Calling it what it is

As most of you bookish types probably already know, a couple of weeks ago the Daily Mail ran a piece opining that young-adult literature is morbid and exploitative and do young adults really need to read stuff like that—the article calls it “sick lit”—after all? (John Green’s novel The Fault in Our Stars, with a teenage cancer patient as its narrator, The Fault in Our Starswas the primary target of the article’s wrath.) Cue resounding cries of yes from the literary world and one nicely snarky response from The Guardian.

So far, so good. I enjoyed the Guardian piece. Fast-forward to today on Twitter, when, out of the mass of #DBW13 tweets, this statistic crops up and is batted about a bit: 62% of people buying YA books aren’t actually, well, young adults.*

I didn’t see a source for it, but it’s a statistic I can believe, simply out of personal experience: most of the people I know who read YA literature (myself included) aren’t what the industry considers YA (that is, under eighteen). There are various reasons given for this, including but not limited to: YA fiction is better-written than contemporary adult fiction; YA fiction is more original than contemporary adult fiction; and YA fiction is more fast-paced and exciting than contemporary adult fiction.

All of that may or may not be true, but my point is this: many, if not most, of the people reading YA novels aren’t young adults. And, no matter what the Daily Mail might think, content (language, sex, violence, heavy thematic elements) isn’t the deciding factor in determining whether a book is YA or adult—at least not anymore. I’m not convinced that the age of the protagonist is the deciding factor, either; there have been stories with teenage protagonists for as long as there have been stories (and for far longer than there’s been a “YA” label). Conversely, the protagonist of Rosemary Sutcliff’s classic YA novel The Eagle of the Ninth is in his mid-twenties. Megan Whalen Turner’s characters tend to skew older, too.

So if the deciding factor isn’t the audience, or the content, or even the characters themselves—what is it? What does “YA” even mean?

Honestly, I don’t think there is a single deciding factor. And, for that reason, I think the whole YA label is meaningless, at least nowadays—now that the argument “it doesn’t have sex and violence, so it must be written for younger audiences” doesn’t hold much weight; now that the literary world has shown “YA” books to be just as well-written and thought-provoking as “adult” books. So why even assign the label at all? Why not call The Fault in Our Stars literature, period, and leave it up to the reader to decide how to approach it?

I welcome your thoughts. How do you define YA?

* A further break-down of the numbers showed that the majority of that majority were actually buying the books for themselves, not as, say, gifts for younger readers.

  • https://raymewaters.com rayme

    I think YA enjoys such crossover success because it almost always has a plot. People love plot and often “contemporary adult literary fiction” doesn’t have one. That’s my guess for the main reason, but I’m sure there are additional factors that make “YA” successful with older adults as well.

    • https://amandamccrina.com Amanda

      I’d agree. I certainly tend to drift more towards plot-driven novels. Not because I think plot is the most important factor, but because you really have to be an exceptional writer if it isn’t. Give me a Hemingway novel with the barest hint of a plot, and I’ll still hang on to every word. Kazuo Ishiguro, too. But very few of us are Hemingways or Ishiguros. :-)

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  • https://hazelwest.blogspot.com Hazel West

    I agree it’s very hard to class YA, but I do not agree that all of it is “sick lit” but there definitely ARE YA books like that, and those are the ones I have never read and never will :P A lot of my books tend to have an older character. I mean, Caolan was a teen, but then I had Viggo who was his father’s age. As far as content goes, the last YA novel I read had more raunchy content than the last adult novel I read which I have found to be the case on several instances. So I don’t know, how do we class YA? I know there’s been some really awesome YA books out lately though and myself and all the other ‘adults’ in my family my mom and grandma included all read a lot of YA books ;)

    • https://amandamccrina.com Amanda

      I think it certainly used to be true that you could assume “YA” fiction would be tamer, content-wise, than “adult” fiction-I really think that’s the only reason why Sutcliff’s novels get classified as YA. The one “adult” novel of hers that I’ve read (Sword at Sunset) was really no different in style, plot, or even theme than any of her YA books, but it had a few sex scenes, and in the 1950s/60s that automatically meant it was an adult book. Definitely not true anymore!

      You’re right, though; there have been some really great YA novels lately.

  • https://Website Mr. Rogers

    I define YA as a note to follow Sew.

  • https://mjohnsonstories.net mary

    As a teen librarian, I’d define YA literature as literature written specifically for or about teenagers. As such, it’s almost certain to tackle themes of identity and belonging, and will focus (in some way - not necessarily graphic!) on emotional maturation.

    Since, ideally, we don’t stop growing and learning until the day we die (and hopefully, we keep on learning afterwards!), this sort of story will naturally have appeal for adults, also.

    But I think, too, that kids require that a book actually tell a story. That’s attractive to adults, as well.

    Great post, and very interesting links! I was not awfully fond of AFIOS, but I will defend any kid’s right to read it - and I also think that Hazel’s relationship with her parents was lovely, and a good thing for kids to read. I didn’t care for her relationship with Augustus, but that’s another comment, probably.

    • https://amandamccrina.com Amanda

      I have to admit I haven’t read any of Green’s books; I know him only through his “Crash Course” video series, which is brilliant. Perhaps ironically, none of his books seem that appealing to me-at least, I haven’t gone out of my way to read them.

      I agree; coming-of-age stories are some of my favorites, and I do believe that’s why I’m attracted to YA lit. (Though I’d say it isn’t a theme exclusive to YA lit; All Quiet on the Western Front is essentially a coming-of-age story.)

  • https://artz3.wordpress.com Amira K.

    I agree wholeheartedly and you have hit the nail on the head with why I disagree with classification of books as “YA” these days. As everyone has been discussing, the coming of age story is a classic, and since most people in our modern world tend to “come of age” between, say, fifteen and nineteen, it’s really no surprise that these stories are so resounding with us. Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” posits perhaps the best cultural/anthropological argument for why these coming of age stories are so powerful; it’s because they represent not just the transition from youth to adulthood, but from one generation to the next, from the past to the future, from tradition to modernity. And the idea in the modern publishing industry (or perhaps literary critics’ circles) that YA is somehow of lesser literary value because it has the capacity to appeal to teenagers as well is really appalling. Humans in general, as a species, are attracted to these stories, and no wonder - they’re wrapped into the very fabric of our experiences on this Earth.

    • https://amandamccrina.com Amanda

      Thanks for commenting, Amira! You’re exactly right; the coming-of-age story is part of the human experience, and it’s just wrong to try to pigeonhole it as only appropriate for a certain demographic.