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.

[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.

[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.

[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.