80s/90s teen fiction was very different to today.

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, young adult literature featured teens dealing what adults perceived to be the big issues: prom, shopping, curfews, popularity and strict parents. It was a world where enterprising thirteen years olds formed babysitters clubs, where identical twin Barbie dolls got involved in identity switching hijinks, and the nerdy girl often hooked up with the hottest guy in school. In other words every book was a fantasy: nothing on the page had much bearing on real life for teens. So teens stayed away, either skipping straight ahead to adult literature or ignoring books all together.

Sure there were some bright spots. SE Hinton's classic The Outsiders in the 1970's depicted teens dealing with gang warfare, social class and family issues. Authors like Judy Blume, Robert Cormier, and Avi write (and still write) about teens facing issues ranging from puberty to strong external pressures from various areas of life. Their books are still widely read today, a testament to the fact that real issues continue to endure and resonate.

But by and large most teen fiction didn't deal with reality. In the 1990s Dinah Stevenson of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, looked at the many TV series tie-in novels on YA bookshelves and lamented what she called the “slow death of young adult literature”. She argued that since many teens could barely read, let alone read well, books were out of the question for them. The few that could read well skipped straight to adult books. The only market for YA fiction was for preteens or “tweens” who longed to be considered older, but still needed easier books to read. Essentially Stevenson was guilty of the same sin as many of the YA authors at the time: she was underestimating the teen audience for books.

In the 2000s we saw people of all ages waiting in line for hours for the newest Harry Potter or Twilight installment. This proved that teens can and will read- if there's something they're interested in reading. It wasn't long before publishers smelled money and bookstore shelves were lined with teenage witches, wizards, faeries, vampires, angels, werewolves, demons and more.

Numerous people speculated on the popularity of the teen fantasy novel. Popular theories included the fantasy as a metaphor: the teens are a time of change. Teens enjoy seeing that change is reflected as a main character goes through a literal metamorphosis from human to vampire/werewolf/zombie/whatever.

Twilight

Another theory is that these books are about wish fulfillment. In Twilight, Bella Swan, a teen who perceives herself as plain and unremarkable becomes the romantic interest of the hottest guy in school (who just so happens to be a vampire who has eschewed human blood). But the vampire aspect is secondary- the romance is the primary appeal to teens.

Clary, the heroine of Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments trilogy also sees herself as unremarkable, only to learn of her destiny to be a demon hunter. Teens often feel lost, purposeless and unsure what to do with their lives. Anyone who has ever felt that way can understand the appeal of finding out you have a unique destiny to fulfill. It eliminates the need for all those pesky choices we face in real life. According to the critics who propose such theories, these books appeal to adults who are nostalgic for a time before their choices were made, who long for that first high school crush again.

Some of these theories might touch on the appeal of teen fantasy novels but they don't really explain some of the books that break the mold. Case in point: author Libba Bray. Around the same time Twilight was taking over the shelves and people were choosing Team Edward or Team Jacob, Bray published her debut novel A Great and Terrible Beauty, the beginning of Bray's “Gemma Doyle” trilogy which continued with Rebel Angels and A Sweet Far Thing. While many claimed that Twilight lacked a strong female heroine for teen girls to look up to, A Great and Terrible Beauty introduced four flawed but engaging Victorian teens who attend the Spence Academy For Young Ladies, and are beginning to feel that their corsets are too tight. At the same time they become caught up in a power struggle between dueling matriarchal and patriarchal cults for the power over a mythical realm. For the first time in their sheltered lives these girls are given choice; over the supernatural world they've discovered and their own lives. While there is a romantic subplot, unlike Twilight and it's imitators, the romance isn't the main attraction. Of our four heroines not all feel unremarkable though one does. This series was also a major best seller and pretty much destroys the notion that all teen fantasy is about the romance or the nostalgia for a simpler time. These gals lives' are anything but simple!

Bray broke the teen fantasy mold again in her follow up novel Going Bovine (also a best seller). This book abandons the Victorian error in favor of modern times and follows a hero rather than a heroine. Though initially our hero is more of a slacker than anything else. Of course a diagnosis of mad cow disease, a lawn gnome who may or may not be a Norse god, a cult devoted to happiness, a foul mouthed fairy, a dwarf sidekick and a trip to Disneyland change all that. There are a few wishes come true but few adults (or teens for that matter) would envy the main character who is on a quest to find a cure for mad cow disease before it kills him. True his choices haven't been made, but a dying hero has few choices. So the appeal lies elsewhere.

The Book Thief

Then of course there is the curious case of Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief. Set in Germany during the Holocaust and narrated by Death himself (who is very overworked), this novel observes a young orphan who hoards books and rescues them from book burnings. She shares her literary treasures with the Jewish man who hides in her foster parents basement and the two discover the power of literature to communicate. Death ends the novel with his words to humanity “you all haunt me”. In Zusak's novel people are all varying shades of gray with no one purely good or bad. For this reason Death is unable to understand us and is haunted by his confusion. It's technically a fantasy as it's narrated by the embodiment of Death, but it is more importantly about complex relationships in extreme circumstances and both the beauty and horror of which human beings are capable.

Luxe

While the fantasy theories might hold true for some- not all- of the fantasy novels, they still don't explain the appeal of non-fantasy YA literature that is devoured by the young and old. The covers of Anne Godberson's Luxe series may remind you of the cover art of Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle trilogy but there's no fantasy here. The Victorian lasses in the Luxe represent the crème de la crème of New York Society and scheme and manipulate their way up and down the social ladder. . The series follows four of these lovely ladies over the course the turn of the century 1899-1900. The covers of the four books that make up the series The Luxe, Rumors, Envy, and Splendor proclaim that “this age is anything but innocent”. They're right. If Edith Wharton wrote soap opera this is what she'd have come up with. There isn't a demon, a vampire or an evil wizard in sight. Though some of the human characters are just as scary!

Of course the contemporary realistic fiction- the stuff that most resembles our own daily lives- might be the hardest to figure out. Books like Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak don't provide any escape. Instead they show us what is most difficult to face, most uncomfortable in our lives. Speak won attention and acclaim for presenting a tale of a girl who takes to silence following a rape by a classmate. Laurie Halse Anderson's subsequent books dealt with similarly tough, but real topics. Ellen Hopkins' novels in verse also feature teens trying to cope with issues ranging from drugs to abuse to mental illness. Patricia McCormick's Cut and Sold have tackled similarly tough stuff. Happy endings in these novels are rare and hard earned. You're more likely to see a mixed ending. Happy for some but less so for others.

Many people think that today's young adult novels are popular with adults because they feature stories that have too much adult content for the young. While Speak was a finalist for a National Book award, it's been challenged and banned by several school districts. One parent went so far as to call the novel “smutty”. Ellen Hopkins was barred from speaking engagements several schools due to the “age inappropriate content” in her books.

Speak

Speak author, Laurie Halse Anderson, combats such accusations saying “Contemporary young adult literature surprises people because it is an accurate reflection of the way today's teens talk and behave. But these books must be honest in order to connect to the teen reader....Reading and discussing books is one of the most effective ways to get teens to think through and learn about the challenges of adolescence.” She goes on to say that teens “ cannot afford to have the truth of the world withheld from them. They need us to be brave enough to give them great books so that they can learn how to grow up into the men and women we want them to be.”

Perhaps that level of honesty in literature appeals to adults too. But others believe that adults like teen novels for a less sophisticated reason. "I think part of the reason we're seeing adults reading YA is that often there's no bones made about the fact that a YA book is explicitly intended to entertain," said Lizzie Skurnick, 36, author of "Shelf Discovery," a collection of essays about young adult literature from the 1960s and 1970s. "YA authors are able to take themselves less seriously. They're able to have a little more fun, and they're less confined by this idea of themselves as Very Important Artists. That paradoxically leads them to create far better work than people who are trying to win awards."

Whatever the reason, a barrier has recently been broken regarding who reads what. Teens and adults have been given a common ground on which to communicate. People who were never excited about reading, are now seeking out books. It's hard to see that as anything but positive!