Guest Post: Sarah Cotchaleovitch - Why Do Authors Write Such Depressing Books for Adolescents?

Really, why do they? Being a teenager is hard enough, right? Why in the world do they need to fill their minds with oppressive governments that make kids fight to the death, for instance?

Good question. Isn't adolescent lit simply stuff written for people who are too old for Dr. Seuss but too young for Stephen King? As I learned when I took an adolescent literature class in college, there's a lot more to it than that.

The word my professor used was "liminal." Merriam-Webster lists three defin...