Geek Girl Witter: My Rocky Relationship with YA Paranormal

"May my heart be kind, my mind fierce and my spirit brave." - Kate Forsyth

Disclaimer: It's not in any way a generalization nor is it dishing. I don't mean to offend anybody or disparage Young Adult books. I love them and I do believe there are truly exceptional and unique reads in the Young Adult paranormal genre.


I have always considered YA paranormal my favorite genre. A teen girl in a world of beasts and monsters with supernatural powers and love and all the action...It has always appealed to me. But the more I read it, the less enthusiastic I became.

Wait what?

At least the last five YA paranormal books I read contained one or more of the followings:
  • insta-love and/or cheesy romance
  • childish/annoying/petty/whiny protagonist
  • Lot of tropes. I mean a LOT.
  • faulty, lacking world-building
  • spelling errors. Like, five per page.
Since I started reviewing books, I've become much more eclectic. My peripheral vision widened as to what a wide range of great books exist and I paid more attention to what I was reading. Also, I commenced reading professional reviews; I've learned a lot. However, I imagine it's something similar with most of the book bloggers out there or anybody who gets deeply engaged in a certain part of life. Due to becoming more eclectic, my read-enjoyed rate has decreased somewhat. It's not necessarily a negative phenomenon; developing a defined, refined taste that urges you in the direction of worthy, precious books is good. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself when I'm fussing whether I'm being picky, a snob or am in a reading slump.

Anyway, I'm a tad downhearted that I didn't like a big deal of the YA paranormals I've read recently. I've come to the point where I pick them up with caution and don't dare to get my hopes up for until I'm at least at half of the book.

Now, I know it's not present in YA paranormals exclusively, or in YA at all, however, this is where I've encountered the problems the most. And it saddens me and this kitty-kat.


But to not end this conversation depressed like this, I'll share some of my favorites that I always loved, love and will love.

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Have you ever had the same issue? What are your favorite YA paranormal books?

4 comments:

  1. Not all YA is created equal—that's a fact! The list you shared are some of the many reasons why I tend to shy away from this genre unless a title comes highly recommended by several of my go-to blogger peeps. Endings that just stop practically mid-sentence are another aspect that bug me; I get cliffies, but there's a difference between leaving readers hanging and quitting before the story is somewhat complete. Some of my fav YA titles include Stiefvater's The Wolves of Mercy Falls series & Cole's The Arcana Chronicles. Nice post!

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  2. I have to admit I go through stages where I read YA and then I don't for a while due to the overwhelming sameness of some of the more dominant trends. A lot of them annoy me, like your list, so I tend to run away from the entire YA grouping for a breather occasionally. It's not that these things don't happen in adult books, they just seem easier to avoid.

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  3. I rarely read anything else, but YA (which kind of sounds sad. I'll need to do something about it.) and yeah, most of them - especially withing the paranormal genre - are very similar. But there are those exceptional pieces that make it all so worth it. Anyway, yeah, even though I firmly believe the same mistakes can be found in any genre or age group, in YA, they tend to be a tad bit more common.

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  4. I'm fine with cliffhangers...Well, that is after totally being ticked off and then breaking down when I count down the days until the next book. Then I file away my losses and move on. Only to get super-duper excited again when there's only a month or two left until release.

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