New Adult: Pros and Cons

Hello everyone, it's the Intern! And I'm going to be discussing the pros and cons of the up and coming category "New Adult" named for people that are "new" to being "adults".

For those of you who don't know, New Adult is written for people 18-25ish since they are no longer adolescents but you could argue that they are not exactly adults either. It's like the purgatory between Young Adult and normal Fiction.

What sets NA apart from YA is the topics it covers. They contemplate leaving home for college, first actual jobs, roommates, sexuality, mature relationships, and discovering yourself without your parents to guide you.

And the sexuality part is probably the biggest difference. It's racier and could even be more explicit (not graphic, but not exactly fade-to-black-for-the-sexy-times either.) Which makes the category definitely more Adult than Young.

To get my opinion out of the way, I'm going to just say that I like the whole New Adult category. And I hope it continues to be a thing. But I will also go over the other side's equally valid view points.

Cons:

One could argue that it's just a marketing ploy to try to get an even WIDER audience and try to sell more books that are in such a purgatory. And they could also ask why are they in such a purgatory? Can't they be limited to either YA or just A? You may not even hate New Adult itself, just when people try to limit books to one category when they can go across the board if they want.

Or you could be offended by the SEX ASPECT!1!

Sex has no place in anything anywhere. The fact that authors can even imply people aged 18-25 could have DONE that is just DESPICABLE. (This is my sarcastic side coming out since I can't take these kind of arguments seriously).

Pros:

I think that anything that engages more readers is a good thing. If you can appeal to a new audience, then what's the harm? I also think that there is a distinct difference between people in high school and people in college and post-college and I think many plots that one could apply to one cannot be applied to the other.

Also, people forget that YA wasn't really a thing until a couple decades ago. And I, for one, am particularly excited to be apart of this upcoming category. I think there are a lot of ways people could write for it and there is a great hope for more books in this genre to come.

And if the potential sex aspect bothers you, don't read it. That simple.

So yes. Hip-hip hooray for YA and NA!

If you guys have any opinions, feel free to comment them down below.

Bye!!

Owyn the BBS Page

Vague Endings

Hello everyone! I hope you had a lovely Fourth of July weekend.

And I decided to kick off this week with a blog post about books that have vague endings.

There are two ways to do this: satisfying or infuriating.

*AVAST HASHTAG YOLO SPOILERS*

The two books I'm going to compare for the sake of a visual are Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys and The Corner of Bitter and Sweet. The first being by Kate Brian and the latter being by Robin Palmer.

Brian's book is about a girl who moves into a house that is occupied by 7 boys because it was either that or move to Korea with her military parents. And there is drama, romance, and MOAR DRAMA. (Like the fact that one brother cheats with the other brother's girlfriend and that girlfriend tries to blame Megan when it wasn't Megan's fault.)

Palmer's book is about a girl named Annabelle who's mom, Janie, is an alcoholic TV star who decides to clean up her act and take better care of her daughter while Annabelle has been taking care of her most of the time. Also coupled with cute romantic moments between Janie and Billy then Annabelle and Matt.

You see, in Palmer's book the ending doesn't say anything finite. But there's this hopefulness to it. Two couples are brought together, there's a new precedence for how Annabelle and Janie are supposed to act together and it just gives you a nice "Aw there's nothing really set in stone but I feel satisfied with that ending thank you very much awesome author."

BUT THEN THERE'S BRIAN'S BOOK

WHO GAVE HER THE RIGHT?

Ask my boss on twitter (@boulderbooks), I actually did this

I should probably explain my all caps rage. So in this book Megan has a slight crush on Evan but it's really more of an infatuation but then Megan starts to develop actual feelings for Finn and of course she does, Finn is amazing, but then things happen and then Megan leaves then she comes back and she has a moment with Finn and a slight one with Evan but BRIAN DOESN'T SAY WHO MEGAN ENDS UP WITH AND IT GIVES ME ISSUES.

Maybe some people are okay with not knowing but I am not. How. Dare. You. Brian.

So, personally, I prefer it if there's more of a happy-ending feel, because I didn't read your book to not get a happy ending. But I don't want an actual happy ending where every single string is tied and everything is all perky. I want realistic, but happy. So there could be a few loose ends, but at least have the couple together or the villain defeated or a hopeful outlook for that something to get fixed eventually. (Unless there's a sequel, then cover it in the sequel.)

But if the author just doesn't say something that seems vital to the denouement then I'm left feeling empty inside because HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT GOES ON IN YOUR BRAIN.

That's just my opinion. Leave yours in the comments!

Sincerely,

Owyn the Intern

Plot Wars: Distance Between Us vs. This is What Happy Looks Like

And the Intern is back with another Plot Wars for you all!

The two books butting heads today are The Distance Between Us by Kasie West and This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith.

VERSUS

The Set Up:

• The Distance Between Us is about a girl named Caymen who helps her poor mother run a porcelain doll shop that rich people frequent. Which is how she meets Xander, a rich boy who seems to understand her. But she knows from her mom's experience that the rich's interest doesn't last long, but that doesn't stop him from trying to get her attention.
• This Is What Happy Looks Like is about teenage hearthrob Graham accidentally sending normal, Maine girl Ellie an email, which leads to a period of emails where they talk about everything (except for their names or backgrounds). So when Graham's new movie is shooting in her hometown, Graham decides to meet her. Even though Ellie has a secret that requires her to stay out of the spotlight. Will these factors keep them apart?

Similarities:

• A difference in social class between the love interests
• A girl with a dad that is not involved in her life (SPOILERS: highlight to see: the mom slept with a rich man and who then abandoned the mom during pregnancy )
• A girl with a poor, working mom
• Both girls help their mom in a shop
• A best friend who is highly opinionated about the main girl's life and the rich man's intentions
• A group of similarly-minded people who think the love interests shouldn't be together/try to keep them apart
• The girl has no siblings
• The male lead has a problem with his parents

Differences:

• Instead of being rich, Graham is famous (he's rich too, but that's not the defining factor)
• There was more of a focus on the social-class differences with Caymen and Xander
• Ellie's dad is a politician and Caymen's dad is just plain rich
• Caymen's mom's shop is limited to dolls while Ellie's mom is a more general type of store
• Some of Xander and Caymen's friends don't want him "slumming" with Caymen while it's the paparazzi make things difficult for Ellie and Graham
• Ellie's not allowed to be in the spotlight because of her dad, and Caymen just doesn't want to deal with it

WHO WINS???

I don't know! They were both really well-written. It really just depends. The dialogue with Caymen and Xander is really dry and sarcastic, which made The Distance Between Us hilarious. But at the same time This Is What Happy Looks Like had an epistolary beginning (which are my favorite) with a shift in limited-third-person point of view. So it really comes down to what you prefer. But I liked them both.

Until later, readers!

Owyn the Intern

A/N: I also reviewed these on my personal YA book blog:

The Distance Between Us

This Is What Happy Looks Like (WARNING the images don't work well and I don't know how to fix it. Sorry)

Fanfiction: What Does it Mean for Society?

Hello, everyone! Owyn is here to talk about FANFICTION.

Now, for some of you, that could be a really dirty word that you associate with "Porn" or "Plagiarism". And some of you wholeheartedly embrace the trend and perhaps even write some of your own. And then some of you either don't know or don't care.

My opinion is that Fanfiction is fun to read and write and that people shouldn't be attacked for doing something they enjoy.

That being said, I know where a lot of you are coming from.

Take Fifty Shades of Grey for example. If you haven't heard yet, E.L. James originally wrote this as a Twilight (smut) fanfic, and it grew a huge following. So James decided to have it published, with the names switched to avoid copyright.

Not all fanfiction and its authors are like that. (Like Cassandra Clare got her start writing fanfiction.) Some of can be fluffy ones that people write because they want something changed or expanded on from the original story. And there's nothing really wrong with that.

Most fanfiction authors aren't trying to pass the story off as their own. They just want to tweak it a bit, and there are a lot of reasons for that. Like their ship isn't canon. In layman's terms: there's a couple that they really wanted to get together but they didn't end up dating in the original story, like if you wanted Katniss and Gale to get together. It's basically when you really support a couple and them being together. Or maybe they want to tell the story with the same characters but in a totally alternate universe (for example, taking all the characters in Harry Potter and making them dogs.)

I was talking to Jorden from Shipping and Receiving about a book that featured fanfiction, and I compared it to: "Someone made a bunch of really unique dolls and told a story with them. And someone else really liked those dolls, so they decided to play with them as well, but told a completely different story." And, some people can take the story with totally different characters. Like, if you really liked The Hunger Games and you wanted to write a story about a bunch of people in a death arena, you could write a fanfic based on that series but with new, original characters.

Now, like books, some fanfiction stories can be really bad. Since they don't have editors (unless you have a bit of a following, then someone in the same fanbase could help you edit it), there are a lot more grammatical mistakes and plot holes than you would find in a published book.

Or they could just be poorly written. And that's okay, this could be part of their process for becoming better writers, because most fanfiction sites have the ability to let people review the stories, so authors get instant feedback. Everyone has to start somewhere.

If you would like to get into the fanfiction scene, then you can try fanfiction.net or Tumblr. (WARNING: There could be some dirty stories on there. On Fanfiction.net you can limit your story rating to K-> T, which stands for Kid-friendly through Teen. On Tumblr, if you use Google Chrome, you can "blacklist" it with Tumblr Savior so it never shows up in your feed. I recommend blacklisting "NSFW", which means "not safe for work" and "Smut", which is how fanfic writers refer to "sexy times").

But yes, that is my opinion on fanfiction. If you guys have varying opinions, feel free to talk to me in the comments below!

Sincerely,

Owyn the Intern

Book vs. Movie: Warm Bodies

And Book vs. Movie is BACK! *eep of excitement!*

 

                                                                        VERSUS
So, last week I finally saw the movie Warm Bodies after reading the book back in January. And here are my thoughts from my brain that has yet to be eaten by a corpse.

*SPOILERS BEWARE AVERT YOUR EYES*

Major Differences: (thanks to this blog for help with the list!)

• M and Nora don't have a hopeful potential romance like in the book.
• The movie's human city didn't take place in a sports stadium
• They left out R's family in the movie version (which I was thankful for)
• The loss of Julie's mother isn't as prominent
• M became a comic relief character (which I did not mind)
• In the movie, the last human R kills is Perry
• While it ends on a similar note, the ending of the movie becomes only loosely based on the book's ending

Me Being Stupid: Do you ever not notice something about a book/movie but when someone points it out, it's like "Why didn't I see this before?" For me and this movie, it's the fact that Warm Bodies is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet. I don't know how I didn't see it before and I've been mentally kicking myself. There's R (Romeo), Julie (Juliet), M (Mercutio), Perry (Paris), and Nora (Nurse). It's obvious. 

Which Do I Pick?: I think I liked the movie more, because I had a tough time getting into a zombie book but I liked the whole zombie flick. But the book was still good, well-written and funny. I just prefer the movie. 

Tell me what you guys thought down in the comments!

Have a great day!

Owyn

P.S. Nicholas Hoult is very attractive. That is all.

OMG Fierce Reads Author Lunch

Salutations!

As one of the many perks of being an intern here, I got to accompany my bosses Stephanie and Liesl to a lunch on Pearl Street with the four authors from Fierce Reads: Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm), Anna Banks (Of Poseidon, Of Triton), Jessica Brody (My Life Undecided, Unremembered) and Emmy Laybourne (Monument 14, Monument 14: Sky on Fire)

First of all, I read all the books for the event and it made it SO MUCH MORE FANTASMAGORICAL.

Since I have a horrible memory (even though this was just a couple hours ago), I decided to tell you some amazing things that I managed to remember:

Anna:
- We somehow managed to try to get her fourth book title of Testicle/Tentacles and I hope she does name the book the latter and accidentally says the former.
- She just threw in so many sassy, sarcastic comments throughout and it reminded me of her books.

Emmy:
-She told this amazing story how she drove up skiing with her friends and they forgot to get a hotel so they went to this shady place instead. And then the spigot from the faucet in the kitchen was missing and it totally freaked her out.
-She also made fun of me for scraping all the toppings on my pizza but I don't need her judgment ;)

Jessica:
- She told us these awesome stories of how she used to work at Disney World and told us all the secrets. (We'd leak them here but no one wants a Disney lawsuit)
- We also fangirled over How I Met Your Mother. That was amazing.

Leigh:
- She just had these amazing stories and also threw in her witty quips that were fantastic.
- My favorite story was when she was watching The Titanic and was sitting next to this man who kept mumbling throughout the movie. When it got to the part Kate Winslet took off her clothes, he said "MAGNIFICENT" and now whenever people mention the movie that's what she associates it with.

But yes, these people are so amazing and the books are SO GOOD. I recommend them highly.

Ta ta!

Owyn

Plot Wars: Prom and Prejudice vs. Epic Fail

Hello everyone! The BBS Intern Owyn is BACK with a blogging vengeance!

So, for my first day, I decided to start a series of blog posts called Plot Wars, which will pit two books with similar plots against each other and one shall rise the victor!

The first two books are Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg and Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik. 

VERSUS

The Set-Up:

• Prom and Prejudice focuses on Lizzie Bennett, a piano-playing girl on scholarship at Longbourn Academy. Due to her constant bullying for being poor, she's developed a mistrust and distaste for rich people. And then she meets Will Darcy, a rich man with a mistrust and distaste for poor people. With the huge prom coming up, will they be able to give up their prides and prejudices?
• Epic Fail is about middle-class girl Elise Benton who moves to a new school with her principal-mom and four sisters. Derek Edwards is the son of two famous actors and is pretty much royalty around their school. Unfortunately, her sister falls for his best friend. Is there a way to refuse his amazing smile and embrace his known-enemy Webster Grant?

Similarities:

They are both modernizations of Pride and Prejudice.
-A brooding male lead
-A romance between the friends of the male and female lead
-A character who uses people to get wealth.
-A wealth gap between the leads
-A big event (Prom versus a Movie Premiere)
They're both set in the 2010s

They both have a attention-seeking younger sibling character who falls whim to the guiles and charms of Wickham/Webster (that I despised.)

Differences:

Eulberg's is more obvious about the fact it's a retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Same character names, same plot, just with some modern slang and euphemisms... Yo.

LaZebnik's uses fame instead of richness as the separating factor, making Derek Edwards the son of prominent actors and Elise the daughter of her prep school's principal.

Lizzie's character punches Wickham's character in Eulberg's version (YES BRING ON THE PAIN)

WHO WINS???

I think Prom and Prejudice wins because Darcy was more likable than Derek and less annoyed-sigh-inducing, Lizzie punched Wick, and Epic Fail was too preachy when it came to the way Paparazzi treat celebrities. While I admit it must get annoying, I don't need to hear about how much it sucks. They get free things. No complaining. 

If you want to read a modernization of Pride and Prejudice, then I'd recommend Prom and Prejudice.

Glad to be back!

Owyn

P.S. Check me out on my personal blog The Bookstore Intern Chronicles!