I am finding it increasingly difficult to deal with kissing scenes in YA books. Cassandra Clare does them perfectly. I don’t read a scene with Jace and Clary or Will/Jem/Tess and cringe in to my chair for the next three hours, nor have I ever felt this way reading books in the past. I love YA, and teen romance is all “gosh does he or doesn’t he want to kiss me”. Teenagers as a general rule do not feel ‘ravenous hunger‘, not unless they can‘t be bothered to make something to eat. In fact most teens are thinking “Am I doing this right” “Does my breath smell okay” “Are my hands clammy”. They are not thinking about how his eyes looked like they would ravish her, neither are they thinking about how pale his skin is.
This is even more so the case when for the entire book we’ve heard how shy our protagonist is, and how she has never kissed a boy. Unless the girl has had a few drinks for Dutch courage she isn’t suddenly going to turn in to a harlot. I’m not talking about any book in particular though this rant was inspired by a book I actually really enjoyed yesterday, but left me feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed for the author because of how badly the smooching scenes were handled. In fact it was on par with Harry and Choo in the Order of the phoenix.
So back to the main point of this little rant. I think authors should definitely put more thought and effort in to the first kiss because if it isn’t handled well then it ruins an otherwise decent book. This is kind of my way of saying I read YA not Mills and Boon for a reason.
This is even more so the case when for the entire book we’ve heard how shy our protagonist is, and how she has never kissed a boy. Unless the girl has had a few drinks for Dutch courage she isn’t suddenly going to turn in to a harlot. I’m not talking about any book in particular though this rant was inspired by a book I actually really enjoyed yesterday, but left me feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed for the author because of how badly the smooching scenes were handled. In fact it was on par with Harry and Choo in the Order of the phoenix.
So back to the main point of this little rant. I think authors should definitely put more thought and effort in to the first kiss because if it isn’t handled well then it ruins an otherwise decent book. This is kind of my way of saying I read YA not Mills and Boon for a reason.
I could have made a list of the worst ones I've read but I'd much rather hear yours. So read any truly cringe worthy kissing scenes recently?
Amy
I can't think of anything in particular lately, but I SOOO know what you mean. It really does ruin a book if it's not done in a good way. Sometimes it makes me just laugh at how ridiculous it is. Great post! :)
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