Vampire Book Club discussion
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Nov. Group Read > Let's get controversal: Is it YA-ish?
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I completely agree. I'm about 70% of the way through it. All the "Feck" talk is definitely screaming YA to me. It's certainly NOT a kids book but does have some YA aspects.
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I don't mind "feck," but her calling herself "Mega" screams kiddo to me. Heh.
I see some aspect of YA in regards to Dani being on the cusp between adolescent and adult and her internal dialog which is a lot of "Dude what's that all about?" type of thing as if she is just beginning to understand attraction between men and women. With her confusing emotions about why she is mad at Ryodan when he is with another woman or her conflicting emotions about her relationship with Dancer(he's just her best friend, but he is so hot). But with the sexualness of Kat's dreams, Christian's sexual drive and Ryodan I don't see YA at all in the overall book.
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No, I agree, Noreen. I'm not suggesting it's a YA book, but saying that Dani's portion (if you left out all the adult POVs -- Kat, Christian, etc.) follows a typical YA journey.
I'm not sure why I'm seeing so many people suggesting it isn't OK for the story having YA overtones. It adds to authenticity of characters. It makes sense for Dani to be at that place in her life, and it makes sense for Kat to have VERY different experiences in her dreams and the conflicts she has as a result.
Chelsea [Vampire Book Club] wrote: "Noreen wrote: "I see some aspect of YA in regards to Dani being on the cusp between adolescent and adult and her internal dialog which is a lot of "Dude what's that all about?" type of thing as if..."I agree with you about the YA overtones, I don't see anything wrong with it, and actually think it added more to the book.
I wasn't sure if I was going to like Dani as the main character, but I think I liked her more because of the way KMM wrote her with all the inetrnal struggles and her glimpses of Dani being more mature in situations, but then saying things like "you shouldn't say things like that in front of me I'm just a child". So using that to her advantage even though she doesn't actually think of herself as a child.
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I'm a little over halfway through the book, and one of my coworkers made an interesting comment: Dani comes off as quite intelligent at times (often, really) and then she dumbs it down with "Dude" (which drives me bugf*ck).It's really only when Dani launches into one of her "f*ck authority" diatribes that I see YA here. The rest of it really strikes me as an adult book written from a teenager's POV (not unlike The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime).
For the most part, I actually like the book from Dani's POV. It's fast and jittery, just like her, and when I stop I feel the need for a candy bar to recharge :)
I finished ICED a couple of days ago. While I wouldn't say that it is a YA book (in terms of being appropriate for young readers, with few exceptions) I agree Chelsea, that it has a YA sensibility. Dani acts and sounds just like a posturing teen.Yes, bringing in Christian and Ryodan, and even to some degree Dancer, makes the content more grown-up, but in my heart, Dani's dialog, journey and perceptions are pure YA.
To be fair I'm only 45 pages (2 chapters in) and I am constantly rolling my eyes at Dani. I would hope she wouldn't annoy me so much. I'm definitely getting a YA vibe at the beginning here as well. Ryodan is damn hot though. Sigh.
I think that Dani is a child, so her thought process is very childish.It's funny at moments, entertaining at others and down right infuriating at points. In fact, I'd say that the characters in YA are written with more maturity than Dani is. I wonder if it's because she's 14 and younger than most YA characters who tend to be 16 or so.
I just finished the book. And I think that is was written perfectly to fit Dani's character. She is only 14 years old. I liked how jittery her portion of the book was. Definietly leant authenticity to the characters. I could definitely see the YA overtones with Dani's character, but I liked that the book was still firmly kept in the adult category. Part of me wished that Dani was older just so we could see where her character is going. There are definitely other characters (i.e. Christian and Ryodan) who have some kind of "plan" for Dani. I really wonder where KMM is going to take the trilogy.
Dani'd POV is interesting but it does get a little annoying when she does the all the feck and dude talk. It reminds me a little of a younger sort of Waking the Witch where the narrator is a little more young and immature than the typical POV for the author but the story keeps it well out of YA
I experienced the book more as being about a young adult than actually 'being' young adult. Dani strikes me as more adult in many ways then many of the adult heroes I usually read about. Actually, I found Mac a lot less adult in her behaviour, especially in the first books!Example: Dani takes responsibility. Fine, she makes mistakes and doesn't always understand the complexities of other's emotions and/or motivations, but she tries. How often do we read about adult heroes who take most of a book to finally take responsibility for their choices?
Dani is discovering her own sexuality, thinking about who she is, what she wants to be and discovering herself. In the meantime, she has adults forcing her to do what she sees as mundane things and there's a bit of a rebellion there -- I can do this better, not automatically trusting adults (like she used to with Roweena).
So, the question here is: Am I the only one seeing this element?
I'm not saying "this is a kids' book," but that there's nothing wrong with admitting a book with a 14-year-old protagonist who is coming of age is a solid YA journey.
Agree? Disagree? Want to poke me with a pitchfork?