I love when small trends in YA books emerge. A lot of the time, the books have nothing to do with one another in terms of plot, but there are common elements that still somehow tie them together. I’ve been keeping note of some of the interesting microtrends from this year and last, and I’d love to hear if you can think of other small trends or other books that fit into any of the trends below.

All descriptions come from WorldCat and/or Goodreads. 

Amish

There is a whole subset of Amish fiction, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about books outside the “Amish fiction” genre. Worth noting is that all of these books came out before the TLC show Breaking Amish, but I’m curious to see if that brings out more of these types of stories.

The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle: Amish teen Katie smuggles a gravely injured young man, an outsider,
into her family’s barn despite the elders’ ruling that no one can come
in or out of the community while some mysterious and massive unrest is
wreaking havoc in the “English” world.

A World Away by Nancy Grossman: Sixteen-year-old Eliza, an Amish girl, goes to work for an “English”
family as a nanny to two young children, and must then choose between
two entirely different ways of life.

Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins: But I love Noah. And he loves me. We met and fell in love in the
sleepy farming community of Meadowview, while we rode our horses
together through the grassy fields and in those moments in each other’s
arms. It should be Rose & Noah forever, but it won’t be. Because
he’s Amish. And I’m not.

Genderless Characters

These books do something neat and something incredibly challenging from the writing and reading perspective: they’ve developed main characters who don’t identify as either male nor female.

Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff: Sixteen-year-old Kid, who lives on the streets of Brooklyn, loves
Felix, a guitarist and junkie who disappears, leaving Kid the prime
suspect in an arson investigation, but a year later Scout arrives,
giving Kid a second chance to be in a band and find true love.

Every Day by David Levithan: Every morning A wakes in a different person’s body, in a different
person’s life, learning over the years to never get too attached, until
he wakes up in the body of Justin and falls in love with Justin’s
girlfriend, Rhiannon.

Circus Tales

Both of these books came out this year, and I wonder how — if any — influence there was with Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus.

Circus Galacticus by Deva Fagan: Trix’s life in boarding school as an orphan charity case has been hard,
but when an alluring young Ringmaster invites her, a gymnast, to join
Circus Galacticus she gainss an entire universe of deadly enemies and
potential friends, along with a chance to unravel secrets of her own
past.

Wonder Show by Hannah Barnaby: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step inside Mosco’s Traveling
Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to
astound and amaze! But perhaps the strangest act of Mosco’s display is
Portia Remini, a normal among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy’s
Home for Wayward Girls, where Mister watches and waits. He said he would
always find Portia, that she could never leave. Free at last, Portia
begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her father’s
disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? It’s a story
for the ages, and like everyone who enters the Wonder Show, Portia will
never be the same.

That Time I Joined the Circus by J. J. Howard (April 2013): After her father’s sudden death and a break-up with her best friends,
seventeen-year-old Lexi has no choice but to leave New York City seeking
her long-absent mother, rumored to be in Florida with a traveling
circus, where she just may discover her destiny.

“The Turn of the Screw” Retellings

Retellings aren’t really news or all that trendy (think of how many Jane Austen or Bronte sister books have been retold for modern times), but I find this one on Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw” to be an interesting one. I think part of it is because if you’ve read one, you have a good idea where the next book’s twist will happen. You’re pre-spoiled in a way.

The Turning by Francine Prose: A teen boy becomes the babysitter for two very peculiar children on a
haunted island in this modern retelling of The Turn of the Screw.

Tighter by Adele Griffin: Based on Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” tells the story of Jamie
Atkinson’s summer spent as a nanny in a small Rhode Island beach town,
where she begins to fear that the estate may be haunted, especially
after she learns of two deaths that occurred there the previous summer.

Tales of “The Furies”
The Furies have been showing up, both in the traditional sense of their mythology and through re-worked story lines.

Fury by Elizabeth Miles: After high school junior Emily hooks up with her best friend’s
boyfriend, and football quarterback Chase’s life spirals out of control,
three mysterious Furies–paranormal creatures that often assume the
form of beautiful women–come to town to make sure that Emily and Chase
get what they deserve.

Starcrossed by Josephine Angelini: When shy sixteen-year-old Helen Hamilton starts having vivid dreams
about three ancient, hideous women and suddenly tries to kill a new
student at her Nantucket high school, she discovers that she is playing
out some version of an old tale involving Helen of Troy, the Three
Furies, and a mythic battle.

Furious by Jill Wolfson (April 2013): After becoming the Furies of Greek mythology, three angry high school girls take revenge on everyone who deserves it.

Vengeance Bound by Justina Ireland (April 2013): Amelie Ainsworth longs to graduate from high school and live a normal
life, but as an abused child she became one of the Furies, driven to
mete out justice on the Guilty, and lives on the run from the murders
they commit.

Flapper era
I don’t call this a recent trend, since it’s an era that made an appearance in Anna Godbersen’s recent “Bright Young Things” series and Jillian Larkin’s “Vixen” series. But there have been a few titles tackling the flapper era with both a nod to the flappers but with less emphasis on “Gossip Girl”-esque drama.

The Diviners by Libba Bray: Seventeen-year-old Evie O’Neill is thrilled when she is exiled from
small-town Ohio to New York City in 1926, even when a rash of
occult-based murders thrusts Evie and her uncle, curator of The Museum
of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult, into the thick of
the investigation.

Debutantes by Cora Harrison: It’s 1923 and London is a whirl of jazz, dancing and parties. Violet,
Daisy, Poppy and Rose Derrington are desperate to be part of it, but
stuck in an enormous crumbling house in the country, with no money and
no fashionable dresses, the excitement seems a lifetime away. But a
house as big and old as Beech Grove Manor hides many secrets, and Daisy
is about to uncover one so huge it could ruin all their plans – ruin
everything – forever.

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown (June 2013 — no cover yet): Anna Van Housen is
thirteen the first time she breaks her mother out of jail. By sixteen
she’s street smart and savvy, assisting her mother, the renowned medium
Marguerite Van Housen, in her stage show and séances, and easily
navigating the underground world of magicians, mediums and mentalists in
1920’s New York City. Handcuffs and sleight of hand illusions have
never been much of a challenge for Anna. The real trick is keeping her
true gifts secret from her opportunistic mother, who will stop at
nothing to gain her ambition of becoming the most famous medium who ever
lived. But when a strange, serious young man moves into the flat
downstairs, introducing her to a secret society that studies people with
gifts like hers, he threatens to reveal the secrets Anna has fought so
hard to keep, forcing her to face the truth about her past. Could the
stories her mother has told her really be true? Could she really be the
illegitimate daughter of the greatest magician of all? 

Set in the 1980s or 1990s
This is another trend I don’t think is new but it’s one I keep coming across and find worth noting — and I guess technically it’s not a microtrend, either, since there are a good number of books featuring settings in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, I bet I could have written an entire blog post on this trend alone. What trips me up about these books is I can’t call them contemporary but it makes me feel a little weird calling them historical, too — a couple would easily be historical though because they tackle historical events. Also a lot of the time the setting isn’t interesting for me as a reader. It seems like it serves as a convenience either through the author’s own experience or as a means of avoiding dealing with the plot holes that technology could bring. Not always, but often.

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (March 2013): A sweet, moving novel about two misfits finding love in the most unexpected of places.

The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt: Thirteen-year-old Drew starts the summer of 1986 helping in her mother’s
cheese shop and dreaming about co-worker Nick, but when her widowed
mother begins dating, Drew’s father’s book of lists, her pet rat, and
Emmett, a boy on a quest, help her cope.

Running Wide Open by Lisa Nowak: Cody Everett has a
temper as hot as the flashpoint of racing fuel, and it’s landed him at
his uncle’s trailer, a last-chance home before military school. But how
can he take the guy seriously when he calls himself Race, eats Twinkies
for breakfast, and pals around with rednecks who drive in circles every
Saturday night? What Cody doesn’t expect is for the arrangement to work.
Or for Race to become the friend and mentor he’s been looking for all
his life. But just as Cody begins to settle in and get a handle on his
supercharged temper, a crisis sends his life spinning out of control.
Everything he’s come to care about is threatened, and he has to choose
between falling back on his old, familiar anger or stepping up to prove
his loyalty to the only person he’s ever dared to trust.

 Bitter Melon by Cara Chow: With the encouragement of one of her teachers, a Chinese American high
school senior asserts herself against her demanding, old-school mother
and carves out an identity for herself in late 1980s San Francisco.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth: In the early 1990s, when gay teenager Cameron Post rebels against her
conservative Montana ranch town and her family decides she needs to
change her ways, she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center.

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler: It’s 1996, and less than half of all American high school students
have ever used the Internet. Emma just got her first computer and Josh
is her best friend. They power up and log on–and discover themselves on
Facebook, fifteen years in the future. Everybody wonders what their
Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

 

Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal: In 1985 Brooklyn, New York, sixteen-year-old artist Ari learns about first love.

Yesterday by CK Kelly Martin: After the mysterious death of her father and a sudden move back to her
native Canada in 1985, sixteen-year-old Freya feels distant and
disoriented until she meets Garren and begins remembering their shared
past, despite the efforts of some powerful people to keep them from
learning the truth.

Serial Killers
Sometimes it’s the main character and sometimes it’s someone closely related to the main character.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga: Seventeen-year-old Jazz learned all about being a serial killer from his
notorious “Dear Old Dad,” but believes he has a conscience that will
help fight his own urges and right some of his father’s wrongs, so he
secretly helps the police apprehend the town’s newest murderer, “The
Impressionist.”

Velveteen by Daniel Marks: Velveteen was murdered at 16, but that’s not her real problem. Life in
purgatory is hard work when your side job is haunting the serial killer
who killed you. 


Henry Franks by Peter Adam Salomon: While a serial killer stalks his small Georgia town, sixteen-year-old
Henry tries to find the truth about the terrible accident that robbed
him of his mother and his memories, aided by his friend Justine but not
by his distant father.

Have any titles published in the last two years to add to any of these trends? Have you seen any other microtrends worth nothing? Or are any of these trends you’d like to see more of? 

It is no secret Anna lives a charmed life. Her best friend calls her existence a soap bubble: Anna’s never dealt with trouble or had any problem come up that couldn’t be solved with the flick of a wrist. But the day she finds the stray toy doll and learns it belongs to Abel — or more specifically, his little sister Micha — Anna is bound and determined to learn more about this boy who her classmates call the Polish peddler. She’s drawn in not just because he’s a mystery and it’s clear that his life is so much different than hers.

She’s drawn in because of the fairy tale he’s telling Micha. One about a little queen who loses her home to the sweltering seas and must travel high and low looking for a place to stay. A safe place, away from the dark ship. The trouble always looming just within eyesight. The dark ship wants to take the pure diamond away from the little queen.

Antonia Michaelis’s sophomore novel The Storyteller is one of the bleakest, darkest, and shocking books I’ve read in a long time. What looks like it should be a fairy tale — even a grim one — is much denser and much more troubling than it appears. The thing is, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Michaelis’s book opens with a very brutal and bloody scene, but because the writing and storytelling is itself savvy, readers forget about that and are instead drawn right into the self-same fairy tale as Anna. This review is spoiler-ridden, though they’re light spoilers unless otherwise noted.

Abel’s life is the opposite of Anna’s. He’s living in a grungy apartment with Micha alone, but it’s much more than that. He’s not Micha’s official guardian, and he can’t gain legal custody until he turns 18 in a few short months. But since their mother went missing and Micha’s father (who isn’t Abel’s father) is not an okay choice, he has to make due. It’s tough, but he’s able to pick up a little money and they make it work. One night, though, Micha’s father turns up dead, and suddenly, Abel is a suspect. Except Anna’s not sure she believes he would do that. She’s learning a lot about him, about his grief and his strength, through how he treats his sister and through the story he tells them. In the story, he plays the role of a sea lion, and he’s always there to guide the little queen toward safety and give her warning when things look grim.

Stepping back for a second, it’s worth noting this story is told through third person. Throughout the passages where the story shifts to the fairy tale, the language moves with the fantastical pacing and style you’d expect of such a story. When the story is in the present, there is something interesting going on writing wise — it feels as though there is something lurking. Like there is indeed a black ship on the horizon. Because we can only see in so far, we have to trust Anna from a distance. But she, too, begins feeling suspicious that she might be being followed. That she isn’t alone when she’s with Abel and Micha.

Abel is visited by a social worker, and it’s here when the stakes in the story soar. The worry about whether or not Micha would be removed from Abel’s care is at the surface. But when that social worker ends up mysteriously dead, well, one problem is solved but more are now emerging.

I’m talking about this book a little bit out of order because talking about this next part is difficult, and this is spoiler. Skip down two paragraphs if necessary. Through the course of the story, it becomes obvious that Anna is falling for Abel. He’s broken and yet, he’s gentle with her and gentle with his sister despite everything. She loves him for his ability to weave a good story, too, and to make them all feel safe. One day, Abel kisses Anna. Suddenly, this is much more — and it’s what she was really hoping for deep inside. The two of them go for a walk one evening, and Anna is ready, more than ready, to have sex with Abel. They’re at a shed out by the water, and while she’s rehearsing everything in her head about how her first time should be, Abel is cautious. He’s not watching her advances. He’s not letting her near. Until he does. Until he rapes her. It’s a painful scene to read, and it’s even more harmful knowing there was a sudden twist in Abel’s character. What we were led to believe about him has just been ripped from us and from Anna.

At this point, it should be obvious Anna needs to get away from him. It’s also obvious her soap bubble’s just been burst. She’s hurt and aching, and everything she thought about him has been changed dramatically. But Anna doesn’t tell anyone what happened. Instead, she bottles it up. She wants to get him help — and she reaches out to their teacher, who she trusts, to aid Abel. Michaelis is attentive to how she handles the rape and subsequent actions on Anna’s part. She’s bruised and hurt and feels betrayed by him. And she mourns and frets but she also knows Abel behaved this way not because he intended to dominate her or humiliate her. But because he hurt so much. Because that was how he was trained to behave (here’s foreshadowing). Getting him help was what she needed to do.

Something I didn’t mention about Abel was that he earned his nickname as the “Polish peddler” because he sold drugs. That’s how he made his money on the side. Anna accepts this as truth, but following what happened between them, the truth unravels through a nasty trick played on Abel by a fellow classmate.

By the black ship that’s been haunting Anna and the reader on the surface.

By the black ship that’s been following the little queen and her pure diamond heart in the fairy tale.

Abel’s truth is awful. For a 17-year-old, he has indeed endured more pain and trouble than anyone ever should. Anna aches for him and she even forgives him for what he did to her. Because suddenly, she gets it. He behaved that way because that’s how he’s been raised. Because that’s what’s been drilled into him. Because that’s how he’s survived. Because that’s how he protects and cares for Micha.

That’s how he’s been the sea lion.

Right when it seems like the story is ready to be settled, though, readers are reminded of how The Storyteller began. They’re reminded that there is still that black ship on the surface. This book ends brutally. But maybe what makes it so bleak and so distressing as a reader is that the ending — and yes, we’ll learn where the mother is, and we’ll learn how the teacher attempts to help Abel — is that it almost feels like the ending is right. Everything that these characters have worked for and toward and everything that’s foretold through the parallel fairy tale comes to a conclusion that it needs to come to. But it’s horrific. And brutal. And awful. And yet…

Without doubt, Michaelis’s The Storyteller is one of the most memorable books I’ve read, and I think this is a definite dark horse Printz contender. A huge kudos goes out to the translator of this book, too, because it does not suffer in translation. You wouldn’t know that it wasn’t originally written in English, as it is that tight. The book reminded me in many ways of Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels, but it worked much better for me because it was realistic (whereas Lanagan’s is a grim fairy tale without a basis in our world). Likewise, there are definite undertones of Janne Teller’s Nothing. Though there are romantic tones in the story, this is in no way a romance, nor is it uplifting. I feel I need to hammer that home once more — this book is brutal and bloody and shocking, even for someone who likes this kind of stuff. That means, of course, there is a readership but it’s going to be a hand sell book to those whose reading tastes you know well. It’s challenging and literary but it’s incredibly successful in execution. The Storyteller is absorbing.

I would never have picked this book up because the cover doesn’t tell me anything and neither does the description. But it was Leila’s review that put it on the map for me, and it was this review over at Someday My Printz Will Come that made me click purchase on my cart. Antonia Michaelis’s book will be on my mind for a long, long time. Readers who love startling YA that dares to go there, The Storyteller exists for you.

The Storyteller is available now. Reviewed from purchased copy.