Sometimes the YA world is just… nuts.
As a reader who often heads to the Young Adult section first, I’m frequently called out by adults for my reading choices – usually by those who don’t know what the YA field is like and think I want something simplistic to read or that I never grew up or whatever “theory” is prevalent this week.
One of the latest Twitter controversies revolves around sex in YA novels, but with a new twist. These posts aren’t about demanding “clean reads” for teens or decrying sexual content in YA novels. Instead, some people (both fans and authors) are upset about adults reading YA and “hypersexualizing” the teen characters.
It has gotten so odd, some people have claimed they feel like alerting the FBI about YA authors who “hypersexualize” their teen characters.
One example:
Oh, I’m sure it was meant as a joke. Sure. Some of the other posters aren’t joking when they suggest this sort of […]
A few weeks ago, I selected a book to review that admitted it was a novella, but pretended it was a stand-alone. When I opened it up, the book was fifty seven pages and was about the farthest thing from a stand-alone I could think of. Instead, I think it’s a few chapters the author cut from another book and just… embellished. There was no time to invest in the characters, and instead I was expected to believe they were obsessed enough with each other to go from dreaming of having sex with one another to marriage – in fifty seven pages.