Setting:New York City - Reality:None

Despite the lack of book reviews, I promise I have been reading quite a few books over the past few weeks, and through no fault of my own, many appear to have the same interesting trend. The trend being this: That more and more teens are fairly wealthy and live in New York City in apartments that are larger than their other rich friends but never have the one thing they want the most. For boys, this is often a girl, often blond and also rich who doesn't give the main character the time of day because she is currently going out with someone richer and/or manlier. For girls, they are usually searching for popularity and something equally mundane, while trying to squash their opponents/other girls. As an added bonus, these teens often find themselves searching for meaningful adult relationships with the parents who have neglected them due to their money. Take the following books into consideration:













Not to say that all these books are trash, in fact some teeter on the edge of being decent, and a few like The Boy Who Couldn't Die and Beastly are actually rather fun. But most are Sweet Valley High without the kitsch and teens are devouring books like this. Why? Is it because we all imagine what it would be like to be rich? But as you can see, it isn't just the book packaged mass produced series that contain this trend.

The second most popular setting appears to be all girl's boarding schools which is fascinating because although I know they really exist, a raise of hands as to how many people went or know anyone who actually went to one? Off-hand, I can think of only one acquaintance who I worked with ten years ago.

And why are so many books set in New York City? May I venture to say that I imagine for editors (the majority of which work in NYC), would find a book set in their stomping grounds to be more appealing that one set in Wisconsin? As a child who grew up in New Jersey, I used to imagine that New York City was teeming with children my age simply because I had read so many books set in that city that I used to imagine that this was where most of the children of the world lived. I used to imagine that there were roving gangs of children wandering the city treating one another cruelly with no parental supervision. Harriett the Spy may have been to blame for this notion.

All I know is, I am tired of reading about rich people in large apartments in NYC. I think it is time to return to my beloved genre fiction. I'm in the mood for a distant planet full of aliens or a land where the rich are nobility and everyone despises them for it. Any suggestions?