The moments we are allowed to intrude on are brief and descriptionless. But instead, the reader is left hanging at every moment of togetherness. We should feel like we’re in the centre of their relationship. Journal entries are personal this is where people pour out their emotions. So much of the relationship is told through Nic’s journal entries. The relationship between Battle and Nic should be overflowing with new discovery and exploration. There is almost no character development for the two girls in question. And I don’t mean in a self-centred way, but in a they-have-no-depth way. The teens in the book are realistic enough: they are insecure, confused and scattered, but man, are tey shallow. Empress of the World looked like it was worth a read. A good coming of age story is a good story, regardless of the central characters. I’m not saying that these stories don’t exist (Will Grayson, Will Grayson / Blue is the Warmest Colour/etc), there just aren’t enough of them. Where are the teen lgbt stories? Not the one where the hetero girl has the flamboyant, all-knowing, gay, male friend that helps her through her romantic crisis, but the one where the protagonist is experiencing their own crisis, with someone of the same sex. I’m so tired of the typical boy girl-boy love story that is so pervasive in YA lit. There’s a hole in popular young adult fiction, specifically romance.
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