arts & entertainment
Supernatural
success
Paranormal fiction gains
popularity with teens
By J. Rentilly

THE DEATH OF TEEN LITERACY has been greatly exaggerated, as it turns out, and it’s not only the vampire blockbuster series Twilight taking a substantial bite out of adolescent Twittering and joysticking. Capitalizing on the wild success of Stephenie Meyer’s bloodsucking saga, virtually every publisher is fast-tracking—and hitting the commercial and critical jackpot with—young adult novels bearing supernatural themes.

In coming months, bookshelves will be packed with the extraordinary, teen-targeted adventures of hunchback spies, immortal teens, werewolves, phantasms and, of course, more vampires.

“We’re very much in a golden age of teen literature right now, and many of these books are about paranormal or supernatural subject matter,” says David Levithan, editorial director at Scholastic and a widely acclaimed young adult (YA) author himself. “Reading can be a great escape for teens, so the fantastical certainly feeds into that.”

Levithan believes that two literary series—Harry Potter and Twilight—are primarily responsible for the sudden surge in paranormal prose aimed at teenagers, stating that “part of this trend is trickle-up”—young readers who were hooked on J.K. Rowling’s boy-wizard extravaganza and are looking for more mature thrills—and “part of it is trickle-down: adult readers grabbed by Twilight who no longer feel silly or stigmatized for reading ‘kids’ books.’ ”

Megan Tingley, senior vice president and publisher at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, who also acquired and edited the Twilight saga, agrees. “[These books] put children’s fiction on everyone’s radar screen, and that, along with the rise of the Internet, set the stage for the YA explosion. Suddenly, everyone was looking for another great book to read and the media was looking for a new, great publishing story, and the Internet provided a way for fans to share their passion for a new author or book at lightning speed. It was like pouring gasoline on a fire.”

So along comes Alyson Noel’s Evermore; Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series;

the House of Night series by P.C. Cast and daughter Kristin Cast; Kelley Armstrong’s My Darkest Powers trilogy; and the birth of an entirely new genre called “steampunk,” a collision of Victorian tropes, steam-pow-ered technology and high adventure, as epitomized in

Arthur Slade’s The Hunchback Assignments. Many of these authors also pen adult fiction, but are particularly enamored of their prom-bound readership.

“Teen readers are fiercely loyal to authors, they read a lot of the books, they recommend a lot of books and they really treat reading as a significant, not just a leisure, activity,” says Clare, bestselling author of the Mortal Instruments series, which features vampires, demons and Shadow-hunters in a battle for the future of the human race.

The keys to captivating teen readers, according to most successful YA authors interviewed for this story, are clear, clean storytelling; honoring readers’ intelligence and never writing down to them; and characters, characters, characters. Alyson Noel, whose Evermore deals with star-crossed lovers who possess otherworldly powers, says, “It’s important to keep the writing honest and authentic. Today’s teens are smart and savvy, and no matter how fantastical the world the author creates, readers want to connect with the characters in a very real way.”

The powerful relationships readers create with their fictional doppelgangers account for the large number of YA series. Few YA

smashes are one-hit wonders; instead, they are part of a trilogy or more, not only for commercial reasons, but also because readers e

adventure, as epitomized in

authors also pen adult fiction,

as a significant, not just a leisure,

which features vampires, demons and

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readers’ intelligence and never writing

The Costco Connection A variety of young adult fiction with paranormal plots and characters will be available in most Costco warehouses and Costco.com in September and October.

L.J. Smith’s series The Vampire Diaries has been turned into a TV series, which premieres this month.

crave that ongoing relationship.
“Readers form connec-
tions with the characters, and
they want to stay with them.
An annual book is like an
annual visit from an old friend.
That may be even stronger with
teens,” says Bitten author Kelley
Armstrong. “They’re at the point
in their lives where relationships
are vitally important, and that
may extend into their relationship
with a beloved series character.”
But why do so many of these books
grapple with zombies and vampires and
ghosts? “Most teens feel alienated in high
school, so the idea of actually being—or
meeting—an alien or a witch or a ghost is
actually relatable to them,” says Little,
Brown’s Tingley. “They think their lives are
boring, and the supernatural world is more
interesting and provides a means of escape
from everything they don’t like about their
own lives.”
But House of Night author P.C. Cast, who
relishes reinventing vampire lore, believes the
entire process begins with an author being
true to him- or herself, regardless of the tar-
geted age group. “The thing that makes these
books good is that, for each one, I tell the
story I want to read,” she says. “Other readers,
young or old, follow from there.” C
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J. Rentilly is a Los Angeles–based journalist who writes about film, music and literature.