The Marbury Lens

“No two persons read the same book ever” (Edmund Wilson). The way people comprehend books can vary from person to person. Some may be offended by it’s contents, but others may think it’s completely appropriate. The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith, has had the same reaction.When Andrew Smith was writing this book, he was trying to get fired. He intentionally wrote this book so gorey. According to The Young Adults Library Services, a young adult is a person between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Some publishers will market young adult novels to ages as low as ten up to twenty-five. The book contains rape, violence, sex, addiction, and drugs. Things that may not be appropriate for twelve-year-olds to read. Although The Marbury Lens can bring awareness to certain situations, it is not appropriate that it is labeled as a young adult novel because of the gruesome descriptions and the actions the characters take part in throughout the book. The labeling of The Marbury Lens as a young adult novel is inappropropriate because of the promotion of underage drinking. “Hey Jack, want a beer?” The kid who was peeing next to me pulled a can of beer from his pocket. “Sure.” I took the beer and walked across the lawn,

The promotion of underage drinking, the descriptive details of violence, and the sexual content in the book makes it highly inappropriate. The majority of young adults are not prepared to handle the situations mentioned in the novel. Most parents try their hardest to protect their children from these settings. Exposing young adults to these situations can result in problems because they are not emotionally mature. Society needs to be more sensitive to how this material can negatively affect a young person's development. In Andrew Smith’s attempt to get fired, by glorifying these issues to young adults, he has illustrated how truly inappropriate these topics are for