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Welcome to Gilead – YA Genre Question
Last night: Guy Fawkes night in the UK, election night here in Los Angeles, I went to bed in California – and woke up in Gilead. Still in shock and disbelief…
If there’s a silver lining (there really isn’t), it’s that my novel is set in post-Roe America, with a pair of 17-year-old protagonists, one of whom becomes pregnant following a rape, and then it’s an underground railroad trip to freedom in Canada. Less credible had the good guys won last night…
But my question to JW is this: just because my protagonists are teenagers does that mean the novel can only be viewed in the context of the YA genre? If someone could lay out for me a workable definition of/distinction between (a) a YA novel, and (b) a grownup novel whose heroes are YAs, I should be much obliged.
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9 Replies
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Sorry, only time for a quick reply now which is that, for me, it doesn’t need to be just a YA only novel. Secondly, I am still shell shocked from the election results, and I don’t need to live through it. Sending support across the air waves 💪
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Thank you Emma.
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I think a lot of the difference between whether a book with a YA protagonist is a YA book or adult, comes down to the themes that are explored.
With YA, you’re look at self-discovery, coming of age and friendship. The kind of things teenagers are thinking and worrying about which will be different from adults. Romance is often included in YA too, but sexual experiences are usually explored in less graphic detail than an adult novel might. Ditto books with graphic violence – these are usually intended for adults.
The voice in a YA book is also going to be different to in an adults. The teenagers, teenage priorities and worries are going to be at the forefront and there may well be more of an in-the-moment storytelling feel. YA books are also likely to be faster moving and more action packed.
With an adult book, the protagonists YA years may well be told in a more reflective way, the adult looking back, hence the more adult voice. The language may well be more lyrical too.
Try comparing something like the Hunger Games to Patrick Rothfuss’ The Kingkiller Chronicles.
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Very helpful, thank you Kate, I shall read as you suggest.
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True: art imitates life. I felt the same. To answer your question, have a look at the Philip Pullman trilogy: His Dark Materials. The first book is YA. By the time he wrote the 3rd, he was awarded the Whitbread Prize, and personally, I don’t feel the books fall into YA with their dark themes of religion. (The author is an atheist). You can have a teenage protagonist, especially in an alternative world, but themes of abortion sound very adult, unless you deal with it in a teenage, close third person narrative.
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Yes, I agree about HDM – interesting point about their maturing over the course of the trilogy, thank you. I wonder if Pullman’s publisher was pushing him into a YA niche for the first one? I guess I feel strait-jacketed by the fact that my protagonists are so young (though older than Lyra), and I’m trying to figure out how to position the piece for an adult audience – at 75 myself I’m probably not the best candidate for YA author of the year!
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A spring chicken! I so agree with Justine’s point about Philip Pullman. I read all of His Dark Materials as a mature adult and thoroughly enjoyed them all, although I had my (then) teenaged son in mind when I started. I think others have made the point that writing about young adults doesn’t necessarily make it YA fiction, but the concerns and attitudes of the writer will tend to show. I don’t think you need to bracket yourself into a YA genre when writing about teenagers, but at the same time, your readership will probably be younger because of it.
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And my deepest sympathies over the election result, which will affect all of us, not just Americans. I am furious. How can so many of you be so stupid? Including Latinos, black people and women! Ok, a minority of each, but NONE of them should have voted for that racist misogynist. Still, we’ll have to live with it; write while you can, sure he’ll bring on censorship laws when he can – think Stalin. And he even has the Supreme Court behind him.
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Thank you Robin – it is beyond belief. Mussolini famously said that if you pluck the chicken one feather at a time, no-one will notice; he who shall not be named by me is doing it in handfuls, AND NO-ONE CARES.
It seems presumptuous to identify my little piece with the mighty Philip Pullman, but the point is well taken – HDM gripped me from start to finish, and I was probably past 60 when I first read it. Harry Bingham’s excellent book has a lot to say about positioning for genre/sub-genre, and although I don’t want to be seen as YA, I have no clue where that leaves me…
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