YA Clichés I Could Do Without

[Dylan]

Hey all. Is it me or are a lot of YA novels starting to seem the same? I don't mind the genre itself, but there are a few elements that just seem tired to me now.

1. The love triangle
It's been done to death. I literally did it "to death" in my YA series about
ghosts. But why is every YA romance literally about nothing more than
picking a boyfriend in a dystopian society?

2. The dystopian society
So many books take place in a bleak vision of the future. There's some
totalitarian regime and the kids are placed into factions that they rebel
against, or some variation thereof.

3. The training sequence
This usually happens in the dystopian society books. There's always a training
sequence where we learn the "character" of the characters. It feels like a
cheap way to show us who's good and who's bad and it's a cop-out excuse
for an action sequence. Hunger Games did it, now everyone has to? Even the
Percy Jackson series has training sequences at Camp Half-Blood.

Anyone got anything else? Cuz these are the tiresome biggies for me. They're turning me off the genre.

Dylan

[Erin]

Have you read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children? It didn't blow me away, but it's solidly written and, for the most part, falls outside the norm. I believe there's a sequel out or coming soon.

[Heidi]

I am pretty tired of all three things as well.

[Suni]

I agree with you on all three points. The fact that books like The Hunger Games deal with the routine, government-appointed deaths of at least two dozen children a year, gets boiled down to "Team Gale" or "Team Peeta" is just a shocking look at what our society values.

Along with what you've listed, I'm also sick of seeing disembodied girls/close-ups of body parts on the covers of everything. You see a girl's eye, or her face, or a semi-obscured portrait of her in a beautiful dress. But let's not show a female as a complete human, let's fracture her and give you an uncomfortable close up of a blackhead on her nose. -eye roll-

[Elizabeth]

Also I'm kind of tired of paranormal romances because they largely (at least all I've read) seem to follow the same trajectory.

And for that matter, why does nearly all YA have to have romance? Many teens aren't in relationships, and they have other things going on in their lives.

[S.K.]

Agree, agree, agree. Especially the love triangle. Like, okay. We get it, the MC is hot but doesn't know she's hot.

The dystopian society has awesome potential, but then it's absolutely abused in books Matched. A dystopia that's just a dystopia that occured X-years after The Fall of Civilization is boring and sucks.

The training sequence makes me want to skip through. I abandoned Divergent for the same reason.

Other YA tropes: Mary Sue-ism. Yikes.

[Jane]

I'm pleased to hear that other people find the obligatory romance in YA novels to be often out of place. I had one of my post apocalyptic novels turned down because the romance element wasn't strong enough. Romance? They were fighting man-sized rats, mutant dogs and blood-thirsty gangs in sub zero temperatures with no food left, and the publisher wanted romance?

[Horhay]

I agree. If I keep reading is because I know the author had to put it there for completion sake. Training for this dystopias are getting repititive. I felt like skipping it my self , but some how entertaining :/. If they didn't have them , than we expect it. So I understand why it needs to b there. I'm reading divergent .the book is not going slow but I really want the wheels moving on what is really going on behind these factions. What I really dislike abou these trilogies, is that I expect a good ending for all the hard work and effort they make the main characters go thru.

[Elizabeth]

When I saw the title "YA Clichés I Could Do Without," the first thing I thought to myself was "love triangle." And then I clicked on the thread and saw it was the first thing you mentioned. So yes, that one.

[Dana]

I agree with Ellie on the teen romance part. I was single in high school (and still am at 24), but I really don't mind them too much. I've written my own stories in the past and the only romantic thing about them was a cheerleader crushing on who she thought was the hottest guy in school before Katrina hit her city.

[Briany]

so what do you want to read now???

[Dana]

Who, Briany?

[Briany]

who and/or what do you want to read now Dana??? Or anyone? What else is out there for you?? What would you like to try now? Maybe you can try adult fiction or go back to junior fiction, there are some awesome new books out there for the young ones (Australia) .
Open your mind and find out what you want to read....
I see that comtemporary and realistic is a big hit right now maybe something there is waiting for you ????

[Dana]

I'm reading Sold by Patricia McCormick.

[Melinda]

Dana, Sold is amazing.

One of my pet peeves: perfect characters. I don't mind if someone's beautiful OR a good fighter OR really smart OR completely selfless OR good at reading and influencing people. But when they're all of these... and when every character is all of these...it annoys me.

Another: if a female character is unattractive in any way, it's always because she's too skinny. Why aren't there more chubby or otherwise ordinary-looking heroines?

[Becca]

It's the typical love interests for me. In the book Fangirl, don't get me wrong, I loved this book, but anyone who's read it to at least half way knew that Levi would fall in love with Cath and vice versa. It's just all so predictable, in my opinion.

[S.K.]

Melinda wrote: "Dana, Sold is amazing.

One of my pet peeves: perfect characters. I don't mind if someone's beautiful OR a good fighter OR really smart OR completely selfless OR good at reading and influencing..."

Totally agree on both, especially the "I'm ugly because I'm tooo skinny" okay, what a crafty way to both defy and subscribe to societal beauty ideals lol.

[Dana]

Sold has been good so far. I'm on pg 147. Fangirl is on my TBR list.

[Heidi]

Well in defense of Fangirl - it is marketed as a romance so readers should expect that up front. I enjoy smart romances done right (like Fangirl - Anna & the French Kiss) but I know what I am getting myself into before I start them.

[S.K.]

If you're looking for a new book to read, and you're into sci-fi, my new novel Linked is on sale until Valentine's Day! Minimal romance, diverse heroines (i.e. not "I'm too pale and skinny!")

Everything is connected.

It is the year 11,012 AD. The world is powered by Luminum, an incredible and exotic particle, generated by the Sun. It is the source of the Link, a universal quantum communications system. The entire human race has one unified government, known as The Alliance. After cataclysmic attacks on all major settlements in the Solar System, most of the human population is dead or missing. As their world collapses, Helia, Adlan and Soren, are flung into a millennia-long conspiracy.

Helia learns a powerful and dangerous secret about Luminum, and the Link that has been encoded in her very genes. A secret that has her marked for death by the Alliance. Adlan finds himself fighting for his life on an icy outpost beneath Europa. As he tries to uncover the lies of the Alliance, and what really happened in the attacks, he begins to doubt his own intentions and sanity. Soren is trapped on the Lunar Settlement, and forced to trust a secretive, enigmatic man named Riss because he keeps saving her life. Ominous signs start to emerge that they face a much darker, and more terrible threat. Known only as the Architects, they seek to enslave or destroy any who remain. A war will soon begin, but only if Helia, Adlan and Soren, decide to fight it. Faced with the choice between living forever with the ones they love, and fighting powerful and unknown forces, the three of them, linked by a destiny greater than they ever imagined, will chart a course that determines the future of the human race.

Try it! I've gotten a lot of great reviews in the few weeks it's been out.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HMNP5BM

/sorry for promo

[Cheryl]

Oh, most definitely the love triangle! I cringe every time I read a book that introduces two hotties (or, sometimes even more) for the main character to swoon over. If there has to be romance, why can't there be just one good-lucking guy, or even an average-looking guy who is sweet and considerate but not drop-dead gorgeous and sexy?

Another trope I'm finding increasingly tiresome is the whole "I'm so different from everyone else in my school and I have no friends and the mean girls are always picking on me and I think I'm ugly even though everyone else says I'm beautiful and the new guy who just started at my school is drop-dead gorgeous and for some strange, inexplicable reason has eyes only for me..." Sorry, kind of went on a bit of a rant there! But, that seems to be the common theme in a lot of YA books.

[Elizabeth]

A justified rant, though. Why can't the narrator be mildly confident and fine-looking? Like not so hot they make readers insecure, but not so insecure they make readers insecure.

[Cheryl]

Agreed, Ellie! :)

[Melinda]

Right on, Cheryl and Ellie.

[Dylan]

Jane wrote: "I'm pleased to hear that other people find the obligatory romance in YA novels to be often out of place. I had one of my post apocalyptic novels turned down because the romance element wasn't stron..."

Wow. Sounds like movie studio notes. "Nobody knows nothin'."

[Dylan]

Cheryl wrote: "Oh, most definitely the love triangle! I cringe every time I read a book that introduces two hotties (or, sometimes even more) for the main character to swoon over. If there has to be romance, wh..."

Nailed it, Cheryl. And, sad to say, I'm moderately guilty of this in my trilogy. But my hot guy is trapped in a relationship with a bit of a crazy possessive girl and my MC is aloof. And her aloofness towards him is the opposite of the crazy he gets from his girlfriend — and that's what makes her attractive to him. And my MC also wants nothing to do with him as long as he's got a girlfriend. I tried to create relationships as realistically as possible and, while they may have elements of these tired clichés, I hope they're at least believable.

And yes, my MC is different and weird. But she finds friends. And there's a legitimate reason for her weirdness as she's dealing with grief. The more she handles it, the less anti-social and "weird" she becomes.

If you want, I'll send you a copy for your Kindle and you can let me know how I did.

[Robin]

ABookwormAbroad wrote: "I agree with you on all three points. The fact that books like The Hunger Games deal with the routine, government-appointed deaths of at least two dozen children a year, gets boiled down to "Team G..."

So funny you said this about the covers! I've just published my first novel. It's a love story/suspense with a strong female lead, no sex scenes, and a strong faith theme. And yet, my publisher sent me two over-sexed cover designs of nearly naked girls. One was the close-up you mentioned of a girl on her back, mostly her face, but enough of her shoulders to show she's naked. And she had a rapturous look on her face. Everyone I showed it to said, "She's having sex." Except for one additional comment of "vampire sex," lol! I couldn't for the life of me figure what that had to do with my book.

[Melinda]

Robin, congrats on publication, first of all, but I HATE the oversexed covers. That's one of the best things about self publishing. You only have to have half-naked people on your covers if you want them. See if you can bargain them into a more fitting cover.

And yes, AbookwormAbroad, well said about the cautionary Hunger Games getting reduced to "team Gale or team Peeta." Ridiculous.

[Robin]

Melinda wrote: "Robin, congrats on publication, first of all, but I HATE the oversexed covers. That's one of the best things about self publishing. You only have to have half-naked people on your covers if you w..."


Thanks,Melinda!

I did indeed have them change the cover and I like it now.(It`s Summer`s Winter by Robin Johns Grant if you want to check it out.

[Erin]

This thread inspired my co-author and I to write a guest post for Andi's YA Books: http://andisyoungadult.blogspot.com/2...

[Ann]

Since we're talking about our books and oversexed covers, I just thought I'd mention both of mine are fairly modest and are entirely relevant to the story, lol. Neither are dystopian. They are fairytale retellings and pretty family friendly. They are darker, however.

[Brittany (finally graduated and can once again read for fun)]

This isn't YA specific, but this link is a great rant on books (and it's by John Green's brother, Hank) and it addresses the YA cover issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBPAJE...

[Elizabeth]

I like the cover for the second one …

On a side note, I am also tired of being tied to trilogies. If nothing is going to happen in the second book, don't bother. If you have to go into 4 or more to cover the plot (looking at you, Eragon), just plan on it from the start. The trilogy should be a possibility, not an obligation.

[Robin]

Erin wrote: "This thread inspired my co-author and I to write a guest post for Andi's YA Books: http://andisyoungadult.blogspot.com/2..."

Interesting blog post. And Wakefield sounds interesting! just ordered a sample.

[Robin]

Cheryl wrote:Another trope I'm finding increasingly tiresome is the whole "I'm so different from everyone else in my school and I have no friends and the mean girls are always picking on me and I think I'm ugly even though everyone else says I'm beautiful and the new guy who just started at my school is drop-dead gorgeous and for some strange, inexplicable reason has eyes only for me..."

Okay, have to play the devil's advocate here just a little bit. I noticed a few years ago that every TV, movie, or book series I ever became obsessed with was about some downtrodden, supposedly below-average character who had some secret that if you only knew, you would be amazed at how special they really are! (Although I'm a woman and interestingly enough, those were mostly male characters, from Luke Skywalker to Harry Potter and hosts of others.) I think it has to do with the insecurity that most of us feel as adolescents--and maybe even into adulthood. We feel downtrodden, or ugly, or below average, but we'd like to believe that if you only knew us, you would know there's really something special about us. It's wish fulfillment. Fantasy and escapism. I have a friend who writes these super-strong confident female lead characters who do NOT have insecurities or feel bad about themselves, and they turn me off. These were the kinds of females who intimidated me as a kid. So yes, it's a delicate balance. You don't ALWAYS want the lead to be a mouse who somehow attracts all the hotties. But I think the ugly duckling who turns into a swan is an archetype for a reason, too. Insecure people like me do like our escapism!

[Erin]

Robin wrote: "Erin wrote: "This thread inspired my co-author and I to write a guest post for Andi's YA Books: http://andisyoungadult.blogspot.com/2..."

Intere..."

Thanks Robin! If you enjoy the sample and have time to write a review, I'm happy to send you a free ecopy of the full book.

[Krista]

I have to agree on the love triangle one. Romance in YA fiction is great, but not every book has to center around a romance, and one that centers COMPLETELY around a love triangle kind of irks me. (And one of my favorite series does, so...this is a struggle.) Genres go through fads, though, and this one will probably fade with time. (It'll always be present, but hopefully it's not to the point where a good portion of every series has a love triangle involved.) Vampires wore out their stay, zombies are on their way out...the love triangle trope might follow soon, too.