Young adult and New Adult are very similar genres that the borderline is always seemed blurred out. I myself had countless experiences where I had mistaken a YA to NA, or the other way around.
To me, they’re all the same. They both have alternating perspectives. All genre occasionally have books that are with multi-perspectives, but it’s hopelessly obvious that the two genres that you see most with multi-perspectives are YA and NA. I don’t know if its because this genre tends to have more ‘adventurous’ story-line, which will result in required multi-perspectives because the characters separate, or it’s just that it appeals more to the age group between YA and NA. But you really do see multi-perspectives more in the two genres.
Another thing that allowed readers like me to alter between NA and YA so easily is because of the close character age range in both genres. Both genres feature younger heroine and heroes. Of course there are differences: For YA, it mainly features characters that go from 15 – 17, and NA features characters that go from 18 to occasional 20s, but generally they are young. Even in NA, we’re frequently reading characters where they just turned 18 and independent, is going off to college, so of course they still feel ‘teenager’ on the inside and to the readers.
Now, you’re probably saying why am I specifying NA and YA are similar together because their age groups are right next to each other? Especially that children’s chapters books sits between 7-12, which is literally right next to YA’s. Well, beside from the fact that this article’s name is called Young Adult V.S New Adult and not Young Adult V.S New Adult V.S Children’s Literature, the other reason is because if you haven’t noticed, the age group in YA can start at 13, but a lot of the characters are at least 14 (and even that’s kind of rare, more than half of are at least 15 or 16) has at least a 16 or 17 years old attitude (and contents, a.k.a sex, relationships, language).
Because their attitudes are the same, the narration voice is literally exactly the same. Because both character age groups are really close and similar, you often see same attitude, characteristics, and voices in both NA and YA books. Also, YA and NA undoubtedly has some of the best narrations I have ever seen. I don’t know why, but I loved the voices the characters had in YA, and their savageness always makes me laugh, which makes me love the characters in general.
This leads me to my next point, the type of characters. Like the narration, good, popular, or well liked YA or NA books all has some of the best kick-ass characters and likable book boyfriends mostly, the kinds you see only from the YA and NA pool. This can be affected because of the type of world building YA and NA adults usually rests in, or just because these specific characteristics in YA and NA characters are extremely likable to young adults and new adults.
You also literally only see /hate relationship in NA and YA books too. You specifically don’t see this relationship often in adult genres, and mainly rests in NA and YA. Which makes sense (kind of) because if you REALLY think about it, it’s actually kind of…childish. At least a little bit. And like the type of characters in YA and NA, this can be affected into that way because this relationship is easier to mold and build in YA and NA story/world buildings.
However, one thing that REALLY bothers me is the recurrence of abusive relationships in NA books. I won’t say anything about it right now, because I will talk about this in my upcoming article, “What Exactly are ‘Bad Boys’ in Books?” which is inspired by BookTuber Samantha’s video “Book Talk | Bad Boys” on her channel, Thoughts on Tomes.
Either way, what do you guys think of NA and YA, and which one do you prefer more?
#HateLoveRelationship #NewAdult #YoungAdult
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