My favorite genre to read is Young Adult (YA). Specifically YA Fantasy. I love escaping to new worlds and imagining what it would be like to live in them and be a part of a magical story. And of course, envision myself riding a dragon. I tend to gravitate more towards YA as opposed to regular adult because I like the faster pace of YA and the characters feel slightly more relatable (because I am essentially a 13 year maturity level wise haha).

There are a lot of reasons I love YA, a few things that bug me about it. Let’s see if you agree with any of them!

Why I Love YA:

  • Fast pace and action packed: These stories tend to start with a bang and throw at lot at you. I’ve found they concentrate less on world-building and long explanations and instead try to keep you engaged with a thrilling plot that escalates as the story continues. I love new worlds, but I don’t love when the descriptions go on and on and make me forget what was happening (which can happen sometimes in more adult novels)
  • Interesting moral dilemmas: The YA genre targets an audience that is going through a very transformative stage of life. They are becoming adults and starting to form their own opinions about beliefs. And I think because of that, authors like to hit some hard subjects and explore moral dilemmas that need to be brought into the light.  I know I know, adult books do this too, but sometimes they get too heavy and it detracts from the story. I think it’s really important for books to get us to think about important issues, but I also don’t want to feel
  • The characters are vivid and relatable: I don’t know if it’s cause I don’t act like an adult or what, but I find myself relating to YA characters way more than any other genre. I think we tend to find characters with strong personalities in YA. Plus, they are trying to figure out who they are, and part of me feels like I’m still trying to figure that out too haha.
  • The Romance: I love a good love story. And YA novel are FILLED with them. I am totally that person where I tend to not like books if they don’t have a good romantic plot line. It’s who I am, what I like and prefer and I’m not ashamed of it. It’s what I enjoy reading. And in the YA novels they tend to not get too graphic with the kissing and sex scenes which is so much more my speed.
  • Quick reads: Generally, because of the fast pace and short attention space of teenagers, it’s rare to find a YA novel too far over 400 pages. Which is perfect for me because I barely have enough time to read as it is. If I’m trying to get through a bunch of 600+ page books, I’m only going to read 2 books a year. I like getting through books quicker because I want to read as many books as I can, without going down to 5-hour sleep nights.

YA Pet Peeves:

  • Teenagers not acting like teenagers: YA fantasy and sci-fi are NOTORIOUS for this. I can absolutely promise you that if I was dropped in the scenarios these 16 and 17 year olds are in for these books I would not be nearly as brave or intelligent. Obviously, most people are braver and smarter than me, but sometimes I have such a hard time believing that is how a normal teenager would act. They talk and make decisions with more wisdom than a middle-aged adult professor. And I really get irritated with a protagonist who is a teenager constantly makes the right decision. Guys, I made so many more wrong decisions as a teenager than right ones.Luckily, this doesn’t really get in the way of me enjoying the books. I just forget that the main characters are teenagers and start seeing them as people in their 20s or whatever. YA contemporary tends to have a much more teenage voice so I actually feel like I’m reading about a teenager.
  • The Romance: Confused yet? You are correct, I mentioned above that I love the romantic plot lines in YA novels, and I do. But I love them because when I read them I see them again as more mature plot lines. They sound more like a love story between a mature woman and man. Guys, it makes me sooooo nervous when I read books where 16 year old fall in love and say things like “you’re my world” or “you complete me” or “I’d die without you” because that’s not healthy and I don’t want teenagers thinking that’s what love is or what it should look like. You need to be whole on your own. You need to be able to survive without the person you love. And being a teenager is a time for exploration and discovering who you are as a person, not being consumed with an burning love that nothing can extinguish. Let me reiterate that it’s not that I don’t love the romance in YA as a story, it’s that I don’t want teens thinking that’s what their love life should look like at that time in their lives. Okay, sorry, I’ll step down from my soap box now.

Well there you have it. Reasons I love YA and just a couple things that slightly annoy me. But I can assure that YA Fantasy is still my favorite genre by far and will be for probably the rest of my life.