u/ruttabagarubbarb

Hey!

I give book recommendations to my students, but they recently asked for a genre I don’t really delve into personally.

What are some great age-appropriate thrillers for 12-15 year olds?

My criteria:

• Great to amazing prose: I want them to be exposed to challenging material

• Thought provoking ideas/plot

• preferably not endorsing bigoted (sexist, racist, transphobic) views. To clarify, the characters endorsing those prejudices is fine, esp in a thriller, but I don’t want those views to be the opinions of the author Ex: Richard gilbraith and his (aka her) not-so subtle misogyny and transphobia

• no violent rape or gratuitous gore scenes. While I respect the maturity of my students, my goal is to educate them, not traumatize them. I’m looking more for psychological thrillers

Thanks in advance!

I’m bored and semi-convalescing, so I’m going to continue asking my fellow enthusiasts fun questions.

What is a trope/detail that makes you so uncomfortable that you need to abandon an otherwise engaging book?

For myself, while I dislike pregnancy and the hand waving of the difficulties of childbirth (seriously, it’s often fatal - not my idea of escapism) in my books, I can usually push through. Body betrayal is gross to me, but I rarely read books that involve that. TSTL characters annoy me, but feed my snark gremlin, so I can usually finish the book.

No, weirdly, what stops me in my tracks is age imbalance. Idgaf how “mature for her age” she appears, if you’re 39 and she’s 20, motherfucker what’s wrong with you? It doesn’t help that many books seem to fetishize the age difference the same way that some do virginity. It often comes off not as as reflection of the time period, but rather the author’s own… proclivities? Approach?

I’m down w characters owning their grossness, and acting within the parameters of their station and time period. That’s why I read HR; I’d argue, however, that you can tell when it’s the author choosing the dynamic for titillation’s sake rather than historical accuracy, and that’s when I DNF

So I was recommending Jane Eyre to my students (12-15 yr old), and I brought up the age old complaint that the actors in the movie adaptations are way hotter than described in the book

I provided visual aids (context: I’m in my thirties, but the kids don’t know my age)

“Ew, miss. He’s supposed to attractive?” (Fassbender)

“Miss, you… like that? Are you sure? Ok…” (Stephens)

“He’s so old and rocky-faced. He looks like a super unc” (all of them)

“Why do you like grandpas, miss?”

Now they think I have a thing for geriatric men with skin issues 😂

I love HR, but I also love mess.

I have no one to talk to about the books I finished out of spite. The MMCs that made me yell « you fucking idiot » out loud, startling my cat and possibly my neighbors.

I want the bile that can only come from people who love these books.

One of mine: {A foolish flirtation by Alice Coldbreath}. I couldn’t get over the sheer stupidity and blandness of the FMC. I was appalled when yet another tacky statue was added to their stupid house. Reading the book was a forced march, and I live texted the whole experience to my best friend. He might never speak to me again. 10/10 would bitch about it again at the drop of a hat (but maybe not re-read)

Honorable mention: a book I recently read (obviously not memorable enough for me to remember the title) that was enjoyable enough until the consummation. Homegirl’s hymen is apparently made of thick rubber and placed somewhere halfway up her vagina. I had to sit in stunned silence with that revelation for a bit.

Hey!

A number of my students have been asking for recommendations in the historical romance genre. My personal tastes run in the historically accurate + high spice category, so I can’t give them any of my favorites.

What I’m looking for:

• well written to exceptional prose: it’s an English class, and the whole point is to expose them to good writing (in a fun way)

• good (hopefully great!) historical accuracy, regardless of era: history is my personal interest and I’d rather not expose them to bad historical representation that I’ll have to dispute later

• low spice: I’m not adverse to sex being present in the narrative, but since these are readers between the ages of 12-15 I want it to be tame enough that it won’t be inappropriate. Think good YA levels

-no bodice rippers: while I find them super fun (and they were my gateway to HR) I want to expose my students to healthy concepts of personal autonomy and consent

BONUS: if the story touches on real, interesting parts of history and how people navigated them in their interpersonal lives. I’m thinking of {A Rogue of One’s Own by Evie Dunmore} as an excellent example

Open to all eras, and all places!

I get most of my personal recs from this forum, so hopefully you can help

Thanks :)