YA books involving alcoholism

I was wondering if there are any current yA books out there where the main character is an alcoholic and what htey were. I tried to search amazon, but maybe I'm not using the right search criteria.

I'm asking because I've written a 90k novel about a 19year old sorority girl that I thought was women's fiction, but I had a revelation last night that I could try and sell this to an agent as YA. There is sex in the book and an eating disorder, which I think are both fine for YA (the sex is not graphic). My only concern is that the character starts on a downward spiral of alcoholism, ends up in the hospital at one point. Is that kosher for YA?

Also, I realize my word count is currently too high. My next question would be, what's the absolute max of YA. I'd have to be ruthless in my cutting. 75k too high?

Here's the blurb for the novel:


It all starts with one small fib. Most girls downplay the number of men they've slept with. Not Mandie Shaffer. Thinking she’ll gain the respect of her promiscuous college peers, she exaggerates her lacking sexual history. Soon, her first lie multiplies: a false pregnancy, a car accident blamed on an icy road instead of alcohol, and a tragedy too horrible to face. As the school year progresses, she struggles to keep up the facade she's created, hoping this racy and cavalier version of herself is better than the innocent and naive original.

Her lies escalate to a point where Mandie is caught in a destructive web of her own invention, no longer able to tell the difference between what is real and what she imagines. She meets Corey Taft, a rowdy fraternity guy with a closeted sensitive side, and he makes her feel grounded. But when Corey bails on their potential relationship without explanation, Mandie spirals over the edge of her impending self-destruction and starts down a path of alcoholism and anorexia. Fessing-up to her lies may the only way to save her life, but for Mandie, the cost may be just too high.


So it's not hte main plot, but most of the scenes occur in bars and a lot of the actions and events happen only because the characters had been drinking.

Still not sure if this is YA.

I'm thrilled that this c an be YA since my other WIP manuscript is also YA and that will help in establishing myself in a particular genre.

Any thoughts on the word count? Amazon is all over the place with YA word counts according to my surfing today.

The story can't work in high school because most of the plot focuses on the fact that the characters are in sororities and fraternities and the parties, interactions, and restrictions that come from those.

My character is only 19 but made her fake id on photoshop and laminated it with a ceramic hair iron. So high school students can definately get fake ids as someone asked on here.

I'm thinking about not specifying a genre when I query but rather giving a couple examples of similiar subject books. Someone mentioned I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS by Tom Wolfe to me. I started reading the 277k monster this weekend, but the fact that its set in college and features an innocent girl who gets corrupted might be a great book to compare this to. Mine is very different in other ways, thankfully.

Another thing that might steer this away from YA is that it starts out with a lighthearted voice, but as the mindstate of the protag gets more messed up, the prose becomes more poetic and literary, giving the story a surreal feeling. Some people who read the book said that it might be classified as literary instead of YA. Another reason I don't want to specify a genre. I'd rather a publisher do that I guess.

I'm about ready to query, just doing last minute revisions, but its at the point where I'm putting in commas and taking them out again. Not really changing the plot, only some sentences.

Id really be interested in the drinking college books. I tried to search on amazon but I can only come up with a few high school ones.

Thanks! That's great.

Stupidly, I don't have a library I have access to because of its odd hours and my crappy work schedule.

I'll definately check out that list.

Here's an update:

Seems my book is not too edgy at all. I have an offer from one agent and a few more agents getting back to me very shortly. The book got tons of attention, very quickly. Within a few days I had an offer of representation, which enabled me to get the other agents to agree to read the book in less than a week. I'm doing rewrites for another agent (my dream agent! - cross your fingers for me) that I have to get to her by mid-week. No complaints on the sex or the alcoholism from anyone.

I ended up cutting this book down to 72k before I queried.