Guest Post: Amy Lukavics + Why THIRTEEN Should Be A Novel

*originally posted on October 6, 2011 @ Reel YA*

For today's guest post, the wonderful Amy Lukavics is stopping by! She's a YA author with a super awesome blog, and she's also a member of YA Highway. Amy's here to talk about her pick for a movie that should be a YA novel. And let me say, I echo her sentiments 100%. 

Without further ado, I give you Amy!

When Amparo asked me to write about what movie I think should have been a YA novel, the answer came to me instantly:




Thirteen starring Evan Rachel Wood.




This movie came out right when I was the perfect age for it (fifteen). It quickly became one of my personal classics, the kind that you re-watch with your best friend from kindergarten hundreds of times over popcorn and candy and pizza rolls. 

We were fascinated by Evan's character, Tracy Louise Freeland--she was a straight-cut good girl that dealt with the pain of her parent's divorce and the rekindling of her mother's relationship with a drug abuser by cutting and finding a new friendship with a notorious “bad girl” from school, Evie. The transformation and development in Tracy is breathtaking and heartbreaking, and nothing is held back in this super gritty drama, which is what would have made it perfect for a dark, contemporary YA.

There have been speculations and even complaints that parents and family in general remain eerily absent from YA. This movie not only explores Tracy's relationship with her parents but rips it open, forcing the audience to experience the intensity of the frustrations and loss of control that Tracy feels throughout the movie. Her mother is played by Holly Hunter, and while her character tries to make the best out of a bad situation, it's undeniable that the rocky mother-daughter relationship has a direct impact on every decision Tracy makes throughout the movie.

The movie was co-written by Nikki Reed, the girl who plays bad-girl Evie in the film, and she based Tracy's experience on her own at the ages of twelve and thirteen. To this day, it's still one of my favorites, a painful reminder that the agony of a teenage girl can burn with enough intensity to bleed into the lives around her and cause complete chaos within multiple families.

HUGE thanks to Amy for sharing her pick! 

Have you seen Thirteen? If so, what do you like most about it? If not, which other movies do you think would make a great contemporary YA novel?