Supernatural Teenage Love

It's not enough for teenagers now to fall in love with normal, adolescent boys and girls. Not that this is a new thing but I've noticed a trend in Young Adult Literature where a girl falls in love with a supernatural being or vice versa. Libba Bray has a very nice exception in her Printz Award winning book, Going Bovine, where the main character falls in love with a punk rock angel who seems to be everywhere at once. In this instance, she doesn't seem to be used as a romantic trope but rather as an integral part of the Monty Python-esque nonsensical setting of the protagonist's, Cameron, quest including a neurotic, germophobic dwarf, and a Norse God trapped in the body of a yard gnome. Think of her as the Tin Man of "We're off to see the Wizard", only warped.

Young adult literature is expanding now from falling in love with just vampires. The most recent, but by no means groundbreaking, supernatural creatures to come onto the scene are werewolves and pixies.

Case in point:  "Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity."

"For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human... until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever."

I wouldn't describe the quality of this book as "fantastic" by any means. The writing style certainly draws you in and absent parents help Grace and Sam's relationship develop to nearly that of an adult level, at least intimately. There's a voyeuristic quality to their relationship as well as the need to save each other from constant dangers of wolves and from each other. Sam is very much a tortured soul having saved Grace once from being attacked by wolves when she was a child, and having to undergo his inconvenient transformations into a werewolf. On the bright side there's a strong heroine in this book, but she needs a few more friends.

I've just found out that not only has this book's rights been published to be turned into a film, but also that it's part of a trilogy continuing with Linger and concluding with Forever. For some reason this bring to mind not only Stephenie Meyer but also L. J. Smith's 8 books dedicated to the love between a girl and two vampire brothers. I'm not sure why these books need to be supported by a series. Perhaps the story really does need to be continued into 8 books (in Smith's case).

Carrie Jones' series, beginning with Need (the second book is pictured here), tells the story of Zara White. Zara suffers a traumatic event involving her parents, moves to a desolate northern state to live with a relative, goes to high school, becomes instantly popular, and discovers that she's in love with a boy who may or may not be a supernatural being. Stop me if this sounds familiar. I may sound a bit harsh here, but upon reading Need, Jones does work with the mold of a very overdone concept and take it to a completely new level involving....wait for it...PIXIES! (Oh, and werewolves or "shifters" as they're referred to in this series). Also a captivating series (mind the pun), I began reading it with no expectations. By the time I recognized the plot points I was too far in to put it down. I've made it through Captivate and am awaiting the third installment soon. Zara's biggest conflict is protecting her loved ones from pixies while trying to have a healthy relationship with her werewolf boyfriend who can't help but resent her a little bit for having ties with pixies, who are his immortal enemies. A big change comes in Captivate, fairly similar to a big change in Twilight: Breaking Dawn so we'll see how it ends.

Now that we're on the subject, why does the transformation from human to supernatural/mythical being have to be triggered by physical contact that's highly sexual? The transformation into a werewolf involve genetics or being bitten, vampires involve a ceremony which centers from being bitten and exchanging blood, and according to Jones' mythology, becoming a pixie happens when one is kissed, a process which they might not survive or at the very least be turned insane by. I just want to know what other people's thoughts are on this topic as it relates to enticing new young adult readers. I'm beginning to wonder if books on normal, human love are not enough for audiences anymore and that one must thrust themselves into universes of fantasy in order to be captivated by the simple story of one person falling in love with another. The fact that these are unobtainable relationships, because werewolves, pixies, fae, and vampires don't exist is what perhaps give young adult readers hope that they are more likely to find a normal relationship.