Sunday, March 30, 2014

In Defense of Christian Fiction

  
 (Warning: I'm about to go on a crazy rant. This is just something that I've been a bit frustrated with lately, especially after reading a post about it on a blog a little while ago.)


 "Christian fiction is not real literature."

 "People who like Christian fiction are not real readers!"

 "This book was good...for a Christian book." 

 "Christian fiction is trash."


  I've heard people say things like this often. I'm sure you have too. The interesting thing about it? Most of the time, it's Christian people saying them.
  
 Now, I know that there are some not-so-good Christian novels out there. It cannot be denied that a lot of them are cliché and - let's face it - pretty dang cheesy. 

 But here's the thing, and this is really important: Not all of them are like that.

 It's not okay to hate on the whole genre. We shouldn't assume that just because there are a couple super lame ones out there that all of them have to be that way. I mean, there are lame books in every genre.

 There are some wonderful, beautiful treasures in this genre. Sometimes you've just got to look a little harder to find them.


 This year, I'm going to make an effort to seek out and read more Christian Fiction. In the past, I've avoided this genre because it seemed like all the books for teens were romance novels, and usually that's just not my favorite type of book. But recently, through other bloggers and through GoodReads, I've found out about some Christian books that sound right up my alley.

  And now, because gifs express what words cannot, I present to you these gifs that represent my frustration on the matter of Christian-fiction-hate:






 What do you think about this? Agree or disagree? I'd love to hear what you all think.
 And, if you do read Christian Fiction, what is your favorite?


love,
Hannah

12 comments:

  1. I read a lot of Christian fiction, and I've read some that I like and some that I did not care much for, but it's the set of books I feel most comfortable choosing from since it's easier to choose clean reading material from it. I do occasionally branch out to the secular, but I have a fondness for Christian fiction, and it is somewhat irritating when it is called unrealistic. After all, it is fiction... But even then, Christian fiction has parts that relate to my faith- and that is realistic.

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    1. Thank you for commenting, Grace! I agree, it is irritating when the whole genre is called unrealistic, because like you said, it is realistic to some of us!

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  2. When I was a young teenager, I read lots of Christian teen novels. Then I went for years without reading hardly any Christian fiction. It was just several years ago that I started getting back into the genre, but instead of contemporary teen stories, I started reading historical fiction: Deeanne Gist, Siri Mitchell, etc.

    I'll admit that I'm guilty of seeing Christian fiction as "less than" or "not as good as" other genres at times. That's probably because sometimes the Christian novels that I've read tend to run together in my mind, and I have trouble remembering which story or characters went with which book. But like you said, there are some cheesy, forgettable novels in every genre, Christian fiction or otherwise.

    I read quite a bit of Christian fiction, and I have some authors who I can depend on for quality novels, like Julie Klassen, Jody Hedlund, Jenny B. Jones, Karen Witemeyer, and the two I mentioned above. Some favorite novels that come to mind are: the Wings of Glory series by Sarah Sundin (really amazing- set during WWII), Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay, The Headmistress of Rosemere by Sarah E. Ladd (this is the second in a series, but the first is really good, too), The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen, and anything by Jenny B. Jones (she's hilarious).

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    1. Thanks for commenting, Kristin! I loved hearing what you had to say. Thank you for the recommendations, I'll definitely check those out.

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  3. I totally agree Hannah. It's so lame to make blanket statements about book genres, because it's like hey, every author is different! It's not like one cooperate machine producing all these books. it's individuals. So, like you said, in EVERY genre you'll get lame books but then good books too. And you know, I say go christian fiction authors! At least there trying to get books out there for young adults that help them feel the love Jesus wants them to feel. Awesome post, girl.

    Cheers,
    Kate

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  4. I am not a fan of Christian Fic, I'll admit it. They all seem very cliche or boring... but there are books like that in every genre. You have to pick out the gems. But I just feel like most of them just try too hard to shove the gospel down the reader's throat, which, even as a christian I don't like.

    Here, since I'm very bad at explaining myself, this is a post from a blog that I follow which explains my problems with Christian Fiction perfectly.

    http://www.literarylane.com/2014/02/on-christian-sincerity.html

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    1. I definitely see where you're coming from, and for the most part, I agree with you.

      My main point of this post is that we shouldn't look down on people who do read and enjoy Christian fiction - but it's not everyone's cup of tea, and that's okay. It's not personally my favorite, but I'm just starting to realize that there's so much more to it than I used to think.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Hannah!

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  5. I definitely get what you mean...ah...I've personally stopped reading all Christian fiction because I've had SUCH a bad run with it in the past. That saying, though, I have some Christian books that I've been uber impressed with. (Patricia St. Johns and Stephanie Morrill, particularly. XD) I think it's unfair to judge a fiction based on a bad run, though, so I try not to!!

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    1. Hi Cait! Thanks for commenting. I know what you mean about having a bad run with Christian fiction..there definitely are, like I said, some not-so-great ones. Oh, I really like Patricia St. John too!

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  6. Hey my friend! This is such a great post... I totally agree with you. Although I've had my share of wordy Amish love-triangles, there are some absolutely brilliant Christian novels out there! (Till We Have Faces for the win!) And I think it's important to appreciate the authors, too. I mean, they are making a real effort to create clean, God-honouring books for us as an alternative to some of the filth out there :/ Plus, they work really hard on their little novels and it must be so discouraging to have their books continually regarded as 'unrealistic' or 'cliche' just because they're part of a certain genre. That said, though, there is some really ridiculous Christian fiction out there :|

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    1. Leah! I agree, it is important to appreciate the authors . And YES, C. S. Lewis is such a great example of Christian fiction done right. :) Thanks for commenting!!

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