Welcome, listeners to a new episode of our show Fully-Booked. It’s early January, so we question why we chose the rather depressing topic of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction to discuss. But we roll with it, acknowledging that we were looking for something appropriately cold and bleak for the winter season.
We briefly recap our discussion from last week about “The Host” and how it ultimately irritated us. We joke about it being forgettable and encourage listeners to check out last week’s funnier episode if they missed it.
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What Is On Our Nightstand?
Transitioning to focus more on literary fiction this week, we explain our intention to explore differences between young adult and adult apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic stories. As we chatted about potential topics for the new year, we noticed distinct tonal shifts between the two genres that are worth analyzing.
Before diving in, we check in on what’s currently on our nightstands. Shirin just finished reading The Fine Print and is starting Fourth Wing. Meaghan recently completed The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas, a modern gothic tale set in post-revolution Mexico that reminded her of Rebecca. She gives a brief plot summary, noting she enjoyed the author’s writing but was hoping for something scarier with a bigger twist.
Differences Between YA and Non-YA Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
Getting back to our main topic, we attempt to identify some key similarities between YA and adult apocalyptic fiction first. We observe that they often focus on just one or two main characters rather than an ensemble cast, likely to reinforce feelings of isolation. The specific apocalyptic event can vary widely in both genres – disease, foreign invasion, technology run amok, etc.
We then dig into the differences, starting with the settings and world-building. YA books sometimes offer very little context or explanation for the catastrophe, while adult books tend to provide ample backstory and history. This likely stems from assumed reader naivety in YA; the young characters themselves may have limited perspectives on what happened. Adult books also devote more attention to the rebuilding process after the apocalypse versus just focusing on survival.
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The most notable contrast between the two genres is tone. YA stories almost always contain a “glimmer of hope,” some goal the characters are working towards that keeps optimism alive. Adult books portray life after the apocalypse in starker, more realistic terms focused on persistence and resilience rather than deliverance. They also shy away from introducing lighthearted elements like a competition between survivors or prominent romantic subplots.
To illustrate the power of hope – or lack thereof – in these tales, we discuss the novel Never Let Me Go in which cloned children are raised in a boarding school solely to have their organs harvested for wealthy recipients. Despite forming loving relationships, the characters face complete hopelessness which makes for devastatingly sad reading. We remark that even a small ray of hope inserted into such a bleak storyline would make a big emotional impact.
Other Classic Examples
Other classic examples of dystopian YA lit like The Giver, The Hunger Games, and Divergent soundly embrace uplifting messages about the promise of youth and the power of fighting systemic injustice. By contrast, adult books in the post-apocalyptic horror and zombie thriller categories purposefully avoid neat resolutions or happy endings in favor of realism. Oftentimes simply staying alive by the final page serves as the grim “victory” characters earn through enduring intense trauma and loss.
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We speculate that these genre conventions stem from assumptions about maturity levels. Authors feel adults can handle brutal, depressing scenarios without mitigating hope while younger audiences need uplifting narratives. And indeed, adult audiences demonstrably crave the unflinching nihilism of post-apocalyptic scenarios based on the popularity of things like The Walking Dead. We do however note that even the bleakest of adult books usually contain tiny slivers of hope, even if it’s just the main character surviving against all odds.
We ask listeners to think about what they prefer when it comes to post-apocalyptic fiction – the uplifting YA mentality of hope and revolution or the gritty realism of adult stories where simply making it to tomorrow constitutes success.
Enjoying this episode? Be sure to check out all of our coverage of the genre over at https://fully-booked.ca/. We’re a listener-supported podcast! Please consider pledging and helping Fully Booked to grow our library over at https://ko-fi.com/fullybooked, or by leaving us a 5-star rating and review wherever you’re listening. Thanks, bookworms, and don’t forget to keep on reading.
