Summary
Researching this subgenre, I found that opinions on many YA murder mysteries were rather varied, which surprised me at the time but seems obvious in retrospect. For the novels I mentioned, those all had many differing views, while natural for a mystery novel, seemed more polarizing than expected. Not every mystery turns out like you would think, after all. It seemed to me that, since these novels were aimed towards YA, reviewers (both YA and not) were more critical of them due to the label of YA. It goes to show that despite the target audience being different, the murder mystery subgenre as a whole is something many have an opinion about and wish to think critically on.
Another conclusion I reached in my research into the subgenre was how prevalent female protagonists are within the stories and female authors are in the medium. While I suspect that this trend started with Nancy Drew as I discussed in the history section, its prominence has taken off in recent years from the early 2010’s and into the 2020’s. I do not consider this a negative, as variety of protagonists and personal author choice matters a lot to a writer as well as the audience they are catering to.
This brings to mind a new question: Why are there (seemingly) more female protagonists and authors within the mystery genre as a whole? While this question is perhaps a tad too lengthy to answer in a blog, recognizing its significance and aiming to understand the YA audience’s choice in literature is something important for librarians to consider when it comes to their collections.
Overall, the YA murder mystery subgenre draws in audiences both YA and not due to fast-paced stories, its variety in scenarios and characters, alongside the relatability/familiarity factor of being YA’s to pull readers into the story more effectively. Even as the subgenre has not had a long lifespan, its impact on the YA audience is palpable, drawing out their innate curiosity and want to learn to solve problems, something I think is immensely valuable for YA to learn.
