Many of you may have noticed The Hunger Games is about to be released as a movie. It’s a very entertaining book, but also sparked a lot of debate about violence or heavy themes in teen literature – young adult books are ‘took dark’, some say. I’ll be interested to see how the gory bits translate to the screen.

Personally, I read a lot of YA books, and don’t mind violence or dark themes at all but just wondered what others thought.

I think a lot of YA literature is dark. I think it taps into that angsty teen thing.

some definately are. there is one aussie author, whose books are supposedly some of the best out there, but they are some of the darkest books i've read (in one especially, the daughter is sleeping with her brother, and the father finds out, and shoots the son).

Well considereing I was reading adult fiction at aged 13, I find young adult books pretty mild. I happily read Anne Rice's vampire books at 15 so Hunger Games seems like nothing to me.

It really does depend on the teen though. Some can cope better than others.

I think that many of them have little respect for their teen readers to work out plots or deal with challenging vocabulary, so the only way to distinguish it from a "kid's book" is with dark themes.

I'm reading The Hunger Games at the moment and I love it. I don't think it's too dark unless the teen has been fairly sheltered. It puts struggle and oppression into a bit of perspective. Most kids have ever had to consider where their next meal will come from and they take a lot for granted. I think it would be great for the average 15+.

As for things like Twilight, I don't believe its too dark. Its the genre, vampires and werewolves and pretty tame IMO. I would let my teenager read it unless they have issues with nightmares or take things too literally.

I am also one who read some Anne Rice at 12 so this stuff is pretty tame. When my Aunt found out I was reading Anne Rice at 12 it was taken away and forbidden but she found it after I finished reading lol

Its not by accident that Disney discontinued trying to make money from fairy tales last year. 'Tween' is the new teen.

I was reading 'adult' literature when I was in my teenage years, so by my standards they are a bit tame, too. I've not really read any recent works (save for Twilight - biggest waste of time in my life), but I would think that it is just keeping in line with the thematic vibe of television shows and movies. As the content in these movies become more accessible, then the trend is going to reflect in YA Fiction too. You can get away with a lot more in YA as well, because it isn't so explicit as it is on a screen.

If guided (by a teacher, parent, etc), the average teen could read beyond the obvious questionable issues and delve into the messages that the book is dealing with, because that is the crux of YA fiction really, more than the actual story.

At the risk of getting flamed OP, I will put on my armour and tell you what I think is happening.

Back in 1991 women who would struggle for feminism and equality would still take their girls to watch a Disney heroine like Belle, who was able to teach them the valuable lesson that you can still turn a beast into a man if he really loves you and your worthy of him... just dig deep enough girls and you can find that diamond in the rough. Ostensibly, rather than win the war for female-kind and declare the battle done, each generation would rather have seen the struggle continue to the next, so that it could be off-loaded and they could sit in judgement on its current state and lament past conflicts like old soldiers.

But then kids got the internet and everything changed. Boys pretty much disappeared from young adult lit ten years ago, and the remnant became predominantly a girls market. Boys went off to play computer games (but, newsflash, girls are now following them in increasing numbers). Adult lit matured. Girls have no intention of sucking down 'bright' fairy stories any more. What you consider 'dark' represents a real liberation of young women IMO, away from characters like Belle and towards heroines like Merida of Brave, girls who face their beasts with bow and arrow in hand and are dead-shots to boot.

Twilight (2005) was a transition piece, you wont get another heroine perplexed about having to choose between necrophilia or bestiality, you will get ones that know they have to kick ass and chew bubble gum at the same time or be stomped on.

With The Twilight phenomena a lot of young adult books have gone the whole supernatural theme. There are so many books about vampires and werewolves and 'undead' and ghosts. But if you look past that trend there are still quite a lot of really good other choices. I read a lot of YA books and I particularly love the dystopian genre, like Hunger Games and The Pretties (or the Uglies) series.

When I was a kid I read a lot of Monica Hughes and Victor Kelleher and Christopher Pike. These are pretty similar to the ones out now, they were fairly dark too.

But there are plenty of 'chick lit' teen books, series about girls in high school and lots of family drama type ones as well as plenty of comedic books. I also used to read Caroline MacDonald which could be described as having a theme of family but were also a bit intense at times.

And what was that awesome series about the girl who found her face on a milk carton? I think it was called the Face on The Milk Carton. That was intense too!

I don't think much has changed!

I think it has always been dark. Just think about Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War. That is about 100 times more intense than Twilight.

(has YA fiction possibly become dumber too?)

I did find Hunger Games overly violent. Especially the last book. I really liked them but I wouldn't want my young teen reading them.

Nup,

I don't think it's too dark, but it really depends on the kid. I was reading books like the Lord of the Rings when I was 10 so most of it is pretty average.

I don't think it's anything new though. Have you read any Roald Dahl lately? I was reading charlie and the chocolate factory to my niece....man that is dark! Perhaps not violent, but it deals with poverty, starvation, inequality of resources and many other adult themes.


I've just finished reading Hunger Games, I thought it was very good! Excellent female role model, and male ones for that matter! I think it is more than suitable for 12-15 age bracket.

Anything that gets kids reading is pretty positive!

I have nightmares that my children will grow up to be the kind of kids that say "nah, I'm not reading that, I've seen the movie"

There's a huge trend at the moment for dystopian novels (ie THG), post apocalyptic or paranormal romance/urban fantasy and those do often have dark themes, but they also have other themes too. THG also has a huge line of hope running through it and fighting for what you believe in and the chance to overcome oppression. This is little different to any books set previously during war time.

When I was a teen it was all Sweet Valley High, which LOOKS all happy and bubbly but there was plenty of rape, death, illness and drama etc in them too. I think books in general, genre distinction aside can be dark because so can life. We all deal with death, depression, loss, illness, war etc and sometimes we want to read about it. Alternatively we also deal with birth, love, joy etc and there are plenty of YA contemporary romances and women's and general fiction out there that cover those topics too.

Hmm, YA lit being 'dumber' is interesting.

I actually think there are more dangerous themes to worry about than violence. Twilight is a good example. I really think that series is a shocking example for young women. Katniss Everdeen is an infinitely better heroine than the passive, insipid Bella Swan. I've got to admire Edward's restraint, because she was so insufferable I certainly wanted to bite her...

I don't think the Hunger Games was all that violent really.. quite sanitised even. The set texts for high school English, which are mostly adult literature, often contain a bit of violence and even sex.

I think most YA literature that has been successful has themes that teens can relate to. Teens are not silly, nor sheltered. Most do see that the world can be a dark place. John Marsden's "Tomorrow" series beginning with "Tomorrow When the War Began", was quite dark in many ways, it was about Australia invaded and at war. However it also focussed on how resiliant and resourceful teens can be.

I wouldn't say that YA lit is too dark, but I would say that the world can be a little too dark and therefore literature reflects this.

I must've had a bad mommy! I was reading Anne Rice, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, etc from about 11yo...and they bought 'em all for me

Pre-teens/teens enjoy the darker stuff. They also like light books such as the Travelling Pants titles. Teen emotions run the gamut, as do the books geared toward them.

Yes! Twighlight models such a dysfunctional co-dependent relationship!

I actually do think a lot of YA fiction is too dark. Perhaps I mean too graphically violent, with an exceedingly grim view of humanity. I don't like The Hunger Games (I enjoyed part of the first book - went downhill from there) and the same with the very dark John Marsden books. I don't know if you can talk seriously about Twilight as being anything but fluff - I can't, anyway.

There is some very good YA fiction which is dark without being so graphically violent. If you look at Joan Aiken's work, it's actually pretty dark stuff - but exceptionally well written with a real respect for the reader. With The Hunger Games, the respect was for the film industry who was going to make the author millions.

I love Diana Wynne Jones' work (also quite dark, if you look at the Year of the Ghost, for example!) and Robin McKinley's stuff too. To me, they are "young adult literature" whereas the kind of books which seem to sell millions aren't anywhere in the same category.

I think that literature can be dark - have themes which touch on death and suffering - without being violent, or without having a view of humanity which is so unredeeming. I think the more graphically written the violence is, the more immune the reader becomes to it. These difficult ideas - is it ever ok to take another human life, how much should an individual sacrifice for someone else - become lost with the increasing body count.

I read a lot of adult literature as a teen, too - loved Hemmingway for example, whereas nowadays I find his stuff a bit overblown - but I actually think a lot of YA is a lot darker. I'm thinking of the over the top end to the Harry Potter novels. I personally feel that it's the sign of a poor author, needing to build up the excitement by knocking off characters.

I don't think so although there is a lot more of it available which probably means there is a lot more dumb stuff as well (as well as loads of intelligent, well written work that really shouldn't be 'branded' as only being for young adults). I was a teenager in the 80s when those Flowers in the Attic books were all the rage with teenage girls. While I am not a huge fan of the Twilight series (have read the first couple to see what all the fuss was about - but couldn't be bothered with the third), these are a definite improvement on Flowers in the Attic and their ilk. I also think that populist writing has a place in getting getting kids into reading at all. Remember a high school librarian giving a year 8 student a merit award for borrowing and getting through his first library book - was a non-fiction book about serial killers! She just laughed and said that if serial killers can get Year 8 boys into reading, then they are okay by her.

Yeah the end to the Harry Potter novels did seem a little over the top in some ways. Harry Potter and the excessive death count... still, I don't think it was pointless. It did have a big impact.

My 10-12yo sister in the 80's/early 90's was reading Christopher Pike (Murder/Mystery Books) so IMHO some dark themes are nothing new for the age group.

As for school reading at 12/13 Z for Zachariah post apolyptic or Twopence to Cross the Mersey at 14 were some darker themes to explore.

I went straight from Enid Blyton & Judy Blume to Adult books at 12/13 so missed the YA stage (Shirley Conran "Lace" and the Goldfish was very enlightening reading at 13yo)

Ha ha. Similar to me. I remember devouring Colleen McCullough's Thorn Birds and Tim at about age 14. Also remember a girl bringing a full on trashy erotic novel to school and passing it around in Year 8. Don't know what it was called but was intrigued by one of the characters using her electric toothbrush as a vibrator (didn't even know what a vibrator was, of course).

I don't know, I never had any issues, I was reading adult horror books at 15 (they had quite alot of sex in them). I guess there would be some out there who would find it too much but I guess that is like everything and if it is too much for them then they should stick to other books.

Loved "The Hunger Games". My DD1who was 11yrs old at the time had read Lord of the Rings etc loved it as well.

She is now 12 years and has just finished reading "Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas" and this book she found more disturbing - because the theme was factual and not fantasy.

Midnight Dad, just how much experience do you have with kidslit? Or YA lit?

Or feminism for that matter?

Melvin Burgess, John Marsden, Wynn Jones were all pushing at the boundaries decades ago. Cormier, Blume, Mahy etc etc. Dystopian fiction has been fashionable in young adult writing for decades now.

I kind of have to agree with Fancy and Epic here. I'm a book blogger and reviewer for YA lit and, honestly, I can't agree with Midnight Dad's assertions.

Dystopian fiction has been, and remains very popular and whilst I still take issue, as a feminist, with a lot of Teen YA written - there are some really, really great young women being written and boundaries have consistently been pushed for a long time now.

Also, what consistently surprises me, is how much of my readership for YA is male and reads books predominately marketed towards teenage girls.

As for YA lit being too dark? No. Violence may have gone up a little, but dealing with sexual issues in a realistic fashion has gone way down. Though Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser was a refreshing - though extremely dark - break from this trend.

No, what I am finding is the number of insipid YA novels is drastically on the rise - and it may just be the end of me.

A great Australian YA author is Lizzie Wilcock. She has written 'Give Me Four Reasons, Extinction 1 & 2 and Losing It'.

Has anyone else come across her books? Great reads.


Edited for spelling

At the age of 13 I started to storm through Stephen kings massive collection so to me ya fictionwould have been to light.

Teens want grit.