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

by Carrie Ann DiRisio, Broody McHottiepants, Linnea Gear (Illustrator)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781510726666
Publisher:	Sky Pony
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Carrie DiRisio runs multiple popular social media accounts including @BroodingYAHero, and is the social media intern for Serial Box Publishing. Her speaking engagements include talks at the Carnegie Library System of Pittsburgh, Western PA SCBWI workshops, and the upcoming YALSA national symposium. She proudly considers herself a Slytherin and aspiring Disney villainess, who also loves the color pink and making people laugh with funny GIFs. She resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she is currently pursuing her MBA in Digital Marketing.

Broody McHottiepants is a master of all trades (Of course. Why would he be anything less than that?) His current hobbies include making bad life choices, shedding manly tears, rescuing clumsy protagonists, and, of course, gazing into everyone's eyes. This is his first book, although he'd like to remind you he's starred in many novels and movies, including your favorite one. He'd also like to remind you to let out that breath you didn't know you were holding. When he's not saving the world from a bleak dystopia, getting crowned Prom King, or falling in a love triangle, he can be found sulking in a corner.

Linnea Gear was born and raised in Cave Creek, Arizona, a small town known for its Wild West feel. She has been drawing professionally since 2013. Linnea currently lives in Flagstaff, AZ, earning a BS in Chemistry and currently splits her time between drawing concept art and drawing chemical equations.

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

A Brief History of the Life of Me, Broody McHottiepants, More Commonly Known as Brooding YA Hero 1

Narrative Interlude: Evil Appears! 23

The Interlude Continues: Go to Sleep, Plot is Coming! 29

1 Becoming a Main Character 31

Narrative Interlude: While Our Brave Hero Contemplates His Abs, Evil Lurks 47

A Note from Someone Who is Not a Main Character 49

2 Broody Explains It All 55

A Note from Someone Who Is Not Broody 89

Narrative Interlude: While Our Wise Hero Wanders, Evil Ponders 109

3 How Will You Achieve Main Character Status? 117

Narrative Interlude: While Our Handsome Hero Befriends, Evil Behaves 155

4 Finding True Love 163

A Note from Someone Who Isn't in Love 183

5 Even More about Love 185

Narrative Interlude: While Our Heroic Hero Cowers, Evil Laughs 203

6 What If Someone Stops You from Achieving Your Destiny? 215

Narrative Interlude: While Our Dazzling Hero Dreams, Evil Takes a Well-Deserved Break 247

7 Putting All the Parts Together 259

Narrative Interlude: While Our Brilliant Hero Broods, Evil Takes the Stage 283

8 You're a Main Character … Now What? 289

The End 322

Is It Still an Interlude If There's Nothing After? 323

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Whether brooding snarkily, brooding soulfully, or brooding with a side of melodramatic backstory, Brooding YA Hero embodies everything I love—and love to hate—about the bad boys of young adult literature."
--Jessica Cluess, author of A Shadow Bright and Burning

Editorial Reviews

08/14/2017
DiRisio brings her @broodingYAhero Twitter persona to the page in this insidery faux manual “written” by Broody McHottiepants, the sort of dangerously attractive love interest who can be “found in all your favorite books.” After the prologue leaves Broody without work—“There are so many other stories to tell, Broody,” an all-powerful Author tells him. “You don’t need to star in all of them”—he sets out to instruct readers on how to grab the spotlight like him, highlighting an array of character types, techniques, and tropes (“If you’re a supernatural creature, try to find a girl who has no idea of her destiny and obsessively follow her around,” he suggests in a section about meeting one’s love interest). An equally recognizable villain, Blondie DeMeani—Broody’s ex-girlfriend—makes appearances, letting DiRisio show another side to this oft-seen archetype: might Blondie be more than just perfect hair and eye rolls? Amid all of the self-referential, self-obsessed silliness, DiRisio nods toward the forward momentum of YA literature, which is slowly but surely moving away from the familiar heteronormative relationships, predictable clichés, overused tropes, and overwhelming whiteness. Ages 12–up. Author’s agent: Melissa Edwards, Stonesong. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Readers—and authors—will swoon and raise a perfectly arched and knowing eyebrow at this clever confection, narrated by an egotistical main character, about writing the perfect main character. With a tongue-in-cheek look at YA tropes, writers are subtly encouraged to expand the genre in a way that is more clever, more subtle, and more inclusive. I would tell you more, but Broody and I are about to meet-cute in an epilogue.” —Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and Between the Lines

"I smiled, I laughed, and I might have swooned! A brilliant combination of humor and clever insights. If you’re looking for entertainment or writing a young adult novel, you need to read this book." –Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval

"Hilarious and sneakily, cheekily feminist in the best way. I'm gifting a copy to every YA reader in my life." —Sandhya Menon, New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi

"Whether brooding snarkily, brooding soulfully, or brooding with a side of melodramatic backstory, Brooding YA Hero embodies everything I love—and love to hate—about the bad boys of young adult literature." —Jessica Cluess, author of A Shadow Bright and Burning

"The sentences are quippy and quotable, and the characters are laugh-out-loud hilarious but that's all just trapping to a truly thought-provoking and challenging satire on the books we love, the books we hate and the books we love to hate." —Laura Lee Anderson, author of Song of Summer

"DiRisio brings her @broodingYAhero Twitter persona to the page in this insidery faux manual “written” by Broody McHottiepants, the sort of dangerously attractive love interest who can be “found in all your favorite books.” After the prologue leaves Broody without work—“There are so many other stories to tell, Broody,” an all-powerful Author tells him. “You don’t need to star in all of them”—he sets out to instruct readers on how to grab the spotlight like him, highlighting an array of character types, techniques, and tropes (“If you’re a supernatural creature, try to find a girl who has no idea of her destiny and obsessively follow her around,” he suggests in a section about meeting one’s love interest). An equally recognizable villain, Blondie DeMeani—Broody’s ex-girlfriend—makes appearances, letting DiRisio show another side to this oft-seen archetype: might Blondie be more than just perfect hair and eye rolls? Amid all of the self-referential, self-obsessed silliness, DiRisio nods toward the forward momentum of YA literature, which is slowly but surely moving away from the familiar heteronormative relationships, predictable clichés, overused tropes, and overwhelming whiteness." —Publishers Weekly

"A clever, tongue-in-cheek novel that will appeal to teens with a disdain for the formulaic. A good choice for YA shelves or where satire is popular." —School Library Journal

"A satirical look at the world of the male hero in young-adult literature . . . In short, subheaded chapters that address the audience directly, he does so, hitting on some funny moments that are also critically insightful. —Kirkus Reviews

“Readers—and authors—will swoon and raise a perfectly arched and knowing eyebrow at this clever confection, narrated by an egotistical main character, about writing the perfect main character. With a tongue-in-cheek look at YA tropes, writers are subtly encouraged to expand the genre in a way that is more clever, more subtle, and more inclusive. I would tell you more, but Broody and I are about to meet-cute in an epilogue.” —Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and Between the Lines

"I smiled, I laughed, and I might have swooned! A brilliant combination of humor and clever insights. If you’re looking for entertainment or writing a young adult novel, you need to read this book." –Stephanie Garber, New York Times bestselling author of Caraval

"Hilarious and sneakily, cheekily feminist in the best way. I'm gifting a copy to every YA reader in my life." —Sandhya Menon, New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi

"Whether brooding snarkily, brooding soulfully, or brooding with a side of melodramatic backstory, Brooding YA Hero embodies everything I love—and love to hate—about the bad boys of young adult literature." —Jessica Cluess, author of A Shadow Bright and Burning

"The sentences are quippy and quotable, and the characters are laugh-out-loud hilarious but that's all just trapping to a truly thought-provoking and challenging satire on the books we love, the books we hate and the books we love to hate." —Laura Lee Anderson, author of Song of Summer

"DiRisio brings her @broodingYAhero Twitter persona to the page in this insidery faux manual “written” by Broody McHottiepants, the sort of dangerously attractive love interest who can be “found in all your favorite books.” After the prologue leaves Broody without work—“There are so many other stories to tell, Broody,” an all-powerful Author tells him. “You don’t need to star in all of them”—he sets out to instruct readers on how to grab the spotlight like him, highlighting an array of character types, techniques, and tropes (“If you’re a supernatural creature, try to find a girl who has no idea of her destiny and obsessively follow her around,” he suggests in a section about meeting one’s love interest). An equally recognizable villain, Blondie DeMeani—Broody’s ex-girlfriend—makes appearances, letting DiRisio show another side to this oft-seen archetype: might Blondie be more than just perfect hair and eye rolls? Amid all of the self-referential, self-obsessed silliness, DiRisio nods toward the forward momentum of YA literature, which is slowly but surely moving away from the familiar heteronormative relationships, predictable clichés, overused tropes, and overwhelming whiteness." —Publishers Weekly

"A clever, tongue-in-cheek novel that will appeal to teens with a disdain for the formulaic. A good choice for YA shelves or where satire is popular." —School Library Journal

"A satirical look at the world of the male hero in young-adult literature . . . In short, subheaded chapters that address the audience directly, he does so, hitting on some funny moments that are also critically insightful. —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

09/01/2017
Gr 8 Up—As "the best of all fictional characters ever created," Broody McHottiepants is an archetype who has starred in many novels. But lately, authors haven't been writing much about him, so Broody decides to write his own book: a how-to guide on achieving main character status. He covers topics, such as the importance of describing your eye color, different genres and settings, various plot devices, and "The Brooding YA Hero Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe." The first-person chapters of Broody's book are interspersed with third-person narrative interludes consisting mainly of dialogue between Broody and his evil ex-girlfriend, the character archetype Blondie DeMeani. Occasional notes from Blondie herself hint that she yearns for her own point of view and the opportunity for character development. Secretly, she is counting on Broody's book to guide her toward becoming a main character. Broody's arrogance and exaggerated descriptions are hilarious, although the recurring jokes about expressive eyebrows and excessive adjectives lose their effect relatively early in the book. DiRisio makes a few positive points about the value of YA literature, noting that it "keeps growing and changing and breaking new ground," but she mostly pokes fun of it through her enumeration of clichés and tropes, thinly veiled allusions to specific books, and deliberately awkward language, such as the moment when Broody "froze like a frozen thing, trapped on an ice-cold frozen lake." VERDICT A clever, tongue-in-cheek novel that will appeal to teens with a disdain for the formulaic. A good choice for YA shelves or where satire is popular.—Magdalena Teske, Naperville Public Library, IL

School Library Journal

2017-07-17
A satirical look at the world of the male hero in young-adult literature by the creator of the Twitter account @broodingYAhero.When he is dumped by his Author, who thinks his trope has run its course, and he decides to write his own book, Broody McHottiepants is challenged by his evil ex-girlfriend, Blondie DeMeani, to explain how to attain main character status. In short, subheaded chapters that address the audience directly, he does so, hitting on some funny moments that are also critically insightful—as when a recipe for "The Brooding YA Hero Chocolate Chip Cookie" notes that the milk used is "roughly the same shade as my usual skin tone." Interspersed throughout are narrative interludes that tell a goofy, purposefully formulaic story about Broody and Blondie. However, the enforced brevity of a platform like Twitter seems better suited for the endeavor than this 300-plus-page offering, and readers may quickly tire of the over-the-top caricature's unfailingly sardonic tone. Sections that simply explain literary devices such as foreshadowing, red herrings, and the employ of active versus passive voice may be useful to teachers looking for a playful way to introduce these concepts, but it is otherwise likely to interest only those already devoted to this character. An ostensibly comical deconstruction, this goes on too long to sustain the one-note joke. (Fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews