Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted by Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Since April 2022, the meme moved to another host, Aria @ Book Nook Bits. Let’s Talk Bookish is a meme where participants discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and share their love by visiting each other’s posts.

This week it’s time to talk about YA. I’ve read this genre a lot in the past, I even blogged about it for a Dutch bookish platform. However, as i’m growing older and I’m gaining more and more reading experience, I find myself drifting away from YA books. But, what counts as YA?

Prompts: Young adult fiction (YA) is aimed at 12 to 18 year old readers, but what actually makes a book YA? Is it just the characters’ ages, or more about the content and themes? Are there any books that have been marketed as YA that you feel are really adult?

This is actually really funny, because I always thought YA was aimed at 15 to 18 year old readers, but that’s probably in my country. I always thought middle-grade was aimed at 10 to 15 year old readers, but that’s completely different then. However, in the Netherlands, many (especially originally Dutch or Flemish) YA feels really “young”, because we don’t have middle-grade here. We have children’s books and then immediately YA. So maybe it’s not a bad thing that it’s aimed at 12 to 18 year old readers.

I think that indeed the themes and setting makes a book YA, as well as the age of the main characters. Older characters can of course be present in such books, e.g. teachers or parents. However, the main characters are often aged 12 to 18 years as well. Therefore, contemporary fiction in this age category often takes place in middle or high school, which makes these books a little too juvenile for this 32-year old reader. YA fantasy is slightly different though. Some of it takes place in special (boarding) schools, but somehow I enjoy them more. However, I can’t deny the beautiful coming of age contemporaries! Also, content in YA tends to be less explicit. This is not limited to language for instance. I notice that YA authors use less swearing in their books. This is a little more in the books aimed towards 15 to 18 year old readers, but I still find it a little pity. Okay, I think I’ve been reading to much adult content lately anyway. This also brings me to the next topic: spice. YA has romance of course, but there’s likely no spice. It’s mostly fade to black and often limited to just kissing.

Talking about smud…. There are definitely books that are labeled YA that definitely should not have been. However I’m not to sure about the international market, but the first 3 ACOTAR books have been marketed as YA in the Netherlands, while the first few Throne of Glass were marketed as adult. This totally should have been different, chapter 55 😀. I’m not certain about other books that definitely shouldn’t have been marketed as YA, I just don’t know at this moment. However, I find myself less interested in YA books so I mainly read adult fiction now. Still, I will ocassionally read them, but I’ll be very careful in choosing which books to read.

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What about you? Do you read YA? What counts as YA to you?