Sometimes, it seems as though every YA novel is about a dystopian world populated by evil, conniving adults who would do anything for power. People are starving, living in fear, fighting for existence, sometimes eating each other. And along comes a girl, a boy, a set of boys and girls with some superpower. Great archers, wizards, vampire slayers, and so on, who through their trueness and bravery vanquish the evil adults.
I ask you to think about that message. All government is bad. All adults in power are bad. A few youths are the heralds of virtue. It reminds me of the old disco song, Holding Out for a Hero, sung by Bonnie Tyler.
Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where’s the streetwise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Whatever happened to youths who overcame the obstacles of being a teen? Those books are out there with some censored by the arbiters of taste, unlike books where adults are killed wholesale or turned into mice.
I acknowledge that all youths and adults are not reading YA dystopian novels, but a lot are. What attracts them? I would wager that the teens and pre-teens, like we all did when that age, are grappling with adulthood, want control, and yet feel disenfranchised by adults refusing to see that they are pre-adult and capable of remarkable things. Thus, the appeal of a story that is based on this very angst. But think of the world promoted by these books.
Lack of faith in anyone who is in charge. Couple that with some social media time and – whoa – it all gets ugly fast since truth can be a bit hard to come by in a world of influencers pushing beliefs that may or may not be exactly true. If you believe all adults are evil, and you can’t trust anyone in power then you are ripe to be attracted like a bass to a shiny spinner by those who claim to be that hero you need.
Because these books sell well, the genre is packed. Admittedly, our current future has a tint of that dystopia (fire, floods, famine, war, lies). Now that the Mockingjay kids are all grown up, can they provide us a hero, or will they watch in expectation as evil actors take control of the world, and, yes, untrustworthy adults? Yikes!
I don’t know. Either way it gives me the whim-whams.
Our responsibility
So about now you’re wondering what the heck this blog has to do with ladies of mystery. Just this. As mystery writers we have a responsibility to consider the world we present to our readers. One where not every adult is a liar, villain, killer, rapist, serial killer or stalked by one (especially across books in a series).
Our heroes and their supporting cast may be flawed but they are human with human skills. For those of us who write historical mysteries, we are careful in our presentation of fact as we weave it into the fabric of our story.
Our mysteries provide a respite from the crazy world, a land where no matter what, everything turns out right. Justice lives in our pages. The bad ones get their just desserts. And along the way, we present our readers with some truths, comfortable or uncomfortable.
Whew, now that’s all off my chest.
Holding Out for a Hero lyrics © Sony/atv Melody
Ladies of Mystery 
Really, really good post and very timely.
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Good article and thought provoking, as usual. The overall theme I don’t like in all of these is that violence is the answer and wins the day. Shoot first and ask questions later. Sad, that. Very sad and scary.
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I just released a Gabriel Hawke book with a dark subject, but I wanted it to show how people can go on and how the evil person or persons do get what they deserve. We do have a responsibility to the readers to entertain but also to enlighten and educate. Good post!
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Your post is very timely for me. I just finished reading a book I expected to like very much–an emigre family, family history, etc. But by two-thirds of the way through, I had to admit that I didn’t like the book, the characters, the story–or the narrator, whoever that was. The whole thing left me cold. Every character was a caricature, and every conversation was an argument or a put-down or some other negative interaction. I don’t consider this honest. In every life, no matter how difficult or ugly, there are moments of kindness, grace, beauty–sometimes hard to see but they are there. It’s our job to show the whole life, the entirety, not a particular slant that we use to impress readers with how savvy we are about life. Good good post.
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