When people ask me what my book is about, I don’t tell them that it’s YA at first. I tell them that it’s set in a world in which the soul can be made visible, or that it’s about a girl putting her shattered soul back together piece by piece. Most often, they say “ooh, that sounds interesting, I’d read that”, because the fact that it’s appropriate for ages 12 and above isn’t that relevant.
Morgan Owen
People will tell you that YA has certain rules that must be followed, that they don’t appeal to adult readers because they rely on immature tropes and conventions. They’re too angsty! Too soppy! And isn’t it silly that teenage girls keep single-handedly changing the world? (Someone get Greta Thunberg, Marley Dias and Malala Yousafzai on the phone.)
YA is full of breakthrough books: ageless classics with sophisticated, bloodthirsty scenes that parallel any of their adult counterparts. The genre is a star factory, full of fresh voices and bright futures. YA also requires us to critically examine our society. That book your teenager is utterly engrossed in can tell you just as much about yourself as it can tell you about them.
Please, allow me five further reasons to convince you:
1. The protagonist will capture your attention immediately, whether with a witty one-liner, a raw confession or a wry observation of a flawed society. YA main characters aren’t here to play. They came here to flip tables and speak harrowing truths. They’re going to make you root for them from page one, even when you really shouldn’t. They’re angry, funny, vulnerable and deeply relatable. Most of all they’re brave, even when they’re just surviving.
2. If you’re looking for books about being headhunted by assassins, having a bomb in your head, coding your own boyfriend, piloting giant mecha or hunting wild paper spirits, YA has got you covered because this is where all the big concept ideas cut their teeth. YA books are committed to staying up to date, offering up the biggest, brightest new trends of tomorrow. Teenagers are voracious consumers of ideas, and highly discerning readers.
3. YA is serious about representing diverse characters, amplifying own voices and exploring complex political issues. Racism, sexism, climate change, war:
YA doesn’t shy away from asking difficult questions. The narratives of these teenage protagonists represent the fears and concerns of the current generation and generations yet to come. Adults should read YA to understand what it means to come of age in the 2020s.
4. Most YA books have a search for identity or belonging at their heart. This is best realised through the formative years of adolescence, when the powerlessness we feel inside is matched by a world that doesn’t yet consider us fully autonomous. But that uncertainty of self and desire for acceptance is something that stays with us. Often in adult life, incidents of humiliation and injustice bring us back to our teenage experiences, because that identity struggle firmly took its roots there. YA is about a validation of our existence.
5. When adults embark on a romantic relationship, it is often a dance of small steps, slow moves and long games. By the time we’ve reached our thirties, many of us are well-weathered, world-weary, roughened and barnacle-clad. YA romance is more often optimistic and unselfconscious, with characters who are not yet totally numbed and blunted by bad experiences. They feel intensely, and freely. Indulgent and escapist, the ride-or-die vibes of YA romance are a far cry from the realism of modern adult cohabitation.
