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The Undercover Life of Young Adult Novels

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The Undercover Life of Young Adult Novels RIGHT TO READ Angel Daniel Matos The Undercover Life of Young Adult Novels This article is also available in an online format that justice. But why are book covers so important when allows direct access to all links included. We encourage it comes to the expression (or concealment) of certain you to access it on the ALAN website at http://www. types of knowledge? The intuitive answer would be alan-ya.org/publications/the-alan-review/the-alan- that book covers are often the first component of review-columns/. a literary work with which we interact. As Genette (1997) argues, paratext1 functions as an invitation for s teachers of and experts on young adult litera- a reader to engage with the conversation depicted in a ture, many of us believe that books written book’s pages: for adolescent readers possess the ability to A More than a boundary or a sealed border, the paratext is, change lives. Young adult literature offers narratives rather, a threshold, [. .] a “vestibule” that offers the world in which teenagers are able to learn from, if not over- at large the possibility of either stepping inside or turning come, the harsh realities of everyday life. Even more back. It is an “undefined zone” between the inside and so, it provides readers with the potential to explore the outside, a zone without any hard and fast boundary on either the inward side (turned toward the text) or the different ways of existing in the world that depart outward side (turned toward the world’s discourse about from normative thinking and values. But what if the the text). (p. 2, emphasis in original) very elements of a young adult book prevent read- ers from detecting this potential? In this issue of The Whether perusing books in a store or browsing for ALAN Review, we are concerned with examining the books online, a book’s cover is often the main element moral and ethical dynamics that surface when readers that captures potential readers’ attention and com- engage with young adult narratives. In this column, I pels them to engage with a book’s content. Given the am interested in taking a step outside of the narrative status of a book cover as an interpretative threshold, and focusing on the ethical interactions prompted by it is important for us to question which audiences are the very element that binds a literary work’s narrative invited to “step inside” a book’s pages through the together: a book’s cover. implementation of certain paratextual features and the Broadly speaking, the act of censorship entails the extent to which these thresholds are deliberately de- use of a particular ideological or moral framework to signed to reach out to, or withdraw from, a particular justify and enact the repression or deletion of knowl- readership or purchaser by omitting crucial informa- edge that is considered objectionable to a certain tion. audience. Among potential acts of censorship, we can Phillips (2007) points out that book publishers are identify “micro” types of repression and deletion that able to identify “types of segmentation” that are im- may not be intentional or grand in scale but that none- portant for the marketing and distribution of a book, theless lead to the withholding of information that and covers are thus designed with these segments is crucial to understanding a novel’s stance toward in mind: “This then influences the marketing mix particular notions of identity, democracy, and social chosen for their books—what combination of product, 85 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Winter 2017 m85-91-ALAN-Winter16/17.indd 85 2/4/17 11:04 AM price, place (distribution) tive focuses mostly on Cameron’s comedic coming-out Given the status of a book and promotion. Publish- tale, whereas characters such as Cameron’s boyfriend ers that aim to sell to a and Virginia are largely dismissed throughout most of cover as an interpretative mass market, for example the plot. through supermarkets, will Given Virginia’s peripheral role in the narrative, it threshold, it is important decide to play it safe with is baffling to notice that her character is put front and for us to question which their cover design” (p. 22). center on the cover of the hardcover version of Sloan’s Publishers therefore create novel (see Fig. 1). The cover spotlights Virginia, along audiences are invited to book covers that are very with her scarlet dress and signature red hair, while the deliberate in terms of their character representing Cameron is found in the back- “step inside” a book’s appearance—and although ground donning a white and black tuxedo. Although pages through the young adult novels provide Virginia is one of the most memorable characters in readers with a source of the novel, she only appears in a couple of the chapters implementation of certain entertainment, inspiration, and is peripheral to many of the novel’s main events. and/or education, they However, the novel’s cover focuses significantly on paratextual features first and foremost must this secondary character, giving readers the impres- sell. In the remainder of sion that she plays a much larger role in the narra- and the extent to which this discussion, I briefly tive. The aesthetic choices made on the cover become these thresholds are examine the ways in which even more problematic when taking into account book covers problem- Virginia’s cleavage. Although her chest is loosely deliberately designed to atically suppress, conceal, covered by the novel’s title, it is clearly the focus of contradict, or delete the the cover’s image—an emphasis that does not quite reach out to, or withdraw knowledge contained in sync with the gay coming-of-age narrative depicted from, a particular a young adult novel’s in the novel’s pages. As a matter of fact, the blatant pages—either because the presence of cleavage on the novel’s cover was initially readership or purchaser content is considered con- so prominent that sellers such as Barnes & Noble tentious and controversial by omitting crucial or because it has been de- information. termined that the novel’s content could affect its distribution and sales. Blowing Their Cover One of the first times I noticed a discrepancy between a book’s cover and its content occurred over a decade ago when I read Brian Sloan’s A Really Nice Prom Mess (2005). The novel itself, which can be catego- rized as a comedy of errors of sorts, is narrated by a gay teen named Cameron, who is convinced by his boyfriend to bring a fake date to the prom in order to conceal their queerness and their relationship. Virginia, Cameron’s decoy date who possesses distinc- tive flaming-red hair, soon determines that Cameron is gay, which leads her to drown her sorrows in alcohol. As Virginia wallows at the prom, Cameron attempts to deal with the tensions of having a boyfriend who ex- presses no desire to come out of the closet. After Cam- Figure 1. Front cover of the hardback version of Sloan’s A Really Nice Prom Mess, originally published in 2005 eron escapes the prom with a drug dealer, the narra- 86 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Winter 2017 m85-91-ALAN-Winter16/17.indd 86 2/4/17 11:04 AM refused to promote the novel in their stores, leading publishing young adult novels with queer themes the book’s designers to make some adjustments to the and characters. One of the most recent and well- cover, which consisted of moving the title of the novel documented cases of this issue arose when Rachel upwards to partially obscure Virginia’s chest (Walker, Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith first attempted to 2009). find a publishing firm that would be willing to sell and Sloan himself has noted the somewhat deceptive distribute their novel Stranger, which was eventually nature of the original front cover of his novel, going so published in late 2014. Stranger is a post-apocalyptic far as to claim that the cover is “subversive in that the novel told from multiple viewpoints, including that of racy image might catch the attention of those notori- a queer character known ously reluctant boy readers, even though the narrator as Yuki Nakamura. While is a gay teen” (Walker, 2009). While the redesigned seeking representation If a young adult novel version of the hardcover novel partially (and some- for their novel in 2011, what ineffectively) shields Virginia’s cleavage, the an agent from a major possesses queer content, image nonetheless remains quite suggestive. It is here publishing firm agreed to that we notice that the book’s design is caught in a sign on Brown and Smith should book designers, double-bind. The cover’s concealment of the narra- as long as they removed all authors, and publishers tive’s gay themes could potentially help boost the references to Yuki’s sexual novel’s readership, making it attractive to teens who orientation from the book. be held accountable for are apprehensive about reading queer narratives. The authors refused this However, this repression harkens back to a major caveat because by elimi- making sure that this issue in queer representation in the parallels created nating reference’s to Yuki’s queerness emanates from between the concealment present in the book’s cover sexuality, they would be and the issue of the closet that permeates lesbian, gay, sending teenagers a mes- the book’s paratextual bisexual, trans, and queer (LGBTQ) communities. sage that homosexuality Even if the novel’s cover was not deliberately designed is “so utterly horrible that features? to conceal the narrative’s queer content, this camou- people like them can’t flaging aligns with examples of censorship present in even be allowed to exist the young adult publishing industry and the hesitation in fiction” (Flood, 2011, n.p.).
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