My Michael Holden Problem
Hi again, welcome to read my first proper post!
Today's post is not a detailed and well researched deep dive (though I have already topics thought out for many of those) but rather this is more just about my thoughts on YA novels, the exploration of loneliness and isolation in female characters where the solution to their problems seems to essentially boil down to finding that one guy who just gets them and is there for them. The inspiration for this post may stem from two very recent rereads of mine, or rather listening because last week I decided to listen to two audio books which I have already read/listened to before. These two novels are ones I hold very close to my heart for personal reasons but at the same time there is an aspect of these novels I really want to talk about.
So without hiding information for too long, the two novels that started this thought process are Solitaire by Alice Oseman and The Yearbook by Holly Bourne. The two novels are quite different but share some commonalities, they are both about and told from the perspective of a British teen girl around the age of 16 who are extremely lonely. Another major commonality in the two novels is the as I call him "the guy who magically drops from the sky to lift you from your pit of despair", in Solitaire he is Michael Holden and in The Yearbook he is Elijah Jones. I realize the common nature of male charaters in YA novels getting with the more quirky unpopular girl but in my opinion the cases of Michael Holden and Elijah Jones are a bit more complicated and hence I want to write about this case specifically.
Starting with short plot summaries of the two novels, spoilers ahead, you have been warned.
Solitaire tells the story of Tori Spring, maybe better known as Charlie's sister in Heartstopper, but before Heartstopper even existed there was Tori, in Oseman's debut novel. Solitaire is told from the perspective of Tori who is an unreliable narrator and for the purposes of this text the most relevant pieces of information are that she though is not formally diagnosed with depression is depicted to be very depressed viewing the world from a highly synical lens and the other major aspect of the novel is that she is very lonely. However, at the very start of the novel a new person enters her life, Michael Holden who is very much his own person and an interesting complex character but he still is the guy who showed up, cares, and largely participates in pulling Tori at least a bit up from the pit she's in.
The Yearbook on the other hand is told from the perspective of Paige, a girl with no friends, in a school full of bullies, and from an abusive home. She has focused her efforts on making hersef as small and unnoticeable as she could to try her best to just fly under the radar till she gets out. However, there is another bookworm at school who keeps making notes with a red pen on books in the library and that guy is Elijah Jones. The two finally schedule a meeting which starts a journey of friendship and an eventual romantic relationship while Paige deals with the various other major crises in her life.
In short the two books are great depictions of the mental state of an extremely lonely and isolated person and though it is well depicted as not the all in all solution, the roles of Michael and Elijah are very significant in the betterment of the situations of both Tori and Paige. This is where we come to my problem, which is probably explained by the simple fact that it makes for a good story and to some extent is realistic in that one thing that probably does help people is finding good friends and people who care about them. My issue however is that why is it always that even when novels explore these above mentioned issues with a good sense of realism making them so incredibly relatable why do these guys just keep appearing from thin air to in a way save the girl from the dark place they are in. For example though meeting people is one way to help with loneliness why does it feel that there is no representation of going out there and trying to find friends or people to connect with, showing the reality of how hard it can be. In reality people do not neccessarily just drop from the sky in front of you to be there for you and I also don't know how I feel about the fact it seems that these characters also always struggle to make any female friends and it has to be a guy to just appear and be there. Because also in both cases the two girls do not really accept the fact the guys want to befriend them (both novels the romantic relationship builds up over time and starts with friendship) but rather push them away in disbelief and the guys just make an extra effort to show they are there for them.
This text is very much a rant about a very obvious issue in a lot of YA novels especially ones with a romance storyline, however this is still something that frustrates me. Why can we not have a novel just about how hard it is to make friends and how to actually build those relationships without some type of manic pixie dream guy (not an entierly fit descriptor in this context) appearing to make everything better. I really love these novels I really do and maybe that is partly because of the unrealistic magical plot progression but for once it would be lovely to read a real story about real people that does not sugarcoat or romaticize or anything about anything, I feel like you could really write a real story about these topics without such an easy cop out making all things right in the world.
To conclude I want to say personally I still love these novels despite this as well as the various other issues they have, however this is something I wanted to rant a bit about and maybe you have thoughts about this subject matter as well, if so feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section!
Your's truly,
your favourite fan girlie
References:
Oseman, Alice. Solitaire. London, Harpercollins Children’s Books, 2014.*
* I have read both the revised 2020 version as well as listened to the audiobook version of the original 2014 version of the novel
Bourne, Holly. The Yearbook. Usborne Publishing Ltd, 2021.
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