YA with multiple POVs?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Claudia Gray

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
Messages
2,918
Reaction score
604
I am playing with a very new YA idea. At this point, it feels very strongly to me as though it ought to be in multiple POVs -- but most YA tends to be either first person or limited third dealing with a single POV character. Can anyone name/recommend very strong examples of YA novels told from multiple POVs? I'd be interested to look at novels by others who have done this well as I start the long process of deciding how to tell this story.
 

writermom

Avada Kedavra
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Messages
1,347
Reaction score
397
The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld - alternating first
 

goatprincess

untitled
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 28, 2007
Messages
2,011
Reaction score
463
Location
In downward dog, a lot of the time
Whirligig by Paul Fleischman is one. I'll pop back in if I think of others. I'm kicking around an idea for a multiple-POV YA as well. I think that if the voices are distinct and if there's a compelling intrinsic reason that the story needs to be told that way, you should trust your gut.
 

Shady Lane

my name is hannah
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
44,931
Reaction score
9,546
Location
Heretogether
Oooh yes I can.

The Realm of Possibility and Are We There Yet? by David Levithan.

Smack and Doing It by Marvin Burgess (and you've got to read Smack. Really.)

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty

Center Line by Joyce Sweeney (hard to find, but it's absolutely fantastic.)
 

Danger Jane

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 11, 2005
Messages
7,921
Reaction score
5,006
Location
Rome
East by Edith Pattou, based on the fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon. There's like half a dozen narrators in it.
 

reenkam

aka cupcake
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 5, 2007
Messages
19,092
Reaction score
4,059
Bleed by Laurie Stolarz
 

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
40,775
Reaction score
5,947
Location
Some personalized demiplane
I was about to say "The Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad"...then I remember it's not really YA.

But it does have an awesome title.

And it goes down as the only book I've ever read that begins with an Epilogue and the first line of the Epilogue is: "Shut up! I know Epilogues go at the end, but this is a special case."
 

writermom

Avada Kedavra
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Messages
1,347
Reaction score
397
Just finished Midnighters by Westerfeld. He does a good job jumping heads.

The MC in that story is a girl (it's been a long time so I don't remember her name). He may jump heads but it's her story. ;)
 

JLCwrites

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
3,079
Reaction score
5,696
Location
Pacific NW
The MC in that story is a girl (it's been a long time so I don't remember her name). He may jump heads but it's her story. ;)

She's the MC, and there are multiple POVs.

Hubby thought it was too fast paced, like it was written to be a movie. I thought it was entertaining, not brilliant, but entertaining.
 
Last edited:

Shady Lane

my name is hannah
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
44,931
Reaction score
9,546
Location
Heretogether
Haha, it's not that he's not serious enough for me...and trust me, I LOVE me some summer beach reads. I just find him hard to follow, honestly. It was a little all over the place for me. Gotta agree with your husband.
 

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 24, 2006
Messages
40,775
Reaction score
5,947
Location
Some personalized demiplane
Seriously, if you want hard to follow, check out the Coyote kings that I was blathering about. It had five view point characters...all from the first person.

And ALL of them had some kind of psychological neurosis that prevented them talking like a normal person. Expecially the alien.
 

Momento Mori

Tired and Disillusioned
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
3,389
Reaction score
802
Location
Here and there
ClaudiaGray:
Can anyone name/recommend very strong examples of YA novels told from multiple POVs?

I'd second the recommendations for the Melvin Burgess books - Smack in particular is really well done - multiple POVs but all done in the first person and he gives them all an individual voice. I'd add a recommendation for Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy, which is told through 3 POVs - the two human characters in third person limited and Bartimaeus tells his story in the first person.

If I can also give some advice (for what it's worth), I think that an issue to be aware of in using multiple POVs is that you always need to keep in mind whose story you're telling. If you have side characters who are particularly interesting or have a very distinctive voice, then there's a danger that their parts of the plot are so compelling that it drowns out the story of your main protagonist(s) and that can take away a lot of the urgency or tension to the main plot that you're trying to convey. I'm saying that because it's something that a writing teacher raised on my work as I had 3 POVs planned and she thought I could cut it down to 2. If you're using multiple POVs but the story is only following one character's journey, then it can really dillute the effect of that journey.

Hope that's of some use.

MM
 
Last edited:

Harper K

here's to the girl on the go
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 2, 2007
Messages
543
Reaction score
102
Location
Atlanta
Website
weirdquietgirl.wordpress.com
I haven't read it, but I know that Robyn Schneider's Better Than Yesterday has multiple 1st person narrators.

Thirding the recommendation for Smack.

I'll add to this if I think of any more today.
 

~grace~

the good old days
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
14,751
Reaction score
5,150
Hubby thought it was too fast paced, like it was written to be a movie.

That is exactly what I thought about Westerfeld's book Uglies. There were some scenes where I was like, "Dude! This would make an awesome movie! Dude!"

:popcorn:

I liked it though.

ummm....as to the question originally posed....I dunno. Now that I think about it, most of the books I read as a YA were one POV. Or they weren't YA.
 

Manna

I don't know how strong this is in comparison with other examples, but a great YA book series I read was the Guardians of Time series by Marianne Curley. She pulled off the multiple POVs very well.
 

Claudia Gray

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
Messages
2,918
Reaction score
604
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions!

At this point, I have a (very rough) dramatic situation that I feel is more interesting if tackled by a group than a single protagonist. The unifying force would be this one overarching plot, but you'd have several kids who undergo individual stories while this larger one plays out. But what MementoMori says is true: It does run a risk of diluting the tension/emotion. Must I pick one kid? I feel like I already know a few of them pretty well.

It's early yet. I will continue to play with the idea -- and check out y'all's great suggestions.
 

gerrydodge

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 1, 2007
Messages
449
Reaction score
99
Location
Finesville, New Jersey
A few months ago Brodie Miller's--the olympic skiier--cousin shot a cop to death over a traffic citation and then was shot by a bystander who happened along during the incident. I thought, when I read about it, what are the cosmic probabilities that someone who just happened to be there in a rural part of New Hampshire would take it upon himself to take the gun from the dead cop and then shoot the shooter? A story I thought, told from 3 different POV's. And to add to the idea of the coincidence, at the time I read the story, I was also reading Jonathan Burnham Schwartz's, RESERVATION ROAD. I love the idea of different points of view telling a story. AS I LAY DYING is certainly a perfect example of that technique.
 

Momento Mori

Tired and Disillusioned
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 25, 2006
Messages
3,389
Reaction score
802
Location
Here and there
ClaudiaGray:
But what MementoMori says is true: It does run a risk of diluting the tension/emotion. Must I pick one kid? I feel like I already know a few of them pretty well.

Gah - sorry, I wasn't trying to make it a "THOU SHALT NOT" statement, I just figured it was something to be careful of. At the end of the day, you have to write it as you want to write it (i.e. use the multiple POVs for the first draft). It'll become obvious whether it's working as you move on with the draft and then, to the extent that it's not, you can always delete the redundant POVs and re-write others.

MM
 

Shady Lane

my name is hannah
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
44,931
Reaction score
9,546
Location
Heretogether
Claudia--

One of my mss (Carnival) is in 4 POVs. Even if it never gets published, writing it taught me so much about putting a book together, and about the importance of every scene. So do it, definitely; even if it ends up being just an exercise.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.