ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the complicated relationship that queer YA cultural productions have with notions of unhappiness and ambiguity, and the difficulties that arise in negotiating the place of hurt and pain in youth-focused narratives. Beginning with an examination of Aurora Guerrero's film Mosquita y Mari (2012), segueing into a brief historical overview of sadness in queer literary production, and concluding with an examination of the publication (and subsequent revision of) Adam Silvera's More Happy Than Not (2015/2020), this chapter underscores how narratives of resistance and survival are always in tension with queer YA's impulse to reinforce normative perspectives on happiness and fulfillment.
