January 14, 2016

TALKTIME #10: My Bone to Pick with Young Adult Literature


TALKTIME #10: My Bone to Pick with Young Adult Literature

     When I first started this blog, I wasn't sure what I should read and review. So, as inspiration, I read a lot of other blogs and watched a bunch of Booktube videos. And do you know what almost all of those blogs/channels were centered around: young adult literature. Now before then, I'm not saying I didn't read young adult, I just didn't read a lot of it. But, I decided, hey, maybe I should start reading more young adult since everyone and there mother is reading it.



      Time when it on and young adult started to consume my reading. It got to the point where I'm pretty sure all I was reading was young adult fiction. For awhile, this was okay; I was enjoying what I was reading and I didn't have a problem with the overwhelming abundance of young adult I was reading. But then, I started noticing something.



      My opinion towards books started to decrease. It felt like I was reading the same few things over and over again. I continued to read young adult, but my expectations for books began decreasing because I figured it was going to be like almost every other book I have read.



      Now I am not saying young adult fiction is bad. However, slowly over time, I feel like a lot of the novels are starting to blend together and follow the same plots, troupes, characters. Nothing feels special anymore.



        That is my bone to pick with young adult literature: nothing feels unique or special anymore. Don't get me wrong: there have been a handful of young adult books that I have really enjoyed, but not enough.



      So I have reached a conclusion: I am going to start venturing off more and more from YA. I want to explore more genres like I used to before starting this blog. Nowadays, I'm not as concerned about what people are reading and what they think about my blog like I used to be. I'm still going to read YA, probably a decent amount, but I want to find more special books that I truly love and YA just really isn't doing that anymore.



     What are your thoughts? Do you feel like a lot of young adult is the same? What other genres do you like to read outside of YA? Please please please comment below so we can have a nice discussion. :)

Join the conversation!

  1. it's probably a good idea to read widely generally - it stops you getting bored or fed up with a particular genre, means that the books you do read are ones you want to read, and generally gives you a wider view of life. Plus you end up finding weird parallels between books (though that might be just me!) :)

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    1. I agree with you 100%, and no it's not just you, I tend to find parallels too.

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  2. I definitely agree that YA books start to blend together after a while! And it's always great to branch out and try new things. I'm trying to read more mystery/suspense, sci-fi, and fantasy outside of YA :).

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    1. I love all of those genres. I especially love mystery/suspense. I used to read so many thrillers.

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  3. I have to admit that I do only read YA however I try to find books that don't follow that "cookie cutter" plot line. I think that's what makes the #weneeddiversebooks campaign so great, it's that I'm reading stuff that is new and different. Although I have to agree, it is so frusutrating to read such a predictable and standard book. Wish you the best of luck in your new book findings, my favourite non YA book is Life of Pi by Yann Martel!

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    1. It truly is a great campaign and thank you for the suggestion, I'll definitely have to check it out.

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  4. I definitely feel like there are loads of tropes that are widely overused in YA - once you read them once, you've read all of them. You have the bad boy, you have the love triangle, you have the world that needs saving... yeah, they kinda get boring after a while, unless someone spins it in a unique way. It's always great to read more widely though - although I'm focusing my blog on more YA stuff, sometimes I'll post a couple of reviews about classics, about adult literature, because those can be really interesting, and make you feel feels as well as help you understand more societal issues. One of my favourite non-YA reads is A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini - you should definitely check it out if you want something that's different from YA! :) Also - I loved your gifs - especially the David Tennant and Orlando Bloonm ones :P

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    1. Oh the tropes, so many... Never heard of it; I'll definitely have to check it out. And thank you! I felt like this post was the perfect chance to use those gifs.

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  5. My thing is that I love most of what I read, but I understand completely where you're coming from! I feel like I see the same things as well, and I do want to read more outside of YA. When reading YA I connect more with the protagonist than i do while reading adult books. I feel like I'm that awkward stage where I can't seem to find the perfect balance. I've noticed that since I start booktube I've allowed myself to start judging books based in categories. It's great to know what you like, but before I would pick up adult books or fantasy books and wouldn't worry about they were. Now those things intimidate me and I wish I wasn't scare of things I know I'll probably like. *sigh* I just want to read Brandon Sanderson, but I feel like I'm not ready because of my lack of experience in Fantasy of any kind.

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