Veronica Rossi graduated from UCLA and studied fine art at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She began writing fiction for teens and received first-place awards in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and SouthWest Writers annual contests before completing UNDER THE NEVER SKY. It’s since captivated publishers in more than twenty-five countries worldwide and been optioned for film by Warner Bros. Veronica lives in northern California with her husband and two sons. Here she talks about The End.
In 2012, the YA genre will see a number of post-apocalyptic titles. ARTICLE 5 by Kristen Simmons, STRUCK by Jenn Bosworth, THE OTHER LIFE by Susanne Winnaker, and THE WAY WE FALL BY Megan Crewe are just a few of the upcoming novels that occur in apocalyptic settings and many dystopian titles, such as DIVERGENT and DELIRIUM, are also set in the “after.”
Why the rush of end of the world titles? Is it the year, 2012, and hype about Mayan calendars and Raptures?
I believe that’s part of it, but I also think that writing about “The End” (or, “A New Beginning”) is rich territory for fiction. Apocalyptic scenarios go hand in hand with power struggles, betrayals, and intensely high stakes. In my novel, UNDER THE NEVER SKY, mankind is searching for protection from devastating electrical storms. The situation is dire --- only some people will survive --- and that brings out the best and worst traits in the characters in the story. Anne Aguirre’s ENCLAVE is a heart-pounding race to stay alive in a ruined world crawling with zombie-like creatures and gangs. “The End” is inherently dangerous, and that can make for an intense and engaging reading.
Stories set in the “after” also great for exploring deep thematic issues. In Veronica Roth’s dystopian novel, DIVERGENT, questions about the goodness (or not) of human nature run beneath the thrills of the protagonists’ journey. In Beth Revis’s sci-fi novel ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, the protagonists embark on a space voyage in a future in which Earth is polluted, but underlying themes that explore the abuse and sharing of both power and knowledge are what make this novel stand out. Post/Apocalyptic stories are a way for us to answer the many What if? questions about our world and our place in it.
Finally --- though it seems a little contrary --- stories in this genre can be very uplifting. Not every P/A title is like this, of course, and each reader will interpret these stories differently. But I do believe that the human will to survive plays a large part in many of these novels--and what’s more inspiring than persistence in the face of hardship?
