It’s no secret that I’ve been a fan of YA since the day I accidentally stumbled on it as a wee, innocent (*ish) child.
*I’d say I was innocent, but my mother begs to differ, so I’ve split the difference. See? I’m not completely unreasonable.
I thought I knew the Young Adult genre pretty well, considering how many books I read from that category and have for some time now, but it seems like every time I pick up a new YA book, I’m spinning a figurative roulette wheel as far as content.
I used to know what to expect, for the most part, when I picked up a YA book, but lately, the books I’ve been reading are feeling like they’re creeping more into NA and adult, if not for the younger characters, given the content.
I’ve always considered Young Adult to have certain truths that made it distinctly separate from Middle Grade and New Adult/Adult, which bookend it on either side.
✦ Protagonists who tend to be about 12 – 18
✦ Teenage drama and dilemmas
✦ Sometimes coming of age
✦ Sometimes finding one’s self
✦ Adorable baby romance, puppy love, all the way up to broad-strokes sex
✦ Generalized, less descriptive death and gore
I tend to think of books like Black Bird of the Gallows and A Thousand Perfect Notes, where love is first found and explored and it’s all adorable and hesitant and squishy.
Or violence like in Scythe and Thunderhead, where people go deadish or are gleaned pretty much all the time. That’s sort of the point. People talk about George R.R. Martin racking up a headcount, but man, Neal Shusterman kills pretty much everybody. It’s not overly descriptive, though, and not gory, even though, yes, it is death.
There’s books like Children of Blood and Bone, where I wasn’t a big fan of the romance, but yeah, okay, it was there and not as innocent as the previous two mentioned, but also more “fade to black” on adult scenes. The violence aspect of this is turned up a notch from the Arc of a Scythe books, where wounds are described in much more detail, lots of people die somewhat violent deaths, and there’s even a torture scene. However, I would still argue that none of it is gruesome in its telling.
Or even The Cruel Prince, which is for sure DARK (it’s dark fantasy, so … yeah) and rife with violence, including stabbing and attempted homicide, but none of it is particularly graphic (or none that I recall?! I sort of read it in a whirlwind, I admit). It’s pervasive, yes, and that’s sort of to be expected with the tone, but the point is that, in my opinion at least, it feels toned down for YA versus what one might expect in NA or adult dark fantasy. The same goes for how in depth the romantic scenes go.
So what brings us here today, then? Where to begin?
I read a lot of YA, which means a good chunk of the books I’ve read this year have been YA … but should they be? There’s an ever-increasing series of books I’ve read that have made me really stop and think is this book really YA? Would I hand this to a 14-year-old? For me, personally, the answer has been no, I would not, for various reasons.
When I talk about YA, I’m doing so in broad strokes. A 13-year-old is not the same as an 18-year-old, and it’s up to the reader and parents, obviously, with regards to what is appropriate for that person. So with regards to this discussion, I’m generalizing my thoughts, at least, to assume an audience of, say, 14- and 15-year-olds.
All I can think is has this become a trend? Is this the new YA, with content that’s becoming increasingly more mature?
I’m talking about books like Furyborn, which I LOVED and look forward to the sequel, but which also features multiple sex scenes (in fair detail) and fairly graphic violence, death, and torture.
Or books like Sky in the Deep, which I also loved, but which was incredibly bloody and graphic, including an attempted rape, lots of bloody warfare, and at one point, ripping a guy’s eye out. Which, I mean, was awesome, don’t get me wrong. But probably not something I’d readily hand most teenagers.
The first book I really recall reading and thinking, is this YA? was Song of Blood and Stone, which includes not only attempted rape, but plenty of lewd comments and fairly descriptive sex scenes. Yes, plural. And I had been totally unprepared for it, because of the previous YA I’d read. But now, I guess, it’s becoming the norm?
The pinnacle read that really led me to write this, though, is Damsel, which I thought was a stunning read but also not remotely YA. I mean, this book needs aaaaall the trigger warnings. There’s very graphic sexual assault, the C word, physical and mental abuse, and the act that shall not be named. *shudders* Also, with how many times it’s mentioned, Emory’s “yard” basically is a character in and of itself.
Elana Arnold does raise a very good point, in her own defense, against reviewers saying her book isn’t YA in her blog post What About the Girls? which I recommend reading.
The problem for me is I think Ms. Arnold’s message in Damsel is a terribly important one, and I agree that the discussion should be had. I also don’t feel, as she says in her post, that it would go over readers’ heads. I just object to the graphic content.
As a mother to a middle-grade reader and sister to a YA reader (low end), would I be concerned if one of them picked up a YA book that looks like a dark fairy tale retelling and have them reading about “yards” and rape and other very adult things (because there are no warnings about the content as far as I can tell)? Yes, of course I would.
And none of this is meant to pick on Damsel in any way (and it was good … you should go read it, if you’re a bit older, have no problems with adult themes, and love a dark fairy tale retelling.) This just happened to be the last book I read, so it’s at the forefront of my mind.
What it boils down to for me is content. If these books are in a YA section, which is a pretty broad range in terms of maturity level of readers, what’s the odds that a younger reader who isn’t ready will stumble on them?
Our library locally is fantastic, and books like the ones mentioned do have a 16+ tag on them, and I’m so thankful for that, because these books are in a section that my (very innocent, very naive, somehow) younger sister is now wandering into—and we’d sort of like to keep her that way, if we can? I mean, not so naive that she can’t function in the real world, but not so aware that she’s reading about rape. But not all libraries have this, and our former library certainly didn’t.
The real sticking point for me personally is that young readers tend to read up, so by the time you’re 16+, a lot of teenagers who love reading are already reading adult books, where they will encounter these things and it’s more expected. At this point, I assume they can handle it or they wouldn’t be in adult. But for a 14-year-old, reading up lands them smack dab into 16+ territory.
I mean, these are just my thoughts/opinions. Have I known 14-year-olds who read mature content and have no problem with it? Of course. But I wouldn’t consider that the average 14-year-old.
When I see a book shelved as YA, I consider it basically a stamp of approval that while this book may not be appropriate for all YA audiences, yes, it is indeed going to be readable by the majority of young readers, who its marketed towards.
Perhaps that’s naive of me. Maybe I really am getting old and have become the “get off my lawn” crazy lady at the library, chasing young kids away from the 16+ shelves. Who knows?
I think there’s a recognition that A LOT of the people who buy YA are actually adults, so there’s a push towards writing YA that’s more geared toward the 18-year-olds end of the spectrum, rather than than the younger end of the age range. If you read YA from several years ago, a lot of it sounds young and almost like what we’d think of as middle grade now. I guess if teens are reading and liking it, that’s fine, but I sometimes wonder how much teens do relate to it when I can picture half the characters as 25 years old instead of 16.
That’s definitely my thought, and I know the discussion of NA has been done and redone to death, but I would really love to see it as an in-between to separate younger YA from older NA.
I do tend to forget a lot that these characters are supposed to be only 17 or 18, especially when, at 28, I can usually relate to them to some degree. But at 16 – 20, even, I wouldn’t have related to any of these characters, I can tell you that. The new generation, though? I don’t know. In our library, out of curiosity, I’ve sort of looked at what gets checked out and by whom. The older YA crowd tend to be reading either graphic novels or they’ve found their adult niche already. The popular new books that I think would get checked out a lot are really hit or miss here. The younger YA crowd tends to be who I find in the YA section or upper MG, but they’re not usually checking out these books that are 16+, either.
In my library, at least, like you said, it tends to be this small niche of people that are maybe 18 – 30 who are checking these books out. Which I had no point in saying, I just found it interesting. xD
Damsel is not at the top of my TBR precisely because of its content. But as someone that reads about books every day, I already knew that. The average library-goer is not, which is a little sad.
I think maybe it’s the marketer’s fault for labeling the more mature content as YA. YA is popular right now, which makes the marketers want to give books that label even if it’s not the most appropriate place for it. I haven’t read ACOTAR yet, but I’ve heard that that series probably shouldn’t have been labeled as YA? In a recent review I wrote, I said that the book was appropriate for an older YA audience. But again, the average library-goer isn’t going to stumble across my review. And parents are going to trust the YA label and suggest books to their kids that might not be entirely appropriate.
Perhaps this phenomenon is due to the popularity of YA among adults, considering that 53% of YA readers are adults, not teens.
Adult readers (especially non-book bloggers) don’t really think about whether a book is appropriate for actual teens, unless they’re suggesting books to their own teens themselves. As a reader, I don’t think too much about it, but I am reminded about a review of The Weight of Feathers, written by a young teen, who didn’t like the fact that one of the characters went swimming topless because “she didn’t have something to wear that matched the bottoms” or something like that. He thought it was confusing and inappropriate. As a reader, I knew that the character was absolutely doing that on purpose because she liked the guy that she was going to be swimming with, but without a category of “more mature YA” you will end up with readers like that.
While I think the books should be written, the labeling and marketing should be more appropriate.
I actually didn’t know when I first grabbed Damsel, because there hadn’t been a lot of publicity about it, but that’s also sort of sometimes the danger of eARCs. So all I had to go on was the cover and the blurb.
I’ve heard the same about ACOTAR, and I haven’t read it yet, either. I’m inclined to agree with you that most parents probably won’t be aware of what their kids are picking up or reading until after, because if it’s YA, then it must be fine for a young adult, right? In my library, at least, once kids are old enough to form their own opinions, most parents sort of give them free reign to go ahead and pick books out of their section that they’re interested in.
I definitely agree that there’s an obvious market for these books (and as I said, I’ve LOVED all the books I used as an example, so yes, please, write more of these!). But I definitely feel like they’re more marketed towards the adults who read YA versus *actual* young adults.
I actually wrote a post on this same topic back in February! I agree with Briana that YA seems to be written for the 20- and 30-year-olds reading it. (Statistically, they are the ones buying most of it so this is perhaps not surprising.) I think upper-MG is what YA used to be. So I’m really confused when people who like YA act like MG is inferior to YA, juvenile, poorly written, etc. Books like The Giver used to be considered YA. Now they seem so tame, you can find people calling The Giver MG. (I would argue it, like a lot of books, spans both. “MG” and “YA” are just marketing labels meaning “people this age might like it. They’re not indicators of quality.)
Anyway, I agree with you that most YA books being published now are probably more suitable for older teens, maybe 16+. I think it’s inaccurate to say MG is “for 8-12” because, in fact, seventh and eighth graders would enjoy upper-MG books like Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Lockwood & Co., etc. A 13-year old or 14-year-old probably isn’t ready for something like Three Dark Crowns, Six of Crows, or anything by Maas. And yet people act like children jump from 12 to 13 and magically mature overnight.
I missed your post on it! Great minds think alike, I guess (even if I’m a bit slow on the uptake haha!).
I agree that what was previously YA seems to be sinking back into MG. I was really surprised when I found out that Harry Potter was MG, because I was reading YA by the time that came out and it felt like it fit. So I totally agree that the lines seem so blurred (and we won’t even get into people hating on MG because I could rant about that haha.)
I like your assessment of it. I think part of the problem is that YA tries to be such a broad spectrum, and maybe at some point we’ll need to admit that there should be some separation somewhere? Because 16+ is vastly different from younger YA, but then what makes them YA? The fact that their target audience tends to be older than MG and younger than adult? Maybe the rating system is just horribly flawed and we’ve all been lied to all along. xD What is life anymore?!
Really random aside, but you’ve reminded me that I’ve been meaning to read Lockwood & Co. forever, and I’ve just added it to my library list so I (hopefully?) remember it on my next trip, so thanks. xD
Well, I think there’s definitely a lot to say about it and it should be a conversation we continue to have as the market changes. I know people will often direct sixth grade and up to the YA section at the library. Sixth graders, after all, often “read up” and want to get into YA. But teachers, parents, and even some librarians are not always aware of how the market is changing, if they don’t ready YA themselves. They assume the label means it’s been vetted and generally appropriate. They don’t realize Furyborn is in there along with The Giver or A Wrinkle in Time.
I think there is a problem here and maybe it can be solved with..stickers? I don’t know! But some libraries try to separate upper and lower MG (because most people don’t know that’s a thing!). Perhaps we need upper and lower YA.
But, yeah, I agree the YA label is confusing. It’s part “teens might like this,” part “it’s supposedly not too graphic” and part generic (“this book has a love triangle and is ripped from The Hunger Games”).
Lockwood & Co. is great! 😀
Yes, and that’s a concern of mine, too. It’s hard to expect everyone to keep up with the YA market if it’s not their cup of tea. I mean, at the end of the day, you can go back and forth with the argument about how aware parents should be about what their kids are reading, but it’s unrealistic to think that they would read all books before their kids rather than relying on a system that, in theory, is supposed to separate books appropriate for their kids from the perhaps less appropriate ones.
I do think more libraries should do the rating system like ours. They only started that this year, after a major reconstruction last year. We also have separated MG (my daughter’s in the lower, and it’s SO NICE pointing her to one section and letting her have at it instead of her having to hunt for something more her style and speed). I like the idea of upper and lower YA, and I think that would mostly stop kids from accidentally stumbling over content they’re not ready for.
I read YA because I’m a big wuss, for the most part, and not a fan of graphic … well, anything, really. xD So I’m always surprised when I find something that’s … not. In a really odd quirk, my adult reading lately has been less graphic (significantly so) than my YA. As long as you don’t count that one comedy smut series I read, but I mean, that’s labeled and kind of clear what you’re getting (and it was hilarious haha).
Right. While I think that parents should be aware of what their kids are reading, I think that can’t be done through personally vetting every book. And probably shouldn’t be done that way. It would indicate to the kids that their parents don’t trust them, deny them the ability to learn how to be responsible about reading books they feel ready for, and perhaps stunt conversations about difficult subjects parents would prefer not to raise. Open conversation would work much better, along with parents having a general guide for what types of books might be age or developmentally appropriate.
And, yes, I read YA because I don’t want graphic content. Well, now I have to read primarily MG because it’s getting too graphic for me!
As a parent, the thought of having to vet every book or, even worse, having to read every book to make sure my daughter’s not exposed to something I don’t think she’s ready for is terrifying. xD That would be a nightmare. Who has the time?!
I don’t mind graphic content sometimes, but I have to be in the mood for it. So it’s looking like I might have to join you in reading MG during those times and only read the other YA when I don’t mind that. xD
Right?! Parents probably want to read their own books, anyway, not Purrmaids! But sometimes people seem to suggest worried parents need to take on all the responsibility for content themselves by doing such personal vetting!
I don’t know. I feel vaguely scarred by the last few YA books I read. Literally nothing positive seemed to happen. Everyone was just being tortured, murdered, and assaulted…. And people think fantasy is mere “escapism”!
I’m super lucky that our library is great, and I live in a small community, so usually, people are watching out and will be like, “Oh, heads up, did you know that there’s such-and-such in this book? Yeah? Okay, just wanted to make sure.” Makes it so much easier because parents just can’t do all that and shouldn’t have to. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect there to be something denoting mature content in a book marketed for kids.
Oh no! I’ve read some pretty dark fantasy books, and I do enjoy dark fantasy, but I can see what you’re saying. I felt that way with Furyborn, even though I did love it and can’t wait for the sequel (I expected how dark it would be going in, though, so I was prepared for that). There are so many facets to fantasy, though, which is probably what I love so much about the genre. It takes on so many forms.
I have basically warring thoughts on this. Because on one hand, I am a firm believer of not censoring what teens read. BUT. That said, I DO think teens have every right to know what they might be choosing to read. As a teen, I probably would have been a little… pearl-clutching at Damsel myself! And while I don’t think it’s at all a problem if a teen wants to read it, the key word is “wants”- how will they KNOW if they actually want to read about this dude’s genitals for a couple hundred pages? 😂
I think part of the reason YA has been getting so mature is shock value- every book needing to “outdo” the ones that came before? Like “whoa, this is BRUTAL” usually gets good reviews. Being a game changer is probably many authors’ goals, so it makes sense on some level.
My other issue is the range itself- a 13 year old and an 18 year old are in such VASTLY different headspaces that I can kind of understand why it doesn’t work. If I’m 18, there’s no way I want to touch a book designed for a 13 year old. Whereas a 13 year old, like you said, will be fine with “reading up”. And of course, from a marketing perspective, if the 13 year old will read either, but the 18 year old (and older!) will only read the more “mature” book… which one will be published? Not saying it’s right OR wrong, just kind of what I’d think if I were trying to sell stuff!
VERY thought provoking post!!
I totally agree with you about censorship (and I hate the practice of banning books, but that’s a discussion for another time). I think people, especially kids, need to be able to make informed decisions about reading, and us, as the supposed adults (my adulthood is always questionable at any given moment) are supposed to, in theory, facilitate their choice when we can.
That said, I totally was led to believe Damsel would be something else and by about the fifth yard, I was like, oh, wow, okay, so this is where we’re going. xD
I also respect the fact that I live in a VERY religious area, where people DO police what their kids listen to or watch or read. Whether I agree with it or not is irrelevant, as I do respect their right to not want their kids exposed to graphic sexual or violent content. I mean, what do I know? Maybe that’s the secret to having a normal kid? Mine’s clearly SOL already, so what’s the point? xD
That’s true to some extent, I think. But I mean, look at Harry Potter and PJO. The people I hear talking about them are NOT MG readers. They’re people 18+. xD Twilight is meant for, what, 13+ or something like that, and 18-year-olds weren’t exactly shying away from that, either. But I do agree that, generally, what works for the younger doesn’t always work for the older, and vice versa.
I mean, when I was 13, I was already reading in the adult section (hello The Sea Wolf and Wolf Larsen, who was my first very unhealthy book crush but I still love him anyway). But that was … a while ago. xD And I feel like it was clearly marked, at that point, as far as things I probably shouldn’t read (or wouldn’t be interested in reading).
I don’t have a solution. I wish I did. I like my library’s way of denoting YA books 16+ if they have questionable content. Maybe content warnings become more of a thing in YA? Underneath the blurb or something, there could be a content warning. I have no answers, but I’m glad if it got people thinking! 🙂
This is a fantastic post, Sammie. And yes, I agree with you. However, I mostly read contemporary YAs and I would say that the books I have read fit perfectly (in my opinion) in YA category because mostly there is cute romances, breakups, college scenes or death of someone closer etc.
I am not a big fan of fantasy, but I have heard the same issue being raised by many readers regarding fantasy books. I believe that fantasy books do have more adult scenes and all the other stuff you mentioned?
I think, the writers are trying to sell their books not only in YA category but in Adult category too because I think the adults too are reading YA and the writers want to fit their books in both the age groups. Also, I think the young people these days are quite mature as per their age and they do handle a lot of adult stuff. Social media has really influenced the young minds.
The age tag thing about your library is really good and yes it should be applied everywhere. I agree that books should have content warning in the beginning.
I think the takeaway I’m getting from this is maybe I should examine more contemporary YA instead of fantasy. xD
That brings up a really interesting question, though. Probably 95% of what I read in YA is fantasy/sci-fi, so I wonder if the problem exists as much in the other genres or if it’s very genre specific? I hadn’t thought of that.
I guess it’s also maybe easier to make fantasy/sci-fi more of a YA/adult crossover, because you’re inventing your own world and rules, so being 17 or 18 can mean so many different things in that world versus ours.
You raised a lot of interesting points!
Great post. This is precisely why I have always assumed YA is for like 16-18 year olds. I don’t read YA, wanna know why? 😀 because it’s too brutal for me 😀 (I AM 30.) I stick to my middle grade 😀 I have actually not been much of a YA reader because for me, the teens have been a super traumatic age, and I just don’t want to return to them (means I don’t want to read about them or watch movies about them.) So I can’t say much because I just haven’t read that much YA. But yes, if all YA was like ATPN, then yes, I would read YA. But it’s not.
I think in the end, what would be super good was if there were content warnings. On ALL books (YA or not). We could solve so many problems with that. It’s really great your library does that!
And yeah, I read Stephen King as a 14 year old. But I’m not sure if that has been good for me, in the long run. I tend to have problems that I think might have come back from that time.
That’s a bit of a shame, though, to have to say to a whole group of kids, “Sorry, but these books weren’t written for you so much as your older counterparts.” There are still a lot of great YA books written that are fine for younger readers, but I agree that a lot of the really popular newer stuff that’s received a lot of hype, at least, seems to fall in the 16 – 18 range.
Someone else did point out that this might just be a fantasy/sci-fi thing, and ATPN is contemporary romance! Which is a genre I don’t read much of. So it makes me wonder if it’s a problem more in certain genres. Now, ATPN does have some pretty brutal abuse scenes, but the difference is that’s laid out in the summary, so if that’s a trigger for someone, they’re aware of it. It’s not hiding behind a sweet contemporary romance or something. It’s all about transparency for me, instead of being surprised by graphic content.
I read some adult books when I was pre-teens, but I definitely avoided Stephen King until I was, like, 16 or 17, because I knew I couldn’t handle it. xD Some of his books are rough to get through.
Great post! YA has been creeping to the more mature side for a while now. I remember being a teen and being surprised at how many books I could check out that involved sexual scenes. Of course, I was all for it because I was crazy curious. XD
What really stopped me dead in my tracks this years was reading A Court of Thrones and Roses. My younger sister recommended it to me and I was surprised – plus, a little uncomfortable – to read a scene that was just as sexual as the adult romance novels I’d otherwise be reading. A lot of these books are placed in the YA category strictly for marketing purposes. People seem hesitate when it comes to the New Adult label, which admittedly makes books more challenging to market. But, definitely not impossible.
I think every library should adopt a labeling system like yours does! That way there’s an option for more mature teen readers to consume the maturer content. ‘Cause you’re right, 13 years old is way different than an 18 year old. That range is soo large.
I’ve never been one for sex scenes, even as a teenager, and I realize that that makes me a weirdo lol.
I haven’t read A Court of Thrones and Roses, but I’ve heard things about it. I’ve had to pause several times lately over books. I’m sort of sad that NA isn’t a thing, because it seems like there really IS a market for it. But YA is the really big buzzword lately. From a marketing point of view, I get it. From a reader/parent point of view, it bugs me. xD
This is a very interesting post! I’ve noticed the change in recent YA theme which I thought might have been because a majority of YA readers are adults. This is why I believe strongly in the need for trigger warnings. While I do believe important issues need discussing – censorship is not something I advocate for – readers need to be aware of the kind of content they’ll encounter in a book.
I wholeheartedly agree. I’m not a fan of censorship, but I think people should just be able to make informed decisions on what they choose to read. 🙂 Presents some of the more nasty surprises, particularly if they’re not ready for that material or have no interest in reading it!
I totally agree with you and I’m not a mom or an older sister. YA is so different from when I first picked a YA book up at the age of 11 way back in ’97. Gone are the days of Sweet Valley, Fear Street, Caroline B. Cooney, and Lois Duncan.
The series that comes to mind for me that is most definitely not YA is the Throne of Glass books. I know you haven’t finished them, so I won’t spoil it, but the content takes a 180 around book Queen of Shadows and completes it fully with Empire of Storms. Suddenly in QoS, one character is talking about having sex with another character in an alley against a wall. And in EoS, there are full on VERY explicit sex scenes (and the Fae characters biting each other during sex to “claim” the other is like a thing, fair warning), and by the final book (which I just finished) the gore level is pretty graphic too. I was uncomfortable reading EoS at 31, since most adult books I’ve read haven’t been that graphic and it was so unexpected. I can’t imagine reading it 16, I would have totally freaked out. I’ve had a 12 year old ask me for this series, and I balked. So not appropriate for readers that young. Not to mention all the characters are over 18, some of them by hundreds of years.
I think because most NA books are purely contemporary romance, and there is a huge market for YA fantasy right now, they were marketed as YA because the publisher didn’t know how to market them as anything else. Adult fantasy and YA fantasy sells. But for some reason, the NA age range doesn’t get fantasy. Although, some of the Adult marketed stuff could probably be marketed as such due the the characters young ages.
That’s my two cents at least.
Man, I miss Fear Street! It’s definitely not like the YA when I was growing up. There would’ve been an uprising if they were publishing this stuff specifically geared at teens when and where I grew up (and this was only in the ’90s!). I mean, at that point, you just read adult if that’s really where your head was at lol.
I haven’t hit that point in Throne of Glass yet, but I have heard it soooo many times, so I’m already prepared going in. And I do like to know ahead of time, because there are times I really just don’t feel like reading sex scenes, and nothing kills an otherwise good book for me more than hitting random sex when I’m really in the mood for fantasy, adventure, and stabbiness. I honestly can’t imagine handing a series like that to a 12-year-old. =/ And unless you’re really careful about looking at things before your kids read them (and who always has the time for that if your kids read a lot) how would you otherwise know there might be content in it you don’t want your 12-year-old reading? =/ Unfortunately, you really don’t.
I’ve seen a few NA fantasy! Which is exciting to me. But I think you’re right in that contemporary seems to really own the space, where fantasy tends to more own YA (though, contemporary is making a huge push in YA now too).
I was not fully prepared. I’d heard whispers that her other series had some “sexy” stuff in it, but when the first couple of books did it tastefully and glazed over the actual sex, I was like “What are people talking about?” Then I read Empire of Storms and was royally shocked. I don’t think I’ll be reading her other series though, the level of sex in it just isn’t for me. Even at 33 I’d rather have tamer, more realistic scenes.
Luckily, the girl’s mom was with her. I’m not supposed to censor (that’s a parent’s job), but I can advise, and I advised her it was not appropriate past book three. I then steered her toward Tamora Pierce’s Allana books. This mom had read ToG first to preview it, and I think she was in the habit of doing that, but most aren’t. The problem is advanced readers of that age are ready level wise for YA, but not always maturity wise, and most parent’s of that age don’t want to keep them in the children’s section a little while longer. At least in my experience. But I know some are just happy their kids are reading anything.
I guess I waited just long enough for it to get all around the blogosphere, because I’ve had warnings from a ton of people about how graphic it can get. So maybe there’s benefits to living under a rock and taking forever to read popular books after all? lol. I could see how you’d be surprised, though. There have been plenty of books that caught me off-guard like that. Plus, being 28, it’s just extremely creepy reading about two teenagers having sex to me. It’s just one of those squicky things that I don’t enjoy. I mean, I’m not a fan of graphic sex scenes in general, but add the age into it and, nope, no thanks.
I know when I was that age, my parents never knew what I was reading, and I would’ve been scarred for life having picked up something like that at 12 lol. I was not ready. I was an innocent, naive little marshmallow still. I mean, it’s so hard to get kids to read in the first place sometimes, and you don’t want to discourage them once they do, so I understand that. It’s hard to find that balance of you don’t want to slow down their progress if they’re able to read more difficult books, but you also don’t necessarily want to expose them to certain things, either. And if your kid reads several books a week, who would have time to preview all those beforehand?! I wouldn’t. xD ((Thankfully, I’m part of the blogger community, so I get the low down from all you lovely people, but that’s not the case for the majority of parents, obviously.))
I’m 33, and I don’t want to read about teens having sex. I know some are, but reading about it is different.
Not many do preview it.
[…] actually asked this question in a post before: is YA becoming too mature? While it’s true that an astounding number of adults read YA (and goodness knows I’ve […]