Panelists (from l.) Scott Westerfeld, James Dashner, Carrie Ryan, and Michael Grant.

Vampires may live forever, but the recent vampire trend in YA fiction won’t. Author Michael Grant, for one, is “sick to death of vampires,” and he is not alone. But when one hugely popular trend ends, what will take its place? Some readers have their fingers crossed for postapocalyptic fiction.

Grant, along with fellow authors Scott Westerfeld, Carrie Ryan, and James Dashner, gathered with fans at Barnes & Noble on Manhattan’s Upper East Side last Thursday to discuss their latest books, as well as the future of this “bleak future” genre.

Westerfeld, who described his steampunk novel Leviathan (Simon Pulse) as “more preapocalyptic than postapocalyptic,” said that he enjoys the freedom that comes along with the genre. “Teens are being forcibly civilized,” he said. “But when civilization breaks down, you can tie chainsaws to bumper cars if you want to.”


It was a standing room only crowd at the panel, which was held at a Barnes & Noble on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

It is both that freedom as well as the possibility of the eventual reality that excite James Dashner. In his novel The Maze Runner (Delacorte), a teen suddenly finds himself in an area called the Glade—an open expanse surrounded by an enormous maze. With no memory except his own first name, he and the other boys must struggle to find their way out, as well as discover who brought them there and why. Chosen for Barnes and Noble’s “Discover Great New Writers” program, The Maze Runner will be heavily featured in stores throughout the winter. Dashner believes that, unlike the magical world of Harry Potter, these scenarios are extreme but possible. “What if this did happen?” he asked.

Carrie Ryan decided to set her debut novel, The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte), 150 to 200 years after the apocalypse in an effort to explore not an event itself, but what remains. “I wanted to take it generation to generation,” she said. “I wanted to see what we lose and what we remember.” Ryan said she believes the genre of dystopian future fiction lends itself well to YA books. “You want your characters to be in control of their own story, so you have to get rid of the parents,” she said. An apocalypse offers an opportunity to do that.


After the panelists spoke, they signed copies of their books for readers in attendance.

Westerfeld took a similar approach to getting rid of parents, albeit in a far different manner, in Leviathan. The book takes place at the outbreak of WWI, “the first time everyone figured out that war is really stupid,” he said. His main character, Alek, is the son of Archduke Ferdinand, whose assassination sparked the beginning of the war. Alek must deal not only with the loss of his parents but with the loss of the world he knows. Trying to channel the Boys’ Own Adventure Stories that he remembered from childhood, Westerfeld chose to include several illustrations in Leviathan. The result is what he calls almost a “Victorian manga.”

As for getting rid of parents, Michael Grant went one step further in his Gone series (HarperTeen), instantaneously and mysteriously getting rid of everyone over the age of 14. The young teens and children who remain must rebuild some form of workable society. “Maybe it’s just me projecting and wanting to go somewhere else for a little while,” he said with a smile.

While books in a genre as broad as postapocalyptic fiction can vary widely in subject matter, the one constant seems to be “the bleaker the vision, the better.” In fact, that mantra is an integral part of Carrie Ryan’s writing process. “I go with the philosophy of ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ ” she said, “and then I write that.”