Weird YA fiction trends – Massive book length and dark content

There are two interesting trends in young adult fiction today and the ‘spheres have been buzzing excitedly about each. Since they (or more specifically, their absence) directly apply to the League of Scientists book series, I wanted to address them here, and explain my own thoughts.

YA books are dark and depressing

I’m not talking “Neil Gaiman dark”, where the darkness is more about atmosphere and spookiness and creepy crawly spine-grabbing events. I’m talking about nasty stuff, like the content of a slasher movie starring a disfigured murderer and his pet chainsaw. This link gives pretty graphic detail about the prevalence of violence and other bad things in YA fiction.

YA books are long and bloated

Today’s YA and children’s books are huge! What happened to the 150-page book? Does everything that comes out really need to be 500-plus pages? I consider myself an avid reader and I sink a little inside when I think about having to commit to getting into a series where every book is so long. If the content is great, then fine. But often, the word count seems more of an attempt to imitate the trends set by Harry Potter, Twilight and others. The book suffers from a lack of a good editor. More does not always mean better.

Current weird trends and the League of Scientists

I suppose a question here is “why” – what reason does the YA reader have for wanting a long book length or dark content? I confess I don’t see the attraction. For those interested in how this affects the League of Scientists: I don’t agree with or follow either trend.

I stay away from R-rated themes. Yes, I suppose I could turn dark and scary, but… well, I don’t want to focus on the darkness and depression. I’d like to be able to enjoy what I write, to be able to show it to my daughter and have it be something she can enjoy. While I’m certainly unstable and weird, I don’t really have any hidden demons to purge, no corrupt evil to explore. Besides, everyone’s doing that and it’s getting old.

I don’t want to craft a huge book when a shorter, more concise one will do just as well. Yes, I suppose I could crank up the word count, but the story is meant to be a fast, enjoyable, escapist read, just what I’d like to read myself. I have a low tolerance for padding.

How did these extreme trends become the norm? Apparently there are a lot of readers, authors and publishers who feel we need these things in order to have a good story.

I think they’re wrong.