Fighting for that happy ending

I've been doing a lot of reading of Young Adult (or YA) books of late. I should probably be ashamed since my reading age has grown beyond titles surrounding teenage angst and supernatural romances. But honestly? I find many of the concepts and plotlines in teenage and YA fiction to be more varied and often superior to most adult books. With YA books, there are all kinds of possibilities. As an adult, you can be judged for reading a romance or a fantasy but as a teenager? Often the setting or even the genre is merely acting as a background for something far greater.

It wasn't that long ago that I was a teenager, and I have to say that a lot of the clichés that I heard at 13 or 16 have proven themselves to be true. It's a time for trying to find your identity. What you are going to do about your life and who you are going to be. We expect uncertainty and stupid mistakes from teenagers. We don't from adults. By the time you hit your early twenties, you are expected to have some idea of what to do with yourself and to have created some kind of foundation that will shape the rest of your life.

This is (of course) complete and utter nonsense but I digress.

This is mostly an excuse for a picture of Matt Bomer as Neal Caffrey.

So, back to books.

I find in a lot of YA fiction, there tend to be the same kind of themes. People struggling to figure out who they are in a world that already seems to know what it's doing and trying to figure out where they fit in. It's some of the central themes in the two books I will be mentioning now: Ella Enchanted and Fairest, both by Gail Carson Levine.

"Such girlie titles!" I hear you groan. Well, yes. Not only because I am a girl but they are both based on fairy tales which are still considered to be the pinnacle of girliness (despite the regular appearance of the male hero but I will not get into my undergrad dissertation). But in a time where gender stereotypes seem to be in the process of being kicked and stamped on almost mercilessly (thank you Lauren Faust and MLP!) I thought that maybe this could extend to YA fiction as well: a genre that is primarily targeted towards the teenage girl.

(I want to make one thing clear. When I mention Ella Enchanted, I do not mean the movie. That is something else entirely and I am not about to touch on it. Also, apparently there is another book somewhere between these two. I have not read it but if you have, I would love to hear your views.)

So what is the basic plot of these books? Cinderella and Snow White. 'Nuff said.

Oh, you want a bit more? Ok then.

Not Anne Hathaway.

Brief plotlines

Ella Enchanted centres on Ella of Frell, a girl who is the unfortunate recipient of a gift by the fairy godmother Lucinda. Why unfortunate? Lucinda is not very good at the 'godmother' side of things and doesn't have the best judgement and upon arriving at a house containing a crying baby, she presents Ella with the gift of obedience. No matter what she does or what she wants, Ella must obey anyone who tells her to do something (not ask, TELL.The book specifies the difference). Her mother, recognising that such a gift could be used against her daughter, forbids her from telling anyone about it on her deathbed.

In the course of the book, a couple of people find out her secret (that she must obey orders although they do not really know why), Ella becomes friends with Prince Charmont (or Char) and struggles to find Lucinda and break the curse placed upon her.

Mirror, mirror in my hand...

But what of Fairest? In another kingdom is another girl; Aza, the sister to Ella's best friend. She is not a good-looking woman but she has a wonderful singing voice. And in a kingdom that communicates through song, this is a big deal. Through a LOT of coincidence and lucky chance, Aza is brought to the attention of Ivi, the king's much younger commoner bride from another kingdom. She cannot sing but she does catch Aza  practising ventriloquism and hits upon an idea. Aza will sing for her and in exchange, her family will be well paid. What is an innkeeper's daughter to do in such a situation especially when the prince wants to get to know her as well?

A similar plot concerning the loss of control and yet Levine does a very rare thing from an author...she doesn't repeat herself.

Comparisons

I like Ella, a lot. Not just because of how hard she fights the curse but also because of what she does besides it. She doesn't hide. She interacts with people. She has fun. She makes friends. She learns languages simply because she wants to. And while she cannot disobey, she can influence how far she can go. So if she is told to walk quicker, she can either speed up a bit or power-walk down the road. Like so many people I know, she clings to the smallest piece of control in a largely uncontrollable situation and you cannot help but admire her for that, even if it does sometimes concern you.

Aza isn't really as confident as Ella. She's lived with her ugliness her whole life and prefers to hide than deal with people staring. She's taller and wider than most people around her and she certainly feels her difference. She wants to blend in, not stand out and she is very conscious of the fact that she cannot do that. And more importantly, she finds herself unable to disobey her benefactor in any way and gets very nervous when it becomes clear exactly how dangerous the new Queen really is.

Let's be honest, you cannot have Snow White without the evil Queen.

In both cases, Levine does a great job of providing a little humanity to the fairy tale ideal. Neither one is perfect and they do make some serious mistakes in their journeys. Ella is so focused on trying to find Lucinda and break her curse that she never really lets her guard down, afraid that someone will take advantage. The one person she is herself around ends up being the one person she eventually realises she cannot be around, forcing her to isolate herself more. She is proud and she needs to learn to trust. Aza is so convinced of her ugliness that her entire story centres on her pursuit of changing her appearance. Every effort leads to disaster and it takes something drastic to make her see the folly of continuing down this path. By the end of the book, she still isn't completely happy with her appearance, but she is learning to like herself.

It's also interesting to note the difference and similarities in the villains of the books. In both cases, the original 'villain' is not necessarily the big bad of the piece. Ella pursues Lucinda, but it is the criticisms of her family and ultimately her own mind that are the real villains. Aza believes Ivi is the enemy, but she is merely a puppet to something greater which Aza eventually falls prey to due to her own weakness.

The princes in both cases are the saviours of the girls but not in the most traditional sense of the word. Char acts as a catalyst for Ella, giving her the strength she needs to defeat her own curse. Ijori acts as a mirror, showing Aza how beautiful he believes her to be and ultimately giving her the confidence to accept herself. At the end of the day, while both men help to motivate their love interests, it is the girls who ultimately win their hearts and defeat their own curses, letting them earn their happy endings and ultimately find out who they truly are.

But it is the universality of what the girls go through that appeals to me the most and is a prime example of why I keep picking up teenage and YA books. While we will never face ogres or interact with centaurs, who hasn't guarded themselves because they were afraid of someone getting too close? Who hasn't looked in the mirror and hated what they see? Who hasn't been their own worst critic? And who hasn't struggled to make their own thoughts and opinions heard and to gain the confidence to make their own choices? Tear away the fantasy, the magic and the fairy tale element and what you have left are simply two girls, who could be anyone, going through things that anyone could go through.

If I had to criticise these books, it would probably be the romance aspect. Don't get me wrong, the romance is not central to the plot as a whole. Most of Ella and Char's courtship takes place by letter and is more or less skimmed over while Aza and Ijori primarily focus on what Ivi is up to in her attempts to run a kingdom. In both cases, the romance comes from a friendship and the joy of finding someone who sees beyond the surface.

But back to my criticism. The romance here is fine but it acts as an example of the YA demographic. It is mostly girls who read these books. Most boys that I knew as a teenager preferred books that held some element of fact to it. And the most fantastical thing they read was sci-fi. Very little romance appeared unlike the books that were aimed at me and that was even reflected in the covers. Take a look next time you're in a bookshop. Bright colours or a moody photograph of a girl seems to be the norm which may not be appealing to the teenage boy who is struggling just as much with peer pressure and identity as his female counterpart.  I cannot help but wonder if this is a failing on the YA genre as a whole. Is this the reason why it is so female dominated? Are girls being targeted because they read? Or do they read because they are being targeted?

Maybe I'm the wrong person to judge.