.Sex and Drugs and Violence — Oh My!

Has teen fiction always been this dark? Or have adults just started noticing?

Tender Morsels, a recent novel from the respected literary
publisher Alfred A. Knopf, features a teen protagonist who is molested
and induced to miscarry by her father, and later gang-raped by a local
group of boys. She escapes with her two children to a fantastical other
world. “Now, doesn’t that sound like an R movie?” posits Trevelyn
Jones, Book Review Editor of the School Library Journal.

What’s surprising isn’t the dark subject matter, but that Tender
Morsels
is a young adult novel, which means that the book’s
targeted readership are teens generally between the ages of thirteen
through seventeen — a demographic that wouldn’t be admitted
without parental consent into an R-rated film.  

As it turns out, Tender Morsels is one of Jones’ favorite
young adult novels of the year. “It’s basically about what it means to
be human, in spite of what you have been through in your past,” she
observes of Australian writer Margo Lanagan’s story, a reinterpretation
of the fairy tale Snow White.

In a year when a film like Twilight, based on Stephanie
Meyer’s sensuous young adult novel about a relationship between a
teenage girl and a vampire, racks in unexpected sales at the box
office, it’s hard not to notice the dark content matter of contemporary
teen fiction. Among the top entries in Publishers Weekly‘s
October 2008 bestsellers list for Children’s Fiction: There’s Suzanne
Collins’ The Hunger Games, a novel set in a futuristic world
where teens participate in deadly televised competitions. Or Ellen
Hopkins’ Identical, in which one sixteen-year-old is sexually
abused by her district court judge father.

But teen fiction has always been dark, argues author Cassandra
Clare, who penned The New York Times bestselling novel City
of Bones
, part of her futuristic young adult fantasy trilogy about
demon hunters. “Kids have always loved dark stuff,” Clare says. “Books
about death, books about bleak post-apocalyptic landscapes, books about
dead animals and terrible ghastly illnesses — I read all that
stuff as a teen.”

If there’s anything different now about dark teen lit, Clare see a
new attitude emerging toward the content matter. “What we have now that
strikes me as a newish trend is a lot of romanticization of darkness
and monstrosity,” she says. “Vampires aren’t scary now, they’re
sexy.”

But another, more defining trend is that young adult fiction has
overlapped beyond its originally intended market. “I think that the
biggest difference is that teen fiction has recently been very
successful, which has made people more aware of it,” says Holly Black,
author of acclaimed teen urban fantasy series called The Modern
Faerie Tales
(and co-author of the popular children’s series The
Spiderwick Chronicles
). In an era when book publishers are making
cutbacks to their release lists, the young adult market has seen
notable growth. “The publishing in that area has just mushroomed,”
observes Jones, “so naturally there are more [dark novels], but there’s
just more of everything in the YA area.”

And who’s picking up on what the kids are reading these days?
Adults. “I can’t tell you how many adults I see on the subway reading
Twilight,” Jones chuckles. Clare points to the success of series
like Twilight and Harry Potter, both of which have been
made into film franchises, as possible reasons that adults have started
reading teen titles. “I just think that now adults are picking these
books up and noticing,” Clare says.

In fact, Library Journal recently started a column called “35
Going on 13,” which lists select teen novels that adults would also be
interested in, with a explanation of “Why It Is for Us.” In one
instance, the column notes why Jack Gantos’ The Love Curse of the
Rumbaughs,
a gothic novel of an obsessive mother-daughter
relationship, would be suited for grown-ups: “This book is almost too
subversive for teen readers, who are more concerned than we are with
what the neighbors will think.”

The reviews in the School Library Journal make a point to
flag any releases that contain more mature content, in part to assist
school librarians when they are put in the difficult position of
defending certain titles to parents. If there’s anything that bothers
parents about what the kids are reading these days, it seems to be
language and sex. “Interestingly enough, nobody ever complains about
violence,” Jones observes. “Somebody is beaten to a bloody pulp, and
that’s just fine. But put in a four-letter word or mention sex, and
some people go berserk.”

Still, Jones argues that if there’s any medium to tackle dark
subject matter, literature is the best place for it. “In a book, your
choice of words can leave some to the imagination and still make it
appropriate for a young audience,” says Jones in her comparison of
books and films. “So it’s a whole different thing from what you have to
show and what you can tell without becoming sensational.” While
Tender Morsels might sound shockingly mature in a quick plot
synopsis, Jones counters, “But it is done so well that it works.”

Black argues that the reading choices of teens should be respected.
“I do think that it’s important to note that teen fiction must speak to
the real concerns of teenagers, or they will choose to read something
else,” Black says. “Teenagers have to make choices about drugs and sex
and lots of other things that adults may be uncomfortable
acknowledging, but literature must.”

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

East Bay Express E-edition East Bay Express E-edition
19,045FansLike
14,611FollowersFollow
61,790FollowersFollow
spot_img