Let’s Talk Bookish – The Popularity of YA

Hey everyone! Welcome back to my sadly dying blog not really, it’s just this month hopefully. I really did not mean to disappear, but nothing has gone according to plan so far, so here we are. I don’t even want to promise that a certain post is going to come next week, because it might not happen. Sighhh

Anyways, I am still here today with another LTB discussion. As always, Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by me & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts.

Today’s topic is: The Popularity of YA (suggested by Ruqs @ Many Things (Not Just) Bookish)

Thank you so much to Ruqs for suggesting this topic! My post is going to be pretty brief so let’s get started.

Why do you think YA (aka Young Adult) books have such a big community as opposed to other books?

I think it’s because YA encompasses a much larger age range than the Adult or Middle Grade genres do. Technically, YA includes main characters who are between 13-19 years old, so there is a lot of variety to read from.

Related: What makes a book YA?

I also think that because there is so much variety in the genres within that age range, though Fantasy and Contemporary are pretty dominant, many people gravitate towards it. I’ve also noticed that a lot of the reader community that is on GR or that has a book blog is within that age range, or in their twenties so they may just naturally want to read about people close to their age. Of course, there are still adults who do read YA and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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My Love-Hate Relationship with YA

I love YA. And I hate it too.

After reading a bunch of books, you start to notice the same patterns and it gets old very fast. But at the same time, it’s nice to read books with characters around your age, living a normal life and worrying about normal things. Or not if it’s fantasy.

I kind of hate the fact that romance is almost synonymous with YA. It’s pretty uncommon to find a good book that doesn’t have some romantic subplot. Sure, romance can be interesting at times, and reading a good representation of Muslim romance makes me jump with glee, but sometimes it’s just unnecessary or tiring. It also turns out to be really predictable, so it’s kind of eye-roll worthy.

Maybe the problem is that I just keep reading the same YA books with the same narrative, so it feels stale and annoying at times.

Or maybe YA is becoming a little stale too.

This Week’s Participants:

Evelyn @ Evelyn Reads | Amber @ Escape Life in the Pages | Eleanor @ Wishing Upon a Star | Rian @ Dogs and Books | Dani @ Literary Lion | M.T. @ The Last Book on the Left | Abby @ Beyond the Read | Sammie @ The Bookwyrm’s Den | Suzan @ Magical Booklush | Jane @ Blogger Books

I wish I had more time to go in to detail. Hopefully I’ll be able to read all of your amazing discussions over the weekend because it is an interesting topic.

Do you like YA? Does it make up most of your reading? Am I the only one who feels like it gets a little bland at times? Are you in school/uni? How’s that working out for you? Chat with me in the comments below!