No, not an illicit love story, but it could be. I must admit, I am intrigued by the proliferation of successful young adult novels with, more or less, romantic themes with story told in the first person, often by a young female main character (and often written by a young female author).
Yes,
Twilight kicked this off for sure and agents and editors are swooning over how to replicate it.
The Hunger Games was nicely written and an intriguing story for sure -- the first volume anyway.
The Night Circus is next off the block, not to mention any number of YA paranormals using 'first person' as the voice.
What's going on here? Mostly, these are 'small' stories, as stories go. No Harry Potter here. No third person grandness like George Martin (I know, not really YA) or Garth Nix or even the third person tales of Paolini and his dragons. In fact, like the Harry Potter series, these stories would be impossible to tell in first person.
The question that intrigues me is whether a natural 'bias' exists for first person voices for fiction for, putatively, young women -- and whether there is not some inevitable natural selection being worked out here. Further, perhaps first person voice can more easily be imbued with lyrical and emotional aura, compared to third person limited, and certainly to third unlimited. Is this stylistic 'fashion' -- perhaps being mistaken for 'good writing' -- edging out the more prosaic yet complex third-person adventures that, it seems to me, are more male oriented?
I don't know. Just speculating. One thing's for sure though: millions of true Harry Potter fans (including me) are getting restless, and they are waiting, waiting patiently; and they will wait, right up until they're retired and checking out their superannuation. First person won't cut it -- even in the circus.
