So lately I’ve had several book recommendations here and in other subreddits for novels or audiobooks that sounded great, but when I pursued them, I found these were young adult novels. Despite long discussion threads, no one mentioned this.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the occasional YA book. But it seems like something people should mention it is YA, like you might mention if something was softcore. It makes me wonder: Is this is not a big deal to people? Or do people not even realize these are YA?
The most recent was Red Rising, which was suggested as an audio book recommendation. One comment mentioned that they found this after looking for something like Game of Thrones . This is a fun book, and the audio narrator is great, but it is definitely YA and nothing like Game of Thrones, lol.
Anyway, just a thought…
I just finished Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher. I can’t figure out why it’s YA. The main character is in her 30s, her love interest is in his 40s. There is nothing terribly gory and there is no explicit sex, but I still don’t understand how it’s YA. It’s not about teenagers or a coming of age story. It’s more about finding one’s self in middle age than anything.
That’s really odd to me because I’m a librarian and Nettle & Bone is firmly in our adult section and we didn’t have to reclassify it.
Same issue with Strange the Dreamer (which is phenomenal). Because there’s no explicit sex, and because Laini Taylor had written other YA books, it’s marketed as YA.
In no world is this book YA.