YA Bloggers Want...Fire and Friction: Bookalicious

Pam from Bookalicious is here today to continue the conversation on what YA bloggers want to see on their shelves, and who better to tell us what's hot than a gal with her finger on the pulse of teen lit?

I first met Pam at the Teen Author Carnival event at BEA - she walked right up to me and introduced herself, making me feel completely welcome. Then when she was stopping in Seattle, we met up with blogger Sarah from Sarah's Random Musings and had a lot of fun talking about books. Then Pam surprised and honored me by including TMAS in her fantastic post, When Will I Grow Up and Read Adult Books?

I'm very excited to welcome Pam to my blog!

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There are several things wrong and several things right with the YA book scene at the moment. For one I don't need all the parental hate all the time. Doesn't some teen out there actually like their parents?

I could also do without the love triangle all the time. I get tired of reading one girl with two cookie cutter guys vying for her undying teen love that we all know will last forever anyway right?

The boys in YA have become one dimensional. They are either evil or good, sexy or dorky with no real personality of their own. Just a checklist of stereotypes covered.

I want more action and adventure, I want more books I can recommend to teen boys. I want real love, not some weirdo thing with multiple boys lining up and down the block for our protagonist. Give me fire, friction, and real emotion.

I have a favorite book right now, it's PLAIN KATE by Erin Bow (who has a stripper pole in her office, I mean win right?). It focuses on the character who has a hard life, and an even harder quest. She doesn't fall in love, there are no boys hounding her, she kept my attention without all of that. Check it out!

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Thanks, Pam!

Readers, are you tired of the typical YA conflicts? Love triangles? Parental hatred? One-dimensional characters? Are these staples of teen books easy ways to get the reader sucked into the story, or have they lost meaning? What kind of real emotional experience do you hunger for?

Comment to win real, awesome books! (US only, sorry, wonderful non-US people!)

This What YA Bloggers Want series is in honor of YALSA's Teen Read Week and National Book Month!