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This Week at Book Riot and Elsewhere

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Over at Book Riot this week, I had two posts — one that went up on Friday, which is why this post didn’t hit until today:

  • For 3 On A YA Theme, I talked about pets in YA fiction. All three examples happen to be dogs and one is a book that’ll hit shelves this fall. 
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of being part of a webinar for the Massachusetts Library System with Liz Burns and Sophie Brookover. We talked about New Adult fiction, defining what it is, how it’s grown, and some of the key titles. You can tune into the webinar and access our slides and reading guide right here for free. 

Graphic Memoirs & “New Adult” Books

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The topic of “new adult” has been talked about left and right. I even talked about it earlier this week. 

As a take-away for the conversation starter than Sophie Brookover, Liz Burns, and myself gave at ALA in June, we developed a fairly thorough resource list, with links to not only the articles, blog posts, and discussions surrounding the newly-emerging idea of “new adult” books, but it included a lengthy reading list of books that have been published as “new adult,” as well as books that weren’t published as “new adult” but which explored the themes we teased out as hallmarks to this category of books.

What is “new adult,” if it’s a thing at all? One of the definitions that keeps coming back around is that “new adult” explores the themes and challenges of being on your own for the first time — whatever that may mean. It could mean what happens when you go away to college. It could mean what happens when you move into your first apartment by yourself or when you’re moving back home with your parents after four years away at school. It could mean discovering how to navigate new relationships and new careers outside the safety net of high school or parental supervision. Roughly, these are books that explore the tricky things that happen in your life as a “new adult,” or when you’re somewhere between the ages of 18 and 26. 

Of course, this is a slightly problematic definition in matching up what has been published as “new adult,” since nearly every book published in this category has been a contemporary (and steamy) romance. It doesn’t include those who marry young or those who don’t necessarily attend college but choose a trade to go into (or choose a gap year or choose not to do go into a traditional career path at all). Likewise, the differences in experiences of those actually attending college and those just out of college are so different it’s tough to wrap them all into a singular category and point to one media as an example of good “new adult.” In other words, saying that Girls is a prime example of the category points to “new adult” being something wholly different than pointing to a book about a girl’s first year in college being “new adult.” 

I’m not sold on this being a category. I’m still solidly in the camp that rather than try to define a type of book that’s always been on the market as adult (or as YA, as the case may be for some of the books being lumped into the “new adult” category), we should look more closely at the importance of crossover appeal in books. The 18-26 age range is all about crossing over: you’re walking the bridge between adolescence to true independence and adulthood. Whatever that looks like depends upon the individual. There aren’t specific milestones to make because, unlike adolescence which is marked with somewhat shared milestones — think learning to drive, graduating high school, and so forth — adulthood is about defining your own milestones. Whether that’s choosing to rent an apartment for the first time, choosing to attend college, or choosing to pursue marriage/children/a career or all of the above in tandem.

To that effect, it seems to make more sense to pull from those books already being published within the traditional category definitions of Young Adult and Adult. These books exist and these books can fit into the reading interests and needs of those interested in the so-called “new adult” realm. I’ve mentioned before that by exploding the definition outward and reconsidering these books as crossovers rather than as “new adult,” then we’re opening the doors to the possibility that emerging adulthood is a much broader, richer experience than what we’re seeing played out right now as contemporary romance. The opportunity for change is here, but it seems like we offer more value and service to these books and their readers by building from what’s already here than trying to start fresh and limit ourselves to a singular idea of “new adult.” 

As was mentioned during our panel in June and something I’ve been thinking about a LOT is that as it stands now, “new adult” is very white, very middle class, and very sexy. There is nothing inherently wrong with the books published as “new adult” being this way, but there is a problem if that’s the only experience being mirrored. Someone in the audience mentioned that perhaps if the definition of what a good “new adult” book is is what I’ve listed above — about the experiences of maturation and learning to make choices independently about one’s life and being able to do so without the constraints of adolescence — perhaps urban fiction offers a wealth of “new adult” books, as well, since they tread these themes and have been for quite a while. 

Since the talk about “new adult” began, I’ve put considerable thought into the role that alternative formats may play in the discussion about the category and about the value they have in crossover appeal. 

I’ve been a huge fan of graphic memoirs for quite a while now. I’ve read most of what’s been traditionally published in the last few years. I’ve talked before about my love for Julia Wertz’s graphic memoirs before. And in thinking about why it is I love these books, in conjunction with why I really like the show Girls, I’ve come to the idea that the reason why I like all of these things is because they hit upon the very ideas that books considered “new adult” hit upon. They’re about learning to separate from the comfort and security afforded to the narrator (generally the author, but not always) and come to understand one’s own place and roles as a new grown up. It’s not pretty, and in fact, much of the appeal for me in these books is that they are downright ugly because they’re true. Being an adult isn’t always about the pretty romance. Often, it’s about the baggage and the backstory and how those things inform the character and his or her choices. The character doesn’t always make the right choices, either. Sometimes those choices are downright dumb. 

But it’s okay because they’re still new at this. They’re still learning when they can revert to the behaviors of their teenhood and when they need to put on grownup lenses to proceed. They’re walking the bridge and making choices. 

They are crossing over. 

I think any discussion of “new adult” without exploration of graphic novels — and graphic memoirs in particular — is one that overlooks an entire category of books with tremendous crossover appeal for the readers looking for these themes (and character ages) in story. With that in mind, I thought I’d offer up a reading list of some strong graphic memoirs that definitely fall into what we’re thinking about as “new adult.” These books have great crossover appeal to them: teen readers looking for stories about being a young adult will find something here, as will adults who are looking for books that either they relate to because they’re of the age the main character is or to adults who are looking for books that explore those tough times of emerging adulthood. 

This is a format and genre I turn to when I’m looking for something “different,” and I find that I’m rarely disappointed. I love the way the art interacts with the narrative, and I love the narratives themselves which are compelling and often quite relatable (I’m not too far removed from the age range that many consider “new adult”). I love that sometimes these stories take place at the end of high school and sometimes they take place when the main character is in his or her mid-20s. Sometimes the story is told entirely through reflection and isn’t from a current perspective at all — in other words, it’s looking back at this time and age, rather than living through it. 

My list isn’t exhaustive, and I’d love to know of additional graphic memoirs that might fit the bill. I’m especially interested in the male or diverse experience — I was going to include Persepolis in this list, as well, and perhaps I could since it fits a nice crossover niche as well. Are there historical graphic memoirs worth looking at, too?

All descriptions are from WorldCat. 

Calling Dr. Laura by Nicole J. Georges: When Nicole Georges was two years old, her family told her that her father was dead. When she was twenty-three, a psychic told her he was alive. Her sister, saddled with guilt, admits that the psychic is right and that the whole family has conspired to keep him a secret. Sent into a tailspin about her identity, Nicole turns to radio talk-show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger for advice– Calling Dr. Laura tells the story of what happens to you when you are raised in a family of secrets, and what happens to your brain (and heart) when you learn the truth from an unlikely source. 

Kiss & Tell: A Romantic Resume Ages 0 to 22 by MariNaomi: Recounts the author’s romantic experiences, from first love to heartbreak.

Life with Mr. Dangerous by Paul Hornschemeier (not technically a graphic memoir but it’s so close to the storytelling in the otherwise listed memoirs that I’m including it): Somewhere in the Midwest, Amy Breis is going nowhere. Amy has a job she hates, a creep boyfriend she’s just dumped, and a best friend she can’t reach on the phone. But at least her (often painfully passive-aggressive) mother bought her a pink unicorn sweatshirt for her birthday. Pink. Unicorn. For her twenty-sixth birthday. Gliding through the daydreams and realities of a young woman searching for definition. 

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney:  Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Ellen Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Flagrantly manic but terrified that medications would cause her to lose her creativity and livelihood, she began a years-long struggle to find mental stability without losing herself or her passion. Searching to make sense of the popular concept of the “crazy artist,” Ellen found inspiration from the lives and work of other artist and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O’Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath.

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel: Graphic memoir about Bechdel’s troubled relationship with her distant, unhappy mother and her experiences with psychoanalysis, with particular reference to the work of Donald Winnicott.

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel: This book takes its place alongside the unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of Augusten Burroughs and Mary Karr. It’s a father-daughter tale perfectly suited to the graphic memoir form. Meet Alison’s father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family’s Victorian house, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter’s complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned ‘fun home, ‘ as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic, and redemptive.

Little Fish by Ramsey Beyer (September 3, with a little more emphasis on prose than art): Told through real-life journals, collages, lists, and drawings, this coming-of-age story illustrates the transformation of an 18-year-old girl from a small-town teenager into an independent city-dwelling college student. Written in an autobiographical style with beautiful artwork, Little Fish shows the challenges of being a young person facing the world on her own for the very first time and the unease—as well as excitement—that comes along with that challenge. Description via Goodreads. 

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf: You only think you know this story. In 1991, Jeffrey Dahmer, the most notorious serial killer since Jack the Ripper, seared himself into the American consciousness. To the public, Dahmer was a monster who committed unthinkable atrocities. To Derf Backderf, ‘Jeff’ was a much more complex figure: a high school friend with whom he had shared classrooms, hallways, and car rides. In [this story], a haunting and original graphic novel, writer-artist Backderf creates a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a disturbed young man struggling against the morbid urges emanating from the deep recesses of his psyche– a shy kid, a teenage alcoholic, and a goofball who never quite fit in with his classmates. With profound insight, what emerges is a Jeffrey Dahmer that few ever really knew, and one readers will never forget.

French Milk by Lucy Knisley: A lighthearted travelogue–rendered in the form of a graphic novel–about a mother and daughter’s life-changing six-week trip to Paris is comprised of the graphic artist daughter’s illustrations of the sights and scenes they visited while each was facing a milestone birthday.

Relish by Lucy Knisley: Lucy Knisley loves food. The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe– many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy’s original inventions. 

*Between the two, I think that French Milk falls more into the “new adult” category, as it explores more of the college experience than does Relish. Both both are excellent. 

The Infinite Wait and Other Stories by Julia Wertz: These are comics filled with the sometimes messy, heartbreaking and hilarious moments that make up a life. (What’s particularly good about this one is that it explores what happens when the career you thought was in your back pocket ends up not being so — and all when you’re young).

Sex, YA Books, and Some “E” Words

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I read this blog post last week, and I have been thinking about it since then. If you haven’t, it’s very short and it’s nothing more than an announcement of a 10,000 word addition to Abbi Glines’s The Vincent Boys (published by Simon Pulse, a YA imprint of Simon & Schuster). The addition to this book is, as Glines explains, “explicit, adult sexual content.” This extended edition of the book is an ebook original and only in ebook format.

Then I read this article. Nicole Williams, who originally self-published her ebook Crash series, was picked up by Harper. They’re soon going to be available as paperback editions, and each of them will be categorized for readers 16 and older. That’s because they’re “steamy teen romances” about an “all-consuming affair” between a new girl in town and the resident bad boy. It follows them post-high school.

I’m not the type of reader or librarian to shy away from topics in YA books. I think it’s important to represent a wide breadth of different viewpoints, of different issues, and I think it’s crucial for teens who want to be exposed to topics have the chance to be exposed that way through books written for them. Reading about sex and the sexual experience in YA lit is not only powerful, but it’s critical to teens in a variety of ways. This post, written earlier this year, does a great job of explaining why sex scenes are important to the development of teen sexuality, especially for girls.

In high school, I read Forever and I read Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret. I didn’t have as wide an exposure to YA lit in high school as teens do today, but I do remember reading those two books and feeling normal. The sex and discussions of sexuality in each is not pretty, it’s not easy, it’s not clean. It’s uncomfortable at times for the characters and for the reader. If it wasn’t — if it was easy, if it was not awkward to read and think about — then sex itself wouldn’t be such a big deal. Because for teens especially, sex is a big deal.

My first year in college — the first days in college — when suddenly there were no adults around and very few rules regarding living in a dorm (let alone a coed dorm) and when we were still very much teenagers at 17, 18, and 19, there was a lot of talking and thinking about sex. There was a group of us who used to stay up late every night, talking about any and everything, and inevitably, the discussion of sex would come up. Who had had sex, what the experience was like. The group of about 7 to 10 of us had a wide variety of experience, but nearly none of us had actually had sex. But over the course of that year, everyone did.

Over the course of that year, I don’t ever recall anyone saying their first or second or eightieth experience having sex was erotic or explicit and certainly nothing was described as an all consuming affair. This was the case for people who’d become very involved with a romantic partner, as well as those who didn’t.

I’ve had teenagers ask me questions in the past, and I’ve had teenagers approach me for resources and books that would allow them to understand what sex was like. It’s one of those questions that, when you’re working with teenagers and you’re passionate about working with teenagers, you don’t even blush at because you expect that much of them. For me, it’s stepping back and remembering high school and that first year of college. What would I have wanted to know? More than just reflecting on that, though, is knowing that offering a wide variety of resources that highlight this messy, awkward, terrifying, and exciting new experience is the best way to allow that teen to figure it out. I take this responsibility as a gatekeeper and as an adult with whom a teen is seeking delicate information very seriously.

I believe in sex positivity. I don’t shy away from reading and accepting certain sexual situations in YA novels that are painful. Kimberly has talked about sexual violence as a plot device before, and part of why I find that to be a tough thing to read is because it’s a reality of sex. It’s a reality, too, of being a woman. I don’t have to like reading it, but I read it because it is there for a purpose (even if, like Kim, I can find it a troubling purpose at times). There are YA books that use sex as a game and as a tool of power. But even in those stories, the way sex is described, the experience of it, the feelings attached to it, are very much teen. I think, for example, of Margie Gelbwasser’s Pieces of Us, where yes, there is pretty descriptive use of sex as power among the teens. But the way those teens react in those situations — the way it haunts them, the way it makes them feel as a person and feel toward other people — is honest and true to teen behavior.

That said, the problem I take with the Glines novel and the Williams series is that the way they’re being sold and marketed is not for a teen readership. Reread the description of The Vincent Boys: 10,000 words of explicit, adult content. Even though this expanded edition will be only available for those who chose to purchase it for their ereaders, the book is still beneath a teen imprint. This is a teen book. A teen book with “explicit, adult content.”

The Williams series is purposefully being sold as a book for those 16 and older because it’s not meant for younger teen readers. It follows a couple through college and it follows their very physical and emotional “all-consuming affair.” I won’t go into the details of the problems I have with the “bad boy” casting of a character, but rather, the real issue I have here is that despite the fact the publisher is aware this isn’t a book appropriate for all teen readers, it was purchased under one of their children’s imprints and will be sold to teen readers. As — if not more — problematic is the line in that story conflating a trend for realistic stories with sexually-explicit stories. They know readers want more mature stories post-high school.

But that does not mean these are books for teens nor that teen readers should even have this on the table as a teen book.

Much of this goes back to the discussion of what “new adult” is or is not. I’ve already talked at length about my feelings on the issue. The “new adult” label is another way of saying adult books. There have been plenty of books published for younger adults, featuring teen or 20-something characters. This isn’t a new thing. Even if adults are the biggest purchaser of YA fiction, they’re not the intended audience. That’s TEENS. Teens deserve books that serve them.

So if books like this are going to be on the market — Glines’s as ebook only or not is not the issue seeing the Williams book will be put in print — then there needs to be a serious discussion of what the lines are between teen fiction and adult fiction. Because these books are adult books. They feature teen characters, but they are adult in their exploration of sex and sexual situations. Especially when the descriptions of the books are explicit in stating that the content is adult.

There is a place for these books that want to use older teen characters and put them in potentially erotic, mature sexual situations. That’s the adult market. That’s the romance market. That’s the market for erotica. As I mentioned in my post on “new adult” books, there’s a real stigma that’s unfairly attached to adult books, and I think that’s even more true for romance and erotica.

What these books are doing is not new. There have been thousands of books published featuring steamy situations. Many have included teenagers (probably more of the college variety than the high school variety). But what’s new here is how they’re being sold to teenagers.

Sex in YA is important, but sex in YA is not about being a steamy affair nor about being explicit and adult. It’s about being awkward, about being confusing and scary, about being really huge experience that can be horrible or can be really amazing. There’s an incredible range of experiences and exploring that within YA is perfectly acceptable and possible. But the key is it is about that exploration. Teen sexual situations are not, however, adult nor are they erotic. These are two charged words. Those are components of adult sexuality. Even books like Beth Bauman’s Jersey Angel, which is all about the sexual awakening of a teenage girl, only ever puts Angel in sexual situations that are very, very teen and entirely about the exploration. It is, at times, sexy but it is not erotic.

Thinking back to being a gatekeeper and thinking back to my own experience as a teenager, as well as the experiences others have shared with me (teens and friends alike), I worry, too. It would be easy to be insecure if you’re reading a story with very adult sexual situations — either purposefully or inadvertently — and then use that as a yardstick for your own experience. That’s not to say readers who read books with sex in them do so to learn or take notes. But there are a good portion who do. And if these books are “teen” books, and the message these books are sending, even through simply their marketing pitch, is that sex is steamy and erotic and very adult, then that’s a potentially scary message to receive. Think about how many adults felt insecure or somehow disempowered after reading 50 Shades of Grey.

I want teen readers to have a safe space to discover sex in its myriad of forms. I think this, though, is a line that shouldn’t be crossed. It’s my job to be a mentor and a gatekeeper, and even if I am open and honest about any and all topics, there are places I have to put my foot down and say it’s not okay. This is one of them. If a teen wants an adult book featuring sex? I’m happy to provide it for them. But if a teen wants a teen book featuring sex? I’m not going to give them an adult book with very adult themes in it. I’m not only not doing my job — I’m not being fair to them.

Some thoughts on “new adult” and also “cross-unders”

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New Adult: a term coined by St Martin’s Press in 2009. It was used as a contest for submissions featuring stories about characters between 18 and their mid-20s. Note that the goal of seeking books like this was to have books that felt YA but were for the adult market. More information, including the discussion of new adult not being a necessary genre but rather a means of generating more marketable and varied literary fiction for the adult market featuring 20-somethings, can be found here. Since that contest, it’s been taken on as a “new” genre and has sprouted blogs, calls for submissions, some book deals, and many well thought out blog posts. 

Cross-under: a term used by Tracy van Straaten (a VP at Scholastic) in this article in The Atlantic about defining Young Adult Literature. It was then used again and again in the “YA for Grownups” series by Jen Doll as a way to talk about YA books with adult appeal. 

Now that the definitions are out of the way, I wanted to post about how neither of these things will become Things.

Though I believe wholly that “new adult” (NA) is a type of fiction that exists and that has a culture surrounding it — one that continues to grow and expand, particularly by readers who primarily read ebooks — it is not something that has sustainability as a genre or as a category outside of the internet. The bulk of NA titles at this point that have been published as NA titles have been through self-publishing means, though as noted above, there have been a few sales to traditional publishing houses. But note those sales have been through the adult market and not the YA market nor through a NA market. 

NA books are being called such because they feature stories about characters who are in that space between high school and full-time careers or full-time marriage or full-time child care. They’re often stories about characters who are in college or who are in the time just after college. They’re characters navigating that channel between being teens who are under the watchful eye of their parents or other adults and being adults who are fully and wholly independent beings. These characters are testing the limits of their youths while tiptoeing into the limits of adulthood. They’re learning what friendship and romance are, and they’re figuring out what the course of their future should look like. It’s a tumultuous time.

The thing of it, though, is that this is simply called adulthood. Sure, you’re new to being an adult and you’re working through tough stuff. But it’s adulthood. Developmentally and intellectually — not to mention legally — characters who are over 18 are adults. 

What makes NA attractive to readers, though, is that the characters are written much like young adult characters are in terms of voice, but they take on bigger, more adult problems in the way that adult novels do. They can be much more sexually explicit and detailed, and they can talk about global issues on a different level. They explore life post-high school and pre-career — this specific setting is important. The characters are still growing, like the characters in YA are, but they are doing so in a setting of the bigger world, rather than the typical constrained YA world of high school and family. 

Because of the success of a few titles — again, ones that started as ebooks and succeeded due to incredibly hard work on the part of authors and on the part of readers championing these stories — it seems like there is a real interest in this genre. The publishers are buying a small number of successful titles. It looks like there is something to be said for NA as a genre. Except there is not. 

There is not a NA market. There is an adult market, and there is a YA market. There is nothing in between them. 

I’m not entirely sure why there is such stigma attached to these books becoming part of the adult market. I think it’s a huge and welcome addition to the adult fictional landscape, especially since there are books out there currently and books that have been around for quite a while that tap into the 19-30ish world and voice. These books tackle adult challenges and do so with an adult perspective. Being an adult is such a long, varied, and challenging period of time, and it’s one that is so different for every single individual. Whereas YA novels have some unifying themes to them — growing up, discovering who you are, earning an education, dealing with adults who still exert control over you in a myriad of ways — adult novels do not. This is why there are so many genres and why there are so many appeal factors. One of those is going to be voice, and one of them is going to be age/experience/perspective of the main characters. Books featuring emerging adults? They have appeal factors for many readers who identify with this period of life. The same can be said about books that tackle middle age romances, books that explore what the end of life might be like, and so forth. But those books aren’t categorized as “middle adult” or “geriatric fiction.” 

They’re adult fiction.

There are a number of books that have been labeled as “new adult” that are out there as YA titles. They’re being lumped with NA titles because the characters are beyond their high school years or just graduated. The thing is, those books are still YA books. They have a YA voice, and they’re navigating issues in the way that YA books do. It’s not necessarily about the content of the books, either, or the life challenges going on in the books that do or do not make them YA. For instance, the final book in Jenny Han’s Summer series features a wedding, and whether or not to be married is the central force of Erin McCahan’s I Now Pronounce You Someone Else. There’s military service after high school, there’s love after graduating high school, and many more plots that aren’t traditionally “teen” as we see them socially. What makes the book YA is instead the voice and the way the story is told. 

There is not a problem with either category, and there is not a problem with adults reading either YA books or adult books. What matters is that their reading interests are being met. That both YA and adult fiction can cater to their reading interests is a great thing. Creating an additional genre or category for NA doesn’t expand the reading world. It restricts it. It creates a separate, singular division for a certain type of book. When the possibility for a wider appeal and market exists, why constrict it unnecessarily?

Furthering this, general readers — and I’m speaking about the types of people who are recreational readers who browse libraries and bookstores — don’t care what “type” of book they’re reading. They’re in it for a good story, however it is written or sold. Divvying up the market even further disenfranchises the reader, who now must decide what kind of book they need to read. Are they looking for a YA book? For an adult book? For a NA book? It makes finding a book with an appealing plot more challenging since the search requires honing further in on specific needs and most readers don’t know what the things they want in a book are until they have the book in their hands. This is why reader’s advisory exists, by the way. 

How does the fact NA isn’t a Thing tie into a discussion about cross-unders? Because “cross-unders” is the precise term for an idea that exists but it is being used as a way of being different when it’s actually a way of talking about an idea that already does exist. In other words, “cross unders” is a way to describe books that have cross over appeal to readers. Is this semantics? You bet. But there is a huge difference in what a cross over sounds like than what a cross under sounds like. The first sounds like a bridge, whereas the second necessarily places a judgment on the literature. 

Cross over appeal is a phrase used to describe books that are published for one market but will appeal to readers in another. Cross under, on the other hand, is being framed by The Atlantic (and yes, they are the only source using this term) as a way to describe books published for the teen market but that appeal to adult readers. In other words, these are books that grown ups have permission to read, even though they’re not meant for grown ups. 

The phrase is and will always be cross over, and it will and always will mean that books for grown ups that appeal to teens and books for teens that will appeal to adults. So what about that middle range? Those new and emerging adults?

Books featuring characters in their late teens and their 20s: they can have mega cross over appeal. 

I want to end this post on a couple of notes. The first is that the Pew Research Center has published a nice report on ereading and who is and isn’t reading digitally. Worth paying attention to is how readers are getting their book recommendations. I’ll go out on a limb and say that it is because of those who are reading ebooks that titles fitting the definition of NA are finding their way. But I also point out that those who are reading digitally make up a very small portion of the market. How they act in the bookstore or library is going to be different than the casual reader. And the casual reader doesn’t know what NA is nor are they interested. It’s one more thing to frustrate them in finding a book they like. 

The second thing I want to end this post on is a list of YA and adult books that have crossover appeal for readers seeking stories of characters who are at that slightly-older-than-traditionally-teen. These books take place just after high school graduation, they take place in college, and they take place somewhere else entirely. Some of these books will not be appropriate for all teen readers, but older, mature teen readers looking for more mature, older reads will absolutely want some of these titles.
As I noted above: there is a lack of male leads in these titles (beyond them being romantic interests in many cases). If you can think of any traditionally published titles that feature male characters in this age range, I’d love to know. I stick with traditionally published as an important distinction due to availability to the widest range of readers and widest range of readers’ advisors. There are, of course, strong self-published titles that fit this bill (including CK Kelly Martin’s Come See About Me, among others) but their availability is a challenge.  
The other thing I’d love to hear back on are more genre fiction titles that would fit the bill — my reading tastes are in realistic/contemporary fiction, so this list reflects that. But certainly, there is a huge swath of science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, and other titles that feature characters of this age set and that would have great cross over appeal. I’m especially eager to hear titles published for the adult market. 
Many of these books are part of a series, and that’s been noted. All descriptions are via WorldCat.
Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld: In the late 1980s, for reasons even she has difficulty pinpointing, fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora leaves her middle-class, close-knit, ribald family in Indiana and enrolls at Ault, an elite co-ed boarding school in Massachusetts. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of, and ultimately a participant in, their rituals and mores, although, as a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider. By the time she’s a senior, Lee has found her place at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her hard-won identity within the community is shattered. Lee’s experiences, complicated relationships with teachers, intense and sometimes rancorous friendships with other girls, an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush, are both a psychologically astute portrait of one girl’s coming-of-age and an embodiment of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.
I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe: At Dupont University, an innocent college freshman named Charlotte Simmons learns that her intellect alone will not help her survive.
The Ivy by Lauren Kunze and Rina Onur (series): When Callie arrives for her freshman year at Harvard, she encounters her three vastly different roommates, new friendships, steamy romance, and scandalous secrets.

Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery: A slight error left Olympic diving-hopeful Bryce Graham in a five-year coma and now, at at twenty-two, she must adjust to a world that went on without her and to visions that may or may not be real.

Easy by Tammara Webber: When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup. After two weeks in shock, she wakes up to her new reality: she’s single, attending a state university instead of a music conservatory, ignored by her former circle of friends, stalked by her ex’s frat brother, and failing a class for the first time in her life. Her econ professor gives her an email address for Landon, the class tutor, who shows her that she’s still the same intelligent girl she’s always been. As Jacqueline becomes interested in more from her tutor than a better grade, his teasing responses make the feeling seem mutual. There’s just one problem– their only interactions are through email. Meanwhile, a guy in her econ class proves his worth the first night she meets him. Nothing like her popular ex or her brainy tutor, Lucas sits on the back row, sketching in a notebook and staring at her. At a downtown club, he disappears after several dances that leave her on fire. When he asks if he can sketch her, alone in her room, she agrees– hoping for more. Then Jacqueline discovers a withheld connection between her supportive tutor and her seductive classmate, her ex comes back into the picture, and her stalker escalates his attention by spreading rumors that they’ve hooked up. Suddenly appearances are everything, and knowing who to trust is anything but easy.

Secret Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund (series): This novel takes us into the heart of the Ivy League’s ultraexclusive secret societies when a young woman is invited to join as one of their first female members. Elite Eli University junior Amy Haskel never expected to be tapped into Rose & Grave, the country’s most powerful–and notorious–secret society. She isn’t rich, politically connected, or…well, male. So when Amy receives the distinctive black-lined invitation with the Rose & Grave seal, she’s blown away–could they really mean her? Whisked off into an initiation rite that’s a blend of Harry Potter and Alfred Hitchcock, Amy awakens the next day to a new reality and a whole new set of “friends”–from the gorgeous son of a conservative governor to an Afrocentric lesbian activist whose society name is Thorndike. And that’s when Amy starts to discover the truth about getting what you wish for.

Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (series): When her best friend moves away, sixteen-year-old Jessica is devastated and finds it difficult to deal with the girls at school, her obsessive parents, and her lack of a love life. While this series begins in high school, Jessica will enter college and the job market in later books. Note that this series was published for the adult market.


Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire: Travis Maddox, Eastern University’s playboy, makes a bet with good girl Abby that if he loses, he will remain abstinent for a month, but if he wins, Abby must live in his apartment for the same amount of time.

Amplified by Tara Kelly: When privileged seventeen-year-old Jasmine Kiss gets kicked out of her house by her father, she takes what is left of her meager savings and flees to Santa Cruz, California, to pursue her dream of becoming a rock musician.

Anatomy of a Single Girl (& Anatomy of a Boyfriend, the prequel) by Daria Snadowsky: Sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, in which college pre-med Dominique explores love and lust. This book comes out in January and is being marketed as a YA book. 

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller: When Travis returns home from Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother has stolen his girlfriend and car, and he has nightmares of his best friend getting killed but when he runs into Harper, a girl who has despised him since middle school, life actually starts looking up.

The Piper’s Son by Melina Marchetta: After his favorite uncle’s violent death, Tom Mackee watches his family implode, quits school, and turns his back on music and everyone who matters, and while he is in no shape to mend what is broken, he fears that no one else is, either.

Where She Went by Gayle Forman: Adam, now a rising rock star, and Mia, a successful cellist, reunite in New York and reconnect after the horrific events that tore them apart when Mia almost died in a car accident three years earlier.

Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo: A fifteen-year-old Australian girl gets her first job and first crush on her unattainable university-aged co-worker, as both search for meaning in their lives. While the main character is 15, the second main character — a male — is in his early 20s. 

An Off Year by Claire Zulkey: Upon arriving at her dorm room, eighteen-year-old Cecily decides to postpone her freshman year of college and return to her Chicago home, where she spends a year pondering what went wrong while forging new relationships with family and friends.

Psych Major Syndrome by Alicia Thompson: College freshman and psychology major, Leigh Nolan, finds her problem-solving skills woefully inadequate when it comes to her increasingly tangled and complicated romantic relationships.

Graffiti Moon by Cath Crowley: Told in alternating voices, an all-night adventure featuring Lucy, who is determined to find an elusive graffiti artist named Shadow, and Ed, the last person Lucy wants to spend time with, except for the fact that he may know how to find Shadow.

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard: Bria, an aspiring artist just graduated from high school, takes off for Central America’s La Ruta Maya, rediscovering her talents and finding love.

Bunheads by Sophie Flack: Hannah Ward, nineteen, revels in the competition, intense rehearsals, and dazzling performances that come with being a member of Manhattan Ballet Company’s corps de ballet, but after meeting handsome musician Jacob she begins to realize there could be more to her life.

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour: Colby’s post-high school plans have long been that he and his best friend Beth would tour with her band, then spend a year in Europe, but when she announces that she will start college just after the tour, Colby struggles to understand why she changed her mind and what losing her means for his future.

It’s also worth noting that every year, YALSA produces a list of books written and sold for the adult market that have high teen appeal. The Alex Awards celebrate high quality writing with solid crossover appeal. You can learn about them here.