Shady's Edgy YA (or sex, swearing, drinking, drugs, and violence in YA)

bethany

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When I realized that my WIP was going edgy in the sexual dept, I picked up Teach Me and Rainbow.

Teach Me (about a female student who has an affair with a teacher) was well written, but I had trouble identifying with the MC. It was good, but not a favorite.

Rainbow Party was so poorly written that I never finished it, the characters were like cardboard cutouts, it was BAD.

I know I read Smack, but it was several years back when I also read The Acid House and Trainspotting and several others that are blurring in my memory, it is on my shelf right beside Crank, which I haven't read because it's in verse and somehow I don't get very excited about books in verse.

The only other thing I've read lately that might be considered Edgy is Inexcusable by Chris Lynch, I mean, writing from a date rapist's point of view is pretty out there. Again, not a favorite because you simply can't like the MC, but an interesting book, thought provoking for sure.
 

Shady Lane

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I actually hatted Inexcusable. I thought it was awful so obvious, and everyone went on about how daring it was...eh. It's interesting, because Chris Lynch wrote Sins of The Fathers, which is probably my favorite book.

I heard Rainbow Party was awful. I started Teach Me, but couldn't get into it.

I hate books in verse. ;)
 

reenkam

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I read Realms of Possibility by David Levithan and it's in verse. It's kind of amazing. I just thought I'd say that....



ETA: Has anyone read This Is All: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn? I'm sure it'd be considered 'edgy' because of the subject. I think it's pretty good. I'm only on page 14, but I like it so far.
 
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Shady Lane

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The Realm of Possiblity is incredible. Everything by David Levithan is incredible. I love Boy Meets Boy.

Haven't read the other one you mentioned. What's it about?
 

reenkam

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Well, it's massive (256k) and is modeled on the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (a Japanese court lady from around the year 1000), in a way. It's basically a contimplation of diary entries all brought together by a girl after she gets pregnant. She wants to prepare the entries and her thoughts on them to give to her baby when she's 16 (the baby, not the mc. the mc is 20, I think...). So far she's been describing the way she went about choosing the first boy to have sex with. It's surprisingly funny/fascinating/interesting, so far. I don't know if it'll continue this way or not, or if it'll get too long winded, but it's good so far.
 

misslissy

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I've read both The Realm of Possibility and Inexcusable, both of which I read in school, since I always end up reading all the battle books with questionable material. The Realm of Possibility kind of made my skin crawl at points, but it was a good book and I think it was supposed to make my skin crawl. Inexcusable I thought was just weak and other than the all around subject matter I'm not sure it was all that Edgy.

It's been a while since I'm read them, so I'm not sure if they would be considered edgy or not, but books I enjoyed that I would consider edgy were Twisted and Speak both by Laurie Halse Anderson and I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (which also happened to be a battle book passed onto me).
 

reenkam

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What part of The Realm of Possibility made your skin crawl? I don't remember any parts like that...

Oh, and Speak was great. Has anyone read Catalyst? It's kind of the sequel...
 

bethany

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In my mind I've got three overlapping categories, edgy, controversial and gritty. I'm trying to define these and figure out what I want to write. I've never accomplished gritty, though I think I have a few scenes where I accomplished raw. Does that make sense?

I love Speak, won't read any more of her realistic YA while I'm writing realistic YA, gives me an inferiority complex (but I always try to read different than what I'm writing)

Has anyone read Story of A Girl or Good Girls? How would you consider those?

Oh, and I keep hearing Holly Black described as edgy, I'm adding some of her books to my ongoing Amazon order.
 

reenkam

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What are your definitions for edgy, controversial, and gritty? Well, mostly, what would you consider gritty? I kind of like the idea of overlapping categories...

Who wrote Story of a Girl and Good Girls? I don't think I've heard of them
 

Harper K

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Has anyone read Story of A Girl or Good Girls? How would you consider those?

I read Story of a Girl. Haven't read Good Girls yet, though I want to. I'd put SOAG into the contemporary / realistic category over the edgy / controversial / gritty spectrum. It's "about" a girl who had sex at a young age, but it's more of a quiet coming-of-age story than anything else. I really liked it.

Oh, and reenkam, Story of a Girl is by Sara Zarr (her debut novel; came out in January of this year), and Good Girls is by Laura Ruby.
 

misslissy

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What part of The Realm of Possibility made your skin crawl? I don't remember any parts like that...

Oh, and Speak was great. Has anyone read Catalyst? It's kind of the sequel...

Probably the sex shop scene. I think I could deal with everything else other than that, though it's been like two years since I read it and part of me still couldn't believe they let us read that. I think the librarian burned it afterwards - books like that tend not to stay in school's library, though occasionally you come across something that surprises you.

And I've read Catalyst and enjoyed that book as well. I'm going to dig into Prom soon, also by her and hopefully also great, though it doesn't sound like it will be very edgy.
 

Provrb1810meggy

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I read Story of a Girl, and I really didn't think it was that edgy. That's saying something, seeing as I usually don't like reading about sex all that much. Mostly, the "edgy" stuff happened before the story really begins.

I love Speak. Some of my friends hate that book. I can hardly believe it. I just stare at them in awe.

Okay, this non-edgy girl will stop intruding on all you hip, edgy people! He he!
 

bethany

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I'm still trying to form my categories, it's just that somehow edgy seems to be losing its meaning to me (and maybe it's just me).

The only way I can articulate is to choose a topic, so let's go with homosexuality. It is obvious in our culture that any positive outlook on gayness is controversial. So I guess you could have a book with a gay protag that could be any genre lets say mystery (a homosexual Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys), whatever, if your protag (or even main secondary characters) are actively and happily pursuing a gay lifestyle, then you will have some controversy, particularly if they are teens. But all gay MC's would fall under the category of controversial, so the next two would also be controversial....

Gritty I think would be getting really deep into a kid's mind who is deeply in denial, hates what he or she is, has trouble coming to grips with his/her sexuality, and may have other dark issues, family and friends who won't accept them. I imagine that it would be gripping to get into this young person's head, and also painful, you know?

For me, edgy might not go so deep as the gritty one, but it also wouldn't be all happy gay pride parades like the first one. Edgy to some extent depends on language, but I have a hard time pinpointing edgy language. The voice in Speak is astounding, and I would call that edgy, I would call the voice in Fat Kid Rules the world edgy. Ponyboy in the Outsiders is edgy because he sounds so real, Holden Caulfield, I don't know anymore....For my gay theme, I think edgy would be a combo of voice and theme and something different, some angle that would be new. Some aspect of being harrassed with a twist, some aspect of a crush, with a twist. This is not to say that the first books with homosexual mc's weren't edgy, but now you need more to make it edgy, I just don't know what exactly it is!

And of course this is just speculation as I try to decide where I want my own writing to fall, and try to pick out good books to read!
 
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reenkam

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I really should read Realms again...I don't even remember the sex shop scene haha. *makes a note to do that tonight...*

Yeah, Prom doesn't sound very edgy...but maybe something happens at the prom that makes it intense. Maybe.

I'll look up Story and Good Girls...maybe I'll read them all. I mean, it's all research, right? (this is what I tell myself when I hand over my card at the barnes & nobles check-out counter)
 

reenkam

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I'm still trying to form my categories, it's just that somehow edgy seems to be losing its meaning to me (and maybe it's just me).

The only way I can articulate is to choose a topic, so let's go with homosexuality. It is obvious in our culture that any positive outlook on gayness is controversial. So I guess you could have a book with a gay protag that could be any genre lets say mystery (a homosexual Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys), whatever, if your protag (or even main secondary characters) are actively and happily pursuing a gay lifestyle, then you will have some controversy, particularly if they are teens. But all gay MC's would fall under the category of controversial, so the next two would also be controversial....

Gritty I think would be getting really deep into a kid's mind who is deeply in denial, hates what he or she is, has trouble coming to grips with his/her sexuality, and may have other dark issues, family and friends who won't accept them. I imagine that it would be gripping to get into this young person's head, and also painful, you know?

For me, edgy might not go so deep as the gritty one, but it also wouldn't be all happy gay pride parades like the first one. Edgy to some extent depends on language, but I have a hard time pinpointing edgy language. The voice in Speak is astounding, and I would call that edgy, I would call the voice in Fat Kid Rules the world edgy. Ponyboy in the Outsiders is edgy because he sounds so real, Holden Caulfield, I don't know anymore....For my gay theme, I think edgy would be a combo of voice and theme and something different, some angle that would be new.

And of course this is just speculation as I try to decide where I want my own writing to fall, and try to pick out good books to read, of course!

I like this breakdown and I agree with it. Edgy does seem to fall somewhere between controversial and gritty. It's a great way to classify things.

It's also interesting to note that I've written controversial, gritty, and edgy...maybe that's why I'm not published yet...

Time for the fluff!!!
 

Shady Lane

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Prom is pretty awful, actually.

I thought I had more to say, but that's really it.
 

Shady Lane

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Haha, absolutely. It wasn't painful. I've read it twice. It's just not as good as her others.

Has anyone read Patricia McCormick? (Cut, My Brother's Keeper) Her books make me cringe. Fake-edgy.
 

reenkam

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Has anyone read Patricia McCormick? (Cut, My Brother's Keeper) Her books make me cringe. Fake-edgy.

I haven't read them, but I was going to. Now I'm rethinking that....

What's fake-edgy about them? Are they disappointingly boring?
 

AnneMarble

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Has anyone read Patricia McCormick? (Cut, My Brother's Keeper) Her books make me cringe. Fake-edgy.
I read Cut but not My Brother's Keeper. Unfortunately by now I don't remember enough about it except that I guess I liked it, but at the same time, I can see why it might not qualify as edgy. Sorta. I just don't remember why, just general impressions. I mean, I thought it was OK, but I can see why it disappointed some. Maybe the ending was too pat? (Or maybe I should just read it again to figure out what I think about it. :tongue )

What's the difference between edgy and fake-edgy? What other authors and books do you think qualify as fake-edgy?
 

AnneMarble

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I couldn't edit my post (kept timing out), so let me paste this here instead:

When you Google "edgy YA," this thread is the third site that comes up. Way to go! The first link is a list to a library recommend reading link (which didn't work) and the second is a link to some listings on Amazon. However, two of the Amazon listings included Go Ask Alice as "edgy YA." Wha?!
:ROFL:

Since when was Go Ask Alice edgy? Even when it first came out, many kids who read it knew it had to be fake, and since then, the truth has been revealed. It was also full of scare tactics. That's not edgy -- I got that in school. :tongue
 

Danger Jane

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lol

yes

just...polysyllabic words are too big and hard to spell for teens to use them in their diaries? Come on, I can spell "gregarious" AND "impregnable". Maybe the author of that article doesn't realize that polysyllabic words can often be replaced by shorter words :tongue
 

Esopha

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No, no, he has a point. I never use superfluous syllables in my diary entries. It would take up far to much time and I need all I can get to spend at the spa. I have to look fresh and dewey for prom, you know, or else I'll never be named Prom Queen.