Thank you so much for your review. I'm so glad you liked it.

I'm troubled by this too, very troubled. I don't think I've read a book by a male author with female rape in it for a while. Garp (one of my favorite books) has one. I was very disturbed by the rape scene in Girl with Dragon Tattoo. Not just because it was so graphic and violent but because it had very little to do with the plot and seemed to be there, as you said, for titillation.

Personally I am just as disturbed by the use of what I call RRFs as titillation. RRF stands for either "rape rescue fantasy", "rape recovery fantasy" or "rape revenge fantasy". The rape in Dragon Tattoo ultimately functions as an RRF because it is Lisbeth's revenge that is the point of it, to show us what a bad ass she is, I guess. pretty cheap shot, really. RRFs are ubiquitous in YA and romance novels. There's one in Twilight (of course), on in 50 Shades (both the rescue variety). JUST LISTEN and SPEAK (both good books) are basically rape recovery fantasies. And lately I've read a couple of YA rape revenge fantasies. Mockingbirds for example.

These books often simplify the whole thing, objectify the victim, cartoonify the perpetrator (who is also a minor in many cases, with his own problems, clearly, that we never get to know) and give the male hero this kind of golden glowing aura that he would NEVER hurt a woman and his love will help the victim recover etc etc. Please. Things are never this cut and dried.

Sexual violence is a fact of life. It is particularly a fact of ordinary teen girl's lives but also of the lives of type of teen boy that might make an interesting character (someone with mental illness, a drug user, homeless, a foster kid, incarcerated as well as dystopian child soldier or whatever). This goes for boys and girls - the more marginalised the character, the more likely sexual violence is to figure in their life.

There are ways of presenting this is books, realistically, without making it a cheap dramatic device. There are ways of making the love interest sexily protective without using rape or the threat of rape as a simple means to an end (Sam in Shiver is a good example this. he's protective and caring without being stalky and Grace is danger often, but not cartoonish rapey danger). There's a place for books about rape, but as with abortion, sometimes I just wish the girl could maybe get on with something else. One in four of us is just getting on with life right? Finishing school, going to college, having a family, saving the world, whatever. I'm not saying it doesn't prey on the mind, it does. But why does it always have to be the WHOLE story?

And of course there are other ways if making female characters dramatically interesting. In many ways girls suffer more at the hands of other girls than of boys. I am certainly more traumatized by the things that girls did to me than the things that boys did. And yes, I have been sexually assaulted. But the bullying from girls has had a longer term more wide reaching impact on me.

I could go on and on, but I won't.

"New Adult" is code for YA with more sex. I for one am for it.

Ahhhhh! (that's a sigh of pure joy). This is a new take on the kind of cover I love - what I call graphic/iconic. Love the colors and the manic scribbling. Love love love. when is it out?

It's so interesting. I blogged about this just last week with regards to the Hunger Games and also commented on Veronica Roth's blog about it just today. Here's the thing - writing about a woman out in the world, especially if it's somehow a dangerous world (a dystopia for example) without at least touching on the threat of sexual violence is kind of like writing about a person of color without touching on racism. The whole book doesn't have to be about it, and a big deal doesn't need to be made of it (certain incidents are worse than others) but it's there. To avoid it would be false. Sexual threat is a reality of being a woman. If one in four teen girls is sexually assaulted (or whatever the horrible statistic is) then one in four teen heroines would be too, no? But we can't make one out of every four books ABOUT sexual assault can we? That would be too much. So, treat it realistically. I know it's a trigger for some girls, but some might feel empowered to see their heroine shake it off, or get revenge, or move on, or fight back. Plot device? Character detail? I'm OK with it. I'd much rather see this used as a device than the ubiquitous suicide/cancer/car accident/coma/half-dead or already dead heroines we see so much (no offence anyone!)

I'm not sure I've read any books in translation from the marginalized cultures you mention. I have read Umberto Eco and Cornelia Funke etc, but those authors are hardly marginalized.
I'm doing the POC Reading Challenge and I gotta say, it's pretty hard to find material without significant effort. I mean it doesn't just fall into your lap, which is a shame. It would be nice if readers could just happen onto a character or writer of color rather than have to go searching for them. Most readers aren't going to bother searching, or might not know where to look. I hope readers find my book somehow.

This sounds like an interesting book. I have a sports themed MG novel coming out next month. It's kind of opposite to this one though, because it concerns a sport (cricket) played almost exclusively by people of color, at least in the US and Canada. I'd love you to review it. http://www.lorimer.ca/en/Book/2365/Wicket-Season....

I always read whatever I can on this issue, because I've fallen foul of it myself, as a white writer. I rarely write ABOUT race, but, especially since I write for children and teens, I feel like I should have casts of characters that reflect the diversity with which most young readers are familiar. It's very difficult because on the one hand there are expectations that white writers don't write monochromatically. On the other hand there's criticism when characters of color are stereotyped, even positively, or fall into a trope (the "Asian best friend", I saw last night in CRAZY STUPID LOVE). My upcoming book has a protagonist of color (Jamaican Canadian) because the plot concerns a sport (cricket) played almost exclusively by people of color in Canada. The book is not about racism, nor race, and my depictions of how he and his family feel about their culture is directly based on friends and my own experience as an immigrant (three times!). I hope I did OK, but maybe there'll be criticism. Anyway, great post. Let's keep the discussion going.

Wow, what a fantastic discussion. I'd just like to add my two cents that the success of dystopian YA can be attributed, I think, at least in part, to how dystopian the world that we force teenagers live in is (holy awkward sentence but oh well). I'm talking about high school, of course, which often has it's own kind of totalitarian government, who are in the thrall of select privileged citizens, who in turn heap abuses on the hapless proletariat beneath them. Citizens are forced into completing pointless tasks for no real reward, maligned by those who profess to care about them, and either endure or exact emotional abuse born of general frustration.

I don't want to get into a debate either, because for the most the most part, I agree with you, certainly about the use of hurtful language. However I would like to point out that in your reply, you not only suggested that my experiences and feelings are of lesser importance (or even imagined), but insinuated that I'm ignorant.

I understand the distinction between personal hurt and institutionalized oppression. I'm questioning your denial of my personal right to have a say in what hurts. Your post hurt me. Perhaps you think my pain is irrelevant because of my privilege, but I'm declaring my right to voice it anyway.

"good reasons that members of minority groups may mistrust members of majority groups"? Why? Because they're incapable of the kind of constant self editing mindfulness that is clearly expected of the majority? There are good reasons that members of the majority distrust too, at least on an individual level. But that's no excuse.