Today @KirkusReviews...

...I wrote about some of this month's upcoming titles with a SLIGHT DIGRESSION about how rad Sarah Dessen is and how I want her to get more acclaim:

If you’ve still never read Dessen, do pick her up—she’s been at the top of my list for realistic contemporary YA for years. For almost two decades, she’s been writing consistently excellent, multi-layered, nuanced novels about friendship and family and coming-of-age and first love; her dialogue always rings true, her characters are flawed and multi-dimensional and real, their struggles and challenges reflect real life, in that they are messy and difficult and just…complicated. Despite all that, her books are usually described (and marketed) as “chicklit” or “beach reads” or “just romance”—and while there’s nothing wrong with “chicklit” or “beach reads” or “just romance,” I think we are all well aware that those terms are generally used in a condescending manner, in a way that is meant to diminish, to suggest a lack of literary quality or meaty subject matter.