I remember one holiday with my mum and dad in a cottage in the hills. They had a DVD player and dvds on the shelf in the little living room We put Gone Girl on because it was relatively recent and I’d heard of it, and about 10 minutes in my dad was like “oh wait, I’ve read this book…it’s shite.”
I insisted we watch the whole thing because I cant stand watching a bit of something I find I dont like, voice my opinion on it, and then get told that if I didn’t watch 'til the end, then how can I know?
Anyway, he was correct.
Your dad? Ben Affleck. Your mom? Neil Patrick Harris.
SSS+ Guardianship.
As a kid I read a book about a school with 30 rooms built sideways, so an oopsie tower, where each chapter is about a student or the teacher.
Sammy, the odd student from chapter 14, is a dead rat in many raincoats, and being a dead rat, Sammy is thrown in the trash.
Twilight is weirder than this?
What about a sentient bowl of petunias that is falling to its “death”, again, and is the reincarnation of a rabbit, whale, fly, and cow? Or an android monk believing everything was the same shade of pink, making it too early to move from the spot it was on for fear of falling off a cliff, so it sat on the back of the (manufactured, organic) horse it was riding?
Yes, there can be multiple books that are weird or have weird stories. It doesn’t have the be the weirdest one to still be weird.
Hey, Sideways Stories From Wayside School is great! And weird, but good weird. Twilight was the first thing I thought of when the COVID toilet paper crisis hit.
It’s amazing, and Sammy’s story has stuck with me for decades for this very reason. I probably read the book a dozen times as a kid.
I loved those books as a kid! Probably my introduction to surrealism
Haruki Murakami would approve
Way to sideline things.
It’s a genuine question. I’m only familiar with Twilight as a few clips from the movies with RiffTrax comments over them. And I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer and read most of the Season 8 comic, so the “weird stuff + vampires” bar for me is already set high.
I assumed you were referring to Wayside School, so I made a comment using the words “way” and “side.” I didn’t doubt your intentions at all, but I understand my comment sounded like I did.
I considered preemptively adding something to indicate I wasn’t being critical of you, but thought it might detract from whatever humor might be derived. Hopefully I haven’t ruined your opinion of me.
“I-I’m only reading the Twilight Saga to know if it’s appropriate for my daughter *sweats profusely* I-I don’t have a shrine to Edward in my closet!”
Dad was team Jacob all the way until the last book.
All adults I know are Team “Get Fucking Therapy You’re Like 100 Years Older Than Her Or A Dog.”
Stephenie Meyer writing Jacob in the last book:
deleted by creator
Luckily I had Amadioh Chess read me and recorded it into audobooks and that guy can make even the most boring paint drying activity sound entertaining with his wonderful voice
It sounds kind of ridiculous but this is actually pretty smart. I’d prefer to know what my kids are diving into and maybe set up guardrails or at least warnings if something they were interested in was funky.
Plus you can have a book club and talk to your kids about something they’re excited about!
I love this.
I mean if they’re reading books in the first place you’re probably already in the clear
What would be a “funky” book for you?
Too hard to grasp, like an advanced book for a 11 yo I understand, but I wonder what other people would forbid and why.
I wish I had will smith’s speech on his target of choice when interviewing in MIB. It would of been the perfect response to “an advanced book for a 11 yo”
A book that I got as part of a birthday present when I was in middle school had a passage where a man’s long-lost sister (who was part monster, but was painstakingly described as very attractive) told him that either he had to impregnate her the old-fashioned way, or she would simply get a syringe, extract sperm from his testicles, and impregnate herself that way to create, if I remember correctly, a monster that would end the world or something. It was labeled as “Young Adult” level.
So, like, probably something like that.
You just gave someone a new fetish.
I was specifically thinking of books with sexual violence, suicide, or promoting toxic behavior, and even then it does go down to the book’s context.
Good old “don’t judge a book by its cover”
Some books have names that don’t evocate much, a tame cover and end up being smut books. Quick search brings up “Normal people”. Unassuming title and cover, you might guess romance, but quoting an article mentioning it “The sex scenes in this one really do jump off the page”.
You might not want your 10-13 y/o reading about that just yet…Some other might have toxic ideas, graphic depiction of violence, or lots of things you might want a teen to not read just yet.
Also there are way to many violent sex scenes in dark romance books, for kids who are just starting to grasp what sec can be. Nothing wrong with people liking brutal sex, but that’s not beginner level friendly and might set wrong expectations.
I read Tatham Mound when I was 12, and it kind of blew my mind. I wouldn’t say it was appropriate at that age, but I also don’t think it did any harm. The violence was explicit, and there were numerous sex scenes, but they were placed in a cultural context.
Oh yeah piers Anthony introduced a young me to some real kinky ideas long before I otherwise would have had exposure to them. I don’t think any harm was done though.
Same here. Olympians passed easily, Hunger game barely, and Twilight not at all.
The Renesmee/Jacob bonding was certainly a choice.
I only know this from clips of the film.
You named my daughter after the Loch Ness monster?!
Lets all take a moment and realize this same author wrote about space jelly dragons with silver ribbon sentient parasites.
Honestly that sounds better than teenage angst and sparkly vampires.
Pretty sure they’re referring to The Host and… yeah, it’s actually not bad.
Its a love story about the alien parasite being enamored by humanity, joining their side, and falling in love all while inhabiting the body of an unwilling host whose mind refuses to fade like the rest. Not bad, but definitely still a tween romance novel.
No, it’s an existential horror novel about having your body stolen so some alien can get laid. It just has romantic tie-ins with the alien trying to get laid.
The movie should have leaned into that instead of, uh, whatever it was doing.
Wait there’s a movie? Please link me a wiki page lmao
Fair warning: its as bad as the Percy Jackson movie, same vibe
That sounds much better!
It is better
If I didn’t know which author you were talking about id be sold on that description.
I mean… I liked it. It was strange. But that was the point. Strange and somewhat fresh.
If reading fucked up shit in a book fucks your kid up, there was already going to be something wrong with them.
