Reading YA: Where Do Trends Come From?

Vampires. Zombies. Sea monsters with an unfettered love of double java chip frappuccinos. In the book world, trends appear to come and go quickly–the Twilight vampire boom is already coming to an end, just five years after Meyer’s book hit shelves the world over. Fie years? Although that may seem a long time, it’s really only 2-3 publication cycles. But where do trends come from? Do authors band together to write books of the same ilk? Or are they the result of a rare and spectacular cosmic boom?

The short answer: it depends. Few trends appear fully formed from the cosmic ether (or Zeus’ head). Most come from a combination of cross-media pollination, cycling, and what I think of as the trickle-down effect.

Cross-Media Pollination
This is exactly what it sounds like: cinema influencing books influencing music influencing cinema. But the lines of influence are rarely so direct. In actuality, they’re closer to the zigzag path a bee takes as it flits from flower to flower, revisiting some, entirely skipping others.

Musicals are an excellent example of cross-media pollination, particularly Les Miserables. A books first, it’s spawned a host of new media–Les Miserables, an 1862 novel by Victor Hugo (also of The Hunchback of Notre Dame fame, though the less said about the Disney adaptation, the better), was adapted for cinema audiences as early as 1907, and continues to influence music, stage, and, of course cinema. Countless novels–including Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (and, to a lesser extent, Anna Karenina), a classic in its own right, can be traced back to themes of redemption, rebirth, spirituality and exploration of the psyche in Les Mis.

Cycling
Although “what goes around comes around” might seem like an oversimplified version of karma, it’s a pretty apt description of the cycling–and recycling–of trends in the book world. In the pre-Twilight era (yes, there really was one), Anne Rice was the Queen of the Elegant Undead, and LeStat her hunky Brad Pitt lookalike king.

Vampire fiction has been around since the 18th century, and had a regular sort of resurgence every few decades. Until Rice, the most well-known (modern) vampires in the world was Bela Lugosi’s Dracula (1931) and Max Schreck’s Nosferatu (1922) (if you haven’t seen Nosferatu, get thee to Netflix right now)–both of which were based on books (cross-pollination, people!). But sometime in the mid-1930s, vampire fiction slinked back into its coffin, keeping largely out of the limelight until the 1976 publication of Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. (The first two of John Matheson’s influential I Am Legend series predate Rice.)

Vampire fic remained mostly dormant until the 90s, when the world hit another boom. Can’t remember back that far? Here’s a quick rundown (or check out a fairly comprehensive lit list here):

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie
• Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer series and its later counterpart, Angel
• Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter
• More Anne Rice; the Brad Pitt Interview with the Vampire film adaptation
• Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls
• Orson Scott Card’s Lost Boys
• P.N. Elrod’s I, Strahd
• Dan Simmon’s The Child of the Night
• Marvel’s Blade franchise

The 1990s vampire boom is, so far, the longest lasting–partially because film and television caught the trend early and kept it alive. Despite the success of Joss Whedon’s Buffy, the downturn came in the late 90s, as readers moved on to boy wizards and magic.

And then Stephanie Meyer’s first novel, Twilight, hit shelves in 2005, and reached Harry Potter/worldwide phenom status around 2007-2008–and the cycle began anew.

The Trickle-Down Effect

Much like cross-media pollination, trickle down is one thing influencing another–in this case a particular audience, YA and adult literature. The book world is sort of like a giant pyramid, with YA and kid lit at the bottom, then other demographics like 18-25 (new adult/crossover), 25-35 (singles, newlyweds) etc. above those all the way to the top. Trends start anywhere on the pyramid, then trickle down to the next level and the next until saturation.

Most often, because I’m a YA writer, I think about the pyramid in reverse–I look at the trends in YA (like the current vampire cycle) and see how they feed into adult literature. I’m not trying to predict trends so much as work out why some things work and others don’t, and, more importantly, help non YA folk understand the importance of teen and kid lit. If I wanted to do some magic YA hand waving trend prediction though–the kind agents and editors have to do–I’d be keeping my pyramid right side up and checking out what’s hot in adult literature.

One example of an adult trend influencing YA is chick lit. Chick lit became a Big Deal in 1996, with Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary. In the 90s, though, most YA was too serious to fit the chick lit genre. This isn’t to say there weren’t fun and funny books, but rather that the focus was, for the most elsewhere–solving a mystery (Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew, James Patterson’s Maximum Ride) winning a competition, following a calling/proving girls are as capable as boys (almost everything Tamora Pierce has ever written), and princess wish fulfillment (don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it, people)–rather than the slice of life relationship stock most chick lit depends on.

Sometime around 2000-2001, YA chick lit started to pop up in bookstores. It wasn’t as light and all round humorous as its adult counterpart, but it was about being a girl, fitting in, balancing school/work/books and, in many cases, an abiding love of a given thing–shoes or cupcakes or politics or soccer or a dozen other things. It’s a more realistic version of the girl-meets-boy/girl/vocation, with a funny-because-it’s-true feel. And for the most part, YA chick lit has kept its serious core (and I much prefer it over the adult version)–some of it even tends to the literary. A few examples of YA chick lit:

• Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen, This Lullaby
• Ann Brashares’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series
• Meg Cabot’s Princess Diaries series (but only just)

So what trends might be trickling down into YA just now? I’m not an analyst, agent, or editor–and trends could come from anywhere–but from a purely trickle down point of view, my money’s on Phillipa Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl)-meets-YA style historical fiction (separate to historical fantasy). How about yours?

Where do you think trends come from? What influences them?

Image Credit: Book…in blue by NKZS