Over to you, Chris...
Just
The Two Of Us: Friendship in YA
by Chris
Russell
If it’s
not too obvious to say so, friendship is incredibly important to me.
When I was thirteen, I formed a friendship that
would go on to lay the foundations for my entire career. My best friend George
and I started a band at school which would eventually take us around the world,
and without my career in the music industry, I can’t imagine I would ever have written Songs About a Girl.
George and I are still performing together to this day, and remain the best of
friends; in fact, I’m now godfather to
his second son, and in many ways our time together now is more precious than it
ever was.
With all this in mind, it’s probably not that surprising that
friendship ended up being so central to Songs About a Girl and Songs
About Us. I’ll never the forget
the fledgling romances of my teens, but if I’m honest, it was my best friendship that had the biggest impact on
my life. So I’ve worked hard on
Charlie and Melissa’s friendship in the
novels, keen to make it believable and heartfelt, keen to do justice to how
vitally important platonic relationships are during adolescence.
Charlie and Melissa adhere to the age-old “straight one / funny one” dynamic. Charlie has
a dry sense of humour and a wry, eyebrow-raising take on life, while Melissa is
the stooge, the kook, the one that just can’t seem to keep one single thought inside her head, no matter how
ridiculous. Thinking about it, I could probably trace that dynamic back to my
childhood, to classic comedy twosomes like Blackadder and Baldrick, or to
Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. All artists recycle, of course. It’s our prerogative. :)
These days, more and more YA authors are veering
away from simply writing romance and focussing on the equally rich landscape of
teenage friendship (Beautiful Broken Things, anyone?), and I think that’s a really good thing. Because while
crushes come and go, if we’re
lucky, one or two of the friendships we make during our teenage years might
just last the rest of our lives.
(Unlike haircuts, of course. For which we should
all be eternally thankful.)
Chris Russell
ps. While I’m talking friendship in YA, I wanted to tip my cap in the direction
of American author Brigid Kemmerer and her novel Letters to the Lost. I
recently reviewed Letters to the Lost for the Zoella & Friends Book
Club, and aside from being an absolutely stunning book, it has possibly my
favourite depiction of male friendship (Declan and Rev) in any YA book I’ve read. It’s gorgeous. Check out my video review here.
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