Posted by on Jul 31, 2009 in Jennifer Donnelly, Young Adult novels | 2 Comments

Blown Away by YA

Sometimes strange things happen. I’ve been reading Young Adult novels, for a project I’m hoping to be chosen to work on and – to be blunt – it’s been a chore. Most of what I picked up seemed angsty and febrile, neither of them in a good way. I know young adults are angsty (I was one, possibly, emotionally, still am!) and I can remember back into the depths of history to when my life was one long fever dream of hope, expectation and despair. But still … my general reaction was a very young adult ‘meh’.

And then I got close to the bottom of my reading pile and found A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly and was entranced.

Okay, there were places where big issues (like racism) were dealt with in a way that I felt could have been more subtle, but within the limitations of theme imposed by YA writing (or at least YA writing for publication, which seems fairly strictly regimented) everything big and deep was handled deftly and with honesty and passion. Based on the true story of a murder, the novel contains issues of feminism, race, education, love and family breakdown, and the voice in which it is written is as clear and compelling as sitting down with a friend and listening to what she has to say.

I’m not often surprised by literature these days, if you read a novel a day it takes something really astonishing to make you look at the world differently, but A Gathering Light changed my view of what YA fiction can be like, and changed it for the better. And now I really hope to have a stab at the genre myself …

2 Comments

  1. Jennifer Zuniga
    3rd August 2009

    wow, you read a novel a day! That’s very impressive! 😉 I think once the fall weather is here, I’ll be curled up and snuggling with a book more frequently also! 🙂 something about that cold weather! I hope that you’re doing well! xx Jen

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  2. jem
    6th August 2009

    I try to read a few YA novels each year. I try to read the highly recommended ones, hoping to get the cream of the crop. Some are disappointing as you say, but sometimes I hit a winner that offers as much if not more than many ‘adult’ novels. I too enjoyed ‘A Gathering Light’. I read ‘Angel Blood’ by John Singleton a few months ago, strange but quite special.

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