“I’m in a debut group and out of 200 people, I’m one of maybe 15, 20 guys,” Milman says. Witness Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series.Ĭollins is also representative of the fact that women largely dominate the YA genre. Obviously, successes of this magnitude are absurdly rare…but when lightning does strike, it tends to happen with YA novels. Rowling’s and To Kill a Mockingbird was Harper Lee’s.) Hinton’s, Harry Potter Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was J.K. Twilight was Meyer’s first published novel. (It also inspired another publishing sensation and then film franchise, albeit one aimed at adult adults: 50 Shades of Grey.) Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series sold over 100 million books and its film adaptations racked up more than $3.3 billion worldwide.

Indeed, there are massive numbers of YA readers. Now? “There’s definitely a lot of adults who read YA.” He felt young adult novels were something to be avoided, recalling the “cheesy-looking books in this really tiny section of my library” and seeking more mature reading material. Growing up, Milman recalls one side of the divide being far more appealing than the other.

He cites Emma Cline’s 2016 debut novel The Girls: “That’s technically a YA book but it was marketed as literary fiction.” (Its central character is a teenager, but it follows her as she meets up with Charles Manson.) The basic definition is simple: It’s typically a book with a young central character that is, at least theoretically, aimed at young readers.Įxcept when it isn’t: “Some books do skirt that line.” “It’s a good question,” Derek Milman says when asked to define the genre.

Scream all night by derek milman