Trudie Skies – On Young Adult Fantasy Stories

I read a lot of fantasy but have had mixed experiences with the Young Adult recently. I honestly can’t think of any new books that have combined the two (feel free to add recommendations below) and to learn more about how the genre and age category overlap, I have Trudie Skies with me today. Trudie is the author of Sand Dancer and she loves the YA fantasy. There is no better person in my mind to learn more about this than her!

What is Young Adult?

Welcome to Creator’s Roulette, Trudie! Let’s start with talking about the genre and age categorization for books. What is a Young Adult book? It is based on the age of the main character? I often don’t find these main characters doing teenager things. They have a huge responsibility on their shoulders, like in The Sound of Stars, which was a YA scifi. 

What makes a book Young Adult instead of adult is one of those subjects that crops up constantly as writers, and sometimes readers, can’t seem to decide on the magical formula that differentiates a YA story from an adult one. Some writers seem genuinely confused by how to categorize their book, and I was there myself when trying to decide where my own novel fit during its conception.

It’s not as simple as character age, as younger characters can be protagonists of adult books, so simply having a teenage character does not make a book YA. There’s also this misconception that a book can’t be YA if it features violence, swearing, drugs, sex, and rock and roll. We’ve all seen how violent The Hunger Games are, right?

Young Adult stories can have all of these! Many books categorised as YA on bookshelves do. YA books can be just as complex as adult ones, in fact they tend to explore a lot of social issues which are reflected in our modern times, such as racism, sexism, homophobia, climate change, you get the idea, because teenagers have always been and will continue to be on the frontlines of revolution and change. You don’t have to look far to find real-world examples of this.

So what makes a book Young Adult? I’d say there are a few traits which carry across all genres of YA fiction, from contemporary to fantasy:

• A YA book must feature a teenage protagonist. Ideally, the protagonist will be no younger than fourteen, and no older than eighteen. YA stories are about teens FOR teens, so the teen experience, however that translates, is at the heart of it.

• The teen experience explores coming-of-age moments such as dealing with school, making best friends, getting a boyfriend/girlfriend, that first kiss, that first taste of alcohol, maybe the first time exploring more adult things like drugs and even sex. None of these are off-limits to YA fiction but must come from a teenage perspective.

• The story should ideally be one of hope. Death and devastating cliff-hangers can happen, but there needs to be some light at the end of the tunnel, some way of crawling back and saving the day. I can’t think of many YA stories which end on a low note. Though I can think of many where beloved characters suffer along the way.

• Lastly, the voice and pace of a YA story tends to be more engaged and personal than adult books. YA stories set a faster pace and spend less time describing environment and detail to get to the action faster when compared to a slower paced adult book. YA stories also focus more on the internal thoughts and emotions of the protagonist, which is why so many of them come packed in first-person. Of course, this isn’t a universal rule as adult books can fit these definitions too; those I would argue are crossover novels.

Thank you for explaining this to me, Trudie! I wish this was knowledge that readers as well as writers had. We all come into reading with perceptions of genres that should be addressed because often it is genres that get the bad name. Related to that, is there anything called New Adult fantasy?

There’s a joke that New Adult books are basically YA books with too much sex, but that’s not quite true. There are certain books by authors such as Sarah J. Maas which are categorised as YA but then have warnings for explicit sexual material slapped on the back because they don’t shy away from detail. Whilst YA books can and do feature sex, most often they skimp on the detail or fade to black!

New Adult, or NA, bridges the gap between teenage years and adult years. Whilst YA may focus on high school, or whatever fantasy equivalent of high school, NA is more college-level and this too can feature a number of “firsts” covering the college experience and entering adult life for the first time, such as independent living for the first time, or a first job out of school.

There have been many discussions online about why New Adult hasn’t become as popular as Young Adult; agents and publishers don’t seem to view it as a marketable category. But as the YA audience gets older, and more actual adults read YA stories, I think there becomes a need for stories which are faster paced than adult but more mature than YA. For one, stories about the college experience are needed for people living them, as I’d argue we need more thirty-something Amazon mothers saving the world. But also, as more and more adults read YA it does divide the audience between those buying and consuming YA stories who want less YA tropes (annoying teens, for example!) and the actual teenagers who these stories are supposed to be marketed at and represent.

Crossover novels also bridge this gap, though I’m not sure if these could be labelled as New Adult. Crossover books tend to be ones that are actually adult books as defined by the author and publisher, but feature a lot of YA-similarities such as a teenage protagonist and a fast-paced story and are therefore mistaken as YA. The Poppy War is one example of a book which keeps getting labelled as YA when it’s clearly adult because, I suspect, it has cross-over appeal.

Another one of my favourite books which has cross-over appeal is The Tethered Mage by Melissa Caruso. She originally wrote this series as a YA fantasy but was asked by her agent to make it adult. Caruso has spoken on Twitter about what that process meant, and how she aged up the story from YA to adult; specifically, she wrote the main character’s decisions to focus on their duty as an adult rather than their emotional whims and wants as a teenager, and this is reflected during the plot and conclusion of the love triangle, which would have taken an altogether different direction if the story had still been YA.

The Love for Fantasy

What does fantasy have that burns you with passion?

I’ve always loved fantasy over every other genre because of two reasons; escapism and the endless possibilities.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a knight. I’m British, so I’ve visited lots of castle ruins in my country and played with plastic swords to enact my own adventures. This naturally developed into a love of the fantasy genre in all forms; books, video games, films, whatever! I love exploring and creating my own fantasy worlds because, as a depressed teen, fantasy worlds were always better than the real one. I think anyone can benefit from a little escapism every now and then.

Fantasy can enable us to explore our own world, our own identity, from the safety of our own imagination. It can help us understand where we and our own narratives fit within the world – or create a new world for them.

Young Adult Fantasy

How do fantasy and YA intersect?

YA fantasy differs from adult fantasy because it comes from the teen experience, or at least tries to cater to it. Teens want stories of hope and change. They want diverse worlds where bigotry don’t exist, or can be defeated. Though dark fantasy can exist in YA, you won’t find much grimdark here because YA fantasy is, in my opinion, all about striving for a better world, a better future.

You mentioned before that you don’t find main characters of YA fantasy doing teenage things. Teenage protagonists are obviously the heroes in these stories in place of adults, but I don’t think this is too far-fetched given that children and teenagers had to grow up quickly in medieval times and throughout other points in history. They’re smart and capable of saving the world. Teenagers in the real world can also lead rebellions where adults have failed; Greta Thunberg, for example.

Yes. And that speaks to the assumptions I come in with and you are helping me understand better. 🙂 Are there certain tropes in Young Adult fantasy that we do not see in other fantasy?

I’d say most tropes that appear in adult fantasy can fit within YA fantasy, and vice versa. There is plenty of adult fantasy with love triangles! There are certain tropes which I think appear more in YA compared to adult fantasy; useless adults and dead parental figures are common, for instance, because what teenage adventurer needs their parents holding them back from the quest?

The story doesn’t need to be about a princess discovering their hidden magical abilities and leading a rebellion to save their kingdom, but I think teenage stories tend to focus on rebellion more than their adult counterparts. YA fantasy protagonists also tend to skew more female than male, which I think relates back to the teen audience.

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between YA and adult fantasy that I haven’t touched on is the responsibility of the author.

Whilst this isn’t related to tropes, I think authors have more responsibility when writing for younger audiences compared to adults, and this reflects in the story and tropes used. Part of this responsibility means including diversity and trying to avoid any harmful representation which teens may be more sensitive to. Content warnings are more welcome for this audience. 

What kind of themes and messages is YA fantasy more ripe to address than adult fantasy? What does your book Sand Dancer teach readers?

I love YA fantasy because these stories are diverse and daring in a world that is often dark, oppressive, and changing in ways we can’t control.

YA fantasy explores the progressive nature of younger generations, and to dismiss the complexity of teen experiences, emotions, and social issues is to dismiss hope. Isn’t hope what fantasy is all about?

Hope is a theme that I hope to carry in all my stories. Sand Dancer is the tale of a girl who wants revenge for an injustice committed but who learns there are greater injustices which need to be fought against, namely the oppression of Fire Walkers, people with fire magic who are locked away because of their deadly and terrifying power. Not only does she fight for their freedom in a world that would see her buried, but she’s a girl who refuses to conform to what her society wants her to be, which I think every teenager goes through!

Though I’m hoping it will teach revenge isn’t always the answer.

What are some of your favorite YA fantasy books?

I grew up on Tamora Pierce and wouldn’t be able to start gushing about YA fantasy without mentioning her! Pierce’s Tortall collection of books are what inspired me, and I suspect many other authors, into reading and writing YA fantasy. The Song of the Lioness quartet has a special place in my heart and is my comfort re-read.

Many of my favourite YA fantasy books include similar tropes to Song of the Lioness, such as the Eon duology by Alison Goodman, Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton, An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir, Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, the Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo, and my most recent favourite We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal. We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to YA fantasy these days!

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Tell us your favorite Young Adult Fantasy books in the comments!

Hope you enjoyed this conversation with Trudie! Find her on Twitter and check out her website.

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