The True Feels: YA Edition

SPOILERS FOLLOW. BIG SPOILERS FOLLOW.

Hey guys! Sophie’s back with a round up of YA love triangles!

Love triangles are a common plot device used in books, movies, TV shows, and plays. Sometimes, however, there are some triangles that are better executed than others.

Keep reading for more!

SPOILERS FOLLOW

I know, three weeks in a row! I’m on a roll!

So, while procrastinating homework a Sunday or two ago, I decided to read some Marius/Cosette fanfiction, whether it be for the book or musical, I didn’t care, but I was just in the mood for that. And I could barely find anything. On FF.net or AO3. And most of what I could find had them as background characters, usually to Enjolras/Grantaire fics.

I related this to my brother, who then explained to me that there’s a lot of hatred against Cosette and that people prefer Éponine, which confused me a lot, because if people don’t like Cosette because they think that she’s this perfect creature, or she only exists as a love interest for Marius, then did they forget that she had an abusive childhood that she grew out of without as much emotional damage as she could have had?

I had a similar thought as I copied my Albus Severus post into Tumblr, since when I copied in a part with Ginny I was reminded of a lot of the hate Ginny and/or Hinny gets (Or at the very least, used to get), which I also think goes unexplained. And then I remembered all the hate that Sharon Carter/Staron get from MCU fans, and the hate that Clary gets/got, which Hazel had mentioned to me once a long time ago. And I started to get really, really confused. Because I would understand if Madame Thénardier or Pansy Parkinson or Jiaying or the Seelie Queen got a lot of hate, since they’re all villains to the heroes, but they don’t seem to. (Okay, I admit, these are probably not the best example, but I think you get what I mean.) Why is that? The short answer? I don’t know. The long answer? Well, keep reading as I try to put the pieces together. (And, yes, I probably will use Sharon as well as Cosette, Ginny, and Clary, even though she’s not from the typical medium we cover.)

SPOILERS FOLLOW

I know, two weeks in a row? During the school year? What?! I’ve actually had this post lined up forever and I’m just getting around to it. So here we go!

The most burning question in the Harry Potter fandom seems to be as to why Harry (Since most people think Ginny had no say) picked the name Albus Severus for his and Ginny’s younger son when they could’ve (A lot of people say should’ve) named him after Remus, or Fred, or Hagrid, or Mad-Eye, or Cedric. I spent a lot of time thinking about this and it just kind of dawned on me as I was trying to fall asleep one night. So first I’m going to walk through my reasons why it wasn’t one of the ones listed above, and then why I think Albus Severus won the prize.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Hey guys, Sophie here after a long time away! I can’t speak for the rest of the team, I guess I’ll call us, but I will definitely try to post at least once a month until next summer starts. Today’s post is going to be about the facts I think we all need to face when it comes to our favorite books being adapted into movies, and I hope you guys don’t mind if I include comic books in this as well.

I believe the following is true for almost any adaptation of a book, whether it be into a movie or TV show. There is probably an exception out there somewhere, but I can’t think of one off of the top of my head.

1: The movie will never be 100% right. Ever.

One of the beauties of books is the fact that we can always see something from someone’s point of view and hear their thoughts. Some book-to-film adaptations choose to include character voiceovers to help with that; Twilight is one that immediately jumps into my mind. This was especially helpful in New Moon, where the voiceover helped us realize what exactly was happening with Bella during the months she and Edward were apart. Other books, however, don’t include that, Harry Potter being a prominent example. But considering the amazing plotting that JK Rowling did, maybe voiceover would’ve been helpful.

Another problem that arises, more for movies than TV shows, is time. Movies have to be between 1½-3 hours long and cover all of the important plot points. TV shows can be as long as the creator(s) wants, but even if you get a 22-episode TV show for your 22 chapter book, something is still not going to be quite right.

Take the upcoming TMI TV show, for example. They have thirteen 45-minute episodes to tell the entire City of Bones story, but they also have to cement the Shadowhunter world around it. This causes the creation of new characters (Dot, Lydia Branwell) and introducing characters into the show before they appear in the book series (Max, Robert, Maryse, and Camille are the ones that immediately come to mind, but don’t hold me to it about Camille). Things are obviously going to be different, but hopefully not as drastic as the City of Bones movie.

And the final Big Problem that will mean the movie is not 100% correct? The way things are written. Certain scenes simply cannot be showcased because they don’t translate into movies, especially scenes that are light on the dialogue but heavy on a character’s thought process. This brings us back around to the first Big Problem, turning it into a vicious cycle.

2: There will always be at least one character that doesn’t look either the way they were described or the way you imagined them.

Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan both had blonde hair in the books. I always pictured Al from Divergent to be a pudgy ginger, though I don’t know why. I don’t know anyone personally who had imagined Simon or Isabelle to be Hispanic, though I think that all of us in the fandom have accepted that wholeheartedly. Don’t even get me started on the Percy Jackson cast, especially Lightning Thief-era Alexandra Daddario. In the original Marvel comics, Nick Fury was white, though I don’t think that was a change anyone has really cared about, either. It was hard for Harry to have his mother’s eyes when Daniel’s are blue but at least one Lily actress had brown eyes. Hermione’s hair was frizzy in the first few movies, but had calmed down by Goblet of Fire at the latest (when all the boys’ hair spiralled out of control). I’d always pictured Tris as being about 5’2” but Shailene Woodley is 5’8”. It comes down to acting ability over appearance, though with characters like the Weasleys, the Harry Potter filmmakers were smart.

3. You will always have a “That wasn’t in the book!” or “They didn’t include this!” moment.

Not even two minutes into The Lightning Thief do you encounter your first “That wasn’t in the book!” moment: The opening scene. However, as mentioned above, that was something that had to happen because of the way the first part of the opening chapter is written. City of Bones starts off faithful but quickly loses all hope of following the book. The first three or so Harry Potter movies are very good about being faithful to the text, but the time restraints on the last five cause a lot of “They didn’t include this!” moments. I was incredibly disappointed that Clary slapping Jace wasn’t able to make it into City of Bones and the whole “open the box” thing in Insurgent was very annoying to have present when, instead, they could’ve included Dauntless-compound-paintball.

4: You will want to blame the director, though 9 times out of 10, you’ll be blaming the wrong person.

This I’ve seen more with Captain America: Civil War, though I think it’s still worth saying. A lot of people, after Age of Ultron, were mad at Joss Whedon and praying to the Russo brothers to correct his mistakes.

But here’s the problem with that. While Joss Whedon wrote and directed Age of Ultron, the Russo brothers did not write Civil War; Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely did. So for everyone who’s upset that Clint and Natasha are on different teams, don’t blame the Russos. Think about their characters at this point and go from there, because that’s what the writers did.

5: You will still want to see the inevitable sequel.

Raise your hand if you hated The Lightning Thief movie. Keep your hand raised if you were still excited to see Sea of Monsters. While the first Percy Jackson movie was a good movie, if you ignored the fact that it was based off of a book, of course, we all had high hopes that Sea of Monsters would be more faithful to the book, and finding out that Alexandra Daddario had died her hair for this one seemed to pump everyone up. The same goes for City of Bones and, in my opinion, Insurgent. But I was still disappointed they weren’t going through with City of Ashes and I still want to see Allegiant.

If you want to see an author’s viewpoint about book-to-film adaptations, Ally Carter, writer of the Gallagher Girls and Heist Society series, wrote a great post about it: http://allycarter.com/2015/07/baking-soda-and-the-art-of-book-to-film-adaptations/ I think I hit a lot of the same points she did, but an author’s view is just as important as a fan’s, in my opinion.

17 years have passed since the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2, 1998.

17 years since we lost Collin Creevey, Lavender Brown, Fred Weasley, Remus and Tonks Lupin, Severus Snape, and 50 others that we never learned the names of.

17 years since Molly Weasley avenged Tonks, Sirius Black, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Dobby, and countless others who had died or been tortured at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange.

17 years since Neville pulled the Sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat and proved he belonged in Gryffindor just as much as anyone else.

17 years since Ron and Hermione finally gave into seven years’ worth of sexual tension.

17 years since the final Horcruxes were destroyed.

17 years since Harry avenged his parents, Albus Dumbledore, Hedwig, Snape, and the majority of the Order of the Phoenix when he became the Master of Death, killing Voldemort in the process.

17 years have passed, and we haven’t forgotten.

Hey. So, yeah, it's Hollie's day, but, there's more pressing matters at hand.

As I mentioned last week, some amazing people are making a film about the Marauders. It's going to be freaking amazing, but they need help.

This is the link to their indiegogo. They have about 70% of their goal, and only THREE DAYS (Ends December 21.) This is going to be amazing. We all need to chip in to learn as much as we can about the Marauders, since JK Rowling probably isn't giving us the prequel on them we've been dying for anytime soon.

I mean, I think the hilarious blooper poster of Sirius is enough to make you spend your college savings on this thing.

... Just it's mostly essays and answers to math problems at the moment.

Hey! It’s Sophie! I am aware it is not Wednesday, but if you go a little back in time we have this thing where all four of us just post whatever the hell we want Saturday-Monday. I promise to finally get Hazel, Hollie, and Ginger on here by the end of 2014. I will blackmail them if needed. (Hopefully it won’t be. BUT you never know.)

This isn’t really a post-post because while I may have dug up a little free time, it’s not enough to write a full-fledged post, but is enough to just share some fandom updates, I guess I’ll call them? *shrugs*

Okay.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS:

Tales From The Shadowhunter Academy-

GUYS. SIMON BECOMING A SHADOWHUNTER. HOPEFULLY SIZZY. HINTS OF A MALEC ADOPTION. A HERONDALE THAT’S NOT JACE OR TESSA. LIKE WHY NOT?!

Tales from The Shadowhunter Academy is almost like Round 2 of The Bane Chronicles. Cassie, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman are writing e-books about Simon at the Shadowhunter Academy. If you need more incentive, WILL AND JAMES BOTH MAKE AN APPEARANCE/ARE MENTIONED. I think all the book summaries are on Amazon, and they’re definitely on the Shadowhunter’s Wiki. I’m beyond excited for this. Seriously.

Sadly, I don’t believe the first one comes out until February of 2015, and two months to a fangirl (AKA me) is like a decade to a normal person. (I don’t understand how I had the patience to wait until The Bane Chronicles came out in print edition to buy it.)

TV Show-

TMI is in the EXTREMELY EARLY stages of becoming a TV show, for those of you who did not know! Sadly, barely anything is known about it at this point. If you want the information that we do know, go to Cassandra Clare’s personal tumblr; she’s got it all there.

HARRY POTTER:

The Gathering Storm: A Marauders Fanfilm-

Do you love the Marauders?

Whether you answered yes or no, you should still check this gem out. I’m so excited for it to come out. I somehow just stumbled upon it one day and now I’m just like:

On YouTube, not only do they have the trailer, but there’s a table read of Lily and Snape reading the scene where Lily officially cuts her ties with Snape and it’s just like:

(Sometimes gifs just say everything for you.)

Pottermore 12 Days of Christmas:

12 NEW HARRY POTTER SHORT STORIES.

ALL IS WELL.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Hey, this is Sophie! This is probably going to be one of my last posts for a while, with school starting and most of my free time disappearing, but I hope to get at least one more in.

So somehow I became this huge feminist and I don’t even know how it happened, but it did. And one thing that might’ve inspired it was, you guessed it, books.

In stories such as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, the male character takes center stage. But today I shall be highlighting the books with a capable female protagonist and what makes them so damn awesome.

How about we start with the brightest witch of her age, Miss Hermione Granger? Despite the fact that she was considered inferior due to her Muggle-born status, Hermione was one of the three people who helped destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes. She discovered who Nicholas Flamel was, what was in the Chamber of Secrets, and Remus Lupin’s secret all before the age of fifteen. And at the young age of sixteen, Hermione participated in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. She went on to hold her own in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, Battle of the Seven Potters, and the Battle of Hogwarts, where she duelled Bellatrix Lestrange, who many considered to be third only to Dumbledore and Voldemort, and survived.

Staying in the HP fandom, let’s go to Ginny Weasley. Ginny, at the age of eleven, was able to fight off a piece of Lord Voldemort’s soul for a year before giving in, while her brother gave in to a piece of Voldemort’s soul in less than a month at seventeen. Like Hermione, she participated in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, yet she was only fourteen. Prior to being Stunned, the worst Ginny had received was a broken ankle. Ginny held her own in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower and the Battle of Hogwarts, the latter being where she dueled Bellatrix Lestrange and held her own, if you can consider it holding you own when she was fighting alongside two other witches.

Ginny must’ve gotten her sheer awesomeness from her mother, as Mrs. Molly Weasley is able to be beyond caring and handle a wand like nobody’s business. Even is Molly is out of practice on her duelling skills, the witch is able to kill Voldemort’s lieutenant, Bellatrix Lestrange.

Stepping away from Harry Potter, Annabeth Chase is pretty badass, too. She can also hold her own in a fight and is beyond intelligent. She was the first child of Athena to be able to survive and find the Mark of Athena. Annabeth is beyond capable of… anything she tries hard enough in, really.

One of my favorite things about dystopias is that the heroine, not just the protagonist but the heroine, is female, and that’s also one of my least favorite things, too. Are the authors hinting that in a future day and age women will save the day, but not today? I doubt any of them planned to give that impression and I actually just thought of it… Anyway, Tris Prior of Divergent fame was going to stay with her family instead of becoming who she is, but luckily the Fates didn’t give a damn about her loving her family and pushed her to become herself, AKA going to Dauntless. There she became a badass… and brave, and selfless, and intelligent. Kind and honest, probably not, but I never said that Tris was perfect.

June Iparis was the Republic’s little prodigy in the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu. And because she was the prodigy, she was literally trained in how to be a badass. June could handle her own in a fight and had great deductive reasoning, so she figured out Anden’s upcoming assassination and realized that she was the one with plague.

Isabelle Lightwood and Emma Carstairs of The Mortal Instruments and The Dark Artifices, respectively are both warriors at heart. I’m not saying that Clary and Maia and Tessa and Cecily and the rest of Cassandra Clare’s females are Mary-Sues; they’re not. I’m simply saying that it’s nice to see the fierce women involved. Who does Clary call in CoFA? Isabelle. Who is the member of their parabatai relationship that needs to be grounded to earth? Emma. Cassandra Clare makes very real female heroes, and Isabelle and Emma are probably the best of them.

All in all, YA is kind of lacking in completely badass female protagonists. Did you know that many studios wanted Clary to be a male and turned The Mortal Instruments down because of it? Is that really a world we want to populate, where women still make seventy cents to every dollar a man earns for the exact same job (At least in the United States)?

So goodbye for now, my lovelies! With schools it’s going to become increasingly hard to post, but I hope to post one more time. And I have some fanart-type-things that I most on a Weekend Hullabaloo to remind myself that we still have this blog. Prior to being Stunned, the worst Ginny had received was a broken ankle. Ginny held her own in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower and the Battle of Hogwarts, the latter being where she dueled Bellatrix Lestrange and held her own, if you can consider it holding you own when she was fighting alongside two other witches.

Ginny must’ve gotten her sheer awesomeness from her mother, as Mrs. Molly Weasley is able to be beyond caring and handle a wand like nobody’s business. Even is Molly is out of practice on her duelling skills, the witch is able to kill Voldemort’s lieutenant, Bellatrix Lestrange.

Stepping away from Harry Potter, Annabeth Chase is pretty badass, too. She can also hold her own in a fight and is beyond intelligent. She was the first child of Athena to be able to survive and find the Mark of Athena. Annabeth is beyond capable of… anything she tries hard enough in, really.

One of my favorite things about dystopias is that the heroine, not just the protagonist but the heroine, is female, and that’s also one of my least favorite things, too. Are the authors hinting that in a future day and age women will save the day, but not today? I doubt any of them planned to give that impression and I actually just thought of it… Anyway, Tris Prior of Divergent fame was going to stay with her family instead of becoming who she is, but luckily the Fates didn’t give a damn about her loving her family and pushed her to become herself, AKA going to Dauntless. There she became a badass… and brave, and selfless, and intelligent. Kind and honest, probably not, but I never said that Tris was perfect.

June Iparis was the Republic’s little prodigy in the Legend trilogy by Marie Lu. And because she was the prodigy, she was literally trained in how to be a badass. June could handle her own in a fight and had great deductive reasoning, so she figured out Anden’s upcoming assassination and realized that she was the one with plague.

Isabelle Lightwood and Emma Carstairs of The Mortal Instruments and The Dark Artifices, respectively are both warriors at heart. I’m not saying that Clary and Maia and Tessa and Cecily and the rest of Cassandra Clare’s females are Mary-Sues; they’re not. I’m simply saying that it’s nice to see the fierce women involved. Who does Clary call in CoFA? Isabelle. Who is the member of their parabatai relationship that needs to be grounded to earth? Emma. Cassandra Clare makes very real female heroes, and Isabelle and Emma are probably the best of them.

All in all, YA is kind of lacking in completely badass female protagonists. Did you know that many studios wanted Clary to be a male and turned The Mortal Instruments down because of it? Is that really a world we want to populate, where women still make seventy cents to every dollar a man earns for the exact same job (At least in the United States)?

Believe it or not spoilers follow...

All of us at The True Feels: YA Edition would like to give a shout-out to the one and only Percy Jackson, who turns twenty-one today. We can be sure the Stolls have snuck in some form of alcohol for him to enjoy. ;)

We would also like to give a shout-out to Clary Fray/Morgenstern/Fairchild, whose twenty-third birthday will be in the next couple days. (No clear date is given, but it is in late August.) So happy birthday to you both, and thank you for saving the world (Twice).

Alright, so, we don't have any fanart or fanfiction to give in celebration, but you can go read the Percabeth kiss in The Last Olympian and the Clace kiss in City of Bones and see if that makes your day.

Soph here! Today I’m going to be reviewing a book I read for school called The Color of Water. It was a really good book and I can’t remember the last time I said that about a nonfiction book. So listen up, kiddies!

Um, like two spoilers follow in the fourth paragraph?

DISCLAIMER: Nobody proofread like this because I was worried about not getting a post out, so I apologize for grammar and spelling errors

*waves* Hey from Sophie. (‘Cause, you know, it’s Wednesday, and most of the posts on here are mine due to me not having a life.) So today I’m talking about the cost of pureblood mania, or how the ideology held by Voldemort, Death Eaters, and other pure-bloods that they were superior affected the British wizarding world.

So, quite obviously, the deaths of the First and Second Wizarding Wars were a major toll that this ideology took, not just on individuals and/or their families but on the wizarding war itself. It’s not like in Cassandra Clare’s world where more people can Ascend, or in Percy Jackson where the gods can simply fall in love with more mortals. There is only going to be so many wizards, and they’re only going to be born, not made. But there’s no immortal beings to have these children, it’s just the ones already living. So basically, Voldemort was killing the people that could’ve made more Death Eaters.

But, at the same time, most of them wouldn’t be purebloods, so… Forget I said anything.

Another toll was that some people didn’t really think for themselves. It took Regulus until he learned what happened with Kreacher to realize what was going on. It took Draco until he was tasked with killing Dumbledore to realize that maybe this wasn’t what he believed.

This post is rather short, I apologize, but that was mainly it, and I apologize again for the rather weak post. But if you saw the shout-out we earned today from otomemasteraya, apparently we post headcanons on here (However, this person might’ve simply been referencing the ‘What We Assume’ portion of my Draco analysis…), so, here’s one that fits in with today’s theme (And if you’ve seen it before, not my problem):

DISCLAIMER: I did not create this headcanon. I found it on Google Images and don’t know the original creator, though I do agree with it.

After the Second Wizarding War, Draco gave up the idea of blood purity- and started supporting all blood statuses. Narcissa did as well and because of this she and Andromeda reconciled. At first Lucius was disgusted with his wife and son. He eventually came around.

SPOILERS FOLLOW. SPOILERS DEFINITELY FOLLOW

Hiya, it’s Sophie here! So, um, if you haven’t finished The Last Olympian or City of Heavenly Fire, you should leave. Like, now. Because this spoils both of those like nobody’s business.

And the reason for that is because this post is on death, and how the various effects certain deaths had on the characters and stories.

Now, I really mean certain deaths. There are a lot of deaths. A LOT. And I won’t highlight every single one of those.

Let’s start with Percy Jackson. Specifically, Charles Beckendorf. Because, if we’re being honest, Beckendorf really could’ve been Percy. He’d just gotten together with Silena, who people had been saying for years he liked in that way. And, well, it wouldn’t have been exactly like Percy, but can you picture it? People telling him for years that he and Annabeth have a mutual attraction. Only just realizing that they might just feel the same way about each other (The kiss in Battle of the Labyrinth?), only to die fighting Kronos.

Then there’s Silena. Silena’s death was supposed to echo Patroclus’s in The Iliad, yes, but Annabeth and Percy’s reflection in House of Hades at the River Acheron involves considering all the deaths they could’ve prevented, and Silena’s was one. Especially for Percy, if he hadn't let her go back to camp, she might still be around.

Next is Luke (Castellan). Luke, who died to create a better world. A better world. That theme will come up at least two more times.

Time to move on to Mortal Instruments. I guess we start with… Max? *insert gut-wrenching sobs here* Background info: Mortal Instruments, while a six book series, is technically two trilogies rolled together, as City of Glass was supposed to be the last installment, but really ends the first cycle. So, Max’s death in CoG was really just to show the cost of war (And get Sizzy/Simabelle together… but still). But now, with a reincarnated Sebastian Morgenstern and a war, Max gives them-- Alec, Izzy, and Jace-- something additional to fight for. Really, truly fight for. And it also finally ends the relationship of Robert and Maryse, which I think is the final Circle marriage to come undone. (Unless you count Luke* and Jocelyn.)

*Garroway

Then, Camille. Camille’s death was to show that what Alec did was pointless. He put all this pain and suffering on the table for it to be worth nothing, really, because she was dead. But it also allowed the readers to get that Maureen is a monster. And most people flat-out hated Camille, so, that was good, too.

Now Jordan’s death was there to show that Maia was strong. Like, she could move on and help save the world. But Maia didn’t love Jordan anymore, so she felt semi-guilty that he died thinking she loved him. And she did, once, but Maia’s CoHF arc was about coming into herself, not about mourning a person she once loved.

Next up I want to highlight Andrew Blackthorn and the Carstairs parents. Despite the fact we have to wait another year for TDA, I feel like Andrew’s death, since it was at one of his children’s hands, is really going to haunt Julian, his killer. I think he might have night terrors about it and, as a Blackstairs shipper, I hope Emma comforts him over it. And then the deaths of Emma’s parents are obviously going to scare her and worry her and I hope Jules is there for her. And, on top of all of that, killing Andrew has probably shattered the relationship between Jules and Ty. At least, it’s safe to assume so.

And our final TMI deaths worth highlighting (In my head) are the Morgenstern boys, Valentine and Sebastian/Jonathan. Remember how I said the ‘a better world’ theme would be recurring? Well, here it is again. They wanted to create their ideal utopia, but their ends did not, in any way, justify their means, and their deaths created a better world. (Well, Valentine’s did. Sebastian’s? Well, that’s a different story, the one in TDA and the as-of-yet-unpicked-up series The Wicked Powers.)

So, I was going to do Harry Potter in this post too, but if you go to Google Images and search ‘death significance in harry potter’ and the first image says everything, so. *shrugs*

Death and sacrifice are really important. I recently saw a picture of Cory Monteith with the following words superimposed on it: Go hug your idol because mine is gone. And that statement is so, so true.

SPOILERS FOLLOW (When do they not?)

Hey, Sophie here! Today is something that I wanted to write after being inspired by a reblogged post on the Tumblr of the one and only Cassandra Clare, author of TMI, TID, and the upcoming TDA and TLH, as well as co-author of Magisterium with Holly Black and The Bane Chronicles with Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson. Wow, that was a long introduction that you probably didn’t need but… you got anyway. To get back on track, that post was about diversity in YA. Or, more precisely, the lack of diversity in YA.

But I’m not focusing on the lacking diversity. I’m highlighting the fact that authors such as Clare that say that the world is not made up of straight white people with no disabilities, mental or physical.

Because it’s not. There are people that are gay, there are people that are bisexual, there are people who identify as the opposite sex and there are people that are straight. There are people that are of different ethnicities living right here in your backyard. I bet most of you have a neighbor of a different ethnicity than you. There are people in wheelchairs and with disabilities.

And so what? If books reflect the real world, then shouldn’t their characters, too?

Let’s start with the dystopian trilogy Legend by Marie Lu. One of the two protagonists, Daniel ‘Day’ Wing, is of an Asian descent that I sadly cannot remember… is it Filipino, maybe? I feel bad that I don’t know exactly, really, but I think that’s what it is… Also, in Prodigy, he acquires a prosthetic leg.

But even in a dystopian world, the United States is still as much of a salad (Salad, not melting pot) as it is today. There are people that can be heroes that are not white. And they can have prosthetic legs.

Now, it’s not exactly like the Warrior cats are gay or of different ethnicities. But there are cats with disabilities. Cinderpelt, StarClan bless her, continued to live her new life to the fullest despite the fact that the ideal life she had dreamed of was ripped from under her claws. She was a medicine cat now, whether she wanted to be or not and she was a great one. She was a great cat, actually, who didn’t show that her disability got in the way one iota; it probably did cause her more internal conflict than one ever would have thought, but being as courageous as she was, she didn’t show it; she never let on that it troubled her. She cared for her Clan for many seasons and learned of her own impending death just as her apprentice was prepared to elope with a cat from another Clan. And StarClan rewarded her by reincarnating her as Cinderheart, who was able to mate (With the grandson of Cinderpelt’s love Firestar, no less) and become a warrior.

Then there’s Jayfeather who, despite being freaking blind, played a large role in the destruction of the Dark Forest. Jayfeather was the reason StarClan reunited and came to help the cats in the first place. And, if you’ve read even one book in the Dawn of the Clans arc, you know that Jayfeather was kind of the reason that the Clans existed at all. By being Jay’s Wing and taking the cats from the lake to the mountains and forming the Tribe of Rushing Water, he then allowed the Tribe of Rushing Water to become to Clans of the forest, and then allowed them to become the Clans of the lake, coming full circle. And he did this while only being able to see in dreams.

Next we go to The Fault In Our Stars. Is cancer considered a disability? Yes, even more so if it renders you blind like Isaac or makes you get a prosthetic body part like Augustus. Because that is what we Americans consider to be a disability. Wheelchairs. Prosthetics. Blindness. Deafness. Muteness. (I don’t think the last two are words, but I don’t really care.) This whole book is dedicated to making people realize (Whether it was the intention of John Green or not) that just because you have cancer and look different, it does not make you incapable of human emotions. Like Hazel says, that pyramid of needs isn’t correct when you can be Augustus Waters, who isn’t secure in his personal health yet can be philosophical, and the philosophical part of the pyramid is supposed to be unreachable if not secure in health. Because there’s a stigma against people with cancer just like there is for people with AIDS, as if you’ll contract the disease by looking at them or touching them. Which is not true.

Now I present Harry Potter. Yes, you read that right. I want to highlight Professor Albus Dumbledore, who was one of the greatest wizards of all time and the fact that he was gay, as revealed by JK Rowling herself. And yes, maybe nobody knew it, not even Grindelwald, whom he would’ve at least been in like with (I say this as I quote an episode of Liv and Maddie I was forced to watch) if he was not in love with him. But maybe Aberforth knew. And Elphias. And maybe Mad-Eye and Grindelwald himself knew, or McGonagall or Snape. Who knows? Despite the fact it never came up, knowing Dumbledore was gay made him seem more real, more important, especially after the Grindelwald storyline.

Next up we arrive at Percy Jackson. Every single demigod introduced to us (unless otherwise specified) was diagnosed with both ADHD and dyslexia. The only characters that were probably considered neurotypical would be Grover, Tyson, and Chiron, and Grover’s a satyr, Tyson a Cyclops, and Chiron a centaur. So, yeah.

Then the Seven and their new friends are a diverse group. Let’s make a list, shall we?

Percy, Annabeth, and Jason-- All are ADHD and dyslexic.

Piper-- Of Cherokee descent, making her Native American. ADHD. Dyslexic.

Leo-- Of Hispanic descent. ADHD (With emphasis on the ‘H’).  Dyslexic.

Hazel-- African-American. ADHD. Dyslexic.

Frank-- Chinese-Canadian. Unlike practically every other demigod (Possibly due to partial legacy status), Frank is neurotypical.

Reyna-- Puerto Rican. ADHD. Dyslexic.

Nico-- Italian. ADHD. Dyslexic. Despite meeting him in PJO, it is not revealed until this series that he is gay.

Voilà.

And now we conclude with… The Shadowhunter Chronicles. Now, I’m being very honest here, I didn’t really feel comfortable reading about gay characters when I first read CoB. This was the time that I still turned slightly away when Kurt and Blaine would kiss on Glee. But now, reading Magnus and Alec and Aline and Helen is as easy as breathing. I hated watching Brittany and Sam together on Glee, because, despite the fact I accepted that Brittany was bisexual, I preferred her being with Santana, being bolder. I learned all the words to Same Love and turned it up when it came on, even if I knew people that didn’t appreciate having it on. So, Cassandra Clare, I thank you for that.

Alec wouldn’t be Alec if he wasn’t gay. The TMI fandom wouldn’t be the TMI fandom if Malec wasn’t in it. When I go to read fanfiction, Malec always seems to be one of the most popular ships for this fandom. Seriously. I bet there’s more Malec than Clace; I think I even read somewhere that Malec was the ship of all ships. And I love Helen and Aline. Reading Clare’s LGBT* characters is just amazing. And then we can expect genderqueer Anna Lightwood coming up in TLH as well as a trans* character in TDA.

Then there’s Maia. Maia’s biracial (Definitely African-American, but I don’t know the other ethnicity) and was in a pretty serious relationship with a white guy. And yes, she was sad when he died. But they weren’t in love anymore. At least, she wasn’t in love with him. Therefore, the amount of grieving she did was okay. She mourned Jordan as a friend, but even then people will argue that she didn’t grieve for him enough; she should’ve stopped everything and just cried about Jordan for the rest of her life. You know what I say? There was a freaking war going on. Do you know why the Weasleys grieved in the middle of the Battle of Hogwarts? Because there was a ceasefire. As soon as Fred died, Harry and Ron didn’t let Percy have time to grieve. They made him get up so he wouldn’t die, too. The same goes for Maia. You can’t put life on hold for someone who died that you weren’t in love with anymore when you could join them anytime soon. The Shadowhunters were gone. It was up to the Downworlders, and Maia took charge.

Magnus and Jem are of color, too-- Indonesian and Chinese, respectively. Cordelia Carstairs’ mother, Iranian; Tamara in Magisterium is going to be Iranian as well. Raphael? Hispanic. Bat? African-American. Jia? Chinese. Then Ty places on the autistic scale. Cassandra Clare has created a real world within a make-believe one, full of characters that are white and African-American and everything in between, to straight to trans*, from neurotypical to neuroatypical. And I crown her the Queen of YA Diversity.

But there’s some stuff I need to address. I had Hazel and Hollie proofread this and Hazel made some comments that I think are important to address. Hazel will be bolded and I (Sophie) will be italicized.

Hazel: Okay so here I go again (and I’m using grammar for once so claps of appreciation lol) this is just something that bothers me so I’m going to write it down

We talk about diversity in YA and nowadays it seems like there’s so much more diversity in character, so much more types of people and different values etc.

But I honestly find it drier to read. Why? Probably because half the characters are flat, because the storylines are so similar. While there IS more diversity within the characters themselves, when it isn’t well handled, it’s just as well as having none. I see no differences being portrayed, it’s really no different than white white white. And the storyline is half the time predictable--the reason I rarely read YA is because I can guess the ending halfway through the novel.

Sophie: No, you make valid points. I never said that the diversity made the stories better than everything else. I only said that seeing authors take the plunge to create heroes that are gay and Native American and have prosthetic pieces is great, because America is full of people who think that’s great and then people who can’t stand it.

Hazel: But i feel like society is changing itself on a whole? people are becoming more diverse and more open but they’re losing the ability for deep thought and it’s all quick scanning and large intake of many things all at once but the time to sit back and reflect is basically gone.

Sophie: I feel ya.

Hazel: i can see the change in the novels that are written.

I see what she means. Do you?

I’m sure there’s plenty of titles that I’ve missed, but I don’t claim to be perfect. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you’ll try to pick a book with a little (more) diversity next time. Until Monday Funday (Where I’ll have a special post in early honor of somebody’s birthday…), this is Sophie, signing off.

P.S. Wow, that ending is weird. Anyway, bye.

Hey! Sophie here! This title is probably not overly appealing, but lounging at the beach and being stuck home alone are the perfect times to pick up a book and read. And I’ve got several suggestions.

FANTASY

Beastly and/or A Kiss In Time by Alex Flinn: These novels are modernized retellings of Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty, respectively. Beastly centers around Kyle Kingsbury, who had it all-- looks, money, popularity-- until he pissed off a witch in disguise, and, well… he became somewhat beast-like. A Kiss In Time centers on Princess Talia, who has recently been woken from a 300-ish year sleep by Jack, a kid who was just trying to get to the beach and take a break from European museums. The two are now stuck in Miami, together, and despite the fact his kiss woke her, the two can’t stand each other. But the world Talia lived in is very different from what she’ll encounter today…

These are both great books, I swear, and I don’t read straight-up-romance novels (or ‘garbage’ said in a French accent as someone I know calls them). They’re stand alone, although Beastly does have a companion novel centering on the witch, Kendra, and I don’t read a bunch of stand-alones, either. I’m more of a series type of girl.

Circa Now by Amber McRee Turner: Circa’s father was great at restoring old photographs and he’s been teaching her, too. He has to make a delivery and then… he’s dead, killed in the tornado and accident that spring up during the events. Just as Circa and her mother begin to move on, Miles shows up, who just so happens to have the picture Circa’s father was meant to deliver…

Circa Now is a great book. I really liked it, even though one part made me want to scratch my eyes out. (If you’ve read it, feel free to guess.)

Harry Potter by JK Rowling: Don’t make me explain. If you don’t know Harry Potter, you live under a rock. And it’s a fun series to re-read when you have all this extra time springing up

Pick up some Greek myths or Arthurian legends: Both can be told in many different ways for many different age levels. For the Greek myths, I would recommend literally just Googling ‘greek myth pdfs;’ you’ll find something. For Arthurian legends about the tales of King Arthur and the ever-so-gallant Knights of the Round Table, try King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table as told by Roger Lancelyn Green.

REALISTIC FICTION

Ways To Live Forever by Sally Nichols: Okay, so my next couple books are considered middle-grade, but that’s what Percy Jackson and Harry Potter and Warriors are considered, too, and they’re featured on here so WHATEVER. Like The Fault In Our Stars, W2LF centers around a child with cancer. Sam knows he is nearing the end and wants to have a normal experience before his disease gets the best of him. It’s quite a touching book.

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper: OOMM centers on Melody, a girl with cerebral palsy and the world around her. Her whole life, she’s been part of the special education classes, but they’re now allowing the special ed kids to attend regular classes, which is a relief since Melody’s brain is way-beyond pinning buttons on their poor classroom’s snow man. She joins the Quiz Team and makes friends… that maybe can’t see past her disability…

OOMM is a really, really great book that explores not only disabilities, but peoples’ reactions to them. I loved it and have read it several times.

Notes From An Accidental Band Geek by Erin Dione is a great story about being comfortable in your own shoes. Another novel of hers, The Total Tragedy Of A Girl Named Hamlet, is also a great story with a similar theme. Don’t know which I recommend more. And even though I’ve never read it, I’ve heard good things about Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies.

THRILLER/SUSPENSE

Peak by Roland Smith: Peak’s parents are both big rock climbers, even if he hasn’t seen his dad in years and his mom doesn’t climb anymore, especially since they now live in New York and all that’s there to (illegally) scale is skyscrapers. After being caught illegally scaling a skyscraper, Peak's father shows up and offers him the chance to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. Peak accepts, and learns that if he makes it to the top before his birthday, he can be the youngest person to ever reach the summit.

Peak is amazing. It’s great, really, I promise.