Interested in having your YA novel reviewed by BreathlessInk? Email Becca (at) BreathlessInk (dot) com and I will get with you as soon as possible!

What exactly is “Young Adult” fiction?

YA fiction is written for, published for, and marketed to adolescents and young adults ages 13 to 21. Typically, a novel is considered YA if it has characters between the ages of 12 and 18. Authors and readers of YA novels often define the genre as being written for ages ranging from sixteen years up to the age of twenty-five.  Beyond this, it isn’t really a category or genre unto itself; there are so many subcategories of YA, like

• Contemporary
• Fantasy
• Historical
• Science Fiction/Dystopian
• Mystery/Thriller
• Paranormal
• Satire/Humor
• Romance

and then combinations of these subcategories, like Romantic Fantasy. The most important factor in designating a YA novel as YA is the point of view. It’s the story of an adolescent with adolescent sensibilities told from his or her perspective. A novel about someone looking back at their adolescence, then, wouldn’t really fit into this category.

The protagonists of YA novels, like most young people are struggling to find their place in a confusing world, to define themselves and their relationships to others, to imagine a future in which they are independent of parents and home. Like most human beings on the planet, they want love, autonomy, and respect, and they find it in many ways.

Interested in having your YA novel reviewed by BreathlessInk? Email Becca (at) BreathlessInk (dot) com and I will get with you as soon as possible!