I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. My parents still love to tell the story of when they got a call from my concerned kindergarten teacher because, instead of playing with the other children, I would spend recess sitting against the fence and reading every day. As you can imagine, my reading tastes have gradually grown and changed alongside me over the years.
It has been so gradual in the past few years, though, that I haven’t really noticed or paid attention to my shifting preferences much until now.
I have more books than space currently, so I’ve been trying to focus on reading through my physical TBR (to-be-read list) and getting rid of books that I don’t love and/or can’t see myself re-reading. It hasn’t been an easy task, but it has revealed a trend — I have become hesitant to read Young Adult novels lately.
Young Adult novels are typically aimed toward and focused on people between the ages of 12 and 18. Now that I am in my mid-twenties, I am very much out of that range. Being out of the age range of the targeted demographic does not mean that you can’t still enjoy the media — I certainly still do.
I will forever love the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. I re-read the series (plus the Heroes of Olympus spinoff) as a college graduation present to myself, and I plan to re-read them all again in the next year or two. I love it just as much now, if not more.
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy by Holly Jackson, the Renegades trilogy by Marissa Meyer, Better than the Movies by Lynn Painter — these are just a few more of my favorite YA novels, and I love them dearly.
But I can’t deny that I’ve picked up YA novels recently that I didn’t love — not necessarily because they were written poorly, but just because the characters and plot weren’t as complex or deep as I wanted them to be.
I’ve had similar issues with books aimed toward adults, especially with romantasy, but there’s one key difference with the YA novels: I am not the target demographic anymore. For the YA novels that I had this experience with, I know that I would have loved them as a teenager.
A perfect example of this is Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch. It was a really fun read for me, and the descriptions of Italy took me back to my trip there, but I just didn’t feel much for it other than mild entertainment. It was really well-written, and the plot was solid, but it just didn’t have any plot factors that had me hooked. If I had read it in high school, though, I know that I would’ve absolutely loved it. I didn’t really gravitate towards more complex books back then, and I would’ve connected to the characters on a much deeper level.
All this to say — everyone has different preferences when it comes to books, based on what they want from the books and what they’re in the mood for, and there’s really no “wrong” book taste. It’s interesting to see how our book tastes can grow and develop over the years, and how they stay the same.
Thank you for exploring with us! Until next time, may the pages and paths ahead of you be great.
