Well, this is embarrassing...if you're perhaps a guy or otherwise non-young-adult-reading teenaged girl with way too many book crushes. The purpose of this post is to inform these sad fellows why they seem to longer snag dates or impress girls they may have once ruled. Dear readers, let me introduce you to the world of young adult novels. And by young adult, I mean to immediately eliminate the 2% of male-aimed books and only include books written for teenage girls who are a bit silly for their own good, and young adults, and, heck, even middle aged women (who are a bit ridiculous--I mean, hardly any young girls have Twilight clubs, but I know for a fact that there are many groups dedicated to Twilight, of all things, ran by older women...unfortunately, I may become one of those creeper women when I reach my 40s and am still avidly reading series that are better off without me...as long as I'm not reading Twilight...).
I suppose I'm writing this because I feel a wee bit bad about all my book character infatuations. I mean, this is getting serious. I reread and rereread books because of certain characters, such as Warner from Shatter Me, Four/Tobias from Divergent, Patch from Hush, Hush, Kaidan from Sweet Evil, Ren from Tiger's Curse, John from Abandon, Perry from Under the Never Sky, Astley from Need, Chase from Article 5, Fade from Enclave, Michael from Hourglass, and I could literally keep typing, but I think those reading get the picture.
Authors make these guys so imperfectly perfect. I always despise characters who are just perfect with no problems. What's the point in writing a story about someone with no problem? The purpose of the book is to describe one's journey from a problem to a bigger problem (if it's a series), an inspiration, a conclusion, a something. I appreciate their flaws. Recently, Warner is my favorite because he's the bad guy of the book, but I'm so horribly drawn to his story rather than Adam's. I guess girls do go for the bad boys...but I blame authors for making them so dang lovable.
Nowadays, writers have gone all epic, intense, dramatic, and melancholy. Breathtaking boys with heartbreaking pasts. Totally draws in the ladies, if you know what I mean.
After reading all these books, girls tend to associate attractive guys with these attractive fictional characters. (Have you ever read Austenland by Shannon Hale? ((It's hilarious, and it's been made into a movie!)) In Austenland, the main character is hopelessly obsessed with Mr. Darcy and Colin Firth from the BBC movie, so she can't focus on anybody real because she too greatly appreciates the qualities personified in books and on the big screen. I'm sorry to say it, but that is what you're facing with young-adult-novel-reading people today.) Do you know how hard it is to compete with these guys? Way too hard. That's why I'm apologizing now for the lack of girls' attention towards males.
There's my rant; I must be off. I'm traveling again.
