YA Books: Do they Exist as a Genre?

[ClaudeNougat]

The publishing industry has always relied on "genre" as a marketing tool to push its wares, and among them, the most bizarre is YA.

How to reach out to Young Adults is of course a legitimate concern but with Rowlands' winning Harry Potter series, everybody from literary agents to editors to publishers just drools about it. YA is growing fast. YA is where money is made. YA is the place to be. Even as an indie: look at Amanda Hocking and how she became a publishing wonder with her YA trilogy published on the Kindle. But if you dig into it, you'll discover two remarkable things:
(1) YA is not a genre as such. It is a cross-cutting genre by definition: it means different things to different people. A YA novel can be a romance, a dystopian fantasy, a historical, a paranormal laden with vampires and werewolves, in short, just about anything.
(2) No feature distinguishes YA in particular, not even the age of the protagonist. Yet, that's what (according to Wikipedia and all the pundits) is precisely what defines YA: young adults are people between the age of 12 and 18. Thus, characters should be within that age bracket.

This is a pervasive this view within the publishing industry but not among writers, notably among YA authors. Take
Carlos Ruiz Zafòn. His books are universally considered YA successes, starting with that absolute masterpiece, Shadow of the Wind, set in a dark, mysterious Barcelona touched by Gaudì craziness and a magical cemetery of Forgotten Books. How I love that book! And all the others he wrote...

What Carlos Ruiz Zafòn himself has to say about YA might come as a surprise to some. When asked what he thought were "the most important differences" when writing for adult readers and young adult readers, his answer was an eye-opener and I can't resist quoting him (you'll find the whole interview on his Amazon page):

I don't think they're that many differences, really. You just have to write the best possible story in the most efficient way you are capable of. It is all about the language, the style, the atmosphere, the characters, the plot, the images and textures… If anything, I believe that younger readers are even more demanding and sincere about their feelings about what they're reading, and you have to be honest, never condescending. I don't think younger readers are an ounce less smart than adult ones. I think they are able to understand anything intellectually but perhaps there are emotional elements that they have not experienced in their lives yet, although they will eventually. Because of this, I think it is important to include a perspective in the work that allows them to find an emotional core that they can relate to not just intellectually. Other than that, I think you should work as hard as you can for your audience, respect them and try to bring the best of your craft to the table. My own personal view is that there’s just good writing and bad writing. All other labels are, at least to me, irrelevant.

Do you think he's right? Are young readers more demanding? Do you agree when he says YA is not a genre as such, but only a matter of including "a perspective" that allows Young Adults to find "an emotional core that they can relate to".

Just let me add as a footnote: many people suspect that the Harry Potter series was as much of a success with adults as with young readers. That says something about YA, doesn't it? The best YA novels happen to be damn good stories well told - and a YA classification adds nothing to that. Or does it? What is your view?

[Guardian]

This is one of the definition of YA, at least the one that I know; In general young adult fiction features a teen-aged protagonist who is wrestling with questions of identity or the difficulty of coming of age. Young adult fantasy deals with these same issues against a fantasy background. Many involve magic.

Following this definition, you may consider it as a sub-genre.

[Quill]

How to reach out to Young Adults is of course a legitimate concern but with Rowlands' winning Harry Potter series, everybody from literary agents to editors to publishers just drools about it.

Hmm. Actually, the Harry Potter books are considered Middle Grade rather than YA.

[Watcher55]

Until now, I thought I’ve never read any YA – HARRY POTTER is YA? Really? Ok, if that’s the case, then it seems like YA isn’t A genre, but more like a set of styles that permeate the genres. When I first noticed there is such a thing as YA, it got stuck in my head that it was mostly Romance for teens that addressed teen issues.

Now I wonder if YA is more properly a target audience (I think economists and business types would call it a niche). Look at it this way, why isn’t there a genre called Adult fiction (get your head out of the gutter)? Because adults don’t have issues? Because adults don’t look for literature that appeals to their generational sensibilities? It’s because the genres, for the most part, developed in adult environments. “Dust in the wind dude.” we have a generation of readers coming up and it's a beautiful thing.

If it were up to me (which, you know, it’s not), and I owned a bookstore, the various genre sections would each have shelves devoted to that genre’s YA’s (at least until the wind catches up with our new dust).

[Sommer Leigh]

In my opinion, YA is an audience. There are your typical genres within YA.

But YA is treated pretty weird in bookstores. Most of those around my house shelve all of YA together, which doesn't make a lot of sense if you ask me. But they don't, of course :-)

Borders, at least the one closest to my house, has begun shelving them differently. The paranormal/dystopian/sci-fi/fantasy YA has its own bookshelf and all the contemporary has its own. It's not a perfect system, but it makes a little more sense than putting it all together in one place.

[HillaryJ]

YA is the intended age group of the readership. Within the age group are different genres.

YA books are shelved together the way MG and early reader books are shelved together. Adult books are shelved together as well, though subdivided by genre. The YA section in my local B&N has grown so much that the store has started to divide at least the new arrivals by genre. And yes, it is starting to push the adult section around. :)

[maybegenius]

As has been mentioned, Harry Potter is actually considered Middle Grade rather than Young Adult. The differences became harder to distinguish as Harry grew into his teens and the books reached a wider audience (namely teens and adults), but they remain pretty firmly Middle Grade. There's a subtlety about MG vs. YA, and it's less in the age of the characters and more in the way the content is handled and whether the "journey" is mostly external or mostly internal. Hannah Moskowitz wrote a really great blog post discussing those differences. It's an awesome read.

Young Adult is most certainly a specific market, and teenagers are for sure demanding and picky about their literature. Generally speaking, most aren't willing to spend time with a book they find boring or mediocre unless they have a specific reason for doing so (reading it for a class or because they're writing a review). As such, YA novels do need to have a certain edge that isn't always found in traditional "adult" books. That does not ever mean that they should be dumbed down or treated like thinly-veiled after school specials. Young people aren't stupid. YA isn't about what adults think teenagers want or need, it's about what resonates with them. Those are the books that stand out and become wildly popular.

I am a HUGE proponent that good fiction is good fiction, period. Whether it's intended for adults or for a younger age group, if it's something truly special, it will stand out and last in people's minds. That's why even today grown men and women still list their childhood favorites among their favorite books. However, that doesn't mean that books can't or shouldn't be written with young people in mind... it should just be because that's the right story to write, not because someone's trying to cash in on the kidlit trend.