Young Adult fiction is all the rage now, thanks to The Hunger Games and the Divergent series. The movie versions made them hotter. The trilogies by Suzanne Collins and Veronica Roth feature YA staples — a young girl on the cusp of adolescence and adulthood as protagonist; a dystopian future; violence, and the executioner’s face, which is mostly well-hidden, revealed to be that of a horrid, control-freak adult.
For all the gloom and rage, the books have their lighter moments — the prepping for the reality show that is the Hunger Games is all about fashion, and there is always a love triangle — does Katniss love Gale or Peeta? Will Tris and Four get together?
Cassandra Clare’s YA fantasy series, The Mortal Instruments , set in present-day New York, features a young woman (again) Clary, who discovers she is a demon hunter, and between saving the world from evil creatures, she has to decide what to wear when going on a midnight bike ride on the rooftops of Manhattan with the dishy demon hunter Jace.
At first glance, James Dashner’s The Maze Runner (2009) seems to follow the YA template. There is 16-year-old Thomas, on a quest in a dangerous, dystopian world that doesn’t make any sense. The adults, as is the case with most YA, are either scary figures of authority or ineffectual. At the end of The Maze Runner , Thomas and his fellow gladers have escaped the maze, killed the grievers (the half metal, half fleshy, gooey monsters are the stuff of nightmares), have been rescued and taken to a safe haven. The conceit of youngsters fending for themselves without adult supervision is reminiscent of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies .
In Golding’s book, however, the arrival of adults sees a return to normalcy. In The Maze Runner , however, there is no respite. Just when we think all is well, we get to know that the maze was an experiment by a shadowy government organisation, with the catchy acronym W.I.C.K.E.D., to find a cure for a virulent plague called the Flare, which drives people insane. Dashner has written two sequels to TheMaze Runner – The Scorch Trials (2010) and The Death Cure (2011). The prequel, The Kill Order (2012), is set 13 years before The Maze Runner , and reveals how the world came to be destroyed by human cruelty and callousness. What sets the trilogy apart from other YA is the unrelenting grim desolation.
The light at the end of the tunnel in The Death Cure comes at a very high price. Through the books, you realise dying is not the worst that could happen. Losing your mind and knowing that you will turn into a vicious, violent thing is infinitely more terrifying. The knowledge that the Flare was caused by humans is one more nail in the coffin of despair. The terrible burden Thomas has to carry, Newt’s poignant knowledge, the horrific crank palace, are all deeply disturbing, and make you long for the innocent worlds of Hardy Boys , Frodo or Luke Skywalker from a galaxy far, far away.
Frodo goes through a lot to destroy the One Ring; Luke has to deal with his father being the wickedest man in the galaxy. To all who argue that TheLord of the Rings (1954) and Star Wars (1977) belong to a simpler time, there are Thomas’ peers in Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter. Both the lads go through a lot of nasty stuff, but finally triumph over their respective nemeses and walk into the sunset of a safe world.
With Dashner’s TheMaze Runner , you feel imprisoned in the dungeons of Giant Despair, with the key definitely thrown away. The addictive page-turners with the annoying argot are very popular with youngsters, who seem to enjoy the nihilistic despair, and differentiate between fact and fiction.
As a 14-year-old said, “It is just a book!” Ah! For the confidence and faith of youth before cynicism confirms there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of by the gloomiest YA writer!
