It’s not every day we get to hear about young adult books from young adults themselves, so we jumped at the chance to question fifteen-year-old work experience student Andras Kerekes on his reading habits.

How would you describe your taste in books?

Given enough time I’ll read just about anything as long as it’s not pure smut, but there does actually have to be a plot for me to consider it worth reading. Some people believe the only good books with strong plots are crime or sci-fi; while I don’t necessarily disagree, other genres are worth mentioning. My favourite genre is fantasy, without a doubt. There are just so many ideas that fall within that genre. Legends from all over the world can be expanded or a whole new universe can be made up.

What do you think is the worst mistake an author can make when writing a book for teenagers?

The worst mistake I think an author can make is about pacing and vocab: sometimes the obvious things are stretched out too long, or the story gets clumped together in a mess of words. These mistakes often make it feel like a really condensed recap rather than an actual original story.

You don’t actually see this a lot in the mainstream book world as editors look through manuscripts and say ‘this won’t work’ or ‘this is rushed’. But where I tend to read – Fanfiction.net – there are multitudes of stories written by teenagers, for teenagers and there are some gems, real golden stuff. But there’s also fool’s gold out there: these are the ones that sound great, look great and seem amazing at first glance, but when you read them with your high expectations you’re met with disappointment, or a story crammed into one chapter with no pacing whatsoever.

Tell us about one of your favourite characters from a book, and what it is that makes them stand out in your mind.

My favorite character from a book is Kiritsugu Emiya from a Japanese light novel Fate/Zero by Gen Urobuchi. I love Kiritsugu for his flaws; he is in no way a perfect character and his flaws really define him.

Kiritsugu is a soldier of fortune, a mercenary if you will, with a goal of world peace and of course, to be the hero. He operates on the idea of killing the few to save the many – a flawed idea for so many reasons and ultimately it is that ideal that costs him his wife and daughter, along with the lives of thousands of people. He participates in a tournament to the death for a corrupt “holy grail” that grants wishes. An example of the grail’s corruption is that if you wished to be the most beautiful person alive it would horribly disfigure everyone else instead of changing you.

Kiritsugu, with his goal to save the world, is the only one to notice the corruption in the grail and tries to destroy it. Instead he causes a fire that ravages half the city, burning it to the ground. Ultimately it’s his flaws and personality that makes him such an appealing character to me.

Who is the author – dead or alive – you would most like to meet?

The author I would like to meet is the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski who wrote the Witcher series. The books are about a professional monster hunter/slayer who is known by the name of Geralt of Rivia and his adventures.

The reasons I would like to meet Sapkowski is that, firstly, who wouldn’t want to meet one of their favourite authors? Secondly, the man is a genius. He studied economics before turning to writing, where he worked on translating science fiction novels. He states that he wrote his first story for a competition held by the magazine Fantastyka on a whim and was successful with both readers and critics alike.

What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received? (And what’s the worst?)

The best writing advice I’ve heard of is when you write your first draft don’t be afraid to write like you’ve been tasked to write down the ramblings of a person in a mental asylum, even if that person ends up being you. Just keep on writing until you get a migraine or your fingers fall off.

The worst advice I have received is to ‘write about this topic’ or ‘take inspiration from this picture’. Thanks teacher. That really helps, truly it does (there’s a hint of sarcasm there). What does that even mean? Take inspiration from a picture, sure – a picture supposedly tells a thousand words. But they give you a picture of a toy elephant and tell you to write a story about it. Granted some people can do things with that but they normally just use the elephant as a stepping stone between two points rather than the focus of the story. Invigorating stuff.

What is a book you’d love to see made into a film?

I’m not actually sure I would like to see any books made into a film at the moment as it could ruin the feeling the book gives you by not living up to the hype created by your own imagination.

One example of how terrible this can be is The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie. It was a total letdown at the box office and for fans of the book. This kinda ruined book adaptations for me, at least for a little while.

However, make sure to watch the Harry Potter movies again.