Thoughts of a Bookworm #3: The YA Genre

Genuinely I have never felt so passionate about a book topic. I think this genre has been the pinnacle of my time as a reader from the beginning, all the way up till now. It affects the way I think and observe the world.

So, why do I want to talk about YA and what can be gained from this rant?

Well, I think it is due to capitalism. What happened to quality over quantity?

Now, I ask you this question, when was the last time you read a YA novel that not only stuck out to you but also was a hot topic of conversation? I don't think these conversations have existed in any sense for the last five years.

YA has simply been absorbed into a never-ending library with more vivid and interesting genres that take our fancy. It just doesn't exist. It is dead, but somehow we are making out that it still lives. Like a conspiracy to one of the most conversed topics of whether it died in the first place. But we all know, deep down, the golden age is gone and what comes after?

Publishing really needs to take note. What defines YA? What makes it different from children and new adult? How does it address real problems of what young adults are going through and how this would affect what they want to read in today's world? It is obvious that successful YA five to ten years ago does not have the same impact on this audience that it once did.

What really needs to happen now is one of two things. To either, get rid of what we know of the YA genre completely, or we need fresh blood with great talent to see the world in a completely new light. Because something needs to change and needs to change fast.

Let's just say the YA of today would not convince me to go out and buy a book for a young person that I know. It's depressing. But nothing has been good as of late. I'm optimistic things will look up, in the meantime, I guess I'll stick with being an adult in the big bad world.

Comments

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