YABookgate

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The latest shitstorm roiling these lumpy little Grand Inquisitors appears to be a book called The Madness Blooms by one Mackenzi Lee. The following review is a typical howl of outrage -- it might actually be the epicenter for the this one; it's hard to keep track sometimes. Apparently if something isn't #ownvoices, it needs to be soft and round-edged to prevent any discomfort whatsoever.

www.goodreads.com

Liz's review of The Madness Blooms

1/5: Thank you very much to Sarah Barley from Flatiron for sending me a copy of this book to read/review. It's so appreciated from this small-town teen librarian! A few things to preface what I'm about to say: I am a cis lesbian. I encourage you to seek out reviews and thoughts from trans...
www.goodreads.com
 
Mola Ram said:
The latest shitstorm roiling these lumpy little Grand Inquisitors appears to be a book called The Madness Blooms by one Mackenzi Lee. The following review is a typical howl of outrage -- it might actually be the epicenter for the this one; it's hard to keep track sometimes. Apparently if something isn't #ownvoices, it needs to be soft and round-edged to prevent any discomfort whatsoever.

www.goodreads.com

Liz's review of The Madness Blooms

1/5: Thank you very much to Sarah Barley from Flatiron for sending me a copy of this book to read/review. It's so appreciated from this small-town teen librarian! A few things to preface what I'm about to say: I am a cis lesbian. I encourage you to seek out reviews and thoughts from trans...
www.goodreads.com
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She's seriously mad because bad things happen in the story? Right, because everything was just sunshine and happiness for LGBT people in the fucking 1600s.

I fail to see how whether or not the book is #OwnVoices changes facts and history, but whatever.
 
Piga Dgrifm said:
She's seriously mad because bad things happen in the story? Right, because everything was just sunshine and happiness for LGBT people in the fucking 1600s.

I fail to see how whether or not the book is #OwnVoices changes facts and history, but whatever.
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The answer's in the comments, said quite a few times in different ways: if you're not #ownvoices, you shouldn't be writing things like this. Charming little fascists.
 
Piga Dgrifm said:
She's seriously mad because bad things happen in the story? Right, because everything was just sunshine and happiness for LGBT people in the fucking 1600s.
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Yes, the author should have changed the story so that everybody subconsciously knows the MC is trans before her and uses he/him pronouns without her reflecting over it or the whole thing being explained in any way whatsoever. Then once she comes out as a true and honest lad everybody gets down on their knees and says STUNNING AND BRAVE in a chorus and then she/he/xir lives happily ever after together with the other kweer character. At least, that's the impression you get when you read the sulking reviews.
 
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This review seems to sum up how most of these idiots are:
811420
 
I'm going to hijack this thread to give an example of a GOOD YA dystopia book, so that we have an example to contrast garbage with.

"Rash" by Pete Hautman is set in a world where the nanny state tendencies of 21st Century America (the book was written in 2007) mixed with America's criminal reform problems have lead to a deep inequality. On one hand, 75% of the population lives under an oppressive democracy where the government has banned everything from football to French fries, coddling its citizens with welfare but shielding them away from anything that could possibly hurt them. However, they have a three-strikes-and-your-out policy, where offenders of these new laws - the 25%, as it's about impossible to not be a serial offender with so many laws - get sent off to privately-owned prison factories to work as corporate slaves.

The protagonist of the book, through a series of misfortune culminating in him socking his bully in the face, gets his third strike, and is sent off to a factory prison. There, the corporations have full control, and violate the security regulations as much as they can. As it happens, one privilege that they take (beyond the eye of the law) is running underground football leagues for the entertainment of the wardens, and our hero ends up playing football.

I don't remember where the book went after that.

It's written for something like a middle school through high school level, and that should be kept in mind. I'm sure Pete Hautman considers himself terribly clever for having the USA be named the "USSA" (like it's not the most overused cliche in all of speculative fiction). But, I remember it having been really good, and what's more, I consider it to be one of the great works of dystopian fiction, despite being both little-known and written for adolescents. But it's got a realistic and unique depiction of the future which is more relevant to modern life than the Stalinist themes of 1984.

www.petehautman.com

Rash

ABOUT THE BOOK In the United Safer States of America, personal safety has become society’s obsession. French fries are illegal, contact sports have been banned, and obesity is a crime punishable...
www.petehautman.com

Amazon.com: Rash (9780689869044): Hautman, Pete: Books

Amazon.com: Rash (9780689869044): Hautman, Pete: Books
www.amazon.com
 
TheMonkeyMan said:
www.buzzfeednews.com

YA Twitter Can Be Toxic, But It Also Points Out Real Problems

When critics on social media “cancel” a YA writer or book, it’s really about ongoing frustrations with an overwhelmingly white publishing industry.
www.buzzfeednews.com www.buzzfeednews.com
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>"When critics on social media “cancel” a YA writer or book, it’s really about ongoing frustrations with an overwhelmingly white publishing industry"
>Brings up Kosoko Jackson and Amélie Wen Zhao in the first paragraph, neither of whom are white

Woah, YA Twatter sure showed the overwhelmingly white evil supremacist industry!
It’s time to zoom out — to take the focus off the individual books that have been so intensely scrutinized, and look at why this scrutiny exists in the first place. We can argue endlessly about single novels, their strengths and weaknesses, the question of whether the criticism was just or deserved. It’s more than fair to ask why Jackson and Zhao — themselves writers of color — pulled their books, while white writers rarely do.

But often, frustration about a book isn’t just about that book. It’s about the many books like it that readers have already seen. It’s about a desire that all kids see themselves represented in books. It’s about ongoing frustration with an industry that gives lip service to diversity but remains overwhelmingly white. And to understand that frustration, we need to understand that diversity advocates have been having this conversation for a very long time.
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Yes, let's pretend Jackson and Wen Zhao weren't ousted precisely because of said oh-so-brave diversity advocates
 
It's anti-human to say that artists can't create art about experiences, people, places and cultures different than their own, that's like half the damn point of art, empathy.

These people are pure evil.
 
Dom Cruise said:
It's anti-human to say that artists can't create art about experiences, people, places and cultures different than their own, that's like half the damn point of art, empathy.

These people are pure evil.
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Of course they are, if they're trying to stamp out empathy.
 
ATaxingWoman said:
Woah, YA Twatter sure showed the overwhelmingly white evil supremacist industry!Yes, let's pretend Jackson and Wen Zhao weren't ousted precisely because of said oh-so-brave diversity advocates
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These people are white to their eyes because they have a "white way of thinking".
 
Dom Cruise said:
It's anti-human to say that artists can't create art about experiences, people, places and cultures different than their own, that's like half the damn point of art, empathy.

These people are pure evil.
Click to expand...

I'm of the belief that censoring literature is one of the most heinous acts one can enact. These aliens masquerading as humans screech and project about fascism all the freakin' time but without a sense of irony/self-awareness that they're literally part of the book burning club.
 
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