A look at young adult fiction
Lennoxville library
While I normally write my column about books for the youngest audiences, I have decided this time to focus on a Young Adult book instead. Young adult fiction, or “YA” is a growing genre whose target audience is people between the ages of 12-18. Despite this target, people of all ages read YA. It is not a new genre, for the past hundred years or so there have been books which particularly appeal to this age bracket. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Swiss Family Robinson are all classic examples. In YA books the protagonist’s stage of life and experiences reflect the reader’s age. Over the years YA has tackled a lot of taboo and pressing issues for youth. With greater and lesser degrees of controversy, young adult fiction has addressed topics like eating disorders, suicide, teen pregnancy, drugs, sexual assault, and racism, to name a few. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it does provide a quick insight into the deep and challenging questions faced by teens and young adults that fictional universes help unpack.
I have been a fan of YA novelist John Green for a long time. He has written or co-authored six books for teens and young adults, two of which (The Fault in our Stars and Paper Towns) were recently made into films. While some authors don’t have much of a public face beyond their books, John and his brother Hank have a longstanding Youtube channel where they post videos twice a week discussing all kinds of topics. Their video diary has also branched off into a number of other ventures including the educational video series Crash Course and Sci Show which are aimed at a high school level audience. Over the period of now more than a decade that the Green brothers have been making videos, they have served as the focal point for an enormous community that has helped to highlight countless causes and issues facing the world.
Looking at Green’s novels, though, the stories all deal in different ways with the life of American teenagers. In contrast to other recent bestsellers in the YA genre, Green writes contemporary fiction set in the USA, allowing teen readers to explore ideas in their daily lives rather than the struggles of life after the collapse of civilization as we know it.
I have read all his books and I liked all of them.
His most recent book, “Turtles All the Way Down” is the story of a 16 year old girl named Ava, who sets out to solve the mystery of missing Indianapolis billionaire Russell Pickett, while simultaneously dealing with an increasingly out of control mental illness. In the story, Ava is doing her best to navigate the challenges of teen life, trying to be a good daughter, friend and student, while also living with uncontrollable “thought spirals” of anxiety.
Despite extensive therapy and strategies the protagonist is overwhelmed by the invasive and external thoughts that seem to spiral in her brain. She tries to control her obsessive thoughts with compulsive behaviors which become increasingly harmful both to herself and her relationships with friends and family.
The book is very emotional and at times difficult to read. I found myself deeply empathetic and uncomfortable with Ava’s thoughts. One of the things that makes the story an interesting read is knowing that the experiences described by Ava in the story are a reflection of the author’s own real-life struggles with mental illness. During the time Green was writing this novel, he came out to his millions of online followers about his own diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder. He wrote this book about a young woman, but knowing more about Green’s life, it has an autobiographical tinge to it, and a close reader can find many of the issues that come up in the story in videos he posted prior to the book’s release last year.
At a time when anxiety and mental health issues are getting more attention than ever, Turtles all the Way Down gives its readers a small window into the very real pain and isolation of mental illness. This book offers the reader insights and connection to a highly relatable teenage character, while not downplaying the significance of her mental pain and highlighting some of the stigma and misunderstanding that surround mental illness.
I would recommend this book to anyone, but particularly people who have a child or loved one who is struggling with mental health. It is a great opportunity for conversations and deeper learning on the topic. Check it out today from your local library!