The typical reader has probably had prior experience with death, usually through the loss of a loved one. This can be a tough thing for people to deal with, especially teens, and their literature reflects it. In orchestrating the death of a beloved character, the author presents the reader with the chance to make emotional parallels with any loss in their own life. Death in teen literature serves as a coping strategy for the reader by working through the emotions that come with grief in a fictional atmosphere. In the article “Death Is But the Next Great Adventure: Representations of Death and the Afterlife in Fantastic Literature for Children and Young Adults” Karin Kokorski states that “The mode of the fantastic highly benefits the aim of the readers’ confrontation with death and their subsequent consolation, as it is able to go beyond ‘normal’ boundaries and soothe anxieties” (355). It also gives the reader the opportunity to work through the idea of mortality. Teens struggle to come to terms with the idea of their own mortality therefore making the realms of fantasy a great place to work through such
The typical reader has probably had prior experience with death, usually through the loss of a loved one. This can be a tough thing for people to deal with, especially teens, and their literature reflects it. In orchestrating the death of a beloved character, the author presents the reader with the chance to make emotional parallels with any loss in their own life. Death in teen literature serves as a coping strategy for the reader by working through the emotions that come with grief in a fictional atmosphere. In the article “Death Is But the Next Great Adventure: Representations of Death and the Afterlife in Fantastic Literature for Children and Young Adults” Karin Kokorski states that “The mode of the fantastic highly benefits the aim of the readers’ confrontation with death and their subsequent consolation, as it is able to go beyond ‘normal’ boundaries and soothe anxieties” (355). It also gives the reader the opportunity to work through the idea of mortality. Teens struggle to come to terms with the idea of their own mortality therefore making the realms of fantasy a great place to work through such