not even an interesting slice-of-life story, just a meandering nothing that had no incentive to finish it besides "we're reading it out loud in class and your grade counts on suffering through it."

Holden Caulfield is the worst protagonist I've ever had to sit through, he's not even tolerable levels of teen brooding or the type that just needs some guidance and he'll be okay, he's just a judgemental pathetic asshole determined to keep his pity party going way past its due date because the world is so DARK and CRUEL and kids are so INNOCENT MOM you just don't understand how INNOCENT they are GOD (I will fight anyone who says "oh but depression" because he is NOT an accurate representation of depression- he may show signed of being depressed but he's an asshole and they are not synonymous)

I just couldn't root for this guy! I genuinely did not care what happened to him! I've had to read a nice few books I didn't particularly enjoy, but I could always find *someone* to root for, *something* to keep me going, but Catcher In The Rye? Nothing. The book could have ended with Holden choosing to live under the bridge like a troll and I wouldn't have cared.

And no I don't care if "the point is that it has no point" it's dumb and I hate it.

Anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk

I got Catcher in the Rye the last time too. You went much more into detail, though, which I always love to see. Your anger is mine now

I will be streaming State of Decay 2 tonight.

I don’t know exactly what time. I had planned to start streaming earlier than this, but my dinner order arrived super late, so whenever I’m done eating I’ll post a time to start on here.

In other news, I have been reading through the 3 hour (!!!) gaylor powerpoint, and it is beautifully unhinged and ridiculous. It's perfect. No notes. Delusional masterpiece

hello there, just wanted to say I just followed you FOR THE JUICY DELICIOUS BOOK RANTS hae a good day, evening, or whatever time it is when you read it <3

Thank you!!

The book rants are delicious. I love them.

Also, sorry to everyone that I have been neglecting them lately. I accidentally let them build up a bit and got a little intimidated by how many there are. I'm going through them, though, and should have them responded to within the next few days