THE SUNDAY POST is a weekly feature hosted by Kimba at the Caffinated Book Reviewer. It is a chance to recap the previous week, share news, showcase books and/or bookish things we have received, and tell about what is coming up on our blog in the next week. You can view the guidelines, HERE
My TELL ME TUESDAY was all about FINALLY getting approved for my eARC of PERSUASION on Edelweiss. You can read that, HERE.
I am doing research for a blog post I am planning and have been asking this question around the web...
* IS IT OKAY FOR A YA BOOK TO TAKE LIBERTIES IN PORTRAYING A MENTAL ILLNESS AS LONG AS THE STORY IS "GOOD" OR "FUN"? *
I would appreciate your input.
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BOOK MAIL
Again, I have no photos because the forward facing camera on the Kindle Fire is a pain, and I really need my son to help me, plus it really needs bright sunlight to take non-blurry pictures. Needless to say, timing the availability of those two things together is nearly IMPOSSIBLE. I have been asking different bloggers what they are using and any advice would be appreciated. I am on a single mom with a son in college budget, so I am not looking for anything extravagant.
Anyway, I received my QUIRK BOOKS prize pack from THE BOOK NUT and was so happy with its contents I twirled! She had a stack of books and the package each of the two winners won was a mystery, except for the QB tote they came in. My favorite thing was the HOLLOW CITY oversized paperback because it matches my Mrs. Peregrine's perfectly!
My BOOK OUTLET order arrived. I ordered on Mother's Day, so I received an extra 25% off. I ordered two paperback ORLEANS: one for a gift and one for a giveaway. I also bought a hardcover of RECKLESS, the first book in the author of the Inkheart trilogy's Mirror World series, and a funny picture book about bacteria and viruses for my son who is a Biochemistry major.
I will post pictures next week, I PROMISE!
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Speaking of book mail, I posted my BOOKS FOR TRADE lists on GOODREADS. You can view my trade-fors and wishlist, HERE.
HAVE A PERFECT WEEK!
I feel so out of the loop as of late! With all the apartment stuff and all the cleaning and preparing for my friend's wedding and the baking I had to do for her candy bar... I've barely had time to read!!
ReplyDeleteI also got approved for Persuasion!! But I need to find some time to read!
When do you fly out for BEA? You have had a full plate!
DeleteI think it's OK to take liberties up to a point- I mean, an author can do anything they want, it may or may not get published, but should they take liberties? If we're talking YA, I would hope that an author would not take too many liberties, since they may be influencing young people who actually have the disorder (or somethnig related). Reader may be quite impressionable so I'd hate to see them get bad info. Just my take.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your input. I am going to compile a percentages list after I get atleast 30 or so responses.
DeleteIn YA I would hope the author would choose to realistically portray an illness since people especially young tend to take these explanation and portrayals as fact
ReplyDeleteThanks, this has been the same response from all except one person, and I need to seek out more under 18s because it was a teenager that said it didn't matter if the book was fun to read.
DeleteI use a Sony Cybershot (14 megapixel) digital camera circa 2011 for all my blog-related pictures. It does okay, but I'm sure a newer one would work better- but hey, it's lasted 4 years of wear, tear, and several long drops from my hand (so far).
ReplyDeleteAs for the main question, it really depends. While I would like some fun takes on mental illness, it shouldn't ever seem like the said mentally ill person doesn't have problems- a too light take on the subject wouldn't be helpful, but at the same time, mentally ill people should be portrayed in a variety of books. Check me down as a 'maybe'.
~Litha Nelle
I am all for electronics that last and survive falls (something that happens frquently with two cats in the house). This portrayal was a girl, who with her severe symptoms, would not have been in school interacting in sometimes very negative ways with students and faculty.
DeleteAnd thanks for your imput. :)
DeleteAs someone who deals with mental illness I wouldn't really like if the author took liberties with it. I don't mind flowery prose or unique writing styles, but don't pretty up the illness or make it into something it's not. That is, if it's a contemporary. I suppose I wouldn't mind a sci-fi novel making mental illness into something related to powers or some such, but I still don't think I'd want it to be portrayed as something cool or worth emulating. And not all of the characters with mental illness need to be constantly in a stay of fighting against themselves, since it's possible to live a happy life with them.
ReplyDeleteThanks, the author really didn't do much research, and had never even met anyone with the illness. Plus it was written in first person which to me, unless you had first hand knowledge of the illness, is ludicrous.
DeleteI think...it depends on the liberties? Mostly my instinctive response is, no, no it's not ok. BUT - is it ok to be humorous/show the character having fun regardless of the mental illness? Yes. It's hard to define the difference between that and making light of the illness though. I'm trying to come up with examples but all I've got at the moment is Marian Keyes' Rachel's Holiday. It's first person and narrated by a woman who has a drug addiction and it is HILARIOUS. But it definitely does NOT shy away from the absolute havoc addiction wreaks on yourself and your relationships with everyone in your life. Marian Keyes' often does similar things, many of her books have a main character with illnesses (depression, family member with a history of substance abuse, etc.) and they aren't all done well, but enough of them are that I tend to do well with her books. (It's a good thing Rachel's Holiday was my first of hers and not Sushi for Beginners)
ReplyDeleteSo...I got sidetracked and I'm not even sure I answered your question at all. I think...maybe my answer is that no it's not okay to take liberties. But that every character is different and for that to be reflected is ok. I'm a big fan in my characters being real no matter what genre or situation, and mental illness is definitely a part of that. I don't think mental illness always needs to be treated with kid gloves, it just needs to be well researched before you decide to include that with a character so that your character feels realistic.
Thanks Elizabeth. I agree, lighthearted one thing, but lighten up on the reality facts that ground the story, such as with the book I will be discussing in this blog post, are two different things. In the book I want to talk about, if the girl was actively exhibiting that many serious symptoms, which had her doctor wanting to institutionalize her, she would not have been in school, and as a minor would not have been in charge of monitoring and despensing her own medications. To me the story used how out of touch she was with reality as a gimmick, not enlightenment.
ReplyDelete