So lately I’ve had several book recommendations here and in other subreddits for novels or audiobooks that sounded great, but when I pursued them, I found these were young adult novels. Despite long discussion threads, no one mentioned this.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the occasional YA book. But it seems like something people should mention it is YA, like you might mention if something was softcore. It makes me wonder: Is this is not a big deal to people? Or do people not even realize these are YA?
The most recent was Red Rising, which was suggested as an audio book recommendation. One comment mentioned that they found this after looking for something like Game of Thrones . This is a fun book, and the audio narrator is great, but it is definitely YA and nothing like Game of Thrones, lol.
Anyway, just a thought…
Idk man I had originally always just thought a book was a book and never really considered some could be catered toward a particular age group, especially if the book touched on themes that were adult enough.
That was until I went back and tried to read some of my favourite YA novels from my early teen years and was gobsmacked at how shallow, simplistic, and “teeny” it all was.
There is a difference between YA books and books with a young protagonist(s). I think some people tend to mix the 2 up.
Wow this was a fascinating discussion! I definitely learned a lot, so thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts:
My take-aways:
- YA is a marketing label so it isn’t that useful to treat it factually or to make decisions on it. I never really thought of that before, but this makes sense to me.
- Putting the “YA” label aside, there is a lot of debate and disagreement on the nature of books written for a certain reading level. This is surprising to me since it seems fairly objective, but - something I will keep in mind and not take for granted in the future.
- Best bet is to check a few third-party sources for their categorization if you really want to be sure what you are getting.
Also - I want to make it clear that I am not dissing “YA” books. There are several great books that are geared towards a teen reading level that I enjoyed and would recommend to anyone, so I have nothing against such books. Ready Player One, Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, etc. And if it wasn’t clear from my original post - I liked Red Rising! I will probably check out the other books in the series or other work from that author.
There was definitely a lot to glean from the responses to your post! I originally dove in because my personal definition of YA is teen angst, illogical/emotionally driven decision-making, and underdeveloped characters (e.g. The Lunar Chronicles series, most especially ‘Scarlet’).
I saw you mentioned Red Rising and was a bit surprised, since I would not classify the series as YA. After Red Rising (already barely on the edge of YA), it rapidly becomes much grittier and has none of the tropes I attribute to YA books. It’s based on rebellion/uprising, revolution, war, and coups. I hope you take a chance on the rest of the series, as it only gets better!
Personally, I’m dragging my feet on starting book 6 (Lightbringer) because of how violent and (oftentimes) depressing it gets. And I don’t mean that it’s gratuitous violence, just that it’s very in-line with the reality of that universe and the situation the characters are all in. I’ve never avoided a YA book for those reasons; only avoided YA for poor writing and dull characters 😆 the audio books for the whole Red Rising series are absolutely the way to go! Hope you continue to enjoy the series.
Yeah, reading level doesn’t have much to do with YA vs adult. It’s all pretty much the same, 7th-ish grade. Most of our communication is not high grade level unless we’re talking about technical things. From my imperfect experience, it’s more themes, plot points, and tone that differ.
I asked this same question a year or two ago and also got downvoted for it. I even suggested that books have a sort of rating system on them like movies do. People did not like that idea. I think people who like YA books get upset when other people don’t like them because it makes them feel like they like something meant for kids and somehow that is a bad reflection on them or something idk. Personally I don’t really like YA books when I’m reading them for myself. When I sit down to watch a movie I don’t watch a movie meant for kids because it just isn’t as entertaining to me. Same thing with books. But unlike with movies you don’t really always know if it is a book meant for kids or adults. Same exact thing has happened to me many times asking for recommendations.
I think the rating system is unpopular because it could be used as a form of censorship.
YA fans are extremely mad that people don’t think they are as good as actual novels.
I often get book recommendations that, upon following up, aren’t right for me. Even if you ban people from ever mentioning YA novels, people will recommend books to you that you don’t want to read.
I generally think saying “I dislike this entire very broad category of books and won’t consider them at all” is a lazy way of choosing books to read. It’s a guarantee that you’ll miss out on some things you’d have really enjoyed and gotten a lot out of. And Red Rising is not YA, so you’re already applying that filter poorly.
I think the problem is that people that will recc young adult novels see them as just as good as adult novels, whereas the people who actively don’t read YA novels think the exact opposite. So this means it’s only a problem for one side of the equation, but luckily Goodreads is pretty good about tagging novels YA so that’s the easiest way to find that out IMO.
People will classify anything without explicit sex scenes as YA.
This gets a bit complicated because, even though you feel like Red Rising is a YA book, it’s not. It’s pretty firmly marketed and sorted into the adult genre of Fantasy.
Part of the issue imo is that there are at least two distinct definitions of 'YA" people use.
The first is content based; that YA is defined by a specific sort of prose style, plot, character approach, or focus on emotional drama and angst. And people will label any book with these qualities YA regardless of how the book itself is marketed or what its intended audience is.
The second is marketing; it’s YA because the publisher marked it as such.
And as much as YA is a marketing category and term, not all readers regard it as such and instead draw comparisons and similarities based on the content and style of the books rather than their market packaging.
They way a book is marketed and shelved doesn’t change what is written inside. Not that goodreads should be the authority on anything, but it is tagged as YA on there.
When I think of YA it is mostly about the structure and style of writing. A book can have a bit of sex and murder in it but be written in a very YA manner. I’ve had this come up a few times recently. Books with distinctly adult themes so you can’t market them as YA, but they otherwise feel like they are written for teens.
even though you feel like Red Rising is a YA book, it’s not.
Isn’t it? I’m currently reading the saga and I would easily put the first book in the same category as the hunger games, and in fact the marketing blurb in my edition mentions both hunger games and enders game.
I’m told the rest of the series evolves into a more adult feeling in later books, but I definitely got some shonen manga / teenage adventure vibes from the first one - not that I don’t like it, I bought it expecting exactly that.
Can confirm, I work in both a library and a bookstore and Red Rising is shelved in adult sci-fi in both places. Don’t know why the OP thinks it’s YA.
They way a book is marketed and shelved doesn’t change what is written inside. Not that goodreads should be the authority on anything, but it is tagged as YA on there.
When I think of YA it is mostly about the structure and style of writing. A book can have a bit of sex and murder in it but be written in a very YA manner. I’ve had this come up a few times recently. Books with distinctly adult themes so you can’t market them as YA, but they otherwise feel like they are written for teens.
This gets a bit complicated because, even though you feel like Red Rising is a YA book, it’s not. It’s pretty firmly marketed and sorted into the adult genre of Fantasy.
Or you make it clear that you DON‘T want YA? If someone doesn’t want spice, they make it clear. If someone doesn’t want fantasy, they make it clear. If someone doesn’t want something, they make it clear.
No.
Just give any recommendation you get a quick little google or just accept that sometimes people recommend a variety of genres and you might occasionally get one you don’t care for as much.
It’s helpful when people say what genre a book is in, but why in gods name would that be necessary when you have unlimited resources to figure that out.
I mean, this might be a wild suggestion, but try just asking the person who recommended it what genre it’s in.
Edit: I also wouldn’t identify something as softcore unless that was relevant to the recommendation. I’m assuming that the person receiving this recommendation is either adult enough to handle it or can simply deduce this type of information for themselves.
Or you make it clear that you DON‘T want YA? If someone doesn’t want spice, they make it clear. If someone doesn’t want fantasy, they make it clear. If someone doesn’t want something, they make it clear.
It doesn’t matter. If you specify no YA, people will still rec YA. I’ve had it happen to me, and I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times on reddit.
That’s not what this post is about tho.
The thing is I have never seen Red Rising marketed as YA. This is the part that’s confusing me. It has been on my wishlist for a while and I have always seen it with other Fantasy books.
What’s the difference between YA and Adult Novels? Pretty sure the only difference is the age of the main characters.
Just because a book doesn’t have explicit sex scenes, descriptions of extreme gore, and constant swearing doesn’t mean it isn’t an Adult Novel.
Is it that you want adult characters specifically because I mean the easiest thing would probably be when looking for a recommendation say that you want something featuring adult characters in adult situations. Also I’m not sure Red Rising is the best example because it’s not a young adult book. It’s not shelved as YA in bookstores or libraries it’s firmly considered an adult book. That said I’m not sure I would put it as comparable to GoT so I definitely get your frustration there.
In general I think there are a lot of YA authors who craft stories that are significantly better written than adult books but if you’re not interested in YA than I think it’s on you to specify adult only when looking for book recs
Is it that you want adult characters specifically because I mean the easiest thing would probably be when looking for a recommendation say that you want something featuring adult characters in adult situations. Also I’m not sure Red Rising is the best example because it’s not a young adult book. It’s not shelved as YA in bookstores or libraries it’s firmly considered an adult book. That said I’m not sure I would put it as comparable to GoT so I definitely get your frustration there.
In general I think there are a lot of YA authors who craft stories that are significantly better written than adult books but if you’re not interested in YA than I think it’s on you to specify adult only when looking for book recs