The Problem with (Most) Young Adult Fiction Today

Welcome to my first blog post of 2021! I’m excited to start the new year (a little late, admittedly) with you all.

But, first of all, I just want to say—thank you. Thank you to all those who filled out this survey with feedback on Quill of Hope and its content. When I first started Quill of Hope in July 2020, I had no idea I would be surrounded with these amazing readers that are so willing to support me and my work. I’m honored to have you all along for the ride.

In this blog post, I’ll be unveiling one of my many themes for future blog posts, and a problem I’ve discovered in the past year—the young adult audience. More specifically, the YA audience isn’t the problem, it’s the books provided for the YA audience that make a huge difference.

Scanning the shelves

I’ll launch this with a little story:

As we neared the end of 2020, one of my new year’s resolutions was to read more. A lot more. So I compiled a pretty long list of books I wanted to read in 2021, keeping my eyes peeled for Christian YA fiction.

Did I find many?

Sadly, no.

Growing up, my mom had a huge influence on my reading life. She filtered through multiple book lists trying to find books rich with Christian themes, moral characters, and clean language. You’d be astonished at how difficult it was to find books that fit the criteria growing older, to the point where I was reading middle-grade fiction up until my early teens. Not that I was sheltered at all—I read books that were older than my age in my elementary years (and still do today!).

But as I’ve gotten older, that criteria for books has rubbed off on me. I can’t count how many times I’ve scanned over a young adult library shelf to find nothing that didn’t contain profanity, inappropriate scenes, and secular themes. This brings us to a problem.

Is this what we’re feeding teen readers today?

Teens have a reputation of being bad. The popular teen stereotype is overgrown teens, crazy busy with school, glued to their phones and social media, being given low expectations by the world.

But have we stopped and considered that perhaps it’s not only what’s on digital devices that causes low expectations but that it’s also the quality of books available for teens nowadays?

We’ve all heard of the popular adage, “you are what you eat.”

I could flip that saying and turn it to “you are what you read.”

Because. . . it’s true.

Reading is feeding your mind. If you feed your mind junk, aka the books that the world is trying to throw at teens nowadays, those things just might take fruit.

Now, I’m not saying never read books that are dark—in fact, when God works through us writers, darkness is a tool. Because only when it’s dark can the light of hope shine through—that’s a fact. But there’s a difference between using darkness as a tool, a stage prop for something better—hope—and cherishing the darkness. Because without light, darkness is not worthy of our attention. We, especially as Christians, should stay focused on the Light—Christ—instead of the devil and his evilness.

But is dark YA fiction what the world is trying to feed teens today, not to show Christ, but instead to push the darkness in teens’ faces? Is YA fiction nowadays trying to show the running theme: darkness is worthy of our attention? Darkness is better than Christ?

I’m not pointing out or referencing any books here, because choosing what to read is also a matter of one’s personal convictions. I’m not saying never read secular YA fiction or only read books by Christian authors. But I, personally, am choosing to use wisdom in the books I read and the ideas I’m exposed to through them.

Are we going to change this?

Just like the teen rebellion against low expectations (I highly recommend Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris), are we going to do something about the spiritual “junk” being hurled at teens nowadays?

As a writer, I’m doing something to change this. One of my goals for writing is to provide the YA audience with clean fiction filled with thought-provoking Christian themes that point back to Christ. And that’s not saying my stories will be fluffy and light—they won’t and probably never will be. But the point is, I’m using the darkness to shine the light of Christ. I’m writing the books I’d want to read—the ones that are dark, but at the same time, reveal soul-searching Christian themes.

I’ve discovered some amazing Christian authors who are writing YA fiction who are already doing what I want to do. They’re providing the YA audience with amazing books that are full of Christian themes. I’ll be making a blog post on some of my recommended ones soon, but until then, I’d love to hear your recommendations.

But here’s my point: you don’t have to accept the popular books the world is throwing at us. You can choose what you want to read—and that will make a difference.

What are your thoughts on the YA fiction books nowadays? What kind of fiction would you like to see more of? Do you have any YA fiction book recommendations? I’d love to hear your thoughts, and keep your eyes peeled for a book recommendation post! :)