What Makes A Book YA, Adult, MG, and NA 

Gandalf is 2,000 years old, so I consider all his parts "Super Adult"

I feel like Harry Potter started as middle grade then changed into young adult. Not just because Harry’s age changes but rather the content changed.

I can't believe that parents were actually writing the author angry because their kids read a book that was not appropriate for them. Be a parent and do the research and take responsibility for yourself! Or read it.... just sayin

Growing up I never thought about labels like YA or Adult. I just read books that seemed interesting.

"Teenagers read adult books back in the 70's and survived." Yes, this.

there's actually a proven trend that books written by women & feminine folk tend to get categorized as YA much more often regardless of the content of the book. several authors have spoken out about this, but it hasn't changed much yet

For a second there I thought you were wearing a backpack.

As a children's librarian, I would add one more category of chapter books. "Lower Grade" or "Easy Chapter" books appeal to 6-9 year old children who are just starting chapter books. These books tend to be very simple adventure, mystery, or humor books. Magic Tree House, Captain Underpants, Geronimo Stilton, and Junie B. Jones are some examples of this age category. Most books are less than a hundred pages still have some pictures or have a semi-comic book approach. At this age, kids can be reluctant to start a new series. Luckily, the books are episodic and tend to have dozens of books in the series. Sadly, because of this older readers rarely read this unless to co-read with their own kids. Due the episodic nature of the books, character development and coming of age elements tend to be minimized leaving little appeal for older audiences.

Adult is just p everything that isn't aimed at a specific demographic. Makes sense for adult to be so broad since we spend the majority of our lives as adults.

Read Stephen King at 10. Still sane. Mostly.

I remember reading adult novels at middle-grade age, and far from the content damaging me I feel that some of it helped me be prepared for the reality of the world. I write for adults but at the back of my head there's always this nagging "what about the gifted kid who's reading this at ten? What am I teaching her?" I don't let it hold me back but it does make me mindful to avoid writing things just for spectacle.

I’d LOVE to see a list of your favorites for each genre!! 😁

This was a great video and it was really well done, but I really don't like these age distinctions in general. I feel like it's caused a lot of issues, especially in YA (which isn't me saying anything negative about YA, just that it's made for some problems). I love the way Neil Gaiman related an adjacent topic to the similar distinction in comics. Some of them just say for mature readers. That's it. And as he said, he's met mature readers that are 15 or 16 and immature readers that are 38.

People overthink all those categories so much nowadays, especially overprotective parents. . My first adult book was "Needful Things" by Stephen King and I read it when I was 9. Throughout my teens I mainly read adult books. I was trusted to stop in case it ever became too much for me and I'm not traumatized 🤣

I read Stephen King as a teen and I survived, haha. My first King novel was 'Salem's Lot, which I would still highly recommend.

This confusion of age of the protagonist vis a vis the category of the book is most common with Harry Potter. Parents constantly sue or complain about the later books of Harry Potter “not being suitable for their children to read” It’s just that the plot had to get darker as the story progressed. I mean it was predictable from the very first book.

Yeah, the age classification isn't that important, I'm 13 and I have read "adult" books and my mom has read "YA" and we both like the experience. (Sorry for bad English, I'm still learning)

I was one of those people who didn’t have any YA. Being a teacher I started reading ya and I loved it. I never had enough time to read a dense adult book because I was so busy. Now that I am retired I enjoy all levels.

Even MG books can be be enjoyed by adults and teenagers. There are alot of great books that got categorized as MG books but are great books for all ages. Check out alot of the Newberry Honor and Medal Winners. Examples of wonderful books that have mature topics that could be read in MG school assignments that are great reads regardless of age are "Island of the Blue Dolphins", "The Cay", "Hatchet", and "The True Confession of Charlotte Doyle".

I think the one thing missing from this discussion is marketing. YA is first and foremost a marketing term. I took a class for my English minor, I took an adolescent fiction class where we read YA and discussed it on a higher thematic level. But the discussions were always interesting and nuanced because YA isn't a genre or something written with much intent; it's primary purpose from its conception to this day is the fact that it's marketed to a YA audience, even if it isn't necessarily written with that audience in mind. The history of YA is really interesting, and it follows a similar route to children's literature. For a lot of history, society viewed age as you're either a baby or you're an adult. That's it. But in Victorian times, this idea that childhood exists, that there's a time in between being a baby and being an adult when you're at a different developmental stage and have different needs, was new and up-in-coming. Enter some of the first children's stories like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Oz, etc. Something similar happened kind of throughout our lives with YA. Around 50's/60's, this idea that being a teenager in bw childhood and adulthood, needing something more than children's stories but not quite being reading for adult stories, was new. By the 2000's, publishers saw the market for it, especially calling it young adult instead of "teenager books" which encourages them to go shop in that part of the bookstore. I REALLY love discussions about YA themes like the ones you've given here; YA is so so important for teens to have access to, and the responsibility that YA books have at teaching good morals and having relevant themes. Even though bookstores and publishers may treat YA just for marketing, it's super important for readers to discuss them without that muddling. I've seen arguments that we *really* need a separate NA section because PROTECT THE CHILDREN! And to that I say: 1) I agree with your video... YA didn't always exist, and none of us are corrupted. If anything, parents and teachers should be more involved w what their kids are reading and be willing to explain, so this is a great opportunity for that. and 2) I'm sure NA will be its own section of the library within our life times, but only if publishers see that it's a viable marketing option.

What categorizes a book a classic or what gives a book ‘literary merit’v

I categorize the various age ranges by writing style. To me, YA and Middle Grade tend to have very simplified writing styles, while New Adult and Adult tend to have more nuanced writing styles. I've never differentiated them by age of protagonist, since I've read coming-of-age stories about people across all ages (example, I consider The Color Purple a coming-of-age, coming-into-you-own book about an adult, but I wouldn't say it's Young or even New Adult). I struggle to read a lot of Young Adult and Middle Grade, because I categorize it by the writing style, and it tends to be too simple for me to really enjoy (I feel like I'm explaining this badly?). I rely SO HEAVILY on really 'good writing.'Wasn't there a lot of confusion in the marketing for Mistborn? Like, it was marketed to different age groups throughout the years?

I'm glad you enjoy making these videos, because I LOVE watching them!

“And Nevernight himself”

I read Mistborn at eight years old, and that’s often called an adult book. I’ve never been good with age ranges for books.

Well, that explains why I like middle grade books

This was interesting. YA, NA and adult often confuse me, but I'm probably not alone since I've even heard that sometimes a book can get marketed as YA in one country and adult in another.

Thank you for the age range point! My favorite novel is The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, and the protagonist of that novel is a twelve-year-old girl, and it’s definitely not a novel for children.

One of my favorite series is Keeper of the Lost Cities, I started it in fourth grade (for the reason the second book had a unicorn on the cover) and to this day I’m still a pretty avid reader of them. It started as series for kids. It is not anymore. This series has changed greatly in tone, and it was pretty dark to begin with. I recommend this series to literally everyone. It’s fantasy, and has such an amazing world. It’s got characters of every kind of personality, and it has romance and I hate romance but it doesn’t matter to me because the plot is so good! Just go read it please.

I think categories do more harm than good. I've read mostly adult fiction since I was 14 because there wasn't much YA back then. Yet I've read, and loved, Harry Potter and The Fault in Our Stars as an adult. No one ever policed my reading, I survived and grew up to be an English teacher. Readers don't have to personally relate to everything in a book. Some parts will resonate at the time and some will later. Be the adult a kid can talk to if they are confused or uncomfortable about a book. Don't forget that most kids will realize if a book isn't right for them and stop reading it.

This was interesting. I find New Adult to be interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing that genre come through more. I read (one chapter) of Six of Crows and it’s marketed as YA even though the characters come across as far older.

I remember My friends reading A Song Ice And Fire in secondary school

The ending of that book 🤯🤯 I hope book 2 gives us SOOOO MANY answers because there are so many questions 😱😱

Great explanation video! I definitely agree that New Adult should make a comeback. It definitely fills a niche that I think many readers would appreciate. At 23, I still mostly read Young Adult. I let my mind gloss over the ways in which the themes and content of YA have skewed more mature. A few popular YA series come to mind. For instance, I believe the Six of Crows series could be categorized as NA. I do feel like those books should exist and deserve the level of buzz they get in YA circles. However, I believe that the YA category itself still needs to exist. Teenagers deserve to have books that are written for them and reflect that stage of their life. Every reader is different. Some kids can handle some heavier topics in their books and they can figure out some of their limits. From the age of 12, my parents pretty much let me pick up whatever books piqued my interest. Most of that was YA, but there was the occasional adult fiction in there. For instance, my high school library had the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I borrowed and read the whole series at age 15/16. No questions asked. I definitely can't say that most of my classmates could handle those books at that age. But I don't hold it against the librarians for having it.

Obviously I don't love ads (totally understand the necessity of them) but I was surprised by the professionalism of your square space ad lol. It was narrated really well. I will have to check out your audio book narration.

My first experience with a character who did not match the age category of the book i was reading was September in The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. She is a 12 year old girl in a book i would categorize as new adult bc it's kind of dark and reads above a young adult level. But i really enjoyed it!

I also feel like the writing and pace of the story can define whether a story classifies as one of these categories. Like the MG and YA seem to be more easily written and have a faster plot where NA and Adult have a steady pace with a few faster scenes here and there.

This video proves that I am right to be confused when I'm at the big Powell's and looking for certain fantasy books and have to run up and down the stairs to check both the YA section and the adult fantasy section. I sure wish they'd put those sections on the same floor.

Very informative, thank you I was in contact with a YA agent who was interested in my novel, but decided against it once she found out that the protagonist was actually 20. I hadn't heard the term NA before, I think that category fits my novel better

Shoutout to Merphy for being the only Booktube channel that explores almost everything about books!

I feel like adult novels tend to deal with having families and parenting a good chunk of the time and tends to be more graphic with violence and sex and there is no happy resolution most of the time. Compare an adult apocalyptic novel, 1984 to a Young Adult one, Hunger Games. They deal with a lot of the same themes but adult novels goes into more graphic detail and doesn't have a happy ending or resolution. Compare the Other Boleyn Girl, an adult historical novel to Strands of Bronze and Gold (which is a young adult retelling of the fairy tale Blue Beard set in Louisiana in the early 1800's). The themes tend to be the same but the way the story is told is really what makes an adult novel. The choice of wording and graphic exploration of themes and lack of a happy ending or resolution is really what makes an adult novel in my opinion. It seems most of the other genres have a happy ending or resolution and I don't think that's a good thing. Novels aren't just for entertainment, they are there to teach lessons and give people tools on how to deal with situations in their own lives. By having 99% happy endings where the bad guy is punished and the good guys rewarded is really a detrimental lesson to teach young people. The truth is that in life there is no guarantee of a happy ending or reward. In real life a lot of the times the bad guy wins and prospers while the good people suffer and die, poor and alone. You can do everything right and still be cheated on or betrayed or thrown in prison or murdered or fired. Life isn't fair and I think its far better to prepare young people for that. Stories make it easier to learn a lesson. I'm sure most young people intellectually know life isn't fair but because all the stories and entertainment they consume tells them otherwise some part of them still believes that good things will happen to good people when that isn't the case most of the time. Sorry went off a tangent but I feel it has to be said

This is golden! I’ve had plenty of people ask me what makes a book, particularly mine, a YA.

When I was doing my Ph.D (which I dropped), my thesis was actually on the representation of teenagers in books. My research lead me to think that Y.A isn't determined mostly by the purpose of the book, even more than themes. A YA novel wants to teach something to teenagers whereas a regular novel about teenagers is using its young casting as a mean to express something about youth, or life or whatever. There is a book called "do i dare disturb the universe" that explains brilliantly the history of YA fiction and why it's a problematic genre. To summarize: it's a genre made to teach teenagers how to grow up. Characters find out that they are powerless and they defy whatever society they live in, then eventually realize that in order to actually have power they have to accept to become a part of the society they were living in. YA literature is about teaching teenagers how to become functional adults in a modern liberal society. If it was a school class, that would be ok, but as literature material, the problem with that is that it's pretty close to propaganda in terms of purpose. It doesn't encourage reader to question or challenge the values and status quo of modern society like art (and literature) do but to accept them. There are a few YA I like but I kind of find the genre very bleak to the exception of a few authors who defy expectations and sometimes just had their book branded as YA because their publisher wanted to. I also really don't think that previous books branded as YA like Outsiders, or Catcher in the rye are YA novels. I think authors were writing novels without this marketing strategy in mind and it makes those books feel completely different and less "planned", or at least the editor edited it with a different selling strategy in mind.

I would say that the theme for Adult books could entail the individual’s attempt to discover what the meaning of life will be to them, with the approach to such being broad and exempt from any limitations, except for those allowed by the author, that is.

The stigma that YA is age-based only is something I have been fighting about at the library region I work for for years. We have many books that should be NA and Adult that are shelved in YA simply because the person is under 18 years of age. We also apparently put books that are by a same author in YA because it makes it easier for people to find them with no thought on the content that a 13 or younger may pick up thinking it's a YA by an author who they've only ever know to write YA.

My library had one copy of Lies of Locke Lamora shelved in YA with a YA fantasy sticker, and a different copy with a different cover and the sequels shelved in the normal fantasy section (my library doesn't call any section "adult"). I chuckled imagining some angry parents flipping through and seeing the excessive swearing.

I remember being twelwe and reading LotR and Dorian Gray. I first discoverd adult literature and then came stuff like Harry Potter. To this day I read both, but prefere adult fantasy to the YA but only because there are just much better series in adult. I know of very few YA series that are as good as Kingkiller Chronicles, Gentleman Bastards, Song of Ice and Fire or the Sevenwaters Triliogy!

Good clear explanation , thumbs up.

I'm a big fun of of middle grade books. There's a special innocence in them that is charming to me.

YES! I need this video so badly so I can sort out what genre I’m writing in!

New Adult has never really been embraced by traditional publishers, but that could change in the next few years because I know a lot of Authortube, booktube, and bookish influencers are really calling for one. One I saw actually took off review points because they felt the characters would have made more sense if they had been 3 or 4 tears older making them new adult age.

I see YA and I run for the hills. I was reading “adult” books at 12 and I feel, overall, society is wayyyy too sensitive.

I feel that books like girl in pieces and her body and other parties are considered young adult but should really be considered as adult books. Because of the serious content that is discussed with in the books.

I think you make some of the best educational content of this type on BookTube! I always learn stuff even when I think I already know whatever subject you're covering :D Keep it up!

Yeah. My friends and I were reading adult novels by 7th and 8th grade. I didn’t know YA was an actual thing at that age. We just read whatever seemed interesting.

I didn't really like books until I was like 12 because as a kid only books I've explored before were really childish or fact books or just didn't really appeal to my tastes but I really love young adults now I have a book on my shelf every day from the library big fan of romance, novels , fantasy , trauma

For a seventeen year old who is currently reading Chronicles of Narnia, I would say categories doesn't really matter

In my city the liberies often have MG and YA together and I cringe every time I see Sarah J Maas books in the children’s section.

The first novel I read was Hatchet at 6 years old. And my second was Tales of the Vulgar Unicorn. And third was Copperhead. I don't know why I remember that so clearly.

I loved the outsiders... it was on the curriculum here in the UK at school ... first book I could NOT put down

Honestly growing up, my Mum never went by book age when it came to what I read, she always looked at the book before buying it for me, because I was quite an advanced reader for my age

With MG into YA - the vocabulary is also relevant. MG & YA will also have simpler language and sentence structures. I'm not sure the themes are particularly definitional for the age categories because you can deal with other themes in MG & YA but I think how its portrayed will define where it sits. I don't know I think its just a murky topic because unlike film you don't have clear age categories.

That was really useful to me, but you should've mentioned the writing style and the general complexity of the book (for adult books). I first read an abridged version of Les Misérables at 18, and it reassured me as I knew it was quite a big book. I now have the full story on my shelves and I started "rereading" it. The details in these books would have been too much for me to digest as a teenager. I don't think the themes are too hardcore, but the historical references and vocabulary demand more investment and for you to actually look up quite a few words. Plus, I want to add that teenagers will be more proned to love characters in whom they recognize themselves as they're usually dealing with some existential crisis. They want to know why they're on earth and who they are. They can figure that out through adult books, but they'd have to pick up the right ones (and I believe there are many ^^).

I would love to see a breakdown of the Horror genre as there is so many types, troupes I get confused by all the names lol. I love your breakdown videos. Peace love and happiness ~ Tracey

I would also say, that how advanced the writing is should indicate the intended audience. There’s a VERY clear difference between a child’s book, it’s language and sentence structure and COMPLEXITY, vs. and adult book. And that’s point 2, the COMPLEXITY of the narrative and characters, often reflect the age intended. Green eggs and Ham is written, clearly, for a much younger audience than say a song of ice and fire...

Aren't there typically also differences in vocabulary and grammar level? A book written for 10 year olds is probably going use a smaller number of different words and have less complex grammar and imagery than a book written for adults. It's also one of the arguments I see against adults reading YA, that as a society we're dumbing ourselves down and writing that was once viewed as high school level is now seen as college level. About a series going from one category to the next - the first "adult" series I remember reading was Anne McCaffery's Dragonrider books, because my library at the time had the first couple shelved in the YA and rest in Adult. And there were definitely some things in that series that were very adult.

So true about the teens reading adult and adults reading YA. My favorite french authors I discovered around 14 and they write for adults: Jean Gionno and Alain Damasio. And I read so much YA now that I’m 27. Are we weird or should the publishers rethink the categories?

there are topics like these that im not too invested in...so i basically i tune in just to hear you talk about them :p

I read lots of adult novels when I was younger in high school, and upon re-reads I have found that I really didn’t grasp the scope of what I was actually reading the first time around lol

I have loved these clarifying videos you have made. I have been getting back into reading HARD, so everyone keeps telling me to find what genres I like, but so many of the books I read are categorized all over the place sometimes. I guess I'm not crazy when I read something on somewhere like good reads and I think to myself "Are you sure?" haha

okay so im fourteen and i read multiple adult books although i generally read ya. i personally believe that the reader should pick a book that they feel comfortable with eg. i know multiple people my age (myself included) that are completely comfortable with heavy swearing and/or graphic scenes, but there are people who are uncomfortable with it and would rather stay clear of it. so i guess what im trying to say is that you are completely right about how people read what they want to, no matter their age AND as a teen myself, most of my age group is completely comfortable and mature enough for the content of adult books and heavy swearing isn't something weird as a lot of people this age use that type of language anyway. so sorry for the long rant, i just needed to get it out of me

Sometime next year, my Horror novella will be published and my protagonist is 21 years old. She has to battle a stalker and technically serial kills a random, sleazebag security guard on the street, her stalker, and the stalker's half-brother with a 3-year vendetta dating back to their high school senior year on prom night. Because of the violent content and ages of the characters, I consider them to be New Adult.

Good video! 😃 And I have also had problems really finding a description for what makes a book adult 😊🤔.

Daniel watching the end of this video going "NEVER LOOK AT GOODREADS"

Merphy...I learn so much from your videos, thank you for your efforts! I've always been curious about what all these categories mean, and you cleared that up. Yay! Oh, and FYI...your hair looks fantastic since you've grown it out. Very pretty! Keep going, dearheart...you're doing great!

Thanks for explaining what young adult fiction is , I didn’t know that up until know. I’m also writing a book that is actually a book series called chronicles of Archaeiya. Book 1 that I titled the great battle for amarykhanta is already published on Wattpad. My main characters in that book are a father and his brother who are both 30 years old and his sons who are 13 and 12 year olds , while their cousins are also 13 and 12. Right now I’m currently writing book 2 that I titled tales of the old West: haunting legends of the superstition ancient mountains. My main characters in that story are a 29 year old man and his 13,14 and 15 year old sons. But the story I’m writing is not young adults coming of age , it’s something completely new and different that I myself invented

My protagonist are 24 years old an 11 years old so I was breaking my head over this, you’ve helped me a lot thanks 🙏

I would argue that 'Adult' is a new category as well. Before, YA.... books were just, books. ie Fantasy or Sci fi or dystopian, not adult fantasy, or adult sci fi or adult dystopian

I really hope NA makes a full resurgence. I rarely read books with a protagonist under 18(exception with HP and Percy Jackson, etc). I think it provides a better line with smut as well.

I loved this video! Thanks for informing one and all that 50% of YA readers are actually adults! That’s because I have seen so many adults saying that reading YA is their guilty pleasure!why are they guilty? I mean... I am an adult and read primarily YA books and I am certainly not guilty about it! Why is it that you only have to read books categorised for your age group?

What you said in this video is true... I read Stephen King when I was in high school. Some of the characters were young kids, but the story was not meant to be read by a young kid.

This video got me thinking about an interesting idea... What are some books that everybody ready when they were younger that they probably should have waited for until they were a few years older? For me, it was Twilight (which I read when I was nine) and Pretty Little Liars (which I started reading when I was ten). With the content matter and the subject material, and in the case of Pretty Little Liars, the amount of swearing and dark themes, I probably wasn't ready for those books at the age I read them. I turned out fine, of course, but I'm just thinking back now and maybe those books should have been ones I picked up a lot later. I think this would be a great video idea for Merphy, as I'd love to hear her opinion on this!

Im currently both my first ever book and my first series The Prophesied Mermaid . The series takes place in an underwater mermaid Society that resembles a human society. The world is divided between magical and non-magical societies The series revolves around Molly a five year old mermaid which is equivalent of a 2 year old human child she lives in the non-magical Society . Molly is not a normal merkid she is The Prophesied Mermaid. However she nor her family and loved ones and or friends know about her true identity as The Prophesied Mermaid until one day when she is taken from the park by mysterious figure One passage in The Ancient Text Of The Ancient Prophecy Of The Prophesied Mermaid states, "The Prophesied Mermaid will live like any other mermaid in the non-magical society, until she reaches the age of 5. At that time, it will be time for her to embrace her destiny." Another one of the passages in The Ancient Text Of Ancient Prophecy Of The Prophesied Mermaid states "One day the prophesied mermaid would be taken into captivity to test her resilience and resistance to temptation" I am currently working on three books of the series 1. Journey To Trident (her Journey begins when she is taken from the park (arrested by The Guardians Of The Prophesied Mermaid) 2. Trident Trials is the second installment (book 2) in my "The Prophesied Mermaid" series Molly's court hearing and sentencing already in March happened in the first book (Book 1) Journey To Trident of my series "The Prophesied Mermaid" Trident Trials (Book 2) of my series "The Prophesied Mermaid) is the start of her official sentence. Molly has already been in prison for one month already since she was arrested in July. But it is now August and she just had her court hearing last Friday (in the first book Journey To Tridnet) where she was sentenced to two months in prison. This means she'll be in Trident Penitentiary the entire months of August and September only two be released in October and then be transferred to the hospital During her time in prison which spans two months (August and Septmeber), the staff helps her understand and teach her about her powers and train her and helps her learn about The Prophesied Mermaid. She also has counselors and therapists visiting her with her feelings and emotions, as well as scholars and experts visiting her to learn more about The Prophesied Mermaid and what roles and responsibilities she will have as The Prophesied Mermaid. She'll also have regular classes during her time in prison with the other inmates, as well as exclusive classes dedicated to her status as The Prophesied Mermaid. As one of her responsibilities as The Prophesied Mermaid, she'll also be mentoring her fellow inmates, which they won't know she's The Prophesied Mermaid. They'll just think she's a peer and a regular inmate. Meaning she'll be "undercover" Trident Trials (After she is sentenced to to month for 'resisting arrest". Her sentence officially began in this after her court hearing.) The charge is actually a cover story her, the main reason she is in prison is for her protection due to her status as The Prophesied Mermaid Trident Trials deals with Molly’s experience in prison for The first time . Trident Penitentiary is a prison for merkids with magical and special powers and abilities that are 5 Trident Trials (After she is sentenced to two month for 'resisting arrest". Her sentence officially began in this after her court hearing. The charge is actually a cover story for her, the main reason she is in prison is for her protection due to her status as The Prophesied Mermaid Trident Trials deals with Molly’s experience in prison for The first time . Trident Penitentiary is a prison for merkids with magical and special powers and abilities that are 5 (which is the same age as 2-year-old human child) Trident Penitentiary also deals with her family and loved ones including her parents Mariana and Well, her grandparents, Eleanor and Walter, Sarah and Michael and babysitter Lorelai, Lorelai's mom Lorena and Lorelai's grandma Lucinda dealing with the situation. They know she's in the custody of The Guardians of The Prophesied Mermaid. But they are not privy to her full situation) I plan to write more books in between 'Trident Trials' and 'After Trident' so I can go more in detail with Molly's experience in prison 3 After Trident (After Molly served her term in prison she is now released from prison and transferred to the hospital where her journey continues. And during her time in the hospital she has her first encounter with the Sea Spirits The Word and The Comforter I also plan split After Trident into separate books so I can into more details with Molly’s experience in the hospital during the respective holiday for each month she's in the hospital Those some of the gists of each book in my series I plan to make this an ongoing book series with no end to it. I plan to grow Molly up throughout the series from a naive child to the fully realized Prohesied Mermaid and continue her adventures as he grows older

I wish people who shelved books would take this into consideration or at least put content warnings on some books... i only say this because i have been burned before by books. One in particular was in the YA section and advertised as a girl running away from a strict family to have a pirate adventure with dragons. Sounded great to me. Only the actual plot was a woman who was raped and shamed by her family, forced to give up her baby and join a nunery. All she wanted from life was her baby and marriage but she had to settle for the unpredictable life on the road. It made me so uncomfortable! And the rape was so detailed and brought up multiple times!

I don't like the desire to categorize. It just sounds like marketing to me. The only place it makes sense to categorize by age is for children who are still building their reading and comprehension skills. Even then there are a lot of kids who read above or below level.

The Song of the Lioness series is quite similar from an age point of view to your example why the age of the protagonist doesn't "matter" always. In the first book the protagoist is... I don't know, 11? In the second she's young adult and in the last two she is an adult and within these books, the themes have changed. Actually the themes of the age ranges fit pretty well. The first book is really focussed on friendship, it has the most amazing firendships I've ever read, in he second she learns how to identify with herself as a woman and in the last ones she... well, technically she tries to find her place in the world, but she's more exploring the second love and her new life like in new adult. I read the series when I was around 12 and I didn't die from reading an adult protagonist. I didn't understand some of the author's decisions that I now support and think are amazing, but as a kid I wanted the simple ending, the typical happy ending. I understand the whole story of my childhoof way better now, thanks to you Merphy! But wow, I just looked it up and it's YA..... I would have never guessed that, haha.

I read nothing but Stephen King and Dean Koontz from ages 12-16, and survived. It was Where the Red Fern Grows that broke me.

Perhaps that's why I like middle grade best. I like to see how characters interact with others and how they fit in with to their world. I don't understand how this isn't a more Universal Theme for all age groups. Family should be an important part of one's life no matter the age, and our relationships with others should have an impact on every aspect of our lives.

Not to be THAT guy, but “The Outsiders” isn’t actually the first YA book ever published. What it was was the very first YA book to actively market itself as more or less being a YA book. The genre itself actually predates the Outsiders by a good sixteen years. The Outsiders marked the beginning of YA as a distinct category, geared towards an explicit audience for the purposes of marketing. As a genre of literature - thematically, narratively, stylistically, and structurally - the founder of Young Adult Fiction was J. D. Salinger. Unlike contemporary YA novels, “The Catcher in the Rye” was written with no particular target audience in mind. Salinger wrote it primarily for himself. And as for the demographic who most resonated with the novel, it was young men in the 14 - 18 range. Holden Caulfield, though not intentionally written to be, turned out to be the archetypical & prototypical YA protagonist, because he’s a character that only teens can TRULY identify with on a deeper, emotional level, which is the feature that most distinguishes YA protagonists from adolescent characters in non-YA books. That said, Salinger created the YA genre almost by accident, or, perhaps instead, just without realizing it. That’s how most genres come into being. An author simply just writes a book, without any intention to create an entire genre of literature, intending for it to be just another book; then, after that, it’s distinct qualities begin to form the basis of a whole new new style of literature. A good way to see it is to view Salinger as being the Verne to Hinton’s Heinlein. The first book in any genre will always predate the formal inauguration of the genre it ended up conceiving. Formalizing a genre is not the same as giving birth to it. It is always the first book in a genre that is responsible for constructing a genre’s framework, establishing certain precedents, and, of course, setting the standards for future works written to target the same general audience of an earlier book that the readers resonated with. So Hinton may have formally established the modern YA genre, but it was Salinger who created the genre

I personally prefer MG or YA because i like things like happy endings and not to much violence and things like that because I‘m really sensitive with that topics and get easily into a Depression with some Themes. So i prefer these books. In the adult i‘m way more cautious and do my research before i pick up a book. And it Makes me really sad that NA has this stamp of erotica or smut. I would really like to read about someones experiences with love, collage First Jobs etc in a way that it Fells like it’s actually writen for the people that just experience that.

I would say that a third factor in determining a book's intended age range is just its reading level, that is, the complexity of its use of language. A famous example that illustrates this is the State of the Union addresses given by US Presidents every year. They've basically been steadily getting lower ever since Washington. His addresses were very complex and lyrical, being at a 24th grade level, if I remember correctly, since at the time, they weren't really publicized and were intended only for the members of Congress who were all college educated. Then, slowly they got less complex, until by the age of Television, they had to be accessible to everyone in the country so they could understand them. And by now, Trump's addresses I think were said to be at a 4th grade reading level. The point is, it's an important component of determining a book's target audience that I guess Merphy just forgot to mention.

I wonder what would Romeo and Juliet be categorized at least in today’s age 🤔

Thanks for pointing out that the age of the protagonists do not indicate the category. I’ve had a few folks ask me on my current WIP why there is “such heavy stuff” in an “MG book.” Just because my protagonists are MG-YA age doesn’t mean it’s MG. It’s Adult.

Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus are a lot like Harry Potter in that, especially Heroes of Olympus, they kind of turn into YA from MG. Partially because the protagonists get older, yes, but also I think it had a lot to do with the original Percy Jackson fan base growing up as well. Interesting how that happens.

There are a few books out that shouldn't be in the young adult section. I wish they would split certain things. The biggest one I found was Sarah J Maas books. I started reading the A Court of Thorns books and my daughter tried to take them and read them. I had to hide those. Since then I have started reading or skimming her picks before I give them to her. Excellent breakdown btw. It is definitely something I needed to know since my kids are in a few different age ranges.

I agree very much with what you say in this video. When I was young, YA was not a thing, at least not here in Germany. So I started reading adult when I was 11/12. And as you said, I survived 🤣 A ciuple more good example of adult books with teenage protagonists are Red Rising and Name of the wind

Adult novels are just generally breeder in themes, they're about life overall - not a phase in it. If you think of it as perspectives. Rather than defining books by themes, we define them by how the themes are introduced in the context of life. So as to what are Adult themes - any number of things, and the same goes for all other genres. Concepts such as "casual life", "coming of age" as "second times" aren't themes, they're ways of looking at them - levels of depth. In MA books, the readers generally usually have little to no life experience. They read books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid or the 13 Story Treehouse - fun books, but ultimately, they don't explore any of the more intricate elements of life. It's very surface level - tho that doesn't mean that they're less deep. YA is about introduction to those themes. In books like The Giver, Hunger Games or Harry Potter - characters are faced for the first time with the deeper/more mature thrusts of life. This is where you get to scratch the surface of the themes. In NA, the main character is already familiar with what's under the surface of the theme, but is still severely unused to it. In Adult books, the theme can be fully explored - this is why books like American Gods and Hanta Yo don't hold back - the reader is assumed to have the most perspective.

I read Madame Bovary when I was 12. I just didn't understand a lot of it lol. I read it again as an adult and liked it a lot more. So I wasn't traumatized, just didn't get it

The issue I have with trusting the publishers is that as a business their intent is to sell the book so the characterization may not be what readers would find appropriate. Given the popularity of YA which genre wise takes its genesis from Adventure novels I don’t think the intended marketing age is teens any longer. IMHO, YA has became a genre type in fantasy for example and less an age gate. Darker shade of magic is a good opposite example - that is not an adult series because the themes are exploring the leads’ place in society etc etc. Have you checked out a couple of other RU-vid videos on this topic? Ariel Basset did one which was pretty interesting

Clan of the Cave Bear is another one. Ayla is literally 5, but it’s classified as YA.