Tragic YA?
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Doubt it, as long as it's the book's natural ending. I mean plenty of YA books have depressing or dark endings, and teenagers are definitely angsty enough, on the whole, to really go for that...
You can write a novel that contains hard drugs, drunk driving, a rape scene, and ends with the main character's best friend dying, and most (if not all) reading-inclined teenagers will still eat it up.
You can't phase us, man.
Actually, you might attract non-reading-inclined teenagers by writing a story like that. LOL
You can't phase us, man.
Actually, you might attract non-reading-inclined teenagers by writing a story like that. LOL
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I don't think it will affect book sales. I think, like the issue J.K. Rowling ran into, you might have young girls calling you up and crying. That would be hard to deal with. But if a character has to die in your book, then they have to die. Not much you can do about it.
As you can gather from the title, Jenny Downham's Before I Die doesn't exactly have an upbeat ending, and it's done pretty well for itself.
Come to think of it, the ending of Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters trilogy is best described as bittersweet.
Come to think of it, the ending of Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters trilogy is best described as bittersweet.
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I thought it was, cuz I remember reading it when I was in the 4th grade. Before I lefe elementary school, anyway.
Where the Red Fern Grows. Tragic or bittersweet? I was about to say tragic, but I'm not so sure, and our teachers read that book to us. And I 100% know that was in the 4th grade.
I only thought about it because of Old Yeller.
Does anyone remember Lurlene McDaniel? She was absurdly popular in my own YA days, or maybe a little before them. ALL her books were weepy cancer-ridden heartbreakers, with names like Six Months to Live and Until Angels Close My Eyes. No, I'm not joking. She's a very rich lady. I read one or two, but I just couldn't handle reading any more.
Then again, I can't stand Nicholas Sparks, or other authors whose books so blatantly and sappily manipulate readers to feel a certain way. Though most writers wouldn't have a problem with his success, either. I just think there are better, subtler and more powerful ways to tackle tragedy. When I think about it, most of my favorite books (YA and non-YA) end tragically: Lolita, Watership Down, The Road, Atonement, Bel Canto, Feed. :::sob::: Like anything, you've just got to do it well.
Then again, I can't stand Nicholas Sparks, or other authors whose books so blatantly and sappily manipulate readers to feel a certain way. Though most writers wouldn't have a problem with his success, either. I just think there are better, subtler and more powerful ways to tackle tragedy. When I think about it, most of my favorite books (YA and non-YA) end tragically: Lolita, Watership Down, The Road, Atonement, Bel Canto, Feed. :::sob::: Like anything, you've just got to do it well.
OMG. I ate her books up when I was in middle school. Many of them have sad, bittersweet endings. Not sure I'd call them tragic, since you know from the outset that these kids are sick, but definitely sad.
S.E. Hinton, though...many of her YA novels had tragic endings. The Outsiders is the best example, but That Was Then, This is Now and Rumble Fish packed a punch, too.
My all-time favorite YA book was one my kids devoured, The Girl in the Box, which had a totally down ending.
Each kid is now an adult--and took their copy with them. I'm going to have to buy my own, I guess.
Maryn, who thinks a tragic ending done well is welcome in YA
Each kid is now an adult--and took their copy with them. I'm going to have to buy my own, I guess.
Maryn, who thinks a tragic ending done well is welcome in YA
This subject came up in a few YA panels at Eastercon last year. Put crudely, there is a market for tragedy, pain and hardship - teenage girls are some of the biggest buyers of so-called misery memoirs.
One of the panellists (it might have been Neil Gaiman) mentioned a comic strip in a teenage girls' magazine called "The Blind Ballerina". The writers and artists vied with each other to think up more and more terrible fates for their heroine. One involved driving her to the sliproad of a motorway (major road) and telling her (she's blind, remember), "You're on a stage - now dance!"
In any case, tragedy need not be depressing. If it's done right, it's cathartic. Shakespeare knew that, and so did the Ancient Greek dramatists.
One of the panellists (it might have been Neil Gaiman) mentioned a comic strip in a teenage girls' magazine called "The Blind Ballerina". The writers and artists vied with each other to think up more and more terrible fates for their heroine. One involved driving her to the sliproad of a motorway (major road) and telling her (she's blind, remember), "You're on a stage - now dance!"
In any case, tragedy need not be depressing. If it's done right, it's cathartic. Shakespeare knew that, and so did the Ancient Greek dramatists.
I agree with everything, but this confused me...
It sounds like you're saying you think YA is for fourth graders...?
It sounds like you're saying you think YA is for fourth graders...?
I have a love/hate thing with tragic endings. I hate to see characters I'm attached to suffer, but I tend to love the books that end that way. ONes that invoke emotion are better.
I LOVE a tragic ending. Atonement, for example (I do realize it's not YA, but still) has just got this excruciatingly heart-wrenching ending, and I read it three times in a row.
Plus, Titanic was a huge hit (the main character was a teenager int he movie, I'm pretty sure) Tragedy sells.
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