Audiobooks vs Physical Books and eBooks

I recently hit a wall with a book I was reading (Caraval by Stephanie Garber). I was getting bored with the book but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to drop it or not. Then I remembered I had a code thing from OwlCrate for an extended audio excerpt and decided to download it onto my iPod. I'd never listened to an audiobook unless you count those books that came with accompanying tapes that I remember from my childhood and I've been hearing how much people are loving audiobooks so I decided to give it a try. 

Here is my opinion on listening to books versus reading them:

1: For this particular book, I hated the narrator's voice, especially when she tried to speak for the different characters. It reminded me of this one episode of Murder, She Wrote where Mrs. Fletcher had created a detective character for her grandnieces and nephews and they decided to make it into a puppet tv show using the voice of a woman with "1000 voices" - and they all sounded stupid. 

2. I know people say how convenient audiobooks are: they can listen to them in the car on the way to work, they can listen to them while working out, etc. But for me, it wasn't like that at all. Seriously, unless I was in my room listening to the book after I'd turned off the lights and the tv, I couldn't focus. And even then the digital clock distracted me as I tried to focus on what the narrator was reading. This may be a "me" issue, I tend to zone out when someone is trying to read me something.

3. I'm afraid of not retaining what I'm hearing. When I'm reading a book, seeing the words on the page, I can absorb the story and get lost in it. While I remember parts of what I heard, I can't remember it that well... 

4. I'm on the fence about much quicker it would be to listen to an audiobook vs. reading the actual book. Sometimes if a book moves quickly I can finish reading it in a day or two, but if it drags and it's taking forever (like Caraval) maybe it would get me through it quicker. It's something to think about with books that are really long and/or a slow read. 

My Verdict:

Audiobooks may be more convenient for some, and in the future, it might come in handy when I'm having difficulty getting through a book I'm reading, but I still prefer reading over listening. It also really depends on the narrator.

The 13 Reasons Why Phenomenon

The "13 Reasons Why" Phenomenon: Learning Tool To End Bullying or Glamourizing Teen Suicide?

You've seen it on Facebook News, Skimmed articles on Buzzfeed and Yahoo, Heard news reports and even heard Dr. Phil bash it: the Netflix Original Series, 13 Reasons Why based on Jay Asher's novel of the same name. 

But is 13 Reasons a haunting series about the consequences of bullying or a glamorization of teen suicide? Viewers are divided. 

 Do you want my honest opinion? Do you really? 

You do? Cool!  - I watched the show starting the night that it premiered on Netflix and continued by watching 2-3 episodes a night until I got to the end. And it hooked me. I had to keep watching to see what the next tape would reveal. Personally, as I also read the book after I watched the series, I liked the show better than the book. It had way more meat to it. The book was like an empty shell. 

But did the show make me want to commit suicide? I mean, I may not be a teenager anymore but 24 isn't that old. The answer? Hell no! To me, although yes, Hannah does commit suicide, the show wasn't really about suicide at all. It was about bullying. 

Maybe I saw it that way because I was bullied in my early teen years, but for that reason, the show spoke to me. Let me be straight with you, I have never been suicidal in my life. Never. Not one single thought of ending it all. I fit onto the other end of the spectrum, I fear death in a find-me-Edward-Cullen-to-bite-me-and-make-me-immortal type of way. I'm not kidding. I'm literally terrified of death - to the point that if I even think the word death for too long I start hyperventilating and having a panic attack. But enough about me. 

Here are a few reasons I think the "13 Reasons Why glamourizes teen suicide" notion is a bunch of b.s.:

1: The book first came out ten years ago. If it made it so glamorous to commit suicide as a teen, why has it been on and off the best-seller list for the past 10 years and nobody took issue with it before?

2: Anyone with half a brain could see that Hannah had issues long before any of the events listed on the tapes. The book and the show both hint at issues at her previous school and her family obviously was having issues too, so in a way most of the "reasons" she listed were nothing but excuses to blame someone else for her decision.

3. Tagging on point 2, none of the "reasons" Hannah gives (save for maybe tape 12 and even that isn't enough of a reason) are enough of a reason for me (remember me? fear of death girl?) for someone to kill themselves. Um, a guy said he felt you up to the guys at school? Another guy said you had the best ass in the class? You made out with a girl and some guy took a picture? A guy published a poem you wrote that he thought was great in his newspaper? Seriously? Even in my teen years, I would have laughed most of that crap off (or been flattered in the case of the poem). 

4. If Hannah's parents (or the critical parents taking issue with the show) had paid a little more attention to their child and found out what was going on at school - maybe taking the teachers/school/parents of classmates  to task when the crap was going on then their child wouldn't have thought the only solution was to commit suicide. I mean I'm not a parent, but come on. In this day and age parents aren't like how my grandmother raised me. They're not like the parents of my classmates when I was in elementary school. They're so preoccupied with their own crap - their search for a new man/woman in their life, drama at work, having time with their friends being priority #1, etc. that they really have no idea what is going on in their kid's life. And most of the time they don't care. And seriously, before you jump on me for that comment, I'm speaking from experience here. I've seen a lot of parents like that so I'm not making it up.

5. This isn't the only book with a teen suicide subject matter. In that case, you should probably go after Gayle Foreman's I Was Here and Albert Boris's Crash Into Me as well. 

***

I'm not trying to trivialize or downplay depression or suicide in any way. I'm really not. Someone very close to my heart struggles with both of those issues and my heart breaks for that person constantly. Loving someone that is depressed or suicidal is hard. You feel helpless like you're powerless to do anything except try to be there for them in any way you can. 

If you or someone you know battles depression or suicidal thoughts please, please consider seeking professional help or telling someone close to that person (a parent, teacher, loved one, etc) what's going on. They may be mad at you now, but it is the right thing to do. Through it all, remember that people do love you and would be devastated if you were no longer there and if it's someone you know is suffering make sure they know that every chance you get. 

You never know what may make a world of difference in a person's life. 

Do Parents Need to be More Visible in YA Books?

This is a question I, and I'm sure a lot of other YA writers and readers, wonder about a lot. Do parent characters need to be more visible in YA books? It seems that most of the time parents get pushed to the sidelines or are perpetually working in YA novels. 

Maybe that's how the teens end up in the situations they do in YA novels; they crave attention, love, and friendship so they befriend the aliens next door (The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout), fall in love with a vampire (Twilight & more), or end up imprisoned in the faerie lands (ACOTAR series), begging the question: Where are the parents when all this stuff is going on?

I mean really, if you were a diligent parent wouldn't you notice that the kids next door are a little odd or that you've never, ever seen their parents?

I think a lot of the time writers think that parents are unimportant in YA novels and that the whole focus should be on the teens and the romance or action (whatever the plot may be).  Instead, they're setting a sometimes unrealistic storyline. I can see in the Lux series that Katy's mom was a nurse, they do work a lot of hours, but you'd think in her downtime Katy's mom would hang out and - I don't know - ask what's new in her daughter's life instead of dating a creepy doctor and just being kind of indifferent to finding Daemon in her daughter's bed. 

The book that really surprised me was If I Stay with Mia's hippie parents. I don't know about you, but my grandmother would have never allowed any teenaged boyfriend of mine to spend the night, yet Mia's parents were completely cool with it - welcomed him with open arms even.

It's kind of like what one of the characters in The Jane Austen Book Club (the movie version) says while they're discussing Sense & Sensibility: "Austen doesn't think anything interesting happens to a woman over thirty-five."

Is that true? Do we YA authors think parent characters are incapable of having interesting lives that could contribute to the story? I know with The Haunting Love, and even with Finding Elizabeth to a degree, my character's parents got shoved into the background. At the time I didn't really think they had much to contribute to the storyline. Sure, there were a few exceptions to the rule: Cecilia's mom in The Haunting Love gave an insight into what made her the way she was, Nate's first set of parents in Finding Elizabeth showed the political climate of the French Revolution then later Nate and Elizabeth's parents, as well as Anton's previous incarnation's mother, had a bigger role in the story. 

When I was writing Out of Darkness and the other books in the Eternals Trilogy I wanted Lizette's parents and the other older Eternals to be more involved in the story. Their choices and mistakes shaped the way Lizette and her friends were and I enjoyed that Mr. and Mrs. Weatherly, Henry, Luna, Claudette and the others' stories, feelings, and desires intertwined with the storyline of Lizette and her friends. 

I also think that sometimes teens forget that their parents were once teenagers too; their parents had wishes, dreams, and desires the same way they do and just because they've grown up and become parents doesn't mean that they're irrelevant. 

Parents are human beings too; they screw their kids up, they form them into what kind of person they will become, and above all, they make mistakes just like everyone else. 

I think both the absence of parents in certain YA novels and the presence of parents in other YA novels lends a hand as to how the story will go and what challenges the characters will face. Does that make any sense?

What do you prefer? Do you like it better when parents are more involved with their kids in YA novels and add to the storyline or do you like it better when the parents are seen as little as possible?