"Neuronormativity" in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction

Abstract

This article defines the young adult (YA) “neuronormativity novel” as a narrative that frames neurodiverse conditions predominantly through a medical model of disability, in contrast to the “neurodiversity novel”, which aligns with conceptions of neurodiversity. Through a textual analysis of two contemporary YA novels – Laura Creedle’s The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily (2017) and Anna Whateley’s Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal (2020) – we trace how ADHD is deployed as narrative prosthesis and argue that both novels are examples of neuronormativity novels, though they diverge in significant ways. The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily directly problematises neurodiversity, culminating in a tragic ending in which the protagonist seeks surgical intervention to “cure” her ADHD, thereby fully rejecting an ideology of neurodiversity. This arc mirrors early tragic gay YA fiction in which queer protagonists are ultimately defeated by heteronormativity, reinforcing the impossibility of difference within normative structures. Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal, by contrast, problematises neurodiversity throughout, yet ultimately shifts towards an embrace of neurodiverse identity by rejecting the medical model in its resolution. While this ending represents progress, the novel’s dominant narrative arc remains rooted in neuronormativity, echoing patterns seen in later gay YA problem novels, where queer identity is affirmed only tentatively at the end. These textual dynamics illustrate how YA fiction can simultaneously reinforce and challenge normative ideologies of disability and identity. We advocate a broadening of YA fiction to embrace a neurodiversity equivalent of queernormative fiction, a mode of YA storytelling attuned to neurodiverse ways of being and perceiving.