That’s a bit of a morbid title, isn’t it? Well, I’m sorry to say its also a bit of a misleading one. The books we’ve read so far are in no ways obituaries, and while a couple have dealt with death, none were explicitly narrated by or focused on a character that died. I did, however, notice a pretty stark trend amongst the last two novels we read- The Outsiders and The Pigman. For books explicitly about the teen experience, they seem to be filled with both explicit and subtle mentions of death, dying, and the overall loss of life. Considering the youth of these books’ supposed subject matter, this seems to be entirely out of place. However dark these novels can be, however, I think they capture a similar affect and that the focus on death was very intentional.

The Outsiders and The Pigman both feature the consistent young adult literature trope of teen narrators as authors of the very book we are now reading. If The Outsiders is a sort of informal send off to Ponyboy’s dead friend Johnny, then The Pigman is an explicit memorial to John and Lorraine’s memory of their dear friend Mr. Pignati. Death is also a constant presence in The Pigman— from the actual death itself, to Lorraine’s mother’s job in hospice, to John’s increasing anxiety over the future. This fear of the future- the loss of innocence and childhood that seems to eventually end with one’s death- is a stark reality that most children slowly begin to perceive (whether consciously or not) in their teen years. While the “problem” novel is not without its flaws, and some of the characters and plots of these books seem a little simplistic, they are ultimately utilized to tackle the inevitability of death from a uniquely teenage perspective, and potentially empower young adults with the words to articulate their complex reactions to this idea.