And now for something completely different.
Elisabeth Wheatley is an indie author of fantasy romance who also makes videos, and most recently she addressed a question from the parent of girls aged 12 and 14: why does every YA book seem like it has smut? Part of her video had to do with the way other readers piled on that person (as in, don’t be a jerk), but her answer is interesting, and so are the comments that followed the video. And what I found interesting about the comments was that there are many people who have a different idea of what YA books are and who their target audience is than those of us who are librarians, writers, and publishers. These are people who read extensively in their genre, and I assumed we were all working off a common definition.
Granted, the boundaries are a little muddled: A Court of Thorns and Roses was originally marketed as a YA title and is often shelved with YA books, but is definitely not YA (this is likely how it frequently ends up challenged) but to me the surprising thing to me is the number of readers who think young adult books are for readers in their 20s– who would actually be described as young adults- instead of for teenagers. YA fiction has a lot more adult readers than it used to, but this is the first time I’ve actually come across a significant group of readers who believe YA is not for teenagers.
Have you come across this belief that young adult books are actually for readers who are in their 20s? I”ve been reading YA books since the 1980s and I never would have predicted there would be confusion over this. What do you think about the way books are being marketed over this “blurred line”? Do you think it matters, not just in terms of “smut” but in terms of violence? I’d love to know.
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