Last year, I read a lot of books to be sure. 109 to be
exact. In all of those stories, I discovered a new favorite form: novels in
verse.
What is a novel in verse, you might ask? For those of you
unfamiliar with this form, it’s basically a novel written as a series of poems.
The form is kind of like Paradise Lost
or Beowulf, but not really. While
classics like the ones mentioned tend to use formal poetry-form, novels in
verse tend to use free verse. Also, the latter novels tend to be more
introspective than your average novel.
Because I’m a fan of poetry, here’s just a couple of reasons
why I enjoy novels in verse* and why others might enjoy them as well!
*For clarity, I will also refer to novels in verse as lyrical
novels, not in the sense that they’re sing-songy but rather that they’re
poetic. I’ll use the terms interchangeably to avoid overusing one term alone.
1)
Poetry!
“Our lives
will twist and twist,
intermingling the old and the new
until it doesn’t matter
which is which.”
—Hà, Inside Out &
Back Again
I didn’t discover my passion for poetry until college, and
in some ways, I wish I had discovered it sooner, but in other ways, that’s
okay. My preferences as a teenager were weird. Books I didn’t like then, I like
now (e.g. Inkheart), and books I
liked then, I don’t care for now (e.g. Eragon).
So maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t discover poetry until college (see The Importance of Poetry: A Journey of Acceptance).
Either way, poetry can be fun to read and write. Do I want
of a whole book made up of poems with a continuous storyline? How about YES!
2)
Novels
in verse are quick, easy reads.
Which makes them great for reluctant readers! Or readers
like me who are simply tired of reading 800-page novels. (Shhhh, you didn’t see me write that.) I like my dear 800-page
books, but they can be exhausting. Whereas an 800-page novel is like a long and
strenuous, albeit gorgeous hike, novels in verse are like a shot of espresso
downtown in your favorite city.
3)
They’re
targeted at middle grade and young adult audiences.
“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if
the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
—Madeleine L’Engle
If you haven’t already noticed, middle grade and young adult
books tend to be among my preferred books. Why, you might ask? Well, they tend
to have great themes, adventures, and characters. They continue to challenge me
as a reader, and they’re just fun to read!
Lyrical novels tend to appeal to and connect with young
audiences, presenting experiences that are relateable. Some such novels speak
about what it’s like to be a foreigner or a newcomer in a strange place and others
speak about the difficulties with school and stereotypes.
Novels in verse are great for young readers and the young at
heart!
And for those who believe adults shouldn’t read young adult
or middle grade books, I ask you to consider the words of C. S. Lewis when he
dedicated The Lion, The Witch, and the
Wardrobe to his goddaughter:
“I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not
realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too
old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older
still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
4)
Poetry
tends to use a lot of imagery, metaphors, similes, you name it.
While prose can include imagery, in poems imagery is often
symbolic. Writers can also do a lot more with metaphors and similes and sounds
than prose writers can. I could tell you that when I visited Venice in the fall
how the shade of the buildings covered me and the seagulls. Or I can show you
in verse:
“I’m in over my head in darkness,
standing in shadows of the box-shaped buildings,
[…] with the seagulls gliding overhead,
their underbellies alight against the blue,
like they’re gliding on light.”
—“Shadows”
Sure, I could’ve just written that the seagulls looked like
they were gliding on light in a prose piece, but it wouldn’t have had the same
effect.
5)
Novels
in verse tend to be thought-provoking.
“how can I leave this
fight
flit off to college
when so many still
suffer
when I can feel tension
like mercury rising
“a wisp of hope
beginning to drift
skyward?”
—Clara, Audacity
Poetry is full of quotes I want to write down and memorize
and lines that just make me want to buy all the books and think on them again
and again. At least that’s my experience.
6)
Lyrical
novels tend to evoke emotion.
There’s something about poetry that has the ability to
present and evoke emotion in a way that prose can’t.
As a writer, I use poetry as a means to express emotion in
an abstract way that prose can’t handle. Take my poem “Heartbeat” for example.
I’ve always had a hard time explaining to people why I find heartbeats
disturbing, and I don’t entirely understand it myself. So I decided to take the
emotion of fear and asked myself “What does fear feel like?” and “How do I
communicate that?” Here’s some of the result:
“she’s the reminder that I need fresh air—
kiss of sharp needles, stabbing my feet as
they plunge in this icy green lakeside shore from
liquefied glaciers where old trunks sank”
—“Heartbeat”
I took some imagery from Mt. Rainier (Washington State) and
from Mt. Saint Helens (Oregon) and used the sting of cold from glacier lakes as
a metaphor for fear. Then I stripped the poem of proper capitalization and
punctuation to add an unsettling, raw feel to the poem as a whole. My sister,
who wasn’t originally afraid of heartbeats, told me she found them disturbing
after I read her this poem. Whoops.
Of course, not all novels deal with fear. It’s only one emotion
to write about. That an author can achieve any sense of emotion for the span of
a novel is inspiring!
7)
Poetry
can be downright beautiful.
“On this clear and moonless night,
Mama and I wrap up in our winter clothes
and go outside to watch and listen.
The trees beyond our backyard form a torn-paper line
between the snow and this sky
filled with stars.”
—Mimi, Full Cicada
Moon
You had me at snow and stars. Need I say more?
Some books in prose have their fair share of moments of
beauty, but such moments tend to be more frequent in verse.
Book Recommendations!
Looking for novels in verse recommendations? Look no
further! Here are three I read and enjoyed last year: Full Cicada Moon by Marilyn Hilton (5/5 stars), Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha
Lai (4/5 stars), and Saving Red by Sonya
Sones (4/5 stars). And one I read this year: Audacity by Melanie Crowder (4/5 stars).
Back in February, I attended WriteOnCon, an amazing online
writing conference, and one of the live panels featured a bunch of authors who
write novels in verse talking about their books and some of their favorite
lyrical novels. I’m pretty sure I added at least ten novels to my to-be-read
list.
Though I haven’t read them all yet, here are just a few: The Way the Light Bends by Jensen
Cordelia, Heartbeat by Sharon Creech,
Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles by
Shari Green, House Arrest by K. A.
Holt, The Magic of Melwick Orchard by
Caprara Rebecca, and Paper Hearts by
Meg Wiviott.
Let’s chat! Have you read any novels in verse yet? If you
have, what are some of the ones you’d consider the best? On a scale of boring
clichés to fantastic themes, how much do you enjoy poetry?
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