Submitted by aaravosapologist t3_ypdq5s in books
Fair warning, my thoughts are going to be scattered and probably sound a bit crass, but its 1 in the morning so please do me the courtesy of excusing it ðŸ˜
As a 16 year old who wants to get back into reading after realizing how much I've been letting mundane activities and doomscrolling take over my life, I'm finding it pretty damn hard to do so. I don't know, not to sound like an old geezer, but I despise the direction most big 3/4 publishers are going in the books they're pushing out. I've always understood the term "YA" to be more of a marketing label than a genre... so tell me why I'm finding most of modern YA releases are catering to adult-aged women. Don't get me wrong, of course one can and should read whatever they want, but it's getting to the point where I think things like BookTok and YAblr are severely eroding the quality of anything being published in the past few years.
I mean, seriously- who has their interest piqued in a story by describing it by its bare-bones tropes, not- oh, you know- a summary of the story? It seems to me that most people are just interested in reading the same repackaged shitty romance enemies-to-lovers over and over again. When you strip the setting and circumstances of most romance YA novels, you're left with nothing of substance, nothing unique, nothing new- just the same amateur fanfiction-level writing (hell, I wouldn't be surprised if half the shit gets popular on TikTok is just a ctrl+F'ed Reylo fic). But hey, who cares as long as it's not some drugstore dime novel, as long as its now catered to teenagers rather than middle-aged women, right?
And don't even get me started on, like, the unnecessary level of smut present in YA now. Like, if it's there, fine, whatever. But it seems to me that the NSFW sections are the main attraction to readers, especially those who are certainly a little too old for the target demographic. Truly a sight to behold.
I'm truly so very fucking sick of what modern pickings are available to read. Ali Hazelwood (the queen of "same story, different setup") even fucking admitted that she needs her editor to spoonfeed her what tropes are "hip with the kids." And while this talentless rando makes mega bucks of off terrible novels, so many authors of color are struggling to get stories made (on their own!) published.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just a massive hater lacking an ounce of optimism in my body. But I don't think I'm that crazy for craving just one well-written fantasy series, or poetry anthology, or ANYTHING made in the past 2/3 years. I really don't think I should have to scour far back in time just for any decent pickings.