Do you read YA?

image While I was at RT and at various parties or dinners in the evening, the topic of adult readers of YA came up frequently. Some authors and readers questioned whether adult books were being packaged and sold in the YA section in hopes of attracting the attention of adult YA readers who shopped there. I can tell you there were a TON of authors talking about their upcoming YA novels. The crowded high-school-hallway turnout of the Teen Alley at the book signing and the number of young readers I saw roaming the booksigning looking for books to read (I was clear on the other side of the room from Teen Alley, so any young readers who I saw had made the trek across the crowds to the other side of the ballroom) indicates to me that YA remains popular with young readers – but what about these adult readers of YA? Are you one of them?

I totally am. I love YA romance for a host of reasons, and while I’m pretty picky about what I read, I love contemporary YA that’s not paranormal or dystopian most especially, because I love the tension and struggle provided by having emotions that are foreign and new and sometimes overwhelming. I know in the previous comment thread following my review of The Luckiest Girl, some readers mentioned preferring YA romances that didn’t end in a HEA for the hero and heroine because it’s not believable for them to see two protagonists embarking on a coupled future at such a young age. I personally don’t have that problem with suspending my disbelief though I totally understand the perspective of those who do. I met my husband in high school and we were together from freshman year of college onward, though we didn’t get married until we were 25 and he’d gotten that supah sexxay graduate degree he was after (rwor). So I understand the “Hold all calls, we have a winner!” feeling at a young age, and appreciate when an author pulls it off and makes it seem that no matter how the characters grow, they’re going to grow more awesomer together.

But I want to ask you, via the poll below: are you an adult reader of YA?

What do you like about it? What do you dislike? What books rock your world? Why YA, or why not?

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Random Musings

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  1. Pam says:

    I read a lot of YA. I love the coming of age themes and the problems that teens face today are a bit different from when I was young. I am 31 and my blog revolves around YA. This may be because I work with teens and I partner with a children’s store but I think there is a lot to be said for the new YA LIT.

  2. Kati says:

    Anna & the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins blew me away. I’ve read it about three times. I think that the author has the perfect tone for a high school senior. Snotty and smart, and totally vulnerable. Plus, it’s high school. Set in Paris. What’s not to love? I’ve already pre-ordered her next book.

    I also adore Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series. The books are gritty and dark, and adult in tone, but I gave them to my then 14YO niece and she loved them. I think maybe she thought she was getting away with something, not realizing that they are written for the YA audience.

    I think YA is only getting better and better as time goes along.

  3. I got re-hooked on YA while I was working in foster care … I had a house full of teenage girls, and when they got ahold of a YA book that spoke to them, it was as though everything was OK.  For at least a day or two.  Inspired me to go back and read my favorites.  The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix … le sigh.

  4. Cassandra says:

    Second star to the right, and straight on till morning! I will never be too old to read YA.

  5. Ceilidh says:

    Yep, I read YA, I love YA and one of these days I will finish my YA book, honestly! *shifty eyes*

    I don’t mind romances in YA; if it’s done well it can be fantastic and just as good, if not better, than in adult romances, but so many YA books let the romance overwhelm them, not to mention how derivative many of them are. There are some diamonds in the rough and I know the genre’s big on trends and such, but the same old stuff gets boring very quickly. I’m also very annoyed by the romances where it’s so all consuming that it wipes the characters free of personality, common sense and intelligence. Then again, I’m no fan of that sort of obsessive romance in any age group of literature, but in YA it just feels especially squicky to have a teenage girl completely devote herself to some ‘mysterious bad boy’, especially when the development between the two is so weak. I also hate love triangles in YA but that’s a whole other rant!

    I’m interested to see what trend’s next; we’ve had paranormal then dystopia, so my money’s on Greek mythology.

  6. RJones says:

    I don’t.

    I don’t like teenagers.  I didn’t when I was a teenager myself.

    Though, I’ll admit, my feelings are more a prejudice than anything. I love and still re-read Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series, which I think is probably sold as young adult now.

    But still… teenagers?  Ew, icky.

  7. I am definitely an avid reader of YA! I also write YA—but I think I write it because I’m drawn to it. One of the things I love about YA novels is that they usually don’t have huge chunks of description or things that slow the writing down—things that, er, bore me or that I skim. Another thing I love is that YA books seem to so often delve into the emotional life of a character in a deep way, and often challenge various forms of oppression, or encourage being kind with each other. Not in a preachy way, just…a way that feels good (at least to me) to read. Of course, not all YA books are like that, and there are different things I like about each. I especially love fantasy and realistic YA novels.

  8. SheaLuna says:

    I don’t read a LOT of YA, but I read some.  I pretty much only read paranormal or dystopian YA. 🙂

    Mostly I just enjoy the stories.  Honestly, sometimes the stories in today’s YA are infinitely better than those in “grown up” books.  I find the characters are often better developed and more realistic and the plots are more interesting.  The authors seem more willing to take risks, be silly and write outside the box. 

    I also read old skool YA for reasons of nostalgia.  When I was around 12 I read the first couple of books in John Christopher’s The Tripods series.  For years that story kept nagging at me until I bought the entire set about two years ago.  I’ve read them through more than once and I love them just as much now as I did then.

    The only downside, for me, of YA is that it’s naturally lacking in adult romance and relationships.  If somehow the awesomeness of the YA story could be combined with the adultness (Is that a word?) of my usual fare, it’d be the perfect combo.

  9. Ridley says:

    I really have no interest in reading YA novels. The teenage years were something to overcome, not revisit. Immersing myself in the angst, shortsightedness, arrogance and hormones of those years breaks me out in hives. No thank you.

    I’m much more interested in stories about adults dealing in our crazy world. I’d be more interested in 20-22 year old protagonists than I would be in 14-16 year old ones. I want to read about maturity, not rebellion.

  10. Larissa Ione says:

    Tough one. I struggled with the yes or no, because I’m picky about the YA I read. I’ve tried a handful of contemporary YA novels and just couldn’t get into them. On the other hand, I enjoy dark, gritty paranormal YA, especially of the dystopian kind.

    I think it’s because teenage angst annoys me. I didn’t like BEING a teenager, so I don’t want to read about it. Contemporary YA takes me back to a time of my life I just want to forget. Besides, I have a teenager now, and he provides enough angst as it is. 🙂

    Paranormal YA works much better for me because it’s more fantastical, and the more removed from recognizable life, the better, which is why dystopian YA works for me. The characters tend to act older, thanks to having to grow up faster, and the life or death stakes keep me reading.

    I probably just made no sense whatsoever…

  11. Carrie S says:

    The trend I’ve noticed at bookstore/library is to shelve any materials with characters between the ages of 12 – 25 as YA.  So, if I didn’t read YA, I wouldn’t read Great Expectations, Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn.  I’d also be missing out on Holly Black, Virginia Euwer Wolff (no relation to the Virginia Woolf), Phillip Pullman, etc etc.  I’ve found Terry Pratchett shelved under YA and also Tolkien and Jane Austen.  I’d say I look more to YA for coming of age stories and fantasy than for romance, but to skip the whole section of the store because it’s YA would cause me to miss as much great stuff as I was missing back when I used to waltz right past Romance because I had no idea how great it could be.  Of course I’m really picky about what YA I read, but I’m picky about what I read in all the other genres as well.  Sadly, no one genre has a monopoly on crap.

    language53 – there are more than 53 great ways to use language – why by snobby about any of them?

  12. Meredith says:

    I read YA, and I teach and study about children’s media, but I’m picky. I also swear that someday I’ll write my paper about bigger (self-identified “fat”) protagonists in YA, because there are a lot of good books out right now that cover this (and don’t always end in diets, which is nice). I also go back to Lackey’s Valdemar and A Wrinkle in Time (and Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women, and every other book I loved as a kid).

  13. Carrie S says:

    Ooops, my comment should say “why be snobby” not “why by snobby”.  Being snobby about typos is totally acceptable.

  14. kellye says:

    I love to read and write YA, and hope that all of those writers who have newly turned to the genre are doing so for the right reasons (it’s the story that speaks to them loudest, that they most want to write) and not because the genre’s hot and selling, and—HarHAR—they think writing for teens is easier than other kinds of writing.

    Generally, I don’t read traditional adult romances, but I love romance in YA, and think it’s an important part of teens’ lives (even if they’re just thinking about why they aren’t interested in anyone OR if their “love” is unrequited, which is not funny in real life but should be in YA.) I love reading and writing YA because it captures that glorious, awful in-between time before adulthood. Also, teens are passionate—not just about love and sex.

    I read widely, but my first love is contemporary YA. Some of my favorites that include romance are: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, Perfect Chemistry by Simon Elkeles, Marcello in the Real Word by Francisco X. Stork, Razzle by Ellen Wittlinger, My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr, Vegan, Virgin, Valentine by Carolyn Mackler, All-American Girl by Mag Cabot . . . I could go on and on & am probably forgetting some of my faves.

    Beyond contemporary, I really enjoyed Wendy Delsol’s Stork (the first in a trilogy), Peeta vs. Gale in the Hunger Games Trilogy, and Ally Condie’s Matched. (Now that I think about it, Matched has a triangle, too…but I’m not over them yet).

    Generally, I don’t like YA with needy, wimpy protagonists (who almost always are girls) whose only goal/interest is the perfect boy (bad or not). Sometimes I’m okay with it if that’s part of the character’s emotional and plot journey (so it changes at the end). If the love interest supplies all the answers, is THE end all, I’m not so interested.

  15. Sarah W says:

    I read everything: YA, Chick Lit, Mom Lit, Old A, picture books, fanfic, you name it.

    YA, which is a relatively recent market, is finally starting to hit its stride with plenty of well-written, intelligent stories from which to choose.

    I only wish multicultural and “alternative lifestyle” romances would hurry up and do the same—there just aren’t enough of either to be able to choose.

  16. Ashley says:

    I did not enjoy high school—I’m glad it’s over and I don’t have to go back.  So I don’t read contemp YA.  But I do love fantasy/magic YA.  Patricia McKillip, Diana Wynne Jones, Patricia Wrede, Garth Nix all have a light but skilled hand with romance.  Also early pairings seem more likely to me in the (typically) non-modern fantasy settings.

    /rant/ What I hate is when a good book gets castrated to make it “kid-friendly”.  I was surprised to see Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight in the YA section, so flipped to the first sex scene (which I remembered so vividly from my first reading at age 12).  In the original the hero muses that the emotional resonance of the dragons mating was so strong, it may as well have been rape, and he’d tried to be a considerate lover since.  In the bowdlerized version, it says something like “He’d tried to be a good friend to her since the dragons mated.”  I was so pissed off—that relationship was powerful to me at an age where no one would talk to me about sex.  If people don’t want their kids reading about sex, fine, don’t let them, but they shouldn’t alter the text of a book for marketing purposes.  *Deep breath* /end rant/

    That said, one of the reasons I like YA so much is the delicacy with which the authors deal with attraction.  There’s less jumping into bed and more emotion and tension.  Small gestures or conversations become packed with meaning.  The relationship is the point and the focus, sexual attraction just a facet.  Which is more mature than a lot of “adult” romance, to my mind.

  17. Kathleen says:

    I read a lot of YA but almost all are SciFi/Fantasy.
    Why? I think some of the most exciting books that are being published are YA.  Ex: Shiver, Hunger Games, Ship Breaker, Sabriel, When You Reach Me. Why would I pass up on reading great books just because of the label?
    Also, honestly, my second reason is b/c YA is easier to read. Sometimes that is a let down b/c the story/tension ends up being too simplistic (Across the Universe I am looking in your direction), but I appreciate being able to read a book quickly. In comparison, I’ve been plowing my way through The Way of Kings, and actually had to return it to the library before I was done.

  18. jayhjay says:

    I don’t read too much YA b/c honestly I like books with a lot of heat which isn’t really appropriate in YA fare.  But I will say I read and loved the Hunger Games trilogy.

  19. sweetfa says:

    Euw, no!
    The angst, arrogance and above all the acne that I can’t help imagining in anyone under about 22. Peculiar teenage ideas about hygiene. Incompetent intercourse. The ignorance of contraception and stupidity about consequences. Sorry, but I find grown-ups much more interesting. Plus, being a good generation or two past my teens, I think I’d feel a bit creepy reading about…ugh, I don’t even want to go there.
    Having said that, I do like historicals, and I’m wondering if that’s partly because the social restrictions in these often mimic the sort of social pressures modern teens have to cope with. But without the acne, etc…

  20. Isabel C. says:

    I definitely do read YA, for the reasons other people have mentioned. Yeah, sometimes teenagers do idiotic things—but I haven’t noticed a shortage of idiot main characters in adult fiction lately. (Or classically. CATHY AND HEATHCLIFF, my GOD.)

    As a 28-year-old who’s been through a few guys and still doesn’t feel like settling down any time soon, I *should* find it hard to identify when the fifteen-year-old protagonist ends up with a romantic HEA. I generally don’t, though: I think it’s one of those things I have less trouble with in fiction.

    That said, the less explicit the long-termness of the HEA is, the easier a time I have with it. If the book fades on the hero and heroine hooking up, I can believe that they won’t go all Brenda and Eddie four years later, the same way I can believe that the flaming wreckage of the Death Star Mark II didn’t destroy all life on Endor, somehow. If one of them starts thinking about marriage and kids and so forth, I have a much harder time.

    Supernatural stuff helps too: if he’s already battling the forces of evil at night and she hangs out with ghosts on the weekends, then sure, okay, I can also buy a together-forever-at-sixteen thing. They’re a lot less likely to get bored with each other than most couples, that’s for sure.

    And I really have a soft spot for YA novels that do acknowledge how most people don’t end up with the first person to catch their eye. Terry Pratchett’s particularly awesome that way.

    really89—yeah, I know I’m a curmudgeon.

  21. Emily says:

    I did not enjoy my teen years. But it makes me protective and defensive of teenagers. I think it is a really tough time.
      I like young adult. But as I said before I don’t like young adult romances. In the movies, over the past oh twenty years or so film critics like Roger Ebert have noted that more and more movies feature teenagers up to darker things and more daring and dashing things than adults. Teens in movies seem to have more sex than adults. Is this trend a good thing?
    As I get older I realize I want to see people at any age have a good time. I don’t want to see teens growing up too fast unless there is some sort of issue at stake, ie. teen prostitution or drug smuggling.
    That being said I happy to read about young adults, and I don’t even care if they fall in love. As long they are safe and not too serious. I am also a sucker when it comes to stories of people who meet when they are kids or high school students and fall in love later.

    For me a teenage girl, making it to the end of high school ready to take on college/ the world, or becoming confident and learning to navigate through high school orlearning to deal with her family/friends situation is all good. Self-Empowerment, Self confidence, and learning to be yourself IS Happily Ever After!
    (Even without a guy>)

  22. TracyP says:

    I don’t read a LOT of YA, but I read some.  I pretty much only read paranormal or dystopian YA. 🙂

    Me too. 

    The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead is considered YA, so it pays to be open to reading all kinds of books.  Her other series are much more adult, but I probably never would have discovered them without being open to YA books.  It’s just hard to find an author I really like in YA.  Some are written where the teen is so self-absorbed and angsty (yeah, like real life) that I can’t stand them as a main character.  I feel no sympathy for them.  It’s a delicate balance for me.

  23. g_lavo says:

    I don’t read YA for two reasons. One, I get frustrated with the angst and the drama that is totally appropriate for high school but annoying from an adult perspective. I guess I have forgotten how difficult it was to grow up and I don’t really want to be reminded.

    Two, I like my romances to involve sex but I do NOT want to read about teenagers having sex. The mom in me is horrified at the potential repercussions.

    I haven’t tried a YA recently though. Maybe it’s time to give it another shot…..

  24. SamG says:

    I read the some of the YA books my daughter brings home.  I like knowing what she’s reading, and quite often, I like the stories as well as she does.

    Sam

  25. Maya Sapiurka says:

    I definitely still read YA.  Granted, I’m on the younger side of adulthood, but I still absolutely love going back and rereading all my favorite YA books I grew up with.  Most of them are fantasy/sci-fi (Patricia Wrede, Diana Wynne Jones RIP, Madeline L’Engle, Tamora Pierce, Eva Ibbostson), but I also own all of Louise Rennison’s Georgia Nicholson series.  They’re funny as hell and they’re some of the only books that my little sister and I BOTH love to read.  It was wonderful to be able to share a book and book language with each other. 

    tl;dr, Love YA, always will

  26. TinyNinja says:

    I read YA from, oh, third through eighth grades.  Started exploring Vonnegut, Irving, and Victorian era authors around fourth, fifth grade, so by the time I hit high school most YA was firmly in the “baby” category for me, as it was for most of my friends.

    Not that I’m particularly exceptional, I just think that Blume, Klein, etc., meant their books to be a preview of “upcoming attractions” so to speak, rather than something to be read when you are the same age as the character.

    I’ll occasionally read a YA for the nostalgia factor, but not because I love the genre.  I’ve found that even the best YAs are only slightly above “Mrs. Piggle Wiggle” in terms of reading difficulty, story, etc. 

    And, to be honest, the adults I’ve met who read YA in public have reminded me strongly of Stephen King’s “Annie Wilkes.”  Ick, blech, blarg, and pfui.

  27. kellye says:

    Just have to say: I am loving the comments here! Someone once said (and I’m sorry that I can’t remember who): People who write for children (and I’d add teens) do so because they want to correct their horrible childhoods—or relive a happy one.

    Ashley, I was shocked by your anecdote about Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight. I’m not familiar with the book, but I’ve never heard of a publisher changing the content to fit for a younger audience. That is awful.

    I agree that lots of teens are reading adult books w/ adult content, and it’s been that way forever. I remember someone passing around “The Happy Hooker” on the school bus, with the “good parts” marked, and also picking up “Once is Not Enough” from my grandmother’s bookshelf at about 12.

    Also, although sex in YA is controversial (as is sex just about anywhere, unfortunately, imho), I do think that it’s appropriate in certain stories and teens themselves often are the ones who decide what they’re ready for in their reading.

    Finally, I also had to laugh about the comment from the Mom who doesn’t want to think about teens having sex. As the mother of a 14 yo, I agree. When I’m reading and writing YA, though, I feel 16, so it doesn’t seem creepy at all. Though, now that I think about it…. LOL.

  28. kellye says:

    TinyNinja,

    There’s a big YA world out there. It could be that you’ve read mostly middle grade or younger YA. It’s hard to tell from the authors you list. But I wouldn’t call Marcus Zuszak, Robert Cormier, M.T. Anderson and Laurie Halse Anderson, to name just four, writers of “baby books.”

    Like adult lit, YA includes a range of subgenres. Not trying to be a hater! Just wanted you to know you might be missing some good reads.

    Best,
    kellye

  29. Cindy says:

    TheTwilight series has turned me off the idea of YA for probably several more years.  The angst and agony was more than I could stomach.  Plus I’m a couple of generations past this crop of YA and don’t really want to re-visit that age bracket.

  30. Milena says:

    I read very little YA, and only SF/F. Pratchett, Pullman, stuff that’s more SF/F than YA in my mind.

    And while I liked my real-life teenage years, I didn’t like YA even then; most of it seemed uninteresting to me. I will skim my daughter’s books, but I hardly ever get pulled in enough to actually read it.

  31. Tamara Hogan says:

    I read very little YA. I prefer reading about the challenges experienced by fully adult characters with a little more life experience on board. 

    Back in the day, before YA existed as a subgenre, I remember going from the Little House, Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden series directly to the adult library stacks, checking out any book I wanted, no questions asked. There was simply no other option for precocious readers like me. I loved reading adult books, I handled reading adult books, I wasn’t damaged by reading adult books, including books with violence and graphic sexual content. I generally think kids and teenagers can handle more complex subject matter than their parents might give them credit for – or that their parents might be comfortable with. 

    Maybe this is a generational parenting difference? Not only didn’t YA exist when I was young, I don’t remember my parents, or any of my friends’ parents, being at all attuned to WHAT I was reading – they were excited THAT I was reading.

  32. I read a fair amount of YA fiction, primarily the paranormal or dystopian. I started reading it mainly to stay in touch with what my daughter read but have continued on because it is awesome. YA writers tend to get to the point a lot quicker (face it teens are not real patient) and as long as the romance isn’t to angsty, I enjoy it. When I was a teen we had very little written for us, it was Nancy Drew and then straight to Stephen King, so I get a kick out of seeing all this great fiction. PC Cast, Rowling, Myer, Mead are only a few of the writers I read. A lot of adult writers have a YA book out now and I love comparing their adult and YA fiction.

  33. LizC says:

    Looking at my YA shelf it overwhelmingly skews towards the sci-fi/fantasy realm.

    When I was a kid I read much more of the YA like Judy Blume and Lurlene McDaniel that was about kids slightly older than I was because they were going through the same things I was or might be in the future. Each Judy Blume was like a template for what I might have to deal with if I wasn’t already.

    Now that I’m a grown-up and have made it through the icky teenage years I don’t have much of a desire to read about the trials and tribulations of the average teenager. There’s something about the recent spate of sci-fi/fantasy YA novels that I love because they’re about teenagers but they’re not dealing with the typical “does that boy like me?” it’s “does that boy like me? Can’t deal with it right now because I have to battle an evil monster”. So I get the YA goodness without having to really relive my teenage years because I never had to fight evil sea monsters.

  34. HelenMac says:

    One more from the ‘I don’t read a lot of YA, but when I do, it is mostly the paranormal/dystopian flavoured stuff’ crowd.

    I felt I grew out of YA books early on, like before I grew out of being a YA! I was reading plain old adult novels (yes, that kind, too) before I was even a young teenager, and didn’t find YA … I think challenging may be the word I’m looking for here…enough. Maybe I was reading the wrong ones. Maybe I felt like they didn’t really apply to me and my life: both American and British secondary school settings felt a little too foreign to really resonate with me (in Hong Kong), and being the well read, well travelled, well mannered, well behaved, jolly hockey sticks, non-rebellious dutiful daughter that I was, ‘troubled youth’ YA, like Melvin Burgess’ (?) Junk and various other drug/teen pregnancy themed books didn’t speak to me, they were so far removed from my experience. (I was the kind of girl whose friends’ parents would comment on what a lovely young lady I was and why couldn’t they be more like me….OH HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED, LOLOLOLOL!).

    Not that Regency Romances were particulalrly analagous to my tweenage years, but I read them by the shedload, along with every M&B, JAK, Julie Garwood, and Susan Johnson I could get my hands on.

    I rediscoved YA a few years ago – I think it may even have been a review here that prompted me to buy Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and with that, it seemed like a whole new world of fiction had been opened up to me – where were these books when I was a tween/teen?!

    This has been rambling and stream of conciousness, and I don’t think it really explains why I enjoy reading YA as an adult (although, at 26, still a relatively young one, I hope!). It may be really trite, but I think it may be something to do with the fact that now that I am a proper adult with a proper job and grown up responsibilities and so on, the escapism YA offers, into a world where even though your life may be complicated by such things as being in love with a boy who is a wolf for the whole winter or an angel who gave up heaven because of you, or just simply the life altering experience of being in love with a boy for the first time at all (especially if you’re a boy too! oh, gay YA, I love you so!), or if the complications aren’t relationship based at all (although, you may have noticed that I’m one of the ones who is pro- romance in YA, both HEA and HFN) but stem out of crime solving/parental issues/mathletics/inheriting a fortune/travelling with friends/etc, is a welcome change from the mundane complications of my life, boring things like rent, appraisals, key performance indicators, credit card bills, and so on.

    …wow, I’m in a rambling mood tonight. Apologies to anyone who actually attemped to read that comment!

  35. Isabel C. says:

    Lisa C: Heh—my local library has Carrie shelved under YA.

    I like the getting-to-the-point too, and the fact that YA has traditionally been more sympathetic to fantasy and sf subplots than “traditional literature”. Also happy endings, Beth freakin’ March aside.

    Tamara: My parents never really minded either. My mom tried to institute a no-romance-novels policy for a bit—explicit content blah blah blah—but among other things for which I love the woman, she was none-too-vigilant about checking under my bed or in the back of my sock drawer, so the whole thing just added some excitement to my ten-year-old life.

    I tend to agree on what kids can handle. I started reading King at elevenish and am arguably fine now, whereas the books that have possibly scarred me for life, or at least given me periodic nightmares, were classified as YA: those damn Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books with the GAAAAH WHAT THE HELL IS THAT illustrations. Yiiiiipe.

  36. AgTigress says:

    ‘YA’ literature did not exist in my youth (today is my 70th birthday, so my youth was a long time ago);  one read children’s books until one wanted to read adult books, and that was that.  Adolescence is the process of becoming adult:  at any point within it, there will be different proportions of childlike preferences and adult ones within each individual, and many youngsters could and did read adult literature at 10 or 11 years old.  Others didn’t get round to it till they were well into their teens.  Books for younger children do have to be written and presented differently from those written for adults, with simpler language and to some extent simplified concepts.  There is no such dividing line between a story aimed at, say, a 15-year-old and an adult.  The main reason I can think of for the creation of the label, apart from publishers’ marketing strategies, is that since the 1960s, it has been possible to publish graphically sexual material, so there are many books in the ‘adult’ fiction market that some adults might regard as unsuitable for younger readers.  That’s about the only adult/adolescent distinction I can see, though as so many teenagers are sexually active these days (unlike their predecessors in the 1950s), I’m not too sure it really holds water.

    So I find the whole ‘Young Adult’ concept rather strange, and I am not sure that the definitions make a lot of sense; some of the previous posts and their examples confirm that.  The poll so far shows 82% of the adult readers here happily reading YA novels.  If that is so, then logic declares that these novels are not tailored specifically for adolescents:  they are for people old enough to want to read them, whether that age happens to be 12 or 32.  I don’t see that the ages of the central characters or the nature of the setting has much to do with the age of the target readership.

  37. AmberG says:

    When I was a kid, I hated YA books. They were too thin, too childish, too… simple, is the best word I can think of. I spent most of my childhood reading mom’s books, and so when I was forced to read YA books, they drove me crazy.

    Now that i’m an adult, I love them, because I relate more. When I was a teenager, boys were boring. Girls were catty and dumb. Teenage drama was other people’s problem. I was a major loner, and books about girls who go out with friends and party and date boys, that was totally not interesting to me.

    Now i’m older, and i’m in the middle. I’m an adult, so I like books about adults. But since I didn’t really start acting like a teenager until I was nearly not one, I don’t have a lot of experiences that it’s taken for granted that adults have (like dating or driving or whatever), I never did any of that. So as an adult, I pretty much relate more to YA than anything targeted at my age group.

    With adults, they go out, they have dates at diners, they have sex, the emotions are tempered by past dates and past relationships, I can get into that, but I can’t relate to it. I’m a more innocent sort, believe it or not. YA feeds that need to really understand what the main characters are feeling.

  38. Anonymousie says:

    No, no, and no.  Like someone else said, it skeeves me out a little how many adult women I see (and it’s always women) reading YA novels. It always makes me wonder what’s wrong with our culture that these readers prefer to read about kids the age of their own children rather than about adults like them.

    Some of the women I know who read YA romance have told me flat out it’s because they can’t find any good romances without a ton of sex in them anymore—the only thing left is category Presents, and they don’t read those. If they want single title, they have to read YA.

    Personally, I hated high school with every bone in my body.  I have no desire ever to go back, even within the relative safety of a book where I know there will be a HEA.

    Someone else mentioned fantasy/sci-fi YA, with Mercedes Lackey as an example. I read that as a teen, but I doubt it really qualifies as YA, at least the ones I read. I think there’s a fair amount of fantasy that begins with teenaged protagonists, but those characters are rarely “real” teens, so it doesn’t bother me to read about them—their problems, issues and relationships aren’t those of normal kids.

  39. I don’t read it. I had a terrible time in my teens, and no way do I want to go back, or read about it.
    Teenagers are pretty uninteresting to me, unless they’re my own. I’ve never felt any connection with them, even when I was one. I just endured, and learned, and looked forward to being a bit older.
    Sorry! To all teenagers out there – it does get better, I promise!

  40. Tasha says:

    One of the things I love about YA is the absence of visible worldbuilding. YA authors and audiences seem to be willing to go for the ride with an open mind, so you don’t get the same long-winded explanations of how and why things are different. They just are, and the story goes on from there.

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