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?
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.