Let's Discuss: Young Adult Reads

 

So another idea popped in my head that I thought was worth discussing! It's another odd one for you, these are the things that I think over once I read/see something that sparks the idea and then I truly do wonder what others think!

YA: A Genre or Reading Level?

So it was when I was taking some bookish survey of some kind and it had asked what genres do you read and listed several. One of them was YA...and I was like YA what? Paranormal, Fantasy, Contemporary, Mystery, Thriller? YA WHAT?!

Then I'm thinking, do you mean every genre within YA? I wanted to ask the survey: do you view YA as a genre and not a "reading level?"

I mean, I guess I can see it as yes, encompassing EVERYTHING! It's like when you ask do you read fiction or non-fiction? And it's like fiction, but let me tell you ALL THE GENRES I read within this fiction! Lol.

So I guess it just threw me a bit to see YA as a "genre" as I just thought of it as a "reading level." Like how we had New Adult Paranormal reads for awhile and New Adult Contemporary reads. There are genres within this targeted age level. Like Middle Grade Fantasy. 

Basically, it is just a matter of perspective. Do you view YA as a genre or reading level category. Like with adult reads but we somehow just leave "adult" off by default.

What do you think? Do you view YA as an all encompassing genre or a reading level/targeted age of reader...what have you. The same with New Adult, even though that has also kind of faded away and just been consumed by the "adult" area of things. I prefer adding on the genre as YA to me is saying who the targeted age of the reader is meant to be and tells me nothing else of the book itself.