65% of Young Adult writers have not felt love...I pity them.

Warning. Excessive rambling and possible spoilers ahead.

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I read a lot of paranormal romance. It's entertaining and it's a great escape. But, it's paranormal romance. I keep it within the pages of the book. Mostly, because it does not happen in real life. Well, let me correct that statement. You can't hope for it to happen in real life, because the chances are quite slim.

Anyhow.

Writers who pull the "I'm in love" line before the book is half over lose my respect almost instantaneously. Example: Twilight. "I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." This was after about one half-a** conversation in which nothing was really accomplished except telling us he looks godly and is mysterious. The story then continues to reiterate this a million ways before ending in the most obvious way. That bothers me. I'm not going to get into it. I shall, however, recommend you visit the reader reviews on amazon.com. Click two stars, because that is where the sensible reviews are.

My next point: I positively hate reading about perfect people. I mean, what's the point? For this reason, I have to ask general details about paranormal romance books before I read them. If I find out there's a "perfect man" up against a human being and the perfect man inevitably wins (I might add, you can usually tell within the first 60 pages of the book, or 25 pages after meeting the guy), I don't read it. It's boring and generally makes me very angry. The whole I-have-no-emotions-except-eternal-adoration thing gets old real fast. I must point you to the most mainstream example again (Twilight, if you didn't figure that out...). I read paranormal romance because it lets me escape from cruel reality for a while, which makes me ask the question, if the guy I want to get the girl doesn't get the girl, why am I reading this in the first place? It's like my life, but with faeries (or other things...)!

This brings me back to the point I made in my title. Approximately 65% of young adult writers have not felt love. On a side note: This is not backed by scientific research, because you can't define love by science, and  if they ever try to, it better not be in my lifetime. You cannot define love in general, I believe, but I also believe those of us who have felt it would agree that approximately 65% of paranormal "romance" is not love. There is a line between shallow attraction and love. You can't say something is love just because you have an attraction to someone that you are not "supposed" to be with. Forbidden love does not happen because it is forbidden. That is shallow. Forbidden love is just supposed to make the plot more romantic. Many books have lost sight of this in the race to appeal to the teenage masses (which I am considered part of, I might add.) Stop trying to rip me off.

Sincerely,
The Binge Reader

P.S. I'm probably going to read this tomorrow and say "Man, I was in a bad mood. That sounds angry." For now, I'm just going to sleep because I obviously need it.