In my experience, Young Adult literature is something that everyone needs at some point in their life. Maybe a middle school student needs a copy of The Giver to introduce them to leisure reading and expand their horizons, or maybe a high school student experiencing grief for the first time needs a Gayle Forman novel to know that they are going to be okay. Regardless, YA literature is popular for its coming of age narratives that guide and comfort readers as they face the onslaught of challenges that come with that age. The question is, when you are older than Katniss Everdeen, Simon Spier, and Starr Carter, is it time to move on?
Walk into your local bookstore or library. Find the Young Adult section and compare it to the entire room. Many not-so-young adults, also known as anyone from the ages of 18 to 25, trap themselves in the YA section simply because it is intimidating. When you have a space that you know will be dedicated to people experiencing the same things as you, it can be a comfort to play it safe. The expansive sea of novels on the other shelves are never organized in this way. There is no section for “people trying to juggle work and family” or “anyone struggling to find a job and pay their student loans”. Taking the jump is hard, but sometimes it needs to be done.
When you graduated years ago and are still reading about high school students, or suddenly realize that you still wore braces when you were the same age as your main character, there is a certain factor of unrelatability that enters the page. Nobody expects it, especially because it happens slowly. But the day that you start thinking, “Hey, her mom was right! She needs to break up with him!” might as well be the day of your adulthood initiation. Eventually, you reach a point where you have a different mindset as the teenagers in your favorite books. It does not make the book of a lesser quality and it should not lower your opinion of the story or author. If anything it means that the author was more convincing in writing from a younger perspective. Your developing opinion simply signifies that you need different things from your novels than your younger self.
Try searching for novels labeled as “New Adult”, as they will more often contain the aspects of independence that you are looking for while also creating the same easy-read feel of YA books. That is not to say that you should limit yourself to New Adult literature, as that can be just as unsatisfying as reading solely YA. What most new adults are looking for is change. At a point of great change in a very short period of their lives, these readers need variation above all else. Adults can go from treating their teenagers like children to adults with the flip of a switch and, unsure of where they stand, YA books address this need for validation by giving steady role models who can accomplish their goals, evoke change and inspire. But after high school, new adults are shoved into “the real world” where their need for autonomy and validation shifts to a need for reassurance. A tendency to second guess themselves is only reinforced by turning back to YA literature, inserting the conception “well, when Clary Fairchild was my age she had already saved the world” into insecure minds.
I am not saying that Young Adult literature is only for young adults. On the contrary, I think that they can be some of the most well written books I have ever read. In returning to these novels, readers are gifted with a reminiscent lens. We can learn a lot from the complex issues and values in these novels, but everyone needs something different from their literature. In expanding past the confines of YA novels, new adults can find books that are more meaningful to them in the present time. Do not leave your elder self to say “Wow, I really could have used this at that age,” as any avid reader has inevitably noted at some point.
In short, to the not-so-young adult, you are taking leaps of faith in every other aspect of your life, why not add one more? While escapism is convenient (and much more welcoming than adulthood), it is nothing but a bandaid for your emotional and literary needs. YA literature will always be there to return to, but at a time in your life in which everything is new, New Adult fiction is there to help catch you. You may never develop a fondness for Adult literature, but it will understand your experiences to an extent that many Young Adult books will fail to reach. The next chapter of your life is inevitable: allow the right literature to ease the journey.