I’d be interested to see if Sarvenaz Tash has written anything else, because while I wasn’t a huge fan of the protagonist in this story, the background of New York Comic Con and Tash’s obvious love of all things nerdy made the rest of it pretty fun.
“And who wouldn’t wish that? Certainly everyone here- dressed up as aliens, and wizards, and zombies, and superheroes- wants desperately to be inside a story, to be part of something more logical and meaningful than real life seems to be. Because even worlds with dragons and time machines seem to be more ordered than our own.”
Graham and Roxy have been best friends since they were eight years old, after they met and instantly bonded over Harry Potter. Now they’re sixteen, and have been working on a comic book series together for years, based on their favorite (and sadly short-lived) comic: Althena. Oh, and Graham realized about three months ago that he’s head over heels in love with Roxy. When he finds out that Althena’s reclusive author will be hosting a panel at NYCC, Graham plans a whole weekend filled with Roxy’s favorite geeky things, and plans to tell her how he feels. Of course, things never worked out as planned.
A lot of this book worked. Everything at NYCC — the John Hughes panels, the costumes, the props and art for sale. All of it came alive and made me badly want to see it for real. The descriptions of the Althena made me want to read THAT more than I wanted to read this book. I love that Tash made her heroine Persian, complete with over-protective parents and a Farsi speaking grandmother who cooks (Tash was born in Iran, and the descriptions of the food in this book made me drool). And a lot of the little throwaway lines were cute, like when Graham discovers that his rival for Roxy’s affections has a goddamn British accent.
But man, am I tired of this kind of storyline. Maybe I’ve been reading too much YA lately. But seriously, how many times do we need to have a boy madly in love with a girl — but completely unable to tell her — who comes up with a grand scheme to reveal his feelings, only to be thwarted by real world circumstances and/or British guys? And of course, the boy must meet a different girl, who instantly likes him, but he’s too blinded by his love to see her! At least in this one, Graham actually knows Roxy and has a real relationship with her — she’s not some goddess he worships from afar (ahem, fml). But I feel like this particular trope has been done to death. I’m interested to see what Tash could do with something new.
On a totally different note, though, how awesome is the cover of this book?
Oh it sounds good. Sadly I’m steering clear of YA for a while. It’s just too damn frustrating to read the same tropes over and over, no matter how well done they are.
Yeah, I’ve been reading a LOT of it lately b/c Overdrive has a ton available online for free and it’s definitely feeling tougher to find the good ones.
I try to be aware of this stuff for my own writing and editing. What are some tropes that y’all are sick of? I’ve put the kibosh on “insta-love” and plot complications that would take literally a three-minute conversation to fix.
Oh that’s a difficult one! I think stories like this definitely have their merit, but as I get older I really like seeing happy relationships. I don’t think we get enough portrayals of happy relationships and it’s so important to see what that actually looks like. Too many people think love is in the chase, but I’d much rather see a happy couple in undramatic love where one of or they both solve a conflict unrelated to their relationship where it is just one of support. But I guess it’s tough when you do YA, because hormones.
Another trope I’m sick of is angsty white male protagonists.
Also any book where the teenage protagonist has “special powers” or is in some way the chosen one.
However any trope well done can be bearable, the author is just writing against a LOT more competition, so going niche and finding untold stories will give the author much more generosity from their audience.
^^ what she said.
I get a little tired of the grand scheme feelings reveal I can’t communicate thing, too. But I wonder if we feel that way because we’re grown ups? We’ve been down that path, we know that all we have to do is just say something, but the target audience here doesn’t necessarily know that.
And I don’t want to say that grown folks can’t read YA – heaven knows that my secret love is YA books – but maybe this trope is the Disney princess thing of the teen years. You know what I mean? When you’re six, all you want is to be swept up in the fairy tale, which for me was becoming a princess and getting that library and living happily ever after. And then when you’re an adult, the fairy tale becomes finding a partner who takes out the garbage when it’s full and puts the damn toilet seat down and communicates with you. So maybe as a teen, the fairy tale is these grand gestures and weird non-communication.
I don’t know. It’s early and I’m not expressing myself well.
And probably I’m overthinking this. :)
Lol, no! I totally see what you mean and I could have expressed myself more clearly. I LOVE stories of unrequited love and figuring things out. I just wish that IN ADDITION we’d also sometimes see something quiet and happy. A lot of people are a little too focused on relationship IMO and I think it’d be great if we could teach kids that love-love is great, but there are many other cool things in the world.
Also this is why I’m taking a break from YA, because I’m personally tired of it, still I recognize that it’s a brilliant story and one that I occasionally like to lose myself in as well :) But it’s only natural that once you see the same story too many times, you essentially “figure it out” which is why I’m also giving white-man-super-hero movies a good long break too ;)