In 2009, St. Martin’s Press publishing house held a call looking for what they called “New Adult fiction”. What exactly is New Adult fiction, you ask? It is an emerging genre of fiction, similar to Young Adult, except it specifically targets people within the 18-25 age range. New Adult fiction focuses on such issues as leaving home and being independant for the first time, first jobs, developing sexuality, mental health, and negotiating education and career choices. Typically, a New Adult novel focuses on the transition into adulthood. Certainly to a university student it’s a tad more relatable than its counterpart Young Adult fiction, which more often than not consists of dystopian worlds, love triangles, corrupt governments, and the fate of the whole world resting upon the shoulders of a teenage protagonist. Though dystopian worlds and corrupt governments are scary enough concepts themselves, adulthood can be just as scary and intimidating.
So, now that midterms are over, here are several New Adult fiction novels to help you through this new and exciting part of your life.
Cath has always done everything with her twin sister Wren, but when they go to the same college and Wren doesn’t want to share a dorm room, Cath has to adjust to living on her own while at the same time dealing with family struggles and first love.
The buzz is that someone in Jess Tucker’s dorm is a trans girl. To stop the finger pointing, she says it’s her, even though it’s not. She was an out lesbian in high school, and she figures she can stare down whatever gets thrown her way in college. It can’t be that bad. Ella Ramsey is enjoying her first year at Freytag University, but she’s rocked by the sight of a slur painted on someone else’s door. A slur clearly meant for her, if they’d only known.
3. Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando
One of the scariest parts of starting college is the fact that for probably the first time in your life, you’ll be forced to share a room with a stranger who’ll soon know your schedule, habits, and hygiene as well as you do. EB and Lauren don’t know anything about each other but what they’ve been told, but when they start corresponding through e-mail to discuss the basics of their future cohabitation, they end up becoming irreplaceable parts of each other’s lives.
Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind for college in New York. No one knows the truth about those final weeks, not even her best friend Mabel. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.
5. What We Left Behind by Robin Talley
Lesbian Gretchen and genderqueer Toni have been a couple for years, but when they seperate for their first year of college, they are forced to learn who they are on their own, as well as reevaluate who they are together.