'Inappropriate' books

[pumpkinpink]

I have already made a decision about this regarding my own child so I'm not really asking for opinions on what I should do but thought it was an interesting thing to chat about?
My nearly 14 year old has really got into reading this year, she's always got her nose in a book, which is great! As she was never a big reader and at one point was behind at school.
However,,, the books she's reading are not exactly 14 year old material! She loves Colleen Hoover and books like that. She's been passing them on to me to read and they are quite sexy!!! Not porn, but I definitely would not be allowing her to watch sex scenes like this on tv!
I think she's loving reading and that's a good thing! If I 'banned' these books she would probably stop reading altogether and she is of an age where she probably wants to learn about this stuff, it's interesting and exciting! She's not into real life boys yet and seems happy with her celebrity crushes

I'm reading the books too and we have had some chats about some of the topics that I've felt are iffy; Colleen Hoovers women are all so,,,, pathetic? Seeking the male gaze and putting men before anything else, that makes me more uncomfortable than the sex.

I just wondered what peoples thoughts are?

It was close, I mean after reading that book my fate was practically sealed. And I did read it cover to cover because it was so horrifying I couldn’t stop.

I do think it is what sent me down the tribal belly dance route instead of the cabaret route as the costumes are much more elaborate and modest and the dances tell stories like getting water from the well or are traditional set dances like celebrate a baby born. Whereas cabaret is really more skimpy costuming, ad hoc dancing and purely entertainment for for the male gaze.

@HariboReckoning already on pre-order!! I'm too good to this kid!

@Discovereads sounds very interesting! I'll have to YouTube some belt dancing vids

Same with flowers in the attic! So gross!! Almost as gross as the wigs they use in the film.

We have the True Blood books in our school library for anyone (11 year olds and up) to take out. When I brought this up with the school librarian she jsut replied with, but the children love them. I bet they do, sex, violence, controlling relationships etc. Great as an adult to read a grown up Twilight series if you like that (which I do, and lived the series) but utterly inappropriate for our year 7s.

It’s hard isn’t it? Some stuff is truly damaging though.

I feel your pain, OP. My DS is the same age and loves the Cherub series which has (apparently - I get my info from other MN threads!) quite a lot of teenage sex and drinking. However I think a) at least he's reading books and b) compared with what's out there on the Internet, it's relatively tame.

As others have said, at that age I was also reading Virginia Andrews/ Jackie Collins etc and boy was some of that an eye opener. And of course Forever being passed around on the school bus 😂

God I loved Forever! Wonder how Ralph is doing now?

Banning doesn't work but limiting and trying to explain why things aren't great and maybe should be avoided till your older is still better than saying they'll do it anyway and shrugging your shoulders.

Otherwise porn, drugs and alcohol should be freely available to primary aged children too. 50 shades probably has a reading age of 10. I'm still not letting my 11 year old read it.

God I loved Forever! Wonder how Ralph is doing now?

I loved Forever too, in fact I devoured every Judy Blume novel. It's only looking back on it now that I see just how unrealistic it is in terms of a girls first sexual experience, certainly if you look at the first experiences of myself and all my friends from that time.

Forever - the ED and Viagra edition...

The headmaster confiscated our copy when we were reading it in the playground(age 11 or 12.)

It seems like all teenage girls are obsessed with Hoover at the moment, or Alice Oseman books. It’s amazing what Netflix and TikTok can do to influence them. I regularly get asked if I can recommend books for teens, and honestly, every time I shrivel up inside - content-wise it’s an absolute minefield 🫣

@Discovereads I bought The Fault in our Stars for my teenage daughter. It’s such a lovely story and we both enjoyed the film too. I think that because we both read it, it sparked a good discussion between us. I also bought her Dodie Smith’s I Capture The Castle at the same time & both have become favourite books.

That’s really reassuring tbh.

i think we must all be a similar age!!

I read many of those mentioned, some of them several times, but I have NO recollection of the characters or stories!

@pumpkinpink you need to find some good charity shops before she bankrupts you!

for anyone that wants their teenagers to read other types of books, get reading & leaving them in family areas!! (Books not teenagers!')

Oh my, the goldfish scene! That was horrifying. Fish have scales FFS. Hell that was nasty.

But yes, everyone go buy it, classic of a book. 😁

@Dustyblue I would rather not if any goldfish were hurt in that book! Poor fish!

@Discovereads i was given some Piers Anthony as a young teen. Yuk!

@Dustyblue I never recovered from The Stand and the guinea pig dying

Poor fish? Poor women who... I can't go on.

The author never did say what happened to the goldfish.

Don’t. Really, it’s rubbish, and the fish thing is just stupid. (It got passed around at work when I was a teenager)

True, but it's deliciously trashy and classic rubbish. (But yes, the fish)

That line "Which one of you bitches is my Mother? in the VERY FIRST CHAPTER is brilliance itself.

I hear you! The difference I think is that in a book, the visual is limited to your own ability to visualise it, and a young girl is going to visualise those scenes in a vastly different (and I'd guess more subtle) way than a film shit for the big screen by a team of adult writers conversant in sex scenes, directed from an adult perspective.

Shot, not shit! Sorry 😄

I’ll give you that - it’s a great line! 😂

I would be completely unconcerned about the sex scenes at 14.

What would concern me is the way that women are portrayed in books like that.

I wouldn't stop her reading them but I'd definitely be having some conversations and asking her what she thinks about the way the author portrays women vs men.

I'd also be strongly recommending some better quality reading material 😂