Does it matter if it’s YA or A ?
Good Morning !
It’s Sunday, which mean relax day! (or, you know, super “productive” day… ) So let’s converse about books, shall we ? 😘
I actually never paid attention if a book was Young Adult, or Adult, or etc.. Mostly because at first I had absolutely no idea that was even a thing ! But something my godmother would tell me back in the day when i’d wanna recommend a book to her but “wasn’t sure she’s like it because it’s young characters”, was that it didn’t matter. If a book was good, I would still be good nonetheless.
Now that i’m a book blogger, I know what YA and A means (most of the times.. ahah I still wouldn’t say what is what without Goodreads telling me) — and even with that knowledge, I don’t feel like picking a book Solely because it’s YA. Sure, I absolutely love that, but if the “Adult” book has a good premise and sounds like something i’d read, hell yeah i’d read that.
YA and A don’t really feels like genres to me, of course i’d pick something upon if I’d feel like reading a Thriller or a Romance, or even a Contemporary … but not just because it’s YA, you know what I mean ? It doesn’t hold a particular importance to me, specially when you look at how complicated the “genre” in itself is .. “Young Adult” is supposed to be what, 13-20? but it can still be considering one even if the main character is, say, 25. So really.. what is that ?? 😂 I haven’t yet found a fool proof way to know if it’s YA or A (Middle grade is quite easy, compared to it’s siblings..)
One thing some people might not be too fond of in YA is that the characters might feel “foolish” or take decisions we wouldn’t do ourselves, as we know better. When really.. well what do you expect, the character is 15! So a must-do is take in consideration of the “real” age of the MC before judging their action; or even take in the context of it. I wouldn’t react the same way upon if i’d just found out someone close to me died suddently VS how i’d react to something now that i’m relaxed, per exemple.
Another thing is that we mostly wanna relate to the characters. I don’t know about you, but I can still relate to a 17years old although i’m 24 — maybe not totally in my “aged” self, but I can see the teenager I once was in the character itself. How I would react or feel faced with certain things. I also have the same kind of want to see love a certain way, the never-ending “fairytale” kinda love. I think no matter the age you get, those are something we can always dream of!
Mental health is another one I can relate to no matter what, just the way someone is evolving through their illnesses; close to anxiety and depression in my case. How it effect their well-being and thoughts, or their relationship to others.. how they deal with it (and hopefully getting some healthy coping mecanism)
So what do you think, does it matter to you if it’s YA or A?
Why or why not?
21 thoughts on “Does it matter if it’s YA or A ?”
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Honey I’m 40 and I still read YA. Here is what I’ve always said. To me YA is not a genre it is a category. Some YA at times can feel young but most… like Six of Crows (although I completely get Leigh Bardugo’s point that her new book is not aimed for teenagers) or Scythe or Allegedly just to name three off the top of my head that most definitely could sit right next to their Adult genre (Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Contemporary) Adult counterparts and you couldn’t tell them apart. I think the only thing that sometimes would give away a lot of YA books to an adult is how the covers are done. There is an obvious difference on that point. But the content in both is often very similar from what I’ve noticed. What I will say about most but not all A vs YA fantasy is that YA fantasy doesn’t suffer from what I call the 20 pages to describe a tree syndrome that drives me mad. It is what drove me from reading A fantasy to begin with. Although I have recently found a couple A fantasy writers that don’t have this writing style and a couple YA writers that do so even that barrier seems to be coming down lol.
Iknow eh! I feel the same way.
Ahahah omg « 20 pages to describe a tree » 😂 being easily lost, this isn’t being nice to my brain – if anything it makes me even more lost.
Yikes, someone should put up a guide onto how to tell which is which ahaha
I’m with you on the If a book is good its good 🙂 Age of characters doesnt matter much to me!
Yay ! that means more books for us 😘
It definitely matters to me. Not because of the characters age or how they react to things. But because of how it’s written. To me YA is often written with key details missing, brushing over things quickly with a lack of depth that I find in A books. I’m not saying that ALL YA books are like that. But I’ve read enough in the past few years that are like that to put me off YA. And I think that’s a maturity thing. I’m pushing 30 now and I want more of an emotional connection that explores something deeper and makes me really stop and reflect. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy light-hearted books too! But I don’t want to be sitting there criticising someone’s writing just because it’s not my cup of tea anymore considering there are plenty of authors who now are that weren’t previously.
That’s understanding!
Writting is something I cannot tell if it’s good or not, as it’s a second language and all. But also, my comprehension is harder in english, so if you take a page to describe something.. this will most definately make me entirely loss and not follow the story anymore.
I fully agree that a good book is a good book regardless of category, but it still matters a lot to me – I have leaned more towards adult fantasy books for a long time despite being only 21 and probably still in the demographic YA is targeted at. I don’t like many of the tropes commonly used in modern YA (romance tropes in particular) and I’m often frustrated by the characters. I couldn’t relate to any of it even when I was a teenager myself. I do read YA and I find older YA to be sometimes better, but…idk. I def have a preference.
All personal though.
That’s fair aswell ! As you said, it’s all about preferences.
As i’m one to love romance and specially the cliché romance, that works fabulously for me ! If you however aren’t interrested into that .. it’s not so great. I’m also a newbie on the fantasy side, having only read a handful so far..
I find most people categorise books into childrens, MG, YA, New Adult, then Adult. NA seems to be that slice in between the 15-18 (YA) protagonist and the 19-25 (NA) protagonist, before Adult starts at late 20’s. I don’t think these are genres, they’re more like age categories, as you can have fantasy, crime, thriller, contemporary, etc in ALL age groups.
Personally I’m 35 and read everything from MG to Adult. If the book is interesting then I don’t particularly mind which category it’s from – it’s mostly for when you’re buying for younger audiences so 12 year olds aren’t dealing with topics like emotional abuse or 30 year old’s life problems.
I’ve been reading adult books since I was 13 though and I think there are just as many tropes in adult as there are in YA, and I’d disagree with the comment above about YA authors being lazy about character development and world building. I’ve read plenty of adult books that do exactly the same thing.
Yeah I realized I had forgotten about NA afterward 😂😂🙈 woops. Though people are saying most of NA is erotica ? Or mostly sex-filled..
Yeah that makes sense. Though some younger audiences can be into older stuff (like im pretty sure I was) — it depends on the person itself.
Yeah ithink it just depend on the author themselves.. but I can’t be 100% sure on that because again, I can’t tell what is what xD but like anything, it can be in any of thoses. It’s all in the author’s writting.
Great discussion Kristina!! I find YA books tend to lack some of the things that I don’t like about adult books. Like depressing stories, too much description etc. But I’ve found that there are adult like books infiltrating YA because so many of the readers are adults. So I feel like YA is a rule of thumb. It’s a general gauge that seems to be shifting… ❤️
Thank you ! 🥰
I join you for too much descriptions! This just make me even more lost in the story; I need that freedom of imagining whatever I want and not to be told what I shall imagine, if that makes sense. I however do like depressing stories.. hahah
I think that sometimes it matters, and sometimes it does. For example I think in fantasy books, it doesn’t matter sometimes as YA fantasy books and worlds can be so well built and detailed – like A books.
However I think it does matter more in YA contemporary books, as the characters make decisions that are more cliche or naive decisions that perhaps we wouldn’t make. Or they can be more fluffybooks, and as much as I love a good fluffy book I also like a contemporary that will really hit me hard and make feel really strong emotions (and make me cry or feel sad).
But saying this there are YA contemporary books that do have thi impact on me.
So far I haven’t got any really bad ones, and specially thoses including mental illnesses in particular do make me feel strong emotions (last one was « letters to the losts »)
ultimately i dont think it matters whether its YA or NA or Adult.
especially because marketing in different countries is very different so it kinda muddles things a lot!
all that matters is you enjoy what you read! 🙂
yep, that’s right !
Oh, I never really thought about the markething of them either.
Great post!
I’m 42 and gave no shame at reading ‘young adult’ books as well as adult books. I’ve reviewed and enjoyed middle-grade as well. It’s the story that’s most importance to me, not the MCs age.
Same as me! Although I’ve not attacked middle grade books yet.. I should, as I know theres no « age limit » to read something but.. 🙊