Thumbs Up From Dad:
Arwen Elys Dayton’s Seeker

I love young adult novels. I do.

While the quality of YA fiction can vary as wildly as the fiction in ANY literary age range, no snarky internet articles or Ethan Frome-loving lit snob will ever make me feel bad about browsing the YA section at my local bookstore.

However, since I’ve become a dad (the dad of a very precocious third-grade daughter), I’ve found myself approaching young adult novels from a dual perspective — from both my personal perspective and my dad perspective. And that split really makes me consider YA books in ways that I hadn’t before.

Case in point — recently, someone gave me a copy of Arwen Elys Dayton’s new YA novel, Seeker.

It’s a new fantasy adventure, along the lines of Divergent or The Hunger Games, and, after reading about it online, it passed my first personal test — it sounded interesting. And it passed my first dad test, too — it sounded like it had a strong female protagonist.

I can’t stress enough the importance of a strong female protagonist to the father of a daughter. When you’re sitting in bed, reading a popular YA novel with your book-loving daughter and she sighs and asks why the hero’s female friend isn’t doing anything, it will turn even the most oblivious dad into a die-hard, Bechdel-testing feminist literary critic.

Thankfully, the book was both engaging and strongly pro-girl, so, suffice it to say, I liked it.

Set in an alternate future, Seeker is all about three teenagers — Quin, John, and Shinobu — who are being raised on a mysterious estate in Scotland to one day become a “seeker,” a sacred profession that is passed along from generation to generation. (I don’t want to spoil the surprise of what a seeker can do.) It’s a coveted role that’s so secret that the three teens aren’t entirely sure what it fully entails, but, under the tutelage of Quin’s cruel father Briac, they eventually learn what it means to be a seeker and that knowledge throws their world into chaos.

I’ve seen several Hunger Games comparisons online, but, to be honest, Seeker reminded me much more of Steven Gould’s Jumper, with a little bit of Philip Pullman’s The Subtle Knife thrown in for good measure. It’s the story of bright-eyed young people discovering fantastic abilities, but, with those abilities come expectations, ugly family histories, unexplored worlds, and occasionally bloody consequences.

Yes, there’s the prerequisite love triangle — but it follows unfamiliar patterns — and, yes, there is a tyrant father, which, as a dad who’s sensitive to the portrayal of dads in media, I didn’t mind. Vicious Briac isn’t the only father in Seeker and I understand the power of the parent-villain in literature. The best young adult stories are always about stepping over thresholds — and, for most kids, their parents are the ones guarding those thresholds. Because myths need conflict. And, if that means the dad (or the mom) has to be the bad guy occasionally, so what? If it allows Quin or Shinobu or my daughter to learn how to become the hero of their own stories, that’s totally worth it.

While it’s not a perfect book, Seeker is a fast, exciting, character-driven adventure and Arwen Elys Dayton has a real knack for world-building. Through my personal lens, as a fan of genre fiction, mythology, and over-the-top action movies, I wholeheartedly enjoyed it. Through my lens as a father of a young girl, I wouldn’t mind at all if my daughter — a tough, smart girl who reads with her whole heart — reads Seeker on her own one day. And that’s pretty solid endorsement from a dad.