Books and the YA Genre

I am miles behind on my reviews and I should be getting to my school work, but I have inspiration born from rage, embarrassment, and curiosity to your opinions on the subject. So forget priorities or studying so I can have a good future and career because I need to do this now.

So for a while, I've been wanting to start this feature with discussions called 'Books and ', focusing on a risky, interesting, or just important side of books. I wanted to do 'Books and Religion', 'Books and Censorship' (that one will be a little extravagant and is currently scheduled for September), and 'Books and Gender Roles'. But what better place to start than at my most read genre, namely the YA genre. I'm going to discuss mainly the judgment on both the books and the movies and talk about all the doubts and questions I have and you might have as well. So without further ado, let's get started.



Young Adult books have inarguably one of the worst reputations within the adult reading community. (Along with erotica, chick lit, and romance novels.) It has been branded as immature, without depth, all more of the same, not real literature, and focusing too much on romance. As a reader of a lot of YA fiction, I understand where the complaints are coming from. Still, there's another side to everything.

I will begin with: originality. I myself complain along on this part. Originality is what can make or break your novel. And initially, this was one of my reasons for reading Young Adult: it had themes I hadn't read about before. Dutch 12+ fiction is a haven of anorexic girls, bullying, war, and romance. Mental diseases and mean girls are entertaining only to some extend, so I easily got bored. Then the was this book from America about children forced to murder one another. Yes, slightly creepy, but completely different from anything I'd seen before. And I think this is still something that hooks me and everyone else, really. But there are a lot of similar books within this genre. The Selection is similar to the Hunger Games, as are numerous other dystopian novels. Fantasy overlaps with their quests and conquering kingdoms and contemporary is always boy likes girl but there are complications. But let me tell you, this is the same with every genre. Are superhero movies similar? Yes. Villain, powers, and costumes. But that's because it's a GENRE.

noun, plural genres  [zhahn-ruh z; French zhahn-ruh] (Show IPA)

1.

a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like

We create genres to group similar works of fiction or non-fiction to find out what we like. Now I get what you're saying when you tell me that nearly every Young Adult dystopia finds itself in some kind of rebellion/war situation. And I know that can bother you while reading because it bothers me. The fact remains that even the grown ups tend to repeat plot points in their genres.

My own little pet peeve: lack of depth. A book without a meaning is a book wasted. And I will admit that our genre has either skipped this part or has had very similar meanings like sacrifice and self-discovery. Again it's all about finding the gems and about keeping your eyes open. If you don't look, you won't find it. If you don't READ THE BOOK, it will indeed be a meaningless book. In other words WATCHING THE MOVIE DOESN'T F-ING COUNT! I so hate this. Movies 9/10 times either fail or partly fail at bringing across the depth in the book. I can't argue that Twilight sometimes lacks deeper plot lines or intentions, but your shooty-shooty action movies do not fill my mind with questions either. And if you're only interested in the movie, consider this video about all the themes in the Cathing Fire movie. (That whole channel is amazing btw.) Yes, this lack of layers is an issue, but consider not judging before you've read it. Also, consider John Green.

Special addition: feminism. I stumbled across this one today and oh how mad it made me.

I was proclaimed feminist by my dad ever since my seventh year when I asked him why there weren't more important girls in the Bible and why Jesus was a boy. I now know the answers to this, but at the time, I found it a devastating and disappointing conclusion. Let's take Tris here, because this was for the review of the Allegiant movie of Jeremy Jahns (you can Google him, his videos are rather funny). So the first thing is that she would be defined by the guy she's chasing. Ha! For your information, Tris is not defined by Tobias in the slightest. They fight, she's more composed than him, and she is absolutely independent of him throughout the entire trilogy. Same goes for Katniss, who says herself that "she can survive perfectly well without either of them." when Gale insults her. Clothes might be a thing with Katniss because she's the girl on fire and the Mockingjay, but she's forced into the clothes AND in the book, she is not at all amused by the wedding dresses locked in her closet. Tris is not even interested in clothes or fashion in the first place.
Admittedly, I do associate Katniss with a black braid and Tris with blond short hair, but that doesn't say anything. During PE, we have to wear these shirts and with all the running, I tell everyone apart by their hair. That's just an easy way to tell one apart from another.
Some characters are actually described as ugly-ish (Tris), having a bit of a different skin color (Katniss) or plump (Margot - Paper Towns) in the books, but this often gets cut from the movies.
Side note: My dad forced me to think through gender roles in the Hunger Games again, and I realized that it was exactly the opposite of the 'normal' situation. Peeta bakes (boy in the kitchen) and Katniss hunts for food (the girl is the provider). Sure, some books screw at feminism (ahem The Selection), others don't.
Another funny thing is that this comment was surrounded by comments about how they did like the Maze Runner and Harry Potter (the franchises with the male protagonists). Even though we can argue about that with Harry Potter. Right, Hermione?

The literary quality of the books in the YA genre is a bit of an issue. Again, it's a matter of which aspect of which book you pick. Will Divergent ever be literature because of its words? No. The meaning is worthwhile, though. Harry Potter is very well-written, the Hunger Games is okay written, and the 5th Wave and Shatter Me are well-written as well. Only I hated the romance in the 5th Wave. It depends completely on the book, so glance through a Goodreads list of literary YA and find a good match for yourself.
Even a non-literary book doesn't have to be bad. Throne of Glass might not be fancy and deep, but interesting and engaging is worth a lot too.
Those who think YA books don't address serious issues should get their head out of their sandbox. Honey, we talk about LGBTQ (Carry On/Simon vs. the Homo sapiens Agenda), suicide (13 Reasons Why), war (The Hunger Games), identity (Divergent), genetical manipulation, discrimination (Cinder), and abortion (Unwind) just like you. We might be teenagers, but our brains grew in our mothers' womb, not after graduation.

My favorite to argue about: the romance. Dear adult readers of the Great Gatsby or some fancy Dutch novel I needed to read for school, don't tell me you don't ruin your stories by implanting the kissing and the sighing. I hate to see a good story ruined by an overpowering romance or a ridiculous love interest. But I have to read literature for Dutch classes and you are just as focused on romance as we are. So, hypocritical sweethearts, it's all about the balance and what book you pick. But I agree that PG-13 sex scenes are awkward and weird. Cut it out or acknowledge it, but no creepy stuff.

One other thing we need to fix: diversity. I hereby high-five all characters in the Lunar Chronicles except Levana. ^ That looks way too pale. But let's face it: there's nothing YA about the Oscars, is there?

I can't wait to talk about this as a community, so I hope to hear from you in the comments and see what points I've missed and what we agree or disagree on. There you have it: one and a half hour wasted on my emotions and opinion!