If I had time to be like Dante and could spend my entire life writing love poetry and following someone around just to bask in her heavenly glow, I’d choose Tyra Banks.
If The Jersey Shore star is a writer, not a reader, Tyra Banks is practically a scholar of her genre: she cites The Hunger Games, Roald Dahl (squee!), Twilight, Blue Plate Special, The Book Thief. Tyra’s expert opinion? “YA doesn’t mean that it’s super simple,” she says, “There are beautiful layered stories and darkness.”
All joking aside, Young Adult fiction can be pretty incredible (I’m not talking about Twilight), though Tyra’s has some room to grow.
I might be unconvinced that Tyra’s novel deserves to be read as anything but a document of her campy glory, but it seems like she’s won a following. Readers swarmed her book tour: “[A professor of mine said] that it’s rare to see that kind of connection and engagement with the young girls and gay boys.” Yea, when was the last time teen girls and gay boys got excited about anything other than everything? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a teenybopper that wasn’t jumping up and down and shrieking.
But man oh man, I couldn’t tell you why but Tyra deserves it. You can’t blame gravity for falling in love.
[WSJ]
