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?
As I mentioned over in the comments on the review for The Luckiest Girl, the library catalog subject classification for Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading led me to Beyond Heaving Bosoms which led me (not really a romance book reader) to this site.
In regard to the post’s titular question: yes, I read YA books (and books about YA books).
YA is a *big* genre, and I think it’s a little unfair to categorize every book starring an under-20 protagonist into the same section of the bookshelf and act like they’re supposed to be similar … much like romance, huh? I read contemporary YA, and I’ve noticed, broadly speaking, two categories – books that are more like “chick lit” or Gossip-Girl stories, with superficial characters and plotlines focused around things like parties (with drinking! Le gasp!) and “mean girl” relational aggression. While some of these books can provide a guilty pleasure, I prefer books that are a little more serious without turning into Issue or Message Books. (I also suspect books about high-school royalty bother me because I certainly wasn’t popular at that age. I prefer heroines who are overachievers – I can relate to that – or “average” without being Mary Sues.)
An early commenter cited Anna and the French Kiss – excellent example. I also enjoyed:
Elizabeth Scott (though one of her books is more serious/intense)
Deb Caletti
Rosemary Clement-Moore, Prom Dates from Hell (kind of a parody of all this paranormal stuff)
David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
A.S. King, The Dust of 100 Dogs (kind of historical fiction? Not light and fluffy, either.)
More in the fantasy/SF area: Kristin Cashore, Graceling
It’s ironic that I’m reading YA now, at 50. I never read it in Jr. high or high school. I went straight to the adult SF. I think part of it was how clean cut and moral the YA was back then. I read everything I could by Ursula Le Guin, the Women of Wonder short stories, and Ray Bradbury.
Now YA has much more depth and grey. Much of the interesting SF/F is in the YA section. Books that were marketed to adults 15 to 20 years ago are re-issued as YA books.
Of course I do come across some books and wonder why anyone would want to have their child read about such a doormat of a girl.
Yes, but not contemporary YA. About 90% of my reading is Romance, and I think I do have trouble believing in true love in high school. Though, I don’t read much contemporary adult Romance either. The contemp setting easily triggers my disbelief switch as well as my bored switch. I mostly (there are always exceptions) need my Romances to be larger than life so I go for Historical and Paranormal Romance and SF/F/UF with romantic elements. Another reason is that I don’t care for dystopian, coming-of-age or “message” novels and a lot of YAs fall into those categories. I do have some Contemporary YAs from the new YA wave on my TBR pile, but I approach them with caution.
The YAs I like tend to be the ones that transcend age ranges. Anybody of any age can read and re-read them. Two favorites that come to mind are McKinley’s Beauty and Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle. I like YAs that feel very layered and seem almost to have a life of their own.
I neither seek out YA or avoid it. Good writing is good writing, and that’s what I like. I think sometimes the genre segregation rules are too rigid. I do reread a lot of books that I read when I was younger because I see so much more in them when I did the first time around and also because they remind me of an age when I had plenty of time to read and could spend it lavishly on whatever caught my eye. Now my reading time is so limited, I practically need a guarantee that the book will be worthwhile. I used to finish books compulsively, but now I’m more likely to stop reading and move on to something else if it seems to be a waste of my precious time.
I also struggled with Yes or No. I like YA Fantasy and Science Fiction. But a big hell no for YA Romance especially high school romances. It was an awful time for me and I have no patience for the angst.
Okay, broken record here. I’m a “no” vote because of the same reasons a lot of the others have posted: I’m past that stage in my life and I don’t want to go back. Having said that, I did try Twilight, mainly because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I managed to slog through it, and I KNOW that’s a terrible example of YA, and that there are MUCH better YA writers out there than Meyer.
I like my books with sex in them, adult sex, not teenage floundering. I read my first Harlequin when I was 15 and that was it, I was hooked forever on “adult” romances.
Funny thing is I have an 18 year-old son and his reading tastes are far more sophisticated than mine have ever been and they’ve been that way for a while. Not that he would be caught dead reading anything “romance-y” but I’ve tried to get him to read the Hunger Games Trilogy or some James Patterson YA’s and he won’t touch them.
I read YA when it receives recommendations from people whose opinion I respect. That’s how I found Maggie Stiefvater’s books, and I’ve enjoyed them.
Having said that, I don’t seek YA out. Along with some of the others here my attitude is I had enough angst in my own high school days, I don’t need to revisit it.
@Isabel C.
Well said and made me smile.
What I love about books is that they are so different and can find their own readers. Some of the stuff mentioned here isn’t for me. That doesn’t mean it’s bad or less than or whatever. If you love it, good for you! Frankly, I’m surprised at some of the judgement I’m hearing . . . if I’m reading a book written in the pov of a 17 year old and the writer has done her job well, then I’m not thinking of myself as some 40-year-old perv grooving on a 17 year old boy. I’m THAT girl. Or I’m the boy wizard who lived. Or the bored, young housewife.
That’s the point of ALL books. In fact, literature is the only art form, where a person can “become” someone else and know what it’s like from the inside of his or her head/body. Is a YA romance really so different from, say, being kidnapped by the stern, sexy sheik or the shy widowed vet who just moved to town?
One thing for sure: Readers are passionate about their books, and that’s a good, good thing.
@Isabel C. said: “There’s nothing wrong with not enjoying a genre, but those who *do* enjoy it do so for all sorts of reasons, and dismissing them as social twonks intent on reliving wasted youth seems as uncool as dismissing all romance readers as frustrated housewives, or all fantasy/scifi fans as Cat Piss Man.”
Well said and made me smile.
What I love about books is that they are so different and can find their own readers. Some of the stuff mentioned here isn’t for me. That doesn’t mean it’s bad or less than or whatever. If you love it, good for you! Frankly, I’m surprised at some of the judgement I’m hearing . . . if I’m reading a book written in the pov of a 17 year old and the writer has done her job well, then I’m not thinking of myself as some 40-year-old perv grooving on a 17 year old boy. I’m THAT girl. Or I’m the boy wizard who lived. Or the bored, young housewife.
That’s the point of ALL books. In fact, literature is the only art form, where a person can “become” someone else and know what it’s like from the inside of his or her head/body. Is a YA romance really so different from, say, being kidnapped by the stern, sexy sheik or the shy widowed vet who just moved to town?
One thing for sure: Readers are passionate about their books, and that’s a good, good thing.
D’OH! The website told me twice that my post had an error, so I assumed it was the quote box thingy and removed it the third time.
Also, I realize I have a writing error. I don’t think the shy vet would be kidnapping someone… please forgive the bad writing (gasp!). Need more coffee.
Guess I’ll say: Is a YA romance really so different from, say, being kidnapped by the stern, sexy sheik or flirting with the shy widowed vet who just moved to town. (I realized “widowed” implies female. Let’s say this is a lovely lesbian romance.)
Getting the coffee…thanks for the great, spirited conversation.
Yes, I had to look it up. Apparently the verb “widowed” can mean making a widow or widower. Still, I prefer the Lesbian vet scenario. And now I really am going to get some coffee and wish you all a delightful day.
Last post, promise. Well, probably.
I am going to have to answer with a “no”, for the most part. Especially as far as romance titles go. Probably the main reason for this is although my teen years were pretty typical (filled with angst and frustration and obsessing about what people thought (even though I declared I didn’t), lots of growing and mistakes and giving my mother gray hairs, and thankfully, lots of fun and good memories as well), I’m only 23. Barely out of my teen years and I have no desire to return to those years at the moment. I’m just getting comfortable with this adult thing.
All those teenage emotions and trials and hormones are held dearly in my memories, but whenever I try to pick up a YA that’s been recommended to me, I can’t get past the first 2 or 3 chapters. I find myself rolling my eyes at the usual I’m-cooler-than-you attitude towards the adults, the awkward rebellion, the angst over problems that are huge to them and were huge to me, but not anymore. I find myself squirming with discomfort, fingers itching to reach for an “adult” novel. I feel bored, to be honest.
So, in short, no. I don’t read YA. Maybe someday I will. Maybe someday I should in case I start, heaven forbid, forgetting what it was like to be a teenager. Perhaps it’ll give me patience with future teenage children. But right now, no thank you.
I should add that some books that would probably be considered “YA” I do love. For instance, I re-read the Anne of Green Gables series last year and adore it still. Am going through the Chronicles of Narnia again and still love them. A couple of years ago I was helping my niece through Huckleberry Finn for school, and still laugh and cry. And of course I very much like the Harry Potter series. So I guess it depends…
I wish you’d had a sometimes option.
I don’t generally actively seek out YA books, but if I hear about a good one (On the Jellico Road) or I find out an author I enjoy has a YA book (Kelley Armstrong) I’ll read them. Otherwise, not so much.
Glad to see Anne of Green Gables is alive and well. And I forgot all those Dragonriders of Pern books which the son is carrying on, so I guess, yeah , I do read YA. And if you ever need even a little taste of teenage angst, put David Archuleta’s ‘Crush’ on your iPod while on the treadmill.
I’m slowly rediscovering YA after not reading since…uh, I was, young. The thing I like most about them is the fact it’s not Talk Down situation. Characters are allowed to be complex, to be that lovely grey in morality. My favorite series is Wicked Lovely. It’s paranormal (faaaaeries) to me, yet it reminds me of a non-para world, too. Ash is growing up, along with her peers, and they’re realizing just how dangerous it is. Not because of politics, just that the pulls you feel at one time might not be the same even if you want it (Keenan). Or that growing up physically doesn’t mean you’re necessarily grown up mentally or emotionally without some scarring (Seth). Or that loving isn’t necessarily HEA, even if it’s hard to face (Donia). Or that straddling two cultures can consume who you are from both and force you to make some of the hardest decisions based on your needs (Ani).
There’s something really relate-able to that, I think. All those you feelings you can/may/will feel as you’re transitioning from young adult to grown adult, and it’s not necessarily something you feel in mandated years. Growing up isn’t set to a definitive time line. I think maybe that’s why some adults read it. We can be grown in body, but feel like there’s a little piece that needs to slide into place to give the full picture. At nearly 30, I have my own ghosts to squash and the YA often gives mes the opportunity to see more that I was missing at the time. To give some unintentional self-truths.
That’s the deep meaning. The shallow meaning comes down to the fact I don’t judge by genre, but by quality of material. Just because it’s in the YA section doesn’t make it any less valid that any Adult category.
And it seems like the romance portion of YA seems to be a bit more varied than the Adult section. Meaning that it’s not all HEA at each round up, where everyone lives in a perfect bubble (unless you’re a Wakefield) with the picket fence and perfectly merged, balanced family. It might break your heart to read it, but it’s a good primer to life out of high school, or early college. The changes you face later on in the real-life romance world and how complex it can be.
I just like to read, period. Adult, YA – I even read the obviously directed at kids series Suddenly Supernatural, which is about a 13 year old girl who can see and talk to ghosts.
I’m fondest of the paranormal ones though, not the romance so much. I guess because I didn’t date in high school it just makes it harder for me to relate – and if I can’t relate to a book I don’t like it. It can be The Greatest Book Ever endored by God Him/Herself – if I can’t relate, I won’t like it.
I also like the Generation Dead series, even though I’m normally not into zombies.
My favorite young adult books are the ones I read at a young age Harry Potter, Little Women, and L. M. Montgomery and Lovelace.
My feelings run as follows:
I think as my mom said “A good book is a good book is a good book.” a really good book is always good.
That being said it saddens me that people seem to like young adult, beause adult books aren’t good. People should be able to find good books in all genres.
I don’t want to read about young adult books where they have sex although I was a big fan of the Alice books by Phillis Renolds Naylor. Again it helps that this series before I was a young adult.
I have a lot of religious friends and so I do know women who read young adult as a way clinging to childhood and being afraid to deal with sex. These women have been told their whole lives that sexuality is wrong (unless they are married. and then they are expected to have kids right away.) I like young adult books, but I also feel bad to see people to see people use them the way some of my friends do.
Its kind of like the way people used to read rape novels (supposedly).
It seems like even as my friends get older; they are still trying to live up to their parents’ expectations and live with their parents’ censorship.
I read lots of YA when I was in junior high. I didn’t read Beverly Cleary as much as the “Beany Malone” books by Lenora Mattingly Weber, and the novels by an author named Elisabeth Hamilton Friermood. Oh my, but I loved one particular book of hers so much—“The Luck of Daphne Tolliver”—that I spent over $70.00 to purchase it a few years back; a fine library copy, its clear plastic dust jacket still doing its job. A WWI story written in the late 1950’s, it still holds up—the emotions and hardships of war somehow still resonant and relevant during these times of Iraq and Afghanistan.
What is so amazing to me is that these “classic” YA novels were written in the 40’s and 50’s—ancient by the time I got to reading them as a “tween” and young teen. Yet they hold up for today stronger than steel. Proves that there is nothing new in the world—especially the angst, confusion, pain, and eventual joy of being a teen. And that no matter how old we get, we never forget …
YA has never called to me.
I have certainly read much better YA since, and I am frequently baffled by the disparate categorization – one person’s YA is another person’s adult, and a third person’s children’s literature – but anyone way you slice it there is plenty of YA out there that’s great. But…
I only read it when it is pressed upon me. I’m not sure why, in part I suppose simply because I am not the target demographic. Why would I read a kid’s book? I’m not a kid. Doesn’t mean the books aren’t good. Doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with adults who do read them. If I liked them that would strike me as an excellent reason to read them, it just so happens I don’t particularly.
As to why…taste is what it is, mostly. I read too quickly to enjoy short books. I dislike condescension, and anything didactic, which are hardly universal YA flaws but common enough to make me wary. I have no idea why anyone would choose to dumb down information for a child, but I couldn’t stand it then and now I don’t have to – I know they’re not all like that, but it’s a problem in all modern literature and more rampant where kids are concerned, so I shy away from YA. But it’s not like horror, the only genre I can’t abide, because I’m too chickenshit to cope. I like YA fine, but since it has never resonated with me, when I reread books for comfort, books that I’ve loved all my life, they won’t be YA.
YA is a weird genre in that it’s not topical. What distinguishes it from other genres is the age of its target audience. (Which is why there are so many older books being “rebranded” as YA. Somebody decided kids might like it and, presto, suddenly it’s a YA book.)
Some authors can write to the YA age group without simplifying everything and some can’t. Other than the contemporary aspect, that’s the biggest problem I’ve encountered with YA. I more or less abandoned reading it after my brush with it as a teen. All I ever came up with back then were silly characters I didn’t care about or depressing morality tales so I started actively avoiding YA. Now I’m finding that a lot of YA books I would’ve liked were hidden in topical genres like SF/F. (It didn’t help that all the YA and kids books at the library had those terrible primary color library bindings with no distinguishing features besides title and author.)
I’m not a YA fan. Even when I was in the age bracket YA is marketed to- I always enjoyed adult novels more. When I was younger the YA I read were about teens I couldn’t relate to- the Sweet Vally High twins made me uncomfortable and grossed me out. (dating myself there) I enjoyed adults doing adult things, not kids trying to be adults.
Perhaps I like a little more way-hay-hay action in my books and a little less omg-who-am-I angst?
That is something that annoys me. Seeing Sherlock Holmes suddenly branded as “young adult.”
Then there are those who think anything with magic is YA – therefore The Dresden Files gets labeled as YA. Which makes me face palm as the books are aimed at grown ups.
What’s next? The Dexter Morgan books put into Juvy-Fiction?
I like the classication by the children’s librarian where I work the best. “Anything with a teenage lead 16 or older is Older Teen. Anything between 13 and 15 is a Younger Teen. Sexual issues with a teenage lead is Older Teen.” (We don’t do Young Adult anymore. It’s all either Children’s, Younger Teen, or Older Teen.)
That makes so much more sense then saying “Young Adult”. There is a big difference between the maturity level of a 13 year old at that of an 18 year old.
@MaryK
I respectfully disagree. We discussed this a lot at Vermont College in the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults program. (Besides learning to write for children and teens, we read a TON, classics and new releases, and also were required to write literary criticism.)
My understanding is that YA, at its most basic, is about the teen experience as it happens. That is why best-sellers such as Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld or Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are not considered YA even though they focus on a teen protagonist. The difference can be subtle or obvious, but YA does not include an element of adult perspective, a looking back from outside the teen experience. It follows a teen in the teen years.
Obviously, lots of teens read adult books, including Prep and The Lovely Bones, but that alone does not make them YA books.
@MaryK
I’m not sure what you mean about simplifying everything, although I suspect we’re back to the argument that so many have already made. If a reader craves quick, mindless fluff, there’s a teen book for that—and adult books. It’s not about the YA label.
I’m not trying to talk anyone into reading anything they don’t want to—but I am trying to make a case that there are excellent, literary-quality books out there that are labeled YA and read by teens and adults alike.
I’ve always loved what the late Robert Cormier said (I’m paraphrasing): I write for the smartest reader I can think of. That reader just happens to be 16.
I should add (because apparently, that’s what I do here, now): There are always exceptions and rules are meant to be broken.
Read on!
@kellye
I don’t disagree with that, but I don’t think it’s reflected in the actual practice of what gets a YA label stuck on it. Much like publishers try to sneak onto the Romance shelves books that don’t reflect what readers expect to find there.
And it’s a good explanation for why a lot of YA doesn’t appeal to me. I’m not interested in the teen experience.
I’m not sure how to explain it. I can’t think of any examples and that’s probably not a good idea anyway. In my head, some books read in 2D and some in 3D. YA, at least the YA from my days, seems to have a larger proportion of 2D books. Or maybe it’s just that the pool of YA books is smaller. Plus, YA is lowish on my favorites list so my tolerance for mindless YA fluff is lower.
I certainly don’t dispute that. Those are the kind I like, though we might disagree on which ones are excellent. As a qualification “a teen in the teen years,” encompasses every other genre as long as the protagonist is experiencing the teen years. IMO, such a diversity of subject matter makes it harder to come up with mutually enjoyable books.
MaryK, Thanks for your response. You’ve given me some interesting ideas to think about.
I do hear what you’re saying about the inherent problems associated with the range of YA subgenres. Mystery, scifi, historical, etc etc etc, they can all be YA. Strangely, this hasn’t been a problem for me and it has broadened my reading, which has done me a world of good.
Thanks for your elaboration on 2D/3D. I think that’s a great explanation! I just would hate for you or anybody else to judge all YA as 2D, especially if you haven’t read it in a long time. (It’s kind of funny that I’m feeling this way, like I want to defend YA’s honor or something. LOL.) On the other hand, I hear you loud and clear that you don’t want to read about teens, and that’s cool, too. Life’s too short to waste on bad books—or even not-right-for-you books.
(Though, as an experiment, we could swap a read…we’d tell each other what we’re interested in and try to suggest a favorite book for the other to read. Or not.)
I enjoy all kinds of books, but YA is my first love. You know what they say about your first . . .
I prefer to read about adults. More specifically, adults who behave like adults.
I had always assumed that the readers of YA were mainly young teenagers, children in junior high. Guess I was wrong. Yet once more.
Wouldn’t that negate half the adult romance section, then? How many books are labeled adult romance when someone marries someone else within a week, usually a single parent with kids, but if a teen that it’d be too young to read? I mean, it’s a HQN staple plot line, especially the single parent falling head-over-heels within moments (be it the nanny, neighbor, rude cowboy, boss, whatever) while fighting the attraction before landing in bed two nights later. Not exactly mature adult material, more teenage hormone surge. A lot of young people in or just out of high-school get hitched, and some are already parents. It’s not like everyone is an airheaded bubble fish as a teen, young or old. Truly, I don’t see the difference in age range. I’ve known many people in real life that are two or three times my age and act half mine. But that doesn’t mean I ignore the teens who have real life problems.
I started Wondrous Strange (YA Romance, I think) and while the protag is a teen, she’s 17 and living on her own in NYC. Well, with a roommate, but the closest family is in the Catskills. She’s trying very hard to make it work with family secrets she didn’t know about. Urban Fantasy/Fantasy as a subgenre, but how many young people have attempted to live on their own that early? (I know of quite a few high school graduates that move out right away.) Instead of glossing over the experience, the book is simply addressing a life stage in more detail and how it’s not always easy, feeling homesick. But the reactions are mature, they’re sometimes naive, but they’re still mature. I haven’t discounted teenage reactions since my baby brother reached the age range about 8 years ago. Just because someone is young in age doesn’t mean they’re young in life experience.
I switch between romances and YA or children’s books. Of course, when I was a teen, I didn’t read teen books but sci-fi/fantasy and mysteries – in the adult section. The reads I remember from when I was a teen tend to be ones like “The Catcher in the Rye”, “The Glass Menagerie”, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”, “Death of a Salesman” – all the angst but without a whole lot of teens (except for Catcher in the Rye).
I like YA books unless the teen angst gets ridiculously high (Melissa de la Cruz’s Blue Bloods or P. C. Cast’s House of Night, anyone?). Sometimes it’s just angst but way more fun and insightful than any teen I’ve ever known (Ruby Oliver series by E. Lockhart). Still, no more post-apocalyptic/dystopian reads for me (“Tender Morsels” or any zombie books by Carrie Ryan).
I absolutely love YA fantasy/sci-fi. I pretty much only read YA when it comes to those two. I think they tend to have better worlds and more uniques stories. Some of my favorites are His Dark Materials, Sabriel, Graceling, and Tithe. It might be because I’m still in my early twenties so I’m not very far removed from the target audience. Some of the comments on this page have been down right nasty towards the very idea of reading YA and I find that very indicative of how too many adults treat teenagers. Most teens are not irrational bags of hormones. Many of the teenagers that I grew up with, myself included, were dealing with some big issues. Poverty, sexuality, death, addiction, unplanned pregnancy, abuse, and a host of other things that adults struggle with and have yet to find easy solutions to. It seems like too many of us grow up and forget what it was like to be young. Characters can be mature and well developed or shallow stereotypes, and I have read novels for all ages that have both types. Many of the adult women in romance novels behave in a fashion that even my 16 year old self would have found distasteful.
I don’t read much YA. The only YA book I’ve read and enjoyed recently is Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Fledgling, and I probably wouldn’t have picked that up if I hadn’t enjoyed previous books by that writing team.
Like kkw, I’m turned off by didacticism, and also more often than not when someone gives me a YA book to read, I’m left feeling as if I’d eaten aerated bread – there’s not enough there to satisfy me. I’m sure there are books this doesn’t apply to, and I know there are light reads in all genres, but I just keep running into these two problems with YA often enough that it’s put me off the genre.
Also, I have enough friends who love YA and assume everyone else loves it too – I once made a post in my LiveJournal about how I don’t like YA books and someone recommended me YA books in the comments – that it’s put me off trying YA books, which I know is unfair.
Bottom line is, I like category romances better for a quick fix and fantasy doorstops better for a long read, and I find I can spend my monthly book budget just fine on them without looking into YA.
@Lizzy: Well said!
@Ankaret: Didacticism (hard for me to say, harder to spell) is a major turn off for me, too.
This made me smile. I’m sure your friends meant well, and it’s funny that YA fanatics (yep, like me) think that those who don’t like YA just haven’t connected with the right one yet.
@kellye: Aww, I’m sure they meant well! I love my YA-loving friends, it’s just that I have so many books in my TBR pile already that when people offer to add to it I wonder whether it’s some kind of dark plot to make my house explode from pressure of books inside. 🙂
@Ankaret: That’s funny, and I hear you!
Yes! I read some YA. Two favorites are Fifteen by Beverly Cleary and the Pink Dress.
@Chelsea said on…
04.13.11 at 11:24 AM
I understand that’s why we relabeled them. Because the older teens were complaining that they were getting “Young Adult” stuff only to find it’s too childish for them.
I read tons of YA fiction, and while I do occasionally read adult novels as well, I think I’m starting to prefer YA to be honest. I love the contemporary YA novels whether they’re of the romance or edgy variety, but I also read a lot of paranormal and dystopian literature as well.
One book in particular that wowed me – and which might appeal to your readers – is Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford.
@kellye
For some reason it always takes me a while to get back to long comment threads.
I promise I don’t disdain all YA. 🙂 I’m just extra cautious of it. I have several from the recent boom on my TBR pile (Sarah Rees Brennan, Elizabeth Bunce, Jennifer Echols, etc.) as well as a few established authors (Susan Cooper, Charles de Lint, Sherwood Smith, Patricia C. Wrede) I missed along the way.