Non-space related YA science fiction question

Hi everyone!

This is actually my first post here on Absolute Write and I have heard great things about the people here. Hopefully I can get some valuable tips from y'all.

I am on the first draft of a WIP for my YA Science Fiction novel. I'm in the beginning throws of it and I am running into a conundrum.

I am incredibly proud of my idea for it, but I wanted to get basic feedback regarding it. A lot of science fiction that I have been running into lately has to do with either zombie apocalypses or space operas (i.e. Rot and Ruin and Red Rising, which both I love), but I have yet to really see anything that has to do with the Earth being a background antagonist, which I am attempting to do with this WIP.

The problem is that the Earth is a background antagonist who essentially turns humanity against itself in a way that essentially turns them radioactive either from birth or at some point during their developing youth. This is represented by their eye colors being luminescent of the six main colors of the color spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet) that represent the strongest points in a human's brain and the radioactivity that they were exposed to as children enhancing those qualities and essentially turning them into either physical or mental enhancements.

I would like to think that this is more science fiction-y and want to stray away from a dystopian vibe with a more modern day feel without a central government and focuses more on the central theme of how the mistreatment of even the Earth can result in disastrous consequences (i.e. global warming and misunderstanding of others).

Basically, the question I am presenting to everyone is would this foundation be too cerebral or possibly have no place in Young Adult fiction. Is there some tips or advice bits that anybody could give me in a plot like this or do you think there is room within the publishing world for an idea such as this? I've had this idea for a while and want to go ahead with it, but I think it's more of a self-doubt problem and reassurance that this is something that could potentially garner interest.

Thoughts?

Thank you in advance to anybody who offers tips!

It sounds like a fairly standard YA setup to me. I do recommend you read Alexandra Bracken's THE DARKEST MINDS trilogy, if you haven't already. Kids end up with psychic and physical powers (due to things I won't spoil), and their powers are differentiated by a colour code of red/orange/yellow/green/blue. It's a very well-known series (the movie comes out in 2018).

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Crap, I do have the Darkest Minds trilogy on my bookshelf but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. I'm currently in the middle of reading the Red Rising trilogy at the moment. But thank you for pointing that out to me. Now I'm paranoid that it's too similar.

Sounds interesting but I'd want to know more about how/why Earth was a being. Is it sentient? Was it something accidental and random?

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No, the Earth isn't sentient. It's more of a global warming type situation where the effects of it had consequences against humanity sort of thing. The Earth is nothing but what it is, it's only a cause for the many plot points that happen during the book.

As a neuroscientist, I'd like to know more about how the eye color relates to the strongest parts of their brain...

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I used the meanings behind colors for this. Different colors mean different things and invoke certain emotions. Like the red on stop signs and such like that and what it tells our brains subconsciously and how it effects different people. It was going to go something like red is strength, orange is creativity, yellow is compassion and joy, etc. Almost like Green Lantern but not exactly.

Now my main concern is that it may be too close to the Darkest Minds. I'm trying to find a synopsis but basically it takes place in New York City after the sea levels have risen and taken out Manhattan. The majority of the U.S. is now under area law instead of federal, so there is a special council in New York that dictates what it can do for their own city. My MC is the daughter of a councilwoman and she is struggling with the fact that her mother wants her to be involved more in politics, but she doesn't want to be and feels as though the people who do not have these abilities, such as the council, are not playing fairly with the ones who do and don't let them have a say in anything and wants to prove to them that they aren't a danger to anyone and the whole reason they were in the mess in the first place is because they did it to themselves by causing the Earth to fight back in its own way. They are concerned about activities of these special beings (I'm going to nix the name I'm calling them for now) because there is a group of them called Spectrum that is causing problems in the Bronx but there are no fatalities and such. So she basically escapes the confines of her compound essentially and goes to find proof that the local government is essentially being unfair to these people and thus starts really figuring out what is happening.

I don't know, I hope it doesn't sound like anything that's been done. Now I'm nervous! D:

Yep, I just read a summary of the Darkest Minds and it's too damn similar.

Now I'm at a loss. The color code system would have to be scrapped because that's the biggest one.

I'm not usually one to be a stickler for "completely original ideas" because that's debatable if that's even a thing anymore, but when it has color coded abilities like that in a similar way that I have them, only by eye color and not actual ability, it completely throws me off. The problem is that the eye colors are essential to the two main characters and their character developments so that puts a HUGE dent in a lot of what I wanted to do.

I'm tempted to see what kind of responses I get for another WIP I had that I stopped because I got paranoid that there wasn't enough diversity in it. I'm probably going to post something about it and the questions I have and see what kind of responses I get for that one and hopefully work out a problem where I can overcome it. That one I'm like 14K into. This one I'm only like 4.6K.

*head desk*

You're amazing. Thank you!

And if you'd like, I just posted the other thread and maybe see if you could help me with that one? Your help has been so appreciated. Thank you, be frank.

No, don't apologize! It needed to happen. I didn't want to be a dumbass on that front, so thank you.