A Reader’s Life: To YA or Not to YA

Written By Jillian Castle

That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.

Many years ago, when I was visiting my parents and my fourteen-year-old niece was there, I saw that she was reading Twilight. I had heard many things about the book, good and bad, so I asked her how she was enjoying it.  She said it was “okay” (teenage speak for “why are you asking?”). Being the kind of aunt that I am, I picked up a copy of the first book for myself to read.

This is around the same time that I had found Richelle Mead’s Georgia Kincaid series, starting with Succubus Blues, and was loving it.  Going from an adult female succubus to teen angst and brooding vampires was a bit of a shock, but I made room for both on my nightstand and alternated them.

I fell in love with Richelle Mead’s writing and went on to read her Dark Swan series as well.

va.jpg

Twilight, I did not fall in love with. I did read all four books, and the novella that followed though, so that I could talk about it with my niece. It’s a perfectly good book for teenagers, if it encourages them to read; I am always in favor of that. But it was a little too overwrought for me personally.

When I went searching for another Richelle Mead book, I found her Vampire Academy books. I read the cover, sighed, and bought it, hoping against hope it wasn’t another Twilight.

It’s not.

I raced through these books at a high rate of speed. I bought them all in hardback and gave them to my niece, hoping to capitalize on her Twilight fandom, and hoping that she would find these books to be more compelling than the others (She did!).

I thought it perhaps odd that a woman of my age (this was ten years ago) was consuming Young Adult fiction at such a volume, but it turns out, I was not in the minority. There were millions of adult women – functional women, mothers, teachers, highly employed and educated women – who were reading YA like it would go out of style.

Don’t worry, I don’t think it will.

I read tales of Norse Mythology by S. T. Bende. I read witches and demons by Sarra Cannon. I read Christopher Paolini’s dragons. For many years, I read as many YA books as I read adult fantasy. In most cases, they are quicker reads, less heavy with intrigue and more romantic elements. 

51MMzQ1U4IL._SY346_.jpg

As with everything, times change.

I don’t read a lot of YA these days.  I am still reading The Shadow Demon Saga by Sarra Cannon and as a recent post suggests, I’m reading The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. By and large though, they are the exception not the rule.

But what I have learned over the last several years is that you cannot judge a book solely on its metadata. Yes, some YA books read like romance books for teenagers with a spare supernatural creature thrown in for good measure. But some of them deeper. Reach higher. Feel less like you’re reading a YA book, and more like you’re reading a well-crafted story about characters who happen to still be in high school.

Those, I will continue to read.

This is not to say I have not picked up some truly bad YA, because I have. Books that talk down to their readers, as if they can’t be trusted to understand how life works, do not get finished. There are some truly atrocious attempts at writing for teens out there.

Just like there are for adults.

I like to encourage kids to read.  I am always that person that will buy books for kids of any age for their birthdays or Christmas. I donate to libraries. And if Young Adult books get teenagers to get off their computers for a bit to read, I will keep supporting the authors who write truly well crafted stories for them.

And you should, too. Because the teenagers won’t stay teenagers forever. And maybe in ten years, if they have developed a taste for living in other people’s worlds through a book, it might be your book they pick up.

Jillian Castle
Previous

How I Write: Outlining In Excel
Next

The Avalon Project: Andred