#UKYASpotlight is a month-long event across social media to promote YA books by British and Irish authors (resident and national). For more information, click here.
About the Authors
Madeline Dyer writes dark and twisty books about troubled teen girls. She is also a PhD student at the University of Bristol, researching intersections between prehistoric cultures and the Gothic.
After growing up in rural Shropshire, Tess James-Mackey set out to explore the world and find her place in it. She quickly rushed straight back to Shrewsbury when she realised she’d been where she belonged from the start. She now lives in a quiet suburb with a noisy partner and daughter, two extremely noisy cats, and a less noisy tortoise. She spent years mucking out and getting trampled on by horses, before finally deciding she might prefer a less precarious office job. Between analysing insurance risk, she writes teens into terrifying situations inspired by her lived experiences. When she’s not allowing her mind to wander to dark and twisty places, she pursues more wholesome activities, like growing mediocre vegetables in her garden, camping with her daughter, and even riding the odd horse.
About Their Books:
Title: SWANS IN THE DARK
Author: Madeline Dyer
Pitch: Ballet dancers with deadly secrets unite to solve a decades-old murder and rescue an abducted girl.
Find on Goodreads.
Title: YOU WOULDN’T CATCH ME DEAD
Author: Tess James-Mackey
Pitch: Keely is roped into a school programme that involves camping in the Welsh wilderness. But Keely is running from something. And when her fellow explorers start disappearing and the bodies begin to pile up, she has to ask herself: did she run far enough?
Find on Goodreads.
What do you think is special about UKYA?
Madeline Dyer: How supportive the community is. Everyone is genuinely enthusiastic about each other’s books and I am always discovering great new reads.
Tess James-Mackey: There are so many brilliant books across all genres in UKYA that are truly written with their target audience in mind – reflecting the feelings, successes and mistakes of teens so they can see themselves represented on the page.
What distinguishes a YA book from middle grade or adult? Why do you think it’s so popular at the moment?
Madeline Dyer: I love YA because we can tackle quite dark and complex ideas without necessarily getting too ‘heavy’. I also love writing about identity and confusing emotions, and I think teens often read to find themselves—just as I write to find myself.
Tess James-Mackey: YA is driven by the impulsive, fun, dangerous decisions of teen protagonists, making the stories delightfully messy and the plots can take turns you might not see in MG or adult fiction. The coming of age element adds an extra connection to YA, allowing readers to relate with the characters as they mess up along the way but ultimately succeed.
There has been a lot of talk about the adultification of YA and what that means for teen readers. What sort of balance do you think UKYA strikes between teens and older readers? Do you think this balance needs to shift in a particular direction and how?
Madeline Dyer: The balance is always going to be changing a little, and I do find a lot of the policing of what’s ‘appropriate’ for teen readers comes from adults who don’t want to let teens decide for themselves. But I think difficult subjects, often considered ‘adult’ topics, need to be tackled in YA books too, especially if teens are experiencing these things in real life.
Tess James-Mackey: UKYA is typically known for “reading younger”, which I see as a huge compliment for YA – it’s written for teenagers so in my opinion, should feature characters who respond to situations as teens realistically would. If adults still enjoy YA, then that’s great, but I believe it should be read through the lens of a teen, with the memory of just how difficult things can be at that stage in life – how hard it is to make the right decisions, how important things that might seem trivial to adults are, and how YA can speak to teens on such a deep level but seem trite to adults who are no longer living that reality.
How do you think UKYA will evolve in the coming five years?
Madeline Dyer: I’m really pleased that we’re getting more diverse representation in UKYA and I think this will only improve in the next few years.
Tess James-Mackey: It would be great to see diverse voices being amplified in YA – the importance of teens being able to see themselves represented is huge. Also greater support for UKYA that demonstrates the lived experiences of teens in the UK, which can be unique and different from teen experiences in the US, for example. I think UKYA is great at not shying away from gritty reality and it would be great to see it thrive!
For more interviews, check here and don’t forget to check instagram (here) for book recommendations from these authors and more!
#UKYASpotlight 
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