I have a confession to make. Actually, perhaps I ought to switch to Catholicism as it seems from all these blog entries that I have a lot of confessions piling up. Unfortunately I don’t think any of my unburdenings are the types to be bothering priests with and there really is no penance for them.
Today’s confession is that I have become exceedingly tired of Young Adult fiction.
As with all genres I firmly believe there is a place for it, and like most other genres I’ve unashamedly read my fill of YA from the time I was 9 until today. Sarah Dessen is one of a few authors whose new releases I’ll buy sight unseen, reviews unheeded. There is a refreshing simplicity to the language and plotting of novels in this genre that makes them perfect for hammocks, beaches, lunch breaks; perfect for all those times you want to immerse yourself in the world of the novel without being over your head in pages and adverbs.
Some of my best friends are Young Adult novels.
So what is this impasse we’ve come to, and why is it an impasse at all? Thanks to the overwhelming success of Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games series we are at a place in the book business where the big sellers are uniformly coming from the YA genre. Not because these books are better, mind you. But they are better for the marketing departments of the big publishers. For a business that is struggling to stay afloat in a changing marketplace, these books are a godsend. The page counts are shorter, the buying market encompasses a wide swath of ages and as most of these books are part of a series they are a perpetual marketing machine. If I were in the marketing department I would beg for as many good YA titles on the frontlist as I could get.
I’m not in the marketing department. I’m in the buying department. As much fun as a YA book can be, I do read at times other than lunch and places other than hammocks and beaches. If Young Adult books are hearty appetizers, I’m at the place where I’d also really like to have something for the main course.
As a writer I’ve been making the acquaintance of more working writers as a way to find kindred spirits, and those working writers are opening my eyes to The Rules. You may have gathered as much, seeing as how I have been complaining about those rules of late. And it occurred to me the other day as I read through one of the random lists of rules that people are extrapolating rules for YA fiction to apply to all genres. That bothers me. We already live in a world where YA is the current King Baby. And now all books are to be remade to look more like a YA title:
1. Go light on the Adjectives and Adverbs
2. Avoid shifting points of view
3. Show, don’t tell
All of these rules make sense in the YA category where there is an economy of language, a moral message and easily relatable characters. But should they be hard and fast for books from which we expect a wider cast of relatable characters, a greater depth of language and a message that is more obscured by story?
Even more horrifying is the thought that readers who are on a steady diet of YA may lose their interest in adult fiction styles altogether. I’m really starting to worry as I watch The Hunger Games and Daughter of Smoke and Bone camp out at the top of the bestseller lists. I’m afraid that the world of adult fiction is receding from view.
I don’t see it as a YA influencing adult books thing–I think it is that both YA and adult are following the same path simultaneously. Before Twilight was Michael Crichton and his fast-paced, descriptionless, flat-charactered books. It’s happening in both genres, but I don’t think the blame for one can be placed on the other.
I also think it’s not YA as a whole genre, but rather that the line of YA books following after Twilight’s example have overrun the market. The fluffy, all-about-my-cool-paranormal-boyfriend kinds of stories. If more books had come along like Harry Potter, things would be different.
Granted HP started off as a MG series–one meant to grow with the reader, yes, but one meant to snag them at an early age. And there are many *young* kids reading all the way through the series way before they reach YA level.
Which brings me to my final observation: that a lot of MG books are towing the line here. HP of course, The Inkheart series and Dragonrider by Cornelia Funke, and the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull are good examples. (You want adjectives and adverbs and lots of description? Get Fablehaven.) MG books aren’t as heady, but the authors know the kids want an adventure! These books are packed with details and tell the story in a way that keeps you submerged.
And this actually brings me to another observation–books like those I mentioned above are getting squeezed out. The line they are towing is frayed and ready to break. MG is becoming associated with books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. To that I say, “UGH.” When I last visited a major bookstore, there were two sections for kids books–the young reader section, with books ranging from board books to HP, and the YA/teen section (covered primarily in pretty girls with flowy dresses and wings). So MG–true MG–is being either pushed down into juvenile or up into YA.
OK, sorry. In know this is your rant! But it’s pretty close to home for me. I can’t say I miss the days of books with descriptions that meander on and on for pages. I actually love a lot of today’s YA (except the fluffy romancy ones) and find both YA and MG more imaginative than adult. But I do get your point. I see too many teen books that are dumbed down and it drives me nuts.
I have to admit that I’m not as aware of MG books. It came to life as a category during a time when I was knee-deep in the Mystery Thriller genre and turned into a thing when I wasn’t looking. From what you say it sounds like maybe the tide is turning AGAIN and MG is fading back into the woodwork. I kinda wondered if that wouldn’t happen the further we got from Harry Potter. Rowling pulled MG out of the Goosebumps Ghetto and made it a marketing destination, and all of you who write fantasy geared toward MG were keeping it alive a long time. But now that Twilight/Hunger Games are taking over, the focus is back on YA.
I think that the Crichtonesque (and then Dan Brown) effect on mass market fiction is definitely undeniable. I suppose that Bridgett (see below) is more right than I want her to be. But I feel like too many adults on a steady diet of YA are coming to adult genre books and consistently complaining that they are “too long”. Sometimes that’s a valid complaint, but when you level it at every book you sound like the emperor in Amadeus.
I see this happening a lot in fantasy and even in science fiction. For a few years, probably half the nominees for Hugos and Nebulas in most categories were YA books. Fortunately, the trend seems to be reversing. Because while there’s nothing wrong with good YA fiction, it doesn’t deal much with adults and our lives. And I like to have some adults around to spend my time with, ya know?
Exactly. What you said. And now I’m scared because I don’t think we should ever agree. I better send that woman her danged $20 right quick.
snork
Kat, you may not like to hear this but I work with the most educated segment of the newly-minted American adults in a liberal arts college in a pretty well-educated state. One would expect to draw a bumper crop of readers. For the most part, though, my 20/21 year olds aren’t sufficiently literate to handle great complications in emplotment or subtle characterization….but they can grasp YA.
I think what you’re seeing is not just a response to what sells, but what can be understood by a majority of post-NCLB readers.
Bridgett, as a homeschool mom, I totally believe it. That, however, is a-whole-nother rant…
I was so hoping nobody would say this, because I didn’t want to be “IS EVERYBODY GETTING STUPIDER?” because that makes it sound like
a) I think YA is stupid, and I don’t.
and
b) I am cranky, and I am.
But really, thank you. These Kids Today (R) are getting stupider. 🙂
I had a 14 yr old girl tell me the other day that her teacher told her to not use so many high level vocabulary words in her writing because the other kids in class don’t understand them. (Hello, ever heard of a dictionary???) And someone else was telling me about her kid’s teacher telling him, when he was trying to work out a math problem, to “just use the calculator, it’s easier.”
Steam pours from Kat’s ears….
It’s not stupider, exactly. It’s less prepared, less engaged, like a generation with the curious stomped out of them. They really don’t know how to learn independently and no one has communicated to them that they should aspire to do so. The majority are fearful and bored reciters of stuff they memorized. It’s becoming my job (beyond teaching them the rudiments of how to write an acceptable short non fic persuasive essay and critically analyze the past) to get them to discover some joy. The ones who have some larger ambitions for transformation (either personal or global) are intrinsically motivated and I don’t worry about them; it’s the drifters with dampened imaginations that seem most lost.
Stranger, who found you by way of Mike Duran’s site…
Great post. I could sympathize a lot with it; I’m a die-hard Potterhead and crazy about Inkheart and Shannon Hale’s books, but in most YA I find myself missing the depth and intelligence and maturity available–sometimes–in adult works. I think Kat H. is right about the Crichtonesque genre fiction.
There’s an immense difference, too, between a lot of the older fiction shelved as YA or MG (Ender’s Game, Lord of the Rings, even Harry Potter) and the tales of ordinary angry/hormonal high school students amped up on monster boyfriends and thinly-portrayed dystopian landscapes. I don’t know if what we have going on is partly a matter of old world/new world or if it’s just that time hasn’t sorted through today’s offerings yet.
But I like adjectives, and I’m not going to stop using them. Also, I’ve taken to craving real worldbuilding and solid, subtle emotional portrayals and meaningful intellectual content. nm speaks ever so truly; there’s absolutely a place for true teen fiction, but grownup time is important, too. 🙂
Jenna,
You aren’t a stranger to me. 🙂 I see you comment a lot at Mike’s. I saw your name and was like “It’s Jenna from Mike’s!”
If you’re looking for a book that isn’t too long but does an excellent job of Worldbuilding and has lovely words I would point you enthusiastically to Lois McMaster Bujold’s _The Curse of Chalion_ . Just finished it last weekend and LOVED it to pieces. Not literal pieces, as that would have ruined my Kindle. But you know. Fake pieces.
I’m thinking between what you and Kat have to say that I really need to brush up on my MG. I’ve never read the Inkhearts (saw the movie which was meh) but I do have Kat’s book on the Kindle. Which is not in pieces.
The INkHEART movie is NOTHING like the book. Definitely, absolutely, positively, in this case do not judge the book by its movie :).
Yay for not being strangers! Goody–I’m going to go put that book on hold at the library. I’m definitely in the mood for some really well-done fantasy.
Should read Kat’s book, too… just checked out the first chapter today and it looks fantastic.
Inkheart. The movie was OK, but didn’t bother following the book very much and missed out entirely on Cornelia Funke’s beautiful adoration of all things bookish. The second and third are comparatively weird and a little disjointed, but I stayed up most of a night reading Inkdeath anyway.
Jenna–thanks for the interest in my novel! And Katherine, for having it on your not-in-pieces Kindle :).
Agreed, Jenna, the Inkheart movie totally lacked the bookishness. That is something I loved so, so much about the book! The way she showed how books come to life for us. Inkspell was not as good, but still held my attention, and I thought Inkdeath was almost back up to Inkheart level.
And thanks for posting on this, Katherine.
I truly love adverbs.
Jill wins the internet today. 🙂
And I am the dork-of-the-day for immediately having “Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, get your adverbs here” in my head upon reading the previous two comments. 😉
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