The past few years has seen the emergence of a category in literature called New Adult books. In 2009, St Martin’s Press sent out a call for books which would appeal to New Adult readers. A spate of articles around 2013 pegged New Adult as an up and coming thing to watch, and if you read a lot of e-books, you’ll certainly notice the proliferation of New Adult titles over the last few years.
While it may not have taken off as powerfully as people predicted six years ago, New Adult is undeniably here to stay, and will likely only expand its presence within the literary landscape.
At this point, you may be thinking that I’m just confused with Young Adult. As an author of New Adult books, I’ve done a lot of navel gazing over the question of what, both content and theme-wise, differentiates New Adult Books from Young Adult books. You, dear reader, will be the beneficiary of that time spent procrastinating reflecting deeply.
I recently wrote about whether the Young Adult category should be considered a genre or readership. In essence, I concluded that while YA is mostly a term that describes the demographic for whom the grouping of relevant books has been written, there is sufficient consistency across the books which fall under the YA category to refer to it as a genre as well. This conclusion carries over to NA, given its similarity to YA.
New Adult books are intended for a readership aged between 18 and 30. In the same way that Young Adult books feature protagonists within the age range of the readership, New Adult books contain protagonists between 18 and 30 years of age and have thematic similarities in their content.
If YA arose from an awareness that teenage years are in fact a period of transition between childhood and adulthood, then NA’s emergence can arguably be attributed to the confluence of two factors. First, the enormous spread of YA literature, some of which skews quite young (and as such, has generated the emergence and development of the Middle-Grade readership/genre), required a differentiation which caters to the needs of older readers. In concert with this is the second reason; the fact that there is increasing understanding that ‘adulthood’ as we traditionally conceptualise it can start as late as thirty for some people (myself among them).
So those two factors mean that there is the opportunity and yes, need, to cater to them. As YA grew in popularity since 2000 or so, the boundaries of the readership/genre hybrid pushed to accommodate both younger and older readers. But the experience of a twelve-year-old are markedly different to those of an eighteen-year-old. Consider: at thirteen, you’re starting high school. If you’re a girl, you likely haven’t menstruated for the first time, your breasts haven’t really announced themselves, and for both genders, a range of hormonally-induced emotional extremes and uncertainties awaits you. If you’re eighteen, you’ve finished school but most people still have some kind of learning to still undergo, be it an apprenticeship or a university course. For at least a few years after becoming a legal adult, most people still live with their parents, and the first place they move into is generally of a far lower quality of living than they end up with later on in life. As with teenagers, this age group also is still asking itself ‘who am I’, but within a very different context of career building and more concrete life choices.
If we as a society largely use literature and stories to reflect and understand our own experiences, then the stories for and featuring young adults definitely have a space within our literary spectrum, which explains the emergence of such books.
To that end, the content reflects the experiences and focuses of people who are young adults. NA books often contain a bigger focus on sex, generally without a particular focus on ‘first time’ (my huge personal bugbear, as the mythologization of virginity – especially that of girls – still continues in books today and perpetrates a harmful narrative/perception). Moreover, they often have more graphic depictions of violence. But that’s just content warning stuff. Thematically, there tends to be a more complex interaction with the surrounding world, an awareness and crucially – a need to inhabit – the moral grey area that characterises so many questions and issue.
Jay Kristoff’s acclaimed Nevernight Chronicles is a good example. In the FAQ section of his website, he notes “The protagonist is a sixteen year old girl. Does that automatically make it YA? My editors say “Definitely not, and who the hell let you out of your cage? Get back to work”. These books are about an assassin. They are somewhat violent as a result. They also have sex scenes (and now I have to contemplate the fact that my mother reads my smut *shudders*). I’d rate them MA (or NA if you prefer) and describe them as “crossover books”. EMPIRE OF THE VAMPIRE [a forthcoming book by Kristoff] has the same publishers as NEVERNIGHT. Like NN, it contains violence and explicit sex and protagonists with extremely dubious morality. Yes, one of them is a teenager. The book has definite crossover appeal, same as NN.”
PSA
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is not a YA novel
Nevernight is n— Jay Kristoff (@misterkristoff) June 11, 2018
Yes, Mia is a teenager, but she is forced into the category of New Adult pretty damn quickly as a consequence of her environment. Same goes for a lot of (historic) fantasy books, actually; characters who are sixteen often act as adults which is actually in keeping with those settings. Back in the middle ages, if you were sixteen, you were likely already married and a parent, and you were certainly all but treated as an adult.
This article speaks about the differences between Young Adult and Adult fiction, and at its very end has what looks to be more an afterthought than anything else, on New Adult fiction. It refers to NA as a ‘crossover category’. Indeed, the small footnote about NA typically exemplifies how NA is viewed, as an afterthought weird hybrid. And perhaps it’s accurate. Take the Harry Potter series—what starts as Young Adult, possibly even Middle Grade, evolves into something much darker and far more complex as the series evolves. There is a strong argument to be made that Deathy Hallows is NA rather than YA. Equally, some claim that Sarah J Maas’ Throne of Glass series starts as Young Adult and then, as the stakes become higher and the characters become older (and with that, become more sexually aware and confident) and shoulder more and more burdens of responsibility, ends as a NA novel.
Still confused? That’s okay. It’s confusing and nebulous. But it is arguable that this category will become increasingly prominent in the next few years given the saturation of YA. So keep your eyes peeled for New Adult books, and see if there’s something out there which may be for you!
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