We have a fascinating blog today from Sujin Witherspoon about tropes in young adult fiction.
Tropes in YA Fiction: Trash or Treasure?
In an era where #BookTok dominates both bookstore shelves and social media feeds, selling a book by its tropes is becoming more commonplace. From slow burns to chosen ones, now books can be pitched in just a few words, and readers can find their favorite kinds of stories faster than ever. But is the increase of tropes in YA fiction a good thing?
My debut novel, Bingsu for Two, is a YA coming of age romcom about two teens who begrudgingly fake a relationship online to save their failing Korean cafe after they accidentally go viral. It’s an indulgent love letter to fandom, multicultural kids, and teens searching for their place in the world. If the premise of my book hasn’t made it clear; I’m a big fan of tropes. Some that readers can expect to find in Bingsu for Two are fake dating, a slow-burn romance, found family, haters to lovers, and the coffee shop setting. But of course, there is so much more to any book than just its tropes.
Tropes are usually used to fulfill the conventions of the genre and the readers’ expectations of the book they picked up. As an author, sometimes I’m deliberate about what tropes I use, and other times it’s an unconscious decision. There’s been some rhetoric about how tropes make stories repetitive, and that they can take the creativity out of a book. I don’t think this is fair for a few reasons.
First, tropes can help a reader find what they’re looking for. As a soft-hearted reader and writer, I pick up romance books knowing a happy ending is waiting for me, because it’s a trope of the genre. Second, just because something has been done before doesn’t make it boring. The same trope written by a thousand different people are all going to be portrayed in different ways–especially by BIPOC authors who are only recently getting the chance to use them in mainstream publishing.
I’d even say that tropes inspire originality. Speaking from my own experience, I wanted to find a way to use my favorite trope of fake dating, and brainstorming all the ways that my characters could find themselves in such a situation inspired a whole 80,000 word novel that spans romance, multicultural identity, friendship heartbreak, and so much more. Where would Bingsu for Two or other countless YA novels be without the foundational work of beloved tropes?
In my opinion, “trope” is not a dirty word, and I hope that as readers, writers, and booksellers, we can celebrate these storytelling conventions that are tried and true, and spotlight historically underrepresented voices that are now getting their chance to explore tropes in their own writing without it being written off as “cliche.”
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the Federation.
