YA Novels and Adult Readers

 

There’s always conversations happening about whether or not adults should be reading YA books. There was a TikTok circulating a few weeks go where user @/mrbrendansbookshelf argued that adults over the age of twenty-seven should not be reading YA works, telling those readers to “grow up” and “pick up a book for adults.” The twist of the video is that, halfway through, he reveals he doesn’t exactly feel that way, and that this was a sort of social experiment to get folks to engage more with his videos. It worked and it didn’t. He got the views, but there were also a ton of folks who listened to him talk before his big twist and shared their opinions, with plenty of hate shown his way.

The point he was trying to make was to encourage readers to “read outside their lane,” meaning that if you’re a person who reads a lot of YA Romance, try an adult romance, or manga, or poetry, etc. etc. I don’t like how he made his point, although I can’t deny that it at least worked up a big conversation about YA literature and who should read it. I do, however, agree with him. I don’t begrudge folks who know what they like and stick to it, but I do think they’ll run out of their niche sooner or later (and I’m speaking from experience). There are a lot of real treasures out there hidden in genres a person might not typically explore. Furthermore, what you read is just another thing that influences how you see the world. I think it’s in everyone’s best interest to take in a wealth of information, and not just that from a single perspective. 

In interviewing folks for Lab A of the final assignment, I did speak with someone who was looking specifically for young adult fiction. I conducted these interviews digitally, so there was plenty of time for me to waffle in my recommendations, during which I thought about why I felt the need to recommend an adult fiction book to them, despite what they were asking for. In the end, I offered them a mix of recommendations, with the majority being YA. I think that’s one of the best approaches to serving adult readers of YA, giving them a mix of YA and adult books to chose from. It takes a bit more digging to ensure their wants are met, but it’s about serving the patron.