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Over used YA elements…
I just came across this great list of My countdown of the twenty most overused things in MG & YA fictionon Joëlle Anthony’s blog.
Read the list. Here are a few of my comments about the ones that I really notice in modern YA.
“#18 – A gorgeous best friend who gets all the guys but doesn’t want them”
I’d add that best friend could easily be replaced by older sister.
“#16 – Authors showing their age by naming characters names they grew up with (i.e. Debbie, Lisa, Kimberly, Alice, Linda, etc.)”
I’ve heard editors caution about this. Seriously, writers, always check to see what the modern names are also, what the modern nicknames are. If a kid is William, what is he most likely nicknamed today? Billy, Will, Liam, Willy, Bill, etc.
“#11 – A dead mother”
Well, how else are you supposed to make a character sympathetic? … Wait, you mean, I have to give real reason why you should care? Not just that you should wanna huggle them because their mommy died?
“#5 – Raising one eyebrow”
Isn’t it a proven fact by now that the only emotions that count are those that happen right around your glittering rainbow orbs that are the window to your soul?
“#4 – Main characters who want to be writers”
… I swear, almost every single on of Meg Cabot’s females wants to be a writer or an artist. Or discovers they are a writer/artist. Ditto in her adult books.
“#1 – Lists”
Actually, I wonder if the lists things is just related to all the diary style YA that’s coming out lately. It only seems to show up in first person style books (which makes sense).
Now I wanna do one of these for YA fantasy. Lots of similiar elements, but there would be “MUST SAVE THE WORLD FROM EVIL” at number 1 or 2. Oh, and of course “Hero/ine finds out they are the long lost last memember of the royal family. Double points if they were spirted away to our world to protect them.”
Yes, I agree with the last point. Oh, but I think that Trickster’s Choice by Tamora Pierce could be a slight exception for it. Aly (the “heroine”) isn’t the destined ruler. She isn’t the person with all the power, or isn’t really headed for glory, or even the flip-side and the anticipated simple life with her love-of-her-life crow-man. She’s the person on the side, helping the people who have a place on the throne, who are becoming royalty, to fend off those unwanted villains. Aly is a spy: and a good one too. But she’s still… well, destined for SOMEthing.
But the mother of Aly is alive (and the Lioness, a very well-known warrior for the king, but not known as Aly’s mother, to certain people), and Aly’s father is alive also (and works with the spy type agency of his). Of course, every book has its own “over used elements”, but they’re all still very appetizing
I’ve always wanted to read the Trickster books - the idea of George and Alanna’s daughter interigues me. But in order to read it, I’d need to read the books about Kel first, and those ones just never intersted me. I started them a few times, but just lost interest. The Alanna books were some of my favorite books as a child, though I got angry when she and Jonothan broke up, and refused to read the rest of the books until I was older and could forgive the spliting of my OTP. Now I love George and Alanna far more anyways.
Still, I wanna read the Trickster books, and I loved the second set of books… and I thought Terrier was a lot of fun. But, when I started Trickster, I was confused by all the discussion of what happened in the books about Kel. So I lost interest -_- Plus, I must say, I don’t really like Alanna in any other book besides the ones she stars in - she’s kind of a bitch after a while.
Well, I read the Trickster’s books (and I did get a little confused as I read), and I didn’t even know about the Alanna books until after I finished reading Trickster’s Choice. I enjoyed the books for the most part (although some parts were slow), but there wasn’t too much about Alanna in the book… of course, she’s not the heroine
I wish I had read the Alanna books before…
I didn’t read the Kel books before the Trickster books; in fact the Trickster books were the very first Tamora Pierce books I read. I didn’t have any trouble following them.
I followed a couple of links to this site (from YA bookreviewer, to Joelle’s, to here), and now I’ve signed up for the RSS feed
BTW, do you accept books for review or just pick up the ones you want? I’ve got a brand new YA fantasy just published. Thanks
Yeah, the trickester books seem to have found a bit more of a wider appeal in the YA genre. Maybe its because the covers look more general YA, than purely fantasy.
Christine - Glad to have you here ^_^. I tend to read whatever comes my way. I do accept books for review, though I can’t guarentee that’ll I’ll review it. But I do *try* to review any books that are passed along for review. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll like it
If you want to e-mail me about your book, I’ll definitly take a look at it.