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[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

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

So: what criteria do you use to separate an adult book from a YA?

Pretty much the same ones that the publishers and bookstores do. If a publisher releases the book and tells the bookstore to put in the YA section rather than on the adult genre shelves, then it's YA.

Furthermore, I see no reason why YA SHOULDN'T be differentiated. A book geared to the sensibilities and tastes of a teenager is not the same book as one geared towards the sensibilities and tastes of someone who's twice that age. This is not a distinction in quality or literary merit, but you don't go about writing a book you intend to have in the hands of a 15-year-old the same way you'd write a book you intend to have read by 40-year-old Republicans, regardless of any sexual content.

I think using sex as the only difference between adult things and YA/children's things is rather a crude and insufficient way of looking at adulthood, frankly.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

...you don't go about writing a book you intend to have in the hands of a 15-year-old the same way you'd write a book you intend to have read by 40-year-old Republicans, regardless of any sexual content.

I don't know if I agree with that. At most, you might not add in a couple of subplots, but purely to keep the length down. The biggest--perhaps only--difference I see in how I write something YA versus non-YA is that the main characters start out younger.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

At most, you might not add in a couple of subplots, but purely to keep the length down.

Actually, I think length is quickly becoming irrelevant in the YA genre. Twilight and Harry Potter both prove that 800 page TOMES O' DOOM are just as beloved by the under-18 crowd as the adults.

The thing about YA is that I don't feel comfortable pidgeon holing the genre by saying "oh, it's YA if it's shorter than an adult book". I don't even feel comfortable saying "if it's got a younger main character or characters, it's YA".

There have been many adult books that are clear *adult* books (and not in the sense of being erotic!adult but reading-level!adult) with younger characters as leads or main characters. And there have been many YA books with adults as the protagonists and main characters.

I won't second guess you when you say that for you as a writer, the distinction between YA and non-YA is simple and about character age and length of the work.

But for me as a writer and reader, I think the differences are more subtle than that, though just as real. I think there definitely are some psychological and literary differences in how one approaches telling a story knowing the age of the audience and what sort of experiences and knowledge you can expect them to have.

And when I spoke about books for 40-year-old Republicans, I was thinking that the books written by, say, Tom Clancy or Stephen King or Janet Evanovich or John Scalzi or (insert best selling adult author) do come from difference places, and though there really isn't any sex in their novels to speak of, I do think there is a complexity of style and prose, as well as a level of intellectual engagement that while not absent in YA, is modified to suit people who aren't there yet in their development.

I know that for me, as a reader of both adult books and occasional YA books, I can feel the difference. It isn't a bad difference. The prose, storytelling, and characters can and are often just as wonderful, but different. I can feel the difference between a genre SF/F novel and a literary novel that just uses a futuristic setting, even though they technically have the same requirements to be SF/F.

Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveller's Wife comes to mind. Yes, technically, a novel about the wife of a time travelling man is science fiction, but it is not an SF/F book, really. The tone, the writing, the marketing are not from within the genre. It is a literary work that uses an SF idea to help it tell it's story.

I think, also, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is a great example of something that while technically a children's book is not entirely a children's book. Because Gaiman does not modify his voice or style all that much for the book. I think it is somewhat accessible to children, but is meant more as using the children's genre as, well, sort of a prop to tell a story to adults. There are many scenes where the interactions between Bod and his friend, though both children, are told as though they were just adults in smaller bodies. And I remember being struck by how adult it all felt and seemed, even though I was reading about interactions between children.

So, again, I won't second guess you. And I won't say that you're wrong, though I think the differences run deeper.

But I stand by my wish that people would label their YA reviews, because not only is that better organization, but it makes it easier for anyone who specifically wants to find genre YA reads, because just as it's easy to confuse a YA book for a non-YA book merely from description, it's easy to do it the other way around. So I think it would be helpful to a lot of people.