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…
Sure, but YA is weird nebulous in tone when books are being marketed. I hate ACOTAR type YA, but love Life of Pi, which also has a teen protagonist, but completely different style and tone. I’m not sure how to parse them sometimes either
ACOTAR was definitely a slog for me. The prose was quite bad imo (how many times can a person “bark” something, seriously, stop) and the main character seemed fairly one-dimensional. The second book is better and the third book was… OK. I really loved A Court of Silver Flames (book 4?) but that’s because it follows her sister Nesta instead, who overall becomes a much more interesting character through the series.
There are definitely great YA books out there, but lots of duds, too. As you said, nebulous!