Finding myself in possession of a generous bookstore gift card, I went out Monday night and stocked up on YA books.
This is because, career-wise, YA is where the action is for me, but also, YA books require less of an investment than adult novels, and they tend to get right into the action and not waste my time with the author showing off their sentence-crafting skills or setting the scene for twenty pages. (Exception: Twilight, where nothing happens for the first 250 pages.)
One of the books I bought was Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth, because my twitter pals and the people on the librarian list I subscribe to have been talking for months about how awesome it is. Oh yeah, and it's about zombies. I haven't read a good zombie novel since Max Brooks' World War Z.
I scanned the YA shelves until I got to the R's. And here's what I found:
Are you freaking kidding me? This is a zombie book! You might as well have hung a sign on the cover that says, "NO BOYS ALLOWED WITHIN 10 FEET OF THIS BOOK!"
Honestly. Publishers say boys don't read, and they don't know how to correct this, and blah blah blah, and here's a book with obvious both-gender appeal (female heroine, but it's about frickin zombies, people!), and it sports a cover that makes it look not only girly, but also boring. Even as an adult man who is quite secure in his masculinity, I was reluctant to buy this when I saw the cover. Perhaps, I thought, it's not as awesome as I've heard! Why would they put such a lame cover on an awesome book!
Here's hoping the paperback will feature a rotting shambler with fresh intestines hanging out of his mouth and a still-beating heart in his hand.
