On Trends.

So I think everyone can agree that J.D. Salinger created a monster in 1951 when he wrote A Catcher in the Rye. Granted, YA is an incredibly undefined, straight up weird monster, but it is a monster none the less.

(There is something amiss with that last sentence. Please disregard it.)

YA is changing. It's always changing - genres are changing, settings are changing...even the writing styles are changing. Now here's the crazy thing - it only takes one novel to set an entirely new tone; a tone mood that soon runs rampant throughout every YA novel published. Some books that did just that:

Harry Potter - Not only did J.K. Rowling raise the bar infinitely high for every YA author when she penned The Philosopher's Stone, but she also inspired a movement of magic. Soon, The Boy Who Lived became "The Boy Who Did Pretty Much Everything,With Magic."

Twilight - My personal favorite, Twilight has had more impact on a genre than any other book in my lifetime, and perhaps, well, ever. Literally every single YA book written in the five years after Twilight was released was either about vampires, or was a "paranormal romance novel." Way to be Stephanie Meyer, way to be.

The Hunger Games - Dystopian novel are "the" genre right now, at least among YA novelists. I can't remember the exact quote, but I remember reading that Suzanne Collin's publisher has started throwing away any submissions that are labeled as Dystopian. The Hunger Games not only rejuvenated a lost genre (try and name a Dystopian written before 2005 that is not called "1984" or "A Brave New World").

Finally, we come to our current state of affairs:

Every graphic novel, ever - Let's just get it out of the way. I absolutely despise graphic novels. Yes, some people love them and everything, but I am certainly not one of people. Haha. In all honestly, I think they take away the best part about books - the ability to create everything (the characters, the settings, etc.) yourself.

However, some authors (Ransom Riggs and Patrick Ness(!)) have started to use heavy illustrations and pictures in brilliant ways. Perhaps the best example is Ness' latest book, A Monster Calls. The illustrations are beautiful, inspiring, terrifying, and above all else, vague. Every single picture lends itself to your imagination, aiding it in incredible ways.

A Monster Calls

So that's what I think is coming next. Pseudo-graphic novels. Who's pumped?