A Case For New Adult Fiction
Hopefully you’ve found this site because you’re interested in what I’m interested in: New Adult fiction.
Maybe you’ve heard this term thrown around and wondered what’s that all about? Maybe you think this is another label for YA, or young adult fiction. It’s not.
So what is this “new adult” genre label and why do I care so much about it?
A term coined in 2009 by St. Martins press, “new adult” is a genre category that crosses over between YA and adult audiences. Some articles posit the age range for new adult to be 18-24/25, others argue it’s more like 18-30. Personally, I’m in the latter camp, and here’s why:
New adult fiction is about “emerging adulthood” as Jeffrey Jensen Arnett labels this demographic, and, in more colloquial terms, about the transition into “adulting.” According to the NY Times Book Editors in the article, “The Nuance of New Adult Fiction: Mastering Genre When You Write”: “The term ‘adulting’ entered the common parlance to acknowledge the fact that adulthood in many ways needs to be earned.”
So, what kind of ideas are in new adult fiction, that center around the emerging adult and adulting?
New adult encompasses the transitionary period where someone who is considered an adult by other people and institutions (but probably sometimes doesn’t consider it of themselves) deals with life after leaving home: serious romantic relationships, the difficulties and complexities of maintaining adult friendships, first jobs, worldviews, the uncertain future—especially with all the new responsibilities that comes with being a self-sustaining person in the world.
New adult fiction is the coming-of-age story into real adulthood. Contemporary society’s real Bildungsroman, rather than the more typically thought of YA coming-of-age stories. Think about it: How often at the end of a YA novel are the protagonists actual adults? Both genres are about transitionary periods, but they start and end at different points in life.
Furthermore, the broader age range of 18-30 when thinking about these NA Bildungsroman is key in reflecting how our society and culture has changed.
Nowadays, when 18-year-olds graduate high school and go out into the world, while they are considered adult by institutions, they are rarely independent, self-sustaining adults (some are, of course, this is a generalization).
In the past, eighteen might have been the benchmark for adulthood in a more fully realized way—people married and had children younger, the economy was different, as were educational expectations and standards, and they were able to get stable jobs, people were perhaps more developed in certain practical matters.
But now, most up and coming 18-years-olds still have years of school ahead of them. They’ve never had a real job, day-to-day, 9 to 5, nor had to cook, clean, and provide for themselves. They rely on the support system of their parents and will probably continue to do so for a while. Most 18-year-olds, though legal in the eyes of the law, are still firmly kids, adolescents, or however else you want to label it. Again, this is a generalization. This is also not a judgement or critique of said age range. It’s simply how our society/culture has changed.
The Western modern concept of childhood didn’t come into popular consciousness until the late 19th century during the Industrial Age, starting with the Victorian upper class and then filtering down to the working class over time. The modern concept of being a teenager didn’t truly come into being in Western society until the mid-1900s, post-World War II. In fact, the word teenager didn’t even exist until the 1940s, and even then, it was a marketing term.
And now, like then, society and culture has changed, we have need of a second, later coming-of-age, we have a new concept of this earning adulthood transitionary phase, this “new adulthood” which can be seen in the genre of New Adult fiction.
Beyond the coming-of-age narrative, new adult fiction often explores: identity, sex and sexuality, depression, suicide, drug abuse, familial struggles, bullying, first jobs, starting college, wedding engagements and marriage, starting new families, friendships post-high school, military enlistment, financial independence, living away from home for the first time, empowerment, loss of innocence, fear of failure, an uncertain future, increased responsibilities, evolving friendships, feelings of isolation.
While a lot of these themes crossover with YA, they are often darker, and for those that crossover with adult, they focus on the confusion and the transitionary moment.
If you don’t buy into my argument about a later coming-of-age story, there is still one very big thing that separates young adult from new adult: Sex.
In YA, if sex is present at all, it’s mostly didactic and forbidding, held up as warning and cautionary tale to teach adolescents. In new adult, sex is present, it’s sensual and erotic, and it reflects the older demographics desires and privileges they’re allowed.
As Sav, my sidekick likes to say, “New adult fiction is R-rated YA.” And while I do have my whole, coming-of-age, transitionary period argument, on the whole, I agree with her.
So, if as I am arguing, new adult fiction is a thing, an important thing, and present in our marketplace and culture already—then, where is it?
That’s tough to say. While the term was newly coined in 2009, was a genre initially created by millennials wanting to read young adult fiction as they grew older that reflected their interests more, and had some buzz surrounding it for the next couple of years, there hasn’t been a lot of traction since.
There’s a lot of naysaying surrounding this genre:
Many people say it’s a contrivance and a marketing ploy
That there’s no audience
That it’s already serviced by YA
That it’s initial breakout books (romance heavy, very sexy) keep it stigmatized as a singular sub-genre of romance and not its own thing
Lauren Sarner of the Huff Post writes, “New Adult is a label that is condescending to readers and authors alike. It implies that the books act as training wheels between Young Adult and Adult. For the New Adult books that are particularly childish, the label implies that they are a step above Young Adult — which is insulting to the Young Adult books.”
This, I think, doesn’t take into account the new ways adulthood is functioning in our society, but if you’ve gotten this far, you’ve already read my argument on that.
Sarah Nicolas, however, in an excellent article “The History and Future of New Adult,” points out that “[n]ew adult is actually a pretty thriving category, but not in the traditional publishing world,” instead, Nicolas writes, “there have been some extremely popular NA books published by traditional publishers — they’re just usually called something else.” Some examples Nicolas lists are: The Magicians by Lev Grossman, YA books set in college like Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, Fresh by Margot Wood, Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, and Red, White & Royal Blue by Case McQuiston.
Nicolas points out books here are either classified as YA or adult, and are sometimes confused, because what they really are is New Adult.
There is a case to be made for new adult fiction. There is an audience and a readership. There is already fiction being produced in this category, pulled in the different directions of crossover and uncertainty (kind of like new adults themselves). It’s a reflection on how our society and culture has evolved, and it’s important to acknowledge in its own right.
Works Referenced, Cited, and here for your use if interested (especially as I didn’t really get into the history of NA and its self-publishing and indie origins and current space):
“The History and Future of New Adult” by Sarah Nicolas
https://bookriot.com/history-and-future-of-new-adult-books/
“New Adult: A Book Category for Twentysomethings by Twentysomethings” by Julie Naughton
“The Nuance of New Adult Fiction: Mastering Genre When You Write”
https://nybookeditors.com/2015/11/new-adult-fiction/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/books/review/jason-reynolds-by-the-book-interview.html
“The New Adult Genre and What It Could Mean for Aspiring Writers” by Jose Paz Soldan
Pattee, Amy. “Between Youth and Adulthood: Young Adult and New Adult Literature.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 42 no. 2, 2017, p. 218-230. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/chq.2017.0018.
“Opinion: New Adult Is A Valid Genre And Why Publishers (And Readers) Should Care About It” by Yasmine Guiga