Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me

by Carrie Ann DiRisio, Linnea Gear (Illustrator)

Have you ever wished you could receive a little guidance from your favorite book boyfriend? Ever dreamed of being the Chosen One in a YA novel? Want to know all the secrets of surviving the dreaded plot twist?

Or maybe you're just really confused about what "opal-tinted, luminous cerulean orbs" actually are?

Well, popular Twitter personality @broodingYAhero is here to help as he tackles the final frontier in his media dominance: writing a book. Join Broody McHottiepants as he attempts to pen Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me, a "self-help" guide (with activities--you always need activities) that lovingly pokes fun at the YA tropes that we roll our eyes at, but secretly love.

As his nefarious ex, Blondie DeMeani, attempts to thwart him at every turn, Broody overcomes to detail, among other topics, how to choose your genre, how to keep your love interest engaged (while maintaining lead character status), his secret formula for guaranteed love triangle success, and how to make sure you secure that sequel, all while keeping his hair perfectly coiffed and never breaking a sweat.

Genres: Young Adult, Humor, Contemporary, Fiction, Writing, Teen, Romance

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 17, 2017

About the author

Carrie Ann DiRisio is a YA writer and creator of @BroodingYAHero. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with one large fluffy cat, and is currently pursuing her masters in Digital Marketing, although her true dream is to become a Disney Villainess, complete with a really snazzy gown.
In addition to writing and plans for world domination, she also enjoys running, coffee, Krav Maga, and knitting.

Reviews

[Josu Diamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

Me esperaba un libro lleno de comedia y me he encontrado una guía que me ha hecho aprender muchísimo. Claro que es mediante el humor, pero es probablemente lo más original que he leído en años. (Junto quizá, a Libro)

En sí este libro se concibe como una guía para convertirse en personaje principal. Te enseña a seguir paso por paso los clichés más conocidos y repetidos de la literatura juvenil, y por tanto, te hace ver sus fallos y el poco sentido del que muchos de ellos carecen.

De hecho, en muchas ocasiones me he visto sorprendido. He aprendido conceptos que desconocía de la narrativa, nuevas maneras de introducir determinados elementos, pero sobre todo, a comprender que los clichés son un arma de doble filo (que lo sabía, pero no era consciente de lo que realmente trascienden).

La autora mete casi cada página pullas a las machistadas, al patriarcado, a los problemas de representación de razas o incluso personajes de género neutro en novelas juveniles. Es increíble cómo introduce estos temas con humor y a la vez con queja. No sabía que tras la cuenta de Twitter se encontraba alguien con ese pensamiento y estoy super agradecido de que se haya publicado algo así.

Me he reído a carcajadas, he aprendido y además es un libro meta. Juega tanto con el lector y con todo lo que la literatura puede ofrecer que sigo flipando. Una maravilla que recomiendo mucho -aunque he de admitir que hay algunas partes que resultan algo repetitivas. Enjoy!

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 3 out of 5]

Update 12.15.17 → Lowered to 3 stars after rereading excerpts and realizing how incredibly repetitive the writing actually is. :/

---

"Young adult fiction is potential captured and frozen - a bright bolt of lightning caught on the page for everyone to read. It is both universal and incredibly personal, changeable and yet constant."

If you've ever visited the Brooding YA Hero twitter bio, you're already familiar with the snark, irony, and self-aware sense of humor that comes with the writing. This book does not disappoint at all in that sense - it's cute, humorous, and fun from start to finish. It's written like a self-help book, narrated by none other than Broody, the trope-filled YA main character.

"I come from a foreign country that's probably made up, or might as well have been, for all the accuracy of the Author's portrayal."

Carrie Ann DiRisio uses Broody's character as a vehicle to deliver fantastic social commentary on the world of YA writing and the cliches and offenses that its authors so commonly present, and I found myself nodding along, laughing, and saying "yes!" under my breath at least once per chapter.

In between Broody's notes and advice, there are third-person narratives of his gradual character development and frustrations, as well as the occasional snippet from Blondie - his absolutely fantastic ex-girlfriend who's sick and tired of being cast as the villain just because she has great hair and wears heels.

Is this book earth-shattering? No. Does it have an incredibly rich storyline filled with in-depth characters? No. Is it a hilariously fun read that any YA fan should pick up, if for nothing other than the fact that we all need to laugh at ourselves sometimes? ABSOLUTELY.

(Note: If you aren't fluent in sarcasm, you should probably avoid this one like the plague.)

Thank you to Edelweiss and Skypony Press for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest


I bought this a while ago because I used to see RTs from the Brooding YA Hero account on Twitter and they would always make me laugh or smile, so I figured I might as well take my chances on the book, because book adaptations of internet phenomena and memes are always better than the source material. To quote Julia Roberts, "Big mistake. Big. Huge."



Making fun of YA is kind of the low-hanging fruit when it comes to literary parody.  Once something becomes popular, it feels like everyone falls over themselves trying to copy, until, like a Xerox (remember those??), there are so many copies that the trend is completely burnt out to exhaustion and has literally and figuratively become unreadable. BROODING YA HERO seems specifically to be targeting what I call the "Byronic Revival Movement" of the late 2000s/early 2010s, which started with the popularity of Twilight and persisted with love interests from things like Six of Crows or Empire of Storms, with brooding, ridiculous love interests whose sole claim to fame was being a hot bad boy.



BROODING YA HERO is an exhaustive criticism of young adult books, tackling a number of elements that result from frenetic copying of popular trends, lazy writing, and reliance on tropes. Some of the things that are mentioned in here are the fetishization and stereotyping of people of color, the chosen one stereotype in fantasy novels, and the treat-em-mean-to-keep-em-keen style of "wooing" where the love interest often acts in ways that are quite abusive to the heroine and it is accepted that his lack of emotional intimacy is a weakness that should be tacitly understood and accepted and overcome by others because he is worth get to knowing and making the effort for. The author also points out that YA books have a tendency to punish female characters who exhibit agency and confidence (especially sexual confidence), and that most popular heroines typically are either unaware of their appeal, or act as blank slates that exist only to further the hero's narrative arc.



I think all of the criticisms in this book are fair and part of the fun is trying to guess which books in particular that she is making fun of. Sometimes the references are fairly obvious (Twilight, Meg Cabot's Mediator series, etc.), but others are fill-in-the-blanks that you can populate with your fave-to-hates. Where the book really fails in my opinion is the repetitiveness and narrative structure of the book. It's written from Broody McHottiepants's POV, which quickly starts to grate. I had been hoping, when I bought this, that it would be written and constructed in the vein of Sarah Wendell's BEYOND HEAVING BOSOMS, which was a fun criticism of bodice-rippers and romance novels, while also essentially providing a reading list of some of the author's faves, even as it talked about cliches and popular trends that could be a bit ridiculous. This was definitely not that.



I ended up DNF-ing this around the 27% mark during my first read of this book and I can see why.



2 stars

[✨ jami ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh boy, it's here and it's sassy.

list of not so subtly dragged authors
• William Shakespeare
• Stephanie Meyer
• Cassandra Clare
• J.K Rowling
• John Green
• Jane Austen
• AND MORE

So Brooding YA Hero is one of my favourite bookish twitters. The tweets that come out of it are always simultaneously funny and perceptive of the general YA community. I was excited to read this: I expected major sass, a bit of lowkey dragging and tea to be spilt all over the place.

Alone in his room, Broody McHottiepants contemplated his future. He was the best of all fictional characters ever created - that he knew. His phone never stopped ringing (playing his theme song from his latest hit-movie adaptation, of course) with Authors begging him to star in their latest novels. An endlessly talented man, he’d been everything from a vampire to a quarterback. Into each novel, he brought his incredibly adjective-filled beauty, his gemstone colours gaze, his strong, strong arms, and his potent blend of wish-fulfilment and slightly toxic masculinity.

And each time, people swooned.

Brooding YA Hero: Become a Main Character (Almost) As Awesome as me follows the exact same tone of the twitter page, but basically expands itself out to a full book length. I expected something funny, something a little biting and something that pointed out some of the issues with YA.

This book has all that, and surprisingly, has a plot too. Broody McHottiepants, the owner of the twitter, has been feeling neglected as a main character and has decided to share his experiences as a main character by writing a guide for his fellow characters to become a main character. He is helped by Blondie DeMeani, his ex who, because she dresses stereotypically feminine, is also considered evil by Broody (obviously!)

Brooding YA Hero definitely has a sharp sense of humour. There’s subtle (and not so subtle) drags on popular YA authors. The sarcastic tone of the novel allows itself to attacking and critiquing poor YA themes and tropes, all in the guise of Broody explaining his experiences as a main character.

The inclusions of quizzes, charts and horoscope guides was also a fun addition to the book. I definitely enjoyed the horoscope guides towards the end. (PSA! My horoscope says I best represent the car chase YA trope)

Brooding YA Hero also puts in a decent amount of time into critiquing and exploring how YA perpetuates problematic representations and characterisations. The “ethnically ambiguous” side character, the kill your (marginalised person) trope, the overrepresentation of allocishet white men as main characters and love interests, and the lack of complex female characters in YA are all directly called out within text, and Broody’s main story arc is coming to recgonise these stories are undertold and that marginalised people are often poorly written. I loved that during the section about love interests, the author made it clear everyone should substitute pronouns as needed. And also, the validation of asexual and aromantic peoples through Blondie DeMeani's imput on love interests.

“Did I do something wrong?” Well. That was a given. He usually did at least fifteen things wrong per book, but only in a swoony, romantic way, where all could be fixed when he took off his shirt.

This book is quite short, and so it would probably be perfect for readathons, but I actually think it’s a good book to read slowly, just a chapter or two at once. Broody’s narration and headspace is funny, but too much at once gets .. grating. Take Broody in small doses.

Overall, Brooding YA Hero Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) As Awesome Is Me is funny, and on point. The joking about which gem coloured eyes best convey each personality, which classic YA trope fits your horoscope, and how best to conquer the love triangle are really funny and refreshing for anyone who’s ever felt frustrated with some of the overdone aspects of YA. This definitely is a tongue in cheek look at YA, and you’ll get a few easy laughs from it, trust me. Tea was spilt.

But this book also takes an oppurtunity to educate on the good YA is going, and the good it can continue to do, especially for those underrepresented.

Young Adult fiction is potential captured and frozen - a bright bolt of lightning caught on the page for everyone to read. It is both universal and incredibly personal, changeable and yet constant.

[Katie Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

WELL THIS MADE ME LAUGH.

A lot.

It also made me think, a lot.

And what more, really, do you look for in a book?

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard not to fall in love with Broody.

I got to check out the first couple chapters, and if you're a fan of Broody's twitter feed, you're going to enjoy this. Can't wait for the rest!

[Angelica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ever since my friend showed me the Brooding YA Hero twitter page, I knew I had to read this.

This book is a satirical breakdown of how most YA novels are written and it brilliantly points out many topics that definitely need to be discussed.

It is a criticism on the harmful tropes authors use in YA, making fun of lazy writing and cliched development. It also speaks a lot about the stereotypes and plain lack of diversity that goes into writing YA, especially when most writers are white and straight and upper middle class. All of this done while not sounding condescending or hateful of young adult novels if anything, all was done while showing appreciation for it. And of course, let's not forget, the book is hilarious.

And yet, I didn't love this.

While the content was great, at times it got very repetitive. I would read one paragraph and have a sense of déjà vu cause that same thing had been said a chapter earlier with similar words.

Another issue I had with the book was the constant shift in format. While this is something that many of you will not mind, I prefer my books to keep one form and roll from there. This book, for example, starts out as a first-person narrative from the POV of Broody, the brooding YA hero. It then becomes a third person narrative with an omniscient narrator. Then it becomes a series of lists in which tropes are described and criticized, narrated in the first person from Broody's POV. Then it becomes a first-person narrative from the POV of Blondie DeMeani, Broody's evil ex-girlfriend, whom I loved.

I think that this is my main problem with the book because I simply could not get into it like I wanted.

Had this been a solid narrative I might have loved it. Had it been a series of many hilarious lists, I might have loved it more. I didn't like the combination of both.

That said, there are many funny and important things brought up in this book, for example, "don't describe people like food", a thing white authors do often when describing anyone of color. We don't like being called chocolate, coffee, caramel, or mocha. This isn't a Starbucks, thank you very much.

Also, I love how it talks about the misrepresentation of foreigners by white, American authors.

"I come from a foreign country that's probably made up, or might as well have been, for all the accuracy of the Author's portrayal. My skin will be described as a shade of chocolate or coffee, which will be highly offensive, but my author will find romantic. I'll speak perfect English, but I'll be sure to use my native tongue (thanks, Google Translate!) for two things: swearing and terms of endearment."

I hate this trope and was so glad they included it there.

Overall, I totally recommend. They should make aspiring YA authors, and even current YA authors read this. Maybe it will open their eyes to all the idiotic and borderline offensive things that go into their writing.

***I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.***

[alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore @broodingYAhero on Twitter, and I was so excited when I found out there was going to be a book. This novel is so much fun; it included a bunch of lists that encapsulated many heroes, including the main character, love interest, villain, and everything in-between. There were many fun quizzes, and a LOT of tea was spilled.

If you want a good laugh or a break from the cookie-cutter contemporaries and fantasies, be sure to check this one out. I enjoyed this one a lot.

Thanks to Skyhorse Pub for a copy in exchange for a review.

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC from Skypony Press in exchange for an honest review.

“Did I do something wrong?” Well. That was a given. He usually did at least fifteen things wrong per book, but only in a swoony, romantic way, where all could be fixed when he took off his shirt.

I expected Brooding YA Hero only to dissect every YA character I have ever read about–which it did–but I wasn’t expecting a plot! The story is about Broody McHottiepants writing his own book after being denied a role by the Author.

The writing style of this book is funny, light, and even educational. It includes points and subpoints about certain tropes, characters, and essentially everything you read about as a reader and everything you write about as a writer. It even has some few quizzes you’d find in magazines.

I would suggest reading this book if you’re either a writer aspiring to write a YA book because the tips were really helpful even if everything mentioned here is present in almost every YA novel, or if you’re someone who is well-read in YA novels. You’ll have a laugh all the while realizing Broody was right about every. single. thing.

Review originally posted on http://bookallure.com/2017/10/02/broo...

[Whispering Stories · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Reviewed by Nia on www.whisperingstories.com

This book has been getting some excellent buzz on Twitter – so much so that even I was aware of it! I’ve even been following @broodingYAhero for a while now, which is very entertaining and filled with tongue-in-cheek pearls of wisdom about the YA genre.

Funnily enough, YA isn’t normally by bag but there’s always the odd one that catches my eye (not only because YA titles seem to get the prettiest covers) and this one looked too funny to pass up. It’s very unconventional: a YA book about YA books and tropes.

The book was written from the perspective of Broody McHottiepants, the embodiment of the YA hero cliche. He’s gloriously oblivious to how much of an ass he is and why he’s becoming outdated as the YA genre evolves and we move further and further away from the likes of Twilight, he gives us a narcissistic rundown on the different kinds of YA characters and how to be the very best main character you can be. The quirky style and repetition of how hair-flipping amazing amazing he is started to get on my nerves after a bit, but I know that 16 year old me would have loved something like this.

The most surprising bit about this book for me was how informative it was – it wasn’t solely dedicated to Broody McHottiepants but included some fun (silly) quizzes and tons of information about common character tropes and writing styles, as well as the fans and critics of YA. I would actually recommend this to younger readers who want to learn more about what they’re getting themselves into…

This book is very timely; now that YA is really growing in mainstream popularity, some people are quick to criticise and question the literary value of these books – Broody McHottiepants is quite rightly quick to point out that every book that people enjoy has value.

A must read for all YA fans, this book is more than worthy of a spot on your bookshelf!

[Melissa Chung · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to thank Sky Pony Press for sending this book to me for free for an honest review. I received this book a few months ago and have only now gotten around to reading it. This book was super fun to read. I'm giving it 4.25 stars. It really was on it's way to being 5 stars, but at times it got a little redundant.

What is this book you might ask? The cover is so appealing with it's cute character smirking on the cover and the light blue background. Well it's a little bit of YA fiction and a little bit of YA non-fiction. It's hard to categorize. It's blended pretty well and very informational. Let's just start at the beginning and see where we end up.

Broody McHottiepants is our main character. He hasn't had much luck in the past few months. His Author dumped him with the very cliche, "It's not you, it's me speech". This made Broody confused and sad. He has always been a main character. He doesn't know what to do now with his life. He decides he is going to become an Author himself. He wants to help his fellow side characters. All the extra people that his books are not dedicated to. So he begins to write (with some help from Blondie DeMeanie) a tutorial book about how to become a main character and achieve their very own movie/t.v. show/sequel. *Remember all trilogies must be written well enough to get a four part movie deal*

The synopsis on the inside flap says that this book is 50 percent writing guide and 50 percent laugh-out-loud story. It's true! There are many funny bits. If you are a lover of YA fiction you will see a lot of your favorite books troupes/cliches/scenarios in the pages of this book. In between all the educational parts of the book like: Becoming a Main Character and Broody Explains it All, you will find Interludes which continue the story of Broody and his adventure on creating this silly non-fiction.

What I found really great was in the final pages. Here's a few quotes that I loved from the end, "You can be more than a trope. Don't let yourself be defined by one descriptive phrase, dear reader. Don't limit your story to a collection of hastily strung together cliches. Be yourself. That's what being a main character is all about." Also, "Young adult is so much more than any one story or any one genre could ever hope to contain. Young adult fiction is potential captured and frozen- a bright bolt of lightning caught on the page for everyone to read. It is both universal and incredibly personal, changeable and yet constant." These two quotes help describe YA fiction in the best ways possible, that YA is for everyone that it isn't just a single story/genre that you read and hated. That YA stories and characters are striving to be more than they are described to be and have the potential to grow and evolve.

I highly recommend this book if you read a lot of YA and or if you are interested in a cliff-notes version on writing fiction. Also, if you enjoy satirical writing.

[Ann Mellor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this account!!! I can't wait for this book!

[Nikki Sojkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been chosen as one of @broodingYAhero's street team members for their new book called Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me. If you don’t know anything about the swoonworthy guy, you should head on over to @broodingYAhero on twitter to get a taste for his tweets. You won’t regret it, and soon we’ll be in competition for his attention. I first met the amatory and effulgent character when I joined twitter last year. Relatively new to the book blogging community, I was simply looking for YA twitter users to follow. What I found was witty banter from the one and only @broodingYAhero and I’ve been following ever since!

9.19.17 UPDATE:

I was given an ARC of this book for winning a Broody Street Team Challenge.

For all Young Adult readers, this is the book for you! This book talks about all the things that go through your head when reading a YA book, no matter what sub-genre. It discusses tropes, clichés, character types, genres, settings, and plots. Things we readers love to complain about and wish could change about the genre. As a reader or a prospective writer, this really is a book for everyone.

As someone who’s been following BroodingYAhero on twitter for a loooong time I was so excited to hear that Carrie was going to be writing a book from Broody’s POV. He never fails to make me laugh and this book met and went beyond my expectations.

Our hero, Broody McHottipants takes us through what it’s like to be a main character and how to be a main character and honestly it was so wholesome and inspiring. Normally after I read a good book, I go on Goodreads and like my favorite quotes- for this I would literally be liking the ENTIRE book it was such a hilarious read.

Did I mention that this book is INTERACTIVE??? Not only is there a plot about Broody writing a book about how to be a main character, and not only is the information delivered in an easy to learn way, but there are also fun quizzes and games. I read everywhere, and inevitable had it out during my lunch break at work. Soon my entire workplace was doing the Madlibs from this book! I didn’t know that I could swoon over something other than our Brooding YA hero, but I did for this book. This book deserves all of the positive adjectives you can think of and shines brighter than Broody’s miraculous gemstone eyes (please don’t tell him I said that).

I am literally SO excited for this to come out so that I can see all of the gorgeous illustrations that will go in the official release!

[sil ♡ the book voyagers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so excited for this book to be quite honest. It is just a super cute idea and we all have a soft spot for Broody in our hearts. He always spills tea in his Twitter and calls out authors/storylines/plots/tropes use in books and defends many stuff as well. This book is a mix of that. It's like a fun How Not To guide to write main characters.

Expect lots of fun quizzes, recipes, A LOT spilling of tea and Broody is here to reveal all the secrets of the universe and the bland storylines authors sometimes do in books. He also is all here for diversity in YA and even encourages readers to change the pronouns in this book if they want to.

There are so many things more and I really recommend for you to check this out when it's out! You'll have a grand time ~

[Jos · Rating 5 out of 5]

La verdad está muy padre el libro<3 se burla de los clichés del YA pero al mismo tiempo te da una guía de escritura

En un rato voy a hacer una reseña en forma

[Lauren Hopkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

I get the twitter account but if you're attempting to dismantle YA tropes and really hit home the point of diversity it would really help if your own book gave more than 5 pages total to diverse characters itself. I don't want to hear your moral through the very thing you're rallying against. Writing the whole story as "the problem" and then in the last 4-pages doing a character lamentation as you finally realize the problem doesn't change the fact that I wasted 150-pages on the exact same shit.

[Anna (Ink of Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bestätigt meine Sicht auf YA sehr, öffnete aber auch in manchen Dingen die Augen.
Mal sehen, wie viel YA ich je werde wieder lesen können, ohne es in Kategorien einzuteilen...

[Līga Sproģe · Rating 5 out of 5]

9.5/10, truly fantastic!



Šis bija negaidīti labi! Kādu laiku atpakaļ twitter parādījās lielisks parodijkonts Brooding YA Hero, kurš gaumīgi pavilka uz zoba populāras klišejas jauniešu literatūrā. Protams, tas ātri vien kļuva mežonīgi populārs. Tā veidotāja Carrie Ann DiRisio pat saņēma piedāvājumu izveidot grāmatu.

Te sākās āķīgākā daļa - ja, tas parodijkonts ir foršs, bet kā no atsevišķiem tvītiem izveidot materiālu grāmatai? Es no sākuma šaubījos, vai rezultāts būs veiksmīgs.

Bet ohhhhh, cik veiksmīgs šis bija! Gan smieklīgs, gan ar sižetu, gan velnišķīgi iedvesmojošs par turpmāku jauniešu literatūras attīstību.

Turklāt ir neizsakāmi patīkami konstatēt, ka manis pašas rakstītajā ir izrevidētas senos laikos uzkrātās stulbības un nekas no absurdi smieklīgajām klišejām tur vairs nav sastopamas.







Nudien lieliska grāmata, kura kalpos kā piemineklis YA žanra posmam aptuveni no 2008.-2016.gadam.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 2 out of 5]

"At the very least, don't you want to spend more time with me when you're awake and not just when I'm romantically/ creepily/ obsessively watching you slumber from outside your window?"

We have all seen Broody's twitter and we all fell madly in love with him. With his peckish good looks and his one liners that would melt the underwear off the Queen. Most of us craved more of this sensation. Now is your chance to get an even closer look at him in his full glory.

It was quite charming and funny at times but it didn't grasp me the way the twitter feed did. Throughout the entire book my star rating kept changing. At times I laughed until I cried and other times it felt too repetitive.

There was one part of the book that made me cringe and that made me skim the last fifty pages or so.

With the full release to come, I think this will be a big hit. The illustrations will charm the pants off anyone even his evil ex-girlfriend.

"Love is waaaaaay better than friendship. I mean who needs friends, right? All they do is support you and give you advice and remind you when you're being a jerk. Pffft. What a waste of time."

[Darla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A big thanks to Edelweiss for an ARC copy of this book.

I liked this book, but did not love it. Broody is writing a book which gives advice on becoming a main character in a YA novel. Meanwhile, he skewers every type of YA novel and their components. In between chapters of Broody's book, we see his "evil ex", Blondie, doing her best to steer Broody in the right direction and away from his misogyny.

This book was very funny in parts, but some of the lists became tedious. My favorite parts were his interactions with Blondie and second to that the quizzes scattered throughout.

Before reading this book I thought it might appeal to male readers, but after reading it and seeing its not always so subtle nudges away from old school masculine views; I suspect female readers will be more interested.

[Dvorah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very fortunate to get an ARC of Broody's new book, and oh my gosh, guys. This book.

The premise is deceptively simple: Twitter's very own brooding book boyfriend is going to teach us how to become a Main Character. But there are so many layers. It's one part self-help book, two parts social commentary, with a dash of writer's guide and lots of sass.
Perhaps most impressively, it pulls off a consistent humor, all while moving between three different narrative voices that build and comment on each other. 
And when I say it has humor, I mean I laughed. A lot. Many were the snorts and giggles of amusement, loud enough to offend my cat. 

Plus, Linnea Gear's art brings Broody and co. so perfectly to life.

[r. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an absolute joy. Broody is a wonderful main character, laugh out loud funny. But the book isn't just a tongue-in-cheek look at YA tropes. It also touches on some major issues, but in a very sensitive way. In addition, there are such neat sections, such as fun quizzes.

I also like how Broody breaks down parts of books, story structure, and fandom into fun, bite-sized pieces.

I have the ARC, so I didn't get to see all the lovely artwork yet (I've pre-ordered my copy of the finished book, though), but I think readers will find this delightful. I know I did.

[Faith Simon]

This is really funny, witty and completely sarcastic. The author does a great job of turning popular book tropes into a checklist of requirements in order to becoming a main character as awesome as Mr. Broody. Poking fun at popular tropes and the misogyny and toxic masculinity behind them, this book is rightfully hilarious, and quite an original concept!
Unfortunately, I just got too bored to finish. This book is great, though I wasn’t really entertained. With no plotline and nothing really going on, this book just couldn’t keep me interested enough to continue reading, sadly.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read a lot of YA fiction and/ or follow the author(s) on Twitter? Then, you absolutely need this hilarious and necessary book in your life. The author does a fantastic job of translating the tone of Broody's tweets into a full length book. Blondie definitely steals the show, and, you know what? After all this talk of werelemurs, I wouldn't mind seeing one!

[Laura Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to score an arc of this book, and I could NOT. STOP. LAUGHING. And thinking.
The sentences are quippy and quotable, and the characters are laugh-out-loud hilarious, but that's all just trappings to a truly thought-provoking and challenging satire on the books we love, the books we hate, and the books we love to hate.

The book begins as Broodie McHottiepants is dumped by an Author, so he comes to the conclusion he should probably write his own book on what he knows best- how to be himself. Hilarity ensues as he attempts to convey just what makes him so special. From time to time, his hot, confident, ALWAYS evil ex-girlfriend, Blondie DeMeani steals his notebook, offering her own opinion. I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that, as a teen mentor and YA writer, there were tears in my eyes.

This book is surprising and sweet, but most of all, funny. Expectedly funny. Unexpectedly funny. Clever, silly, and spot-on satire. It includes, but is not limited to: a recipe, a "which main character are you?" quiz, a visit to the land of deleted characters, a chart to tell your horoscope's literary device, and much, much more.

One of my favorite parts is when it describes active voice, passive voice, and "passive-aggressive voice," which just about make me cry it was so hilarious.

Read this book. If you've ever seen a popular movie, or watched a popular TV show, or read a popular book, you will find this book hilarious. If you want to learn to write or simply like to read, you will love the insight this book gives you.

As Broody himself says, "By reading this fantastic, brilliant book about me and my life, why, I'm sure you'll improve your own, at least a smidgeon."

And take it from me. You will.

[Nicole M. Hewitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve seen Brooding YA Hero’s Twitter feed, then you pretty much know exactly what to expect from this book. Many of the witty gems that Broody shares with us on a daily basis can be found here, only he gets to expand his wisdom far beyond 180 characters.

I decided I was going to underline some of my favorite lines in my ARC as I read, and I was worried I just might run out of ink. The book is great fun, but even better than that, it rings so very true. I mean, let’s face it, there are about a million YA tropes out there that have been beaten to death—this book highlights them all, often breaking them down by genre (after all, the broody vampire has some of his own particular quirks which might be different than those of, say, the broody fantasy hero).

But, don’t get me wrong, while DiRisio might point out some of the flaws of YA fiction, she doesn’t dismiss it. It’s a satirical look at those tropes for sure, but the overall message isn’t that YA fiction is bad or wrong… just occasionally misguided? And half the fun is recognizing tropes that have been used in some of your favorite books—sometimes a trope done well can actually work, right? But that doesn’t mean we can’t laugh at them, just the same.

I will admit that I didn’t read this book all at once—it felt better to me in snippets rather than being the type of book that you sit down and read in one sitting. There is a kind of, sort of overarching plot that runs through the book (as Broody’s evil ex tries to teach Broody a lesson or two about what it really means to be an MC), but most of the book is just Broody’s advice—some of it is even actual writing advice that aspiring teen writers should take to heart! The jokes are awesome, but I found that if I read the book for too long all at once, they started to lose their charm. That’s when I knew it was time to put it down and read something else for a while. Always, when I came back to it, it felt fresh and fun again!

Oh, and I had a chance to check out the final copy, and the illustrations are amazing too! Linnea Gear’s style is just perfect for this book. (My one complaint is that a few of them seemed a little dark so they lacked definition—seemed like a printing issue, or just the result of black and white illustrations?)

If you’re a reader of YA, I don’t see how you can possibly help but enjoy this satirical take on the stereotypical YA Hero archetype. Be prepared to swoon over Broody, even while you laugh at him. I give the book a solid 4/5 Stars.

***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via ALA Annual in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

[Hailey]

I don't even have a twitter but I still love @broodingYAhero. I can't wait for this book! High hopes for lots of tropes and lots of broodiness.

[em · Rating 4 out of 5]

"And your clothing budget will skyrocket because every time you pose dramatically for a book cover, all your buttons will fly off"

Carrrie Ann DiRisio, I seriously wish we were best friends.

This book is something else. Something brilliant, something loaded with the most delicious irony and something absolutely hilarious. If you are one of these YA readers that even if they appreciate the perfection of the YA hero, they often roll their eyes at all the cliches surrounding this sometimes stereotypical character, then this is your book.


I was one of the Brooding YA Hero twitter account fangirls. The delicious irony and sarcasm with which Carrie talks about all the stereotypes that follow this swoony fictional specimen is out of this world hilarious. I am serious, I lost track of the number of times I got stared at in public places for snorting or laughing out loud.

Carrie's writing style is smart and full of wit and her sense of humor is so up my alley, I just enjoyed every single word of this book.

Pitty that I received an eARC that didn't include the illustrations. That is why I am leaving this rating as a 4 stars until a final copy falls in my grabby grabby hands.

*I received an eARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Annika]

Is it just me or does anyone else think that our lovely Brooding Hero on the cover look like that guy from Victorious?

No?

Just me?

...ok.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining, but repetitive. Twitter was probably a better format for this, where it could be taken in small doses.