Just Another Struggling Writer

Hello friends, and welcome to another edition of Fiction Friday, my blog series about all things books! That I didn’t write. Not that I’ve written any. Anyway.

A few weeks ago, I talked about a few of the reasons I tend to DNF books. Longtime readers of the blog were likely not surprised to see that “the book was YA” was listed as a chief reason why I put a book aside, if I’ve managed to somehow avoid checking the age category in the first place. 

I’m just not a fan of YA, but I realize that, in the online book community, that makes me a bit of an outlier. YA is a hugely popular genre, and even if people tend to prefer adult narratives, many of them still read and enjoy YA when the mood strikes. Not I. Teen narratives have not appealed to me since I myself was one. I even remember reading the seventh installment of the Book-Series-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named at release when I was 19 and feeling even then that I had aged out of the category. 

It’s kind of a huge bummer, because I know that means I’m missing out on some really great stories. Six of Crows is a prime example. I tried getting into that book not once, not twice, but three times, and each time I couldn’t make it past the inciting incident, because it just felt too… juvenile for me. I love the premise. I love the setting. I just can’t get invested in the sixteen year old characters, no matter how hard the author tries to dress them up as adults (and seriously, what was the deal with one of the POV characters having been sex trafficked at age thirteen and it’s just… sort of blown past? whatever). 

I also know that there are plenty of adult narratives out there with teen (or even younger) characters. Red Sister was my favorite book I read last year, and it featured a main character who was nine in the first third of the book, and twelve thereafter. But Nona’s story was a twelve year old’s story. I would not put that book in my preteen son’s hands. 

A Deadly Education is a very popular book and highly touted. Every few months I go to it’s Goodreads page to see if I should check it out myself and that’s when I remember, oh yeah, it’s YA. I probably wouldn’t like it. Then I would forget, and the cycle continues the next time I see someone talk about it.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. The setting sounds cool as hell. I think the premise is pretty bitchin. But I also think it sounds, well, young adult (how can it not, it is literally set in a school). And yet, I would be lying if I said that FOMO wasn’t getting to me. 

But on the other hand (or is it the first hand?), I know from my experience with Six of Crows that a great premise and cool world building isn’t enough to get me through a deeply juvenile narrative. 

With that all being said… should I read A Deadly Education? 

Every time I write the word juvenile it sounds pejorative in my head, but I’m not trying to be condescending at all. I mean it literally. Juvenile as in not adult. 

Anyway. I know there are so many adult fantasy books out there that I can’t possibly read them all in my lifetime, so I shouldn’t waste time pining over books I probably wouldn’t enjoy anyway but… I FEEL LEFT OUT. 

Until next time my friends, may your writing reading be plenty and your struggles be few. 

Kerry Share