I recently watched a video with highly acclaimed author, Jonathan Mayberry, in which he talked in part about his experience writing the book Rot & Ruin. Now, I know a zombie novel isn’t the first book you’d be inclined to say would lend itself to deep emotions, but this comes up in his discussion. It’s toward the end of the video, but it’s definitely worth a look…
It led me to think, what is it that makes Young Adult novels so appealing to readers of so many different ages? Of course, after watching the video the first thing that comes to mind is emotion. That connection. Whether we’re young or old, the connection to a character who may share similar feelings we’ve once or currently have. Is this the only thing? Probably not, but it does make you think.
I don’t read a lot of adult fiction, so I can’t compare between the two, but it makes me wonder…With the surge of popularity in YA books among adult readers. Is there something lacking? Or is it just merely that we all long for another time, another place, and a remembrance of things happened long ago? Or really…am I just making too much out of this and it’s all because we like reading YA for the sake of reading it?
You tell me. Why do you read Young Adult novels?
They are very imaginative.
I completely agree! It’s incredible what YA authors can pack into sometimes, a very small amount of pages. Great point!
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Very interesting video. Since I became a middle school teacher, my love of YA fiction has increased tenfold, and I think that in part it is because YA novels have heart, which also translates into the emotion that Jonathon mentions. I also love reading about the potential of youth the growth that occurs as they cope with what I believe is the toughest part of life.
As a YA reader I also get to rediscover the intensity and possibility of first love, and how friendships can bring a sense of belonging. I can believe in the existence of magic, and monsters, and mythological beings that as an adult I had to let go of, and of course, I read it because I love turning my students on the joy of reading and hope that they carry that joy throughout their lives.
Love your response Jan! I don’t think I’d think back on my teens much if it weren’t for all the reading I do. Reason being, they were some of the most difficult years of my life, just like you mentioned. But I’m exceedingly glad I’ve gotten hooked on YA, because it’s incredible the positive things I’ve remembered now as well. That’s part of why I like middle grade and picture books as well. It helps you remember the magic that we’ve set aside in our “more mature” years. LOL
Fantastic comment!
I’ve often wondered this, too, and do so more lately now that I’m taking a YA literature class. Sometimes I think perhaps it’s an old love that’s been recategorized — that many books have had young adult protagonists in the past, and perhaps there’s a natural appeal/curiosity to coming-of-age stories but in the last couple decades more and more of these books are being classified as YA (as well as burgeoning #s of authors deliberately writing them with a YA audience in mind). I doubt this i
Oops, submitted before I finished. I doubt this is the only reason, but I suspect it may be part of it.
No problem!
Oh! A YA literature class sounds amazing! I’m completely jealous now of course.
That’s a really great point as well. I do think there have always been YA novels and it’s just more of a “re-categorization” as of late as well as a boom in current writing. But also think the curiosity about that age adds to it’s appeal as well. Excellent point!
When I started reading YA novels in my 20′s (I didn’t read them when I was a teenager, strangely), I liked them because they were very focused on just telling a good story. There wasn’t any posturing or pretension about them, and they were edited excellently. So that’s why I kept picking them up.
I also think there’s something about novels that center around teenagers that you just don’t get with other stories (assuming the teenage characters in YA novels actually act like teens–sometimes they don’t). The fact that these are formative years where people learn about who they are and the world they live in seems to give a story a greater sense of immediacy and importance, if that’s the right word. As a reader I’m much more likely to believe great emotion and drama coming from a teenager than an adult.
That’s definitely a reason I love reading YA. There’s no wasting time in getting to the heart of the story. Editing is excellent and you don’t have to wait to get at a sometimes difficult topic.
I wonder why it is that you’d believe the emotion and drama from a teen as opposed to an adult? Not that I don’t agree, because I do. For me it would be because, like you mentioned, there is a sense of importance to everything they do, an openness as well. Unfortunately, as adults I think we tend to get too stuck in our ways. Too far from that place where we feel it’s necessary to change or change the world. Gives you something to consider if you happen to be an adult.
Despite the fact that I am currently in an AF mood, I do know what usually leads me to YA: adult fiction is often too wordy, too complicated, too in-depth, too everything really. YA gets to the heart of the matter. Couple that with fantasy and you have the perfect marriage of delightful escapism thats meaty.
Love it…”too everything really.” I completely agree. I often want the story to “just get to the point already” and I don’t find that with most YA novels I’ve read. Definitely makes for an easy escape!
+JMJ+
I’m afraid I don’t have time for the video now, but I can answer your question. =)
I like YA novels (and their younger Middle Grade siblings) because I can more easily relate to the characters. For me, that is a big factor in my enjoyment of a book.
Sometimes the protagonist of a perfectly well-written novel for adults will do something I would never do in a million years–and that will just kill it for me. Or I’ll find that most of the characters aren’t people I’d want for my friends. But it’s very rare for me to have a negative reaction to younger characters.
My one exception is Romance. I really don’t like YA Romance, but will happily read a good “adult” Romance novel.
I too rarely have an extremely negative reaction to a YA character. It has happened, but not often. I definitely am able to more easily connect to them, since it’s something I’ve already lived through. Great points!
With young adult novels there are first loves, great story telling , and very good dsytopian novels which were around when I was growing up.
They are cleaner than adult novels , and they are all so different with relationships and the take on it. I started reading them after twilight because I have a tween and I wanted to know what was in the books because these YA aren’t like the novels I had growing up.
I remember Christopher Pike, SVH, and that is as there wasn’t that big of option while I was growing up. So I’m reading the books I missed
It’s true! There are a lot of YA novels from my youth that I just didn’t know about. Maybe because they weren’t classified the way they are now? Still.
Your reasoning about reading them before your kiddos is a lot of why I do the same thing. I don’t want to be shocked when they bring something up later. Besides, it’s always great to talk with teens about books, I love how excited they get!
This is definitely a question I have gotten and thought about a lot – especially because I know a lot of adults who look down on reading YA (just last week I was recommending JELLICOE ROAD, one of my all-time favorite YA books, and my friend said, “But is that a REAL book?” i.e. an adult book).
I like to vary my reading diet and read all sorts of stuff, but I think YA is especially tight in terms of plotting. Since it’s usually shorter, the pages there are there because they really matter. YA is also incredibly strong in terms of voice, which means that when I read it I can really connect to the characters. Even in some of the most beautifully written adult books I’ve read, that’s not always the case.
I wrote a bit of a rant about adults reading YA a few months back and got some good suggestions from others who are in the same boat: http://blog.leeandlow.com/2010/05/11/confessions-of-a-childrens-book-lover/
Moral of the story: there are lots of us who love YA for all different reasons, so there’s no need to be embarrassed about our YA habit. At the end of the day, an awesome book is an awesome book, no matter what genre!
Isn’t that so sad? I actually feel a tad bit bad for people who ask me things like that in reference to YA books. They are missing out on so much great writing!
I’ll have to head over and check out your post, I’d love to hear the suggestions!
I like reading YA because I relate to the characters more. Because of some trauma I suffered as a teenager, my psyche kind of stopped growing up with my body. I’m still in the mind frame of a teenager. As I go through counseling, my psyche has started to catch up with my age, but there is a lot of me that still thinks of myself as a young woman not a woman.
I also like YA because it’s usually fairly clean. There isn’t as much language or graphic sex in them. I’ve only read a few adult books. Usually I read mysteries because they’re cleaner. But, I would love to read an adult book that has the same angst and cleanliness that a YA book has. I just don’t think I’ll find one.
I do think it’s harder to find “clean” adult books. Of the ones I’ve read, there’s still usually at least something that’s a little more revealing (graphically) than I’d like.
I think at heart we all still long to return to our youth, so I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all to relate so well to these amazing characters. I’m just so glad to hear there’s something out there that can help so many people in many different varieties of situations.
Excellent points!
YA for me is a nice “change of pace” from all my “Adult” books… I do not find them to be completely engrossing all the time but every once in a while get into a YA and cannot put it down until finished… I love “Soul Screamers” Rachel Vincent has out, the “Dark Elite” series from Chloe Neill and some others that have read… I have more YA on my shelves to read but am finding more and more all the time that peak my interest in wanting to read… Being a female in my late 40′s it is fun to “relive my teenage years” so to speak, however since my teen years were boring the books are much better fantasy than my own reality! (I was nowhere near as smart as the teens in the books for sure, or as mature as most of them)
It’s true, I think a lot of the teens in these books are quite a bit more mature than I was at that age. lol Is that a good thing or bad? I think it depends on how seriously we want to take it, and of course, with YA you don’t have to take it seriously at all if you don’t want to. I find myself enjoying my reading much more with YA, a definite change of pace.
Great comment!
Interesting question, and so hard to answer. I do read a bit of Adult fiction…but YA is my top pick. I don’t know why it’s my favorite “level” (if you will) to read. I do like the emotions, and I like really connecting to the characters…but I guess you can find that elsewhere.
Maybe people like the newness of it all. YA books are having people experiencing things often for the first time, and that’s different than Adult books.
That’s something I hadn’t thought of. It often is a new experience and most times eye opening. I think it takes us back to the time in our lives when we were more willing to accept things, possibly changing us even though we’re a bit set in our ways. Maybe?
Definitely something to think about!
I read a mix of both AF and YA. For me it winds up being all about my falling in love with a cast of characters or a particular universe the book is set in. Most of what I tend to escape into falls into the realm of speculative fiction – with a heavy focus on fantasy/supernatural.
The characters are SO important to me as well and I think you can find it where ever you read, if you’re looking for it. Great comment!
I definitely read a lot more adult fiction than YA but the YA I do read is way more imaginative than it was when I was, a well, YA and that’s why I appreciate it and always enjoy reading it. Because even as an adult it’s smart and I can connect with it!
It is! I love that even though you’d possibly think of YA as “not as intelligent” because of the age level, it’s not at all. It’s incredible writing and fantastic characters, who just happen to be younger. Excellent point!
This is such a hard question!!! I read YA so I can share it with my students but I absolutely love it at the same time and it’s hard for me to commit to reading an adult novel when I love YA so much. In thinking more about it, I guess I agree with the idea that adult books can be very wordy. What I mean by that is they have to stop and explain so much, there are usually lots of characters that all have a history. When your characters are younger maybe they don’t have as much background information to go into? Somehow the authors put you right into where you need to be without sooooooo much superfluous exposition. I do think the emotions are strong and the stories are just good. I don’t know if this even makes any sense, I just know what I like!
It really is hard to pick up reading something else when you already have a genre or author even that you just adore.
I agree on the wordy thing. It was mentioned earlier, but I think it has a lot to do with the nature of the editing in YA. The story has to be shorter, tighter and it makes it incredibly easy to jump in and get going.
Great question! And yet I’m having a hard time answering it. Here’s a few thoughts:
1. No mid-life crises.
2. A generally hopeful outlook.
3. Relatively clean (think PG-13 vs. R- rated movies)
4. Unpretentious.
Perfect points! It’s really a hard thing to pinpoint, but I love what you mentioned. Especially mid-life crises. lol And almost always hopeful. Love that!
Well said Not Nessie!
I don’t necessarily think it’s a lack of something, just a wish to visit a time and place (and age) where although things seemed complicated and crazy they were still much easier than our adult lives. Of course, whimsical and fantastical tales/storyline never hurt either…. ^_^ Why do I read them? Because I love them…nuff said.
Perfectly said. Loving them is reason enough.
I do though appreciate that it takes you back to a different time of life. A place when things were changing so rapidly that you had to adapt before you were swallowed alive! LOL
Fantastic point!
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I read both adult and YA and I really enjoy YA because of the world building they do. The stories just seem so much more imaginative and I have to admit they are easier reading.
The world building is tremendous, especially considering how short many YA books can be. I agree on the easier reading…just tighter stories in my opinion.