Spotting Trends in Young Adult Fantasy

What's Trending?

Write what you love. That's hopefully what your teachers/mentors tell you, and what you tell yourself. You need to love your work so that you create the best piece possible. From a publishing standpoint, though, it can't hurt to keep an eye on what's trending. Many agents and publishers will tell you that contemporary young adult fiction is currently trending, and it is, but don't be disappointed. The young adult fantasy community is HUGE, and there will always be trends within that community. If you have a fantasy story, there's a fan base to explore.

Marked, first book in the
House of Night series

          We're going to identify the trends in young adult fantasy since, say, 2005. That's a nice ten-year cushion. Though, to be truthful, young adult audiences have only had books targeted toward them specifically within the last twenty years or so. Weird to think about, huh?
     Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, but the novel (and rest of the series) is called the Twilight phenomenon for a reason. It hooked and fascinated millions of people around the world and stirred enormous interest in young adult fantasy. Since then, young adult fantasy books have come a long way, with stronger plotlines and, some would argue, better writing. People have even suggested that if a book like Twilight were proposed today, it wouldn't have been published. But that's a whole other point.
    On October 5, 2005, a book came out that basically started the young adult fantasy fan base. You're probably inwardly groaning that the title we're about to drop is

Fallen
by Lauren Kate

           The point is, when Twilight appeared, we were able to more easily identify and track trends in YA Fantasy market. We saw an incredible surge in vampire stories and love triangles after the popularity of Twilight. There were good books and bad books, but, eventually, it began to get it old. The publishing industry was "milking the vampire cow" as a good friend of ours once said. During this time, books like the House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast and the Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith surged into popularity. With the vampire trend, we also saw a rise in werewolf stories, the vampires' enemies. Books like Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater were placed on the shelves next to vampire stories.
          The vampire/werewolf Paranormal Romance trend lasted for a while, and when it began to shift, we still saw a heavy dose of Paranormal Romance, but we began to see fallen angels in the market. Ah, yes, in 2010, we saw Fallen by Lauren Kate and (one of our recent Realms Reviews) Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. This also spurred the angel phase, where the angels didn't have to be fallen, like Halo by Alexandra Adornetto and Angel Burn by l.a. weatherly. We've read all of these angel books and, personally, we recommend Hush, Hush and Angel Burn if you're looking for an angel romance that doesn't bore or frustrate you.

Splintered
by A.G. Howard

          This brings us to the rise of retold fairy tales. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what sparked the trend in re-told fairy tales, and this may be because it's taken off in the film industry, too, with movies like Snow White and the Huntsman, Maleficent, Into the Woods, and now Cinderella, among many others. People like to re-imagine the classics for a number of reasons, but we'd say it's mostly because people love them and there's a guaranteed audience. Some books, like Beastly by Alex Flinn, came out before the fairy tale trend really hit the shelves, but we'd say the books that brought the trend to the forefront were Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles, which re-imagined the stories in a futuristic sci-fi-esque landscape and released in 2013. We've mentioned some retold fairy tales previously, so we'll try to throw some new titles at you, like Splintered by A.G. Howard, a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. Entwined by Heather Dixon is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Snow Like Ashes
by Sara Raasch

          Most recently, we've been seeing more and more High Fantasy in the young adult realm. Sarah J. Maas brought us Throne of Glass. We also see Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch. We are happy to say we have both Shadow and Bone and Snow Like Ashes in our To Be Read pile!
          Listed above are a lot of popular books, but please keep in mind that trends also include all the independent, and even some mostly unknown, books as well that fall into the trend. This also doesn't include every popular book, either. There are several popular books and series that have made it into the spotlight that don't fall into these trends. Just look at anything by Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, or Libba Bray (not to mention, several others!).
          Seeing these trends, it makes you wonder what will follow High Fantasy. There are lots of stories about witches and fairies, too, and maybe they fall into Paranormal Romance, but there's room for them to trend. Personally, we'd love to see something radically different start trending, something in YA Fantasy that moves away from what we're familiar with. What's your favorite trend, or, what would you like to see trending?

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