/lit/ - Literature

Are there any young adult books that don't suck?

Are there YA books that are born of genuine artistic inspiration or are they all insincere derivative products?

There’s a certain underlying level of condescension from YA authors when they insist on pitting teenager protagonists against impossible odds, often in an anti-adult and/or anti-social power fantasy (whether explicit by way of direct confrontation or implicit by way of portraying adults and/or society as incompetent and/or non-understanding in contrast to teenagers), in their stories and peppering everything with awkward romance and tired puberty metaphors, as if they believe being misunderstood and dealing with everything pertaining to puberty is the summum of teenage experience.

A children’s book is honest in that it doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not, but a YA book tries to pass off as something serious. Children’s books have the courage to expand their horizons and trust their readers to understand a wider array of topics and themes. The best among them can even be enjoyed by adults because they speak to them, but the same can hardly be said of YA literature with its limited scope. When those that are too young for "adult books" can read children books and those that are too old for those can read "adult books", what purpose do YA books hold? Some may call them gateways to literature, but that can be achieved with the right “adult books” as well. No one should suffer through an adult telling them they understand how adults don’t “get” them in a mediocrely-written unoriginal story.

>Friend is 20 years old
>Still exclusively reads young adult "novels"

Why are so many YA books about Dystopias? Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner, etc. Is it to appeal to the "fuck you mom and dad" demographic?