The Shadows Between Us

YA fantasy is a subgenre of young adult literature, a broad mode of fiction that addresses the concerns of teens and adolescents. Defining YA literature is, as scholar Michael Cart notes, a difficult prospect, due to the massive scope of what may be considered “young adult” and the ever-changing nature of the term “literature” (Cart, Michael. “The Value of Young Adult Literature.” Young Adult Library Services Association [YALSA], 2008). The boundaries between YA, children’s books, middle grade books, and the newer category of new adult books (which looks at protagonists aged 18-29) are often unclear. YA author Courtney Summers, whose books often feature protagonists who are 18-20 but remain frequently characterized as YA, refers to this as “crossover YA” (Summers, Courtney. “Who Is a ‘Crossover’ Book For?” Publishers Weekly, 2020). The Shadows Between Us, which features a romance between an 18-year-old heroine and a 19-year-old hero, but which is still marketed as YA, fits into this category.

YA fantasy, which has proliferated in popularity in the late-20th and 21st centuries (following the massive commercial success of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, among others), tracks adolescent stories in various ways, including narratives that contain magical elements in real-world settings and narratives set in fantastical worlds. The Shadows Between Us falls into the latter of these categories. The age restrictions of YA fantasy often emerge as less stringent than those that apply to contemporary YA novels (which are framed by real-world markers of young adulthood, such as high school).

Young adult fantasy novels often use setting to exaggerate or emphasize the concerns of real-world adolescents. Common themes include coming of age, schools or other forms of training that ready young persons for the adult world, first love or first experiences with sex, and growing independence. Because the readership of YA literature is disproportionately girls and women, its protagonists are frequently girls and women as well. YA fantasy often describes issues of gender equality and women’s rights, in which real-world issues of sexism are emphasized by the injustices of another world. For Alessandra, facing these issues means fighting the purity culture and sexism of her world, which mimics the purity culture girls in our world often confront and which suggests a correlation between feminine value and lack of sexual history.

As such, YA fantasy frequently employs the “strong female character” trope, an archetype that receives both praise and criticism. Those who admire the trope praise the way a strong female character demonstrates that women and girls can be just as strong and capable as men and boys, in regard to both physical strength and mental fortitude. Those who denigrate the trope lament the ways in which the “strong female character” archetype flattens women protagonists into stock characters. These critics suggest that depictions of “strength” as shown via this trope often depend on masculinized ideologies, and that women characters are not permitted to have realistic flaws without being criticized as promoting an antifeminist vision of women as inherently weak.