My friends and I love to riff on these trends. A current fixation (that's perhaps falling out of fashion) in YA fantasy seems to be "A ____ of _____ and _____": see "A Song of Ice and Fire", (which isn't YA but probably started it), "Court of Thorns and Roses", "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes", etc. They get increasingly blurry: "A C…
My friends and I love to riff on these trends. A current fixation (that's perhaps falling out of fashion) in YA fantasy seems to be "A ____ of _____ and _____": see "A Song of Ice and Fire", (which isn't YA but probably started it), "Court of Thorns and Roses", "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes", etc. They get increasingly blurry: "A Curse So Dark and Lonely", "Children of Blood and Bone", etc.
Over in the literary fiction world there's a similar but different trend denoting, of all things, smallness? "Small Things Like These", "A Little Life", "Big Little Lies", "Little Fires Everywhere", "Tiny Beautiful Things", etc. When you see those titles you know it's probably gonna be about a middle-aged woman in a cable knit sweater with perfect hair holding a glass of red wine on the balcony of her New England beach house.
The thing is, even if literally everyone hated the uniformity, it would still dominate the market because uniformity reduces unit costs in what is a low margin business.
I predict that in the future, they will run out of combinations of two fantasy title words, and they'll have to add a third. "The Crown of Blood, Iron and Shadows."
I'm about to share your comment to share a tweet I once saw because the "A __ of __ and __" is absolutely something that modern YA fantasy publishers cling to (and I'm not sure whether it alerts you or not if I share the comment, so I'm just going to leave this comment here with the hopes that you will find it and it will give you a good laugh)
I know I'm like 3 months late in replying to this but ever since someone on the internet said you could use "a bowl of mac and cheese" with that title structure, that's all I think about
My friends and I love to riff on these trends. A current fixation (that's perhaps falling out of fashion) in YA fantasy seems to be "A ____ of _____ and _____": see "A Song of Ice and Fire", (which isn't YA but probably started it), "Court of Thorns and Roses", "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes", etc. They get increasingly blurry: "A Curse So Dark and Lonely", "Children of Blood and Bone", etc.
Over in the literary fiction world there's a similar but different trend denoting, of all things, smallness? "Small Things Like These", "A Little Life", "Big Little Lies", "Little Fires Everywhere", "Tiny Beautiful Things", etc. When you see those titles you know it's probably gonna be about a middle-aged woman in a cable knit sweater with perfect hair holding a glass of red wine on the balcony of her New England beach house.
Haha! I love it. Should have asked for your input before I wrote this because it sounds like you figured it out before me.
Honestly I love the conformity because it gives those serious about their craft a chance to stand out.
The thing is, even if literally everyone hated the uniformity, it would still dominate the market because uniformity reduces unit costs in what is a low margin business.
I predict that in the future, they will run out of combinations of two fantasy title words, and they'll have to add a third. "The Crown of Blood, Iron and Shadows."
I'm about to share your comment to share a tweet I once saw because the "A __ of __ and __" is absolutely something that modern YA fantasy publishers cling to (and I'm not sure whether it alerts you or not if I share the comment, so I'm just going to leave this comment here with the hopes that you will find it and it will give you a good laugh)
I love "Little Fires Everywhere" as a title. So evocative! I've riffed on it for a potential essay title one day.
I know I'm like 3 months late in replying to this but ever since someone on the internet said you could use "a bowl of mac and cheese" with that title structure, that's all I think about