fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2182 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2182 ⌋

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

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[incorrectly labeled a repeat]

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 085 secrets from Secret Submission Post #312.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Beautiful girl who devalues her beauty and sees physical attractiveness as a burden is a part of a culture that has groups of special people that are generally disliked by the regular populace. Girl is even more disliked for some reason than the rest, which gives her big self esteem issues. Main love interest is a patient, warm, loving person who is in a unique position to look past their reputation. Girl has secondary love interest they have known for a long time who is one of their only friends, but is far too possessive, jealous, and angry to suit the girl.

Girl over the course of the book comes to find out not everyone hates her for who she is/proves herself regardless, and collects a group of warm, happy friends who respect and value her. One of them is going to be an older woman who is frank about feminine things, one of them is going to be an older man who is honest and blunt as well, one of them is younger female who is shy but ultimately respects and adores the girl.

At some point in the book, there is going to be a long, disjointed part where the character is suffering and is going through agonizing pain and this part is very poorly written.

Oh, and both won't have children and cannot be a part of a normal, classic relationship. Both are nobility, both have noble (princes, in fact) love interests, but who are not in a position to inherit anyway. Both of them believe they are stuck in their fate and do not believe themselves worthy of it. Both of them eventually grow confident in comfortable in their abilities which are otherwise lethal.

what other books use this similar pattern?

Hey, I'm asking you!

I'm not sure if I can think of any more off the top of my head. I was pretty entertained when I noticed these similarities, so I was curious if someone could find others. Sorry!

i completely misunderstood your question, then. i surprisingly don't see this pattern in full very often, however i've seen some of this trend before in YA fiction where the lonely, outcast but attractive female who, as you said, "a long, disjointed part where the character is suffering and is going through agonizing pain and this part is very poorly written." i also see a lot of badly written love triangles and poorly explained paranormal myths.

i think it's most likely the publisher that demands a pattern be followed rather than necessarily it being the author, but when it is the author i always wonder how incredibly bored they must get churning out the same lame formula

what you described above is very obviously YA fiction...not everyone can relate to a girl who is attractive, but if you also write her as disliking herself, with few friends, and a burdensome power or gift, you've quadruple your audience...adding 2 love interests who are the opposite of one another covers most teenage fantasies about male 'types', and a mildly problematic family structure where the parent(s) are divorced/dead/too busy at work/don't appreciate your ~speshulness rounds out the gamut of teenage 'problems' which young girls can relate to

*fun fact - in Australian bookstores, a YA category doesn't actually exist and all these books are labelled "children's fiction", which i think is more indicative of the genre...by naming it Young Adult, the adults reading think they are keeping "young at heart" and the youngens think they are reading "grown up" fiction, so just like the formulaic dramaz within, it covers more bases

I agree that a lot of these just reflect regular YA books--beautiful protagonist doesn't see herself that way, two love interests, societal outcast.

But they do happen in a very similar manner in these two books--for instance, the two love interests never form a love triangle. It's always clear the protagonist is not interested in a long-term relationship. Both secondary love interests were the jealous possessive type (eventually coming head to head with the patient, understanding love interest that clearly lays out which is better). Secondary love interest is nobility, but actually less noble than the main love interest, and is a longterm friend of the protagonist.

Patient LI has a loving family that the girl will get inducted into, after warming herself up to one member in particular. Patient LI has a young female relative who he is shown to be very patient and kind with, and becomes the daughter-figure of the girl (who doesn't want kids herself).

I could go on. But it's a very specific subset.

Also, I think the YA genre exists simply to differentiate it for the people who ARE in that age--don't forget, you don't go from child to adult that easily.

I don't know what Australian bookstores you've been going to anon, but as an Australian I'm sure I've seen a YA category in bookstores - possibly under the joint heading 'children's and young adult' fiction, but still. And though I don't read a lot of it and I think a lot of what is published as YA fiction seems to be not particularly original or well written, I don't think there's much wrong with the title of the category.

YA books are basically aimed at a teenage audience - emerging adults - and as such can have more adult themes than purpose-written children's books. However, I think the most significant marking of the genre is that a lot of YA seems to be coming of age stories, if not classic bildungsromans (yes, often with romance as a big part of that - I never said they were good stories). In other words, YA fictions covers narratives that 'young adults' can appreciate much more keenly than children or 'proper grown ups' can because of where they are in life.

While not completely breaking from these themes, Bitterblue has some clear differences in character and plot.

[ SECRET POST #2182 ]

Re: Authors that follow really similar trends?

Re: Authors that follow really similar trends?

Re: Authors that follow really similar trends?

Re: Authors that follow really similar trends?

Re: Authors that follow really similar trends?

Re: Authors that follow really similar trends?

Re: Authors that follow really similar trends?

Re: Authors that follow really similar trends?