The Da Vinci Code rewritten for YA readers? Please spare them

I don’t know whether it’s possible to dumb down Dan Brown’s blockbuster, but it seems the publisher thinks this will win over the perfectly capable teen market

YA readers react to Dan Brown’s teen adaptation: ‘Why?’

Dan Brown’s publisher has announced that this autumn it is going to release a new, abridged version of the Da Vinci Code aimed at the lucrative YA market. The implication I took from this news is that The Da Vinci Code is about to be dumbed down. Even further.

The fear that then gripped me then was far greater than that of my own death. I saw a future filled with too many ellipses, overly complex descriptions and arbitrary races against time. Suddenly, despite all the laws of reason and the many rules relating to logic … Penguin Random House … one of the last few publishing houses and the sole guardian of the UK rights of one of the most successful novels written in the last 20 years … were reissuing a rip-roaringly simple book, made even simpler? Alongside my attractive sidekick, I summoned all my faculties and strength as I began to realise that the time for bad Dan Brown parodies was almost over … I had to … try … to think … like a normal person again…

Related: Dan Brown still can't write, but he deserves some respect | Alan Yuhas

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