I wasn't a great reader... of books. No iPods back then, but there were lots of cheap comic books. My cousin Norma and I would squirrel away in her attic and spend half the day with her stacks and stacks of comic books--probably worth a gazillion today. We devoured everything from horror to Donald Duck. It's surprising how wonderfully gross those horror comics were. Lots of zombies losing body parts; guys' flesh melting off their bones; you name it. The drawing wasn't as slick as today's graphic novels, but our imagination filled in whatever was left out.
Which leads me to say... a good author gives you a chance to fill in the book's world and allows you to sculpt the characters. The author should lead you, but not describe every facet of the plot nor of the characters. Teens are smart enough to 'get it' and flesh out plot and character. Sometimes I finding myself hitting the reader over head to be sure they get the point. That's okay in a first draft, but toss that garbage out in the revision. I think that's one of the hardest things for an author to catch--the overwriting (which I'm probably doing right now. So better quit while I'm ahead!)
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