Too 'dark' for Young Adult?

[Wannabe writer]

I am currently working on my first major manuscript and it's aimed at young adults (in my head that's from 11 yrs upwards). While it has a fantastical element it is based in the real world and so does not have the complete seperation from reality that other YA fantasy books might have. I have had the plot worked out for a long time, but I find myself worrying if perhaps it might be too 'dark' for a young adult book.

The issue I have is that in the later half of the book the lead character (a thirteen year old girl) looses her father in a car crash and her mother is left in a coma due to the same incident. In my notebook this worked well for the motivation of the character and for future plot development, however now that I come to write it I am concerned it might be too upsetting.
I am aware that loss is something dealt with in a lot of YA books, however in the likes of Harry Potter for example, the hero's parents are already dead. While this means the books deal with the issues of having lost your parents it does not cover the traumatic incident of the actual loss.

So I am looking for feedback on whether people think this is something suitable for YA?

 

[Pyan]

I am aware that loss is something dealt with in a lot of YA books, however in the likes of Harry Potter for example, the hero's parents are already dead. While this means the books deal with the issues of having lost your parents it does not cover the traumatic incident of the actual loss.

I've no view either way, I'm afraid - but I'd just point out that the actual moment of losing his parents is described and dealt with by Harry Potter in several flashbacks, magical visions and buried memories, so JK Rowling found no problem in this being acceptable for YA.

 

[Boneman]

Hi Wannabee,

many years ago, The Brother's Grimm's stories were full of hack and slash tales of morality for children, and (as far as I know, and I'm open to correction) there weren't thousands of psychologically disturbed children running around because of it. Hans Andersons tales could be quite horrid, and ditto.

My take on it is that people do die, and children learn to cope, even through their grief which they often express better than adults, sometimes. So I wouldn't think it's too dark, it does happen in real life, so you're not doing anything in fanatasy that isn't already there. As motivation it would be very powerful, and hopefully YA would relate to the loss, possibly better than us cynical adults. Go for it.

 

[Urlik]

Terry Pratchett has managed to handle the death of family and friends really well for YAs in his Tiffany Aching books

 

[Wannabe writer]

Thanks for the feedback, nice to know I'm not going to freak out younger readers. I actually tend to write general science fiction (by which I mean I write with no express intent to cater for a particular age range) therefore I wasn't certain if the manner in which the father dies was perhaps too 'real' a theme. But hey, it it doesn't work it wont get published and I can go back to the note book .

 

[Urlik]

another book/series to consider is Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials.
there is plenty there that is similar in an emotional context to the scenario you are writing.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

If I were you, I would ask the librarian in the children's section at your local library. Better yet, you could ask her for suggestions on books you should be reading yourself.

It's always better to go to the experts and do a little research on your own than to ask people online, because no matter how helpful we want to be, if we don't have some specialized knowledge in the field our guesses really won't be any better than yours.

Especially in this case, because a genuine expert is so easy to find and so accessible. It's a librarian's job to answer your questions, so you don't need to be shy about asking.

 

[JB_Dresden]

I say stick with it, if anything, it will stand out against other precedents and might entice some buyers.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The person who asked the question initially hasn't been back in almost a year, and probably won't be back again at all, so I suspect it's a little late for encouragement.

It's unfortunate that we'll never know whether he or she meant to self-publish or submit to a publishing house. If the second option, standing against precedents is not particularly desirable, because the buyer you have to entice first is an editor, and usually the editor won't decide without consulting the marketing department, who aren't interested in enticing "some" buyers. They want to entice a ton of them, and because of that are usually rather unpleasantly attached to precedents, as are the bricks-and-mortar bookstores which make up a huge chunk of the market. If it doesn't make it to the shelves of a bookstore or to an online bookseller, it doesn't matter who might be looking for something a little different, because they'll never see it.

If self-published, it would depend on whether the writer would be happy selling more than the usual hundred or so copies, or instead do the immense amount of leg-work necessary to sell something that doesn't immediately appeal to readers.

A better option, if he or she wanted to go on with the story, and after consulting with librarians and teachers the plot was deemed too dark for YA, would be to write the story in a way that was aimed at adult readers. Or just to write the story because there is a compulsion to write it, for the satisfaction of telling the story that won't go away and must be written, without any real expectation of selling it.

Going against the market sounds daring and clever, but unfortunately it isn't the way to sell book.

 

[A_J_Lath]

^^Or do what I do when your young adult novel has a lot of scary **** in it - sort of get a bit hazy when asked who exactly it's aimed for, lol!

But then again, when you look at a lot of Roald Dahl's works, you can find some pretty creepy stuff there (for some reason, I don't think I ever quite got over the idea of the witches flat-ended feet in 'The witches'), but he was master at that sort of stuff anyway.

I guess you just have to trust your instincts - not go too far, but don't wuss-out at the slightest hint of peril either.