Why do I read books? I mean honestly; all a girl asks for is some supernatural love with a little mystery thrown in--perhaps a battle or two for an immortal soul--and this is, apparently, a difficult order to fill. Mostly I feel this is the universe punishing me for not focusing solely on my comps list like I'm should be at the moment. "You dare not read Othello straight through!" it accuses me. "I punish you!" I hate you too universe.

And this most recent foray into young adult fiction wasn't an unpleasant one. I did enjoy the book. The mythology was unique and engaging; the characters were easily sympathetic and moving. But when your villain is a vampire that makes other people vampires against their will in some sort of weird vampire-rape scenario you can't expect me to have sympathy for him. You can't just end the book with the heroine still torn over whether or not she loves him. When you create an entire world and spend 300+ pages teaching me to hate vampires you can't suddenly drop a vampire on me who has literally stolen people's souls and expect me to think he's sexy. Even I'm not that screwed up and we all know how sketchy my love of the undead can be.

Plus, there is a strange werewolf romance going on. In fact, the book is billed as a bit of a werewolf romance but the boy doesn't even kiss the girl until five pages from the end and the book ends abruptly with some implication that said boy runs off an joins a wolf pack never to be seen or heard from again. How is that a romance?! If I wanted this sort of dissatisfaction from reading I would have kept reading Othello and maybe thrown a little Romeo & Juliet in for good measure!

I'm seeing a trend in young adult fiction, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Books are marketed as romances, or at least as romance being a major plot point, that are decidedly lacking in the romance department. I understand with the Twilight phenomena you want to sell your books to teenage girls and immature adults like myself by claiming "this book too has supernatural love!" But it seems unfair that a book can be marketed as a love story when it's actually a strange five act play about emotionally distant teenage werewolves, evil vampires, and strange vampire-raping of one's soul. No part of that spells l-o-v-e to me.

And it wasn't that it wasn't a good book--it was a pretty decent book (other than the ending which seemed to reek of the author being tired of writing) but it wasn't a teenage love story. Fiction should not be allowed to marketed as a genre it isn't. I, the consumer, purchase this book in good faith expecting some werewolf love action; the book should be required to make good on its promises.

So I guess I'll go finish Othello, but the thing is if I only read love Shakespearean-tragedy style what little hope I have for happiness and light in the world will be squelched and my soul will live in darkness forever. That's why I count on, NEED, my young adult fiction and trashy romance to perform as expected. Otherwise I really am going to become the bitter old feminist who every time she meets a man greets him with, "Don't talk to me. You're just going to try to break me with your patriarchy and I won't be held down by your misogynistic discourse."

And, really, none of us needs that.