The State of YA fiction in Modern Year

Spoilers: It's really, really samey

So a few months ago, I started following some Bookstagrammers on Instagram. It's a fun way to get book recommendations and see pretty cover art.

If you've never seen a Bookstagrammer, they generally look like this:

Kind of a kitschy way to show off a book you're reading or promoting, along with the many, many props you've collected to take pictures of. (Cough excuse my cynicism.)

Anyway, last year I did a bunch of character art commissions, and this year the authors are using them to promote their books, so naturally I'm keeping tabs on what they post. It's kind of satisfying to my ego to see my work in these Bookstagram pics.

Aside from promoting their own books, these folks promote other people's books. But by reading the discussions on these books, I'm receiving an unwitting education in Young Adult fiction. Namely, how people read Young Adult Fiction.

First off, this promotion I spotted:

This lady goes on to say that it's all right to use the same collection of tropes to write a similar story as somebody else, because she enjoyed both books.

But what I'm taking away from this is that both of these books were functionally the same. Like, is there some kind of hot sheet that YA authors are working off of? Or some movie? Because that's a lot of very similar ideas.

Anyway, a few months ago, one of these ladies posted "Who is your favorite book boyfriend?" You know, what male protagonist is so hawt and swoony that you'd date him. The replies were breathless and pretty entertaining. But one gal said something to the effect of, "Oh, I just skim the female protagonist's scenes and only read the male protagonist's POV."

To me, as both a reader and a writer, that is a massive red flag. This reader admitted to only reading half of every YA book. And from the amount of likes and responses she got, she's not alone.

So I read some YA books and realized why this is.

You see the remark up there about "a strong female protagonist"? This is the heroine of EVERY YA NOVEL. She is the same character. She is not ugly, she's not pretty, she's just sort of plain, but every boy falls for her. She has no personality except either Perpetual Confusion or PMS. She has no responsibilities or interests, except when the author decides to make her an artist. (I swear, every book I've read recently had the heroine lugging around a sketchbook.) If she has a younger sibling or an ailing parent to look after, she worries about them to the point of anxiety attacks. Like, this is the only thing on her mind, ever. Except when she worries about what Hawt Boy thinks of her. Also, she has the bubbly Best Friend who always Takes Her Shopping and Makes Sure She Has Cute Clothes.

I think adults are writing these books who have never met an actual teenager in their lives.

Meanwhile, when you finally get to the boy's point of view (if he even has one), he's usually being responsible for his family, thinking about defending the women, children, and culture at large, and learning/using his powers. He's not overthinking everything. He's not panicking about stupid crap. He just does things. Sometimes he has reasonable angst, like, "How can I get stronger to beat [generic enemy]?" When he notices the girl, it's usually awkward and cute, and he's not wallowing in self-loathing and anxiety. Then he goes off and deals with his other responsibilities. He generally carries the actual interesting parts of the story and world building.

There's generally only one personality for these guys, too, but it's a much nicer one than the girl's.

As part of my hunt for male healer books, I've read some YA, and ... it's very flat and full of stereotypes. The same tropes are repeated over and over. The romance is hackneyed and unbelievable. "You're my everything," he whispered breathily into her hair. And this is considered "swoony". I'm sitting here laughing at it.

"Oh, kids don't read anymore," whines the news. "Book sales are down! Barnes and Noble won't stock children's (read: YA) hardcovers because of the high rate of returns!" Meaning nobody is buying these YA books with gorgeous cover art because the story inside doesn't live up to the cover. A lot of them are filthy. I just beta read one where the girl cheats on her fiance and doesn't get blamed for it because of amnesia. What happened to an author's responsibility to the reader that Diana Wynne Jones talked about?

Writers of fantasy for children have a heavy responsibility: anything they write is likely to have a profound effect for the next fifty years. You can see why if you ask ten adults which book they remember best from their childhood. Nine of them will certainly name a fantasy.

If you inquire further, you will find your nine adults admitting that they acquired many of the rules they live by from this book that so impressed them. This may not necessarily mean rules of morality--though it may--but wider things like what ways of behaving are wise, or unwise; or how to spot a person who is going to let you down; or what frame of mind in which to face a disaster; or possibly the way you look at life in general.

Diana Wynne Jones, Fantasy Books for Children

So, if you are a reader, I recommend you go back a few decades and read older kids books, like cadet fiction from Heinlein (Have Space Suit, Will Travel is great) or read actual children's fiction like the Henry Reed books by Keith Robertson. Teenagers holding down jobs but not plagued by the annoying tropes of modern YA.

If you are a writer, I recommend you do the same thing, then go write something fresh and new that throws out ALL the popular tropes. Who knows? You may actually write something enduring and lasting.

Originally written in 2023 but nothing has changed since then.