to let DD (13) read the Game of Thrones series?

[PurpleAquilegia]

DD is nearly 14. She's reading the Game of Thrones books, currently on book 2.

This came up in conversation with some mums of similarly aged youngsters today, and they seemed appalled. Some more so than others, but the consensus was that the books are totally unsuitable for that age group.

I'm inclined to let her continue. AIBU?

I've only read the first two as while I enjoyed them, they were so intense I didn't want to have to re-read them more than once to get through the whole series when it's finally finished. You might use that logic to get her to stop here :) When the final book is finally published, she'll be older and can read them all.

I think a good tactic would be, rather than banning them, get her a bunch of similar-but-more-appropriate books like those recommended on this thread to distract her reading into something else. I totally loved Mercedes Lackey at that age (all sorts of emotionally misunderstood teens in them), and there are tons of those.

I'm not sure her age is ever explicitly stated on the show, but she's played by an actress who was in her twenties (now 30) and certainly they aged up most of the younger characters by 3-5 years at least which does make a difference imo.

For the record, I'm not saying OP should ban the books totally, I just think she should consider what she's allowing her daughter to read, and that it might impact her in ways that at 13 she can't properly articulate. I think she is old enough to be disturbed by some of the content that she might skip/go over her head if she was younger, but maybe too young to be able to talk about this if she is upset by it.

So far, her actual age hasn't been mentioned in the TV series, I don't think? But, in season one I thought the actress playing her only looked mid teens?

I thought Bran and Arya looked about the right age though?

I wish he'd hurry up and finish the next book...

I was reading all sorts at that age - as other's said think it depends on your daughter and how mature she is. I ploughed through my Grans collection of books - from Riders, Jackie Collins, Orange is not the only fruit and more as well as my Dad's massive collection of adventure/crime/thrillers.

The thing about books is that its pretty hard these days to get kids to read anything because screens are just more exciting. So prohibiting books isn't a constructive idea.

My worry is not the content. It's the fact they won't go back to more pedestrian age appropriate books.
Depends on a book really. Myself i quite often pick up 'young adult' books, some of which i had zero interest when they were "age appropriate"

From memory, Aryas about 9 in the first book and bran 7. The actors looked young, but not that young.

Frankly reading Riders at 14 gave me a very unhealthy idea of what relationships look like (including consent) and how much fidelity to expect.

I read that in some countries (Australia?) it's illegal to show underage characters having sex, so they could not show Daenerys having sex if she were not implied to be 18.

Making Dany 18 means that Robb and Jon also have to be 18, because they were all born at or near the end of Robert's Rebellion.

You also then have to age up the other children. Joffrey can't have been born too long after the end of the war (although the added black-haired baby who died helped take up some space).

Sansa's first period is a key plot point so she can't be aged up much and there's a biggish gap between Robb and Sansa, but maybe some of that was "off making war" and there could miscarriages unmentioned.

The children younger than Sansa can be aged up only as much as they stay younger than her and plausibly-spaced, but it's a good idea to age them up a bit because the older they start the longer you can film with the same actors, and the better acting you can expect of them.

It handily makes Robb/Jon leading armies more realistic (to modern eyes) if they are 18-19 when they are doing it rather than 14-15.

To be fair Arya and Bran don't need to be 'aged up' as much as the others because their stories aren't sexual like the other characters are.

Oh god if she waits for the series to be finished she'll probably be well into her twenties!

That's if it gets finished at all

I don't have a problem with the ages. No one moans about Romeo and Juliette being 12 and 14 and outside of school productions, I've never seen it staged with children that age.

. I think when reading most people age them up automatically to fit their own concept of 'normal'.