How dark can YA be?

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alainn_chaser

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So in YA the settings and characters are getting much darker than they used to be (I am not old enough to say that) and I was wondering how dark they (editors, agents) are letting it get? Ex. smoking, drug use, abuse, etc.

So... Yeah. Help out a newbie to the forums?

P.S.: There could be a thread like this already. Let me know if there is.
 

OverTheHills&FarAway

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Isn't the Outsiders considered the beginning of the YA genre? That's pretty dark. At least, I thought so in eighth grade!

Yeah, YA is like uber-conflict. It reflects young people's lives. And young people go through incredible things, all the while trying to figure out how to be adults. Lots of conflict in ANY teen's life.
 

Shady Lane

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Most people think of Catcher as the beginning, and Outsiders as the Rennaisance.
 

Provrb1810meggy

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Er, I'd rather live in 2007.

And there is room for all types of novels in YA, light, dark, and in between.
 

Claudia Gray

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You can be as dark as your story requires.

The trick is know how much that is, and not to use unnecessary darkness as a substitute for subtler emotion/a more developed plot/nuanced character development/etc.
 

Chicken Warrior

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I think it's important not confuse gritty with dark. I don't think a novel has to be dark to include issues of drug abuse/violence/alcohal, etc., but it can be very dark without including any of those. I'm worried my novel is too dark in tone/voice, even though the only 'riskie' thing in it (aside from present tense first person - is there any hope?!) is a whole lot of profanity and blasphemy.
 

moondance

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Dark, bleak, without hope...read Lady: My Life as a Bitch or Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess. You can't get much darker than Burgess!
 

vfury

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Anything by Melvin Burgess should be a good indication of how far you can go and beyond.

My own YA novel has suicide implications, assassins, and my MC facing her own death. And I've been told it's not suitable for YA readers. In the end, I'm going to reserve judgment until the second draft is done and I read it again as a whole, but I read a lot of YA and I can't see it being unsuitable.

I think one of the very thin lines that separates YA fiction from mainstream adult fiction is the execution of themes and how they're presented. But it's a very thin line, at best.
 

Momento Mori

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vfury:
My own YA novel has suicide implications, assassins, and my MC facing her own death. And I've been told it's not suitable for YA readers. In the end, I'm going to reserve judgment until the second

There was a YA book* released this year that was a look at the sex slave trade where the teenage protagonist has been forced into prostitution and that didn't pull its punches. Before I Die is about a protagonist who is [shocker] dying. Hell, even Harry Potter has the hero facing up to the likelihood of his death.

My point being that I agree with you that suicide implications, assassins or an MC facing her own death don't preclude a book from being YA.

MM


* and I'm having a complete mental block on the title but the cover was a red light bulb and a proportion of the cover price went to a charity so if someone can help I'd appreciate it!
 

KTC

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When I'm going through my YA...wondering if it's still considered YA...I think to myself, 'Just think of how dark the actual young adults are'. I remember being a young adult. Dark for me is not an issue with YA. I consider other factors, but not this one.
 

Carrie R.

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I think you can go pretty dark -- I know mine is (of course, we haven't started subbing it so who knows if it will sell). I start the book killing the protag's mother, proceed to kill off a whole village and then the main love interest. My characters also stop believing in God, etc.

I like what KTC said: "Just think of how dark the actual young adults are."
 

Chicken Warrior

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Actually, I was having a discussion on another forum recently, and it turned out a lot of the writers there wrote YA because they felt there were LESS boundaries on what could or could not be included. Either because the same issues in adult books would be considered passe or irrelevant.
 

Danger Jane

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mm teenagers love reading about stuff that is taboo


I'd try having a teen beta for you and if they say nope this isn't YA, that might be a better opinion.
 

KTC

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teen beta is a fantastic idea, but i would suggest that the beta's parent read it first.
 

Danger Jane

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I was thinking like a teen here on AW. I bet one of us has openings. lol. Writer teen is tooooootally different.
 

alainn_chaser

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Yeah this was pretty much what I thought I would get. Although it's still very reassuring.

I'm actually a teen myself which would make it pretty ironic (and a little unsettling) if someone told me it was to dark for YA. If it is too dark for teens than I really shouldn't have been able to write it.

I am also re-reading tithe which is making me feel loads better about mine. Doesn't seem so dark now.... although it probably takes a dark person to get all of it... hmmm....

Anyways, thanks. You guys are awesome.
 

moondance

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There was a YA book* released this year that was a look at the sex slave trade where the teenage protagonist has been forced into prostitution and that didn't pull its punches.

* and I'm having a complete mental block on the title but the cover was a red light bulb and a proportion of the cover price went to a charity so if someone can help I'd appreciate it!

Dirty Work by Julia Bell ;)
 

eyeblink

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I suspect with the older end of YA (say 14/15+) and an adult novel there's not much effective difference except in how it is marketed.

Someone mentioned Melvin Burgess - I've read Doing It and Lady: My Life as a Bitch and I don't think you can go any further with (hetero) sexual content in a YA novel.

Ordinary People (Judith Guest) was never to my knowledge published as YA but it certainly was read by a lot of teens and I believe it's taught in US schools nowadays. I read it at 16, around the time the film came out, and I wasn't the only one of my age to do so. The central character is a teenager who (before the novel starts) attempted suicide after his older brother died in an accident. There is strong language and (not explicit) sexual content. It's a novel that had a big impact on me at the time.

On a personal note, I had an agent for ten months with a novel which I was surprised to learn was a teenage novel. Well it did have two seventeen-year-olds as protags, but my reaction, naive as it was, was "This can't be teenage, it's got sex and swearing in it." The plot also hinges on a rape, of which one of the protags is the victim. It eventually was rejected and returned to me, but the content was never the problem. This was something like seventeen years ago.

So, I think the answer is - YA can be as dark as it needs to be, as long as it is still engaging/relevant to its readership. You may however end up with an "explicit content" or "not suitable for younger readers" on your cover, as is the case with Melvin Burgess and Aidan Chambers, amongst others.
 

greywaren

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I used to ask this question a lot while I was writing until I started actually reading a lot of young adult. It only takes a dozen or so to help you get a feel for it.

I don't think you can really go too dark -- you can go too gratuitous, but not too dark. I think a teen would put down a book that was too flowery or slow-paced rather than shocking.
 
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