What? EJE is writing her blog post ALREADY?! Yes. TOO. MUCH. POETRY.

When I go to the library, I pretty much just pick a shelf in the teen section (yes, I read YA books. So sue me.) and start grabbing books off it, then get a classic to top it all off. So yesterday, I went to the library and grabbed 3 books: one of those hideous books where the mother dies (yes, all lowercase), Glimpse, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But as it turns out, the first two are written in that Ellen Hopkins style poetry.

Okay, I understand it for the Ellen Hopkins books and Glimpse (a story of a girl whose sister tries to commit suicide and ends up in a hospital while her mom continues to be a prostitute. I liked it.) are poems and only have a few words per line (not sentence). These books deal with heavy stuff: drugs, suicide, prostitution, etc. But the first book, one of those hideous books where the mother dies?! I picked it up because of the title, but it was just about this 15 year old who goes to live with her dad in California who she hates because she thinks he abandoned her at birth. But no, she has to whine that she has her dream room and a dad who loves her and lives in a mansion with Cameron Diaz as her neighbor. She annoyed the hell out of me. Also, the book was incredibly short, and even too short for my attention span. I have a hard time getting into those classics with the weird language (See: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He talks funny.) and other slow-starting books because my attention span is too short and if something doesn't draw me in automatically, I can't read it. That's why it took me so long to read Harry Potter, the beginning of the first book is too slow. However, this book was way too short and took like an hour and a half to read. I'm not even kidding.

So, yeah. I wish authors that aren't going to write incredibly heavy material wouldn't use that poetry form. It's a total cop-out, since you barely have to do any describing.

Also, books that I would recommend if you like books about death and crap like that:
• Impulse by Ellen Hopkins: This is a really good book. I hate her stuff about drugs and the one about prostitution, but this was truly a good book. It's about three teens who end up in an insane asylum together after all attempted suicides.
• Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams: Hope and Lizzie are sisters, and only a year apart. But when Lizzie tries to kill herself and Hope realizes her mom is a total bitch and caused everything... well, it's a good book.

• Unwind by Neal Shusterman: This is my FBOATATM (favorite book of all time at the moment). It's about three teens who have all been sent to be unwound (this procedure that basically kills you without killing you. I don't want to give it away) for different reasons. However, they all try to escape. I made my dad read this, and he was like, "OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO CREEPY." He also said it was pretty well written for a teen book. Then I made Sydney read it, and she liked it. It does have a slightly pro-life feel to it because it basically is discussing abortion, but even though I'm very much pro-choice, I felt that the underlying theme didn't get in the way of my enjoyment of the book.
• Ninteen Minues by Jodi Picoult: Jodi Picoult is pretty much awesome. This is one of my favorite books by her. It's about a school shooting and these two kids who used to be best friends, etc. I would recommend any books by Jodi Picoult, though she does have a little too much sex in her books, so if you're an extreme prude (I'm just a prude), then don't read them.
• Harry Potter by JK Rowling: Okay, not a super creepy book, but it's Harry Potter. It will go on every book list of books I recommend ever.



I also hate girly teen books (my best friends forced me to read The Truth About Forever, and I hated every moment of it), so you're pretty safe with these books if you're the anti-YA reader, even if they all have a small little romance in them, excluding Glimpse.

- EJE, who reads YA novels.