I’ve been reading a lot of YA fiction lately. I recently finished Shipbreaker and I’m now on Behemoth. Obviously, one of the main things that identifies a YA novel is the young adult protagonist. But there seems to be something else going on that doesn’t happen in adult fiction.
Are problems more concrete, and less “of the mind?” Is there more of a sense of adventure? What are adult readers getting out of YA fiction that they’re not getting from more adult novels? Sometimes it just feels like they’re the most fun, joyful books around. Is that an illusion, or is it true, and why?
What do you think? I’m really curious about this as a reader and a writer.
Apparently it’s got to have vampires not having sex in it.
Young people are defining who they are and they are “free” and haven’t failed yet. The whole world (or universe) is in front of them. They’re very positive.
If you put an unsuccessful older adult in that same situation with the same energy and enthusiasm, and naitivity, you have a lot of explaining to explain how they got in that situation.
I’ve been working with a publisher to get my novel in YA-shape, and here’s what I’ve gleaned:
Not only a young adult protagonist but a point-of-view that remains with that protagonist, either in first-person or close third person. If the point-of-view does shift at all, it is to other young adult characters, not adults.
Coming-of-age themes — independence from authority, having to make difficult becoming-an-adult decisions.
Action! This has been the hard part for me, as my protagonist tends to, in my editor’s words, “live in her own head.” I’ve been reading the Pretties trilogy, and the relentless action, the new threats that the protagonist faces, the constant need for her to be brave and ingenious, is really exhilarating.
Of course, there is a trend in “literary” YA fiction (which my book fits in a bit more) of very dark themes of death and loss. But they still are books about young people having to be savvy and figure things out. They’re active, even when the main conflict is internal rather than external.
What Jennifer said. Aside from POV, there isn’t a limit on content, except that what happens is reflected through a young character, rather than an adult. But anything *can* happen to these characters, whether silly (like in a quirky fantasy novel) or very dark and serious (teen pregnancy, rape, etc.). Just so long as we’re with a young character through all that, it remains YA.
That said, you can screw up a YA novel. You can’t just write a young character and treat them like adults. Teenagers are close to adults, and can handle a lot more than we give them credit for, but they still have a lot to learn about the world around them.
Anywho!