I've been reading quite a few reviews around the blogosphere about New Adult books that are less than stellar. Most of these reviews point out the same problems. Books with whiny, "shy," heroines, bad boy with a heart of gold, and a lot
a lot of sex. Yikes. If that didn't make you shudder, I don't know what will.
When I first heard about the new adult genre, I was excited. I loved YA, but I also wanted to read about characters dealing with problems arising from recently becoming an adult. I wanted to see twenty-somethings traversing through a fantasy world that's just a little bit darker than YA. I wanted to see people honestly freaking their frack about paying taxes for the first time. Unfortunately, I didn't get the fantasy world, the adult problems, or the taxes. What I did get was a bunch of characters masquerading as adults having sex EVERYWHERE. Cheesus.
The plotlines of the books I read were contrite, and almost all of it was contemporary romance. Not that there's anything wrong with contemporary or romance, but the problem with some NA books is that they only focus on very overused cliches that have already been beaten to death in YA and Adult. If a new category wants to flourish, shouldn't it's first attempts be more original and less derivative?
The other issue I have with NA is that it's so insulting. Not
all of us college peeps are struck with socially crippling fears, sexually naive, and nerds. I may be all of those things, but even I get sick of picking up book after book of that character. There's nothing wrong with writing it, but the problem arises when
every character is the same. It makes it insincere and feels as though the characters are just wearing these flaws like drapes. And these flawed drapes magically vanish as soon as the MC has sex.
Remember girls, all you need is a bad boy and romantic music and all of your problems will go away!
The only time I've actually enjoyed the use of this cliche was in
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Although it's marketed as YA, it's pretty much what I always thought NA should be. In Fangirl, Cath has social anxiety, she's naive, and she's a nerd who spends most of her time writing fanfiction. What made this genuine was that these flaws were actually
flaws. They weren't, "Oh hehe I'm so nerdy and ugly, but all the boys want me. Ooopsie I slipped again! Teehee." Cath was actually miserable and the introduction of a potential love interest didn't automatically make things better. Cath had to figure out on her own what happiness meant. Cath's character growth was gradual, and not as simple as Insert Tab A Into Slot B *poof* all better. Plus it had real anxieties about transitioning into adulthood that I expected from NA, but so far have only found in YA.
This is just my opinion on NA. I have a lot of friends who love to write it and read it, and I accept that. It just baffles me because I've honestly never come across a good NA, with the exception of a story I beta-read for a friend.
What do you think? Are there good NA books out there that are just lost in the dregs? Why do you think the majority of NA seems to be YA with more sex? And of course, if you have any recs please let me know!
When I first heard about the new adult genre, I was excited. I loved YA, but I also wanted to read about characters dealing with problems arising from recently becoming an adult. I wanted to see twenty-somethings traversing through a fantasy world that's just a little bit darker than YA. I wanted to see people honestly freaking their frack about paying taxes for the first time. Unfortunately, I didn't get the fantasy world, the adult problems, or the taxes. What I did get was a bunch of characters masquerading as adults having sex EVERYWHERE. Cheesus.
