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Young Adult novels… for adults.

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The evolution of young adult novels over the past ten years has caught me off guard. I started reading a little later than most children but unlike most of my generation I continued reading voraciously though out my school years, when trips to the library were no longer mandatory.

During those times young adult novels seemed to fall into two or three categories. The short “horror” books, the budding of the urban fantasy/vampire romance genre, and all the girly books I never read.

The Harry Potter came along and changed the face of young adult reading. I heard recently that readership among adults in their early twenties is higher than the previous generations because of Harry Potter. It has become a grossing market for writers and publishers. You only have to compare the state of young adult bookshelves in book stores and with today to see how much has changed. Thin paperbacks that took up one, maybe two whole shelves and replaced with hardbound editions with artistic renderings made to catch the eye that take up an entire corner of a bookstore.

I admit I read young adult novels prior to the popularity of Mr. Potter, even past the years where it was considered socially appropriate. Young adult novels take the themes of life and distill them. The problems are the same but then context can be so much simpler. That simplicity is enjoyable because it allows you to feel the story without the excessive need for more adult distraction, as I am sure many found when they finally got to book four of J.K. Rowling’s series.

And now recently I’ve read The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. A three book trilogy set in a far future where twelve districts serve under the heel of the Capitol and each year, as homage to a failed rebellion years in the past, each district must send a tribute, one boy and one girl, to the Hunger Games, a blood sport where only one of the twenty-four tribute children will survive.

And honestly, that is only the beginning of the story that spans three novels and takes you on an emotional roller coaster. I write a full review here if you are interested but I gave this synopsis to show an example of the type of content that is in young adult novels. The stories are young adult because the heroes and heroines are teens and young adults and they lack some of the more “adult” content one might find in some novels of similar genre or style but that makes them no less a story worthy of adult attention.

So keep that in mind next time you’re looking for something to read. You don’t necessarily have to wait for a young adult novel to become insanely popular with other adults to pick one up and see if it worth your time.


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