And I must not have been the only person who thought that, because Moran’s new novel, Cleopatra’s Daughter (releasing tomorrow, IIRC), is being marketed as BOTH YA and adult.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying I did not think Kinsale’s comment was YA bashing at all.

Loyalty.

This book could have been a deep exploration of loyalty in all its guises, in what it means, how it tears us apart or heals us, causes us to do terrible things and redeems us.

Lilly had it in spades. And every single character failed her in the end.

I think that’s why it was ultimately so unsatisfying to me. She saved all their ass*s. But everything she did was rendered emotionally pointless, because no one (including the dishrag Udolf) gave back to her the gift she gave to them in spite of everything that was done to her.

Dog-like, indeed.

Whenever I read “reads like a YA novel” with “simplistic” in the same critique, my hackles do go up, because a lot of people do assume that the two go hand in hand. And, like you said, there are fabulous, nuanced stories in all genres.

Lilly’s state of mind, for most the story, is impulse based. Neither Uldolph and Lilly think about far ranging consequences. Take out the explicit sex scene and the story could have a YA feel to it.

So, I got where you were coming from in terms of the YA comment and did not see it as bashing at all. Thanks for coming and sharing your thoughts with us. I think its always interesting to hear from people who study the craft of writing.

Re-reading my comment, I can see how it would be taken that way. However I didn’t intend to say that the book was an indication that YA is lacking as a genre. This book would fail as a YA in the same way it fails as an adult book–as a story that could have been exceptional and instead is mediocre in my opinion.

There are great YA books just as there are great romances. There are also YA books that don’t live up to their potential, same as romances.

What I really meant to say is that this book doesn’t seem to know what it is. Jane’s comment that the character of Erhard “seemed to be” as pivotal as the werewolf girl is indicative. Erhard is an interesting character too but just left weirdly half-developed and then killed off. I got a fair amount of information about him but not any feel for him or why he acted as he did, which was contradictory. He seemed attached to the girl but showed no upset or conflict when she was to be executed, for instance. He had no character arc, yet took up a lot of print. Several characters went right up to the edge of real emotion and then just “poof” nothing happened inside them, nothing changed, there was just a fight or action, where characters are “done to” rather than decision-making.

The book went this way and that way, with mainly an adventure theme that struck me as typical of YA, which is why I mentioned it. A number of YA’s emphasize the adventure over the characterization, just as a number of romances emphasize the love story over the plot. That’s just a fairly typical genre element, not a bash. This book may have been meant as an adventure where the author was drawn to the deeper themes and potentially intense emotions (not just romantic, btw) and then seemed to shy away from them.

I was, as an author, actually jealous of this great idea, and so I spent some time trying to figure out from a writer’s point of view why I thought this book didn’t do the concept justice. On the spur of the moment I wrote here about it, since Jane’s take interested me. I usually write comments and then delete them because I always get in trouble!

So mea culpa, I have nothing against YA and don’t look down on it at all. I just like to see great books and think about near-misses and what happened with them.

Your assessment of Lilly as a having dog like responses to those who were kind to her was essentially my problem with the “romance.” Given how she was made to please her master, it merely seemed that she replaced Erhard with Uldolph.

The central character of the werewolf girl was unique. The set-up for her background had incredible potential but her character, which should have driven the plot and the relationship, seemed to keep vanishing into obscurity just when it should have reached out and grabbed me.

It was frustrating. It’s as if the author went for the simplistic you-killed-my-family-I hate-you conflict, and turned away from a nuanced tragedy that was crying to redeemed by a central male character who had half the courage and heart of the girl. She sure deserved better than the boring farm kid with a chip on his shoulder. Like a dog, she loved whoever gave her a pat and fed her–a fascinating werewolf concept in itself that was never explored at all.

Too many bit players were introduced with complete backstories that made them seem important and empathetic, only to get killed off in a page or two. This fractured reader trust and further weakened empathy for the main characters, in my view.

It read as if it was meant to be a YA, and maybe it was. It seemed that it may have been written too quickly, and followed a synopsis, rather than the scenes and characters evolving out of what they were. I wish the author had skipped a lot of the backstories and taken more time with this whole book to do his great idea justice.