Harry Potter was a smash hit about a boy discovering he’s a wizard and going to school in a magical world full of wonder and adventure. Twilight didn’t hit quite that high a note, but the story of a teenage girl who learns her classmate is a vampire and falls in love with him did quite well. The Hunger Games popularized the dystopian genre with a bow wielding teenager stepping up to survive death games, have angsty romances, and fight the power.
As far as I can tell, nothing has quite hit that same kind of high since and it may be awhile until the next truly big wave. But if it were up to you, what would the next big thing be about?
The thing about Harry Potter and The Hunger Games is that they appealed both to the YA crowd and adults. Most of my friends read them and we were adults. Male or female, it didn’t matter. Some were literary snobs, who usually never read YA books, or guys like me who mainly read dark fantasy, sci-fi or horror books. It appealed to everyone.
Both series were a mega hit around the world but especially Harry Potter.
My mother even read the Japanese translated version because her other Japanese friends were reading it. Their ages were like 50 to 70s.
My Japanese co-workers, who spoke English alright but didn’t read English that well, loved the books. The writing was accessible enough for them to read and they said it the was first English book they could follow and made them want to read more. They even got in line at the bookstore for the midnight releases of new Harry Potter books.
This is a good question though.
Honestly, Stranger Thing is the closest thing for me personally. The mix of 80s nostalgia, Dungeon and Dragons, Stephen King b-movie inspired horror, etc. But this has already been done as a TV show, so I really don’t have a good answer right now.
HP did the genius move of maturing the writing with the reader. It started YA, but I’m not sure I can say it stayed there by the end.
It started MG, actually, then matured into upper-YA
It’s why I have mixed feelings about my 9 year old kids devouring the entire series within the space of a few months. It does get more and more serious. I love that it makes them love reading so much, but it is pretty heavy duty by the end. One of my 9 year olds is on book 6, the other on book 5. Another aspect for them is that they don’t have to wait for any book releases, just finish one book in the series and pick up the next.