The Break
Date
2020-06-18
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MFA in Creative Writing, The University of Tampa
Abstract
The Break is a Young Adult novel which takes place in a near-future United States. My
main goal in writing my thesis was to pay homage to queer, YA, dystopia stories with my own. I
drew inspiration from staples of adult literature such as The Handmaid’s Tale and Ready Player
One. I reframed their themes of gender, sexuality, and identity for my Young Adult audience. I
played with traditional YA conventions including first-person POV and dead and absent parents,
with the goal of defying expectations of readers who are well-versed in the genre. Over the
course of writing this novel I became increasingly aware of its political nature, and I eventually
chose to confront the danger of conservative Christians in the US within the novel. This thesis is
meant to not only entertain, but also highlight the violence conservative views inevitably lead to
for queer youth.
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Keywords
Young adult literature, Dystopian novel, LGBTQ+, Queer culture