Very nice. Read this book when it first came out and was impressed, too. Manchee is also my favorite character.

Oh my god, I’m so disappointed on Frank Cottrell Boyce for taking such a stand against YA fiction. He’s not just some dude, he’s the author of at least (that I know of ) three children’s books, one of which won the Carnegie Medal (British equivalent of the Newbery).
I’m astonished by what he said. As a bookseller (but sadly not bookshop owner…one day maybe!) I try to place books that could appeal to both YA and adults in both sections. So Knife of never letting go is in YA *and* in Sci-Fi. Same goes for Stephanie Meyer, and for Curious Incident and many others. So what’s the problem? I wish there were a comment option for that article!
He thinks teenagers are some kind of brainless or opinion-less creatures who can’t decide whether to go directly to the YA section or explore the adult fiction too..If they like books, they will find good books, not matter where they are!
The important part of having YA literature is that if teenagers want to read stuff that speak to them, about them and their issues, they can. There isn’t a barrier between the kids section and the general fiction. It’s called GENERAL not Adult after all.
I think the problem Boyce has is different. Like many adults, they don’t think the books that they like are cool enough to be “relegated” to a YA section. Or better, they are ashamed to like something that’s written for someone 10 or 20 years younger than them, or even being seen in the YA section. Well, it’s their problem isn’t it?

Ps: don’t see the problem with putting To kill a mockingbird in YA, either.

sorry for hijacking your comments, I had to vent!

@Valentina Rant any time! I’m glad to assist in bring this dude to JUSTICE.

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Renay,
I had been reading about this book lately but have not read it yet! Thanks for the review. I have to say that when I read the premise, I immediately thought, I wonder what Renay thinks…that there are no women is interesting & my first impulse was to be offended by that, honestly. But you’ve convinced me and onto the TBR pile it goes!

@Liz It’s the way Ness uses the lack of women, in my opinion, that makes this book so damn good. I was hesitant at first, too, but hey, this book won a Tiptree award. :D

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I just finished this book today. Behind the times I know :)
Loved it, for all the reasons you’ve said, although I think that you might be being a little harsh on Frank Cottrell Boyce. I don’t think he was moaning about the quality of YA books, merely that we’ve divided up books with yet another arbitrary label. In one way, I agree with him because I’m anti-labelling and the boxes it tends to force into existence, but I totally get why these labels are there. And use the, every day at work.

I just finished the book and quite agree about Ben and Cillian, and really thought you nailed it with your comments on how women are presented in the story.
The implication that all the women that were captured were murdered or raped because thats all they are good for was just depressing.

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