I'm a huge fan of YA (Young Adult) Fiction. I'm not the only one. Gone are the days when people would tut and shake their heads when they glimpsed an adult reading Harry Potter or something similar. Adults reading books aimed at younger people is not as taboo as it used to be.
Perhaps it is because it has gotten a lot better in quality. YA fiction when I was growing up would have been Sweet Valley High, maybe some Point Horror if you wanted to feel a bit older- it had more gore and Adult Situations, dontchaknow. Let's face it, they were pretty formulaic and not great.
Jessica did something stupid, Elizabeth rolled her eyes (the colour of the Pacific). Elizabeth was 4 minutes older, but sometimes it felt like 4 years. Blah, blah, blah. No matter what, it was always resolved in the end (mostly). Sometimes it dragged on for a few books but the plots (evil twins, ancient romances, earthquakes) were more day-time soap than blockbusters like Harry Potter or the Hunger Games.
Somewhere along the line, YA fiction started to improve. Maybe it was because of Harry. Maybe it showed that young people could expect more from their fiction, and their success showed publishers that they could look out for, and promote weightier and better quality books than the ghostwritten stuff they'd been peddling for years. While the earlier Harry Potter books were very good children's books, as the character grew so did the target audience of the books. The last four are definitely YA fiction in my opinion. Since 2000, when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out, and the series hit puberty and became a bit darker and edgier, young people have had their fill of great stories and characters. The Hunger Games, Noughts and Crosses, The Gone series, even Twilight. Where a young person had to re-read their copy of Are you there God, It's me Margaret till it fell apart, if they wanted above average stuff to read, they suddenly had shelves upon shelves of stuff to read.
New worlds, new ideas, new characters; YA fiction is not afraid to experiment, to set stories in worlds far removed from ours, all the while still dealing with topics that are relevant to young people, and that older readers can appreciate. It's not War and Peace, or 100 years of Solitude, but not every movie is The Seven Samurai or Citizen Kane. I'm young at heart. The heroes and heroines of these books allow me to relive my childhood and the triumphs and mistakes without actually having to go through any of the consequences.
I guess that's why I'm a fan and why in the spirit of writing more this year, I've decided to start reviewing them. Hopefully, you might pick up something you didn't know about, or you might just be pushed to tell me I'm a blithering idiot with my opinions. Either way, it should be interesting.
Jessica did something stupid, Elizabeth rolled her eyes (the colour of the Pacific). Elizabeth was 4 minutes older, but sometimes it felt like 4 years. Blah, blah, blah. No matter what, it was always resolved in the end (mostly). Sometimes it dragged on for a few books but the plots (evil twins, ancient romances, earthquakes) were more day-time soap than blockbusters like Harry Potter or the Hunger Games.
Somewhere along the line, YA fiction started to improve. Maybe it was because of Harry. Maybe it showed that young people could expect more from their fiction, and their success showed publishers that they could look out for, and promote weightier and better quality books than the ghostwritten stuff they'd been peddling for years. While the earlier Harry Potter books were very good children's books, as the character grew so did the target audience of the books. The last four are definitely YA fiction in my opinion. Since 2000, when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out, and the series hit puberty and became a bit darker and edgier, young people have had their fill of great stories and characters. The Hunger Games, Noughts and Crosses, The Gone series, even Twilight. Where a young person had to re-read their copy of Are you there God, It's me Margaret till it fell apart, if they wanted above average stuff to read, they suddenly had shelves upon shelves of stuff to read.
New worlds, new ideas, new characters; YA fiction is not afraid to experiment, to set stories in worlds far removed from ours, all the while still dealing with topics that are relevant to young people, and that older readers can appreciate. It's not War and Peace, or 100 years of Solitude, but not every movie is The Seven Samurai or Citizen Kane. I'm young at heart. The heroes and heroines of these books allow me to relive my childhood and the triumphs and mistakes without actually having to go through any of the consequences.
I guess that's why I'm a fan and why in the spirit of writing more this year, I've decided to start reviewing them. Hopefully, you might pick up something you didn't know about, or you might just be pushed to tell me I'm a blithering idiot with my opinions. Either way, it should be interesting.
