Young adult literature.....kinda sucks.
I know. I'm 25 years old, I'm not what you would call the "intended audience." But the problem is, as a high school English teacher, I'm supposed to be championing these books 'cause "READING IS AWESOME!"
So now, in order to get my kids to read, I'm likely going to do a bit of lying. Great.
I started reading the first Percy Jackson book a couple weeks ago. In my spare time I've been reading a few pages here and there. I figured, since I teach archetypes, all the points of the hero's journey and the references to Greek mythology would only be a good thing.
The BAD thing, though, is that it's simply not written well.
There is no pacing in this thing. The entire book is a race from one huge explodey moment to the next. Percy Jackson loves his mother and is sad she is dead. What? You aren't emotionally invested in Percy's mother? Of course you aren't! You just met her five pages ago! Percy doesn't even spend any time mourning her, even though his pursuit to bring her back to life is supposedly a guiding plot line for the remainder of the book.
Maybe by the time I finish it, my view will be different, but for now, it feels like this was written with zero patience and for low attention spans. I had the exact same problem with The Hunger Games.
For those who will point out that, again, I'm not the intended audience, I have two words: Harry Potter. That series was masterful, and apparently it's the gold standard I now hold other books up to. You aren't just "told" that there's a relationship between characters. You actually witness them grow and build. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione go after Voldemort in the very first book, you're invested in what happens because the author took time to establish that emotional connection.
Ah well. Perhaps I'm looking too much into this. After all few people put Percy Jackson in the same level as good 'ol H.P.
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