New Adult (NA) fiction targets the 18 to 30 market and primarily focuses on leaving home, going to college or getting that first job. Wikipedia tells me St. Martin’s Press first coined the phrase in 2009 and the genre has grown rapidly. Many in the industry have yet to recognize it as an official category, though, leaving most NA authors to self publish. Check out our template to see how easy they are to write.
Fast forward to not long ago, with me browsing the virtual book shelves on my Oyster app. I had read Deeper by Robin York and enjoyed it, so I thought why not dip my toes a little further into the NA pool. After reading about a dozen novels in the genre, here’s what I learned.
The Guy Is Always Worthy
Despite our male protagonists always having a penchant for blood sports, beer and bimbos, they end up being poets that have waited their whole lives for that one special muse. They are also gorgeous, independently wealthy, highly-educated (though they never talk about graduating Magna Cum Laude, obvs) and HUNG. Basically, they are the perfect male specimens. They also volunteer with special needs children, know how to play the piano or guitar, and love rescuing small dogs.
The Girl Is Always Normal
Or is she? See, the female protagonists of these stories always think they are achingly normal. They go on and on about it via internal monologue ad nauseam. They constantly compare themselves to the hotter, much more “worthy” females (i.e. the mean girls) found in the story. But then the male protagonist sees our female protagonist for the first time and only through his eyes can she begin to see her true beauty.
College Is Shown As Way Too Exciting & Too Easy
The characters of NA novels are generally straight-A students despite partying like it’s 1999. They are inevitably at da club, frat house, or “big game” when shit goes down. Luckily, they seem to have unlimited funds to go on a shopping spree and to the beauty salon before every event, which undoubtedly leads to that transformative moment when our ugly duckling becomes the swan. Not that our male protagonist prefers the new look of the female protagonist, I mean, he noticed the change, but he really loves her the way she was before … or naked, because he really loves her naked.
They Have Seriously Messed Up Home Lives
All these kids are running from something. It was bad, it was big and it scared the hell out of them when they were younger. It was the mother truckin’ Jabberwocky of emotional breakdowns. Luckily they can heal those emotional wounds via sexy times. This leads to the “big reveal” that our female protagonist is a virgin! Whether her continued hold on the V-Card was because of her being an outsider in high school, emotionally damaged by a bad break up, or the strict adherence to patriarchal laws … that girl is givin’ it up now.
Perfection In Bed Equals Inability To Communicate Verbally
You know how many of these story’s critical choices could be solved by a character simply asking, “I think I misunderstood you. What’s going on?” Basically, all of them. But NA likes to swamp our characters in bad impressions and misinterpretations. The characters talk at length about their problems, but only to themselves. Months – and usually some crucial final exam or career task – go by before our protagonists meet up and resolve their issues. He didn’t sleep with that tramp. She doesn’t think you’re an undeserving douche bag. The Mean Girl or Preppy Guy antagonist was at the bottom of all of it!
The Fantasy Land Epilogue
This is probably the strangest thing about NA. They can’t just end happily. No, they have to end really happily with a marriage proposal, a surprise million dollar inheritance or a pregnancy. These characters signed up for eternity and now they have the kids, mortgage and matching rings to prove it.
But it doesn’t end there, no, because there’s still…
The Sequel That Isn’t Really A Sequel, It’s Just The Same Book From The Dude’s Perspective
That’s right. We get to live the entire thing over again. It has the same dialogue and the same story arc, but it’s a different POV. We peek into the mind of our male protagonist to witness how he longed for the female protagonist from the very start. We get to live through the emotional turmoil of him deciding that he wasn’t good enough for her, but damned if he just had to have her and, after all the sex, how for the very first time in his life he felt LOVE.
Should You Read New Adult?
Now, I know what you’re thinking, “This sounds like the worst genre ever.” But, low and behold, there are a few out there worth investigating. The Deeper and Harder books by Robin York are still at the top of the list. West kneading his dough at the crack of dawn entertains every time. (Buy Deeper. Buy Harder)
I also happened across the Harper Boys series by Ginger Scott. The first book, Wild Reckless, introduced posh princess Kensington to wild child Owen, the mysterious boy next door. When Kensington’s home life begins to fall apart, Owen becomes an unlikely ally. It was still pretty cliche, but there were a few laughs in the mix and, overall, I loved both characters. Neither of them annoyed me, which is a small step for mankind and a giant leap for the NA genre. (Buy Wild Reckless)
Even better than the first, the barely affiliated sequel, Wicked Reckless, introduced Owen’s little brother, Andrew. He falls in love with a girl named Emma when they are sixteen. A very unexpected twist in the story – seriously, I won’t even tease it – tears them apart and they don’t meet again until five years later. Andrew has a lot of built up resentment directed towards Emma the second time around and things don’t go smoothly at all. Throw in a few nasty side characters and another unexpected twist towards the end and I was entertained well into the wee hours of the night. (Buy Wicked Reckless)
Ginger Scott has a ton of free books available on Oyster and I found all of them fairly fun. One in particular, The Girl I Was Before, switches the gender trope with a female protagonist who had “been there done that” around the college campus. She is beautiful, super sassy, even bitchy at times, and still falls in love. Imagine that? A confident, strong female that finds a man. (Buy The Girl I was Before)
Likewise, The Only Exception by Magan Vernon shows another strong female lead. Monica is a liberal who loves tattoos and just happens to be the next door neighbor to conservative Governor’s son, Trey. This one got really interesting because the male protagonist is the VIRGIN! Have we seen that anywhere besides #JAMMF? (Buy this book about a male virgin)
I’m sure there are more great New Adult books on the shelves, but I generally wait until they are available for free. Do you have any recommendations? What are your favorites?
