I'm sure I could explain it myself - we can all identify with the teenage angst of having to choose betwenee the hot new guy and our old best friend, it creates tension and drama (sometimes where there is no tension and drama otherwise!) it allows the heroine to be dashing and brave because she has two big burly men to get her out of trouble... ok, so I've answered the question.
Anyway, in a month of catching up with the books that I have been meaning to read, or reading those old books I bought during my purchasing overload in December, the teenage love triangle has been an overwhelming theme. And no... I didn't read Twilight.
One of the things I wanted to do this month was read the full Tortall series in chronological order (which of course is not the order they were written in!). I started out with the three Beka Cooper books from Tamora Pierce (who will feature heavily this month). Terrier, and Bloodhound I had read before, and I love the story wrapping around the familiar streets of Tortall, particularly as we get to see a tiny bit more of George and Eleni Cooper (more on George later). Questions about the origins of Tortall are answered, and many thought provoking questions are raised. I'm in awe of Tamora Pierce as a story weaver. in Terrier and Bloodhound, the (almost inevitable?) love triangle is between Beka Cooper, Rosto the Piper (the new Rogue in town), and her loyalty to the Provost's Dogs, more than to any other man, although, in keeping with Ms Pierce's mature treatment of the subject, a couple of young men do manage to charm smiles from our heroine. The tone changes in Mastiff, the final in the trilogy. Rosto barely has a look-in past an unmet (and apparently unpleasant) fiance, and the budding romance is set far away from Corus. I was blown away by the story telling in this novel - and the end was just spectacular for wrapping up one of arguably the most important questions of Tortall. but enough, I'm hero-worshipping!
I needed a break after the intensity of the Beka Cooper series, so off to Janet Evanovich I trotted. Generally, I read the new Stpehanie Plum novel the day it is released. For whatever reason, I didn't get around to it straight away, so I was in luck, not just Explosive Eighteen, but also Love in a nutshell (co-written with Dorien Kelly). Again with a love triangle (as an aside - TEAM RANGER!!!!) with One for the Money hitting the big screen this month (already released in the US, we're just waiting over here....) there is a lot of press about this series at the moment, and Janet doesn't need any more help from me! Go read.
Next was another round of Tortallan genius - the four Song of the Lioness books were Tamora Pierce's first published stories, and they set the benchmark for her story telling, and introduced us to Tortall. Telling the story of Alanna, the first female knight to grace the halls of the royal palace in some 200 years, we are introduced to a world where people can change the face of a nation, and, with a little divine guidance, make changes in a generation greater than those seen in our world in centuries. Each book in the series unleashes a tool that Alanna uses to further her story, and each insignificant meeting becomes something important. I can't tell you how many times I have read the first 3 books in this series (the censors at my school never bought the 4th - cruel!!)
I've only just started re-reading the Immortals collection from Tamora Pierce (the 3rd Tortall series in
chronological order); but I will provide a little spoiler - the shape and general geniality of our Basilisk is taken directly from Tamora Pierce's interpretation of the myth - which I think is far more special than some of the other takes we have seen on the Basilisk in the last 15 years (sorry Ms Rowling!).After the Song of the Lioness, I moved on to yet another series which has been on my "to-read" pile for a while. I don't know why, because when I finally got around to Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games I was blown away - what a story teller! And then what must happen, but thta I get side-tracked, reading god knows what, and then, this month I got back for Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Explosive. You can already see from the stills of the movie adaptation that this is bigger than Ben Hur. Just awesome. I was blown away. Although I have to admit that by the time I got to this series, I was ready to stab the 2nd guy in the love triangles just to stop the angst! Of course, the two boys provide a significant proportion of the tension in the story, so I couldn't really stab them, could I??
Then, just in case I had any patience left for YA fiction, I went and read the two latest novella offerings from Kelley Armstrong (can't wait for the new book!! and the Otherworld finale Thirteen in July!) the Darkest Powers Bonus Pack was great (as long as you don't mind love triangles!) telling some of the stories of the other people in the group home that Chloe (the Darkest Powers protagonist) finds herself in. Hidden, a holiday novella featuring Elena, everyone's favourite female werewolf was a real treat. I really admire Kelley Armstrong's first person style, and the humour she endows her characters with.
I also snuck in a YA steampunk sequel: Shelley Adina's Lady of Devices was a great read early last year, and Her Own Devices continues the tale. Adina keeps the story clean, but manages to make you adore the mix of upper-class snobbery and underworld desperation. if anything, the blend is getting even more pleasent as it matures. Her Own Devices grows on small incidents and opportunities in the first book, and we can expect even greater blooming in the series as it continues (I hope there is more!).
Without much thinking about the consequences I then rushed into Maria V Snyder's new YA books - Inside Out and Outside In. Again, a great YA tale, I really got into this, between Snyder and Collins, I don't think I slept much last month! these two stories stand separate from the Universe that Snyder introduced us to in Poison Study. Trella, a second class member of the Inside community is determined to figure out what the story is with the Outside once and for all. The results are far reaching and brilliantly conceived. To the extent that you can see how our civilisation could so easily be mirrored in this series, I found these stories even more gripping than the Study (the whole series can be purchased here) and Glass series - although those were also an adventure into well written YA fiction.
So that catches me up to this morning! I'm gonna go find something classical and dusty to read, just so I don't need to have angst about love triangles for a while... I'll start with Othello....
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