Cover Image: Paperback Crush

Paperback Crush

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Member Reviews

This book is for anyone that grew up loving to read in the 80’s and 90’s. It was so fun to take a trip down memory lane and remember those old books I read! I had forgotten about most of them and was fun to see those book covers that reminded me of my middle school years! I would probably not have bought this book for myself, but I am thankful that NetGalley gave me the opportunity to read it.

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"The Babysitters Club" was my childhood. I would go to my local library and get out stacks of the series, obsessively reading through them every chance I've got. Some scenes in particular really stuck with me and those books absolutely shaped my experiences growing up. So when I heard someone had written a history of teen fiction of that era, I had to read it.

Gabrielle Moss's style of writing is perfect, the right balance of fact and fangirling over what made us all love those books so much in the first place. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with key individuals in publishing in the period. Another highlight was hearing about series that I hadn't read (though now the issue is that I want to read them and copies are seldom available). A fantastic book, absolutely would recommend to anyone interested in YA fiction or 80s culture.

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Paperback Crush is such a fun dive into the teen fiction of the 80s and 90s. While I sort of missed the curve with the seemingly endless installments of the Sweet Valley High series and the Babysitters Club, I did read several books from the younger version of the Babysitters Club as well as every single volume in the Star Wars Jedi Apprentice series, the Boxcar Children, and many Goosebumps titles. I love the concept of continuing series for readers, especially when you get involved with the characters and the stories. You as the reader want to continue going on adventures with them and seeing what other high jinks they get into.

I really enjoyed Gabrielle Moss's dive into the various forms teen fiction took between the 80s and 90s and how it developed. Her dives into the various genres that were popular were interesting, fun, and short. It's easy to devour this in a single sitting or read each section at a time. My only real quibble with the book is that it ends so abruptly. The rest of it flows like a well-structured essay, but it lacks a conclusion tying everything together and giving a little insight into where these popular series of the 80s and 90s took YA into the 00s and beyond.

And even though I read only a handful of the titles mentioned in the book, Paperback Crush makes me want to go back and revisit some of these series and take a trip down nostalgia lane.

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I truly enjoyed this trip down memory lane, as I was the target age for these books and remember (most of) them quite fondly! It definitely made me visit my bookshelves and reflect on the titles I still fortunately had. We've come a long way in publishing but I'm happy to remember this turning point!

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Fun fact: Believe it or not, for my online speech course this summer, I actually wrote an essay on this very topic. 

Well, sort of. Mine was more of a short glimpse into the history of YA rather than focusing on a specific era, but still. What are the odds that less than two months later I get approved for an ARC of a book that goes more in depth into a topic I literally *just* researched?

Anyways, I would like start this review by first giving the author a huge round of applause for crafting an enjoyable textbook on the history of YA literature. Like, obviously she did a way better and thorough job on this than me, but seriously? This is the first time in a while (and I mean a while) that I actually found myself actually ENJOYING a NONFICTION BOOK! 

Kidding aside though, this was a seriously well-written book. Like if there was actually a class on the history of 80s-90s YA lit, this could totally suffice. (Also, side note, why aren’t there any high school classes that specialize in YA literature? GUYS THIS NEEDS TO BE A THING!**)

**Also, side note off of that side note: Did you guys know that Simmons in Boston actually offers a Master’s in Children’s/YA literature? Aaaaaannnndd that I’m hoping to eventually get that degree?

Buuuuuuuuuttttt anyways, instead of continuing and talking on and on about everything that I enjoyed, I’m going to tell you my favorite little tidbits of information that I learned from this! And just so you know, these are in no particular order :)

Top 5 Cool Things That I Learned

1. YA books with LGBTQIA+ characters actually existed back then. Honestly, I was a little surprised by this! I just figured they came along at the same time (or so I thought) society began to, which to me was like the 2000s, but it’s really awesome that they didn’t!

2. There were Choose Your Own YA Romances! They weren't actually branded as that specifically (but rather Dream Your Own Romance and Make Your Dreams Come True), but they were completely, 100% direct knock-offs of the Choose Your Own Adventure series. YA authors, if any of you happen to be reading this, PLEASE BRING THIS SUB-GENRE BACK INTO THE WORLD OF YA ROMANCE!!!

3. Apple Paperbacks (which later split off into divisions like Candy Apple, Poison Apple, Rotten Apple, etc.) actually originated in the 80s! These were honestly some of my favorite books growing up, and I think it’s beyond cool that they were actually around years before my time :D

4. On a similar point (and you’re going to get that pun really soon!), the Point imprint by Scholastic (and actually Scholastic books in general) also began in the 80s! I haven’t really read too-too many of them so far, but thanks to Nic Stone gifting me a free and SIGNED (!!!) ARC of Snow in Love (the imprint’s latest release) I DO have a review planned in December and am BEYOND excited to read it :D

5. Finally, probably my favorite one on this list: so, you guys all know Lois Lowry, the beloved author of the Giver series, and R.L. Stine, the infamous author of Goosebumps, right? Well, believe it or not, they actually authored YA (wait for it) CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES!!! Yeah, I totally didn’t see that one coming. Wonder why we've never heard about those books...

Overall Rating:
5 stars! Definitely a must-read - would highly recommend if
you're looking for a fun nonfiction book! (or if you, like me, are using this to meet the 1 nonfiction book per quarter requirement at school 😂)

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Girls of the 70s, 80s, and 90s who have read ya fiction or visited the school books sale will enjoy a trip down memory lane with Paperback Crush. Reliving all the old series that were an integral part of childhood was a great way to pass a winter's day. I will be looking for a couple of these books so I can read them again as an adult. This would also be a great reference for a children's librarian.

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As a millennial, I grew up devouring the Babysitter Club and Sweet Valley High books (not to mention the Fear Street and Goosebumps series), so naturally, a book all about 80's and 90's teen fiction is right up my alley. Moss does a great job giving background on why these books were so popular and how they worked to influence the juggernaut of publishing that YA books have become. She also includes a perfect snarky tone that helps steer this book away from having too serious of an attitude. Not only did this book spark tons of nostalgia for me, but it also has inspired me to check out some of the popular books that I missed from that time period. Plus, I loved all of the pictures of the book covers and the rad graphics throughout the book. This was such a fun read - can't wait to recommend it to my fellow 90's babies!

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I loved this book! Of course I'm a sucker for this sort of thing anyway (I even co-host a podcast about 90s teen horror; Point Horror, Nightmare Hall, Goosebumps, Christopher Pike – yes please) so I was predisposed to enjoy it. The balance here is just right. There's the nostalgia of the plotlines, characters and issue; the soft watercolour covers of the 80s into the neon geometrics of the early 90s into the edgy black-and-white covers of the late 90s; the humour and wit of Moss's writing voice. But there's also a decent level of analysis going on. Moss doesn't allow it to be a pure nostalgia-fest; although she clearly loves these books, she re-rereads them with a critical modern eye. This would be a great Christmas gift for a bookish 30-something friend – or for yourself.

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Note: ebook provided by the publisher for review through Netgalley. Thank you Quirk Books!

On with the review...

Do you want to learn about '80s and '90s YA books with a healthy dose of snark? Did you enjoy the Baby-Sitters Club or some other cheesy books from the time period? Does seeing those old paperback cover illustrations make you nostalgic for a different time? Then Paperback Crush is for you! Seriously, I loved this book from the get go. Moss relates her history in a conversational tone that's strangely fitting of the time period of literature she's talking about. I found myself wanting the simplism of growing up in the '80s and '90s and discovering these oft-cheesy books again for the first time. But, alas, I shall never get to do that again, but I did get to rediscover things thanks to this book. So much fun, especially if the topic is even of vague interest to you. Bibliophiles unite! Separately, together, on Fear Street. Idk. You do you, but do pick up Paperback Crush.

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Really enjoyed this look at books that were often dismissed wholesale because their readers were young women.

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Moss surveys mass-market paperbacks for kids and teens from the 1980s and 1990s. This is a topic that has not been very thoroughly researched, so this is a good start. The account is entertaining, but Moss would have done better to limit her scope. As it was, many books or series received only a few sentences, while only Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High (which have been written about elsewhere, and so did not need the extra space devoted to them) were given more than a page. There were some surprising omissions; for example, Moss mentions several of Cherie Bennett's series, but doesn't mention the Pageant series when she talks about pageant books.

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There is no denying the nostalgic power of Scholastic Book Fairs and the Baby-Sitters Club, things that us 80s and 90s kids credit for making us readers for life. I am 31 years old and an avid YA reader, and I know that the category is still fairly new in the large world of literature, so it was interesting to read about when publishing companies acknowledged that they were actively publishing books for young audiences. On top of that, this is also the time that books were being written for the enjoyment of reading. Prior to this boom, a lot of books were meant to teach a lesson or be dissected in class. Now, publishing companies were acknowledging that kids could and would want to read for fun.

Paperback Crush is broken down into 6 parts, each one focusing on a heavily covered topic in the beloved books of our youth. Family, friendship, first love...the basics. I didn't love that the last two topics covered were Danger and Horror. I suppose it makes chronological sense in terms of popularity at the time, but the book hops from funny and critical looks at the way teens were portrayed in their everyday lives to the books churned out from the AIDS epidemic and the urge to cash in on slasher flick popularity. It ends not on a dark note, but in a pretty dark place compared to the rest of it. I would’ve liked if this would’ve been broken up, because again, the book started on a light end and finished in the dark.

Gabrielle Moss has done her research and was able to uncover some progressive gems in a time when diversity and accuracy were not as important as making money or pushing an agenda. Of course, it’s still disappointing that the publishing world has only been making huge strides in diverse publication in recent years. So, yeah, decades later. And they are still working on it.

The book ends abruptly. I do feel that every angle was covered and that the focus was on these slim $2 books from the totally rad times of our youth. But I think it would’ve been interesting to do an afterword or conclusion of sorts on how this has shaped literature. It would’ve been interesting to read an interview from a publisher who was inspired to pursue their career because of these books. It would’ve been great to read about an author who saw something lacking and made it a point to put their story out there. Yes, these books still have a huge presence in a nostalgic sense, but why not take a look at the effect now? Especially since this last decade has not only brought a massive boom and recognition to the YA world (along with millions of dollars in franchises), it’s reignited the love of reading in people who stopped in the 90s and has made people like me, who are “too old” for the genre, big YA fans.

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As an 80's Baby, 90's teen, this book definitely resonated with me.
You will have some flashbacks for sure, but event if you were an teen in either decade, the transition and the issues discussed give insight to what people of the era cared about,and has candid reviews of the books that were published during that time. Its also bright, snarky, sarcastic, serious, and Really funny in parts.

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Are you Kristy or Claudia?! That was the question growing up in the 90s if you read ANY of the Baby Sitter's Club books. In the mid 80s and early 90s, Young Adult novels - like BSC and Sweet Valley High- took the book world by storm. Every kid my age was devouring them in some aspect.
When I first came across this title, I was intrigued. Anything that takes my back to simpler times is a win for me. Add in a detailed analysis of the genre, the topics and why they were so beloved? YES PLEASE!

Paperback Crush was a mix between hilarious quips and insight into the stylized writing, trends and topic (babysitting, boarding school, after school adventures) and even those topics that were more sensitive (underage (teen) pregnancy, AIDS or LGBT stories).
I devoured the book in literally 2 hours. Gabrielle Moss is not only incredibly insightful, she has a sharp wit that seeps into everything she writes.

Through out the book, Moss tackles many cultural, sexual and religious expectations and backlash. She drops reminders for us that young adult fiction has always been vital to the lives of teens. It's poignant and purposeful with Moss connects the topics from to the topics that teens were current social issues .

This book was akin to have a good gossip session with your bestie, while arguing over which book series was the best. Moss breaks it down on a basic and invested level, never leaving any one out of the conversation. It was refreshing, quite honestly.

My biggest critic of the book was that the series were not all in the same genre or age range. Some of the titles were small children's series and some of them were romance. I would have preferred her focusing on only the YA genre, and maybe picking just one sub genre to talk out, instead of being so wide spread. I felt like at times, the stamina was lost because it jumped around from so many different genres and sub-genres.

Lastly, while the book was easy to read and fairly fast paced, the ending was very lack luster. I expected it to more thoroughly compare to today's titles, or even talk about how the different stylized writing of today brought on an entirely new slew of rapid YA fans. The book was divided into chapters, and it felt as though there was content missing towards the end.

I used this book in my classroom, helping the students to connect social issues and trending topics. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys a trip down memory lane, or some one younger who really would love to get to know how the YA boom began. I give this a 3.5 (rounded up to 4) stars!

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Paperback Crush takes a look into the history of American YA from the 80s and 90s. Gabrielle Moss takes us through the different tropes that were prevalent at the time and some that are still going strong. It turns out unavailable parents, bury your gays and racist stereotypes predated time.

Gabrielle Moss’ open and easy-going writing make reading Paperback Crush feel like you’re going through a stack of your old books with a friend. I absolutely loved reading this book. Recognising some old favourites within the pages of Paperback Crush was amazing. Books were always a way for me to escape my boring reality and delve into a more interesting existence. Not much has changed

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Based on the number of friends who’ve added this to their Goodreads list just after seeing it cross my feed, Gabrielle Moss has a blockbuster on her hands. It only makes sense: people have *feelings* about series like The Baby-Sitters Club and authors like Lurlene McDaniel.

Surveying the era between Judy Blume and J.K. Rowling (as Moss points out, for all her ubiquity in the ’80s, Blume had published most of her iconic books by the end of the ’70s), the author strikes just the right note of affectionate tribute and clear-eyed skepticism regarding the books’ often rote plots and rampant stereotypes. At the same time, Moss traces progressive threads through the era; you wouldn’t call it woke, but the many thousands of teen titles published in the last two decades of the 20th century encompassed a richer variety of experiences than you might remember.

Despite its gender-neutral title, the cover of Moss’s book tips its hand: Paperback Crush largely covers books aimed at female readers, featuring girls as leading characters. As a boy bookworm born in 1975, I certainly read a lot of those books, but I also scored some boy-forward teen titles, and if you were, like me, a fan of the Not Quite Human series (about an adolescent male android) or William Sleator’s strange science fiction, be aware that Paperback Crush is not going to go there. Sequel?

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I definitely went on an eBay hunt for all the my pre-teen favs after reading this book. It was a very specific and recognizable time in middle grade/teen lit and it’s very well covers and discussed in this book. It made me feel nostalgic and I laughed out loud in a few places. Definitely a recommend for 80s and 90s pop culture fans, and fans of the books covered. Honestly, I would guess most women from ages 30 to 45 would appreciate this

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Raise your hand if you spent your tween/teen years binge reading everything from Babysitters Club to Sweet Valley High. If so, then this book is for you. This is a hilarious look back at all the paperback teen series of the 80s and 90s. Broken down into seven affectionate yet snarky chapters, Moss covers everything from friendships to love to the stalker story-line craze of the 70s and 80s. This is the perfect mix of nostalgia, humor and history. Moss does a really great job of delving into the history of this widely loved genre, and even dug up a few books I totally forgot about (Hey, The Face on the Milk Carton, I forgot how paranoid you made me as a youngin'). There were even comments and interviews with some of the major authors who brought these series to life. It is such a well-researched walk down memory lane, it's funny and informative and didn't take itself too seriously. I'd definitely recommend picking this up if you were a fan/grew up on these types of books.

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I am crushing on this book and it totally deserves it. It is not only a nostalgia book of my childhood paperback collection, but an indepth look at the various things that made 80s and 90s YA tick. It is broken down into sections like romance, jobs, family, mystery and horror. And for each page i turned there was another books where i was screaming “I read that book”! Plus, while I managed to never read a Sweet Valley High book while I was a teenager, I now feel like I missed out on something, and will be scouring thrift stores looking for coveted entries in the series. The author has quotes from authors, and those influenced by the authors, and opened my eyes to all sorts of things I didn’t already know. For example, RL Stine wanted to write joke books, but also wrote some family/romance titles, or that Lois Duncan was a YA romance writer before she decided to scare the pants off her readers. I cannot say enough awesome things about this book. Even if you didn’t grow up in the era of the books they author is talking about, i am sure you will find something to interest you, or at least a ton of titles to add to your TBR.

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A thorough, nostalgic look at some young adult series in my childhood, and their beautiful pastel covers!

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