gem!
asked
Gail Carriger:
How do you feel about YA books nowadays? Do you think authors need to branch out more and stop perpetuating the same story line, same characters and same writing styles? Because sometimes I get sick of the same old, same old.
Gail Carriger
Most YA books have carried overused tropes for as long as I can remember (hero's journey, for example, always rears its ugly head). I have certain things I'm not interested in (or get exhausted by), so I just don't read those books. (I'm not one for distopian, for example.) I assume if people weren't buying them, they wouldn't continue to be published. Why get upset about it? There is plenty more out there to read and with the rise of indie publishing some fun experimental stuff. Occasionally, I do still find a unique and powerful YA gem (like Court of Fives), but it never sells as well as I would like. In the end, we readers have no one to blame but ourselves, if we don't take risks and buy new and interesting books, review and advocate for them, the publishing houses will keep giving us the same tired tropes.
There is another side to this. YA readers, the actual age these books focus on, often haven't read these tropes before. Harry Potter was new and fresh to the kids of the late 90s. By then I'd read hundreds of Cinderella stories, hundreds of slipstream magic worlds, hundreds of magical boarding schools - but that younger generation had not. These tropes may be tired to us, but they aren't to new readers.
In the end, I support anything that gets kids reading.
There is, of course, one other solution: write something new and different yourself.
There is another side to this. YA readers, the actual age these books focus on, often haven't read these tropes before. Harry Potter was new and fresh to the kids of the late 90s. By then I'd read hundreds of Cinderella stories, hundreds of slipstream magic worlds, hundreds of magical boarding schools - but that younger generation had not. These tropes may be tired to us, but they aren't to new readers.
In the end, I support anything that gets kids reading.
There is, of course, one other solution: write something new and different yourself.
More Answered Questions
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more