Foz Meadows

Sorry, that’s founders two AND three, as the podcast is their joint endeavour.

Listen, not to leap to conclusions, but if your real goal is to categorise YA books for Mormon sensibilities, maybe just… say that you’re rating things for Mormons, instead of trying to pass that shit off as universal.

These categories get more insane the longer I look at them. YA-2 says nobody can drink alcohol except for one sip by the MC? Vaping for side-characters only? I need to lie down.

And yeah, as others have already pointed out, I will lay money that the “in-depth sexual topics” that gets a higher rating than rape OR an open-door sex scene is Mormon code for “literally anything queer.” Fuck OFF.

*closed-door sex scene, sorry; though it’s also telling that under this rubric, rape is considered “cleaner” than consensual (but presumably extramarital) sex

Gonna go out on a limb and predict that any books dealing with BLM or non-Christian religions are gonna mysteriously wind up as YA-4.

Thus far I’m aware of two agents/agencies who’ve been contacted by this site about rating their books. Here’s one:https://twitter.com/ashleyhblake/status/1437909824805740544 …

And another:https://twitter.com/mollykh/status/1437815940150857728 …

If anyone else has been contacted by this site, especially if they used “clean”/“cleanliness” in their correspondence, please let me know!

Correction: Ashley Herring Blake was contacted in her capacity as an author, not an agent, so I’m guessing some other authors were also contacted, too.

Another:https://twitter.com/hcor/status/1437928599869399040 …

Thread update: unless I’m being very dim, it looks like the YABookRatings creators, Jolie Taylor, Liz Wilson and Rachel Hill, have removed their personal information from the website.

Earlier today, the site contained an About Us section listing their names and qualifications, which is what I screenshot for this thread; it would now appear to have vanished, suggesting they’re aware of the blowback to their idea.

Just to make it very clear: a YA ratings system isn’t being designed with teens in mind; it’s so adults can more easily decide whether a given book is “appropriate” for their teen, the better to restrict their reading, because god forbid they learn/read independently.

And when the creators of said rating system are all white LDS women concerned with “cleanliness,” what that means in practice is a handy-dandy coded system for filtering out queer content, anti-church or non-religious content, abortion, racial justice, and probably science, too.

(Before the creators took their about page down, one linked to her FB page, a quick perusal of which shows her to be LDS, anti-masks for kids, anti-abortion, and anti-kneeling for BLM, so like. Draw your own conclusions.)

The contact form, the FAQ, the about, even the details on the front page stating when they planned to open - everything is wiped except for a generic welcome on the landing page.

For the record, as of right now, a Twitter search of Jolie Taylor’s former Twitter account turns up exactly one (1) instance of a person @-ing them negatively about the book rating system, and it was pretty mild, so let there be no later claims of dogpiling.

Reflecting on all this, the thing I can’t get over is how their immediate, burn-it-all-down-and-go-dark response to criticism strongly suggests that they just… hasn’t anticipated encountering any. Which is absolutely bizarre to me, for a number of reasons.

Like. They’re all clearly online! They participate in BookTok and book blogging! And of all genres, YA can barely go two weeks without *something* blowing up. And yet they apparently had no plan for what to do if they were criticised beyond vanish immediately.

This suggests in turn that, both online and off, they’re largely operating very much in a Nice White Christian/Mormon Lady bubble. Which. I can see how that happens, but i also can’t see how you’d fail to *know* it was a bubble, when your whole “cleanliness” angle -

- is very clearly predicated on “unclean” works and people needing to be avoided or their impact mitigated. Which is presumably why they felt the need to make a YA ratings system in the first place. And yet they completely failed to anticipate any negative blowback.

Like. I’m just baffled! You put enough thought into this project to make a logo, get a trademark and a domain name, and then roll out your plan by cold-emailing agents and authors, and somehow just… didn’t think that some folks wouldn’t be into it? Or would object to it? HOW.