Janice Gable Bashman: Kick-butt YA heroines can fall in love, too
Janice Gable Bashman, author of Predator, joins HEA to explore how YA heroines have changed (or not) over the years — and how they can have it all.
Janice: When I was growing up I loved reading the Encyclopedia Brown books by Donald J. Sobel, anything by Judy Bloom, the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and so many others. I went to the library almost every Saturday and came home with a towering pile of books and a desire to read them all at once. The trouble, and the fun, was always in deciding the order.
I can't remember how I decided which library book to read first, or which one last, but I do know that I read every page of every one of them. Sometimes I read a book twice. But what I remember most about those books wasn't their plots or their dialogue or their settings, or even the writing. It was the characters, particularly the female characters. These characters stood strong when confronted with a challenge, they didn't take things at face value, they questioned their roles in society, and no matter what life threw at them they came out on top in the end. You may be thinking that the protagonist in Encyclopedia Brown was a boy detective, and you'd be right. But his close friend, partner in his detective business, and bodyguard was Sally Kimball, the only person, male or female, brave enough to stand up to the neighborhood bullies. In the Little House on the Prairie series, Laura Ingalls and her family braved everything from drought to harsh weather to lack of food to make a life for themselves. And Judy Bloom's characters fought to find their way in the world. These characters inspired me and showed me that it was OK to be a smart and strong and powerful woman.
Today's kick-butt heroines are smart and resourceful, too. They brave harsh conditions, seemingly insurmountable odds, and grave danger. And they fall in love, too. They don't have to choose between being smart or having a relationship. They can have both. In fact, today's heroines are portrayed as being able to have anything they desire, if they work enough, fight hard enough, love deeply enough. Just take a look at the female teen characters in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy (Katniss Everdeen), Jonathan Maberry's Rot and Ruin series (Nix Riley), J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series (Hermione Granger), Veronica Roth's Divergent series (Tris Prior), and James Patterson's Maximum Ride series (Max), just to name a few.
In my YA thriller Predator, my protagonist, Bree Sunderland, wants to become a scientist. She's in Ireland for the summer studying bog bodies with her dad when she discovers a bog body. That and another mysterious and life-changing find throw them into the face of danger. Bree doesn't back down for a minute. She's one kick-butt heroine who uses her intellect to survive. But along the way she falls in love, too.
I can't imagine a memorable kick-butt heroine in today's Young Adult fictional world who isn't well-rounded and capable of reaching her full potential in every aspect of her life. Can you?
Here's the blurb for Predator:
The hunt is on! Sixteen-year-old Bree Sunderland must inject herself with an untested version of her father's gene therapy to become a werewolf in order to stop a corrupt group of mercenaries from creating a team of unstoppable lycanthrope soldiers.
When Bree went with her scientist father to Ireland, she thought it would be a vacation to study bog bodies. She never expected to fall in love with a mysterious young Irishman and certainly never expected to become the kind of monster her father said only existed in nightmares.
Dr. Sunderland discovers that lycanthropy was not a supernatural curse but rather a genetic mutation. When they return home, her dad continues his research, but the military wants to turn that research into a bio weapons program and rogue soldiers want to steal the research to turn themselves into unstoppable killing machines. Bree's boyfriend Liam surprises her with a visit to the United States, but there are darker surprises in store for both of them.
As evil forces hunt those she loves, Bree must become an even more dangerous hunter to save them all. Predator gives the werewolf legend a couple of new spins by introducing the Benandanti (an actual folkloric belief that certain families of Italy and Livonia were werewolves who fought against evil), as well as a modern scientific approach to mutation and the science of transgenics.
She will become the thing she hates, to protect those she loves!
Find out more about Janice and her books at www.janicegablebashman.com.