Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction

When I was in second grade, I announced to my mother that I had tried and succeeded with my first chapter book and was ready for more. To my delighted seven-year-old self's surprise, she went up into our attic and came down with a gigantic box filled with all kinds of young adult pulps she had gotten at a garage sale and saved for just this moment. Digging through that gigantic box was a moment of such joy that hasn't really been repeated. In that box were tons of Sweet Valley Kids, Baby-Sitters' Little Sister, Sleepover Friends, Sweet Valley Twins, Baby-Sitters' Club, and standalones like SANTA PAWS, VERONICA KNOWS BEST, WENDY AND THE BULLIES, and BUMMER SUMMER. I glutted myself on those titles and many more, drawn as much to the pastel covers as I was to the stories, and fascinated by their dramatic and luxurious portrayals of what I, a precocious and socially inept elementary school child, imagined middle school and high school would be like. Surely, I thought, this must be the gospel.I've been stalking PAPERBACK CRUSH for a while and soon as I saw it, I knew I had to buy it. This is the third "nostalgic" genre retrospective I've read. The first was BEYOND HEAVING BOSOMS, because romance is my most recent and passionate love. The second was PAPERBACKS FROM HELL because horror was my gateway into trashy adult fiction (I started reading 80s pulps by the bucketful starting when I was about thirteen). But these pulpy YA books were my childhood crush, the books that helped make me into the voracious reader I am today. I'm kind of shocked that the ratings for this are so low and I can't help but wonder if that's because the vast majority of the books in here are age-targeted (primarily geared towards people who grew up in the 80s and 90s) and feature books that were written by women. People scoff at millennials and they scoff at women even more, and part of me wonders if the ratings are due to the fact that critics tend to be more critical of things made for and consumed by women because "feminine" things are deemed inherently frivolous.For me, personally, PAPERBACK CRUSH was a dream come true. I loved Gabrielle Moss's sense of humor and how clearly passionate she was about this project (I am a fan of passion projects). I had heard of and read many of these books, some as a child, others later in love, but there were many more that were new to me, and I found myself continuously running to Goodreads to add more books as I read. Did you know that a bunch of them are actually on Kindle Unlimited? No? Well, now you do. Honestly, my favorite sections were the ones about trashy series block-busters like Sweet Valley and Baby-Sitters', but I also liked the section that was devoted to Scholastic's Point Horror imprint (which I am obsessed with and helped inspire many of the works I write today). I liked how the sections were broken down and how the author went out of her way to be inclusive to books-- some of them seemingly very hard to find-- including a series set at a Jewish Orthodox school that seems to be out of print now and very expensive, a number of early LGBT+ books that predate even ANNIE ON MY MIND, and books prominently featuring characters of color, like the NEATE series.I think a good retrospective not only reintroduces you to thinks you were familiar with and loved (or despised), but also helps you discover something new. On this, PAPERBACK CRUSH delivered beautifully. I asked my mom if she remembered that box of books and she said yes, because she had read so many articles about how reading is connected with academic success and college proficiency later in life, and so she had always made it a point to make sure that I had as many books as I wanted. PAPERBACK CRUSH stirred up many fond memories like that, and I can't sing its praises enough. I hope she writes a follow-up. I would happily read a book that focused solely on the Point Horror books or that went book-by-book dissecting every ridiculous trope in the Sweet Valley universe.5 out of 5 stars

Until now the most I knew about SVH was my mom mentioning it to me in middle school before telling me I wasn’t allowed to read them. Now nearly every chapter had me calling my mom asking about them! I loved how everything was laid out and think this it the perfect book if your curious what lies behind the ever familiar covers of teen fiction.

This is a great book about defining young adult literature especially during the 80's and 90's. Found so many books I want to read

This book is an extensive look back at teen fiction and was full of memories of books and book series. It was interesting to learn the connections between these YA novels and their precursors in the 18 and 1900's. Also a lot of good insight on how the AIDS epidemic of the 80's so deeply impacted the genre.

Generally, this was a really enjoyable book. Seeing all of the covers from books I read as a kid was so much fun, as were the author interviews. The writing style was generally engaging, but I could have done without the political digs- I mean, why? There were only a few, but they immediately pulled me right out of what I was reading and into the very things I picked up this book to avoid thinking about. But, as I said, it was generally an enjoyable book for anyone who grew up reading YA in the 80’s and 90’s.

This book is so much fun! It’s very much like Paperbacks From Hell by Grady Hendrix, except it focuses on various ‘girly’ teen books from Sweet Valley High and Babysitters Club to Fear Street and Christopher Pike books. There are a lot of books included in this that I either completely forgot about or have never heard of until now. I collect teen drama and horror books from this time period, so it’s a nice addition to my collection and I can use it to keep track of other series’ that I may enjoy.

I heard about this book in a Buzzfeed article where they interviewed the author. I was very excited to get my hands on a copy as I grew up loving and collecting these books. I was a huge fan of the Baby Sitter's Club before moving on to Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine's Fear Street and I even shop on Ebay for those classics from time to time.This book is colorful and pleasing to look at and I enjoyed seeing all of the old covers of the books of my childhood. Each chapter covered a different genre of YA lit from romance to career to my personal favorite, horror. I did notice while reading some typos, etc. which bothered my OCD nature. I did enjoy the interview with Christopher Pike as he was one of my favorite author's as a pre teen. I still have a soft spot in my heart for Remember Me. I hated the ending of the book. It just stopped with the horror chapter. No conclusion, no thoughts being tied together, nothing about how the YA lit of our childhood's affected us or YA lit today. I was thinking to myself am I missing twenty pages here?While a nice trip down memory lane I am upset I spent $15 on this book. I feel that it was rushed at the end and I would have rather had a bigger dive into the horror YA books.

My book club read this recently, and it was such a fun walk down memory lane. In addition to the author's commentary, there are many, many pictures included of the books I remember reading as a pre teen/teen in the 80's and 90's. It seemed on every page I was saying "I remember that book" or "I read that book", and it has inspired me to pick up some of my old favorites off ebay for a reread. The others in my book club had similar reactions, and we had a lively discussion flipping through and comparing which books we had read when we were younger.I would recommend the physial book over the kindle edition, due to the color pictures included on each page. This is a case where you would be missing out if you weren't able to enjoy the pictures.

One of my favourite book series as a teenager was The Saddle Club by Bonnie Bryant. I was horse mad and was already a keen reader at this point. The Saddle Club series has over 100 books, which was a big attraction as I could read each one in a couple of hours! When I wasn’t reading about Carol, Lisa and Stevie and their adventures at Pine Hollow Stables, I was looking for the books I was missing in second hand bookshops and collecting the Breyer model tie-ins.As well as anything mentioning horses, I also was a big fan of The Baby-Sitter’s Club series (and TV show tie-in), the Anastasia Krupnik series by Lois Lowry and the Drina series by Jean Estoril. Pre-teen and YA fiction from the ’80s and ’90s had a huge impact on me. While the situations were sometimes ridiculous, they were fun, entertaining and easy to read. So, when I heard about Gabrielle Moss’s look at this genre, I had to grab a copy.Paperback Crush is split into eight chapters: Friendship, Love, School, Family, Jobs, Terror and Tragedy. Each one looks at books that covered these themes — some I had heard of, some I hadn’t. There are lots of book covers pictured throughout, which adds to the nostalgia.Gabrielle writes in a light-hearted, sarcastic tone. She points out the absurdity of the storylines and the problems that these books have when looked at with modern eyes. For example, there is a huge lack of diversity and many of the storylines are ridiculous. But I’m sure most readers will know this. I even knew this back then, so I didn’t understand why this was discussed so much!While the idea for this book was sparked by her passion for the genre, I felt that Gabrielle’s love of them could have come across better. There wasn’t much analysis about the influence these books may have had on girls at the time or why they were so popular. The parts I enjoyed looked at the inspiration for some of the books and an interview with Christopher Pike. I was fascinated to read about how The Baby-Sitter’s Club was dreamed up by Jean Feiwel and how Hodges Soileu created the artwork for each cover.Paperback Crush ends very abruptly, without a conclusion to tie the chapters together. Even a few sentences would have been something! I was hoping for more of a celebration of the genre and an analysis of why they were so well-loved, but it seemed like I should be embarrassed that I’d ever enjoyed them.However, it has brought up many happy memories around reading, buying and being gifted these books. Before moving out, I gave all of my Saddle Club books away to a young girl through Freecycle. After reading Paperback Crush, I wish I still had them so I could re-read them all!

Loved going back over my childhood with this, so many good memories