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…
To people saying that YA is purely a marketing strategy and it’s silly to distinguish it…eeehhhh I mean yes and no. It definitely started as a marketing thing, but has flourished into its own mega-genre with its own pretty clear tropes. Authors have been writing specifically with these tropes in mind, very intentionally writing books that are specifically YA in the same way that mystery writers adhere to mystery tropes to fit in with the mystery genre, etc. I get that sometimes the term is used unfairly with certain books and authors, but usually it’s fairly easy to pick up on “YA vibes”.