BookExpo America: YA Editors’ Buzz Panel in Review

At BookExpo this year, I was excited for the YA Editors’ Buzz Panel, which was–as you might guess–a panel of editors of up and coming young adult books dishing about the books they felt would be a big deal.  The books being discussed were Plain Kate by Erin Bow, Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel,  Matched by Ally Condie, Firelight by Sophie Jordan, and The Duff by Kody Keplinger.  Only The Duff is a straight young adult fiction novel, with the others falling into the paranormal and dystopian genres so popular right now.

Before the panel I was definitely interested in two of the books–Firelight and Infinite Days.  I only recently learned about Firelight, but the premise of a young girl who can shift from dragon to human intrigued me.  I’ve been an avid dragon lover and am always interested in books that deal with dragon/human shifting.  Infinite Days has long been on my radar as a book I had to have.  It’s a vampire paranormal about a vampire queen who wants what every vampire wants–to be human.  What caught me most, when I first read about this book, was that the synopsis didn’t hide the fact that the main character, Leah, was a true terror in Europe.

I was lucky enough to snag a signed ARC (advanced reader’s copy) of Firelight at Sophie’s signing, but Infinite Days remains elusive, taunting me.  My friend has a copy, however, and I may have to liberate it from her very evil clutches.

Plain Kate has been a book mentioned a lot around the blogs I frequent, though I had no idea it was a fantasy until the panel itself (I was convinced it was a contemporary, for some reason).  The book is about a woodcarver’s daughter who makes a deal with the devil to escape her angry town and find a place for herself.  I was intrigued, but I didn’t see why some of my other blogger friends were so excited.  Young Adult Fantasy, by and large, makes me feel restless; the exceptions being Shannon Hale and Tamora Pierce.  Most YA fantasy seems either entirely too grown up for the target audience, or too immature to hold my interest.  I will likely give Plain Kate another look after it releases in September.

An interesting thing about Matched:  I met the author by accident at the Penguin booth.  She was hanging around with Jodi (a literary agent) and one of my blogger friends.  She’s such a sweet, funny woman!  I asked her about her book, because I had never heard of Matched before that moment, and she patiently told me about it.  It may have been the cover that did it for me, though–it sparkles.  The book is about Cassia, who grows up in a society where the Officials decide on everything from the job you’ll have to the person you’ll love and be with, and the flash of what could be.  If she ignored all the rules and lived for herself.  At the panel I was glad I had met the author beforehand, because Condie’s agent described it completely differently.  I was also lucky enough to snag an ARC of this book as well!

Lastly is The Duff.  In a panel of vampires, dragons and magic The Duff stood out because it is a book about a girl who falls in love with the person she least expected.  No magic.  No fairies or fascist governments or curses.  I honestly expected to not be very interested in this novel.  I don’t read a lot of straight fiction, and the ones I do are more comedy then anything else, so for a teen drama to spark my interest is nothing short of marvelous.  I didn’t seem to be the only one either; The Duff easily received the most attention at the panel.

So what does this day for the YA genre?  Without even hesitating, I can say the market is saturated with Twilight wannabes, the same way it was saturated with Harry Potter wannabes for a while.  Every time I turn around, it seems as if a new vampire-human-werewolf triangle is springing up, or an ordinary girl is smack dab in the middle of paranormal happenings.  There was a time, not that long ago, when people actually scoffed at my interest in vampires and werewolves!  True story–it happened at a bookstore about seven years ago. Now I get the opposite reaction; I ask for a recommendation on a new YA paranormal, and booksellers will roll their eyes and ask me if I’m another one of those Twilight fangirls.

This isn’t to say there aren’t interesting paranormal books for teens out there or due out, but it seems as if librarians and booksellers–the majority of the people in the audience–are ready for something different.  Or, I guess, in the case of The Duff, an old genre to re-emerge with fresh new talent and intriguing ideas.  As for myself, I’m quite content with my paranormals, but I wouldn’t mind a change of pace every once in a while.