This article examines two Chilean contemporary novels for young adults and discusses the notion of modernity embedded in them. First, the article describes both texts with regard to their similarities and differences, and then it considers Stuart Hall's notion about the crisis of the individual. By doing this, I intend to show how representations of adolescence in young adult narratives written and published currently in Chile mesh with the topics of national history and cultural identity. National politics and human rights (to education, for instance) and Chile's history of colonialism and a class-differentiated society are brought up for discussion. The analysis shows that a crisis of identity often at the heart of these narratives gives rise to an incomplete notion of modernity.