4/14/14

Is Dead the New Sexy?

Is it my imagination that the body count of main characters in books has gone way up, and we like it?  Take a gander at this list of recent bestsellers, all of which I've read and many of which are excellent, and see if you agree.  I do wonder, like the song says, if we do like to "watch the world burn," then is it also true that "we are the arson?"  Check out the whole song, by Trivium, "Watch the World Burn" here and the lyrics here.  Back to books.  Caution, possible spoilers.

13 Reasons Why Hannah Baker killed herself and then explained.

Divergent Despite the excellent Four in her back pocket, Tris sacrifices herself, martyr that she always was.

The Hunger Games The whole idea here is to kill as many other characters as possible, with Team Peeta or Team Gale as just a sideshow.

Before I Fall Sam Kingston died seven times before she got it right.

Atonement As if the little sister didn't do enough damage, then the war had to go and kill Robbie before Cecilia got there.

The Sandman Morpheus is done, leaving little sister Death behind.

The Road A man and his son seem to be the only two people left.  Maybe the Earth is actually happy about this.

A Song of Ice and Fire  EVERYONE dies, as we all do, of course.

Twilight Isabella Swan chooses death of a different color in Edward Cullen, life as undead.  Is this an improvement?

The Fault in Our Stars Hazel Grace and Augustus find love for a minute before the big C reinserts reality.

Sure, Romeo and Juliet, Anna Karenina, and And Then There Were None are all classics, so the death of main characters isn't new, but it doesn't seem to be that tragic anymore either.  Are there just too many of us?  Are we inured to it by constant overexposure?  Or have we tried everything else at least once, so death it is?

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6499630/image/61083088-eye-on-fire





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