Why is it that in [young-adult] literature—a genre generated entirely to describe the transition to adulthood—there is so much fear and ambivalence surrounding manhood? When I read contemporary young adult novels, I see them asking over and over again a fascinating question, a question both for boys and for the stories describing them: are there any good men? And how can a boy become a good man, if he doesn’t know what that would mean?

Sarah Mesle, “YA Fiction and the End of Boys”