So, there’s this article in US News and World Report about a move to rate YA books as you might films, so that parents have a warning system for inappropriate content. Let’s put aside the fact that this is already done by publishers who put age appropriateness on books—and is also done online,…
When I was like 8 or something, I was home alone with my brothers and I was taking a bath just minding my own business. Then all of a sudden my dick was standing up and really hard and all that usual boner stuff. I didn’t know what it was because my family is full of assholes who didn’t tell me anything about puberty so I was freaking out. I literally started crying and screaming and I thought it was going to fall off and that I was going to have to go to the hospital and oh my god I think I can honestly say that it was probably the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced. So then my brother runs in and sees me and starts laughing uncontrollably so I start crying even harder because he used to only laugh at me when something really bad was happening to me and he called my other brother in there and they were both laughing and I was screaming at them to stop laughing while I was crying and asking them what it was and ugh it was terrible. So then when they calmed down they told me that it was a super power I had and all the boys in our family had it and that I just needed to learn to control it but I couldn’t talk about it with anyone but them because when you have super powers you can’t tell anyone or you’ll get jealous villains. So I kept my secret and I spent so long trying to control those powers and I got so frustrated because I couldn’t get it to come back no matter how hard I tried. Then a couple weeks later I got it again (when I wasn’t trying) and I was walking around the house all proud like “oh everyone look at my powers I got it” and my mom saw it and almost screamed and then she explained the truth to me it was really disappointing.
I’m saying that I’m a moody, insecure, narrow-minded, jealous, borderline homicidal bitch, and I want you to promise me that you’re okay with that, because it’s who I am, and you’re what I need.
“
| — | Halfway To The Grave |
You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to feel.
“
| — | From Forbidden, by Tabitha Suzuma |
All her knowledge is gone now. Everything she ever learned, or heard, or saw. Her particular way of looking at Hamlet or daisies or thinking about love, all her private intricate thoughts, her inconsequential secret musings – they’re gone too. I heard this expression once: Each time someone dies, a library burns. I’m watching it burn right to the ground.
“
| — | Jandy Nelson, The Sky is Everywhere |
This is our story to tell. You’d think for all the reading I do, I would have thought about this before, but I haven’t. I’ve never once thought about the interpretative, the story telling aspect of life, of my life. I always felt like I was in a story, yes, but not like I was the author of it, or like I had any say in its telling whatsoever.
“
| — | The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson |
I’ll go,” he said.
“And that’s safer because?”
“I’m a guy.”
“Right, and having a pair of dingle balls makes you invincible how?
“And that’s safer because?”
“I’m a guy.”
“Right, and having a pair of dingle balls makes you invincible how?
“
| — | Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday |
Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can’t tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.
“
| — | The Fault in Our Stars by John Green |
