{"id":6864,"date":"2017-10-31T08:43:15","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T12:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6864"},"modified":"2017-10-31T08:43:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T12:43:15","slug":"the-next-generation-of-mysterythriller-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6864","title":{"rendered":"The Next Generation of Mystery\/Thriller Readers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nancy<\/a>The fiction that appeals to teen readers follows certain general principles<\/a> (notably, lack of adult supervision) that will sound familiar to adults who grew up with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. In retrospect, these stories of mystery and adventure may seem weak broth alongside the themes popular now. \u00a0Today\u2019s teens seem mired in a world of hurt: dystopian<\/a> novels and series, like the Hunger Games<\/em> and Divergent<\/em>, vampires and werewolves, and, more recently suicide narratives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Atlantic<\/em> commentator Heather Horn suggests such books, rather than fostering a dark view of the world, reflect the view our youth already have. \u201cThe young are attracted to the genre because it so perfectly mirrors their experience of the at once vibrant and sinister world of middle school and high school.\u201d There\u2019s a chilling thought.<\/p>\n

Since people sat around campfires listening to stories, they\u2019ve taken pleasure in tales of mystery and adventure. Today\u2019s teens are reading less and less<\/a>, availing themselves of fewer narratives of success and accomplishment to pattern their own lives on. Can they be drawn back to reading with good stories? With plucky protagonists who figure things out, who solve problems, who cleverly elude dangers here in the real world?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve read two new novels lately that I think manage this.<\/p>\n

****League of American Traitors<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Written by Matthew Landis – This debut YA thriller is set in the modern day, with one foot firmly planted in American history. The promising (but ultimately rather far-fetched) idea underlying the story is that the descendants of American heroes (from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and World Wars I and II) belong to a shadowy group called the True Sons of Liberty, while the descendants of history\u2019s notorious traitors belong to the equally shadowy and eponymous League of American Traitors.<\/p>\n

When a traitor descendant turns 18, he or she will be challenged to a duel and must accept the challenge or go into a lifetime of hiding. Descendants who choose the duel and survive are free to live in peace thereafter. Author Landis keeps the teens\u2019 interactions at a slangy and superficial level; further, some of the adult portrayals are overly stereotyped and the dialog is a touch Hollywood. For the most part, there\u2019s little exploration of the backgrounds of the characters\u2019 ancestors, which seems like a lost opportunity. Perhaps it will interest teens in delving further.<\/p>\n

The book nevertheless raises thought-provoking and unexpectedly timely issues. When discussing the impact on the duelist of actually killing another person, one of the hero\u2019s friends admonishes him, \u201cDon\u2019t rationalize it. That\u2019s what the Libertines do\u2014use honor to make murder okay.\u201d My longer review of this book is available at CrimeFictionLover.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

****Trell<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Dick Lehr \u2013 Inspired by the true case of a Boston preteen\u2019s murder and the false imprisonment of a young African-American father for the crime, this compelling first-person narrative recreates the efforts of the convict\u2019s teenage daughter to exonerate her father and vividly portrays the allies and enemies she makes along the way. A highly engaging character, Trell has grown up without a father in her life, but by sheer willpower and a growing mound of evidence convinces a has-been reporter and a dogged lawyer to join her fight. Author Lehr is a former reporter for The Boston Globe\u2019s<\/em> Spotlight team (yes, that Spotlight<\/a> team), which took on the case. The father was no saint, but he wasn\u2019t a murderer, either.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fiction that appeals to teen readers follows certain general principles (notably, lack of adult supervision) that will sound familiar to adults who grew up with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. In retrospect, these stories of mystery and adventure … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Next Generation of Mystery\/Thriller Readers - can we encourage adventure without dystopia?","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[40,3,126],"tags":[89,414,1159],"class_list":["post-6864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-mystery","category-reading-2","tag-reading","tag-writing","tag-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1MI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6867,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864\/revisions\/6867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}