Have you heard of "New Adult" books yet? It's a
new label for books aimed at 17-25 year-olds who are bridging from
books like Twilight, Hunger Games and Harry Potter into more adult
titles, but the emphasis seems to be sex. Yup. There are quite
a few raised eyebrows about it. I think it might be a good thing and here's why.
I've had conversations with many parents of adolescent readers and there is a common misconception that Young Adult books have sex in them. Now, it is true that many YA books do have some sex and/or deal with issues relating to sexuality, but not all YA books do. In fact, from what I've read, a large portion of YA books are "clean." But those books that aren't have given the YA category a bad rap.
Unlike music, TV
and movies (which have ratings) you don't know what's in a book until
you read it. This is problematic for many parents. I have on occasion read a book only to be "surprised" half way through. Personally I don't like those kind of surprises. While I am not advocating a rating system for books, maybe creating this "New Adult" category might help siphon off some of the more sexier YA books, making it easier for readers and parents of teen readers to distinguish books with more "adult" content.
Leslie Kaufman at New York Times wrote an awesome article about it. Take
a look and tell me what you think. Is New Adult just a way for publishers and authors to sell more books, or is it a way for them to innocuously rate books with adult content?
"Vampire and wizard fans are apparently ready for characters who shed their robes and show a little more skin.
Publishers and authors say they are seeing a spurt in sales of books
that fit into the young-adult genre in their length and emotional
intensity, but feature slightly older characters and significantly more
sex, explicitly detailed
They’ve labeled this category “new adult” — which some winkingly
describe as Harry Potter meets “50 Shades of Grey” — and say it is aimed
at 18-to-25-year-olds, the age group right above young adult..." Read entire article HERE.
I haven't heard about this, and I'm not sure if I like it. But, it would be good to get the more explicit stuff out of the YA genre.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a good thing, actually. It speaks to a group of people that have sort of been left out of the book market :)
ReplyDeleteI've always liked the idea of New Adult as a category, but I kept hearing how it wasn't marketable because people don't read "down" in age. I personally believe that's not true at all. I know I do! LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm not old enough for new adult books. They burn my eyes.
ReplyDeleteI've heard "New Adult" books and have even read a few that could/would fall into that category, however, none of them have ever had sex. Like other YA books they might deal with those kind of issues, but nothing is ever graphic. Thankfully I haven't come across anything too bad. If I wanted something graphic I would read a different genre other than YA.
ReplyDelete