It Really Could Have Been a LOT Beta: Beta by Rachel Cohn

Title: Beta by Rachel Cohn
Genre: YA Dystopia/Sci-fi
Pro-Feminist Content: ★★
Rage-Induction: >:( >:( >:( >:(

Yet another book I picked out based on the cover.  I had no idea the author also co-wrote the Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist novel, but I understand that she's now contracted to write an entire series about the world described in Beta. Must be nice to have that kind of pull to lock in a multi-book deal when the first book is so awful.

On goodreads I did say that I'd bump up the rating just a little since I figure Cohn is a little out of her element genre-wise. That's why as bad as this book is, I'm hoping the feminist issues and shoddy writing get ironed out in the next book. Incidentally, the projected title for the second book--Emergent--sounds like it fits in better with the Divergent series, and seems titled that way to make people confused. Wouldn't it be better to name the book Alpha or Gamma or something? Or even, Beta: Insurgency or something.

(G)OOPs and A Hetero View of Gay Hate Crimes: Shine By Lauren Myracle

Title: Shine by Lauren Myracle

Genre: Contemporary YA Fiction; "Mystery"

Pro-Feminist Content: ★★★

Rage-Induction: >:( >:( >:( >:(

I apologize for the long hiatus. I've just found it hard to find any YA books worth reading. For that matter, I haven't found any books of any genre that were worth reading beyond the first chapter. I'm at a point in my life where I am too busy to stick with something that doesn't interest me, mainly because I don't have a commute anymore so there's no time to read.

I picked up Lauren Myracle's Shine after two significant events in my outside life. The first was getting jury duty on the day that Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to thirty days in prison, and being witness to the ensuing brouhaha in both the Indian-American community as well as the gay community in Middlesex County. Full disclosure: I both went to Ravi's high school and am Indian (though I was older than him and did not know him), and I was an active member of my high school's gay-straight alliance group. It was while thinking about the gay bullying incidents that I decided to pick up this book.

The second was after reading Gwenyth Paltrow's dumbass Tweet about black people. The incident--and the reactions to it--were so mind-boggling that I knew that when confronted with that much stupidity, I'd have to take a stand. So that's why I decided to actually blog about the book.