I've just finished reading Michelle Paver's new book, Gods and Warriors. And you know what? It was so nice to be reading some YA fiction again. For the past few months I've been reading heavy, gritty fantasy novels. The kind of stories where you really have to concentrate to figure out what's going on. Reading some YA made such a refreshing change. Not that YA is an 'easier read' these days, of course. In fact, sometimes it can be just as complex, engrossing and gritty as any adult novel. YA has changed a lot over the years. When I was growing up I found YA fiction to be pretty dull. It was full of the same kinds of storylines. Teens having problems at school. Teens having problems at home. Teens full of angst they didn't know how to deal with. But the way these issues were dealt with seemed formulaic and simple. That's why I started reading adult novels at a pretty young age - it seemed the best way to get the action and realistic storylines I wanted.
It's not like that anymore. I think the distinction between YA and adult fiction is more blurred than ever. The only real difference I can see is the age of the main characters. Take Gods and Warriors, for example. This tells the story of the main character, Hylas, and his fight against the Crows, a mysterious race of warriors who are trying to kill him because he's an outsider. Hylas uses his ingenuity to escape from the crows, has to hunt his own food, find his own clothes and build his own shelters. Along the way he enlists the help of allies and unravels the mystery of the Crows into the bargain. The story is full of mystery, intrigue, fighting, and dark magic. It could easily be the plot of an adult fantasy book. But Hylas is twelve years old, so its a YA book (he also has a dolphin companion which you'd probably not get away with in an adult fantasy but never mind that).
I read an article on EIN News recently that talked about this kind of thing. The article said that today's YA fiction needs to be realistic, full of action and adventure and incorporate life lessons. I think that's what makes it different from YA fiction of the past. It's not fluffy and predictable anymore. It's just as complex and unpredictable as life can be - and all the better for it in my opinion.
If you'd like to read the article, it can be found here.
I absolutely agree that YA fiction is changing, though I am not sure that's a good thing. The Hunger Games is considered YA, for example, probably because the main character is herself a teen. It seems that libraries, bookstores and even editors are afraid to look at content when deciding what is YA, instead looking at reading level (can a teen read this?) and character age (is the main character the same age as the target audience?).
ReplyDeleteAnd that makes a certain sense as those two benchmarks are completely devoid of subjectivity. They are neat things that be calculated or observed and everyone can agree. Reading level actually has a formula that you use where you count words in a paragraph, length of words, and then take several more "random" samples, put them all on a chart and it pops out the "Grade Level" for reading.
I wonder if part of the Sappy Teen YA of the past came out of people thinking that those were the only appropriate stories for the age bracket. Now that we don't think about what stories are appropriate or not (and I'm not commenting either way on Gods and Warriors or even Hunger Games, just observing that the conversation isn't usually there), perhaps it will swing back again.
Interesting point, Rob. I think content changes in YA fiction have gone hand in hand with changes in TV, films, video games etc. Young people have such easy access to whatever content they want to watch that fiction has to keep up and reflect this, even if content sometimes isn't appropriate.
ReplyDeleteGreat subject and it affects "adult" fiction authors too, I think. I tick off the check-box for "young adult" primarily because my work doesn't contain curse words or explicit sex, not because I think the main characters are working through problems that would interest a twelve year old.
ReplyDeleteBut what can I say? At 12, I had read LoTR twice already- I wanted to save the world! Now I look back and see YA characters who are working through, maybe, dealing with a bully, or not being as jealous of their sibling. I'm surprised how interested I am to read them, when I get the chance.
My reading life took a short-cut somewhere; outside of Wrinkle in Time and Narnia there wasn't all that much put in front of me to go on. And lit-books from high school on, ouch. I knew I was going to have to find my own way by the time I was 14.
Now my daughter is 15, but playing and reading like 11; she could watch or read about The Muppets all day. Fine with me!
TrekeIny raises a point that comes up in education:
ReplyDeleteTeachers tend to be people who did well in school in their subjects. I wonder how many authors would talk about having read "The Once and Future King" in middle school, or who were writing their own sonnets as a hobby in high school.
Personally I believe that any content creator is a poor judge of their own work as related to what the audience for the final work should be. I may set out to write an adventure story for a 9-12th grade reader, but what I create turns out to be more adult than I intended. Obviously if the audience matters more to me than the work I should be able adjust it, but I'm not sure I could ever be an objective judge of the material...