Friday 8 November 2019

YA vs. NA: Why is it So Hard To Categorize?


I think it is obvious that I mostly read YA. I find it the most enjoyable to read personally, though I have read some standard fiction novels that I absolutely love. Recently, I have been branching more into New Adult territory.  This is mostly because I ain't getting any younger, and since I am well out of high school now, I do find some YA to be less relatable to me. However, a problem arises when trying to research New Adult books. I am finding that most of the books I am looking for are being categorized under the YA genre, when they are so clearly not YA.

I realized I wanted to write this post when reading Red, White and Royal Blue by: Casey Mcquiston. I absolutely adored the book, but I was shocked while reading some of the details, because all this time I had seen the book being marketed as YA. Even on Goodreads, a substantial amount of people had labelled it YA. There are some detailed sex scenes in the book, and the characters are a bit more mature, so I wondered why YA was the standard for it to be labelled as.

I think that people forget that YA is not just a genre for older high school students. YA begins at age 12, and I personally don't find Red, White and Royal Blue appropriate for a 12 year old. Now, this can all depend on the maturity of the teen, and I don't think we should censor what teens want to read if they are willing to learn, however sometimes books are just meant for an older audience, even if they are labelled as something different.

I have seen on twitter that Ninth House by: Leigh Bardugo was being marketed as YA, simply because of Leigh's past YA novels being such a success. Now I haven't read Ninth House yet, but judging by the synopsis, I don't think it is anywhere near YA territory, even if the author has written YA. Why should she be labelled to one genre for the rest of her life? It just seems so restricting to me.

Other books such as the A Court of... series by: Sarah J. Maas are sooo not YA, but again, I have seen them on the YA shelf at bookstores. These books are very explicit in sex content, and again, I think some parents would be weary of their 12 year old reading them. There is absolutely no reason for this book to be labelled as YA.

I think I know the answer as to why a lot of books are mis-labelled, and it comes down to good old marketing. YA is a much larger field than NA. YA books are super successful, whereas NA is a relatively new category with not as many recognisable bestsellers. I think some marketers label books as YA because they know the book will make a lot of money if under that category. It opens the book up to not only teens, but also the adults who do read YA, whereas less teens read NA. I guess it just makes more money that way.

I think that booksellers and publishers should be careful when labelling novels. If Jenny Han, the queen of YA contemporary in my opinion, were to write a book tomorrow with graphic content, I don't think it should still be put into YA just because she is a well-known YA author! There are certain guidelines that should be followed.

So, if a mature teen would like to branch into NA, then good for them! However, when unknowing younger teens are picking up novels in the YA section, only to be shocked and confused by the content, then there is a big problem on our hands. New Adult is a great genre, so let its books flourish! The only way to expand the genre, is to allow books to be apart of it.

Have you found this to be an issue?

Emily @ Paperback Princess

13 comments:

  1. HUGE pet peeve of mine, especially as I worked in a children and teen section of a library for ten years. It's hard to dissuade them from reading something explicit when it's in the section as Percy Jackson!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly! Percy Jackson and some of the books I have seen categorized as YA are COMPLETELY different in content lol.

      Delete
  2. This is such a huge issue, imo. Personally, I was reading adult books from a young age, but a lot of people - not even just teens - don't want explicit content, or are not ready for it, which is why the age categories exist. I think it's the worst when a publisher willingly markets an NA title to teens, like they did with SJM. I think NA got a "bad rep" after it was mainly used for romance novels, a lot of which were... not good (I mean, Beautiful Disaster?) and, like you said, it's also not that well-known age category. I'd rather if they put NA books in the adult category than into the YA category. Great discussion!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Veronika! That’s actually a really good point. Is there any real need for an NA category anyways? The people reading it are mostly just adults, so why not just place them into the standard fiction category? It would avoid a lot of these issues.

      Delete
  3. I think it can be difficult, b/c there's so much cross-over between the two, to decide which is which, tbh. While some stuff is obvious, a lot of other stuff has a grey area, so *shrugs* I have no solutions. Also, a lot of people don't count NA as a genre at all, or count it as a sub-genre as YA.

    I've never read Sarah J Maas' books, but I *did* think they were YA! (Although I also vaguely knew there were sex scenes in there)

    And you 'ain't getting any younger..?' Em, you were like 6 when High School Musical came out. If you're old, I'm a dinosaur! ;) <3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, SJM is definitely not for the faint of heart. Her A Court Of series is extremely smutty, so I don’t see how it could be suitable for the average young teen. I do think that there are definitely overlaps though! It can be difficult to pick the limit. Haha, you know what I mean, Cee! I may be “young” compared to some, but I’m getting to the point where high school is becoming a memory, and a lot of YA deals with that kind of stuff.

      Delete
    2. You'll have to keep blogging so you can stay down with the kids like me B) (lol!)

      Delete
  4. You hit the nail on the head. I know a writer who's trying to sell a book where the protagonists are in college, and even if there isn't any sex in it, there is definitely mature content (it's a contemporary horror novel!). But she had to pitch it as "YA set in college", which is funny, to say the least. She said NA bombed because of all the bad rep it got as, basically, that genre where girls go to college and get laid and nothing much more happens, so publishers aren't keen on selling books with older protagonists and more mature themes as NA.

    I think we need in-between tags, like "younger YA" and "older YA", so that readers, parents and librarians know what they're getting into. Maybe drop the infamous NA label, but have more categories for young readers to choose from so they can find the appropriate read (and, secondarily, for adults who read YA but don't want sex in their books to be sure that there isn't any).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is a great solution Roberta! I do think that the NA genre hasn’t really “stuck.” Maybe there is a need to just split up YA into separate categories. You make a good point, some adults would rather not read smutty stuff. So I think there is a need for some sort of divide!

      Delete
  5. I agreed with you on Sarah Maas' books - they are clearly not YA but they are marketed as such which bothers me just a little but since I don't read her books, well, it's not an issue with me but you're right, Maas' books and others like hers, really needs to be re-categorized.

    Of course, who is to say what books teens or even children can be allowed to read? I suppose in a perfect world, all children can stay away from mature things until they are ready but sometimes things still slips through anyway. I suppose it's also a parent's job to make sure their children reads age appropriate books but again, there's no way to keep children from things that might harm them. Also, if a teen wants to, they can easily go find any mature books to read, they don't need categories and such info.

    I also believe reviewers should also said something when reviewing a book. I have read reviews that absolutely says nothing of the content and then I go and read the book and I'm so freaked out by a certain content. But it's not the reviewer's fault as no reviewer has to say anything about a books mature content but it really would help.

    Have a lovely day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Lissa!
      SJM’s books have always bothered me, because it really does seem like they are just categorized as YA because the publisher sees YA as a more marketable category.

      I agree that teens and kids will go looking for mature stuff if they want, and no category will stop that. I think my issue is when teens are being promised that a book is YA, and instead are getting something that they may have not wanted to read.

      Delete
  6. Ahh couldn't agree more about ACOTAR *not being YA*- it frustrates me so much to see them shelved there!! I'm so surprised red white and blue has been marketed as YA (and heard a few bloggers saying they were surprised by the content because of it) because it doesn't sound like YA to me from what I've heard of the content (I really want to read it, I just think people should be more clear about what it's about). And I absolutely agree with you- mature teens should be free to explore NA- but that doesn't mean putting it in with YA (especially as I've heard so many teens complaining about this). Fantastic discussion! Completely agree with you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by! As soon as I saw Red White and Royal Blue I just assumed it would be YA. Everything is marketed as YA nowadays that it just seems so taboo sometimes to suggest otherwise. Glad you agree!

      Delete