Young Adult Literature: Romance

Titles Discussed

Just One Day (2013) by Gayle Forman

Anna and the French Kiss (2010) by Stephanie Perkins

This Lullaby (2002) by Sarah Dessen

Genre Overview

The history of mainstream young adult literature began in the United States in the late 1960s with the publication of S. E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders (1967), which centers on a group of adolescent protagonists and is told from the perspective of a teenage boy. While many novels had been written about teenagers before, and other stories may have been written for an adolescent audience, The Outsiders marks the official start of a genre that was written for and marketed to a teenage audience and told from the perspective of a teenage protagonist. This relatively new genre is also marked by specific themes, such as identity, social pressures, dating, love, coming of age, and finding one's place within society. In the decade following the publication of Hinton's work, young adult literature became popular worldwide. Initially, the genre generally focused on teenagers dealing with real-life issues within the setting of traditional high schools and social situations, making realism the key feature. However, in the 1980s, interest in young adult literature began to fade as libraries and schools faced budgetary issues. It was in the 1990s that interest in the genre found a resurgence as publishers started marketing directly to parents and teens. With a new direct audience and even more popularity, a host of new subgenres entered the scene. Fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and the supernatural became popular, and titles like the Harry Potter series (1997-2007) and the Hunger Games series (2008-2010) became bestsellers worldwide.

Romance has always had a place within young adult literature. Love has always been an essential topic for readers of any age. The theme has been particularly popular for middle and high school adolescents, who usually explore the notion of attraction and the idea of a relationship for the first time. It is usually a key plot point in many novels, even those that may be better placed in other subgenres. For example, the relationship between Bella and Edward is central to the storyline of the Twilight series, although it is more easily placed within the supernatural or paranormal subgenre. Young adult literature is known for its melding of many of the more traditional subgenres of literature.

As a theme, romance is significant in many stories written for young adults. Nevertheless, romance is distinct in itself as a genre of young adult literature. The key is the centrality of love and relationships to the novel's plot. As with traditional adult romance novels, young adult romance novels focus on the relationship between two individuals. However, what makes young adult romance novels unique is love's impact on the protagonist as a human being. Love in young adult romance novels is essential in itself. Still, it is also a device that allows the protagonist to explore issues related to their self, including identity, self-acceptance, and finding a place within a larger community (whether at a school, university, or adult society). The genre became increasingly popular during the 1990s but has grown increasingly popular in the twenty-first century. While books focusing on high-school-age characters like Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and The Fault in Our Stars (2012) by John Green met with huge success in part because of the centrality of love to their plots, romance stories began placing a stronger emphasis on the independence of their protagonists. In 2002, Sarah Dessen wrote This Lullaby (2002), a story about an eighteen-year-old dealing with love while her own parents are too busy trying to make sense of their own relationships to care much about their daughter. Anna and the French Kiss (2010) by Stephanie Perkins and Just One Day (2013) by Gayle Forman are other defining examples of the romance genre where imperfect female teenage protagonists face the challenges of love as they struggle with becoming adults.

Works

At the center of any novel within the romance subgenre of young adult literature is love or one relationship. Sometimes, these relationships work out for the protagonist, and sometimes, they do not. What all romance novels have in common, however, is that this relationship acts as a catalyst for other issues related to growing up and becoming an adult. Through romance, the authors can address many of the main themes of the young adult genre. Sarah Dessen's This Lullaby illustrated this notion through the character of eighteen-year-old Remy.

From her mother's many failed relationships with men and the death of her father, Remy has become bitter toward the idea of a positive, lasting relationship. Even her own experience with short romances throughout high school has proven to her that love is not worth anything, and she is confident that she knows everything there is to know about relationships. However, when Remy enters a relationship with Dexter, everything she thinks she knows is questioned. “I stood in the front yard, at the bottom of the stairs, feeling for the first time in a long while that things were completely out of my control. How had I let this happen?” It is destabilizing for her, but through this instability, she finds her own identity, deals with issues of her father and her past, and finally learns to accept challenges in her own life. It is not Dexter specifically who creates these changes, but rather the inner questions that are raised and answered by Remy herself that lead to her personal development.

While the stability and potential length of Remy's relationship with Dexter is the focus of Dessen's novel, Gayle Forman takes a different approach in Just One Day (2013). The romance at the center of the novel lasts for only one day, but the story follows the effects of that day for a year afterward. Allyson, the protagonist, always does the right thing, but on the last night of her vacation in Europe, she meets Willem, and they spend one day together. For the next year, nothing seems to work out for Allyson. She is constantly mired and caught up in her first year of college. All the questions and doubts from the time with Willem still stay with her, and it is not until she confronts those issues that she can take control of her own life. “Maybe that's the thing with liberation. It comes at a price. Forty years wandering in the desert.” She abandons everything she is supposed to be doing, goes against her parents' wishes, and finally finds her own way in life.

Parents are generally not positive influences in young adult romance. The idea behind this genre is that a young protagonist progresses through a journey of self-discovery independent of their parents yet through their experiences of being in a relationship with another person, usually a contemporary. This relationship and the resulting lessons learned catalyze the main character to become an adult. So, often in the genre, parents are either background characters or sometimes not present. In Stephanie Perkins's Anna and the French Kiss, the protagonist, Anna Oliphant, is sent away to a French boarding school in her senior year of high school. Without the direct influence of her parents, she is forced to develop her own relationships with the people around her. Although there are rules and discipline at the school, Anna has no mentor to help her, and it is through the people she meets at the school that she begins to understand herself better. The romance at the center of this story is slightly different from many within the romance genre because, for most of the novel, it is played out initially through fantasy. However, it is through Anna's trust in herself that she finds the confidence to turn her fantasy into something tangible.

One of the major themes of Just One Day is connected to the many references within the novel to the works of Shakespeare, particularly Twelfth Night. After Allyson sees Willem perform in the play, she accepts his invitation to Paris. This is not where acting, playing roles, and performance end in the novel. Coming to terms with her identity, Allyson must reconcile herself to the roles she plays and the true identity she must find amid everything. Remy faces a similar issue in This Lullaby. However, the problem she faces is breaking down the barrier she has constructed for herself through the cold, cynical persona she has adopted. Much of the novel is about the process Remy faces, seeing what parts of herself are truly her and those she created to protect herself.

Travel is another central plot element that appears frequently in young adult romance novels. In both Anna and the French Kiss and Just One Day, travel, although perhaps not the central device within the plot, holds a key role. It is used in Just One Day first to drive Allyson to follow her desire to spend one day with Willem, something that she might not otherwise have done if she was in the comfort of her everyday life. Travel also serves as a way to introduce physical separation, an issue that is one of the central catalysts for Allyson's personal reflection. Similarly, Anna's travel to Paris in Anna and the French Kiss is the main device that tests her self-confidence, drives her to approach and view life as an adult without the protection of her parents, and forces her to find her own identity.

Personal relationships are one of the most important themes in these three novels and the young adult romance genre. Without a doubt, the romantic relationship stands at the center of the romance novel; however, the main character's relationships with the people around her are closely connected to the strength and value of this relationship. For example, at the beginning of Anna and the French Kiss, Anna sees Etienne and instantly has a crush on him. But to her, he is unattainable. He is beautiful and unavailable, so she can only fantasize about their relationship. However, as the novel progresses, Anna develops deeper relationships with many people around her. As she learns the value of these relationships, her perspective of Etienne and the possibility of a more realistic romance develops. Similarly, the relationships that Remy has with her stepfathers and her own mother have determined much of how she approaches her own romantic relationships in life. Only through a revaluation of the critical relationships in her life can she finally develop her relationship with Dexter.

Romance authors, in general, write and publish novels primarily within the romance genre. Authors of young adult literature are no different, and many authors write novels that take place in the same world. That is to say, novels by the same author may share the same settings or characters. For example, Gayle Forman wrote Just One Year (2013) after the publication of Just One Day. With the success of the first book, Forman wrote the sequel to Allyson and Willem's romance, but from the perspective of Willem. Stephanie Perkins and Sarah Dessen also include many sequels to their most popular stories, often with the same characters but from a different perspective. Romance writers appear to have strong connections to their characters—a sentiment shared with readers of the genre.

In the twenty-first century, young adult novels that are securely placed in the romantic genre have proliferated. In 2023, several popular titles focusing on the romantic relationship between protagonists were published for young adult readers. The Love Match by Priyanka Taslim details the romantic life of a Bangladeshi American teenager struggling with her family’s tradition of arranged marriage when she is in love with another person. The Wrong Kind of Weird by James Ramos explores the romance that develops between two teenagers who occupy vastly different social circles. As You Walk On By by Julian Winters looks at a contemporary teenage romance through the lens of 1980s popular culture. Still, while these novels can be firmly placed in the romance genre, they include many other themes of adolescent literature that could also put them with other subgenres. 

Conclusions

The romance subgenre in young adult literature is very similar to its counterpart of romance novels written for an adult audience: The subgenre has a definite and somewhat large group of loyal readers. Traditionally, as part of the “genre fiction” group of novels and generally filed under “trade fiction,” romance has been considered a less serious form of writing, a form of entertainment rather than a literary art form. However, in the twenty-first century, this conception has begun to change, and works within the young adult genre are similarly recognized for their literary merit. The fact that young adult romance novels entail so many other themes and issues revolving around adolescent life and identity has opened the genre up to a wider audience more quickly than adult romance novels.

Nevertheless, romance is still a rather specific subgenre of young adult literature. Many titles, especially those under the emerging label “new adult,” are written for an older audience, including older high-school and college. For this reason, the audience is limited to the young adult genre. However, the subject matter is another aspect of the genre that limits its readership. While many young adult novels transcend the traditional limits of subgenres, romance is generally recognized for focusing on one relationship. Even novels with a romantic relationship at the center of the plot tend to be placed in other subgenres the more popular the story becomes. Until this changes, romance will continue to have a dedicated readership, even if it remains relatively small within the scope of young adult literature.

Bibliography

“Anna and the French Kiss.” Kirkus Reviews, vol. 78, no. 21, 2010, p. 1110, Literary Reference Center, . Accessed 17 May 2015.

Brookover, Sophie, Elizabeth Burns, and Kelly Jensen. “What's New about New Adult?” Horn Book Magazine, vol. 90, no. 1, 2014, pp. 41–45, Literary Reference Center, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=93250682&site=lrc-live. Accessed 17 May 2015.

“Gayle Forman.” Baker & Taylor Author Biographies, 2000, p. 1, Literary Reference Center, . Accessed 17 May 2105.

Kelley, Ann. “Just One Day.” Booklist, vol. 109, no. 9/10, 2013, p. 108, Literary Reference Center, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=84769769&site=lrc-live. Accessed 17 May 2015.

Lambert, Laura. “The Best Young Adult Books of 2023.” Read Brightly, 2023, www.readbrightly.com/young-adult-books-2023. Accessed 16 Aug. 2024.

Lubar, David. “Everything: The History of Young Adult Novels.” Alan Review Spring, 2003, p. 19, scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ALAN/v30n3/pdf/lubar.pdf. Accessed 17 May 2015.

MacGregor, Maya. “Why Romance Is Important for Young Adult Readers.” Catapult, 15 Feb. 2023, magazine.catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/why-romance-is-important-for-young-adult-readers-maya-macgregor. Accessed 16 Aug. 2024.

Roback, Diane, et al. “This Lullaby (Book).” Publishers Weekly, vol. 249, no. 20, 2002, p. 66, Literary Reference Center, . Accessed 17 May 2015.

Strickland, Ashley. “A Brief History of Young Adult Literature.” CNN, 17 Oct. 2013, . Accessed 16 Aug. 2024.

Sutton, Roger. “An Interview with Sarah Dessen.” Horn Book Magazine, vol. 85, no. 3, 2009, pp. 243–50, Literary Reference Center, . Accessed 17 May 2015.