This is not for everyone of course.
Stop it.
“This book felt too YA for me.” “It was alright, but it was just so YA.” “I DNF’d that book; it was YA in everything but name.”
Just stop. Stop using “YA” as an insult. But I don’t mean it as an insult. Sure sounds like you do. It’s pretentious and sophomoric to be blunt. And to be clear, I don’t mean that you should automatically start loving every YA book. I don’t expect that at all.
It’s annoying.
Here are some other things you can say instead regarding adult books you might dislike that are commonly attributed to YA books. (Note that I am not saying all YA books have these attributes.)
- I didn’t like the love triangle or romance subplot.
- I wasn’t a fan of the writing. It was too dull.
- Given the plot, the themes were only explored at face value and should’ve been looked into in more detail.
- This reminded me of [TITLE of Actual YA Book], which I didn’t like because xyz. Unfortunately, this book also had xyz in it.
See how easy it is to not resort to “YA = bad”?
Thanks.
Bye.
We all know what YA books are and frankly I appreciate the label. It saves me time and money in my consideration of what I will read. I would think that those who enjoy such reads would find them similarly time saving and economic as well. I think the category should be used with more frequency and should be broadend.
I’ve read some YA that one wouldn’t know was YA without the “tag.” I also read some kids stuff. I like to know what my kids are into.
That doesn’t surprise me, since YA is a broad age range, so it’ll have books that bleed both into the Middlegrade and Adult categories. Overall, I think it’s a good label, though.
I just get annoyed when people resort to weaponizing the term and using it as a shorthand for “bad book” for books that the author did not write for a YA audience. (And yes, of course you don’t have to be an adult to read adult-oriented books or vise versa.)
Very well said! This is something that bothers me a lot too!