This week, the dragons are delighted to welcome Kayla Ancrum, author of The Wicker King, to the show. Kayla's debut novel is a dark, contemporary YA thriller that delves deeply into hard hitting issues such as mental illness and codependency, which is why Jules and Madeleine were thrilled to have her join a discussion about portrayals of mental illness in YA fiction. Still labouring under the Gothic tropes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as meeting resistance and misunderstanding in the modern day, mental illness can be a knotty issue. In a previous episode (You Fancy Me Mad) the dragons deconstructed the Gothic tropes surrounding MH. In this episode, they look at how literature can help normalise a health issue that is far more common than people realise, and how it can help combat misinformation. What is good mental illness representation in YA fiction? And where are the areas in which it falls down or could use work? Is mental illness in fiction suffering from being, in many cases, an example forced to bear the weight of an entire spectrum?
Join us for a lively discussion and find out.
Title Music; Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic
Episode 430: This is Fine - Writing Trauma in Sci-fi & Fantasy
Episode 429: All in the Details - How to Use Description in Speculative Fiction part 2
Episode 428: All in the Details - How to Use Description in Speculative Fiction part 1
Episode 427: The Boys are Back in Town - the Dark Heart of the Superhero Genre
Episode 426: Change, Uncertainty and Unhappiness - making low stakes compelling
Episode 425: A Thousand Ships - The Awkward Side of Retelling Greek Myths
Episode 424: Starving Artists and Worshipped Writers - unrealistic depictions of creatives in Film and TV
Episode 423: Memory became legend legend became myth - the dawn of the fantasy genre part 2
Episode 422: Memory became legend legend became myth - the dawn of the fantasy genre part 1
Episode 421: Impossible Monsters - Dinosaurs and Megafauna in Speculative Fiction
Episode 420: Never Coming Home - The Moving Beyond Bereavement and Death is a Sad Thing Tropes
Episode 419: The Sun, the Moon & the Spindle - Tracing the Origins of Sleeping Beauty
Episode 418: the Dark Decent - Transforming a Hero into a Villain in SFF
Episode 417: An Abundance of Janes and Cathys - Retellings of the classics and why they usually suck pt 2
Episode 416: An Abundance of Janes and Cathys - Retellings of the classics and why they usually suck part 1
Episode 415: Seafarers, Swashbucklers and Chaotic Archaeologists - the evolution of Adventure Fiction
Episode 414: Seasons May Change - Stars Farmers & Wild Weather Calendars
Episode 413: Dragon riders & wolf speakers - the Animal Soul Bond in Speculative Fiction
Episode 412: By the Blade - the Evolution of Heroic Fantasy
Episode 411: Kitchen Heroes - Humble Protagonists who get Things Done in Speculative Fiction
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