BOOK: Alex, As Well by Alyssa Brugman

[lyras]

Alex just wants to be a normal teenager, experimenting with make-up, girls and vegetarianism. Why is this so hard for her parents to accept? And why can't she shut up the boy-Alex who's still inside her? A decision to stop taking medication results in events spiralling out of control as Alex tries to figure out matters such as identity, gender,

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

Sounds fun!

Did you see that terrible opinion piece about young adult lit in Salon last week? (I'll find the link if you haven't and you're interested.) The better half and I were talking the other day about why--Salon article aside--young adult lit often seems more complex and interesting to us than "adult" lit. Is there something about the moment that makes stories about teenagers seem especially powerful? Something about the market that encourages different types of writing? M.

[lyras]

I did read it - at least, I read a terribly patronising article in Slate, if that's the one you meant? Wouldn't surprise me if there was another one. *sigh* I found this response fairly satisfying, if you're interested. If that wasn't the article you meant, feel free to point me to it!

I think YA is all about pushing boundaries - in a way it always has been, but now it's particularly good at this. And some adult fiction tries to push boundaries, but a lot of it tends be either very safe, or what seems to be becoming known as the Creative Writing MA Novel. To generalise massively about both YA and adult lit. :)

Part of the misunderstanding, I think, comes from the fact that YA, like adult lit, is a market, not a genre - whereas a lot of people looking in from the outside still think of it as a genre (and one saturated by the Sweet Valley High books I grew up with, at that).