Holiday Cheer: Don't Look Here

Yesterday, having just finished Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott, I started reading The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Both are really great books that suck you in, but upon reflection of my latest reads, I've noticed something: YA novels are depressing.

A cursory review of the biggest titles of this year - even The Disreputable History and Paper Towns, with their witty dialogue and clever/spunky characters - reveal the following major commonalities:

• Deception
• Deprivation
• Loneliness
• General Misery

When did teen angst turn so dark? No wonder teens are bringing guns to school and murdering their classmates. Forget video games, absentee parents and heavy metal - it's those books they're reading!

Seriously though, this week's reading is almost making me wish YA was as easy and fluffy as "the critics" (in quotes because they don't actually read YA, they are just critical of it) say. After I finish these Printz contenders, I think I'm going to have to take a break and catch up on my Janet Evanovich, or maybe turn to Sesame Street.