I apologize for resurrecting an old thread, but I'm struggling with the same thing and I didn't want to start a new thread when the discussion was already here.
I'm writing a Young Adult novel set in a contemporary setting (suburban high school). My main character is a shapeshifter. He's the only one. His peers make fun of him and he's the target of bullying, because he's weird. Yes, because he's a shapeshifter, but in a "you're not like us so we pick on you" sort of way. It's more just because when you pick on him, funny stuff happens. He takes on features of a bunny or a chipmunk or something. The focus of the novel is about my main character gaining control of his shapeshifting powers so he can do what he needs to do to graduate high school and move on.
I'm struggling to place this in a genre. I don't think it's urban fantasy because no one's discovering his powers; everyone knows that he's got this. It's high school as usual. I think it may fall more in the realm of magical realism, but is that a genre I can list on my query letter, or is it more just a term to describe the mode in which it's written? If I write my query and reference my main character as a shapeshifter, can I call it a YA Contemporary? Or must I address the fantasy element in the genre somehow?
Thank you for your help.
I'm writing a Young Adult novel set in a contemporary setting (suburban high school). My main character is a shapeshifter. He's the only one. His peers make fun of him and he's the target of bullying, because he's weird. Yes, because he's a shapeshifter, but in a "you're not like us so we pick on you" sort of way. It's more just because when you pick on him, funny stuff happens. He takes on features of a bunny or a chipmunk or something. The focus of the novel is about my main character gaining control of his shapeshifting powers so he can do what he needs to do to graduate high school and move on.
I'm struggling to place this in a genre. I don't think it's urban fantasy because no one's discovering his powers; everyone knows that he's got this. It's high school as usual. I think it may fall more in the realm of magical realism, but is that a genre I can list on my query letter, or is it more just a term to describe the mode in which it's written? If I write my query and reference my main character as a shapeshifter, can I call it a YA Contemporary? Or must I address the fantasy element in the genre somehow?
Thank you for your help.