Sonntag, 23. September 2012

The Popularity Of YA Fiction, or: "You want me to stay here?"

"You want me to stay here?" will be the first desperate question a girl asks her father when they arrive at their new home.

Yesterday, while I was on my way home, I kept wondering why YA novels are so popular. There are sooo many fans of YA novels and many of them can't even be called "young adult" anymore.

Right now, I still don't know if I have an answer. I only have a one-sentence question which could play an important part in a future YA novel I might or might not write.

Why do I sometimes read YA fiction? Because I like well-written novels - and many YA novels are extraordinarily well-written.  The protagonist's age doesn't really matter much if the story draws me in.

In the meantime, maybe you'd like to tell me why you think YA fiction is so widely popular?

Recommended reading:
YA author Gwen Gardner tackles the same subject in her post "Morality In Young Adult Fiction".  

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"Du willst wirklich, dass ich hier bleibe?", ist die erste verzweifelte Frage, die ein Mädchen ihrem Vater stellen wird, wenn sie vor ihrem neuen Zuhause stehen.

Als ich gestern auf dem Nachhauseweg war, stellte ich mir die Frage, warum Romane für junge Erwachsene zur Zeit so beliebt sind. Es gibt sooo viele Fans der Kategorie "Young Adult", und viele von ihnen sind nicht einmal mehr selbst junge Erwachsene.

Ich habe noch immer keine abschließende Antwort darauf gefunden. Das einzige, was ich bis jetzt habe, ist eine Ein-Satz-Frage, die in einem zukünftigen Roman für junge Erwachsene, den ich vielleicht oder vielleicht auch nicht schreiben werde, eine wichtige Rolle spielen könnte.

Warum lese ich gelegentlich Bücher, deren Adressaten junge Erwachsene sind? Weil ich gut geschriebene Bücher mag - und Bücher dieses Genres sind für häufig außerordentlich gut geschrieben. Das Alter des Protagonisten ist von wenig Bedeutung für mich, wenn die Erzählung es schafft, mich zu fesseln.

Was glaubt ihr, warum Romane für junge Erwachsene zur Zeit so beliebt sind?




5 Kommentare:

  1. They found out that 55% of the people reading YA novels are adults. Overall YA novels are easier to read compared to literary novels for adults. They also have less complex storyline. That's the two main reasons why many adults like YA fiction. And now I like to thank you for introducing Jurgen Drews to me. I listen to his song "Ti Amo" daily. Danke.

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  2. Gern geschehen. :)
    And I went to a local Chinese restaurant last Friday.

    Thank you for your answer. I never looked at it that way. The last YA novels I read were the 3 Hunger Games books. Did you read them?

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  3. I read a litle of the first book of Hunger Games. I don't read a lot. But I saw the movie and was really impress with Katniss. After I saw the movie in March I decied to write my second novel about Petra, a young German woman moving to NYC. So, Petra was written being inspired by the Hunger Games and I talk about it in the novel.

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  4. Perhaps young adult fiction is also a bit easier to relate to. It is a period that adults have lived through and can easily relate to pieces of their past. Or pieces they would LIKE to have had in their past.

    Also, like Giora stated, they are bite size compared to other genres. You can get in, get dirty, get right out again without too much trouble. A series is read in a snap, comparatively. The problems have easier and perhaps simpler answers than "adult" fiction and the associated problems.

    I have a collection of various young adult books I tend to go back to. Secrets of the Unicorn Queen is a set of VERY young adult novels that are bits of fun, the Redwall novels by Brian Jacques are amazing and feel much older than the ages they are supposed to target, and several others are refreshing little changes of pace to my general reading.

    I have not read/seen the Hunger Games...it has been on my list to get too however!

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    1. Don't watch the Hunger Games movie. After having read the first book in the series it really was a disappointment.

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