Except these aren't elitist literary titles, but middlebrow pulp. They have limited vocabularies and make few if any literary or artful references - heck they barely use metaphors.

Jodi Picoult is a top selling author of weepies and legal thrillers which are ready for the Lifetime Channel. "Five People You Meet In Heaven" is an tepid faux-spiritual book. I can't see teens liking any of them.

The three young adult books are dull, but only one is one of those pretentious historical books - the others are a genre thriller and a sports novel with preachy morals.

I expected depressing books, I didn't expect ones which are boring and not very smart.