Are Today's YA Books Excessively Turbulent, Dark, and Angsty?

Posted by Michael Jung Feb 16, 2009

While reading author Janette Rallison's blog, I came across this quote in her blog entry, "The Other Thing That Bothers Me About a Lot of Contemporary YA Literature":

"it worries me that all of the non-fantasy YA books I’ve read recently are excessively turbulent, dark, and angsty. I’ve read book after book and not only is the reading material depressing, I’m wondering if all teenagers have awful, horrible lives. Oh and as a corollary, I’ve also learned that guys are basically evil and untrustworthy. Girls aren’t much better—at least not if they are pretty."

She goes on to list a lot of the dark issues used by these books, including cheating boyfriends/fathers, drug users, fatal car crashes, and unplanned pregnancies.

Now personally I've always read more middle grade fiction, which tends to be (at least in my experience) more humorous and fanciful than a lot of YA lit (although bad things do still happen to good people -- just look at the Baudelaire orphans in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events).

That said, I've also read many YA books, from Robert Cormier's Tenderness and Fade to Christopher Pike's thrillers, that are full of psychotic teenage serial killers, depressed suicidal teens, and one or two disturbing cases of incest. And mind you, these are popular (and in certain cases award-winning) books that have a wide readership.

So what do you think? Are current (and I suppose past) YA books "excessively turbulent, dark and angsty"? And if they are, why do you feel they are so popular? Is this a reflection on the sad state of our society or are readers trying to cathartically release the pent up emotions within them?