skygiants | (no subject)

I generally really enjoy Alaya Dawn Johnson's books, but I'm a little unfairly annoyed at Love Is the Drug because --

Okay, so Bird, the protagonist of Love Is the Drug has two extremely important developing relationships throughout the story. One of them is with her Designated Love Interest, the eccentric genius drug dealer, and the other is with Marella, her out-and-proud lesbian classmate, whom she's finally developing a friendship with after pining from afar for lo these many years.

I'm sure you can all see where this is going, but round about page 193, Alaya Dawn Johnson's narrative voice and I got in a genuine fight.

ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON'S NARRATIVE VOICE: Bird has had a girl crush on Marella since they were ten.
BECCA: Look, I appreciate the gesture, and you know I've been invested in these two since page ten, but I'm already fully aware that that dude over there that I don't care about is the Designated Love Interest, so I gotta say, I'm a little nervous about where this is going --
ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON'S NARRATIVE VOICE: I think that Marella would probably go for it if Bird swung in that direction, but why ruin a great friendship with a mediocre affair?
BECCA: Alaya Dawn Johnson, did you really just "what's better than this, gals being pals" me? DID YOU REALLY JUST.
ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON'S NARRATIVE VOICE: They are neither of them material candidates for the loves of their respective lives.
BECCA: ...is this about The Summer Prince? Are you yelling at me for shipping the heroine more with her best female rival than with her designated male love interest? Is this personal? Because I have to say this feels kind of personal.

...I am aware that it is not, actually, personal, but I'm still kind of cranky that Alaya Dawn Johnson felt it necessary to pull over and stop the car just to announce I SEE YOU OUT THERE ROOTING FOR A LESBIAN ROMANCE, STOP THAT, STOP IT RIGHT NOW. Whatever, Alaya Dawn Johnson! I do what I want! You're not the boss of me!

Also, I am sorry, I tried hard to like Bird's dude love interest Coffee, I did, but you know what, I had an eccentric genius drug dealer in my class who stole chemicals from Orgo, and we got along fine and all but there is no romance in that for me. "I don't want to deal drugs to you, Bird, you're not the drug type! Unlike the actual kids that I actually deal to." CHARMING.

It's too bad, because so much of the book is built around the romance, but I quite liked the structure of the rest of it! It's the kind of thing I'd like to see more of, a very personal apocalypse -- the broader plot involves a massive pandemic flu and sinister governmental conspiracies, and, like, yes, there's an evil federal agent chasing Bird around, but really the story is about her relationship with her parents, and the expectations placed on her as a High Achieving Black Girl, and her growing network of allies who support her in her decisions to become the person she wants to be rather than the person her mother wants her to be. Bird's not leading a resistance or saving the world; she's saving herself, and that's important and okay. There's a Thanksgiving dinner scene that's just phenomenal, with Bird's chosen family, and her actual family, and the balancing act between them.

So I wish my main feelings upon finishing were not "UGH I DON'T CARE ABOUT COFFEE." He's not even terrible, as far as YA love interests go! He's perfectly fine, I'm just bitter.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/415307.html

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

umadoshi

Oh, buu. I even own that one, as opposed to it just being on the to-read spreadsheet. (I haven't actually read any of her books yet, IIRC.)

From:

skygiants

I mean, I wouldn't say don't read it, there are definitely good reasons to do so! I liked The Summer Prince much better, though, personally.

From:

rootsofthestories

Damnit, this books sounds right up my alley< if it were not for the main issue you have with it. I may take a poke at it anyway and I still want to read The Summer Prince, it's jut a matter of getting my brain in gear to read it.

From:

skygiants

It does feel a bit greedy to be like "yes, I see you've got lesbians, I do appreciate that, I do, but I WANT MORE." But in this case it is how I feel. It does do many things really well though! I definitely don't want to discourage people from reading it just because I personally am cranky. :D

From:

rootsofthestories

I understand entirely. I really want to read it nonetheless, I just know now what to expect, so I am suspecting that will help me be less annoyed when it doesn't pan out the way I want.

From:

starlady

I don't even remember that thing about the lesbian romance. What annoyed me was, in no particular order: 1) weird fetishization of Brazil as the Land of Real Freedom; 2) Bird's dream of opening a head shop or whatever on U Street is totally unrealistic because of the pace of gentrification in DC???? 3) the background conspiracy whatnot all felt predictable, and her trying to balance the stakes of the novel against the fact that teenagers just aren't going to be able to Bring Down The Government meant the resolution of that aspect was pretty blah. I thought Malinda Lo did a much better job at a less predictable government conspiracy and tying the teen protagonists to it in plausible ways. OTOH, I suspect you are right that the story isn't actually about the evil federal conspiracy and instead it's about Bird. I kept expecting it to be the other way around.

From:

buymeaclue

I dunno, that doesn't sound greedy to me at all!

Also, I love coffee. But it is a stupid name for a person.

From:

skygiants

Oh, yeah, there are a lot of very practical reasons that Bird should THINK HARD about her dream and what the legitimate challenges are going to be -- and also, I gotta say, at the triumphant end when she's about to take off and travel the world, I could not help but think "but ... Bird, where are you getting the money for these plane tickets from?? Are your terrible parents paying? Have you been working a side job, do you have an inheritance ...?" SOME LOGISTICAL CONSIDERATIONS that perhaps should be considered, because dreams are nice but practicalities also have their place!

But I did really quite like how the book just kept stubbornly refusing to follow the traditional outlines of a YA Apocalypse Novel. Not that it couldn't have been better done, but there's something about the way it refocuses the stakes of the genre that's weirdly satisfying to me; like, yeah, there's an apocalypse going on, but Implausibly Obsessed Sinister Government Agent Guy is really only important as a symbol of Bird's fraught relationship with her mother!

Edited Date: 2015-06-06 06:10 pm (UTC)

From:

skygiants

I don't even like coffee! :( Maybe that's my problem.

From:

buymeaclue

Get a friend to redact his name and fill in the blank "Tea" for a chapter and then see how you feel!

From:

skygiants

To be really effective for me, it would actually have to be "Diet Coke."

From:

buymeaclue

LOL!

From:

evewithanapple

Eh, it might be considered greedy if not for the fact of the author deliberately flipping the bird (heh) at anyone who might be hoping for a lesbian romance for the main character. I mean come on, that's just petty.

From:

hebethen

Heh, I got like one chapter in and I was like "oh, there you go, there's the heterosexual love triangle" and that was that.

I should like to see a YA novel that has got everything all set up for a type-2M HLT and then has the heroine ignore them both in favor of a female friend... but that's mostly out of orneriness; it would be nicer for the HLT to just not be a thing.

From:

jinian

Sorry, busy grinning at Coffee and "bitter" in the past paragraph.

From:

ravengown

... The first thing I saw in this post was "UGH I DON'T CARE ABOUT COFFEE" and I laughed really hard.

Have you read Adaptation by Malinda Lo? It sounds kind of similar to this, except with an actually explicitly bi female protag. I'd be so bummed with the gal pals thing too.

From:

agonistes

I had an eccentric genius drug dealer in my class who stole chemicals from Orgo, and we got along fine and all but there is no romance in that for me. "I don't want to deal drugs to you, Bird, you're not the drug type! Unlike the actual kids that I actually deal to."

....so, a heaping helping of "no homo" AND Walter White as an actual love interest?

:|

From:

vass

Blech. I might still read it, but it is definitely down the list. And I have a long list.

From:

skygiants

It's not even a love triangle really, the other guy stops being a viable love interest by pretty much fifteen pages in and then basically drops out of sight, but alas I STILL DON'T CARE. There was a point a couple chapters later when Bird tells Coffee to get out of Dodge for his own good and I was like "YES, PLEASE, PUT HIM ON A BUS, that would be great!" I would love a book that sets up an obvious love interest in the beginning and then is like "now is a practical reason for him to leave!" and then he leaves. But it was not to be.

From:

skygiants

I DIDN'T DO IT ON PURPOSE. >.>

From:

skygiants

IT'S ACTUALLY 100% TRUE THOUGH, I never graduated up to coffee from sugary caffeinated beverages. >.>

I haven't yet read it, but I've got it in my shelf waiting! I'm glad to have been reminded that I meant to read it.

From:

skygiants

PRETTY MUCH. Like, Guy In Your MFA Walter White, though. Lots of earnest conversation about how the real Bird is too smart to drink the conformist government Kool-Aid, not like all the other stupid privileged kids in this school, and she should be better than this!

(Note: Coffee is the son of a diplomat, he is not exactly underprivileged.)

From:

skygiants

I mean, I'm not sorry I read it, but mostly now I just want to go back and reread The Summer Prince.

From:

skygiants

And I mean, the thing is, Alaya Dawn Johnson always does put major queer content into pretty much all of her books for like everybody but the main character, and I do appreciate that, but the main romance is always heterosexual and ALWAYS SO MUCH LESS INTERESTING ....

From:

likeadeuce

Yeah, I liked the book except for the romance angles...I most glossed past that for all the interesting social dynamics at the school, the found family & the slow apocalypse.

And I feel like there could have been a way to do 'straight girl & queer woman have a close important friendship w/o hanging a lantern on it that way.

From:

ravengown

If you like Malinda Lo you might like it! I'll admit that I'm actually a huge sucker for some of the tropes in the "het" part of the romance ... but the girl + girl part is done really nicely too. And she doesn't beat around calling her bi unlike SOME THINGS *coughs at icon*.