YA fantasy with ordinary protagonists

[rachelmanija]

Can you all name me some comparatively recent (ie, less than 20 years old) YA urban fantasy (ie, not set in a fantasy world or post-apocalyptic world) in which the protagonist does NOT have any magical powers or attributes or devices (ie, no magic rings), does not develop any later, and is not a professional demon-hunter or anything like that?

I'm thinking of books like A Wrinkle in Time (but more modern) or Neverwhere (but for teenagers.) Also, ideally, more along the lines of Charles de Lint than "my vampire boyfriend."

The only ones I can think of offhand are Holly Black's Valiant, Flora Segunda, Fire and Hemlock (borderline - Polly does have a power, of sorts), and some of Charles de Lint's novels.

It's a little hard to write stories like that and not have the action be entirely driven by the magical characters, leaving the protagonist drifting passively in their wake. The characters with abilities are inherently going to be far more powerful. Tolkien used this type of plot very well, but even so, Frodo and Bilbo had the One Ring. I'm thinking of books in which someone like Sam is the protagonist.

Comments

[coffeeandink]

Anne Ursu, Breadcrumbs
B.R. Collins, Tyme's End
Scott Westerfeld, The Last Days
Annette Curtis Klause, The Silver Kiss

[avendya]

Both Guardian of the Dead and The Shattering have ordinary heroines, I believe.

[jesuswasbatman]

I wonder if Un Lun Dun by China Miéville counts? In that the protagonist does get a magic weapon eventually, but it's the type of magic weapon that works for anyone who picks it up and has the imagination to work out how it can be incredibly powerful when used with lateral thinking, rather than one that's powered by or otherwise requires the owner's SPESHULNESS. And the general point of the novel is violently anti-Chosen One.

[rilina]

The Scorpio Races, sorta, depending on how you categorize it. Only magic is the magical killer horses.

I can't remember the plots of them well enough to be sure, but I wonder if some Margaret Mahy books fit your description.

[oyceter]

Maureen Johnson's Devilish?

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

Does Katniss Everdeen have magical powers in The Hunger Games or am I forgetting something?

[negothick.livejournal.com]

No, she does not--because it's not technically a fantasy. It's dystopian SF, and everything is logically explained or explainable.
I recommend Karen Healey's first novel Guardian of the Dead, a YA fantasy set in New Zealand with a wonderfully human protagonist, blending European and Maori myths and legends.

[evalangui.livejournal.com]

Well, in His Dark Materials the children don't have powers per se but acquire magical artifacts (the dagger, the alethiometer), they are sorta 'destined' for them so the line is a bit fuzzy there...

No vampire boyfriends... Well, you made me think of 'Companions of the night', which made me give up on all other vampire books. So in case you don't get enough of the Charles de Link types...

[shark-hat.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure whether Mieville's Un Lun Dun counts or not; it's a plot point that the protagonist doesn't have magical powers, but the action is mainly set in Un-London, not in "normal" London.

Ah- Sarah Rees Brennan's Demon series- the protag of the first definitely doesn't count, but Mae is one of the POV characters in Demon's Covenant, and she's ordinary. I think Frances Hardinge's Verdigris Deep (Well Witched in the US) qualifies- I think the protagonists are ordinary kids caught up into a witch's snares- and maybe Maureen Johnson's Devilish? I don't remember that one as well.

ETA: Peter Beagle's Tamsin was published in the nineties, wasn't it? It's mostly set on a farm rather than in a city though...

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Hm. I can think of some MG that arguably qualifies, but I'm having trouble thinking of YA that does.

[erikagillian.livejournal.com]

This is probably not going to count on the Demon Hunter requirement, though she's not a hunter, but a protector but Discount Armageddon by Seanan McGuire? Possibly not YA though. I have no idea what's considered YA anymore. I just used to read them, but since I don't go to libraries much anymore I've fallen out of the habit.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Flora definitely gets powers over the course of the series, though I don't remember when right now. Aren't some of the Bordertown kids pretty ordinary?

[thecityofdis.livejournal.com]

Kathleen Peacock's Hemlock, if I recall correctly - I read an ARC a few months ago. Most of the main characters are werewolves (so it's a bit more "my vampire boyfriend") but the MC is not magical or paranormal in any way.

I just double-checked my lists, and this is the only book I've read in two years that fulfills your requirements.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

How about Nina Hoffman's Thresholds series? They may be written a little younger than you have in mind, but the idea is that a nonmagical girl finds out about a system of gates allowing access to other worlds. She becomes inextricably involved and changed, but still has no magic herself, so everyone has to learn to deal with the situation.

[tool-of-satan.livejournal.com]

Tripping to Somewhere? The protagonist does get a magical device, but only has it for a short part of the book and doesn't end up actually using it.

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

In the first Derek Landy book, the protagonist has no powers; she gets by on being awesome and smart and having good allies. However, in later books she starts learning bending^H^H^H^H^H^H elemental magic. (I rather wish the author hadn't gone that way.)

Not a protagonist, but I very much appreciate that Diane Duane's later Wizard books develop Carmela as a nonwizard character who is formidable anyhow.

[dancing-crow.livejournal.com]

Diana Wynne Jones has a couple others that fit your description: Seven Days of Luke, Power of Three (ordinary children, magic happens), Aunt Maria, The Ogre Downstairs (ordinary children, magical chemistry set).

You might also try Jane Langton. She wrote a series of YA books set in Concord, Massachusetts, the first (and my favorite) is The Diamond in the Window, followed by The Swing in the Summer House and others. The children are ordinary, but some of the adults are not, and none of the dreams are.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Andre Norton's Magic books, maybe? Steel Magic has three normal kids after a set of magic talismans. Octagon Magic, Fur Magic, Dragon Magic, etc. are of similar ilk, though they might be too early. They're from the sixties and seventies.

[sholio]

The Fablehaven books by Brandon Mull might qualify - they're very much in the old-school mold of "ordinary kids discover magical stuff happening around them". (Despite that, I had to quit reading the series because I was too disgusted by the kids' approach to indigenous cultures -- which basically amounts to "Whee, steal their stuff, it's awesome!" Plus a Pokemon-like "gotta catch 'em all!" focus on capturing and "collecting", i.e. enslaving, sentient magical creatures. Yeah, the books are not without issues.)

I don't think I'd realized 'til you asked this question how the whole YA zeitgeist seems to have swung from ordinary kids having magical adventures, to seemingly ordinary kids discovering their own magical specialness. That's really interesting.

[crystalpyramid]

I'm not quite sure if it fits your genre requirements, but Pamela F. Service's Weirdos of the Universe, Unite and The Reluctant God were both mostly fantasy with normal human protagonists. She may have more books like that. Of course, the first one ends up having aliens in it, but it still feels more like fantasy. (It's kind of like American Gods for younger readers, but with aliens. Lots of deities messing around with things, but they are not the protagonists.)

[skygiants]

Hmmm. Does Zephyr from Alaya Dawn Johnson's Moonshine count? She comes from a vampire hunter family, but is herself an earnest activist and volunteer with no supernatural powers to speak of. It does, however, include 'my djinn boyfriend.'

And another 'my immortal boyfriend' one -- Tananarive Due's My Soul to Keep has a protagonist who is an investigative journalist and married to a creepy member of a SECRET IMMORTAL SOCIETY. There are sequels, which I think focus on their secret immortal daughter, who would obviously not qualify.

Another question: does it count if everyone else thinks the protagonist has magical powers, even if it later turns out they don't? The (boring) protagonist in China Mieville's Kraken is widely rumored to be the GREAT SQUID PROPHET but it all later turns out to be a misunderstanding.

[nenena.livejournal.com]

My memory of The Spiderwick Chronicles is very vague, but I think it might qualify. Three completely ordinary kids end up living in a house infested with magical creatures. I think the target demographic for the books skews a bit younger than what's normally considered "YA," though.

[athenejen]

Margaret Mahy's The Tricksters is more like 25 years old, around the same era as Fire and Hemlock, but iirc it qualifies otherwise.

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention Pamela Dean, too, but it just misses the dates. My own CAMILLE'S TRAVELS is urban fantasy set entirely in this world, but it would probably fall short because the maguffin is a "magical" item that turns out to actually be a being from another dimension, and it controls people, so my protagonist has to fight it and try to figure out how to either control it or get rid of it--all while running away from people who would like to get the item from her. So there is a magical item,but she has no powers, and she isn't able to use the magic herself, except when it does something on its own and she manages to cope with it. ENTER THREE WITCHES by Kate Gilmore is about a teen boy and teen girl who aren't witches, but whose PARENTS are. So there is magic going on sometimes, although they are not wielding it. Oops, that one misses the 20-year mark as well. Apparently I love a lot of older books! But we knew that! (grin)

Not very helpful, am I. . . .

[orzelc.livejournal.com]

Dan Wells, I Am Not a Serial Killer and sequels. The main characters is a sociopath (and knows it), but is not magical, though he fights some fantasy monsters. They're set in Kansas, though, and so might not be urban enough.

[ejmam.livejournal.com]

I'm poking through my librarything list, although I'll also plug Brennan's Demon series, which includes both ordinary and magical people working together.

_My Boyfriend Is a Monster_, Evonne Tsang (graphic novel).

_Things That Are_, Andrew Clements -- Not really urban fantasy because there is only one magic/science fictional mcguffin, but two of the books center on kids who don't get the magical device.

Joseph Bruchac has lots of books with ordinary kids facing monsters; the ones I've read are borderline young YA: _The Skeleton Man_, _The Dark Pond_ are two I've read recently.

_Team Human_ (Larbalestier & Brennan) will probably qualify, but I haven't got hold of it yet. It looks like a book directly written for your specification -- urban fantasy world with vampires and stuff, but the main character is just standard human.

Although really, Meg's tessering with C.W. is a bit of magical powers, so even _Wrinkle In Time_ doesn't quite fit.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Susan Cooper's The Boggart (1993?) I think qualifies. I was afraid it was going to be too old, but it is within 20 years, is set around the time it was published (the computer specs and lingo feels so outdated now!), and I think features totally non-magical kids. It is only the boggart that is magical.

[rosefox]

I would put Above on that list; Teller's abilities seem to be a matter of training and talent, not supernatural. And I assume Team Human qualifies, since that's kind of the point.

It sounds to me like you want something like Half Magic or Five Children and It, but modern--is that about right?

[nevacaruso.livejournal.com]

Here are a few that I can think of off the top of my head (assuming that the "urban" in "urban fantasy" is not a requirement, and you actually mean something more like "contemporary fantasy." If I'm wrong, I apologize).

Extraordinary by Nancy Werlin

The Shattering by Karen Healey

I Was A Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block (well, there are three protagonists, and one of them is indeed a fairy, so I don't know if it counts).

Midsummer Night by Freda Warrington

[mikeda.livejournal.com]

The upcoming "Dead Reckoning" by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill may qualify.

Definitely YA. Isn't set in current day, however, it's apparently set in the late 1860's. Zombies, but not widespread enough to be post-apocalyptic. And if any of the main protagonists have magical powers it isn't mentioned in the book description or the reviews on Barnes & Noble's site.

[naomikritzer]

"The Shadow Thieves" and its sequels, by Anne Ursu. Totally ordinary Minnesotan teens battle Greek gods and mostly lose. Also, the Gate to the Underworld is in the Mall of America.