Recently, I was looking through my older Goodreads entries and noticed something that surprised me: it's been about 6 years since I enjoyed a young adult novel.
Early in 2009, I was still happily reading YA fantasy books like the Bartimaeus series and the Chrestomanci Chronicles - books that I'd still instantly recommend to anyone looking for a Harry Potter fix. But then, something happened. From a combination of coursework and adventurousness, I found myself spending more and more time outside the YA section of the bookstore. And in the years since, my visits back didn't make me want to stay - even when I wasn't really aware that this was happening.
I tried books in different genres. Books that seemed universally loved. But when I read them, I felt that I was missing something. I didn't become engrossed in the dystopian struggles of The Hunger Games or Red Rising. I was unmoved by The Fault in Our Stars and ungripped by Code Name Verity. Even Clariel, a new book in a series I had loved, fell flat. These books didn't particularly engage my emotions or challenge my mind. But I knew that YA fiction has a huge following among adults right now, and I started to feel like someone awkwardly sitting in the corner at a party. What was I doing wrong?
Enter the infamous article, Against YA. It begins:
Read whatever you want. But you should feel embarrassed when what you're reading was meant for children.
I hardly need to say that many of the 3,000+ comments on the article express outrage. Nobody likes to hear that they "should be embarrassed", especially over something as harmless and personal as a choice of book. But I think it's a sad case of a reasonable argument getting packaged in the most provocative, ire-inducing way possible - it gets many people to read, but few people to change their mind. (But that's a rant for another day...) Essentially, I think the point is this: there's a huge, diverse, challenging world of books out there beyond the glossy YA shelves, and people of all ages have a lot to gain by venturing into it.
The article verbalizes (somewhat tactlessly) what I had been vaguely feeling for a while: it's natural to progress beyond YA books, and eventually focus on books that aren't specifically targeted at the under-18 audience. And why? It'll broaden the set of experiences and ideas that you'll read about, the characters that you'll meet, and the writing styles that your imagination will learn to play with. In other words: all the reasons that you're already reading books.
And as for the current popularity of YA - I still think it's pretty awesome that younger readers have more books to choose from than ever, and that adults are also able to understand and enjoy the perspectives of teen protagonists. It's also awesome that YA books have inspired such a passionate fanbase of readers. Personally, I don't feel that I need to spend a lot of time reading YA. I'm not giving up on the genre, but I've come to see it as just one of many areas of literature that I should explore if I want to be a well-rounded reader.
And if you're a primarily YA reader who wants to try something different, these are a few of the books that I liked when I was in that position. They're intelligent, approachable, and exciting.
A Room With a View, by E.M. Forster
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein
Einstein's Dreams, by Alan Lightman
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger
And another book that I read recently that I think fits the bill is Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
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