It comes as no surprise that a recurring theme in young adult fiction is the search for identity. When else, than amongst a sea of hormonal peers, do we feel more pressure to form an identity, a way to be defined?
Since many of us aren’t fulfilling wizard destinies or being weighed down by the burdens of a post-apocalyptic world, novels featuring ordinary characters living, for the most part, ordinary lives might offer up just the right dose of catharsis.
Books set in realistic locales — high schools, pizza parlours, concert venues — offer readers a sense of “that could be me” type realism and relatability.
In This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales, 16-year-old Elise Dembowski spends an entire summer studying up on all that is hip, cool, and fashionable. Elise vows to break free of her outsider status in hopes of gaining the coveted “popular” title. When school finally starts and Elise’s plan fails utterly and completely, she almost gives everything up — that is, until a chance encounter with a group of wacky and peculiar outsiders at a mysterious midnight warehouse party changes her life.
Sometimes, a person’s identity can be carved by friends. In Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson, Emily accepts that her best friend Sloane has always been at the centre of attention. People are captivated by Sloane’s big and bold personality, and Emily feels lucky to get to be Sloane’s sidekick. When Sloane disappears and leaves nothing but a cryptic list of tasks her best friend must complete, Emily forces herself to go “apple picking at night” and “dance until dawn” amongst other strange and embarrassing tasks in hopes of getting her friend back. In the process, Emily might just end up finding out who she is, not as Sloane’s best friend but as her own person.
What happens when you take a regular teenage girl and force her onto a weight-loss cruise sponsored by the world’s most successful soda pop company? In Sweet by Emmy Laybourne, full-figured Laurel is dragged onto a cruise ship by her best friend, Viv. Although Laurel is content with her own weight and body image, Viv insists any program promising a 5% drop in body weight is too good to pass up. At the centre of the diet program is Solu, a newly engineered sweetener that takes pounds off anyone who ingests a dose with every meal. When dieters start to act erratic and violent, it is up to Laurel, who hasn’t participated in the dieting, to help others on board before it’s too late. Laybourne crafts a beautifully self-assured character that proves strength and will power go beyond just looks.
With a 66.6% chance of hitting Earth and destroying everyone and everything, asteroid Ardor forces a group of teenagers to figure out how they individually want to spend the next two months of their lives. In We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach, readers meet Eliza, the moody outcast; Peter, the pensive athlete; Andy, the laid-back underachiever; and Anita, the overachieving dreamer. Over the course of the book, these characters’ lives will cross and collide and affect one another in unexpected ways. Wallach uses the classic Breakfast Club formula of taking a group of two-dimensional high school tropes and proceeds to explore each character beyond their outer façades.
All the above titles have a unique way of showcasing the journey in which different individuals carve out their own identities. Any supernatural or fantastical peripheries are stripped away, leaving the character, his or her decisions and the path in which it leads. Other titles that may be of interest include Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell; Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn; Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen; Paper Towns by John Greene; and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.
--A Good Read is a column by Tri-City librarians that is published on Wednesdays. Joyce Quach works at Coquitlam Public Library.
