Is the death of a main character acceptable in MG?

Death of a main character is fine -- if it fits the type of story you are writing. Think Bridge to Terabithia, Stone Fox, My Luisiana Sky, Where the Red Fern Grow, Harry Potter books, and dozens and dozens more. I freely mix animal and human death in these examples as the grief/loss issues are very often the same especially for kids.

So, if the tone of the story is the sort of nitty gritty in which death is a real possibility
and it fits the story, then go for it.

It's allowed, but your readers may hate you for it. Which is good. Because that means you've written it well enough for them to care. But they'll still hate it.

Obviously she's your daughter and her opinion is biased, but if you wrote the story well enough to make her satisfied with an mc dying you did something right.

As with all aspects of your novel, if the action is true to the story, it will be accepted. You will never satisfy everyone, and without question you'll have readers pissed that an mc was killed off, but you'll also have readers who will become even more invested in the story because of it.

One example I always think of is The Golden Compass trilogy. I think it's more YA than MG but the ending is absolutely tragic and literally the only logical way to wrap up the story. I was about 11 when I read them and fought with myself for hours after finishing to find a way to change the outcome . . . and came to accept what happened was needed. Still one of my favorite books of all time.

Write your story and trust your gut when it comes to such a choice. Even if your readers rant and rave about it, that only shows how much you made them care about someone who doesn't even exist.

First books I thought of were the Redwall books. Lots of death in those. MCs and otherwise.

I'm bumping this thread 'cause it feels like a waste to start a whole new thread for a similar question.

Does anyone know any books where the main (human) character is suicidal?

There's a writer trying to query a book where the main character's goal is to off himself. It seemed to me like this was a problem in the book that really couldn't be fixed... but then MG does get darker than a lot of people would give it credit for, so. Might as well ask.

Killing off characters was, at least up until WWII, a staple of children's literature. Anne of Green Gables. Little Women. Lord help us, all those morbid Victorian staples.

Nowadays, your child readers may accept it, but if it sends them into sobbing spasms, today's parents aren't going to put on a stern face and snarl, "Stop that howling or no supper tonight!" They may be annoyed that you've left them with a desolate infant, and recommend that others don't buy your book. So, it's a risk. The kids may accept it better than the parents.

Samsonet said:

I'm bumping this thread 'cause it feels like a waste to start a whole new thread for a similar question.

Does anyone know any books where the main (human) character is suicidal?

There's a writer trying to query a book where the main character's goal is to off himself. It seemed to me like this was a problem in the book that really couldn't be fixed... but then MG does get darker than a lot of people would give it credit for, so. Might as well ask.

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I am just curious. What is the age of the MC? OR maybe a better question is, what makes this MG and not YA?

Many MG books, as others have said, deal with the topic of death, though generally not suicide, and I cannot think of a single MG book where the character actually considers suicide (as opposed to sacrificing them themselves, perhaps, for a greater good, which is a very different thing). I don't know for certain, but I imagine most in the publishing industry would probably shy away from something like that as being too controversial.

jlmott said:

I am just curious. What is the age of the MC? OR maybe a better question is, what makes this MG and not YA?

Many MG books, as others have said, deal with the topic of death, though generally not suicide, and I cannot think of a single MG book where the character actually considers suicide (as opposed to sacrificing them themselves, perhaps, for a greater good, which is a very different thing). I don't know for certain, but I imagine most in the publishing industry would probably shy away from something like that as being too controversial.

Click to expand...

The MC is twelve. As far as I can tell, the only thing that makes it MG is the character's age. I don't want say anything more than that 'cause I only brought it up to explain why I was asking. If you want to see it for yourself I guess I could PM you a link.

If I were a publisher I would have to assure myself that the topic was very well handled. Despite the "I can go as dark as I want!" demands, writers and publishers have to remember that children are - gasp! shock! - children. Their experience is limited, and their thinking minds have not yet formed completely. If a book made it appear that suicide was a laudable goal, an adult might shrug it off, while a child would not understand either the futility or the finality of the act.

I say this as someone who spent three years in speech therapy just because one of my favourite characters in a book had a lisp. Did I copy her? Oh, yes, indeed.

If I were a publisher I would have to assure myself that the topic was very well handled. Despite the "I can go as dark as I want!" demands, writers and publishers have to remember that children are - gasp! shock! - children. Their experience is limited, and their thinking minds have not yet formed completely. If a book made it appear that suicide was a laudable goal, an adult might shrug it off, while a child would not understand either the futility or the finality of the act.

I say this as someone who spent three years in speech therapy just because one of my favourite characters in a book had a lisp. Did I copy her? Oh, yes, indeed. If she'd had more destructive traits, I might have copied those as well.

From my observations, MG as a genre developed to teach kids that death is a part of life and honed this by killing off every single character who looked like they could die. It got to the point where I could use it to tell if a book I was reading was MG or YA -- YA had a lot less gratuitous deaths of eleven-year-olds and pet dogs.

Regarding suicide...I tried to kill myself when I was nine. I've met people who attempted earlier. Child suicide is very real, and it's an issue that needs to be addressed in fiction more than it is (never). If I found an MG book with a suicidal MC around that time in my life, I'd have devoured it and likely felt like less of a monster.