I don't think I'm going to be able to reference Twilight here...

I am not even sure where to start with these two books. I want to fit both of them in here somehow. I LOVED both of them.
I'll start with Frankie because I read her first. I found her so relatable and smart. I wish I had been that confident as a teenager, (hell, I'm not that confident now). It's easy to get caught up in wanting to prove yourself to people who aren't worth it and I think that was Frankie's only real problem (obviously a problem necessary to the plot). She felt the need to remain in that inner circle but knew being herself around them would cause her to be ostracised.
Although, I did find myself wishing she would create a girls only organization where she lead the girls to do the cool pranks. And, I sorta I wanted her to end up with Alpha, even though I think he was a jerk. I am not sure why they called her psycho at the end, it was brilliant--I didn't find any of it particularly crazy.

It may be because I read "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian" more recently, but I think I liked it a little bit more than Frankie. (What's with the crazy long titles? I'm not even sure I'm getting them right, but I don't feel like googling them right now) I loved Junior. I laughed and cried throughout the book, cliche but true. I cried on the F train and I am sure I looked very strange. I think what was so great about him was that he was so self-aware. He knew his flaws and he knew what it meant to be Indian and what it meant to leave, but he still had to do it anyway. All these sad things were happening around him but he still managed to try really hard and overcome the obstacles. A lot of people have a lot less hardship and can't get it together to succeed. How many kids would walk that far to school? It was heartbreaking when his grandmother died, (and having been hit by a drunk driver this year I found it doubly upsetting, and that's the part that made me cry).

Look at that, a whole post without Twilight...

You know where to find me...

I really liked "You Know Where to Find Me" but gosh, it made me sad. I kept wanting Laura to be alive, for them to see what was happening and save her. I feel this way about any book or movie where someone dies. I am not very good at letting go of fictional characters. Imagine how this translates into real life. (And, not to dwell on Twilight more than I normally do, but for everyone who hated Breaking Dawn, she would have had to pull a J.K Rowling and kill people for a more believable ending, and dammit, I am attached to those characters, so if it requires a weird out-of-nowhere plot line so be it.)
That being said, Miles annoyed the heck out of me for a lot of the book. Firstly, what possessed her to think Jim would throw her out? She is the closest link left to Laura, and from what we are shown about his character, throwing her out seems like the last thing he would ever do. He even tolerated her father's trailer. Then again she was high most of the time, so perhaps the paranoia was from that.
I liked (in terms of what's good for teens to read, I guess) how Laura seemed to be the one who had everything. Laura was the pretty one, the rich one, the popular one, the smart one who went to the good schools and was going to college. And Miles was the one who (in teenage land) had nothing, but Miles is the one who is strong enough to step back off the cliff and Laura couldn't stop herself from falling over. That's probably something everyone needs to realize, adults and teens, sometimes it's not about how you look or who people think you are, it's about what it feels like.
As sad as it made me that Laura couldn't be saved, it made me equally happy that Miles seemed like she would be. And, it was also good that she got to see that people really did care about her. It seemed realistic too that Jamal got mad at her and was tired of it, that seems like a very genuine reaction. I think I'd be annoyed if someone I care about was letting themself sink.
I can understand Miles though--I would guess that everyone (especially teenagers) at some point in their lives has felt irrelevant. Hm...maybe not irrelevant, but so insubstantial, like being there or not doesn't matter, no one will miss me when I'm gone. But, that's never true. There's always someone, and it's good that Miles (imperfect as she is) gets to see how many people do care about her. Maybe it could show someone else that someone cares about them too.

I want a tiara!

All I could think in relation to Freak Show was that I often fall for the wrong guys and I'm 27 and straight. I wonder what sort of message a book about a gay teenager is sending, when it suggests that IF you fall for the hot football star, maybe if you are interesting enough he will fall for you too. I know there are a lot of people in the closet, and I am sure there's a chance that real people like Flip do exist, but I'm not sure I bought it.
I KNOW I said before that I am all for the suspension of disbelief, but this book seemed to be striving for so much more. I loved that it addressed the way teenagers felt and I even bought it that Flip and Billy had that make-out session (there are very high statistics suggesting that most "straight" guys have had some sort of homosexual encounter, so I totally bought into that scene) and I believed in it when he ran off. Billy, invest in some curtains...
I have a lesbian friend who frequently used to fall for straight girls and she was frequently heartbroken, and then it broke my heart with her, because it ALWAYS sucks when you can't have the person you want, whatever the reasons are. Like I said, I consistently fall for the wrong guys and as far as I know gender was never a factor into why we didn't work out.
I am all for a happy ending, and I was rooting for Billy to teach those jerks in his school a lesson, and I was really glad when he stood up to the guy who attacked him. And I cried when they attacked him and I hated that no one stood up for him or helped him (except of course Flip!) But, I just think Flip underwent quite the transformation that most teenagers wouldn't have had. If they were adults maybe it would have worked for me.
I wanted Billy to get a super hot, nice, cool boyfriend--even Flip but he didn't seem real to me. But all the other teens in the book seemed fairly real to me. They were all petty and had total mob mentality, EXCEPT Flip who was perfect in every way. He never succumbed to peer pressure. Maybe I'm a cynic, but no one is that perfect.

But, I do want a tiara. And, I thought it was adorable when Flip bought Billy one even if I didn't get his character.

New Class, Same Blog, Now with More Twilight

If anyone reads past this blog entry they will see that often my blog was a liar. I have not looked, nor thought about this blog since the class I started it for ended. It was never particularly thematic nor did it go to any great lengths to be very good. (I am writing in a weird tense to take the blame off myself. The blog lied, the blog was not good, not me...sure.)
But clean slate and all that. I will try harder. (Me this time, not the blog.)
Moving on.

Twilight...I LOVE it. I cannot help myself. I do not post to fan forums but I occasionally check them. When I read the books last year I was instantly hooked. I have badgered the majority of my friends into reading them. However, I did hate the movie, it proved to me that despite my love of teenage vampire escapism, I really am 27 years old and it was hard to sit through.

That being said, I also hate close analysis of the storyline and or what it is teaching young girls about relationships. I am sure if I had a boyfriend who confessed to sneaking in through my window I'd be thoroughly creeped out. And, I probably wouldn't enjoy always being told what to do and who she can hang out with the way Bella is. And, there were parts of it that are slightly moralistic and even didactic--SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE WILL DAMN YOU TO HELL. Oops, sorry Edward, if vampires are damned, I'll save you a seat in hell, just in case you ever do get yourself killed (most likely defending Bella, I am unconvinced that someone that unfortunate in life became THE perfect vampire in two hours.)

All of these things aside, I think there is a time and a place to suspend our disbelief and just enjoy a made-up world and a good story. No, Stephenie Meyer isn't the greatest writer on Earth, but neither was J.R.R Tolkien, but most people don't argue all over the place about how people shouldn't read that. It sort of feels sexist, but it's probably not. I'm thinking up conflicting arguments here, and don't feel like following any of them to their logical ends.

When I was reading Twilight I wasn't thinking anything and just being totally engrossed in the story. And, I think that's a good thing and indicative of a good writer. I don't know if it's a classic that will endure for all times, but there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of novels written over that last few hundred years that were wildly popular but have since fallen out of favor...but some haven't.

I'm thinking James Fenimore Cooper, of Last of the Mohegans fame. He was also panned by writers of his day, (Mark Twain--of course he won this battle) and JFC is pretty terrible, but there is a niche for nearly everyone, so why condemn it?

I haven't always been a huge fan of popular fiction, but I see the need it fills and I can't really argue against it anymore. I don't generally read or like the most popular books. But, some I have. This sort of embarrasses me. But, it shouldn't. Life isn't a race to see who can prove their intellectual superiority by reading totally scholarly, obscure fiction. Being entertained has value too.

I'm not sure how much sense this makes. So, in conclusion, I love Twilight and am not embarrassed by it.