DISCUSSION: OUTLANDER INFLUENCE ON YA GENRE

BEWARE: TIME-TRAVELING TOPIC EVERYWHERE!

Ever since the huge success of Outlander TV show (summer 2014) and following enormous sale growth of Outlander books, YA novels with time-traveling theme started to pop out from every direction. And because most of these books have release dates planned for late 2015 or 2016 (more than year after Outlander boom), I dare to say that there are two reasons for this sudden appearance of time-travelling novels in YA genre. Firstly, authors were inspired by possibilities of time-traveling theme once Outlander was brought to their attention. Secondly, publishers were encouraged by Outlander boom and saw $$$ in publishing books with similar main topic. There is nothing wrong with that, right?

(NOTE TO AVOID MISUNDERSTANDINGS: I'm not comparing any of YA novels mentioned in this post to Outlander. I'm just talking about unusual influx of YA novels about time-travel and connecting it with recent commercial success of Outlander.)

However, some of the authors/publishers are even rude enough to use Outlander as marketing tool when they compare their books to Outlander. Promotional phrases like "Outlander for teens" annoy me big time. (It's pet peeve of mine when authors/publishers use success of other books for their advantage.)

On the other hand, time-travel fascinates me. And paired with YA romance, history or even fantasy...I can't help but to be drawn to such stories. Hopefully, I won't be disappointed once I get to reading them. If you are as curious as I'm about to-be-released YA novels featuring time-travel, here are some of them with release dates and Goodreads links:

Release date: January 5th 2016

Published by: Disney-Hyperion

        

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever.

Release date: November 3rd 2015

Published by: Sourcebooks Fire

                                                          

They exist in two different centuries, but their love defies time

Cassandra craves drama and adventure, so the last thing she wants is to spend her summer marooned with her mother and stepfather in a snooty Massachusetts shore town. But when a dreamy stranger shows up on their private beach claiming it's his own—and that the year is 1925—she is swept into a mystery a hundred years in the making.

As she searches for answers in the present, Cassandra discovers a truth that puts their growing love—and Lawrence's life—into jeopardy. Desperate to save him, Cassandra must find a way to change history…or risk losing Lawrence forever.

Release date: March 1st 2016

Published by: MHM Books for Young Readers

         

“Seventy-two hours, then we have to be back at the clearing. Sunrise on the third day.”

Being “the homeschooled girl,” in a small town, Hope Walton’s crippling phobias and photographic memory don’t help her fit in with her adoptive dad’s perfectly blonde Southern family. But when her mother is killed in a natural disaster thousands of miles from home, Hope’s secluded world crumbles. After an aunt she’s never met invites her to spend the summer in Scotland, Hope discovers that her mother was more than a brilliant academic. She’s a member of a secret society of time travelers, and is actually trapped in the twelfth century in the age of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Now Hope must conquer her numerous fears and travel back in time to help rescue her mother before she’s lost for good. Along the way, she’ll discover more family secrets, and a mysterious boy who could be vital to setting her mother free… or the key to Hope’s undoing.

Addictive, romantic, and rich with historical detail, Into the Dim is an Outlander for teens.

 Release date: May 3rd 2016

Published by: Roaring Brook Press

                                                            

Time travel meets romance in this stunning and lasting debut, from a gorgeous and new YA voice.

This is what it means to love someone. This is what it means to grieve someone. It's a little bit like a black hole. It's a little bit like infinity.

Gottie H. Oppenheimer is seventeen. Great at math. Motherless. And she's losing time. Literally.

When the fabric of the universe surrounding her sleepy seaside town begins to fray, it sends Gottie through wormholes to her past:

To last summer, when her grandfather Grey died. To the afternoon she fell in love with Jason, who wouldn't even hold her hand at the funeral. To the day her childhood best friend, Thomas, moved to Canada, leaving her behind with a scar on her hand and a black hole in her memory.
 
Although Grey is still gone, Jason and Thomas are back, and Gottie's past, present, and future are about to be changed forever.

Are authors/publishers trying to use the popularity of Outlander to their advantage? Are you happy about this new "genre boom"? Did I miss any YA novels with time-traveling topic that are about to be released?

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