English Critical Essay - Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life.
"Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude Get a Life" is not a novel that appeals solely to adolescent females.".
The story of three teenage girls moving away from their hometown to commence life at university could easily be viewed as a tale exclusively for women. However, Maureen McCarthy's work of fiction, "Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude Get a Life", should not be viewed in this manner. The novel focuses on issues that appeal to both females and males alike, in addition to plenty of "boyish" material, which gives the impression that teenage males have the potential to become more involved in the book than their female counterparts do.
It seems that generally, young men are often attracted to violent, aggressive and somewhat immature forms of literature. It is fair to say that by glimpsing at the front and back covers of this novel, many could assume that the story is very feminine, therefore not appealing to pubescent males. Nonetheless, a book is not read on the outside cover, but rather the inner pages. Upon becoming engrossed in the narrative, the reader learns that the plot within is relatively vicious in comparison to other novels that are also wrongly indicted to being aimed at female readers. There are incessant occurrences of sexual conversations, like when Carmel talks about being "one of those frigid girls" (Pg 213), theft, bad language, drug taking, dance parties, police abuse and rape, such as when Katerina pleads, "Jordon. I"m saying no. No!" (Pg 380) as she is forcefully made have sex with her photographer. All of these factors have the power to attract numerous male bookworms. Almost any teenage boy who begins reading a book that is filled with so many aggressive elements would be "sucked in" instantaneously. This is one of the reasons why "Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude Get a Life" appeals to men just as much as women.
All three of the main female characters in the novel are physically appealing in their own way.
