I've been reading a fair amount of young adult literature lately (this is the designation for books written primarily for adolescents), and of the books in this genre, Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower struck me as particularly good. But then again, I also enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy and am presently speeding through The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. Why, you may ask, am I reading the same books that people half my age are reading? Because they still have relevance.
There's something about this genre that appeals to all audiences. It's why the Hunger Games are blowing up in popularity. It's why people will never stop loving The Catcher in the Rye. In a word, this magnetic quality of young adult literature is its earnestness. The narrators in these stories are often so direct with their emotions, with their thoughts and feelings, that anyone can relate to them. Combine that earnestness with the universal conflicts of adolescence (struggling to find an identity, striving to belong, craving love, and alternately fearing and longing for the future) and you've got a work that has the ability to touch anyone. Because as we get older, these conflicts never really go away. We just become a little more adept at handling them.
Few people in real life are ever so honest, open, and direct as the narrators and characters in this genre. To be so directly engaged and allowed into another's world is immensely refreshing. Even if the person we're connecting with does not technically exist. That doesn't matter. The conflicts exist. The feelings exist. The person that wrote the book exists. And the experiences and events that inspired him or her to write in the first place... those exist too. And all of these facts lead to a reading experience that, while fiction, can feel much more real than most works of nonfiction. The ability to make a reader feel, to evoke a genuine reaction from us-- this is the mark of a good work of literature.
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