Clock Orange has a raping, beating, tripping protagonist, though the author never intended it to be YA…

Also, what do you think of a plot revolving around a literal Mary Sue (just think of it as another one of the bastardized supernatural creatures like vampires or fae/fay/fey/faey) siccing a 15-year-old whose sole power is plot-granted invulnerability on fellow Mary Sues (so that she could become the one and ‘true’ Mary Sue in that canon) in exchange for sex? Contrived? Amoral? Immoral? Too sensational? Makes no sense?

Not sure about that specific novel. Since I haven’t seen an alarming scale of YA books dealing with such content, it might not be cause for thinking there’s already been a level set that others are going to try and work in. Just responding to the question in general. With YA, because it covers so broad an age-group, it’s hard to say where one should draw the line. I would prefer that YA didn’t cover ages 12 and up. Apparently it covers up till the age of 25. What a 12-year-old can read and what a 25-year-old can read are two completely different things. Both would fall under the YA category, however. Not saying both shouldn’t be interested in the same thing, its fantastic when something comes out that’s able to appeal to the young and the little less young, but it’s not so great that the lower age groups get lumped in with those much older than them and have something far too explicit for them marketed towards everyone in that group.

Where exactly the limit is, I feel a lot of people have been pushing the boundaries lately, while being able to avoid some negative feedback on the side. A Clockwork Orange and only a few others haven’t been able to avoid that so I wouldn’t let it represent a new level of content that can be called acceptable. Those are still in the minority. On a wider scale, there are still some limits being tested by others. Maybe it’s too early to say what’s the furthest one can go in a YA novel. It seems there’s a lot of content out there that’s been creating some slippery slopes, so maybe we’ll be able to see where that limit is soon enough. I really don’t think this particular novel should count, though. I don’t see anybody being tempted to go in that direction just yet, at least not for the YA category.

I’m glad you mentioned The Outsiders. I think that’s a great example of YA literature that has “gritty”, dark elements while still being a really fantastic book. Those things weren’t put in to make it Gritty! and Realistic!, although they certainly did make it a gritty and realistic novel. In fact, those elements weren’t really put in at all. They were just a part of the story, and you couldn’t really have the story without them. It also helped that it’s a well-written book in general, so like you say, Hinton was able to use those things skillfully as a part of the story.

Here’s another example, one of my favorite “dark” YA books: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. It talks about teenage sex, rape, the effects of trauma, and selective mutism (an admittedly odd topic for a YA book!). All these things are integral to the story. They are the story, not just put in to make it darker or to make the reader go “how horrible!” or be manipulated into feeling bad for the characters or whatever. They are genuinely important and the ramifications of the “dark” things that happen are shown in a realistic way. In fact, that’s the entire plot of the story, talking about the real effects of such things happening.

I guess that doesn’t necessarily address the OP question, as the immorality in this case is clearly condemned. But I think it does speak for the broader question of “How dark is too dark?” And I think the answer to that is “there’s no such thing as ‘too dark’ so long as the writer is skillful enough to execute it well and isn’t just doing it to be edgy.” I may not necessarily like reading such a book (I have to have a Hope Spot, at the very least), but I agree that such a book could still be good and acceptable for teenagers to read.

If YA stretches from 12-25, and you don’t mind the 25s reading it but want to avoid 12s, what precautions are worth taking? Are there any?

Well, first, YA fiction (as defined by the American Library Association) ranges in readership from 12-18. In other countries, does it go all the way up to 25? IMHO, that’s weird. Not that 25 is old and not that 25 cannot enjoy a YA book, but to have books aimed at 25-year-olds next to books aimed at 12-year-olds is defeating the point of dividing the library into age ranges.

That said, if YA stretches the huge age range from 12-25, we will probably never have a sufficient answer to the questions: what precautions are worth taking? Are there any? My answer is that parents of the younger side of the spectrum still need to be involved in what their children are reading. I don’t think authors should have to write a book specifically aimed at a 20-year-old market and make it acceptable to a thirteen-year-old. However, in my opinion, if authors would only include immoral issues in a way to further the story and not as a way to compensate for a lack of story, I think we would find that the question “what precautions are worth taking?” is moot.

I’ve always seen YA as a curious genre consisting of two types of books:

1. Books directly written for the niche that are carefully targeted at a teenage audience. ( The Outsiders, Hunger Games and Twilight.)
2. The rare book from another genre that is tame enough to be considered appropriate for a teenage audience. ( Howl’s Moving Castle and Pride and Prejudice are both books I’ve seen in the section.)

In general, in the US violence gets a bit more of a free pass over sexual content. It’s also worth noting that books appear to be able to tackle themes that most visual media considers too graphic for a teenager, at least in the US.

So no, I don’t think the example on the second half of the original post sounds too graphic, but it does sound kind of sensationalist. Maybe there’s some good in character reason for the dynamic or exterior factors that influence it, but the fact the second character in motivated by sex alone (as far as I can read) just sounds unnecessary from the facts given.