Top Ten and Teaser Tuesday (3)

Top Ten Trends That I Would Like To See More/Less Of

1. More Strong Female Characters

I love it when the female characters kick ass and don't take crap from anybody; and if the male character can keep up with her then that is a book that I would want to read. For example, Katniss from the Hunger Games (and Peeta and Gale can keep up with her as well)

2. More Books That Tackles Real Issues

The world today puts so much pressure on teenagers and when an author can correctly portray these issues so that people can learn more about them and not judge because they can be "taboo" to talk about. For example, Ellen Hopkins her books cover, drugs, prostitution, incest, binging and purging, suicide, and how far people will go to be "perfect".

3. More Dystopian/High Fantasy

I adore these genres! I love it when an author creates another world that I can totally immerse myself in. 

4. More Remakes of Fairytales

I like that authors are revisiting the stories that I grew up with and are putting a modern twist on them but, only if they are well written/done correctly. For example, Beastly by Alex Flinn is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast and I really enjoyed it. Alex also has two other books that are retelling two other fairytales.

5. More Normal Girls

I would like to see more female characters from contemporary novels be "normal". There's nothing too "special" about them but they are still interesting. For example, Anna from Anna and the French Kiss there is nothing too special about her but you still love her as a character.

6. Less Series

I agree with a lot of other people that there seems to be an overabundance of series coming out lately and most of them seem to be one book/story cut up into multiple parts; a good series is where each book has a different plot for each book. For example, Harry Potter: in book one he has to save the sorcerer's stone, in book two someone is petrifying the students of the school, in book three Sirius Black is on the loose and supposedly trying to kill Harry to avenge Lord Voldemort, etc. So as you can see each book had a different plot but they kept the same characters and themes.

7. Less Whinny Female Characters

I cannot stand a female character who can't do anything for herself/needs a boyfriend to survive! *cough*Bella Swan*cough* I know that everyone rags on Twilight but in this instance Bella fits it perfectly. Her whole world centers around Edward and when he leaves she basically sits there and mopes for however many months until she finds a new guy to attach herself to and make her world revolve around him. I mean for goodness sake just because your "boyfriend" leaves you doesn't mean that you give up on living, life does go on!

8. Less Celebrities Publishing Books

I mean honestly it is so unfair that they can publish books like it is nothing just because they have a "name" to slap onto the cover that is highly recognizable. There are probably a ton of really good authors that had a less easy road to getting published because they weren't already famous and it really irks me to no end!

9. Less Genre Trends

I really don't like the fact that all of a sudden one genre will become immensely popular and then within a year or two it will completely disappear while the next big genre will take it's place.

10. Less Love At First Sight/Love Triangles

First off, love at first sight does not exist! When you first see someone all you see is their appearance and I hate to break it to you but that is just lust! You cannot tell their personality by how they dress, nor can you tell how they will react during their different emotions. For all you know the boy in the preppy clothes could wind up hitting you black and blue while the boy in the skinny jeans and the gauged ears could be the sweetest guy that you could ever meet. Also the amount of love triangles that are in books are becoming tedious especially when you can guess who they are going to end up with rather early on.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read, open to a random page, and share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS!

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers.

My Teaser:

"I guess you're coming as my date now." Simon shoved the phone back into his pocket.

"I'm secure enough in my masculinity to accept that," said Jordan.

"We'd better get you something nice to wear though," he called as Simon headed back into his room. "I want you to look pretty."

-pg. 282 "City of Fallen Angels" by Cassandra Clare

"He told me he was going to be right back. That was forty minutes ago. I figured he was going to the bathroom."

"What kind of guardian are you? Shouldn't you have gone to the bathroom with him?" Isabelle demanded.

Jordan looked horrified. "Dudes," he said, "do not follow other dudes to the bathroom."

Isabelle sighed. "Latent homosexual panic will do you in every time," she said. "Come on. Let's look for him."

-pg. 317 "City of Fallen Angles" by Cassandra Clare

I decided that since this is going to be the last time that I'm going to post a teaser from CoFA and I couldn't decide between the two of them I would post them both! And you just couldn't get the whole effect without the whole passage so that is why they are longer than two sentences. Also I am GOING to post my review for It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han TOMORROW and maybe my review for City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare as well!

<3 Shannon