Work stoppage du jour

[megwrites]

Sometimes, I really wish people would label YA books on review sites or when they review them on their LJ's or what not. Especially some SF/F review sites that I'm getting fed up with.

No insult the YA genre. It's an important and vital genre of literature, and some of our greatest cultural treasures are books which are YA/children's. But sometimes? I want adult books, and I'd like to know which books are which.

Not that adult targeted books are inherently that much better. Trust me, some of the "adult" paranormal romances/urban fantasies I've thrown across the room for being lousy are proof positive of that.

I'm just a stickler for clear labeling and full disclosure. I wonder if it's a sign of shame that people on these sites won't outright denote a book as YA. It's like they believe the genre is less than adult books so they have to trick me into reading it by pretending it's an adult book.

Besides, labeling it as YA makes it easier for folks who might want to hand a good genre read to a younger reader in their life and would like to know upfront which books are appropriate and which might not be.

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I noticed someone labeling books as YA on her Goodreads account and considered doing that as well--until I realized I would have to update all my existing entries! But if I fail to disclose a book as YA when I discuss it on my LJ, it's really because I think the only classification it needs is whether it's good fiction or not. :) Then again, I'm probably biased; most of my reading these days is YA.