first person wave

[wishfulclicking]

After reading The Hunger Games and other YA books, I have to ask: is the first person pov especially prevalent among YA novels with female protagonists? Is this something to make the characters easily related to? Something more common with female protagonists? Is it a recent trend? Because I didn't necessarily read a ton of YA growing up, I jumped into classics in an attempt to prove myself and compete with my cousin, but the ones I did read were written mostly in the third person pov.

Onto other things:

It's been less than 24 hours since I started googlewave and it's okay. I have jumped in a Sons of Anarchy wave but no one has replied yet and I joined the glee wave but I don't expect it to be too active until tomorrow. I just logged off because it seemed to be slowing down a bit. I do wish when I joined a wave, it would center on the most recent blip thing, I don't like having to scroll. I still haven't figured out how to add video to a wave yet.

Is it etiquette to just click on any contact? How does that work? If you see me on wave, feel free to start up something if you want. What ever you want to wave about is cool.

Comments

[cleo]

I was really wary of THG at first because of the narration. I'm not one to answer your questions though because I don't read a ton of YA lit. twtd could say better than I could. It annoys me usually, unless someone is reading out loud to me.

I'm not sure about making the protagonists more relatable. I think it can be a great tool to conceal things, as in the case of THG, but sometimes it seems like it was just the simplest choice.

[wishfulclicking]

When I first started reading it, I probably closed the book and reconciled myself to reading 1st person present without much complaint, eventually the book sucked me in but there were times, especially in the beginning, where things just weren't clicking for me.

When I was browsing Books A Million, every YA book with a female protagonist was in the first person and the books that were written with male protagonists wasn't. Maybe I just had a random bout of picking those books, but I've never experienced so much first person pov until I started reading more YA books.

Yeah, THG does use the first person to conceal a lot. It works there but I can't help but hope for an accompanying piece that shows the parts of that world that Katniss doesn't see. I would like to see more of the capital, but mostly from different citizens, not just the head. People like Cinna. But I guess that's what fandom/yuletide is for.

I haven't picked up Catching Fire yet because I'm thinking of waiting for the third one so I can just read it in one sweep.

[cleo]

Omg...can I just say that I want Cinna fic SO MUCH...

[wishfulclicking]

Cinna is totally one of my favorite characters. From the moment he's described as having a manic grin when he set Katniss on fire, he won me over; and especially that part when he said something like 'You must hate us' when all the food was set out for them. His character totally took me by surprise. I so wanted more of his back story.

Have you read Catching Fire? Does he appear in it at all?

(I think I'm kind of cursed to grow attached to minor characters. Even the woman who escorted Peeta and Katniss to the capital and that guy who was their coach/sponsor interested me too.)

[cleo]

Oooh, have you not read Catching Fire yet? I couldn't put it down. He does show up, but I won't say more than that.

[wishfulclicking]

okay now I'm going to have to probably go ahead and read it. I wanted to read it and the third (and final?) one back to back but I may not be able to wait.

[nafs]

I read a ton of YA growing up and I still poke my head into that section from time to time (although I'm really really picky now, YA has gotten so bad over the years) but the only books I can remember reading that have a first person POV are the Babysitters' Club series.

[wishfulclicking]

thanks for the input. Most of the YA I remember was written in third person, but when I look through the YA section now, I see a ton of first person.

Any recent YA you've read that you would rec?

[nafs]

Not very much of it? *g* Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book is the most recent thing I liked although it's probably targeted younger than YA. I spend a lot of time in the YA section of the bookstore reading the backs of books and wrinkling up my nose. This may have something to do with the fact that the YA I read is usually fantasy and JKR and Stephanie Meyer have produced a million imitators, all apparently *worse* writers than either of them although it's very hard to believe that's possible. (I haz opinions)

Diane Duane's Wizardry series, Pamela F. Service's Winter series and Jenny Nimmo's Snow Spider trilogy are favourites, athough all started (and in the case of the trilogy, ended) in the 80s, so I'm not sure how recent they'd be considered!

[wishfulclicking]

I did want to read Neil Gaiman's book, it's won a bunch of awards too.

Sometimes I skim the back covers and there's just so many girl meets random supernatural being and then they have an adventure that I can take.

I'm seeing an increase of steampunk influence in YA stuff, but right now vampires/werewolves/fairies are the main draw. There's just so many books on the shelves now.

[saintseverus]

I don't know how much you are into fantasy that is just about animals but The Sight and Firebringer by David Clement-Davies are both great books IMO.

[saintseverus]

Although they both do follow a very similar story line, just one is about deer, the other about wolves. I still really enjoyed both of them though.

[wishfulclicking]

thanks for the recs, I'm adding them to my list TBR :)

I've read some books featuring animals and I like them. I read Animal Farm and I liked the stories set on the Farm in Fables, so I can get with animal featured fantasies.

[stripped]

I don't know if it's female protagonist YA or female protagonist in general, or the genre in general, but yes, there's an increase in 1st POV, and in 1st present. I've noticed, but I tend to not pay much attention to POV as long as the book is still good.

On the other hand, just read a YA with a male protag that was in 1st present, so it's not always the girls.

I think a lot of it has to do with the immediacy factor and the fact that teens relate to that. So if a book is going for that be like the kids' brain thing, there y'go.

Liar is an excellent example of a book where the POV and tense shifts WORK. I highly recommend it. The Cycler books are in first, and again, it works because a person needs to be inside the head of the narrator for the premise to work.

I read a lot of YA (and write some, or try anyway). I suspect that what's really happening is that first POV is no longer villified by publishers, and thus, it's coming back in books where it (hopefully) works.

[wishfulclicking]

I only notice POV when it's not third and I do notice tense too, but if the story is good, then I forget about it. Like after the first two pages The Hunger Games just sucked me in and I didn't think about the tense or pov. I even had to read an excerpt again to make sure.

What was the name of the book with the male protagonist in 1st person? Was it good?

Present tense is what makes a story feel the most immediate for me, no matter the pov. First person, when done well, does heighten the effect. I've felt connected to books written in third too.

I have read more recent books with more variety when it comes to style, tense, and pov. I don't think first person pov is something that should be villified, and maybe it only stands out because it's still not common.

I've heard good things about Liar, it is so on my list to read. I'll check out the other book you mentioned too.

[stripped]

The book with the male protagonist is The Real Question by Adrian Fogelin. It's not just first POV but also present tense. I'm still undecided on what I thought of the book -- it's not fantasy or sf, just a book about a boy who's never really looked outside the privileged world that was created for his normalcy and on a sudden whim, takes a step into a world he never really knew existed. I liked it, but I don't think it was earth shattering.

I think first is more prevalent than people realize, especially in the urban fantasy market. Chicklit did a lot with it (snappy heroines LOVE first POV) and then there are things like Dresden etc. which also use it. It just can be hard to do right.

I find in writing that books get told however works for them. Changing POV can change the entire feel of the book. I've also read some excellent books which mix the POV, like Elizabeth Bear's Jenny trilogy (Hammered, Scardown, Worldwired) where Jenny's bits are in first, and the rest are in third. And it really works.

[torachan]

I didn't read a ton of YA as a teenager. For one thing, the genre was much smaller then and consisted mostly of Sweet Valley High and various Lurlene McDaniels books about ~*~tragedies~*~, such as people dying of leukemia.

I have started reading more YA lately because a lot of people on my flist are reading and reviewing it. I think the first-person chatty narration is very common in chick lit as well, and a lot of YA with female protagonists is essentially chick lit for teenagers. Focus on shopping, makeup, clothes, boys, and other typically "girly" things.

I have nothing against first-person POV in general, but I dislike the way it's used in so much YA. There's a pattern to these books where you get one chapter to throw us in the story and then pause for a chapter or two as the narrator info dumps with every last detail about themselves and their family.

[wishfulclicking]

I haven't read much chick lit either, I did read the Shopaholic series and that was enough. And you're right about the 1st person in that genre, and most of the first person YAs I picked up were similar just with teenage protagonists.

The most YA I read growing up was V.C. Andrews and I knew that was so not representative of the genre. I started reading more YA again because I see the books being recced and reviewed all over the blogs I read and it seemed to have a lot of variety. Though when I walked into Books a Million, there were shelves of dark covers referring to supernatural creatures and the girl who stumbles upon them.

If it wasn't vampires, it was fairies. So I find variety in YA but there are still some dominant trends.

[torachan]

Oh yeah, I read VC Andrews, too. Not sure if those were technically meant to be YA, but it does seem that mostly jr high kids read them. XD (And I notice that in recent years, they do seem to get shelved in the YA section.)

Most of the YA books I've read have been stuff I've seen recced on 50books_poc, and I'm more likely to pick up something YA if it's not white author/white protagonist, but I have ended up reading quite a few by white authors as well (though it's pretty shocking to see how super white they tend to be, even more so than white-authored adult books, it seems).

[wishfulclicking]

I read the Flowers in the Attic and the rest of the series when I was 11-13, it was such a weird series and my mom couldn't believe how it all ended up.

I mostly get recs from blogs and people. I feel like after I've read a couple of girl has 'regular' summer/school year that makes her see life differently and oh this guy is around too, I've read them all. Most of them tell the same life experience of a certain kind of person, and I just like reading variety.

The Hunger Games is set in a futuristic society and there is mention of different skin colors, and it's a dystopia. It's been rather popular lately and the sequel has already been making rounds, it's one of the books requested for Yuletide.