shelftalkersanon:

Some insights from Veronica into Tris’ character and a mistake she wishes she could take back from the first book.

This month is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. And in the past year, I’ve seen a lot of blog posts from very smart people about a new and problematic trend in YA: the “throwaway” sexual assault trope. This trope is included to artificially raise the stakes in a plot or situation, or to further establish how bad a villain is, but it doesn’t actually affect the character all that much moving forward. It is problematic to include a sensitive issue in your work as a plot device only, without making it important for the character. Not just on a moral level, but on a storymaking level, too.