Kailia talks about what's hot and what's not in YA... and why she doesn't really care...
I am what many would call a bookworm. I love to read and a lot of my free time is spent reading. I like to read mostly all genres but young adult, urban fantasy and paranormal are closest to my heart. Like a lot of you, I like to read book blogs and look around other sites to find really good books to read.
Something I’ve noticed in my “good book hunt” is that a lot of bloggers/readers tend to read/review books that are “in”. “In” meaning books that everyone is reading about one topic or another. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of UB and Paranormal book that have to do with faeries. This also means that the market is selling a lot of books with this topic. It’s a trend that I’ve noticed is a big player in what kinds of books we read and buy. These book trends also tend to change from one topic to another.
First there was the huge Twilight Saga craze with the good/bad vampires and the werewolves. Mostly thought it was just vampires falling in love with mortal girls. There were vampire books before this series was published but it was because of this series that vampires became so popular and people began hunting for books with vampires.
Not only were the readers looking for vampire books, but so were the publishers and book store owners. Publishers wanted books that would sell well in the market and the book stores wanted people to buy from their store. What better way to achieve this goal than to publish/sell books about things people wanted to read about?
Of course as soon as this trend started, another trend took its place. From what I’ve seen, it’s the fairies trend. Now I see more and more books dealing with fairies or pixies or something similar to that. I’ve recently read Need by Carrie Jones that has faeries in it. There is Faeriewalker, Book 1: Glimmerglass by Jenna Black a book soon to be rereleased.
The books might sell well but as with everything, there is something bad hiding in the corner. With these trends, it’s the quality or how well it’s written that’s the bad thing. With so many different books all based around the same one topic or something similar, we all tend to have expectations. The more books we read on one topic, the high the expectations are for the next book. This can be bad because (1) we lose interest in the books (2) the books just sit on the bookshelves and gather dust and (3) well, we get tired of reading so many “bad” or “not good enough” books and we want more. So, the trend changes and everything happens all over again.
But of course there are the trends and then there are the “non-trenders.” In one case point, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I’ve recently read this book and it was as far from vampires and fairies as can be. But this book was really good and in my point of view, better than some of the books that are following the trend. Though The Hunger Games is a work of fiction and not really UF or paranormal, it captures the reader’s attention from the first page and keeps it till the end. But it doesn’t stop there. No, this is one of those books that make you want to read the second book and if the second book isn’t out or there isn’t going to be a second book, you get really mad.
Personally, I think I’d like to see more hype for stand-out books that don’t necessarily follow the latest trends (which at the moment just happens to be about fairies) and are just pure works of fiction (with some reality, of course.) And one thing I’ve never understood is why don’t other YA books get as much hype as books like The Twilight Saga or some other books? In my opinion, they are just as good and deserve just the same recognition as any other book out there, if not more.
Kailia Sage is the pen-name of a high-schooler and aspiring author, who writes a book blog called Reading the Best of the Best!
I am what many would call a bookworm. I love to read and a lot of my free time is spent reading. I like to read mostly all genres but young adult, urban fantasy and paranormal are closest to my heart. Like a lot of you, I like to read book blogs and look around other sites to find really good books to read.
Something I’ve noticed in my “good book hunt” is that a lot of bloggers/readers tend to read/review books that are “in”. “In” meaning books that everyone is reading about one topic or another. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of UB and Paranormal book that have to do with faeries. This also means that the market is selling a lot of books with this topic. It’s a trend that I’ve noticed is a big player in what kinds of books we read and buy. These book trends also tend to change from one topic to another.
First there was the huge Twilight Saga craze with the good/bad vampires and the werewolves. Mostly thought it was just vampires falling in love with mortal girls. There were vampire books before this series was published but it was because of this series that vampires became so popular and people began hunting for books with vampires.
Not only were the readers looking for vampire books, but so were the publishers and book store owners. Publishers wanted books that would sell well in the market and the book stores wanted people to buy from their store. What better way to achieve this goal than to publish/sell books about things people wanted to read about?
Of course as soon as this trend started, another trend took its place. From what I’ve seen, it’s the fairies trend. Now I see more and more books dealing with fairies or pixies or something similar to that. I’ve recently read Need by Carrie Jones that has faeries in it. There is Faeriewalker, Book 1: Glimmerglass by Jenna Black a book soon to be rereleased.
The books might sell well but as with everything, there is something bad hiding in the corner. With these trends, it’s the quality or how well it’s written that’s the bad thing. With so many different books all based around the same one topic or something similar, we all tend to have expectations. The more books we read on one topic, the high the expectations are for the next book. This can be bad because (1) we lose interest in the books (2) the books just sit on the bookshelves and gather dust and (3) well, we get tired of reading so many “bad” or “not good enough” books and we want more. So, the trend changes and everything happens all over again.
But of course there are the trends and then there are the “non-trenders.” In one case point, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I’ve recently read this book and it was as far from vampires and fairies as can be. But this book was really good and in my point of view, better than some of the books that are following the trend. Though The Hunger Games is a work of fiction and not really UF or paranormal, it captures the reader’s attention from the first page and keeps it till the end. But it doesn’t stop there. No, this is one of those books that make you want to read the second book and if the second book isn’t out or there isn’t going to be a second book, you get really mad.
Personally, I think I’d like to see more hype for stand-out books that don’t necessarily follow the latest trends (which at the moment just happens to be about fairies) and are just pure works of fiction (with some reality, of course.) And one thing I’ve never understood is why don’t other YA books get as much hype as books like The Twilight Saga or some other books? In my opinion, they are just as good and deserve just the same recognition as any other book out there, if not more.
--
Kailia Sage is the pen-name of a high-schooler and aspiring author, who writes a book blog called Reading the Best of the Best!
Would you rather read a book that's on-trend, or something else just as good, but not 'hot' right now? What do you think other readers think of book trends (teenagers, namely)?
