Random ramblings

Yesterday, a thought struck me while I was talking to my sister.

Me: "I've been reading a lot of M/M romance lately, even though I generally don't like the romance genre, and that's because I find M/M romance is, on the whole, at least written better than YA fiction."

And then I sat back as though I'd just been hit by a thunderbolt.

It's totally true. Even when I don't immensely enjoy the M/M fiction I've been reading, the writing is a whole lot more competent than something like Throne of Glass, and even the contemporary M/M fiction (contemporary is not my favorite genre by a long stretch) I've been reading is written in a less boring way than something like The Young Elites. Genre romance is, to me, often formulaic, but maybe it's because of that formula that there's always at least a forward momentum instead of 100 pages of nothing happening.

And that's just...such a sad realization. YA shouldn't be so poorly written. YA fantasy shouldn't have such shoddy worldbuilding. I shouldn't be so turned off by the genre that has been my lifeblood for almost as long as I can remember because the most popular books of that genre are now written so poorly that I can't get any enjoyment out of it anymore.

But no one cares because YA doesn't sell based on strength of writing, it sells based on shiny, marketable premise.

Sigh.

(And it's not like M/M romance is some great haven for me, because (1) it's overwhelmingly about white, neurotypical, able-bodied gay men, and (2) I personally find plots that build up to sex as the climax (sorry not sorry) to be boring.)