Author: lalindseyp

Coming-of-age while out and proud: In decades past, the world of queer YA literature comprised cautionary tales and sob stories

Jill Ratzan writes about how queer representation in young adult literature has taken a significant turn for the better and rather than vilifying queer characters authors are writing about the everyday experiences and the realistic struggles and hardships queer characters have to endure not only to find their identity but also to find support within their identity and their community. While queer representation in literature hasn’t always been portrayed in a positive or healthy way Ratzan describes how authors are making a switch and representation of the Lgbtq+comunity has become more positive and has been a healthy and relatable role model for millions of queer-identifying youth.

In the world of Young Adult Literature Lgbtq+ characters, especially teens identifying within the Lgbtq+ community have been vilified and used as basic plot points to only better the story for the heterosexual main character couple. While it could be said that they were represented within this genre not all representation is good representation. Frequently in stories, queer characters are not taken seriously in their endeavors whether they are romantic or not. They are simply there to further the story. In many stories, it is the queer couple that suffers the most or ends up without their happy ending, and while not every story has a happy ending it is most frequently that we see queer characters suffer

More recently authors have begun to portray queer characters in a positive and healthy way whether it be a coming-of-age story about finding yourself, discovering your identity, and overcoming the hardships that come with being a queer-identifying youth or whether its a string independent character being the hero of the story that just so happens to be queer. Authors are beginning to give queer youth role models in books that they can look up to and really find themselves in and relate to. Now more than ever queer representation isn’t something that is rare and belittled.

Ratzan, Jill. “Coming-of-age while out and proud: In decades past, the world of queer YA literature comprised cautionary tales and sob stories. Thankfully, these two new novels stand out for their uplifting and romantic perspectives.” BookPage, May 2019, p. 28. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A583249872/ITOF?u=maine&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=6c63d520. Accessed 17 Jan. 2023.

The Song Of Achilles By Madeline Miller

“When he speaks, at last, his voice is weary and defeated. He doesn’t know how to be angry with me, either. We are like damp wood that won’t light.”

The Song of Achilles tells the story of the Trojan war and the years before when young Patroclus has been exiled from his kingdom. The young Prince meets and falls in love with Young Prince Achilles and later the two venture off to war together after training for many years in the mountains. Despite Achilles’ best efforts to protect his lover from his fate foretold by the gods, Even a demigod cannot protect Patroculus from what awaits him.

Achilles and Patroclus are introduced to us at a young age. Patroclus was exiled to Pithia after a deadly act of violence. For many people, Patroclus is simply the side hand to the great hero of the Trojan war, however, Patroclus was not only a skillful healer but was a warrior to be feared.

Miller uses her own rendition of the classic story to give us new sides to characters that everyone knows yet she is able to keep the story engaging and interesting because although it is based on the Illiad by Homer she makes it completely her own in a way that not only makes it easy for younger audiences to understand the story of the classic tragic hero that is Achilles but she also takes the preexisting characters and takes the relationship between them and turns it into something that would transcend the test of time.

The Song of Achilles is a story of friendship, love, and honor but it also unfolds the cruelty of men and war and how it affects so many others. The book explicitly tells a story about how sometimes a person can become the very thing they never thought he would become. While the Greeks Achilles is a leader and a great warrior Patroclus is able to see Achilles as what is beneath all that. As the war rages on Achilles refused to lead his troops to battle and became consumed with the honor that Agnamemnon stole from him by taking his property. Achilles lets the stive for honor behold all of his other ambitions for love and remembrance and similarly to the original story, this leads to the end of anything that Achilles held higher than his desire to be remembered for the great hero and lover that he was.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown’s gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana rushes to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the heart of Coldtown itself.

Holly Black takes the overused tropes of girls and monsters in a dystopian reality and gives it new life by not following the standard formula for her characters and story themes in the early 2010s. Tana Is the heroine of the story and instead of needing to be saved by the two boys she instead saves them countless times. Even when Tana finds herself in a tough situation she finds a way out of it by herself young with her own willpower, intelligence, and strength to best Countless powerful and bloodthirsty Vampires. 

While The world seems to be in a craze about coldtowns, and its vampires, Tana Would much rather live a comfortable life on the east coast beaches with her best friend. While most stories with Female lead characters Are full of unrealistic action sequences and supernatural power to give the main character an edge over her enemies, Tana never needed that. Out of Everyone introduced to Us in the story, Tanna was the only one who had no desire for the power and immortality that came with going cold, nor did she need to. Tana was able to beat multiple vampires with just what she could find lying on the floor and at some points just her bare hands. 

While romance is a subplot in the book, it doesn’t completely overtake the main plot or action of the overall story. Tana proves time and time again that while she loves Gavriel She has no need for him. While countless other books follow the same trope Holly Black takes it in a new direction and gives it new light by creating one of the strongest lead characters I have read,  and tackling heavy topics such as grief, PTSD, parent death, alcoholism, teenage love and heartbreak, suicide, torture, and survivors guilt while still keeping the book lighthearted and thrilling. 

While this book is still meant for a broad audience of Young adults the overall dark themes are very evident and might be quite gruesome and uncomfortable for younger readers. I think as long as you are prepared for a dark story with heavy and dense topics it would be an amazing book to read.