When stories teach
Forget Aesop’s fables; these stories can teach us a thing or two about life and love, writes Elena Koshy
THE world is a tough place to live in. It’s hard enough for us adults to wade through issues that come with living in today’s universe. The world out there is on fire and we’re feeling the aftermath of its meltdown. Yet, how do our young ones navigate through issues that we ourselves are ill-equipped to deal with?
Authors Colleen Hoover and Angie Thomas have come up with two novels featuring young adults who have to deal with adult issues. Depression, psychosis, police brutality and racism — pretty heavy themes that get us questioning about the kind of world we’re leaving behind for our children. It’s not all that bleak though. Humanity, even at its worst, can find salvation through acts of honesty and acceptance.
And those are the themes that thread through these stories. What’s even more interesting is that at the end of the day, there are no heroes that come bursting through to save the day. We save ourselves and we keep on surviving each day as it comes. WITHoUT MErIT
Colleen Hoover
Simon & Schuster 362 pages
The Voss family is quirky, flawed and full of secrets. Just how abnormal? They live in a repurposed church bought by Merit
Voss’ father who had a vendetta against the pastor’s dog. Merit’s cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, her father is married to her mother’s former nurse, her half-brother isn’t allowed to do or eat anything fun, and her siblings are perfect.
If that isn’t dysfunctional enough, Merit collects preowned trophies. Ones she’s never earned. As the story begins, she’s eyeing a particular trophy from a
1972 Dallas pageant called Boots and Beauties, complete with a gold-plated woman on top. But I digress. This isn’t the only thing Merit collects. With all the secrets running through her household, Merit has reached tipping point.
She falls for boy called Sagan with secrets of his own and discovers he’s completely unavailable. Retreating deeply into herself, Merit finds that she’s unable to bear the weight of all the secrets in her home, and decides to shatter the “happy family” illusion. She writes each one of them a letter, exposing their lies and decides to run away for good. When her escape plan is foiled, she’s forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth, and discovers that the layers of lies that build walls between families can be broken down through the power of love.
Most young adult novels are predictable;
Everything about the Voss’ lives is so strange but they go through the motions, ignoring their problems, accepting that they’re social outcasts. This makes the book all that more difficult to put down. It’s like going on a road trip without a map. Just buckle in and enjoy the ride. Here’s one pithy quote that gets me all teary-eyed about family: “Not every mistake deserves a consequence. Some just deserve forgiveness.”
Although depression forms the anchor of the story, it’s not really explored at length. The over-thetop situation that the Voss family goes through — while highly entertaining — isn’t really the idea of a normal family’s issues. But then again, in this day and age where nothing can really surprise us anymore, what’s normal?