I’ve been blog touring recently and readers have been reading about Tales from Earth’s End and saying, “Oh, boy. I’m so excited about new YA reading.” The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy’s hero is a sixteen-year-old boy, so I guess that seems logical.
Hold on just a big minute! I would NOT recommend the Tales from Earth’s End Saga for YA.
Some people would. It’s a matter of how you view the world. I had one writer and blogger of YA read The Angel. She LOVED it, put me up as her Writer of the Month, and gave the book a 5 star review. She’s still a fan. Another YA reader/reviewer read The Angel, give it 4 stars, said it was a great book and NOT FOR YA.
I agree with her. I wouldn’t let kids read it. (And I wouldn’t let them read or see The Hunger Games, either.) As I’m writing this, I’m thinking , Sandy, are you nuts? Do you know how violent and suggestive kids’ video games are? How about their comic books and graphic novels? Kids are inundated with violence, sex, swearing and all that from the culture at large, and from the entertainment industry. Major films aimed at the young adult audience feature children killing other children as sport. Why should what’s in The Angel bother anyone?
There is a point to that. Compared to what’s out in the culture, Tales from Earth’s End is mild. I’m writing about this because I don’t want readers to expect one thing and get something else. The Tales are luminous. Characters like the angel Eliana, who came to earth to save her planet, are breathtaking. But the world the angel finds is rough. What happens is rough.
