ABSTRACT
The demise of apartheid was a watershed experience for every South African. That the early 1990s breathed change and hope was the notion that characterised private and public lives of that era. The coming-of-age of the South African country was, however, subsequently marked by many regressions and twenty years later the atmosphere of hope had given way to one of desolation and frustration. With its focus on the generation that is currently coming of age, young adult literature addresses those themes and issues with which its contemporary audience struggles on a daily basis. In so far as the literary medium has become a vehicle of delivery, since the end of apartheid local authors have predominantly written "socially committed novels" and teenage problem novels. The beginning of the twenty-first century saw another innovation, a turn towards speculative fiction. Speculative fiction is one of the most inclusive sub-genres in contemporary South African fiction.
