Sandy writes at her blog http://scribing-shadows.blogspot.com/ She can be found on Twitter under Silversparrow04

My Thoughts

Can I say that I feel a little lost now that this series is finally over? And when I say lost I don’t mean that the book left me confused and with unanswered questions, I mean lost because the last page has been printed and I am left behind in the real world while the world of Wicked Lovely continues on in an alternate dimension somewhere without me.

It’s a bittersweet feeling certainly and its one I’m happy to feel because it means that a series I have grown attached to didn’t go on forever and grow tiresome. And it means that all those loose ends that were left unraveled in all the previous books have now been resolved.

At the end of Radiant Shadows a new court had been formed, the world of Faerie had been sealed off, Keenan, was still missing and the Dark Court had been attacked and their former King mortally wounded. Now Keenan is making dangerous deals with faeries of the sea, Bananach is bulldozing everyone towards war and the faerie equivalent of the Grim Reaper has arrived in Huntsdale and is paying visits to our favourite faery monarchs.

My nerves were so on edge as I read the pages of this final book because I knew main characters were going to die, characters that I had quickly grown to love and just didn’t know whom it was going to be or when it was going to happen. What made it worst was that many characters that I had disliked before reading Darkest Mercy had changed and grown over the course of the series. And the different POVs I were viewing them from had now shed them in a new light that allowed me to understand them and even like them so now I was worried about them dieing as well.

This would also be the book that would finally reveal if Ash would end up with Seth or Keenan, if Donia would ever have a true happy ending, and if we would ever see Leslie again or if we would just get a snippet of her in a short story.

This book will certainly tug and pull at your emotions but at the end of it, despite all that has happened, all who were lost, all who end up and don’t end up together, and everything that was changed you can’t deny that the ending is a perfect fit. Not a perfect bow-tie ending but an ending that really completes this brilliant series perfectly.

5 stars

Julie Anne Peters is author of several YA, middle grade, and children’s novels including Keeping You a Secret, Define “Normal” and Rage: A Love Story. She can be found online at julieannepeters.com We asked her about some of the things she’s encountered in her career as an author.

Q: What are some of the unexpected gifts that you have found through writing GLBT characters and relationships?

A: Let me just list them:
1. The empowerment I get from hearing from readers whose lives are impacted by my work. Making that personal connection with a reader is a reward unto itself.

2. Knowing that my books are touching the hearts of people of all ages, throughout the world. I hear from teens, of course, but also older gay and straight people who share their stories with me. I feel honored that they’d trust their most intimate thoughts and feelings with a person they’ve never met.

3. After writing LUNA, it was a huge gift to add transgender people to my life. Before that book, I’d never known a trans person. I find their courage to transition amazing, and it’s given me a broader perspective on what courage really means.

4. I’m always surprised that even one person would want to read my books, so being able to forge a career out of writing, out of doing something I love so much, is astonishing.

5. Having the freedom to grow as an artist, knowing my agent and editor will support my most freakish endeavors. Even though my editor has come back with, “Um, okay, Julie. This is very different from what you’ve done before. What are you trying to accomplish here?” she’s never said no. I’m extremely lucky to have the support of my writing group, my agent, and my publisher.

LGBTQ Characters in Mainstream Superhero Comics

By Karen Mahoney

“I heard the whistle of a train as it approached the crossing. I reached my arm around Goran, pulled him in, and our lips met. It felt like flying.”
Perry Moore, HERO

So, I write for teenagers. For young adults. These kids need a gay superhero just as much as they need the supposedly more acceptable – and certainly more commonly represented – straight ones.

We are all – every single one of us – born with the beautiful potential both to love and to be loved. That’s the only thing that matters, in my view. Simplistic? Maybe. But does that make it any less true, or less right? Anything else is just an attempt to force something as natural as love into a form that is less offensive challenging to those who can’t see the simple truth.

When I was growing up, I loved comic books. We’d get US imports over in the UK, and I read everything I could get my hands on. Of course, back in the 1980s, I don’t remember reading a whole lot of superhero comics starring LGBT characters. But now it’s 2011… A lot of time has passed.

Let’s just think about that for a moment.

2011. Dudes. We’re practically living in the future, you know?

Thankfully, there have been some positive changes in the mainstream superhero comics industry, but in my humble opinion not nearly enough. Especially when it comes to representing gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters – heroes and heroines – that young readers can identify with. I think that’s a shame. I may be an adult (allegedly) and I may be the ‘S’ in Straight, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been the ‘Q’ in LGBTQ once upon a time. I’m sure there are many teens who question their sexuality; isn’t that pretty damn normal? So wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do something as… you know… normal as picking up a comic book that has a brightly-yet-inappropriately-clad heroine flying around, who might be a little less than straight?

I think that would be pretty cool.

Luckily for us, there are creators like Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung bringing us comics as awesome as the Young Avengers.*

*I know this makes me a total geek, but I love how the initials for Young Avengers are ‘YA‘ – okay, I’ll shut up now. 😉

My favourite thing about these comics, hands down, is the relationship between Hulkling (Teddy Altman) and Wiccan (Billy Kaplan). Don’t get me wrong, I love the stories and all of the characters – I really do. But Teddy and Billy are just so ridiculously cute together (sorry, I can’t help myself!), and so right as a couple. Their relationship is portrayed in a realistic and refreshingly ordinary way, which works particularly well against the extraordinary backdrop of superhero shenanigans. I like that Heinberg has the boys being open about their sexuality, and about their growing feelings for one another, while not making the comics revolve around it. These aren’t comics centred on issues. No, we are given kick-ass stories with a whole group of brilliant characters – a couple of whom just happen to be gay (and falling love – yay!).

Billy and Teddy in one of their awesomely cute moments.

It’s good to see a mainstream comics publisher like Marvel putting out titles with young LGBTQ characters that represent true diversity, and I hope to see more in the future. There does seem to be a gradual shift (a tiny one, but at least it’s happening!) with, for example, lesbian and transgender main characters in Marvel’s teen Runaways comic. Of course, there are quite a few other LGBT superhero characters in comics, but I’m talking specifically about young adult characters in a starring role.

I’m happy to say that the Young Avengers are back – after their first successful run a few years ago – this time in Avengers: The Children’s Crusade. It’s currently available monthly from your LCS.* Go check it out!

*Local Comic Shop

Further Reading:

A quick shout out for a YA novel about a gay superhero: Perry Moore‘s HERO. Sadly, Mr. Moore passed away just a couple of months ago. His essay and accompanying list – Who Cares About the Death of a Gay Superhero Anyway? – are recommended reading.

Please also read this fantastic Gay Times interview with writer Allan Heinberg. Among other things, Heinberg talks about the difference between writing LGBT characters for comics and for television (he has written and produced shows such as Gilmore Girls, The O.C. and Grey’s Anatomy). The whole thing is well worth your time, but I particularly love this:

JG: There are a large number of LGBT fans of comics. What do you feel attracts people of our community to comic books, and in particular superhero stories?

AH: Super hero comics tend to be about outsiders — people who are not accepted by the mainstream — or who feel they don’t belong there — who nonetheless strive and sacrifice to save the very people who rejected them in the first place. Even poor Superman is constantly struggling to prove to himself and to the world that he’s worthy of his adopted humanity. As a closeted gay kid growing up in Oklahoma in the 1970′s, I completely identified with that struggle. Even now, I find it enormously moving.

Karen Mahoney is the author of THE IRON WITCH trilogy and a proud geek. Visit her online at: www.kazmahoney.com

Nora Coon is a YA author with three nonfiction books published, a novel in progress, and a caffeine addiction. You can find her via her blog or Twitter.

Parents in YA literature tend to fall into one of two categories – absent or obstacle. If they’re absent, they may be dead or simply unaware; if they’re obstacles, they actively interfere with the protagonist’s attempts to achieve his or her goals.

YA lit with gay characters takes this tradition to a new extreme. Parents are either fearsome zealots or bigots who reject their children at the first sign that they’re not ruler-straight, or they’re well-meaning but ultimately out-of-touch smotherers who get so wrapped up in the cause of gay rights that they end up ignoring whatever personal struggles their child experiences. It’s hardly surprising that books about gay teens would feature parents who don’t understand, whether out of close-mindedness or simple lack of awareness, but that’s not the universal experience.

Where, in YA books, are the parents who’ve had their own struggles with identity? Where are the gay and lesbian couples raising kids, the transgender parents, the bisexual mom or dad who could understand and sympathize with how their teenagers feel? Parents are rarely the focus of YA books, and only infrequently are they allowed to be fully realized characters with emotional depth. They can lend such dimension to books, though, that it’s a shame they don’t get more development.

Certainly, in many parts of the world, including the United States, teenagers who come out face rejection by their parents. But there’s a whole host of responses in between “get out of my house this instant” and “I’m going to start a PFLAG chapter!” and it would be lovely to see that range better represented in YA fiction. What about the parents who love their kid no matter what, but worry that they’ll be bullied at school for coming out? Where are the parents who are uncomfortable with homosexuality but work to shift their worldview? Why don’t we get to see the fights between a concerned parent who doesn’t want their kid to be sexually active, no matter who he or she is with, and a teenager who asserts that it’s vital to developing his or her identity?

The religious family narrative can still be relevant, but let’s see something more complex than a knee-jerk anti-gay reaction. Why can’t one parent be supportive, and another uncomfortable? How about a religious parent determined to find biblical justification for gay or lesbian relationships? A church or temple where being LGBTQ is perfectly acceptable? Times are changing – fictional families should change with them.

What’s the most realistic depiction of a gay teen’s family that you’ve read?