Depressing Teenage Novels- Have we had enough?
Reading has always been one of my favourite, if not my absolute favourite, pastime. Books have always been a source of attraction to me: imaginative, transportive, absorbing. A good book is a pleasure, and there are quite a few on the market. But in the last few years I have noticed a difference in the selection in bookshops; say, for example, Eason’s. There are shelves and shelves of young children’s books; and then about two to three walls of books which are deemed “suitable” for teens. A giant selection of all the same kind: dank, dark, depressing, dismal, dreary, despondent books. And that’s all. Two choices. The little kiddies books- and the bleak horror books.
The books which, apparently, ALL teens are reading are of a brief category: vampires, depression, murder, and, more recently, terminal illness. A book based on this morbid theme has recently reached no. 1 and, although it may be an excellently written book, the storyline is the definition of melancholia. For this seems to be the way with authors who write for teens: a brilliantly written book, with a storyline that would make one as sad as the unfortunate characters involved, whatever their plight may be. There are relatively no books for us teens who have a distaste for the morbidity that is the teenagers’ book selection.
But don’t get me wrong. As I have mentioned, these books are excellently written. I have read The Hunger Games and found them to be fairly enjoyable and slightly addictive: the sign of a good book. But is that really good, when you’re reading about pain, loss, and bloodshed? I’m not so sure. The thing with those books is that once you’ve read one, you’ve read them all, in my opinion. The theme is so gloomy and unvaried that one might wonder what the point is of having so many books published, all about more or less the same thing.
Now, there are a few really good, pleasant books- the classics, like ‘Anne of Green Gables’, ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘Little Women’. These are the small collection of books which have delighted children and teenagers- up to a point- alike. All set in the 20th century, at the earliest. It seems that books which were not filled with despair and disillusionment seemed to fade away after the millennium- probably a while before. But there are a limited number of them, unlike the doleful teenage category, which seems to go on forever. And once you’ve read the classics, there’s really nothing else. You’ve got to move on to adult books then. I did find two books for teenagers, ‘Jenny Q’ and ‘Prim Improper’ which were not downcast, but upbeat and funny, and I enjoyed them immensely. Only two. That is what it has come to with apparently “popular” teenager’s books and the minutely small amount of books with less misery involved: a ratio of about 50:1 respectively.
So that, in conclusion, is how the teenage bookshelf is looking now. Despondency and misery fill it to the brim. Titles like “Fear” and “Stone Cold” feature largely along its gloomy wall. Although I am a passionate lover of books, depressing titles simply do not appeal. There are too many sob stories for teens on the shelves and far less upbeat ones. And I think there are plenty of others out there who would agree with me when I say that reading should be something to enjoy and appreciate, that should feed your imagination and knowledge. That might be difficult enough if the only books around are novels full of depression and dejection.
Sample Essay by Karen Garvey