::tosses random question to the all-knowing Interwebs::

[shadowsong26]

How do you define YA fantasy/sci-fi/horror/speculative fiction as opposed to adult f/s-f/h/sf? I'm pretty sure it's not about the issues tackled--look at The Hunger Games, or Harry Potter, or the Heralds of Valdemar books. All of those deal with some pretty complex, adult issues, and all are primarily (at least initially, I think) aimed at teen readers. And I'm not sure protagonist age is a good indicator, either. Not many adult f/s-f/h/sf protagonists are under eighteen, but some are around that age, and some YA protagonists are older (see Dragonlance and some of the Heralds of Valdemar books). I know I can pick a passage from...say...Twilight and compare it to one from The Vampire Chronicles (trying to keep all other factors like genre, sub-genre, etc. the same) and know that Twilight is aimed at teens and The Vampire Chronicles at adults, but...I was just wondering if anyone knew exactly what goes into that?

/random question
/is possibly overly obsessed with analysis/genre categorization
/writing something that's supposed to be YA and unsure how to make sure it's differentiated from adult-aimed origfic written in the past

Comments

[novel_machinist]

From the way I understand it, YA is mostly sentence structure and writing style. YA typically are quick, easy reads that are more for fun than anything else. For example the PLL books are what I would classify as YA because they aren't complex to read.

I can get through most YA books in a day. It takes longer to read through adult lit.

[shadowsong26]

Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you.

[bookblather]

Publisher weirdness? I genuinely don't know. Most authors I know just write the story. Although what vincent said is probably accurate; it's the style of writing more than anything else, especially in these days of YA exploding.

[shadowsong26]

Yeah. I guess it's like the porn standard, "I can't explain it, but I know it when I see it." Something like that, anyway. Thank you.