Carrie DiRisio

Broody McHottiepants

Have you ever wished you could receive a little guidance from your favorite book boyfriend? Ever dreamed of being the Chosen One in a YA novel? Want to know all the secrets of surviving the dreaded plot twist? Or maybe you're just really confused about what "opal-tinted, luminous cerulean orbs" actually are? Well, popular Twitter personality @broodingYAhero is here to help as he tackles the final frontier in his media dominance: writing a book. Join Broody McHottiepants as he attempts to pen Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me, a "self-help" guide (with activities--you always need activities) that lovingly pokes fun at the YA tropes that we roll our eyes at, but secretly love. As his nefarious ex, Blondie DeMeani, attempts to thwart him at every turn, Broody overcomes to detail, among other topics, how to choose your genre, how to keep your love interest engaged (while maintaining lead character status), his secret formula for guaranteed love triangle success, and how to make sure you secure that sequel, all while keeping his hair perfectly coiffed and never breaking a sweat.

Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me

Brooding YA Hero

Jamieson

Oh boy, it's here and it's sassy. 

list of not so subtly dragged authors
• William Shakespeare
• Stephanie Meyer
• Cassandra Clare
• J.K Rowling
• John Green
• Jane Austen
• AND MORE 

So Brooding YA Hero is one of my favourite bookish twitters. The tweets that come out of it are always simultaneously funny and perceptive of the general YA community. I was excited to read this: I expected major sass, a bit of lowkey dragging and tea to be spilt all over the place. 


  Alone in his room, Broody McHottiepants contemplated his future. He was the best of all fictional characters ever created - that he knew. His phone never stopped ringing (playing his theme song from his latest hit-movie adaptation, of course) with Authors begging him to star in their latest novels. An endlessly talented man, he’d been everything from a vampire to a quarterback. Into each novel, he brought his incredibly adjective-filled beauty, his gemstone colours gaze, his strong, strong arms, and his potent blend of wish-fulfilment and slightly toxic masculinity. 

And each time, people swooned. 



Brooding YA Hero: Become a Main Character (Almost) As Awesome as me follows the exact same tone of the twitter page, but basically expands itself out to a full book length. I expected something funny, something a little biting and something that pointed out some of the issues with YA. 

This book has all that, and surprisingly, has a plot too. Broody McHottiepants, the owner of the twitter, has been feeling neglected as a main character and has decided to share his experiences as a main character by writing a guide for his fellow characters to become a main character. He is helped by Blondie DeMeani, his ex who, because she dresses stereotypically feminine, is also considered evil by Broody (obviously!) 

Brooding YA Hero definitely has a sharp sense of humour. There’s subtle (and not so subtle) drags on popular YA authors. The sarcastic tone of the novel allows itself to attacking and critiquing poor YA themes and tropes, all in the guise of Broody explaining his experiences as a main character. 

The inclusions of quizzes, charts and horoscope guides was also a fun addition to the book. I definitely enjoyed the horoscope guides towards the end. (PSA! My horoscope says I best represent the car chase YA trope) 

Brooding YA Hero also puts in a decent amount of time into critiquing and exploring how YA perpetuates problematic representations and characterisations. The “ethnically ambiguous” side character, the kill your (marginalised person) trope, the overrepresentation of allocishet white men as main characters and love interests, and the lack of complex female characters in YA are all directly called out within text, and Broody’s main story arc is coming to recgonise these stories are undertold and that marginalised people are often poorly written. I loved that during the section about love interests, the author made it clear everyone should substitute pronouns as needed. And also, the validation of asexual and aromantic peoples through Blondie DeMeani's imput on love interests. 


  “Did I do something wrong?” Well. That was a given. He usually did at least fifteen things wrong per book, but only in a swoony, romantic way, where all could be fixed when he took off his shirt.


This book is quite short, and so it would probably be perfect for readathons, but I actually think it’s a good book to read slowly, just a chapter or two at once. Broody’s narration and headspace is funny, but too much at once gets .. grating. Take Broody in small doses. 

Overall, Brooding YA Hero Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) As Awesome Is Me is funny, and on point. The joking about which gem coloured eyes best convey each personality, which classic YA trope fits your horoscope, and how best to conquer the love triangle are really funny and refreshing for anyone who’s ever felt frustrated with some of the overdone aspects of YA. This definitely is a tongue in cheek look at YA, and you’ll get a few easy laughs from it, trust me. Tea was spilt. 

But this book also takes an oppurtunity to educate on the good YA is going, and the good it can continue to do, especially for those underrepresented. 


  Young Adult fiction is potential captured and frozen - a bright bolt of lightning caught on the page for everyone to read. It is both universal and incredibly personal, changeable and yet constant.

Ella Zegarra

Original de: El Blog del Gato - El Extraño Gato del Cuento

el libro no esa malo, el problema es que yo fui con la intención de leer algo divertido, y la verdad es que Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me es un libro más bien educativo. Aprendí bastante sobre narración y arquetipos y muchas otras cosas que me servirán la próxima vez que catalogue un libro, y espero también a la hora de reseñar.

Si bien el libro tiene sus momentos de gracia, hay un problema cuando quieres hacer comedia, en este caso parodia y ya lo había dicho antes que, si no lo haces bien, no funciona, si el lector correcto no lee el libro, no funciona. Por la cantidad de buenas puntuaciones que le han dado en Goodreads, es muy probable que el problema haya sido yo.

Quizás me ha pasado lo que a muchos les pasó con Tousle Me, se burló tanto de algo que me gusta que dejó de ser broma y empezó a ser un poco cruel. Las cinco primeras bromas me hicieron sonreír, pero cuando le iba una y otra vez a lo mismo, ya no tanto. Las ocurrencias empezaron a convertirse en menosprecio y se me hacía un poco incómodo seguir leyendo.


  


Twitter • Tumblr • Tvtime • Goodreads • Instagram • Blog

Chelsea Hunter

If you want something different than every other YA book out there, I highly recommend picking up Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me. It's so unique and original with an amusing take on what we commonly see in YA books still today.

And it's not your typical plot-driven novel, although there was a plot, but it's also a "guide" to becoming a YA main character, or more like a guide to what we see in the books that we read. And without giving away spoilers to the plot of the book - I really loved how Carrie Ann DiRisio used the guide within the story for the purpose of the plot in the book.

But this book isn't complete without the quizzes you can take, the word search, and the other extras that were added to the story. And if you haven't had the chance yet, you might want to check out Broody's twitter account, because it contains the same amount of sass that this novel did. And it's the perfect book if you are looking for a quick read - I read it in just a couple of hours.

Elodia

I thought this book was okay. I enjoyed the social commentary it had and liked that it touched upon important things and harmful tropes in YA fiction. But some things were very repetitive, which made me not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would.

Nikki Sojkowski

I've been chosen as one of @broodingYAhero's street team members for their new book called Brooding YA Hero: Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me. If you don’t know anything about the swoonworthy guy, you should head on over to @broodingYAhero on twitter to get a taste for his tweets. You won’t regret it, and soon we’ll be in competition for his attention. I first met the amatory and effulgent character when I joined twitter last year. Relatively new to the book blogging community, I was simply looking for YA twitter users to follow. What I found was witty banter from the one and only @broodingYAhero and I’ve been following ever since!

9.19.17 UPDATE: 

I was given an ARC of this book for winning a Broody Street Team Challenge.

For all Young Adult readers, this is the book for you! This book talks about all the things that go through your head when reading a YA book, no matter what sub-genre. It discusses tropes, clichés, character types, genres, settings, and plots. Things we readers love to complain about and wish could change about the genre. As a reader or a prospective writer, this really is a book for everyone.

As someone who’s been following BroodingYAhero on twitter for a loooong time I was so excited to hear that Carrie was going to be writing a book from Broody’s POV. He never fails to make me laugh and this book met and went beyond my expectations.

Our hero, Broody McHottipants takes us through what it’s like to be a main character and how to be a main character and honestly it was so wholesome and inspiring. Normally after I read a good book, I go on Goodreads and like my favorite quotes- for this I would literally be liking the ENTIRE book it was such a hilarious read.

Did I mention that this book is INTERACTIVE??? Not only is there a plot about Broody writing a book about how to be a main character, and not only is the information delivered in an easy to learn way, but there are also fun quizzes and games. I read everywhere, and inevitable had it out during my lunch break at work. Soon my entire workplace was doing the Madlibs from this book! I didn’t know that I could swoon over something other than our Brooding YA hero, but I did for this book. This book deserves all of the positive adjectives you can think of and shines brighter than Broody’s miraculous gemstone eyes (please don’t tell him I said that).

I am literally SO excited for this to come out so that I can see all of the gorgeous illustrations that will go in the official release!

Brooding YA Hero Becoming a Main Character (Almost) as Awesome as Me

Reviews