Quiet YA Reads

The YA you've never heard of.

[cultofsappho]

Convincing you to read queer romance books by their aesthetic (8/∞):

So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens

Arek hadn’t thought much about what would happen after he completed the prophecy that said he was destined to save the Kingdom of Ere from its evil ruler. So now that he’s finally managed to (somewhat clumsily) behead the evil king (turns out magical swords yanked from bogs don’t come pre-sharpened), he and his rag-tag group of quest companions are at a bit of a loss for what to do next.

As a temporary safeguard, Arek’s best friend and mage, Matt, convinces him to assume the throne until the true heir can be rescued from her tower. Except that she’s dead. Now Arek is stuck as king, a role that comes with a magical catch: choose a spouse by your eighteenth birthday, or wither away into nothing.

With his eighteenth birthday only three months away, and only Matt in on the secret, Arek embarks on a desperate bid to find a spouse to save his life—starting with his quest companions. But his attempts at wooing his friends go painfully and hilariously wrong…until he discovers that love might have been in front of him all along.

[jspinkmills]

This book! LOVE! I was kind of on the fence about starting a new trilogy but now that I’ve devoured it I just want to keep going, maybe forever. Great characters, great magic. 💖

[ultramilous]

“This is one of those moments that I want to bottle up and keep with me forever. Not because it's extraordinary, or because it's the kind of thing you would find in a Bollywood movie.

But because it's the kind of moment I could never have dreamed of having in a million years.”

‘The Henna Wars’ by Adiba Jaigirdar

[crunchie-morris]

Books I’ve Read In 2022 - The Falling In Love Montage by Ciara Smyth

Seventeen-year-old cynic Saoirse Clarke isn’t looking for a relationship. But when she meets mischievous Ruby, that rule goes right out the window. Sort of.

Because Ruby has a loophole in mind: a summer of all the best cliché movie montage dates, with a definite ending come fall—no broken hearts, no messy breakup. It would be the perfect plan, if they weren’t forgetting one thing about the Falling in Love Montage: when it’s over, the characters have fallen in love...for real.

[thebooksoflife]

I’m not one of those brave people who suffer in silence. When I’m miserable, everybody knows it. I make sure of that.

Words on Bathroom Walls, Julia Walton

i like to pretend I am, but i’m not

[quietya]

Hey, about your not YA books post. Why wouldn't you label A Darker Shade of Magic as YA? Because I read it from my library's YA section and never questioned it (or actually I questioned why the first and third book were YA in my library and the second in the adult section but that conversation opens a lot of frustrations with my library) and now I'm genuinely curious why it wouldn't be

The primary reason almost any book is specified as YA vs adult comes down to marketing. ADSOM is interesting because it was bought by a publishing imprint and editor that COULD do YA, but it was put in the adult section. This also means it costs more (adult hardcovers typically retail around $28.99 in the US while YA hardcovers retail around 18.99) and changes where the advertising focuses are.

There’s also the actual story reason, which is character arc. YA is considered to be a coming of age story arc, where the character’s learning about themselves and their identity. Adult is more about figuring out what your identity means in the world. This is a grey area in books, so definitely not a clear cut way to separate age categories in books. Some people also claim the content of a book can make it YA vs adult - YA can get pretty dark or feature wax scenes, but it would never get as graphic as adult books - but I don’t think ADSOM has enough violent or sexual content for that to have been a factor in the decision.

It could be marked as YA because the characters are in their late teens/early 20s and there’s also some grey area there. It could also have happened because Schwab had written YA books (and middle grade books) before ADSOM. And, as I mentioned in the original post, a lot of people just see a person they assume is a woman wrote a SFF book and a female protagonist and assume YA. Librarians don’t always see the nuances of marketing when purchasing books, so these are more likely reasons they may have shelved in YA. Can’t explain why they’d split the series though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[the-book-ferret]

[emohell]

BOOKS READ IN 2021 → The Disasters by M.K. England

space is hard. grab a helmet.

[oblivionsdream]

Commission of Wyatt and Emyr from the Witch King by H.E Edgmon!

[sunnyscreaming]

Tommorow and tommorow and tommorow

-A.R. Capetta, Echo After Echo

[hvrrycameron]

back then, I was willing to be anything people told me to be. I didn’t mind that I was dying inside because I didn’t know how to live any other way. but how do you learn to breathe, then opt to be suffocated day in and day out?

I’m noah now, and really, I always have been. it’s not my fault no one believed in noah until he gave them no other choice.

— MEET CUTE DIARY by emery lee

[ace-artemis-fanartist]

I recently finished In the Ravenous Dark, and it was so crazy, dark, and fun. It also has some great; pan, lesbian, nonbinary, ace, and poly rep.

[thebooksaidthat]

I wanted to marry the girl next door, but my mother told me it was foolish. I needed children to take care of me when I was old. She said only sorcerers don’t need to worry about family. I said I would be a sorcerer, and left.

Tessa Gratton, Night Shine (via thebooksaidthat)

[angelicamerlinbarnes]

Feminismo, my mother says, means both being allowed to open your own door if you like and knowing you are fantastic enough for a man to open it for you.

[blyndwolf]

i am OBSESSED with a certain aurelian bessel from a dark and hollow star!! unfortunately, i can’t find much art of him so I decided to try to make my own! 

i may not be able to draw, but i have an ipad and ambition, so without further ado, i present to you: a hasty scrawl of my fave emo bodyguard

[quietya]

Not Every Popular Book is a YA Book

Your mod is very on edge because ya know....the world. While scrolling for posts, I saw like five posts complaining about different books as bad YA books and they aren’t....even YA books.

So, here’s a list of books that are not! YA books!

Crescent City/House of Earth and Blood ACOTAR (this one’s debatable, but it was originally sold as New Adult) The Winternight Trilogy The Love Hypothesis/the Reylo fanfic book Red, White and Royal Blue One Last Stop The Poppy War Ninth House Pretty much every book by Colleen Hoover From Blood and Ash The Night Circus The Starless Sea For the Wolf Uprooted The Wolf and the Woodsman The Song of Achilles The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue A Darker Shade of Magic

It’s totally cool to read them if you consider yourself a YA reader, but that doesn’t make these books YA. Most of the authors being women does not make the books YA. Some of the authors having published YA books does not make THESE books YA books. Popular books are not equivalent to YA books. And not liking YA books or thinking it’s so overdone doesn’t make you cool.

Let people like things. But let’s please label these things properly.

If you want me to talk about why some of these books aren’t YA books because you’re not sure and want to understand, I’m happy to talk about it!

[con-alas-de-angeles]

Swati Teerdhala, The Archer at Dawn