fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #1642 ]

[ SECRET POST #1642 ]

⌈ Secret Post #1642 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 10 pages, 238 secrets from Secret Submission Post #235.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 1 - hit/ship/spiration ], [ 0 - repeats ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

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YA books shouldn't be discounted for not having a deeper meaning or making readers reconsider the world or themselves. In fact, they can often do it more adeptly than adult novels-- in my personal experience. Madeleine L'engle and Diana Wynne Jones pop into my mind as being two writers who managed, when I was a kid, to open my brain up to a world of possibilities... and now, rereading them as an adult, they're doing it again in completely different ways.

I'll agree with you that a lot of people DO use YA lit as a crutch, though, and those people are probably reading things more along the lines of "Twilight", which is fine for fun but shouldn't be confused with brain-expanding literature.

I'm with you (ESPECIALLY on Diana Wynne Jones) - I actually prefer YA fantasy to adult fantasy a lot of the time. It's so much easier to find properly innovative, inventive fantasy in the YA section - I go and look through the adult F and SF section of bookshops and a good half of it seems to be Lord of the Rings clones. :/

As a side note, the last time I went to a bookshop the fantasy section had more space dedicated to Twilight than Lord of the Rings. Just had to share that. >_

"It's so much easier to find properly innovative, inventive fantasy in the YA section."

I agree with you on this. I've read a handful of good fantasy from the adult Fantasy & Sci-Fi section (Kim Harrison is, in my opinion, the best, with a few decent others here and there), whereas most of the YA fantasy I read is excellent. Especially some of the older YA books from when I was growing up.

And yeah, I was in Waldenbooks last week, and they had a whole BOOK CASE dedicated to Twilight. Like, a full five shelves for Twilight and its paraphernalia.

There is good adult fantasy, obviously, but it doesn't tend to be the stuff stocked in bookshops. The fantasy sections tend to be tiny - in the bookshop I grew up with it was literally a corner and half the time you were in the way of the stairs. >_< Whereas the YA section doesn't differentiate between genres, which I also like. Though I do now live near a specialist SF and F bookshop. :D

D: Gah. I wouldn't have minded so much except it was in the adult section and everything! If they have to dedicate that much shelfspace to Twilight they could at least put it in the YA section where it belongs.

"the YA section doesn't differentiate between genres"

I loved that so much! I don't browse the YA sections anymore - I tend to keep up with favorite authors and that's it now - but when I was actually, you know, a young adult, I could spend hours looking through all of the books and find something new every time. Having everything all mixed together like that is how I was introduced to fantasy books in the first place because it was right in front of me!

Some of the big generic bookstores around here have pretty decently sized F&SF section, but they're mostly what you mentioned before - LotR knockoffs and "new" vampire stuff.

It kind of bugs me that the adult section divides everything by genre, especially as they then tend to have a pretty heavy literary fiction/genre fiction distinction. I think that's partly why for years I didn't realise there was such a thing was adult fantasy. xD

Oh god, my bookshop has a subsection of F&SF purely for vampire fiction now. I have no idea if any of it is any good. It is fiarly decently sized, though - like I said, the bookshops in the city near where I grew up had it tucked in a corner and on the landing respectively, they seemed to want to make browsing as hard as possibly.

That's one of my favourite things about YA - as a writer, it's easier to write slipstream, rather than feeling FORCED to adhere to the archetypes and themes that are expected of 'your' genre.

When I worked at Borders, our YA section had two parts: Paranormal Romance and everything else. It did make it easy for the oblivious fathers who were shopping for their kids but didn't know what to get them. I had quite a few "Well, if they liked 'Twilight' something here would be good. If not, there's great stuff over here!". The combination of genres made my job so much easier!

Pretty sure the big bookshop near me keeps Paranormal Romance in with adult F&SF. Not sure if that's better or worse. Though now I'm tempted to go scout around there tomorrow.

The YA Paranormal Romance or just Paranormal Romance in general? I know B&N dedicate an entire section of their YA section to YA Paranormal Romance as well. It doesn't help that all the covers tend to look the same XD

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kathkin.livejournal.com - 2011-07-03 11:30 (UTC) - Expand

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tastylogic.livejournal.com - 2011-07-03 18:31 (UTC) - Expand

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kathkin.livejournal.com - 2011-07-03 18:43 (UTC) - Expand

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tastylogic.livejournal.com - 2011-07-03 18:47 (UTC) - Expand

Have to agree with you on the lack of innovation in adult literature :\ It's so sad. Also, I hadn't realized it until reading a comment in Entertainment Weekly, but adult literature is so far behind YA on gender politics that it's laughable.

adult literature is so far behind YA on gender politics that it's laughable.

Would not surprise me. :/ I should go and have a look around the YA section of my nearest bookshop soon, I'm nearly out of unread books.

(Since it's at the front of my mind at the moment from a recent secret...)

If you haven't already read Sabriel by Garth Nix, I highly recommend it. Fantasy at it's best, there. =)

I love Sabriel! : D I have the whole trilogy, though they're currently living at my parents' house. Limited space for books at uni. :(

Yay! In that case, may I shamelessly share a new community that I created yesterday? http://abhorsens-house.livejournal.com/profile

And also if you haven't read her already, Sarah Dessen is an amazing YA author. Though her work is fiction rather than fantasy... Either way, I recommend her to everyone. =)

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kathkin.livejournal.com - 2011-07-02 22:17 (UTC) - Expand

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momentsplinter.livejournal.com - 2011-07-03 13:31 (UTC) - Expand

I'm gonna steal this rec, because I haven't read this series!

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zelda-dragon.livejournal.com - 2011-07-02 23:38 (UTC) - Expand

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deadtree.livejournal.com - 2011-07-02 23:46 (UTC) - Expand

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zelda-dragon.livejournal.com - 2011-07-03 00:39 (UTC) - Expand

I wouldn't say there is a lack of innovation in adult literature. Maybe not a lot of innovation in genre works for adults, but straight-up fiction? There's plenty of amazing and progressive writing going on.

Entertainment Weekly should not be seen as a trusted source for commentary on the state of modern adult literature, anyway.

Edited 2011-07-03 01:24 (UTC)

I wasn't mentioning them as a source-- just that they made a comment that, upon reflection, I simply agree with.

I prefer YA anything to adult anything most of the time. generalization, but in my experience, "adult" fiction is not only less imaginative, but it always noticeably tries too hard to be deep and meaningful and ~literary~. it's also... idk how to explain it, dry? I feel like ya fiction comes to life much more often than adult fiction.

*nod nod* I find a really good proportion of 'grown up' fantasy takes itself way too seriously for my tastes.

YES, exactly!

Dianna Wynne Jones and L'engle are great. (I'd also nominate Monica Furlong.) their books were amazing to read when I was growing up and were definitely brain-expanding, I agree.

I hadn't heard of Monica Furlong - just looked her up, might well check out her books soon. Thankies!

don't know why she doesn't get mentioned more often - amazing, feminist-but-not-aggrandizing, lovely prose. I hope you like her!

I also haven't heard of Monica Furlong, but I'm definitely going to check her out now!

*is excited because there are a lot of great recs floating in this thread*

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