Over the past several years, you could hardly walk down the street without hearing or seeing some reference to Twilight, Hunger Games, or some other super-popular series. What doesn't entirely make sense is that reason that these books have attained the level of popularity that they have. Although the news one typically hears stems from the movie release of one book adaptation or another, rather than the release of the book itself, the time, energy, and money for a movie would not be put out if there was an absence of guaranteed success (colossal failure of Mortal Instruments aside). The enormous success of both the Twilight and The Hunger Games movies attests to that.
Returning to my original point of why Teen Lit is so popular, I'll express some of my own opinions. Teen Lit capitalizes on several things that make it easy to relate to these books : the desire to "get out of here," heroic themes, and romance, to name a few. In many of these books, the main character is stepping out of their comfort zone and going to a new place: Katniss to the Capitol, Percy to Camp Half-Blood, and Bella (back) to Forks. The protagonist also has to step up and be a hero, much like the Epic Poems of old. These traits are admirable and allow readers to relate to a protagonist.
Perhaps the real secrets of Teen Lit will never be uncovered, and that's OK. I for one am able to enjoy both Teen Lit and "grown-up" books and have no problem letting people read whatever they enjoy. I just really needed a blog topic.
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