Not too long ago, I read Eleven Houses by Colleen Oakes. It was a really delightful, really inventive young adult horror/romance, set on a fictional island near Nova Scotia whose population serves as the first and last line of defense between the restless dead and the rest of the world. It touched eloquently on issues of grief, trauma, mental health, and toxic traditions. The teen romance at the core of the story was even-footed, with both local Mabel and newcomer Miles equal parts savior and saved. The ending was imperfect, but deliberately so, and the upshot was ultimately hopeful. I loved this book.

So imagine my surprise to see the publishers themselves, in the official ad copy for the book, compare Eleven Houses favorably to Twilight.

To be clear: if you are unironically a Twilight fan, that’s not a crime. All media has some sort of issue, big or small, and it’s up to the individual to decide where their line is. It’s far less worrying for a grown reader to read it as escapism and nothing more than it is for a younger reader to decide they want their own Edward Cullen (and everything that entails).

The problem, at least in 2024, is that publishers attempting to market new YA fiction are leaning on Twilight as some sort of landmark of its genre. Whether or not you personally like it, Twilight is not the greatest YA paranormal romance. It’s not even a good paranormal romance. Even if it has an enduring fanbase, it is pretty well established in the zeitgeist that Edward and Bella have a toxic relationship. The unbalanced power dynamic, lack of boundaries, and fear-fueled closeness have been the subject of countless think pieces and editorials.

This couldn’t be further from the theme of so many books that publishers compare to Twilight, Eleven Houses included. The irony of the comparison was striking, as one of the most solid elements of Eleven Houses was the balanced power dynamic and commitment to communication between the romantic leads. Miles throwing a rock through Mabel’s window during one evening of grief-fueled rage becomes a major issue that requires several chapters and an earnest apology to resolve. This is the case for any miscommunication between the pair, originating on either side, that results in any kind of overwrought action. In fact, the entire theme of the book relies upon the two being on equal footing, communicating with honesty, and treating each other with respect—not just for the sake of their relationship, but for the sake of their community.

So what makes this at all comparable to Twilight? Is it because it takes place in a small and slightly dismal community? Stephanie Meyer does not corner the market on small-town horror. Is it because one of the kids is a handsome boy and one is an allegedly frumpy girl? While Mabel may call herself “swarthy,” her contention with the rest of Weymouth is not about aesthetics. Is it new kid meets local kid? That’s the start of most YA novels I’ve read in the last two years. There is, frankly, nothing that ties Twilight and Eleven Houses together except that they both center on a heterosexual teen couple and there’s some scary dark fantasy in the vicinity.

To be fair, YA fiction (and fiction in general) also has a BookTok problem. More than ever, publishers feel the pressure of getting a bite-sized, social media friendly snippet out there. And “X meets Y” descriptions of stories, while reductive, are nothing new and can be useful if done correctly. But in an era when YA paranormal romance is finally getting its feet under it, with at least as many hits as misses when it comes to presenting relationships a reader can get behind, there must be some other way to draw people in. It would be, if this were happening more often, as frustrating as seeing any school-set story compared to Harry Potter.

To cover every single issue currently at play in the world of advertising books would take a multi-part series—reducing “fanfiction” to a single-style monolith rather than a medium, reducing narratives to tropes that don’t even fit properly, suspending the worth of entire stories on the diversity of a single character without interrogating the degree of sensitivity with which the representation is handled. In an era where anyone can write and publish, we can find more excellent fiction than ever; but that means digging through more fiction total than ever. And some publishers’ overcommitment to clicks may (and in fact do) end up misrepresenting some of this excellent fiction.

It’s not a problem I see changing anytime soon, as BookTok gets entire tables dedicated to its picks at brick-and-mortal bookstores and influencers profess to skipping anything in a book that isn’t dialogue. But we can hope for a sea change. And, in the meantime, we can continue to elevate the best of new fiction for what really makes it shine, and not for what’s the most clickable this week.

Featured Image: Summit Entertainment

Boss Rush Podcast – A Podcast about Video Games

The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship show of Boss Rush Media and The Boss Rush Network. Each week, hosts Corey Dirrig, LeRon Dawkins, Stephanie Klimov, and Pat Klein, as well as their friends, fellow creators, developers, and industry veterans, share their gaming experiences. They discuss what they’ve been playing, explore rotating segments, debate the Boss Rush Banter topic of the week, answer community write-ins, and more. Patreon subscribers at any tier enjoy exclusive access to the Boss Rush Podcast Patreon Show twice a month along with other perks and extras.

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