A discussion of YA romances.

Whether you're male or female, writer or no, I'd be interested in some discussion here.

I think I may be weird. Or maybe not.

Let's explore, shall we?

First of all, please read the above link and then come back.





Did you really read it? Go on, read it, and the comments.



Okay, good.



First of all, the stuff I'm writing that I discuss below I wouldn't classify as romances, per se, but yet I feel the topic still applies.

So, the novels I have on the burners aside, to which this most certainly applies, let's just talk about my "Into the Woods" story since I have reactions to it and can discuss it. The story is from the point of view of two sisters: one who is in high school, and one who is in middle school. Initially, the fact that the elder sister is getting it on with her boyfriend, in one way or another, is alluded to in the early part of the story. I may be the only one who has read it and noticed it, and maybe it's so subtle it doesn't matter. As the story progresses, and oh, I know the spoiler is going to break all of your hearts (this isn't Harry Potter or great literature I'm writing here), but the high school sister gets sexually involved. This bothered a couple of my first readers significantly. They were bothered that the high school sister was getting it on, and also (in an early draft -- I edited this out because I didn't want to really freak people out) that the younger sister became aware of her sister's sexual involvement by catching her sister with the sister's lover before the elder sister divulged this detail of the relationship.

Did you get all that?

No one was bothered about who the sister was sleeping with, or the age of who she was sleeping with. But the fact that teenagers were having sex, or aware of another teenager having sex, really, really bothered some people because these were children we were discussing. (It may be interesting to note that those who were bothered are both parents of older kids, and most people who read it in its initial forms weren't bothered.)

The idea that anyone could be bothered by the illusion to the sex in the story never occurred to me. Teenagers think about sex. A lot. Hate to break it to you, but it's true. My high school is an excellent example -- we were on Paul Harvey once for our pregnancy rate. Girls were sent to my high school from out of state upon becoming noticeably pregnant so that they fit in. I didn't fit in with some groups because I wasn't pregnant or wasn't about to be. Just as one example.

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I want to try to write as honestly as I can. All the novels I'm working on (in one form or another, because, you know, stories don't just come one at a time, damn them) have teenagers as main characters, and I hate to admit to this, but romantic elements are involved. Love is powerful. Sex is powerful. And they're particularly so when one is talking about teenagers. So what do we do? Ignore this aspect? Write around it? Completely change what we're writing? Or publish it through Lulu or on-line?

I have recently read three novels that I would either classify as YA Romance, or definitely on the verge of it that had sexual elements, but didn't really explore them to the full potential. But two of them are also firsts in series, and so perhaps this element will eventually be explored.

The first was Holly Black's Tithe, which I totally dug. This book's romantic element mostly dealt with the protags eventual hooking up with major hawt character. Kissing, other gushy moments, no sex. No discussion of sex. Holly, so far, has not shied away from dealing with other potential hot buttons (like particular word use, drugs, and homosexual teenage main characters), so perhaps she'll deal with this. If so, I am excited to see how she deals with this.

The second book is Steffenie Meyer's Twilight, which I also thoroughly enjoyed in a gushy sort of way. Lots of kissing, some spending the night together, mucho gushy mushy moments, no discussion of sex, overtly. (It was sort of dealt with in an analogy sort of way, which was pretty interesting.) I haven't yet read book 2, and book 3 comes out next month. I sincerely doubt she'll deal with overt sexual issues in her books. But she might surprise me.

The third book was Steve Berman's Vintage. This book was fabulous. The main character is gay, and deals with some very hot sexual situations, though there's no actual doing the deed with the main character and the guy who becomes his boyfriend. And why the main character and his boyfriend never do the deed is dealt with. This was an incredibly awesome, brave book. It was, of course, published by the small press. Do you see Tor touching this? No, I don't think so.

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Can anyone think of any YA novels where the main character has sex?

Off the top of my head I can only think of Judy Blume's Forever... and A House Like A Lotus at this point.

Judy Blume (I never thought I'd be writing about Judy Blume in my blog) has also discussed how her editor made her remove a section from Tiger Eyes where the main character masturbates, even though it was really an interesting and important part of the story. (Ask for more details, if you care. Not of the act, but of the book and how this scene fit in.)

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Fabulous trivia: Black mentions her one of her male characters reading Berman's Vintage (her book was published before his), and Berman has one of his female characters reading Black's Tithe.

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Has anyone heard Crowded House's new album?