;the things about new adult

Did you know I’ve not been able to find books that would fall under the New Adult classification in bookstores near me? I mean, until about a year ago, I used to think that New Adult books just weren’t there.

Now I’ve realised the stories I am writing could probably be more accurately classified as New Adult rather than Young Adult, though there are overlaps.

If you look at my bookshelves, despite the fact that I am closer to 30 than 20, most of my books fall under the Young Adult bracket. The stories are diverse and empathic and the characters are well-rounded and three-dimensional, and you can find something for every mood. Young Adult fiction has something for everyone.

It is the same with Adult fiction, if you really look. I just sometimes find Adult fiction too serious for my tastes, and I generally wish for something that could bridge the youngness of the YA protagonists and the sometimes too serious-for-their-own-good Adult books.

Where is the New Adult fiction?

It should exist. It probably does exist – the in-between of the coming of age stories and the older reluctant hero stories. The days after first loves but before marriage, the days after leaving home but before finding a new place. There is so much scope for this, but when I look for New Adult fiction, I don’t find much.

Or rather, what I do find is contemporary college-age romances. First times or moving out of home and the like. And while that is fun to read, NA shouldn’t be – and isn’t, I’m sure of it – limited to just contemporary. Like YA, NA should encompass all genres.

Heck, maybe I’ve been mentally classifying things wrongly and some of my YA novels could be considered NA. Who even knows? Certainly not my local bookstores, that’s for sure.

I think what I’m trying to say is – why are there so few (known) NA books that are not contemporary? When I ask friends for NA recommendations, I get (good, engaging) contemporary stories, but sometimes a girl just wants to read a sci-fi/fantasy novel where the protagonist is closer to her age than her youngest sister’s. You know?

This post is a bit of a mess, but I just wanted to try and put this out there. There’s this stigma around NA because people seem to classify it as “contemporary YA but with sex” when that is not all it is, or all it should be. I am waiting for the day when publishers will freely admit that a book is NA, and not try to couch it as something else. A day when authors can say they are writing NA and not immediately have to justify it. A day when I go into a bookstore and find NA books next to the YA books, and find them equally as diverse and as wide-ranging as the books so close to my heart.

Please read Kristen @ Well Storied’s What Is New Adult Fiction? for a more cohesive view on the genre, because like I said, my post is a bit of a mess.

And if anyone has any NA recommendations, please leave them below for me!