Gandalf is 2,000 years old, so I consider all his parts "Super Adult"

I feel like Harry Potter started as middle grade then changed into young adult. Not just because Harry’s age changes but rather the content changed.

Growing up I never thought about labels like YA or Adult. I just read books that seemed interesting.

I can't believe that parents were actually writing the author angry because their kids read a book that was not appropriate for them. Be a parent and do the research and take responsibility for yourself! Or read it.... just sayin

there's actually a proven trend that books written by women & feminine folk tend to get categorized as YA much more often regardless of the content of the book. several authors have spoken out about this, but it hasn't changed much yet

For a second there I thought you were wearing a backpack.

"Teenagers read adult books back in the 70's and survived." Yes, this.

As a children's librarian, I would add one more category of chapter books. "Lower Grade" or "Easy Chapter" books appeal to 6-9 year old children who are just starting chapter books. These books tend to be very simple adventure, mystery, or humor books. Magic Tree House, Captain Underpants, Geronimo Stilton, and Junie B. Jones are some examples of this age category. Most books are less than a hundred pages still have some pictures or have a semi-comic book approach. At this age, kids can be reluctant to start a new series. Luckily, the books are episodic and tend to have dozens of books in the series. Sadly, because of this older readers rarely read this unless to co-read with their own kids. Due the episodic nature of the books, character development and coming of age elements tend to be minimized leaving little appeal for older audiences.

Read Stephen King at 10. Still sane. Mostly.

Adult is just p everything that isn't aimed at a specific demographic. Makes sense for adult to be so broad since we spend the majority of our lives as adults.

I remember reading adult novels at middle-grade age, and far from the content damaging me I feel that some of it helped me be prepared for the reality of the world. I write for adults but at the back of my head there's always this nagging "what about the gifted kid who's reading this at ten? What am I teaching her?" I don't let it hold me back but it does make me mindful to avoid writing things just for spectacle.

I’d LOVE to see a list of your favorites for each genre!! 😁

People overthink all those categories so much nowadays, especially overprotective parents. . My first adult book was "Needful Things" by Stephen King and I read it when I was 9. Throughout my teens I mainly read adult books. I was trusted to stop in case it ever became too much for me and I'm not traumatized 🤣

“And Nevernight himself”

I read Stephen King as a teen and I survived, haha. My first King novel was 'Salem's Lot, which I would still highly recommend.

I was one of those people who didn’t have any YA. Being a teacher I started reading ya and I loved it. I never had enough time to read a dense adult book because I was so busy. Now that I am retired I enjoy all levels.

This was a great video and it was really well done, but I really don't like these age distinctions in general. I feel like it's caused a lot of issues, especially in YA (which isn't me saying anything negative about YA, just that it's made for some problems). I love the way Neil Gaiman related an adjacent topic to the similar distinction in comics. Some of them just say for mature readers. That's it. And as he said, he's met mature readers that are 15 or 16 and immature readers that are 38.

Yeah, the age classification isn't that important, I'm 13 and I have read "adult" books and my mom has read "YA" and we both like the experience. (Sorry for bad English, I'm still learning)

I'm glad you enjoy making these videos, because I LOVE watching them!

This confusion of age of the protagonist vis a vis the category of the book is most common with Harry Potter. Parents constantly sue or complain about the later books of Harry Potter “not being suitable for their children to read” It’s just that the plot had to get darker as the story progressed. I mean it was predictable from the very first book.

I think the one thing missing from this discussion is marketing. YA is first and foremost a marketing term. I took a class for my English minor, I took an adolescent fiction class where we read YA and discussed it on a higher thematic level. But the discussions were always interesting and nuanced because YA isn't a genre or something written with much intent; it's primary purpose from its conception to this day is the fact that it's marketed to a YA audience, even if it isn't necessarily written with that audience in mind. The history of YA is really interesting, and it follows a similar route to children's literature. For a lot of history, society viewed age as you're either a baby or you're an adult. That's it. But in Victorian times, this idea that childhood exists, that there's a time in between being a baby and being an adult when you're at a different developmental stage and have different needs, was new and up-in-coming. Enter some of the first children's stories like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Oz, etc. Something similar happened kind of throughout our lives with YA. Around 50's/60's, this idea that being a teenager in bw childhood and adulthood, needing something more than children's stories but not quite being reading for adult stories, was new. By the 2000's, publishers saw the market for it, especially calling it young adult instead of "teenager books" which encourages them to go shop in that part of the bookstore. I REALLY love discussions about YA themes like the ones you've given here; YA is so so important for teens to have access to, and the responsibility that YA books have at teaching good morals and having relevant themes. Even though bookstores and publishers may treat YA just for marketing, it's super important for readers to discuss them without that muddling. I've seen arguments that we *really* need a separate NA section because PROTECT THE CHILDREN! And to that I say: 1) I agree with your video... YA didn't always exist, and none of us are corrupted. If anything, parents and teachers should be more involved w what their kids are reading and be willing to explain, so this is a great opportunity for that. and 2) I'm sure NA will be its own section of the library within our life times, but only if publishers see that it's a viable marketing option.

Even MG books can be be enjoyed by adults and teenagers. There are alot of great books that got categorized as MG books but are great books for all ages. Check out alot of the Newberry Honor and Medal Winners. Examples of wonderful books that have mature topics that could be read in MG school assignments that are great reads regardless of age are "Island of the Blue Dolphins", "The Cay", "Hatchet", and "The True Confession of Charlotte Doyle".

This was interesting. YA, NA and adult often confuse me, but I'm probably not alone since I've even heard that sometimes a book can get marketed as YA in one country and adult in another.

I think you make some of the best educational content of this type on BookTube! I always learn stuff even when I think I already know whatever subject you're covering :D Keep it up!

Thank you!! I so needed this video.

Merphy...I learn so much from your videos, thank you for your efforts! I've always been curious about what all these categories mean, and you cleared that up. Yay! Oh, and FYI...your hair looks fantastic since you've grown it out. Very pretty! Keep going, dearheart...you're doing great!

This was interesting. I find New Adult to be interesting and I’m looking forward to seeing that genre come through more. I read (one chapter) of Six of Crows and it’s marketed as YA even though the characters come across as far older.

Well, that explains why I like middle grade books

What categorizes a book a classic or what gives a book ‘literary merit’v

YES! I need this video so badly so I can sort out what genre I’m writing in!

I have loved these clarifying videos you have made. I have been getting back into reading HARD, so everyone keeps telling me to find what genres I like, but so many of the books I read are categorized all over the place sometimes. I guess I'm not crazy when I read something on somewhere like good reads and I think to myself "Are you sure?" haha

I categorize the various age ranges by writing style. To me, YA and Middle Grade tend to have very simplified writing styles, while New Adult and Adult tend to have more nuanced writing styles. I've never differentiated them by age of protagonist, since I've read coming-of-age stories about people across all ages (example, I consider The Color Purple a coming-of-age, coming-into-you-own book about an adult, but I wouldn't say it's Young or even New Adult). I struggle to read a lot of Young Adult and Middle Grade, because I categorize it by the writing style, and it tends to be too simple for me to really enjoy (I feel like I'm explaining this badly?). I rely SO HEAVILY on really 'good writing.'Wasn't there a lot of confusion in the marketing for Mistborn? Like, it was marketed to different age groups throughout the years?

Good clear explanation , thumbs up.

Thank you for this video !

This cane at the perfect time! Thank you!!

I remember My friends reading A Song Ice And Fire in secondary school

One of my favorite series is Keeper of the Lost Cities, I started it in fourth grade (for the reason the second book had a unicorn on the cover) and to this day I’m still a pretty avid reader of them. It started as series for kids. It is not anymore. This series has changed greatly in tone, and it was pretty dark to begin with. I recommend this series to literally everyone. It’s fantasy, and has such an amazing world. It’s got characters of every kind of personality, and it has romance and I hate romance but it doesn’t matter to me because the plot is so good! Just go read it please.

Thank you for the age range point! My favorite novel is The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, and the protagonist of that novel is a twelve-year-old girl, and it’s definitely not a novel for children.

Obviously I don't love ads (totally understand the necessity of them) but I was surprised by the professionalism of your square space ad lol. It was narrated really well. I will have to check out your audio book narration.

I love this topic and I thought you clarified it very well! Though I may be biased because I have an upcoming video on my channel about the same topic, though I’m coming at it as not only a reader but a writer, and bringing some psychology into the mix 😊

Great explanation video! I definitely agree that New Adult should make a comeback. It definitely fills a niche that I think many readers would appreciate. At 23, I still mostly read Young Adult. I let my mind gloss over the ways in which the themes and content of YA have skewed more mature. A few popular YA series come to mind. For instance, I believe the Six of Crows series could be categorized as NA. I do feel like those books should exist and deserve the level of buzz they get in YA circles. However, I believe that the YA category itself still needs to exist. Teenagers deserve to have books that are written for them and reflect that stage of their life. Every reader is different. Some kids can handle some heavier topics in their books and they can figure out some of their limits. From the age of 12, my parents pretty much let me pick up whatever books piqued my interest. Most of that was YA, but there was the occasional adult fiction in there. For instance, my high school library had the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. I borrowed and read the whole series at age 15/16. No questions asked. I definitely can't say that most of my classmates could handle those books at that age. But I don't hold it against the librarians for having it.

This is golden! I’ve had plenty of people ask me what makes a book, particularly mine, a YA.

This is very helpful. Thank you for this. :) I think any break-down video you will do will be very interesting. ;)

I'm loving these videos!

Very informative, thank you I was in contact with a YA agent who was interested in my novel, but decided against it once she found out that the protagonist was actually 20. I hadn't heard the term NA before, I think that category fits my novel better

Ooo this was actually super interesting!

My first experience with a character who did not match the age category of the book i was reading was September in The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. She is a 12 year old girl in a book i would categorize as new adult bc it's kind of dark and reads above a young adult level. But i really enjoyed it!

I read Mistborn at eight years old, and that’s often called an adult book. I’ve never been good with age ranges for books.

Shoutout to Merphy for being the only Booktube channel that explores almost everything about books!

The ending of that book 🤯🤯 I hope book 2 gives us SOOOO MANY answers because there are so many questions 😱😱

I would love to see a breakdown of the Horror genre as there is so many types, troupes I get confused by all the names lol. I love your breakdown videos. Peace love and happiness ~ Tracey

I think categories do more harm than good. I've read mostly adult fiction since I was 14 because there wasn't much YA back then. Yet I've read, and loved, Harry Potter and The Fault in Our Stars as an adult. No one ever policed my reading, I survived and grew up to be an English teacher. Readers don't have to personally relate to everything in a book. Some parts will resonate at the time and some will later. Be the adult a kid can talk to if they are confused or uncomfortable about a book. Don't forget that most kids will realize if a book isn't right for them and stop reading it.

there are topics like these that im not too invested in...so i basically i tune in just to hear you talk about them :p

Good video! 😃 And I have also had problems really finding a description for what makes a book adult 😊🤔.

I also feel like the writing and pace of the story can define whether a story classifies as one of these categories. Like the MG and YA seem to be more easily written and have a faster plot where NA and Adult have a steady pace with a few faster scenes here and there.

Great video, thanks!

This video proves that I am right to be confused when I'm at the big Powell's and looking for certain fantasy books and have to run up and down the stairs to check both the YA section and the adult fantasy section. I sure wish they'd put those sections on the same floor.

Thank you!

I loved the outsiders... it was on the curriculum here in the UK at school ... first book I could NOT put down

The first novel I read was Hatchet at 6 years old. And my second was Tales of the Vulgar Unicorn. And third was Copperhead. I don't know why I remember that so clearly.

I'm writing a Fantasy NA atm inspired by The Great Hunt. Hopefully NA will get a bit bigger over the year.

My library had one copy of Lies of Locke Lamora shelved in YA with a YA fantasy sticker, and a different copy with a different cover and the sequels shelved in the normal fantasy section (my library doesn't call any section "adult"). I chuckled imagining some angry parents flipping through and seeing the excessive swearing.

Great video! 🙂

I wonder what would Romeo and Juliet be categorized at least in today’s age 🤔

I remember being twelwe and reading LotR and Dorian Gray. I first discoverd adult literature and then came stuff like Harry Potter. To this day I read both, but prefere adult fantasy to the YA but only because there are just much better series in adult. I know of very few YA series that are as good as Kingkiller Chronicles, Gentleman Bastards, Song of Ice and Fire or the Sevenwaters Triliogy!

The stigma that YA is age-based only is something I have been fighting about at the library region I work for for years. We have many books that should be NA and Adult that are shelved in YA simply because the person is under 18 years of age. We also apparently put books that are by a same author in YA because it makes it easier for people to find them with no thought on the content that a 13 or younger may pick up thinking it's a YA by an author who they've only ever know to write YA.

This video got me thinking about an interesting idea... What are some books that everybody ready when they were younger that they probably should have waited for until they were a few years older? For me, it was Twilight (which I read when I was nine) and Pretty Little Liars (which I started reading when I was ten). With the content matter and the subject material, and in the case of Pretty Little Liars, the amount of swearing and dark themes, I probably wasn't ready for those books at the age I read them. I turned out fine, of course, but I'm just thinking back now and maybe those books should have been ones I picked up a lot later. I think this would be a great video idea for Merphy, as I'd love to hear her opinion on this!

Daniel watching the end of this video going "NEVER LOOK AT GOODREADS"

I would say that the theme for Adult books could entail the individual’s attempt to discover what the meaning of life will be to them, with the approach to such being broad and exempt from any limitations, except for those allowed by the author, that is.

There are a few books out that shouldn't be in the young adult section. I wish they would split certain things. The biggest one I found was Sarah J Maas books. I started reading the A Court of Thorns books and my daughter tried to take them and read them. I had to hide those. Since then I have started reading or skimming her picks before I give them to her. Excellent breakdown btw. It is definitely something I needed to know since my kids are in a few different age ranges.

Yeah. My friends and I were reading adult novels by 7th and 8th grade. I didn’t know YA was an actual thing at that age. We just read whatever seemed interesting.

Sometime next year, my Horror novella will be published and my protagonist is 21 years old. She has to battle a stalker and technically serial kills a random, sleazebag security guard on the street, her stalker, and the stalker's half-brother with a 3-year vendetta dating back to their high school senior year on prom night. Because of the violent content and ages of the characters, I consider them to be New Adult.

Thanks for explaining what young adult fiction is , I didn’t know that up until know. I’m also writing a book that is actually a book series called chronicles of Archaeiya. Book 1 that I titled the great battle for amarykhanta is already published on Wattpad. My main characters in that book are a father and his brother who are both 30 years old and his sons who are 13 and 12 year olds , while their cousins are also 13 and 12. Right now I’m currently writing book 2 that I titled tales of the old West: haunting legends of the superstition ancient mountains. My main characters in that story are a 29 year old man and his 13,14 and 15 year old sons. But the story I’m writing is not young adults coming of age , it’s something completely new and different that I myself invented

I didn't really like books until I was like 12 because as a kid only books I've explored before were really childish or fact books or just didn't really appeal to my tastes but I really love young adults now I have a book on my shelf every day from the library big fan of romance, novels , fantasy , trauma

For a seventeen year old who is currently reading Chronicles of Narnia, I would say categories doesn't really matter

I read lots of adult novels when I was younger in high school, and upon re-reads I have found that I really didn’t grasp the scope of what I was actually reading the first time around lol

In my city the liberies often have MG and YA together and I cringe every time I see Sarah J Maas books in the children’s section.

My protagonist are 24 years old an 11 years old so I was breaking my head over this, you’ve helped me a lot thanks 🙏

Really good video! I think it could be enriched by a point you sort of glanced over at the end, how readers classify books in their shelves. Sometimes even publishers change their classifications of a certain book. Why would this be important to talk more about? Because recently there has a been a big debate how women writers have their books considered immediately as YA, while men writers don't face that.

That was really useful to me, but you should've mentioned the writing style and the general complexity of the book (for adult books). I first read an abridged version of Les Misérables at 18, and it reassured me as I knew it was quite a big book. I now have the full story on my shelves and I started "rereading" it. The details in these books would have been too much for me to digest as a teenager. I don't think the themes are too hardcore, but the historical references and vocabulary demand more investment and for you to actually look up quite a few words. Plus, I want to add that teenagers will be more proned to love characters in whom they recognize themselves as they're usually dealing with some existential crisis. They want to know why they're on earth and who they are. They can figure that out through adult books, but they'd have to pick up the right ones (and I believe there are many ^^).

Lmao imagine Room as a children's book😂😬

So true about the teens reading adult and adults reading YA. My favorite french authors I discovered around 14 and they write for adults: Jean Gionno and Alain Damasio. And I read so much YA now that I’m 27. Are we weird or should the publishers rethink the categories?

I'm a big fun of of middle grade books. There's a special innocence in them that is charming to me.

I feel that books like girl in pieces and her body and other parties are considered young adult but should really be considered as adult books. Because of the serious content that is discussed with in the books.

I agree very much with what you say in this video. When I was young, YA was not a thing, at least not here in Germany. So I started reading adult when I was 11/12. And as you said, I survived 🤣 A ciuple more good example of adult books with teenage protagonists are Red Rising and Name of the wind

Honestly growing up, my Mum never went by book age when it came to what I read, she always looked at the book before buying it for me, because I was quite an advanced reader for my age

I really hope NA makes a full resurgence. I rarely read books with a protagonist under 18(exception with HP and Percy Jackson, etc). I think it provides a better line with smut as well.

Clan of the Cave Bear is another one. Ayla is literally 5, but it’s classified as YA.

I would say that a third factor in determining a book's intended age range is just its reading level, that is, the complexity of its use of language. A famous example that illustrates this is the State of the Union addresses given by US Presidents every year. They've basically been steadily getting lower ever since Washington. His addresses were very complex and lyrical, being at a 24th grade level, if I remember correctly, since at the time, they weren't really publicized and were intended only for the members of Congress who were all college educated. Then, slowly they got less complex, until by the age of Television, they had to be accessible to everyone in the country so they could understand them. And by now, Trump's addresses I think were said to be at a 4th grade reading level. The point is, it's an important component of determining a book's target audience that I guess Merphy just forgot to mention.

New Adult has never really been embraced by traditional publishers, but that could change in the next few years because I know a lot of Authortube, booktube, and bookish influencers are really calling for one. One I saw actually took off review points because they felt the characters would have made more sense if they had been 3 or 4 tears older making them new adult age.

The Song of the Lioness series is quite similar from an age point of view to your example why the age of the protagonist doesn't "matter" always. In the first book the protagoist is... I don't know, 11? In the second she's young adult and in the last two she is an adult and within these books, the themes have changed. Actually the themes of the age ranges fit pretty well. The first book is really focussed on friendship, it has the most amazing firendships I've ever read, in he second she learns how to identify with herself as a woman and in the last ones she... well, technically she tries to find her place in the world, but she's more exploring the second love and her new life like in new adult. I read the series when I was around 12 and I didn't die from reading an adult protagonist. I didn't understand some of the author's decisions that I now support and think are amazing, but as a kid I wanted the simple ending, the typical happy ending. I understand the whole story of my childhoof way better now, thanks to you Merphy! But wow, I just looked it up and it's YA..... I would have never guessed that, haha.

I read a Dean Koontz book when I was like 15 that I got from the library and it was about a serial killer who positioned bodies in certain ways in a dark tunnel in a theme park. It was terrifying but I survived 😂

Beloved broke me when I had to read it for school. I'm in my thirties and remember the horror from that I felt.

Damn, it was helpful

Aren't there typically also differences in vocabulary and grammar level? A book written for 10 year olds is probably going use a smaller number of different words and have less complex grammar and imagery than a book written for adults. It's also one of the arguments I see against adults reading YA, that as a society we're dumbing ourselves down and writing that was once viewed as high school level is now seen as college level. About a series going from one category to the next - the first "adult" series I remember reading was Anne McCaffery's Dragonrider books, because my library at the time had the first couple shelved in the YA and rest in Adult. And there were definitely some things in that series that were very adult.

I mean, I read The Godfather in late middle/early high school. It's still my favorite book of all time.

I would like a video on how to make a good book review. How to have good arguments to recommand a book, other than "I liked it!"

I think 8-12 year olds are a large audience of YA books. In elementary we read The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Ranger's Apprentice, Warriors and some other books that might be considered YA but also appear to younger audiences.

I read a lot of adult books as a preteen / teen and now read a lot of middle grade books as an adult lol Some of the books I read as a kid bothered me a lot more rereading them as an adult too.

I read nothing but Stephen King and Dean Koontz from ages 12-16, and survived. It was Where the Red Fern Grows that broke me.