why I'm frustrated with young adult literature

As someone who was once an avid reader, I no longer feel compelled to call myself thus.

And it really makes me sad.

You see, there was once a time when the best punishment my mother could, well, punish me with was to take away my reading books.

Nowadays it's rare that I'm actually reading a book.

No, I haven't given up reading all together. There will forever be books that I hold dear.

But with the state of "literature" in this day and age is kind of depressing.

A good example is a series that I just finished. The Tigers Curse series by Colleen Houck.
While I would have to say that the series is a favorite it still falls prey to being much like the majority of other young adult books.

Originally I started the series with the first book of the same title, Tigers Curse. It intrigued me for a few reasons. At the time, it was extremely hard to find a newer book that didn't involve vampires and werewolves. While such is still true the plot took a more original twist.

It's about two Indian princes who are cursed to live immortally as tigers.
And of course the seemingly normal girl who, while working her new summer job, finds herself caught up in the adventure of a lifetime to break the curse binding them in tiger-form.
I mean, she's from Oregon, I'm from Oregon.
I could connect right off with that.

Sounds kind of awesome, right?

Well the first book really was. I enjoyed it immensely.

Basically Kelsey (the main character) gets a summer job working for the circus that is in town for those few, warmer months. It's manual labor, cleaning things, selling tickets, helping feed animals; all that fun stuff.
But along the way she befriends the circus' white tiger. And during her breaks spends her time reading out loud in the solace of the tent that holds the cage of the white tiger.
This white tiger, of course, is one of the aforementioned Indian princes.

While I would warn of spoilers, trust me, all this becomes rather apparent a short ways into the book...most of it can be found in the description on the book anyway.

Kelsey of course is more special than she knows because there is something about her that sets in motion the breaking of the curse. And the tiger she knows as Ren is able - for the first time in hundreds of years - to change back into a man.

But only for an hour.

And so the story begins.
As you would imagine, he is incredibly handsome and thank goodness, Kelsey doesn't really trust that and there's a lot of pretty good arguments and banter along the way.
But we all know where it's headed. Destiny and them being meant to be together...all that jazz.

So it was pretty cool.

But then...along the way (at this point it may be book two, though I could very well be mistaken) they have to find Ren's brother; Kishan to help in the quest to break the curse.

Kishan of course is something of Ren's opposite, literally a black tiger to his elder brothers white, however also incredibly handsome.

Then it kind of get's cliche in this awkward, heart wrenching, love triangle kind of way.

Over the course of the next three books (there are four total in the series) there's all this "which brother do I choose" and "who am I meant to be with" and "there's these two gorgeous, perfect guys who both love me" stuff going on.

And it's kind of sickening.
And it kind of made me hate Kelsey a lot.
A lot.

I really liked her in the first book.
Then...it kind of went downhill.

The basis of the stories is really cool. The writing isn't half bad. Sure there's some false Hindi gods and legends stuff going on but it's a really interesting plot line in the light of current franchises *cough*Twilight*cough*.

But I just was having serious difficulty stomaching this girl who has two guys completely in love with her and all this "coincidence" and asdfghjkl.sdfghjkl;

Yes, I just died on my keyboard. Because it frustrates me. Love triangles, while a common occurrence and a valid part of writing, are so used and abused that I just want a good quest story that maybe doesn't involve so much romantical blah.

I know I sound like some spinster or something, and I know that it's just fiction, I just hate when characters (especially main-girl-potentially-awesome-powerful-heroine characters) are just crazy stupid.
I know the insecurities and guy issues are a real thing, but the portrayal of how all this stuff works in next to every book I lay my hands is starting to frustrate me to the point of...well, to the point of writing this post.

I feel like I should have a disclaimer at this point. I did finish the series. I cried several times during the course of all the books. Especially at the ending of the final one. I'll probably end up reading them again at some point. In fact there's a good chance that I'd recommend it as a whole.

It's just that this series frustrated me and it's on the better end of the spectrum of young adult literature.

Why aren't there any awesome books (that I haven't already read) that...well...don't involve a girl who has completely invested her life into the lives (if they can be called lives) of guys that may-or-may-not be hundreds of years old and/or even worth it.

It seems to be a theme these days.

Guys get movies and stories about epic adventures where it's just a buddy thang.
Why don't girls get those?

While this post probably doesn't make much sense, hopefully to someone, it will.
Anybody?

Book Rant Warning!

hmmnnn...well, well, well...what to blog about?

I guess everything's going good for me here.
School is well...school...normally homeschool is pretty laid back but with my online classes I really have to step up my game! haha So that can be rather stressful...especially when ones Spanish course was obviously written but well...idiots to tell you the truth.
Its a long story I'd rather not go into...but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be dropping this course and potentially trying out a different one on a trial basis for a week or so to make sure that I won't be behind or anything.

Part of the problem really is the fact that this Spanish course is SO, SO basic, and so dumbed down that it confuses me...because the whole dumbed down and more basic than basic is pretty much the reason I left public school...when its so dumbed down that its confusing me then there is obviously something wrong.

Working on my midterm for my Web Design course...wish I could get some inspiration to make it a bit easier!

In more exciting news, I'm very much excited about going to a concert on Monday!
Yes, it is a school night and whatnot, but its just too good to pass up! Not to mention I'll be going with one of my bestest friends as well as the rest of my YoungLife group. It shall be epic and lots of fun. So, very much looking forward to that.

For anyone who wonders, I have yet to finish Iron King by Julie Kagawa. 
Sadly, I just don't seem to have much time for reading what with school and everything. Not to mention the fact that nothing is really sparking my reading appetite.
I think part of the problem is that there just isn't really much good reading young adult genre right now. Everything seems to be vampire, werewolf or zombie related and that's just not exactly my slice of pie.
However, I will admit that there are a few that are worth mention that I have enjoyed.

If you're totally and completely opposed to "magic", zombies, werewolves, vamps and the like, feel free to skip the next paragraph as you see fit.

Worthy of honorable mention for a vampire book that I read and enjoyed is Melissa De La Cruz's Blue Bloods series.

Though it has its questionable content (everything does nowadays...), I enjoyed the series because the author has a great writing style, as well as a fantastic knack for weaving various myths, legends and lore, together to create an intriguing and original story...though definitely not Biblically accurate (in her series the "vampires" were the former angels who fell with Lucifer) it is just meant to be fiction.

As far as the whole "werewolves" thing goes, there's really only one book in my opinion that stepped above and beyond for me. Author Maggie Stiefvater took the whole "werewolf" thing and created a whole new story and spin on it in her book Shiver.

You see, in this story its not a silver bullet, full-moon werewolf, they change when they're cold and in the sequel Linger (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!) she puts a science spin on it. It was totally original and I loved it. For my full review of Shiver you can head on over and read it HERE at Randomly Reading.

And so we've come to "zombies".
The whole dead thing has never been anything I like to go near...ick.
And honestly, I never thought I'd see the day where I'd even read something with zombies in it...never ever.
But! I proved myself wrong when I was enticed by what looked to be a potentially good read. Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon.
Though filled with tons of action and undead butt whoopin...there is a little too much content for my taste, but it was a rather great story.

The biggest thing with all three of those, is the originality.
Everything even scarcely related to "vampires" or "werewolves" as of late is pretty much completely unoriginal.
Sorry to anyone who's big into Twilight, but the books are overrated, Stephenie Meyer's writing is really not that good (though she does get better as the books progress...I will give her that), and its really not all that original!

Basically, its all pretty much same-ol', same-ol' which well...GETS old, which is why the biggest judge for me, is how original the author was.
For more of my feelings on books as well as whats-hot and whats-not in YA reading, make sure to head on over and check out Randomly Reading!

Hopefully I didn't bore you all to death...or insult anyone too badly...haha
Comment, I would love to know what you think!

Blessings to you all!