"Sex, Serial Killers, And Suicide" Brill's Content

"Sex, Serial Killers, And Suicide" Brill's Content

Kimberly Conniff's article situates Cormier's novel Tenderness in the changing landscape of teen fiction. She uses the adjectives "gritty, immediate, and brazenly hardcore" to describe Melvin Burgess's Smack, but they could just as easily pertain to Cormier's work. Conniff also points to works like Tenderness exceeding publishers' sales expectations. She calls the move towards the hardcore subject matter a ploy to bring in older teens to the young adult market and marks the prevalence of YA specific imprints at large publishing houses, YA reading lists on bookstore websites, and YA specific book prizes. Conniff makes a passing mention of the Columbine shooting as a point to reference to remind readers of how teenagers do face real problems that literature written for and about them should reflect if we are to be honest about our reality.

Robert E. Cormier Collection at Fitchburg State University's Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library

September 1999

AnnaMary L. Consalvo
Katharine Covino
Elise Takehana

JPG, 8.5x11

English