Why I Stopped Reading Young Adult Novels

I’ve realised as I’ve gotten older that the same old tropes and the same old plot-lines in Young Adult fiction just weren’t working for me anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for reading a good old trashy novel every once in a while, but the same old repetitive themes and characters and ideas just get monotonous after a while.

I first started reading the popular YA at around age 9/10, and moved through the more popular YA series such as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight and the vast collection of Cassandra Clare's books. At the time, when reading books at such a young age you don't necessarily consider how good the book or series is. You just read for the sake of reading.

However, as I began to get older I started losing interest in the same love triangles with the same tropes disguised as different ones. I no longer wanted to read about the same boring romantic subplots. I wanted something more elaborate and extensive, I wanted language that was more difficult to understand, I wanted the fictional books I read to challenge me rather than bore me.

One of the first Adult books I read that reaffirmed this for me was 'Black Water Lillies' by Michael Bussi, which I don't think has nearly enough recognition. The book had me confused and believing one thing only for me to find out that everything I believed to be separate was all intricately woven together. There was no YA book that I could think of that was comparable to the style of that novel, and how it all pieced together.

I also realised that none of these YA archetypal characters had any similarities to me. Of course they were fictional and I didn't expect to be a witch or a vampire or one of the many 'chosen ones' but I found little I could relate to within these characters. The characters, while they very obviously displayed flaws, were described as close to perfect. With almost every novel having these 'perfect' characters it becomes increasingly repetitive and boring.

Overall, I think as I have matured as a person I expected these YA novels to mature with me, yet they didn't. This has just led to me rejecting them in general rather than hoping one author somewhere down the line will get it right. Do I think focusing on a younger demographic is a bad thing? No. It sells, and sells well. I just think that this technique results in little reader loyalty, as once people grow up they are less likely to still read YA and will look for some novels more original.



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