Senior, Ben Wolf, has a terminal disease and less than twelve months to live, but getting treatment isn't part of his future, and telling his loved ones isn't part of his immediate plans.As a Reader:
Yes, I'll be the first to comment on (and complain about) the inordinate amount of death and dying in YA fiction...but then another great book like this comes into my life and I have to eat my words. I mean, who cares that (SPOILER ALERT) two seniors die in unrelated deaths in a hundred student school (what are the odds of that anyway?)...this book is still amazing.
As a Writer:
We're told not to write "issue" books, so I'm jealous when a writer figures out a way to do it that feels organic to the story and doesn't sacrifice character development. This book, IMO, accomplishes that. Or maybe I was just so busy agreeing with and caring about the issues that I ignored the potential problems other readers might have with it.
Other death/dying books I loved:
What about you? Where do you stand on the Death/Dying genre?
I was looking at the ALA lists for best YA novels from 2007-2010 (for a school project) and I was totally taken aback at how dominant the death/dying novel is. Still, I think there are some fabulous ones out there, and it can be very cathartic to read them. I LOVED 13 Reasons Why and Before I Fall. Deadline looks amazing-- thanks for the suggestion!
ReplyDeleteI've yet to read any death novels. I started Going Bovine but was so turned off by the bad language at the beginning that I couldn't keep reading.
ReplyDeleteI don't really have a problem with the trend. If there's a fascination with it death/dying, I think it's a good thing to explore that. After all, it's one of those things teens have to deal with.
ReplyDeleteThat said, personally, I can't read too many depressing books in a row, so I don't read too many of the death/dying books. I really loved "Before I Fall" and "13 Reasons Why", and also "Looking for Alaska", though it was a bit before the current trend.
Oh I also loved Before I Die, it's just one of those 'different' books.
ReplyDeleteI've read and loved all of these books! 13 Reasons Why is one of my all time favorites :)
ReplyDeleteBtw I'm here from the comment exchange program :D