Have you read the book "Prep"?

It's not a quickly paced as a YA novel would be. That's the main seperation between YA and adult, as I understand it, is the pacing. YA novels tend to move a lot faster and be less subtle in their descriptions than their adult counterparts. I do know a lot of older teens read Prep, but if it had been marketed as YA I think younger teens would have read it, too, and it's not really for them. They might have enjoyed it, but I don't think they would have understood some of the subtilties.

That's just my opinion, though.

I agree with reenkam. Though there are exceptions, contemporary YA tends to pride itself on being fast-paced. I mostly enjoyed Prep, but it did meander a lot.

Also, if I remember correctly, Prep's author Curtis Sittenfeld had been writing for newspapers and magazines before her novel was published, and I think she'd been published in a few lit fic journals too... so maybe her publisher was banking on well-read adults already being familiar with her name.

All that being said, I noticed that my local library shelves one copy of Prep in the YA section, and another in the adult fiction section. It's definitely become a crossover novel.

I thought Prep was YA? I think I found it in the YA section of my library.

I think it's trying to be another Catcher in Rye, which could make it YA, but could also make it a "new classic" in which case it could be labeled "general fiction."

I think it's just kind of a crossover, yeah. Originally it was an adult novel.

Personally I found it rather dull and once the graphic sex started I was just all tcha. It didn't draw me in.

I thought the main character was extremely unlikeable, but for some reason, I wanted to keep reading until the end. I think because I was engrossed in her world. But yeah, the sex stuff was like one more thing to drag you down and make you despise the mc even more.

Here in Sweden it's been plainly marketed as mainstream fiction and not at all as YA.

I kind of liked it.......

peevy said:

I thought the main character was extremely unlikeable, but for some reason, I wanted to keep reading until the end. I think because I was engrossed in her world. But yeah, the sex stuff was like one more thing to drag you down and make you despise the mc even more.

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I was just apathetic to her. She was super passive.

Reenkam...it's cool, man. Like what you like. No shame.

I think the pacing is what suggests it to be an adult novel.

For the record, I enjoyed Prep.

Also for the record, I thought the MC was whiny and passive.

Final note for the record: I picked it up and kept reading it because of the occasional mentions of the topics they studied in their classes. I'm a total geek.

Tcha is how I type out this noise I make when I'm all disgusted or indignant. It doesn't actually sound like tcha, it's more like AH or UH or something. The pitch of the TCHA varies by the level of my disgust.

Yeah if there's going to be graphic sex I'd like to at least care about the MC first.

I didn't think the sex was that graphic. And I thought it was a lot more realistic than...I dunno, some moan fest or something.

I liked her being passive. It's like most high schoolers, really. I thought it went with her personality. If she suddenly did something random I would have wondered what happened and what she drank...

Prep is one of my favorite books. I know this is an old thread but I stopped in just to say that. Also, it is definitely not a YA book. I'd categorize it as women's fiction. And I would agree that the MC is probably not likeable but she's definitely relateable and I saw a lot of myself as a teenager in her.