Rather than rant about Rainbow Fish or The Giving Tree again, I thought I’d ask you all about non-picture books that are frustrating because the moral of the story is so frustrating.
Adult and young adult novels whose “lessons” piss you off are both fair game, but let’s leave picture books out.
I suppose a lot of people haven’t read Poison by Chris Wooding, so I’ll spoiler box part of this for you in case you want to read the book.
Okay, so there’s this girl named Poison whose baby sister is kidnapped by an evil force, and it seems to be up to Poison to go and rescue her because all the adults are helpless. She has a lot of misadventures, including being trapped in the home of a man-eating witch.
[spoiler]Early in the story Poison bumps into another girl who is looking for a ride to the town Poison and her sister were from. Only later on, after a lot of limb and life risking, does poison finally learn the truth:
The girl she encountered near the beginning was her sister, and the witch has done something to her to cause her to age ten years. She got home regardless of Poison’s efforts, and nothing can be done to reverse the aging. [/spoiler]
So what the hell is the point of this story?
[spoiler]Sometimes trying to do the right thing reaps you no rewards and causes you to be worse off than you started out? (Poison lost friends during her journey)
Doing nothing and doing something often leave you with the same outcome?
Don’t be so self-important to think that you have the power to change things because you don’t?[/spoiler]
It’s not a very positive message no matter how you slice it.
Other books?