The Teen Novel is a mysterious animal of sorts. It has a job to accomplish: the difficult task of getting the teenage population to read. It is, however, possible… that is, if it is manufactured completely right.Because all teenagers are ridiculously judgmental and do, in fact, judge books by their covers, the cover of the novel be engineered just right in order to get that teenager to even consider removing a book from a shelf instead of walking right past to go pick up a Seventeen Magazine or something.
A Catchy, One-Word Title
Employed to draw you in, the incredibly sneaky Catchy One-Word Title catches the attention of the teenager (hence the “catchy” part). This One Word Title is typically accompanied by a dramatic, all-telling image slapped on the cover to aid in explaining the purpose, plot, or theme of the novel (the important aspects that aren’t included in the title, for effect of course.) The image must be stylized to represent the complex inner workings of the captivating text within the confines of the cover.
The “Story”
The text, of course, comes next, once the teenager has been lured into picking up the book and opening to the first page (after the title page, the acknowledgments, the contents, and the one meaningless blank page that is always there before the actual story begins). After analyzing, comparing, and computing (gazing at the Young Adult section of Border’s for about two minutes) a great deal of teen novels, three main plotlines seem to guarantee success.
Scenario One: Vampires and/or other mythical creatures interact with adolescent heroine, resulting in sometimes troublesome but most of the time romantic effects.
So, its obvious that everyone and their mother is aware of and in love with Edward Cullen or Jack Black, so I’ll save some time here and not touch Twilight otherwise. Besides, there are a great deal of other stories that fall under the Scenario One section that deserve undeserved recognition and popularity.
The girls in these types of novels discover unexpectedly that they are in love with a werewolf, dating a werewolf, dating a vampire, becoming a werewolf, becoming a vampire, becoming a witch, or dating or becoming a gremlin, a pixie, or a unicorn. Their normal lives change drastically because of their riskiness and how drawn they are to their mythological more-than-a-friend. But will the normal world come between them and their honestly true love and keep them apart forever?
Examples: Betrayals, Need, Wings, Shiver, Twilight, Tempted, Wicked, Immortal.
Scenario Two: A “popular crowd” of some sort becomes problematic for the protagonist, who finds herself repulsed but at the same time somewhat drawn to her school’s elite: causing a conflict for the main character which results in a novel.
Characterized by teenage shenanigans and cat fights that hold more importance than they seem to, Scenario Two novels have very few options as to plotlines, so it’s pretty much a miracle that they are written at all.
At some point, an unexpected relationship develops between the main character and a male leader of the pack, who is somehow deeper than the rest and understands her struggle, because he secretly has a struggle too.
There, of course, has be some variety within the novels, so usually the names of the main characters differ from book to book, along with the school they attend and where it is located.
Examples: Alphas, Private, Privilege, Untouchable.
Scenario Three: A seemingly normal teenager or someone within their family or close inner circle of friends begins to combat an sudden or previously unnoticed social evil, mental or physical illness, or something else really messed up, and their previously perfect lives descend into total chaos and destruction that sometimes gets resolved by the end (but sometimes doesn’t).
Novels in this category exhibit a blatant disregard for the rules, confronting controversial issues like eating disorders, drug use, teen pregnancy, drug pregnancy, anorexic infants, and anorexic drugs. These books are for those rebellious teens who are indeed rebellious (and don’t you forget it), but are just not rebellious enough to open up a book without writing profanities inside of it or burning it.
Examples: Tweak, Crank, Glass, Wrecked, Skin, Skinny, Liar.
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