REVIEW: Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction (nonfiction book) by Gabrielle Moss

Paperback Crush is nonfiction. I bought my copy new.

Review:

I read this primarily for the nostalgic feelings, and it delivered.

Moss takes a broad look at '80s and '90s YA fiction, mostly the stuff that only ever got cheap paperback releases, organizing the book approximately according to topic trends (romance, friendship, family, school, jobs, "issue" books, supernatural horror, and more). There are a few author interviews, as well as some more in-depth mentions of certain publishers or imprints, and sections on topics such as cover art creation. The book's tone is breezy and conversational - this is an easy and fun read illustrated with lots of cover art.

This was simultaneously a trip down memory lane and a lesson in the vast amounts of YA lit I tended to avoid when I was a teen (a lot of the realistic fiction stuff, soapy family dramas, etc.). This book probably covered more authors and specific works I'd never read than stuff I had, and yet the bulk of it somehow got me right in the nostalgia anyway. Maybe it was all that cover art? And man, the cover of the book itself certainly tries to check as many boxes as it can: the font, the frame, gymnastics and ice skating posters, a group of girls (in which "diversity" = one is blonde, one is a brunette, one maybe has red hair, and all three are white), random ballet shoes, and an even more random actual horse poking its head into the bedroom.

There's a lot of affection for '80s and '90s YA fiction here, but also criticism (issues with diverse representation, approaches to serious topics that were either sensationalized or overly sanitized, etc.), which Moss would often address by discussing some of the exceptions to the rule as well as the more blatant missteps. 

I go through occasional periods of wanting to do some nostalgia-inspired reading, and this book may have brought on another bout. In addition to being reminded of some of my teen faves likes Christopher Pike and Lurlene McDaniel (gah, for shame, I know), I found out about a lot of authors and particular works that probably would have drawn Teen Me had I known about them.