teen lit

i blame it on my gal pal.  an intelligent, beautiful, witty and socially conscious woman i respect.  who happens to read young adult literature.  a la harry potter, twilight, etc.

she doesn't stick to this genre.  her literary repertoire extends in all areas, most often dedicated to studying books of medicine and healthcare.  for this reason, among others, i understand her appreciation for the light, quick, world-escaping novels that are written with adolescent minds in....mind.  she needs a break.  a mini-vacation.  a fun refresher to help her relax.  as do lots of fabulous adults.

she doesn't know it, but she's a saleswoman.  i avoided harry, resisted reading about vampires, and thought i was above it all until i heard her tell me about the hunger games.  brave new world-esque trilogy with a few new twists.  it happens to be targeted toward the young adults.  does 26 count as a young adult?

i am fucking hooked.

i picked up the first book just prior to my cruise date.  having previously finished devil in a white city, learning of late 1800s architects and chicago city planners for the world's fair, i decided to change directions.  and now i can't stop until the story does.

there's something about the post-apocalyptic world that snares me.  tangles me and makes me never want to stop exploring.  something about a big-brother-type government that makes me just angry enough to hope to read of its implosion and demise.

i finished the first book in three days.  the final days of the cruise, while wonderful, left me yearning for more.  as soon as we hit the airport, the boyfriend and i went on a quest.  a book quest.  for the second novel.  one after the other, we were denied success.  we eventually went to desperate measures.  no kidding, we paid $30 to get into a private airport club so that i could access the internet and download the second book onto his ipad.  which i finished in another 2 days.  which was this morning.

i have the third book, purchased over my lunch break, in my bag.  it's begging to be read.  i'm counting down the minutes not until i can go home, but until i can plant myself onto a stationary bike at the gym for a solid hour of hard-core third-book reading.

i am devouring this series.  and i don't know what i'll do when it's over.  i have fallen in love with young adult literature.  thanks to my friend (i love you).

in my defense, i have read many reviews of this trilogy (trying to make myself feel better) written by adults who have found themselves in the same predicament.  we all try to convince ourselves that this story is not quite appropriate for the young adult audience, its scenes too violent, its messages too complex, on and on.  i feel what they feel, but let's be real: teens in this day and age can handle most anything literature has to throw at it (perhaps, excluding large vocabulary words).  it fits the teen mold.  but can't it also extend into those of us who can also appreciate higher forms of literature?  provide a valuable relief from the complexities of novels that force us to explore and analyze historical or current life?

i won't lie.  there have been several moments in the book where i sigh, happy to see a smidgen of romance, only to think, "so, when are they going to have sex?"  there have been scenes in which i think a solid "fuck" would have done a lot to enhance the dialogue.

regardless of these mild critiques, i am trapped.  i am a prisoner of anticipation.  i am addicted to young adult literature.  and i'm not (really) ashamed.