Story on the Brain

It's adorable! Mean King Giles is fabulous--thank you, whoever is responsible for putting Anthony Head into medieval garb and short hair with a crown. He is so very very awesome. And Merlin is a skinny boy, all cheekbones and big eyes and downtrodden heroics, with a fairly useless mentor person named Gaius. Imagine! I know it's the most common Roman name, and even Julius Caesar had it as a first name, but Gaius to me is always and forever Baltar. Do you suppose the name Guy came from Gaius? Except it's pronounced gee, but that doesn't matter. French pronunciation has been all around the block and back in two thousand years. Where was I? Merlin! Right. It's adorable indeed. I like Merlin and of course Arthur is an excellent sort of football player golden boy who's loyal to his father and does all the right things. I can't think when I've ever seen a pairing like that before. Well, I mean, Apollo. Come to think of it. Golden boys who are good boys seem...

Carrie Ryan, ladies and gentlemen. Remember how infuriating it was when the main character of that one book (and its sequel) kept on doing the thing she knew not to do, just because she was sulky or whatever? And I didn't know whether that was a trope or bad writing? Well! I discovered what it was. Doing things you're not supposed to do is a perfectly fine and common YA literary trope, but only when the character has some kind of motivation for doing it that makes sense. Yay! Carrie Ryan's The Dead-Tossed Waves, the cover of which features a fetching young zombie in her nightie washing up on the beach, starts out with a character who does something extremely stupid and dangerous, breaking essentially the only rule of their society. But why? Because she's sulky and bratty? No! Because this cute boy is going and he likes her and she likes him! And he asks her specifically! And he stands kind of close to her in the darkness! See. That is fabulous motivation for a YA ...