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I hope this is the right place to post this -- as it's for all readers as well as novelists, I chose the Roundtable.
Anyway: my new novel, The Small Fortune of Dorothea Q, is coming out on Friday and a few reviews are trickling in. One reviewer said that, because all three main characters are in their teens, the book could be categorised as YA.
I was a bit flummoxed by this opinion, as I never in my life thought I was writing YA! Though a few times, I did think it would fit in the Coming-of-Age category, along with a couple of other genres.
The thing is, though the novel does go back in time to the (middle aged and old) adult characters youth and shows them growing up, the main focus is on the present day drama, when they are the ages they are now.
So I got to wondering what is the dividing line between YA and Coming-of-Age; and I think it is intended readership.
I believe that YA is primarily intended for, natch, teens and young adults, and deals with the issues they face, such as dating, school, etc. The voice will be young and maybe a bit sassy, in the voice of this readership, and it will be very much here-and-now.
Coming-of-Age, as I see it, is about the change that young person goes through in becoming an adult as seen form an older perspective, and the intended readership is much older.
Of course, those definitions are very much generalised; old people can read and enjoy YA, and vice versa. Yet the couple of YA's I've read, I pretty much knew that I (aged 63) was not the intended reader.
Using that criteria, the book is defintitely not YA.
What do you think? Does the age of the characters alone determine the genre?
Anyway: my new novel, The Small Fortune of Dorothea Q, is coming out on Friday and a few reviews are trickling in. One reviewer said that, because all three main characters are in their teens, the book could be categorised as YA.
I was a bit flummoxed by this opinion, as I never in my life thought I was writing YA! Though a few times, I did think it would fit in the Coming-of-Age category, along with a couple of other genres.
The thing is, though the novel does go back in time to the (middle aged and old) adult characters youth and shows them growing up, the main focus is on the present day drama, when they are the ages they are now.
So I got to wondering what is the dividing line between YA and Coming-of-Age; and I think it is intended readership.
I believe that YA is primarily intended for, natch, teens and young adults, and deals with the issues they face, such as dating, school, etc. The voice will be young and maybe a bit sassy, in the voice of this readership, and it will be very much here-and-now.
Coming-of-Age, as I see it, is about the change that young person goes through in becoming an adult as seen form an older perspective, and the intended readership is much older.
Of course, those definitions are very much generalised; old people can read and enjoy YA, and vice versa. Yet the couple of YA's I've read, I pretty much knew that I (aged 63) was not the intended reader.
Using that criteria, the book is defintitely not YA.
What do you think? Does the age of the characters alone determine the genre?
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