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Anyone who so much as peeks at my Goodreads shelf can see that I love YA. Out of the fourteen books I’ve read thus far this year, eight of them were YA novels, and out of the twenty-one I read last year, fourteen were YA. I also love writing YA, and the first thing I do upon walking into Barnes & Noble is beeline it over to the Teen section, so I think it goes without saying that I’m a YA junkie. (It’s not a problem. I can stop whenever I want to—I just don’t want to).
So when I say that YA isn’t a genre, I’m not trying to insult anyone, or somehow degrade the wonderful world that is YAtopia. I’m actually talking technicalities.
YA, like MG, Adult, and I suspect NA as well (although that’s another post all on its own), are all categories. They describe a target audience and expectations of general themes threaded throughout the books. For YA, that means a protagonist between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, and a sort of coming-of-age theme, to start. That’s a super simplified version, and there’s more to YA, but for the sake of not drowning you in information, let’s leave it at that.
Within each of those categories, there are then genres: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Romance, Contemporary, Horror, Historic, Thriller, Mystery, etc. And within those genres, there are sub-genres: dystopia, epic fantasy, paranormal romance, urban fantasy, contemporary romance, regency, post-apocalyptic, psychological thriller, the list goes on.
All of the books within those genres share close similarities; all paranormal romance involve some sort of creature or supernaturally-enabled love interest; dystopias involve some sort of future society, usually with an extremely controlling (and often evil) governmental system; epic fantasy involves swords and horses, and occasionally magic and otherwise magical creatures.
But within the category of YA, the books are markedly different. The Fault in Our Stars is nothing like The Hunger Games, and Graceling is nowhere near similar to City of Bones. What brings them together is the general age group of the protagonists and the coming-of-age theme woven throughout their respective stories. But they’re certainly not the same genre.
So those are my thoughts on the categorization of the wonderful realm that is YA, but now I want to hear from you: do you consider MG, YA or Adult a genre? Why or why not?
Twitter-sized bites:
Is YA a category or a genre? One writer shares her thoughts on the matter. (Click to tweet)
Are MG, YA and Adult genres? Join the discussion at @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)
I agree, definitely not a genre. They're designations for different "age appropriateness", I guess. The four books you specifically list are all YA in my library, though many adults have read them. Also some younger kids, but that's a case by case basis.
ReplyDeleteAge appropriateness is a good way of looking at it. I almost compared it to movie ratings, but that didn't feel quite right, either, although it is a similar class of categorization.
ReplyDeleteAs for crossover appeal, I think many of the most popular books out there have that crossover appeal. Harry Potter worked so well because it was a MG (then YA) that middle schoolers and adult loved equally. As you said, it's definitely a case-by-case basis (I wouldn't recommend TFiOS to a young middle schooler, for example), but oftentimes popular books can cross into either an older age group or a younger one (or in HP's case, both).
I'm in your camp regarding the genre/category discussion. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is not a genre. It's a marketing category. It has always bothered me that a book might be thought of as YA because it opens the door to dismissive statements.
ReplyDelete"That's not a real book, it's for Young Adults. Read a book for your age."
Thanks, Melissa! :)
ReplyDeleteGahhh. It always bothers me when I hear people who make comments like, "Did you know some adults read YA?" like it's unheard of. The categorization isn't meant to dictate the age of the reader.
ReplyDeleteI think "movie ratings" is a decent comparison, certainly.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me how frequently an adult will be hesitant to read a YA book (or even a J book, as we tend to call the MG's at the library, Heavens to Betsy!), but kids DEFINITELY want to read "grown up books"!
The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure I read more adult books than YA and MG books when I was in middle and high school. Now it's the opposite. :)
ReplyDeleteI think I have a pretty good split, but there are times I read more YA than others. I guess I'm just not somebody who uses that as part of the decision making criteria; there are a lot of good books in general. Picture books, too. have you read "This Is Not My Hat"?
ReplyDeleteI'm not keen on YA anymore so now I'm asking "why?" if it's not a genre "why?". I wanted to do a post about this the other day but seeing as I don't read YA how can I write about not liking it? Luckily I've come here and you've done half the work for me.
ReplyDeleteI think, what happened was, I started to see very similar set ups in YA that made me switch off. You've actually pointed some out; insta-love and love triangles. These things seem so bizarre to me because the MC - usually female (zzz factor) caucasian (2nd zzzz factor) has these amazing or terrifying things happen to her and sometimes they are put into a position that could affect the entire world, yet still they are able to make clean cut decisions and encompass all these new DIFFICULT details despite what's thrown in their path....
But they can't choose between Tom and Tim? Get outta here!
Last YA I picked up and put down? I found a book on a wall and read through it. Dude climbs in girls window and she talks about how good looking he is. No. I left that book in a bakery for someone else to pick up. It was Switched by Amanda Hocking.
YA isn't a genre but with the YA books being pushed nowadays you'll find certain patterns. I haven't given up totally though, I'm keeping my eyes open and looking for something different.
As a high school librarian, I totally agree with your analysis. Even before I read your post, I knew (hoped) you would address the fact that YA is an audience, not a genre. In my opinion, the category of YA helps readers decide what age range they want to read about. I may decide I want to read a MG book, a chapter book, or an adult novel. In a library or book store I will head to whichever section contains that category of book. Within the chosen category, I will select the genre I like. Thanks for your post.
ReplyDeleteI don't discount books because of categorization, I just hear a lot more about YA as that's the community I immerse myself in online. As for picture books, I haven't read any picture books in...a long time. So no, I haven't.
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely patterns and tropes that I don't particularly enjoy in YA, and insta-love, poorly used love triangles, and strangely acceptable stalkerish behavior are some of them. I find that in most cases, it's pretty easy to tell if a book is going to have one of those patterns based off the back cover copy, so when I see it, I avoid it. Some YA I've enjoyed without those tropes include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Graceling by Kristin Cashore, Across the Universe by Beth Revis, and The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa. There are many others, of course, but those are just a couple I could think of immediately.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I do understand where you're coming from, as the factors you mentioned are ones that I don't particularly enjoy myself.
Thank you, Wendy! The age range thing is definitely one way of looking at it. Each category has other expectations within them, but on a basic level, you can expect that the protagonists will be within a certain age range depending on the category you choose. And from there, as you said, it's just a matter of choosing a genre that you enjoy. :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that some people thought YA was a genre. :) Good break down.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laura! I've seen people refer to YA as a genre several times across the interweb, so I figured it'd be a good topic to cover. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree. It would be like saying every adult book is the same.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly right.
ReplyDelete