Blended Genres

What do you get when you cross a realistic story with magic? Or an urban setting with supernatural? Or 19th century machinery with 21st century characters?

In many cases you get an interesting blend of genres. “Magical Realism,” “Urban Fantasy,” and “Steampunk” are all types of blended genres where the lines between one genre and another are so blurred that librarians begin to find it challenging to categorize them.

Blended genres provide opportunities for authors to develop characters and plot lines in lots of ways. Suspending reality as if that suspension is in itself realistic or “normal,” for example, allows an author to get creative with the storyline without having to worry about explaining every occurrence in the magical realm of the story. Stories can maintain strong realistic and contemporary sensibilities while reaching beyond them to borrow from folk tales, fables and myths.

Steampunk, another type of blended genre, is a combination of many aspects of the here and now coupled with machines and technology from the Victorian era. Think Wild, Wild West with Will Smith and Kevin Kline. In that movie, part of the "now" included the advanced technology of the huge robotic spider while most of the story was set in the 1800s with trains and other machines of that era.

Here are some examples of blended genres found in Young Adult literature:

Fisher, Catherine. Incarceron. (2007)

This steampunk novel crosses futuristic technology with Victorian devices such as dungeons and torture chambers. Finn was born inside the prison known as Incarceron. Claudia, the warden’s daughter lives in an elaborately constructed setting where she is engaged to be married to someone she did not choose. Claudia and Finn find a key which allows them to communicate with each other. They begin a plan to get Finn out of the prison. An interesting thing about this story is the fact that Incarceron – the building itself – is a sentient being, making it a character in and of itself.

McMann, Lisa. Cryer’s Cross. (2011)

Kendall has grown up in Cryer’s Cross, Montana. While she loves her small town, she dreams of something more. Unfortunately, those dreams are pushed aside when teens start to disappear, including her boyfriend, Nico. Enter ghosts and witchcraft for the blended genre. This novel has that creepy horror-story grab that is rife with anxiety and suspense. This book does not have the gore that many think of when they think “horror,” but instead the old-fashioned don’t-know-what’s-going-to-happen-next type of thriller that keeps the reader on the edge of the seat while covered in goosebumps.

Durst, Sarah Beth. Enchanted Ivy. (2010)

Lily wants to go to Princeton more than anything else. She is offered immediate acceptance if she can pass the Legacy Test which involves finding the Ivy key. This quest takes her on a trip into a magical Princeton where gargoyles come to life and she needs a protector. I found some things to be a bit predictable (nerdy girl falls for bad boy, for example), but Lily’s quest was interesting and on the scary side.

Angels, Demons, and Dead People

There is an interesting trend in Young Adult (YA) literature where the afterlife – or more accurately, characters found in the afterlife – take front and center stage. I read an article by Patty Campbell in the May/June 2008 issue of The Horn Book Magazine in which she explores some of the titles that include characters who are dead, close to death, or are spiritual beings such as Death itself. An interesting discovery she made is that these novels do not include spiritual questioning on the part of the dying characters. While the afterlife is described in myriad ways (Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall, for example), teens do not actually explore spiritual issues in these novels.

I find that revelation interesting. Campbell questions why that is the case. She has no solid explanation. She speculates that teens like to explore scary subjects vicariously and these novels do a fine job of getting as close to what it is like to die as we can without actually dying. She also believes that this is simply a new twist in YA writing. Authors have found a fairly new niche with a premise that seems to appeal to readers and is fun to explore as a writer.

Whatever the reason, the books are definitely interesting reads. Death even becomes tired of all the victims he must claim in Hitler’s Germany in World War II in The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. And Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones is another book told from the perspective of a young murdered girl. If you are interesting in reading some other titles from this genre, here are three more of the dozens of titles available.

Clement-Moore, Rosemary. Highway to Hell. (2009).

This is the third book in the Maggie Quinn: Girl vs. Evil series. In this novel, Maggie is a college freshman and is on her way to South Padre Island for spring break with her friend Lisa. Unfortunately, after hitting a cow which punctures their gas tank, Maggie and Lisa are stranded in a small Texas town where they quickly discover that they must fight evil in the form of a demon that looks like a petroleum-based monster. Unlike the discussion above where spirituality is not usually included, this novel actually does address theology without positioning it as right or wrong. And the plot line is always foremost.

Warman, Jessica. Between. (2011).

Elizabeth has turned 18. The morning after her party, she awakes to a horrifying revelation and embarks on a journey of discovery about her life and the lives of her friends that is dark and haunting and somewhat scary. Although Elizabeth’s life has seemed perfect, in reality, it has been far from it. The characters are well developed and they feel real, even in their supernatural state. The story has a quick beginning, and maintains a good pace throughout. It’s hard to put down!

Oliver, Lauren. Before I Fall. (2011).

Mean Girls meets Ground Hog Day as Samantha lives her last day over and over and over again – a total of seven times as she tries to figure out her death and unravel a life she has lived as a truly mean girl. Moving and touching and often depressing, the story is told beautifully by Oliver. The scenes are vividly described and the characters are well-rounded and developed. Sam’s development as a character is painstaking, as this type of growth would be for anyone who is shallow and self-centered. But it’s worth the trip with her as she realizes who she has been and who she wants to be.

Vampires and Beyond

Team Edward or Team Jacob?

If we go by my very unscientific poll of asking people who have read the books what their vote is, Edward the Vampire took the lead by at least two to one over Jacob the Werewolf. (My poll was of people who had actually read the books, not simply seen the movies, for who could vote Edward if one has seen Jacob on the big screen without his shirt on?)

What gives vampires such a big draw – and not just with the teen set? (The Sookie Stackhouse series is my case in point for the appeal to the older crowd.) Book series abound, and the TV shows and movies based on those books attract the attention of teens and adults alike. And not just with the girls; although, they definitely seem to be the most interested gender.

So what does make vampires so interesting to teens?

• Vampires are mysterious, sexy, and exciting. They can do the forbidden, yet they want to love and be loved, just like teens.
• Vampires are immortal. Who doesn’t want to live forever?
• Vampires have power beyond ordinary human beings. They can control and give eternal life.
• Vampires are different. They live on the margins of society, misunderstood and often wrongfully persecuted, as many teens feel they experience as well.
• Vampires provide horror and the thrill of fear. They get revenge and venture into the dark unknown with fearlessness adolescents only wish they could emulate. *

The exterior and interior changes which happen to vampires mirror the changes happening in adolescents. The vampire can provide a way to live out the inconsistencies of life vicariously. They represent a mixture of vengeance, control, sexiness, and danger all while maintaining their charm and sophistication.

So what was your first encounter with a vampire? Mine was Barnabas Collins in Dark Shadows (the original TV soap in 1967, not the Johnny Depp version of 2012). But no matter when young people get introduced to vampires, or with whom they have their first encounter, it is not really a mystery why vampires hold such appeal. And given that every author puts their own spin on the traditions of the vampire, each novel or series presents vampires in a fresh new light. So who is my favorite vampire – for I have loved many?

Go, Team Edward!

*[List adapted from DeMarco, J.  (1997).  Vampire literature:  Something young adults can really sink their teeth into.  Emergency Librarian  24(5)]

So when it comes to books to recommend, I have a matched set to bring.  There is a new trend to combine classic stories with creepy characters and plot twists.  The result of this "mash-up" are stories that you will recognize, but not.  They are usually injected with humor and offer unique takes on the classics many have loved over the years.  Here are some examples.

Alcott, Louisa May, and Messina, Lynn  (2010)  Little Vampire Women
The March women are back, but as vampires, of course.  Still the humanitarians that we know and love, the girls have been taught by their mother to be good little vampire women.  So they do not feed on human blood, but on animal blood.  The story has elements you'll recognize if you have read the original (Laurie is still dying to be part of the family, only this time, to get in he must really die!).  For those who have not, the plot is funny enough to keep the reader reading in most cases.

Alcott, Louisa May, and Grand, Porter (2010)  Little Women and Werewolves
While the previous book is more of a spoof, this particular spin on the March clan does not have the same feel of a satire or spoof.  This book reads as a much more serious book.  I agree with some of the readers who rated this book that it feels a bit chopped up and the storyline has little continuity.  However, it is interesting.  Werewolves were a popular topic of the time that Little Women was originally written, but I didn't like this version as much as Little Vampire Women which felt much less serious.

Twain, Mark, and Borchert, Don  (2010)  The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead 
If you're a lover of the scene where Tom cons his friends into whitewashing Aunt Polly's fence, you won't find that in this version.  What you will find is Tom getting the guys to sharpen fence posts into pointy spikes to attack Zombies with.  Zombies are taking over, and Tom and Huck become Zombie hunters.  This volume has the comedy and fun I was hoping for.  My only problem with it is I have absolutely no interest in zombie stories - just don't see the draw to this character.  However, Zombies are big business these days, and for those who don't feel as I do, this might be the book to add to your collection.


Just for fun, there are lots more in case you find the mash-ups to your liking:
The Late Gatsby
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Emma and the Vampires
Wuthering Bites
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

The Verse-Novel

A fairly new genre of Young Adult (YA) fiction is the “verse-novel,” a story told in free verse poetry. This form of writing has been gaining momentum since the early 1990s when novels in verse were starting to make an impression on the YA literature landscape.

Verse-novels are an evolving art form. As explained by Joy Alexander in her article “The Verse Novel: A New Genre” (Children’s Literature in Education, September, 2005), there is the question about what a verse-novel truly is. In some cases, a series of poems linked in a narrative sequence is seen as a verse-novel, while in other cases, an entire story being told in free verse is a verse-novel. It is this latter definition that seems to be taking over, and I believe rightly so.

Alexander makes the comment that this genre has “limited appeal for young readers.” I’m curious what she means by “young” as well as “limited.” As a high school teacher, I find that once young adults discover this genre, they tend to love it. There are several reasons I think this is so:

1. These novels are extremely quick reads. Even Ellen Hopkins’s verse-novels, which can be upwards of 700 pages, can be read in no time due to the verse-novel format where there are few lines on most pages. I find kids feel proud of the fact that they can read such a “fat” book after being so used to heading to the library to look for the skinniest book on the shelf.

2. The topics of the books tend toward the serious side. Students enjoy the fact that they either see themselves or others in the characters in the verse-novels they have read. Most verse-novels are told in first person, so the character telling the story and those around him or her are often very nicely developed.

3. These books are unique, and this appeals to my adolescent readers. They are reading a story and poetry all at once. That’s a heady feeling to be so literary for some of my kids!

Some verse-novels find themselves on the challenged list. One of the most challenged may be the books of Ellen Hopkins, whom I mentioned earlier. Her stories are edgy and include language and situations that are graphic and explicit. Hopkins was even uninvited from the Humble ISD’s literary festival that was scheduled for January, 2011, when several parents complained about the content of her books. That is unfortunate because many students find their lives mirrored in the pages of her book. Last spring, one of my high school boys who had just finished reading one of her books said something like, “This [drug-addicted character] is like my mom. I kind of get her better now.” It didn’t make his life any easier, but it was helping him process why she was the way she was. I wouldn’t trade that experience for him for anything.

Some verse-novels to try:

Crank by Ellen Hopkins (2004)

This is the story of 17-year-old “good girl” Kristina Snow who is introduced to crystal meth, or “crank,” when she visits her biological father. Under the influence of this highly addictive drug, Kristina becomes the uninhibited Bree, and as her life spirals out of control, her future becomes more and more uncertain. This is the novel in verse that my high school student was referring to when he said he understood his mother better. A sad portrayal of a life taken by the monster that has claimed so many lives.

All the Broken Pieces by Ann Burg (2009)

Twelve-year-old Matt is adopted. His Vietnamese mother gave him up when he was 10 to be airlifted out of war-ravaged Vietnam, and his new parents are American. He has many worries and concerns as he thinks about his biological mother and brother while facing prejudice and discrimination from those around him who are still hurting from the after shocks of the Vietnam War. Eventually, a new baseball coach, Matt’s adoring adoptive parents, and a group of Vietnam Vets help him find his way through the pain and into discovering who he really is.

Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas (2009)

Anke’s father abuses everyone in the family but her – her mother, her sister, and her brother. Because she is left alone, she feels relieved, but oddly enough, also worthless. When she makes the volleyball team at school, she starts finding her voice and her confidence. And this leads her to try to figure out how she can speak about what is happening in her family and get it to stop. I think the poetry in this novel in verse is particularly well done.

GLBTQ Literature and the Stonewall Award

The Stonewall Award, one of the newest awards in Young Adult literature, was awarded for the first time in 2010. Although only two years old, the Stonewall Award has a history going back much further. Originally known as “The Gay Book Award” when Patience and Sarah by Alma Routsong became the first recipient in 1971, the honor has had many names until most recently when it became known as the Stonewall Book Award. Books eligible for this award have characters and plots that are Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and/or Questioning (GLBTQ) with characters and situations falling into one or more of these categories.


Novels with gay characters are becoming more abundant each year. GLBTQ novels fall into two general categories:
1. novels that rely on homophobia as the foil in order to make the novels realistic
2. novels that suspend reality and create a utopian world where being gay is accepted as a natural part of the society in which the novel is set

Many see the rising instances of gay characters in novels, as well as novels about the gay experience as giving voice to the gay adolescent. Thomas Crisp, assistant professor at the University of South Florida, argues, however, that there does not exist a Young Adult gay novel that does not reinforce the norms of heterosexual society, thus somewhat defeating the purpose of the novels’ supposed intent to serve as both a window and a mirror for readers. Crisp also states that publishers are, obviously, trying to reach the widest audience possible. Thus, they are likely to publish books that look progressive while maintaining relationships and power structures that are taken for granted because they fit into the heterosexual structure of what is "normal."

(For further discussion of this topic, see Thomas Crisp’s article “From Romance to Magical Realism: Limits and Possibilities in Gay Adolescent Fiction” in Children’s Literature in Education, 2009, Vol. 440, pp. 333-348).

How do kids feel about books with a gay plot and characters? Interestingly, of all the books that I discuss with my students, this topic has only come up once or twice that I can remember, and then it was only mentioned in passing. So I don’t know how students feel about gay story lines and characters who are not heterosexual trying to find their way in a homophobic society. Perhaps that is evidence in and of itself that kids who are gay are continuing to “lay low” because of the ostracism they and others continue to receive for being “different.” Do the current titles that qualify for The Stonewall Book Award” satisfy their need to feel like they are not alone? I don’t know. Do those kids even know these novels exist? Again, I’m not sure if they know, and if so, to what extent.

Some novels that fall into the GLBTQ category in different ways:

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (2003).
Paul is an openly gay high school sophomore who lives in a gay-friendly community. One of those novels that suspends reality, this novel follows a pretty formulaic plot line where romance is at first thwarted, best friends are offended and estranged for a time, and everything works out “happily ever after” in the end. Winner of the Lambda Literary Award, this novel is for those who don’t want to read a novel that deals with the typical topic of homophobia.

The Eagle Kite by Paula Fox (1995)
Liam’s finds out his father is dying of AIDS, but when his mother tells Liam that his father contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion he’d had a while back, Liam knew she was lying. Liam has a memory of the day he saw his father embracing a young man at the beach – the day Liam broke his eagle kite. The family falls apart amidst the secrets everyone is keeping, yet everyone seems to know, and eventually Liam’s father moved to a cottage two hours away. When Liam finally goes to visit him, they are able to begin piecing their relationship back together.

The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson (1997)
A typical coming-of-age novel, this story covers several issues. Evangeline “Staggerlee” Canan is thirteen-years-old, and she is the daughter of a black father and a white mother. Set mostly in an African-American community in South Carolina, she finds herself on the outside not just because she is biracial, but also because she thinks she’s gay. Through interacting with her thirteen-year-old adopted cousin Trout, she begins to feel her way through what it means to love in a place that is intolerant.