Comments on: Why I Read YA Fiction

By: heidenkind

heidenkind — Fri, 07 May 2010 00:17:27 +0000

I would say YA isn’t a genre–more like a marketing category. By far the most appealing about YA for me is that the focus seems to be more on telling a good story than sticking to genre tropes (like in romance, for example) or telling something deep and meaningful (which seems to happen a lot in litfic).

And I sure as heck don’t read YA to relive my teen years. Haha!

By: Li

Li — Thu, 06 May 2010 20:33:36 +0000

Very nicely put, Sarah. There are so many things I like about YA fiction, most of which is encapsulated in your post. I think it’s a mix of what Kat said re the rawness and extremity of emotions combined with the optimism and freedom of having your whole life in front of you. And of course, great story-telling!

Slightly OT, I like the fact that YA fiction is all jumbled up together on the shelves (or at least it is here in the UK!) – you can find SF sitting next to romance, paranormal next to historical. You can so easily stumble across a book you normally wouldn’t read just because it would have been shelved in a different section if it had been an adult book.

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 06 May 2010 12:17:03 +0000

In case it wasn’t clear on Twitter, my fave YA author is Melina Marchetta. In one of her interviews she was asked why she liked to write YA/teen fiction, and she replied that it was a time of transition when emotions are always much more extreme and kind of on the edge. I think that’s also part of the appeal of reading YA–for me, anyway.

By: Rowena

Rowena — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:03:34 +0000

Great post, I completely agree with everything you said. I adore Sarah Dessen and Meg Cabot. I can’t wait to read books by the other authors!

By: Looking for Alibrandi, Melina Marchetta

Looking for Alibrandi, Melina Marchetta — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:39:22 +0000

[...] SarahT from MonkeyBear reviews just wrote up a nice post pointing out why she enjoys reading teen fiction. I enjoy it for the same reasons she does. Some readers won’t read YA fiction stating [...]

By: Lynn Spencer

Lynn Spencer — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:47:54 +0000

“In contrast to many genres, YA stories seem to be permitted more room for creativity and originality than, say, the romance genre, which has become increasingly rigid its settings and themes.”

YES! I like sections of the fiction market where things are a little freer and authors can play more with settings, plots, character types, etc.. I haven’t been reading as much YA lately, but I do like some of the fantasy I’ve been reading and I have plenty in the TBR. I love Megan Whalen Turner’s work. I also like Libba Bray’s writing, though not quite so much as Turner. I also used to like Ann Rinaldi’s historicals, but it’s been years since I read one. The more recent ones didn’t grab me like her older titles.

By: katiebabs

katiebabs — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:41:58 +0000

YA gives me the warm fuzzies. Somewhat kinder, gentler books in some cases.