A high-level checklist for evaluating the substance of a YA novel
When reviewing a young adult novel, whether for an awards program or for the purpose of writing a review, you’ll want to consider all the essential elements that go into the spinning of a fine story — but through the lens of what resonates with teens, what they’re looking for in a story.
Questions to consider
The questions here are generative: meant to help cue and prompt. Reading through them before you begin, or occasionally as a refresher, can help you focus your attention on the most fruitful aspects and — where you sense a weakness — to diagnose cause.
Holistically
Did the book pull you in? Hold your attention, keep you engaged?
Are the characters sharply drawn, clear, unique? True to life, yet indisputably themselves? Is the narrative voice fresh and engaging? Strong and individual?
Does the book fulfill its aims?
Does the story speak to a young-adult audience? Does it talk down to that audience?
. . .
Titles
Does the title of the novel forecast or reflect the substance of the narrative in some way?
Is it creative or intriguing? Further revelatory once the book is finished?
If chapter titles appear, do they likewise forecast or reflect? Do they promise what is then fulfilled?
Are they creative, intriguing? Do they add to the story?
Foreword, preface
These are far less likely in fiction, outside of well-known and classic works.
If either (or both) of these appear, are they distinct and to standard? (That is, the one isn’t misconstrued for the other, one doesn’t duplicate or overlap with the other, and a person appropriate for the task has written the foreword.)
Are they useful or artfully creative? Or do they seem superfluous or ill-advised?
If appropriate, to standard, and useful, are they also well-written?
Story structure and development
Premise
Is the premise of the story strong? Unique?
Likely to appeal to a young-adult audience?
Prologue
If there is a prologue, is it used well?
Some possibilities, used in various combinations: Offering a different POV or different character’s perspective. Providing a glimpse of a moment displaced in time. Introducing an antagonist in a way that counterbalances what we’ll see of him/her in the story itself, perhaps also an antagonist who won’t put an appearance in until late in the book. Effectively providing backstory. Effectively foreshadowing.
The prologue ought not to be long or boring. It ought not to be artificially or mechanically designed to “hook” the reader, such that it is not organic to the story. It ought not to be an info dump. It ought to engage the reader with questions relevant to the central plot. It ought to drive the story forward.
Framework
Does the novel as a whole deliver on the promise of the first chapter?
Are the chapters and scenes well-conceived? Do they form useful building blocks? Artistic building blocks?
Does the novel continue engagingly from start to finish? Or does it lose narrative drive, or falter in other ways, at any point?
If there is a subplot, is it related organically to the main plot? Does it further the main plot, act as a foil to it, or in some way delightfully complicate it? Or does it instead feel tacked on or forced in any way?
Is the conflict sustained throughout? Do the stakes continue to evolve in complexity? Do they continue to ratchet up?
Is the emotional cadence varied throughout? Are there upswings and downswings, highs and lows? Or is the pacing and tension one-note?
Are scene and summary used effectively and artistically? Appropriately for the genre?
Does the author avoid info-dumping? (Noticeable chunks of exposition; awkward, perhaps prolonged, flashbacks; or “as you know, Bob” dialogue.)
Is POV handled well? Does it serve to tell the story the author wants to tell? Does it work well for a young-adult audience? Is it maintained consistently throughout?
Characters
Are the characters the right ages?
Is the main character actively growing and changing throughout the book? Is that growth and change directly related to what’s happening to him/her/them in the story?
Do the main characters have depth? Are they richly layered, complex, believable? In other words, are they well-rounded rather than flat characters? Do they seem real?
Are the main characters distinct from one another?
Are the goals and motivations of the most important characters clear? Are the conflicts suitably developed?
Do the needs and wants of the characters — and their personalities, who they are — drive the plot? Such that the plot unfurls organically and seemingly inevitably? That is, do the characters seem to have autonomy? And do their own tangles create the story? Or do they instead feel like puppets in the author’s hands?
For a realistic novel, do the characters live in a world of contemporary issues? In the world of today?
Do the characters of whatever genre face hard truths? Real challenges?
Is the dialogue natural and believable?
Will teens see themselves in these characters?
Themes
Do the themes center around the concerns of teens? Conflicts with authority. Coming to a deeper understanding of the self and finding one’s place in the world. Confronting injustice, inequality, and other ills of the world. Dealing with loss. Building relationships. Finding love.
Are tough subjects dealt with honestly?
The endpoint
Is the resolution of the story, whether open-ended or closed, satisfying? (Does it seem to arise organically out of all that has gone before?
Is it both believable and in some way delightfully surprising? Does it bring the story to a close in the best and most satisfying way?)
Does it answer the main narrative question(s) of the story? Or if not, is that deliberately and artistically done? Does it serve the story?
Writing style
Is the writer’s voice strong and clear? Individual, compelling, unique?
Whatever the writing style, is every word in the sentences doing work? Such that language is distilled and compressed.
Does the writing seem to be highlighted, foregrounded, as would be the case with literary fiction? And if so, does that work? Is there enough strength in the writing for that treatment?
Alternatively, does the writing tend to fade into the background such that the story “tells itself” or does it simply take a back seat to a compelling story? And if so, does that accord with the story’s aim? Is this a work of genre fiction?
Does the style of the narrative, and its voice, hold steady throughout? Or does it waver, does it change?
Does the level of diction hold steady?
Does the style work for the story being told?
Is it engaging?
Final thought
Would you recommend this book to a teen?
To a teen in the family or in the family of close friends?