5 YA Moments That Made Us Lose Our Innocence

The Glasswrights’ Apprentice, by Mindy L. Klasky
Lest you think the guild wars in Mindy L. Klasky’s series are superficial, the first book opens with a sickeningly irreversible event: Glasswright-in-training Rani is watching Prince Tuvashanoran’s Presentation when she spies an assassin camouflaged by a stained-glass window (of her own guild’s design). When she calls out to the prince, he gets an arrow to the eye. This event, and Rani’s mistaken part in it, changes her life: she never fully forgives herself.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
It’s one thing for your parents to warn you against teen parties where you might drink too much and put yourself in harm. That’s the kind of worry you brush off. It’s another thing entirely to read Laurie Halse Anderson’s indispensable tale, especially since it begins with Melinda already reeling from an unnamed event. By the time the novel builds to depicting the party that robbed her of speech and all control, you almost don’t want to know what happened. But it’s too late.

The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman
Everyone likes magical items, right? Especially when they choose you and come with a whole destiny attached. But maybe you’re too caught up in the second book of the His Dark Materials trilogy to realize they always come with a price, and that this knife—able to slice through the fabric of multiverses—is so subtle it’ll chop off two of your fingers before you even notice. And then maybe you’re scared to pick up knives for the next week.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by J.K. Rowling
If you grew up reading the Harry Potter books as they were published, then you remember the interviews with J.K. Rowling hinting her fourth book would—gasp—actually kill off a character. But very few people guessed Cedric Diggory would be the first sacrificial lamb, and that his death would be so senseless: He and Harry make it through the final test of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, decide to take the trophy together, and get transported instantly to a graveyard. The moment Voldemort says, “Kill the spare,” Cedric has already ceased to live. Of course, he was the first of many casualties, but the utter shock and waste of it makes his death stand out in readers’ memories.

Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell
Throughout Rainbow Rowell’s beloved novel, you’re so caught up in Eleanor and Park’s burgeoning, star-crossed love story that it’s mostly just a weird footnote that she keeps finding perverted messages scrawled on her textbooks—even when Park foolishly suggests she may be writing the messages herself to get attention. But when she discovers the truth of who’s behind the message, the full danger of her situation comes crashing down on her, and on the reader.
What’s a YA moment that made you lose your innocence?