tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post2210083160636178921..comments2024-01-27T16:10:28.502-08:00Comments on Tara Maya's Tales: What Is the Difference Between Young Adult and Just Adult Lit?Tara Mayahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09095632631554776002noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post-1602180732324593272011-07-08T20:02:06.224-07:002011-07-08T20:02:06.224-07:00It's a bit funny for me to be looking at this,...It's a bit funny for me to be looking at this, because I'm an SF/F indie book blogger, and I specifically state that I don't review YA unless it's enjoyable enough for adults. It's partly because before I started book blogging, I looked at the book blogging landscape, and there were the hundreds of YA blogs, and then the few more "official" SF/F review sites run generally by older men, and not much space in between. <br /><br />I never looked for "YA" as a label of a book I wanted to read, but there are a number of YA books in the past that I enjoy, I just don't find "YA" as a very useful label for me. So I've had several authors submit books and tell me "It's YA but it should be enjoyable for adults", then I take a look at the book. If it's just marketed as YA and they don't specify "this should also be good for an older audience", then I don't really look at it. I'm more attracted to Dance of Dragons than Hunger Games. There are many readers that enjoy both, but again, "YA" as a label doesn't hold much meaning for my personal reading selections.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post-40923867249308009242011-06-08T12:10:04.014-07:002011-06-08T12:10:04.014-07:00@ SFReader. I think the way the Harry Potter stori...@ SFReader. I think the way the Harry Potter stories "mature" as the series progresses is just brilliant, but I wonder if this is how she pitched the books, or if she only got away with it because of the popularity of the first titles. I think if an author tried to pitch a maturing series to most publishers today, the answer would be "No."<br /><br />@ Donna. I know what you mean. It made me uncomfortable for the same reason. But I learned to disregard the labels, which, like Michelle said, are pretty silly.Tara Mayahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09095632631554776002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post-80395447225840854692011-06-07T09:34:05.417-07:002011-06-07T09:34:05.417-07:00Tara, I really appreciate this post. I did a spino...Tara, I really appreciate this post. I did a spinoff of it (well, it sparked in my head) on my blog just now. I think it's so hard that we have to feel cornered or boxed in by these "genres" and "labels." What happened to writing just STORIES? It's all so political these days. It's maddening. I'm trying to step away from that more and more, because part of it is definitely a personal decision.Michelle D. Argylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09696465137285587646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post-57516123772737272992011-06-07T01:04:26.026-07:002011-06-07T01:04:26.026-07:00First, I don't consider myself a YA reader. I...First, I don't consider myself a YA reader. I like adult fiction - and I'm an avid fantasy reader.<br /><br />But, I've been reading a lot of reviews and excerpts from YA authors and the novels appeal to me. Despite the fact the characters are under 24 - usually 14 to 20 - I like the story lines. But it's YA b/c of the main and supporting characters are under a certain age bracket.<br /><br />I guess that makes me a YA reader just cuz all the fantasy, urban fantasy, and sci-fi now features MC as underaged.<br /><br />As long as agents/publishing houses are perpetuating this trend, I guess I'm a YA reader. But I'm not happy with the label.<br /><br />..........dholedolorahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08715849844092553699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post-44324414936363408572011-06-07T00:41:02.672-07:002011-06-07T00:41:02.672-07:00One series of books that help "restart" ...One series of books that help "restart" thye YA genre is the Harry Potter one. And if you look at it closely, you find out that while the first book clearly is each book in the series is "darker" than the first. While HP "matures" in the books, so does the overall theme/threat etc. I think it's one of the major features and a reason of the book's success. <br />It clearly evolves from early YA to Just Adult ...<br /><br />Note for example that the last one clearly evocates suicide...TheSFReaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14382773423096004794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post-28136436119691521672011-06-06T16:21:27.105-07:002011-06-06T16:21:27.105-07:00It occurred to me after I wrote this post that in ...It occurred to me after I wrote this post that in my genre, sf/f, the fact that there were no distinct YA titles may have actually skewed the whole genre. There's a saying that the "Golden Age of SF is twelve" and if a lot of fantasy and sf books of the 50s and 60s were jejune, it was probably because they were, in fact, written with for an audience of twelve year old boys in mind. One of the things about the genre today is the emergence of postmodern fantasy, very adult in treatment and topic. It's probably no coincidence that this is happening at the same time as the explosion of YA fantasy and dystopia books.Tara Mayahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09095632631554776002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post-75521562774016576322011-06-06T16:06:43.576-07:002011-06-06T16:06:43.576-07:00When I was a teen I read quite a few books that ar...When I was a teen I read quite a few books that are classified as Adult. I know that I will read anything with a good story, no matter how it is classified. But, I do admit that I seem to read more YA. It could be that there are other parents out there like me who want to know what our kids are reading, and enjoy the stories at the same time.Bookworm Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11276816188271550416noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37083420.post-85708663967219338092011-06-06T14:49:13.184-07:002011-06-06T14:49:13.184-07:00I have a hard time saying anything intelligent abo...I have a hard time saying anything intelligent about YA fiction, because when I was a kid there was no such thing. I know that I'm not attracted to any of the YA titles I see although, as you point out, a lot of adults read YA (and some read <i>only</i> YA). I will say that of the YA-labeled books I have read in the last five years or so, I would not call any of them adult novels that have been marketed as YA. Maybe they'd be successfully sold as commercial fiction, which I also don't read, so again I just don't know. Really, this whole discussion is so much on the periphery of my understanding that I can't say much about it. But look at me go on and on!<br /><br />When I was a kid I read whatever books looked interesting, and this meant some kid's classics like "Call of the Wild" and "John Carter Warlord of Mars" and it also meant antiwar novels and Erica Jong (both "Fear of Flying" and a book of her poetry) and "War and Peace" and "Animal Farm" and "Charlie" and loads of Shakespeare and Chekhov. I read Heller's "Catch 22" when I was 15 or something, right before I read Tolstoy. I don't understand, I guess, the whole idea of "age-appropriate" literature. I don't think kids would read my books because I think they'd be bored by the treatment of the subjects. I don't think they'd understand, really, what the books are. And that by itself is probably enough of a filtering mechanism, because if kids are bored by a book, I doubt they'll be influenced by it.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.com