YA vs. NA vs. Adult
Every reader knows that there are young adult books (YA) and adult books, but not everyone is aware that there are also new adult (NA) books! Officially declared an age group in 2009, it’s only in recent years with the rise of #booktok that NA has become popular. So, what’s the difference? What makes a book young adult or new adult and what makes a book new adult instead of adult? Truthfully, it all comes down to age range, but I’ll break it down further below:
Young Adult
Young adult books are geared toward readers who are 13 to 20 as the protagonist is usually under 18. YA deals largely with coming-of-age themes and can center around high school. You’ll usually see first loves, friendship troubles, or if it’s fantasy maybe they are coming into their own magical powers. While there can be more adult themes like grief, sexuality, or parental issues, these are told in a way that teens can understand and relate to them. All of our books at The Reading Chamber are categorized as YA according to their publishers.
New Adult
New adult books are a bridge between YA and adult books with the target reader age being 18 to 29. The protagonists are usually in their early 20s like 18 to 25 and the themes are more about striking out on your own like going to college or a first job. Sometimes this will have first love, but it’s usually more mature love and sexuality can be heavier as the characters are older. A lot of older YA readers tend to gravitate toward NA books because the writing style is very similar to YA and can be easier to read than some adult literary fiction books. The A Court of Thorns and Roses series is a great example of a book that straddles the line between YA and NA with some stores putting it in the YA section and some in the Adult section under NA.
Adult
Adult fiction is for readers 18 and up, but the protagonists will be all different ages. Sometimes it’s a sixty-year-old woman who lives in Cape Cod, sometimes it’s a sixteen-year-old girl who lives in a haunted house. Adult fiction also tends to have more male authors like Brandon Sanderson and James Patterson. Adult books have adult themes. You’ll see more explicit content, more literary language, and sometimes not-so happily-ever-afters. A lot of genres have wider selections under adult books since they’re not writing to a teen market so if you’re really into horror books, you’re probably going to be reading adult.
The main thing to keep in mind with this breakdown is it is all subjective. Every reader is different and prefers different types of books. For example, I’m 29 and I didn’t start really reading more adult books until this past year because I prefer the writing style of YA and NA. I was 12 when I started reading YA and one of my cousin’s kids was 11 when he started. I know people who started reading adult books when they were in their teens and I know adults who strictly read YA and teens who read NA. It all depends on what books suit you so sometimes the age range really doesn’t matter.
Happy Reading!
