Kids That Kill

Hey, it’s me, back from the dead.

To kill or not to kill, apparently, that is the question. A while back, I wrote a blog on whether or not a YA writer can kill the protagonist at the end of the novel. Well, now, I want to really think about how readers feel about a protagonist killing others. I bring this question up because I’m having a disagreement with someone in the literary world about whether a character can kill an enemy in self-defense. Is that okay in YA?

That’s something I’m currently struggling with as I revise the novel I’m working on. I looked back on novels I’ve read for some guidance. Hunger Games quickly came to mind. Katniss has to kill in order to survive. That’s the whole point of the competition. It’s “kill or be killed.” We, as the readers, fundamentally understand and accept this. So, we don’t bat an eye when Katniss kills another kid to protect herself. I think of Divergent also. It’s a similar situation for Tris.

So, why do we accept that these characters kill? Harry Potter didn’t. Someone else always did the dirty work for him all the way until the end. Katniss and Tris have to kill because of the situation they’re in. It’s the same for Elias in Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember In The Ashes, a fantasy novel I highly recommend. Elias is a skilled assassin and must use his skills to face an evil empire. I know that sounds cliché as hell, but I’m purposefully being value to avoid any spoilers. I wrote a review last year.

The more I think about it the more characters come to mind. There’s Celaena from Throne of Glass, another assassin. I’m sure they’re plenty I haven’t read yet. But, all the examples I’ve come up with are fantasy or sci-fi. Readers can mentally separate fantasy from realism. So, if a character kills in that world, we’re okay with it because we know that it’s a different world with different rules.

What happens if a character kills, in self-defense, in a realistic novel that takes place in New Jersey, for instance? How do we feel about that? I’ve never read a YA novel in which the protagonist kills someone in the real world. Can it be pulled off with readers throwing down their books in terror or rage? That’s a good question.

I’m curious how people would respond if they read about a kid who killed someone else, either by accident or in self-defense, in the real world. I wish there were an example out there but I can’t think of any. Please if you know of any, do tell. Is there such a thing as teen horror? That could be a new genre.

At any rate, that’s something I wrestle with as I think about who I want my protagonist to be and how he will evolve. I believe you can have a character who kills one person in self-defense, as long as he’s an endearing person. But you never know. Readers could end up hating him, which could be intriguing also. Think of how successful Deadpool is. He’s not exactly a good guy. If they published a novel about him, I’d certainly read it.

 

I’m Not A Fan of World-Building

Happy New Year! This is my first blog of 2016. I had a nice long teacher break and, now that I’m well-rested, school is back in the swing of things. Since I submitted my manuscript to an agent back in December, I’ve started working on my next novel, which I’m quite excited about.

While writing my first novel, I learned something about myself and my writing style. World-building isn’t for me. It’s funny because I thought that since I’m such a fan of fantasy, I’d also enjoy writing it. I love watching fantasy films and TV shows, reading fantasy novels and playing video games set in a fantastic world. Right now I’m playing The Witcher 3, which won tons of Game of the Year awards last year. It takes place in a richly detailed world with lots of history. The author of the novels, off of which the game is based, must have taken years to develop that.

I imagine fantasy and sci-fi authors find enjoyment in creating a whole new world from scratch. I figured if I enjoyed exploring those worlds I’d also enjoy creating them. Nope. Unfortunately, I learned that was not the case. As I wrote my first novel, which partly takes place in a magical world, I began to get frustrated having to come up with details I didn’t care about. A writer friend and beta reader would constantly ask me questions about how the world I created worked. I didn’t care. I just wanted to get to the story. But because I was already deep into the novel, I pushed through my frustrations and worked out those details. Not fun.

I realized that a writer doesn’t always enjoy writing what he likes to read. 

But I still felt conflicted about it. I’d be bored writing literary novels like John Green. That’s just not what I want to write right now. So what was I going to do? Thankfully, as I continued to read other novels, I quickly found the solution. Magical Realism was the answer. Urban fantasy. Fantasy set in the real world. Brilliant! I didn’t have to create my own world. It was already there. That also helped grounded my characters in realism. I want my characters do deal with real teen issues. Naturally, that’s much easier when the characters are here in the real world. That makes them more relatable.

Harry Potter is an excellent example of magical realism, though it doesn’t seem that way. Think about it, Hogwarts is in the UK, not in some made-up magical world. Harry’s aunt and uncle live somewhere in England. This is the real world with a magical bent to it. So, J.K. Rowling didn’t create an entirely different world; she made a secret magical society and history that existed in our own world. Clearly, a lot of people, including myself, loved it.

My next novel takes place in Los Angeles. I’m really really thrilled to start writing it. Now that I’m not bogged down by world-building details I can hone in on a solid story. I hope my readers embrace it and love it as much as I do.

 

Book Review: An Ember in the Ashes

Early this month I was craving a new YA fantasy novel. It’s always difficult to choose because there are so many. Reading a fantasy novel can be a major time investment because it often involves reading a trilogy or a series. So, it was essential that I find the right one.

After a few days of searching, the Amazon Best Book of May 2015 caught my eye, An Ember in the Ashes, by Sabaa Tahir. I was hooked from the first chapter.

The novel stars two protagonists and faithfully switches perspective chapter-by-chapter. One is Elias, an elite Imperial soldier, who’s planning his escape from the cruel Empire. The other is Laia, a young girl whose family was killed by the Empire and whose brother was arrested. Like most novels with multiple perspectives, at some point, the two characters meet. Once they do, they begin to work together to tear down the Empire.

The premise sounds cliché but the setting differentiates itself enough to feel fresh. There are no medieval kings or castles in this one. The novel was inspired by ancient Rome and Arabian mythology. So, the setting is more 300 than Lord of the Rings, which is different enough to be interesting.

The novel does an excellent job of starting right in the thick of the action. In Laia’s first chapter, her family gets killed and her brother gets detained. From the very beginning, the reader knows the stakes. Laia spends the rest of the novel doing everything she can to save her brother.

Elias is losing faith in the Empire but plays a prominent role in it. He think it’s best to escape, but there are dire consequences if he does. He must make a choice to follow what he truly believes in.

Tahir hopes the reader is savvy and can figure things out on their own. I appreciate that, as I’m tired of novels that spend a chapter or two purely on backstory before the action begins. Especially in YA, where teenagers’ attention spans aren’t as long as adults, you’ve got to get straight into the action. Other authors could learn well from her.

Neither of the character’s plots is particularly groundbreaking but strong characterization is what keeps you reading. Writing in first-person present, Tahir has each character’s voice down. You quickly empathize with both Laia and Elias and want them to succeed. Laia is timid but must overcome her fear if she hopes to save her brother. We watch her face increasingly challenging situations and root for her along the way. Elias’s conflict is mostly internal, as he must decide what he truly believes in before he acts.

By the end of the novel, both characters go through their own character arcs that both lead to a satisfying conclusion. Naturally, this is the first book in a series, so they won’t be toppling the cruel Empire in these 464 pages.

If this is Tahir’s first novel, I can’t wait to see how her writing career pans out. April 26^th, the release date of her next novel, can’t come soon enough.