YA Lit tropes

…some interesting comments and complaints in the reviews to Shadow and Bone (I haven’t read it yet…). They are comments on YA Fiction as much as on this novel more specifically:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10194157-shadow-and-bone

…so, just wondering, how important is self-sacrifice to YA fiction?

…how important are the characteristics ‘smart and sarcastic and sassy’ to female YA protagonists?

…what is it with first person narrative and YA? That does seem pretty common.

… Nataliya took issue with the setting of Shadow and Bone, because “the real country where it’s set is the faceless characterless dystopic YA-landia with the traditional settings, stock responses, and common conventions.” What are common features of what I instinctively recognise in the term ‘dystopic YA-landia’?

Sometimes reviews just annoy me, but sometimes I think they’re an interesting genre on their own