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| Photo credit: katerha on Flickr |
To clarify, I’m not saying that any of the elements I mention below aren’t being done—all I’m saying is I’d like to see more. And maybe you would too.
So without further ado, here are five elements I’d like to see more of in my future reading:
- Diverse characters. I’ve seen a big push for this, especially this year, and I love it. I want to see more characters from different cultures, characters who are disabled, characters who are struggling with mental or chronic illnesses, characters who aren’t defined just by their sexualities or just by their ethnicity or just by their health, but by everything put together. I want diversity within the minorities and I want characters who aren’t just one thing.
- Diverse settings. Don’t get me wrong, I love medieval-Europe based fantasies and US-based dystopias as much as anyone else, but what about the rest of the world? One thing I love about Leigh Bardugo's The Grisha trilogy is that it’s a steampunk-like fantasy based off of Russian culture (how cool is that?) and I adored Amanda Sun's Ink for it’s portrayal of (a glimpse, anyway) of modern-day Japanese society. I want more of that.
- Unreliable narrators. I can’t even explain to you how much I adore unreliable narrators. Whether they’re deliberately lying or not, I can’t get enough of protagonists who take me on a journey, only to reveal that the journey wasn’t quite like I’d been lead to believe.
- Awesome heroines. I want to see girls who embrace who they are, whoever they are. I want to see girls who save themselves, girls who admit they need help, girls whose lives don’t revolve around the next relationship, girls in healthy and loving relationships, girls who are smart, girls who are independent, girls who kick ass and girls who may not kick ass, but sure as hell aren’t waiting around for their prince to come and save them, either. I want to see girls who like to look pretty, girls who don’t care, girls who embrace femininity, girls who fit in with the guys and are comfortable in their own skin. I want to see girls of all shapes, sizes, colors, personalities and everything else, girls who are strong sometimes and broken others, girls who are emotional, girls who are not, and most of all, I don’t want to see them crucified for being themselves.
- An expansion in New Adult. Don't get me wrong, Contemporary Romance is great, but I think New Adult has the potential to be so much more than just one subgenre. I've seen some self-published writers push the boundaries in New Adult, and I want to see more—I'd love to see Paranormal and Sci-Fi and Fantasy and Thriller New Adult on the shelves.
What do you think? Would you like to see more of these or other elements?
Twitter-sized bites:
Would you like to see more of something in your reading? Share your thoughts on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)
What would you like to see more of in books? Join the discussion at @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)
