So i'm reading a Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray at the moment for my thesis. It's about this girl called Gemma Doyle, who seems to have some kind of magical powers from the 'Rhelm' (the place between all the worlds). The reason i'm reading it is because of two of it's secondary characters, Pippa and Fee, who - at the end of the third novel - unveil that they're in a lesbian relationship. Apparently Fee also gets some kind of powers from the Rhelm, so she may qualify as a queer hero for my thesis. But that's not really wanted to I wanted to talk about right now... What i've noticed with this series is that there is a huge following of young adults out there that really love this series. But there is just as many that don't too. I haven't read the second book yet (I anticipate that i'll finish reading the first one today) so I can't speak for any of the others in the series, but the first book contains very little romance. I can't help but wonder if that is the reason that so many don't like it. With all the really hugely popular young adult novels around at the moment (Twilight, City of Bones, Blue Bloods etc) they're all driven forward by passionate and forbidden romances. A friend of mine asked me the other day whether or not I get tired of the romance aspect of young adult books and I was surprised to find that I don't. Without the romance aspect, I find young adult novels relatively boring. All of my favourites are centred around a romance in some way or another.
A Great and Terrible Beauty has been a massive effort for me to read. I've found it dry, uninteresting and incredibly slow. I have to wonder, is it because it lacks a romantic aspect? I've done a bit of web browsing about the series and it seems that Gemma and Kartik (a gypsy boy) do enter some kind of romance in the next novel and I can't help but wonder if that will make the story a little more interesting?
So i'm posing the question - why do young adult novels need a romantic element to be interesting?
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