Laura Roberts
asked:
Hey, Goodreads Community, can we please stop classifying this book as YA or MG? It is neither, and the author herself has identified it as an Adult book. Miscategorizing books that are not meant for kids can be quite harmful.
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Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Thank you! Yes, this is an adult novel, as are all my other novels and novellas. SFF by women seems to be automatically classified as YA, which is where the error comes from.
PS: The reasons for having this out as an adult book have to do with the choices of my publisher, but also my own feeling that the omniscient tell-don't-show bits of the novel would make it feel distancing and unappealing for teenagers (plus some other stuff, which I won't go into right now). And sure, there's adults who also hate omniscient POVs, but teens seems to hate them more (at least judging by the ones I know). If new adult had taken off as a category maybe that might have worked as a shelf, but it doesn't seem to have done very well. Ultimately, I think it's a fantasy bildungsroman, which may be very appealing to adults who like a fairy tale feel but also cross-over well to older teenagers.
PS: The reasons for having this out as an adult book have to do with the choices of my publisher, but also my own feeling that the omniscient tell-don't-show bits of the novel would make it feel distancing and unappealing for teenagers (plus some other stuff, which I won't go into right now). And sure, there's adults who also hate omniscient POVs, but teens seems to hate them more (at least judging by the ones I know). If new adult had taken off as a category maybe that might have worked as a shelf, but it doesn't seem to have done very well. Ultimately, I think it's a fantasy bildungsroman, which may be very appealing to adults who like a fairy tale feel but also cross-over well to older teenagers.
Hank
Classifications can sometimes be arbitrary and more marketing than not, but this fits just about every definition I have for YA so I am going to classify it as that.
The "we must protect the children" comment is incredibly irritating and I would love to know what content you think is harmful because this book is quite tame compared to many books marketed as Young Adult.
The "we must protect the children" comment is incredibly irritating and I would love to know what content you think is harmful because this book is quite tame compared to many books marketed as Young Adult.
Lem◍nade Midnight
I agree—when a man writes a sci fi/fantasy book, and says it’s an adult book, also if it has a teen MC, people will listen, but if it’s a woman—who cares what she herself says, it’s obviously young adult! It’s so sexist.
Yona
I dob't think there's anything especially *harmful* about teens being exposed to this particular book. The language and level of violence and gore is on par with many other YA titles (When We Were Magic and Bad Witch Burning come to mind). I think it's natural to want to classify it as YA considering the central character is a teen who's dreaming of the world beyond her yard and then striking out in the world for the first time. I usually explain it as a fantasy story with strong teen appeal.
Burcu Mkk
it's adult novel
Desdemona, Troller of Reviews, Defamation Queen, and Sock Puppet Factory
I avoided reading night circus by Erin Morgenstern because so many blogs talked about it as YA and it was in YA shelves here. Then I realised it won an Alex award meaning it was an adult book that also appealed to young readers. And that made me way more willing to try it. It's not that I have anything against YA books, but it isn't what I am looking for, so there has to me an extremely compelling reason for me not to avoid it if it is shelved that way.
I can see how it can be super harmful.
I can see how it can be super harmful.
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Nov 10, 2019 01:12PM · flag