In Defense of Young/New Adult Novels

This is a topic that I feel I can speak on from personal experience. As a new 24-year-old, I have found that most of my taste tends to be YA/NA novels. I like reading books with young protagonists and books that don't promote a lot of physical sexuality. With YA/NA, sometimes physical sexuality occurs, but with YA it rarely ventures beyond closed-door intimate scenes. And, YA/NA protagonists just get me.

I don't own a house, I'm not married, I like doing "young person" things, I use young person slang, and I don't know much about life yet. In adult books, many characters are married, divorced, or have children of their own while tackling more mature topics in their homeowning, taking-kids-to-school, decades-of-dating-experience kind of lives. I find it hard to relate to those characters, which affects my enjoyment of those books. Even the characters in books who are still teenagers match closer to my current place in life than adult novel characters. Even though I'm almost halfway through my 20s, I'm only two years gone from my bachelor's degree days of classic college fun. That person's still me.

Because of the visibility and relation I feel toward young adult and new adult characters, libraries must continue to offer YA and NA books to their patrons. A library's job is to serve the public, whoever the public may be. If a library were to stop buying new YA/NA books, then an entire demographic (two, really) would be underrepresented in the collection. The library would then be making an unspoken statement that libraries are only for children and 30+ adults. When the new YA/NA books come out and patrons like me can't find them at the library, we're less likely to go there anymore. 

Regarding the idea of New Adult in general, I believe that it is an important genre. As the Library Journal states in their article on New Adult fiction, "it portrays the transitioning to adulthood that takes place post-high school", offering characters that I and others my age can relate to. Many young adult novels, including my favorite one, are written with characters who are 18 or 19 at the maximum. New adults like me, nearly halfway through my 20s, may find it hard to relate to teens still in high school, even if every other aspect of the character fits. Everyone wants to see themself in a character, which is why New Adult is so important. Characters can be fresh out of college and discovering the job market or a new city. They can be dating with the intention of marriage or life partnership, they can be pregnant, or they can be old enough to be crowned ruler of an ancient fantasy kingdom (while also dating for a life partner). It's the beautiful middle ground between "not experienced enough" and "too experienced for me".