'Rowan's breathing had texture.'

i know this book is just one gruesome scene after the other, but damn it still somehow manages to make me feel shocked when another gross thing happens

How the hell do you pronounce Aethelthryth?

What are some books and/or book series you are interested but can't get yourself to read?

I've been meaning to read Les Misérables for years now, but it's so long. I did start, and loved what I read, but dropped it, and never had the courage to pick it up again. 🥲 Babel and Poppy War are very daunting for me. I keep seeing people talking about PW here, and so I get reminded that I'm curious about it. I also want to read Malazan, but I'm convincing myself that I'll wait a few years until starting it, but I definitely will! 🤣

So I'm middle-aged. I grew up reading in the 90s and early 00s, basically at a time before YA had completely solidified as a genre. I can recall being in my mid or late teens and seeing the shelf for teens expand to a small wall in my local library. While I occasionally picked from that section and found some gems, I still mostly read from the adult section because I'd already been reading "adult" books for a few years by then. Not sure what it was like for other folks, but I consistently tested as being at a college "reading level" around the age of twelve or so and I was given pretty free reign to read what I liked with the caveat from my mother (a teacher) that I ask questions about anything that bothered/disturbed me. I can think of only a few times I read something that super went over my head or super upset me, and those moments made me curious as a reader (and writer) and stuck with me.

To this day YA tends to be a hard sell for me - I first really heard about the genre around the time Twilight and The Hunger Games came out, and I was like "young adult? psht I'm twenty-four and I've been reading books for adults for a decade."* I'm a lot less arrogant now and I can appreciate that there are great stories being told in YA, especially for LGBTQIA+ readers - a subject that was very much considered "only for adults" when I was growing up, with the exception of a couple of books that were the equivalent of Very Special Episodes. TBH, I do wonder if some of my rush to read grown-up books was just because that's where I could read about people like me.

*(Please forgive me, I do intend to read The Hunger Games someday... probably. Twilight is a no for me, thanks.)

But when I've tried to read YA books, especially ones friends and family recommend me, and pretty frequently, I just... find them to feel a bit childish and hand-holding. Like the writer doesn't trust me to come to my own conclusions or understand what's happening. Am I just reading the wrong books? Is the simpler storytelling a conceit of YA?

I'm also deeply curious: if you were once advanced reader who's older now, do you read a lot of YA now that it's more widely available? What about younger readers, did you transition out of reading YA eventually, or do you read more contemporary fiction, new adult, etc? Would love to hear more.