TALKING WITH TEENS TUESDAY

Keeping with the Nikki's hijack theme, and goodness knows I love alliterations, I give you... Talking with Teens Tuesday: The HE SAID/SHE SAID edition. This week I posed two, two-part questions to my local teen test readers, one boy and one girl. The questions?

1) Who's your favorite YA heroine, and why?
Who's your least favorite YA heroine and why?

2) Who's your favorite YA hero, and why?
Who's your least favorite YA hero, and why?

18 year old Lexie and 17 year old Austin both ponied up and answered the questions. Some of their answers might surprise you, some might not...

GIRL’S OPINIONS:

1) Who's your favorite YA heroine, and why? Who's your least favorite YA heroine and why?

Favorite: Chloe Saunders of Kelley Armstrong’s The Darkest Powers trilogy, Rose Hathaway of The Vampire Academy and Dru Anderson of Lili St. Crow’s Strange Angels series (Echo Miller of AE Rought’s Foresight). They are strong, confident characters that grow in the story. They aren’t whiny and they don’t put up with shit. They also don’t run away from danger and they kick ass and take names later.

Least favorite: Bella Swan of the Twilight Saga, Zoey Redbird of The House of Night series, Ever Bloom and Grace Divine of The Immortals series and The Dark Divine. They are whiny bitches that don’t go anywhere in their stories. They never grow into something better and learn from mistakes. They had potential in the beginning of their stories but back tracked for the worst.

2) Who's your favorite YA hero, and why? Who's your least favorite YA hero, and why?

Favorite: Patch of Hush, Hush, Aden Stone of Intertwined, Jace Morgenstern of The Mortal Instruments series (Thorn and Chael of AE Rought’s Drenched and Foresight). They are confident, manly, cocky, annoyingly handsome and stubborn. They take charge when needed, they can also be emotional with the heroines and not be embarrassed by it

Least favorite: Edward Cullen of the Twilight Saga, Erik and Heath of the House of Night series, Daniel and Jude, and Damen of The Dark Divine and The Immortals series. They are annoying pushovers, and possessive bastards. They feel sorry for themselves and it pisses me off that they won’t man up and grow some balls. They are flat lined, meaning they have no growing space and just fail. It’s not fun to read a book that you want the main hero to just die already.

BOY’S OPINIONS:

1) Who's your favorite YA heroine, and why? Who's your least favorite YA heroine and why?

My favorite YA heroine is Max, from the Maximum Ride series. She’s a take-charge, ass-kicking girl who does what she has to. Instead of running from the big bad corporation, she attacks it head-on, like a bad-ass. I’m way more attracted to girls that fight back than the ones who sit there and whine about it. Max is connectible too, she has her flock, she can fall in love, and she can make jokes.

My least favorite YA heroine is Bella Swan. It seems like Stephanie Meyer just took the same quirks and personality traits and mixed them together, creating Bella. So she’s tipsy, well guess what? So is over 50% of the female teen population. Bella Swan is marketable because so many women can relate with her. For a female MC, make a character who doesn’t have the usual traits. Maybe she has asthma, really short hair, maybe she’s a tomboy, just make the character more human, because that’s what they are.

2) Who's your favorite YA hero, and why? Who's your least favorite YA hero, and why?

Jace, from the Mortal Instruments series, has to be my favorite YA hero, because he’s so sarcastic. He thinks he’s the shit, and time and time again, he proves it. Jace can walk and talk, whereas most people just talk, then run away when the action starts. Oh, and he drives a motorcycle. Yay!

My least favorite is Edward, from Twilight. If you really look into his character, you’ll see that his relationship with Bella is abusive. He keeps secrets from her, and doesn’t let her out of his sight. He is more of a plot tool than a character, just like most of the characters in the Twilight books. Stephanie also doesn’t see that Edward is a guy. He is a 100+ year old vampire, who happens to be a virgin, yet finds the strength to push Bella away every time she comes on to him. I don’t care how much self-control you have, hormones will eventually win.

Two teens giving input, but I have heard similar comments through the other teens cycling through my house. We usually have at least one extra teen on any given day, and because we are readers, the great majority of our teen visitors are too, and these opinions have echoes in this house. so, in summation: Though the Twilight craze is due to descend on theaters nationwide at the end of the month (and Yes, I will be there a 12:05am to watch Eclipsed) Ms. Meyers' writing and characters have fallen out of favor with a good portion of the local teens here in Michigan at least. Both guys and girls appreciate characters who grow from cover to cover and one book to another. Both guys and girls like the heroes and heroines who are strong, and independent, who take charge rather than taking a backseat. Whiners are disliked as are abusive characters.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are those of two teen readers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the ladies of the Oasis for YA, the Oasis for YA, Blogger or the YA community at large.

Gratuitous linkage:

Stephenie Meyer's website is currently unavailable)

House of Night

The Immortals

Mortal Instruments

Maximum Ride

The Vampire Academy

The Dark Divine

The Darkest Powers

Strange Angels

AE Rought