YA books not all angst and vampires

Today’s young adult (YA) literature is often criticised for being all about teenage angst and sparkly vampires.

The Twilight saga hit our shelves and screens 10 years ago and was both extremely popular and highly satirised. Next to do the same was The Hunger Games, a story about a society that sets children up in a fight to the death, criticised for being overly violent.

These books created a phenomenon unlike any since Harry Potter.

Regardless of one’s position on the content, these books got teenagers reading who previously may never have been interested in reading before.

That makes them worth their weight in gold. These types of books though are not all that fill our YA shelves.

Many YA books deal with pertinent and hard hitting topics.

Just last week we saw on the news 300 students protesting outside Parliament; speaking out about rape culture in their school. Yes, in their school.

Books such as The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis, All the Rage by Courtney Summers, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson or Faking Normal by Courtney C Stevens all deal with this subject in a way that doesn’t overdramatise it, nor minimise its impact on the lives which are affected.

Racism too, remains front and centre on our evening news, both here and abroad. Diversity of culture, race, religion and sexuality are important things we need to constantly be talking to our children and teens about if we want to foster a healthy society.

YA literature certainly doesn’t shy away from these topics. My Twitter feed is often lit up by readers, bloggers and authors searching for books that better address diversity. Brand new to our shelves and recently making the New York Times number one bestseller for Young Adult fiction is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Bestseller John Green called it “A stunning, brilliant, gut-wrenching novel that will be remembered as a classic of our time.” The story centres around a young African American girl, Starr, who lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood of her early years and her posh high school in the suburbs. Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a European police officer. Based on the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice. Of course there are still books with teenage angst, love and maybe even a vampire or two. But these in no way detract from the breadth of subject matter and the richness of diversity that is available on the young adult shelves. Come in and try one, you just might be surprised.