In the end, I did not love Mockingjay, and neither, really, did the Slate book club. (Spoilers galore there, but also, it's clear they're all a little baffled.) The book suffers from a very admirable impulse by the author to not give us any wish fulfillment or narrative thrill. Significant action takes place off-stage! Our heroes are not "protagonists," which is a fine thing, except perhaps in a revenge-action YA book. (Even I did want a little agency out of our agents!) And every character in the book is exhibiting advanced PTSD. What does get recounted is rather profoundly grim: flying baby limbs, madness, gore, murder, you [...]

I would not ever have been caught dead with a copy of Harry Potter in public. When I'd see my fellow adults, some of whom may have been kidults actually, toting those books around, I'd feel a very real horror. I think it is embarrassing for them! And so I didn't ever even read it. It wasn't just the squeamishness about the popular and mass market, even though I'm a little bit of a snob, sure-it's really just a fear of being someone who reads books that don't require advanced reading skills. Even in a world where there's lists like The Best YA for Adults 2009, and where [...]