Yeah, I...really don't like sexual violence in YA fiction (hence why I was lukewarm about Silver Phoenix overall--it didn't have any actual rape, but there was a near-constant threat of it. For reasons which made sense with the plot and the world of the story, but I still didn't like it). There is probably a need for some YA fiction addressing sexual violence topics, but I don't like it being used because a) it adds instant tension and/or angst (this is why I am no longer a Mercedes Lackey fan, partially) or b) because "women got raped a lot in history" or something like that, which seems to be the assumption of a lot of adult historical writers, and apparently that's bleeding over into YA.

Napoli's Rapunzel book was...wow. It was a dealbreaker for her writing for me. I was hoping until the end that she'd pull out something subversive, but no--Rumpelstiltskin is punished with disability and ugliness for his sin of pride and for being a jerk, and hey! It turns out he really is evil, and there will be no redemption for him at all. (Plus his daughter basically married her rapist, so everyone was miserable. The text slightly critiques the spinner marrying a man who was ready to execute her if she didn't do the impossible, but it doesn't manage to pull out any sort of agency or happy ending for her--she just...marries the prince. And is miserable. And judgemental, but that's okay because Rumpelstiltskin really is as evil as he is ugly and disabled. >:()

...I really hated Spinners, can you tell? And irritatingly, it was beautifully written and had a lot of really cool aspects. But I just found it horrifying. I really feel that if authors want to retell super-problematic stories, they have a responsibility to subvert the problematic aspects.