Let's learn what Coming-Of-Age Books vs. New Adult books are!

Some people credit Twilight's Stephanie Meyer, some people credit Sarah J. Maas, other thank Colleen Hoover but the publishing industry has undergone a huge shift in the last decade or so. A new niche has been carved out called “New Adult.”

NOT to be confused with young adult, which focuses on a character’s growth through changes or experiences as they mature toward young adulthood, (menstruation, first love, rebelling against authority figures, etc.), new adult is a little more difficult to pin down. Not quite a genre, more of a subcategory. Think of new adult as the bridge that gets readers from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to Fifty Shades of Grey. That is an extreme example, but it is sort of an “older YA” or, if you look at the demographics, for readers between 18-25, people who are relatively new to this whole adulthood thing. Let’s look at some specifics!

There are some clear generational divides around new adult as its own thing. If you ask your grandmother to name a classic coming-of-age book, she would probably name Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Your dad might mention The Outsiders, who were peak coolness in print form (and the movie, starring Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, and a few other heavy hitters might be the most 80s movie that ever 80ed) and every college freshman will mention The Catcher in the Rye. For me, new adult would include V.C Andrews and John Green, but I just asked my daughter to name a classic coming-of-age book, and she said The Hate U Give. Her kids might one day say Red, White, and Royally Blue. The markers are constantly moving!

Our personal categorization of new adult reading is based solely on what we were reading at the time in our development. It’s filtered through our own individual lives, experiences, goals, and geopolitics at that exact moment in our existence. And since the world now looks so much different than it did for our grandmothers, the “aging up” of those coming-of-age books has happened along the way. New adult books can definitely be spicier than the average coming-of-age title, with on-page sex and a lot of mature themes. Colleen Hoover is a popular new adult author with contemporary brain-benders, but so is Sarah J. Maas with her A Court of Thorns and Roses and other lush fantasy series. Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros has a rabid fanbase, as do Rainbow Rowell, Walter Deam Myers, and Ali Hazelwood. If you are looking for a classic new adult read, consider Ready Player One, Dark Matter, She’s Come Undone, or To Kill a Mockingbird to jumpstart your reading. You can’t go wrong with any of those titles!

familiar Young Adult Titles

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (Media Tie-In)

by Judy Blume

Now a major motion picture starring Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates!
A Time Best YA Book of All Time

Margaret shares her secrets and her spirituality in this iconic Judy Blume novel, beloved by millions.

Margaret Simon, almost twelve, likes long hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain, and things that are pink. She's just moved from New York City to Farbook, New Jersey, and is anxious to fit in with her new friends--Nancy, Gretchen, and Janie. When they form a secret club to talk about private subjects like boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret is happy to belong.

But none of them can believe Margaret doesn't have religion, and that she isn't going to the Y or the Jewish Community Center. What they don't know is Margaret has her own very special relationship with God. She can talk to God about everything--family, friends, even Moose Freed, her secret crush.

The Outsiders

by S E Hinton

When it was first published in 1967, The Outsiders defied convention with its immediate, deeply sympathetic portrayal of Ponyboy and his struggle to find a place for himself in a difficult world. Thirty years later, it speaks to teenagers as powerfully as ever.Puffin is proud to publish this contemorary classic for a new generation of readers. Praise for THE OUTSIDERS "This remarkable novel gives a moving, credible view of the outsiders from the inside. . . we meet powerful characters in a book with a powerful message." -- The Horn Book
"Taut with tension, filled with drama . . ." -- The Chicago Tribune

classic coming-of-age books

The Catcher in the Rye

by J D Salinger

The "brilliant, funny, meaningful novel" (The New Yorker) that established J. D. Salinger as a leading voice in American literature--and that has instilled in millions of readers around the world a lifelong love of books.
"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth."
The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caufield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days.

She's Come Undone

by Wally Lamb

In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi that her anxious mother supplies. When she finally orbits into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before she "really" goes under.

Demon Copperhead

by Barbara Kingsolver

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE - WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

From the acclaimed author of The Poisonwood Bible and The Bean Trees and the recipient of the National Book Foundation's Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a brilliant novel that enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero's unforgettable journey to maturity

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

Voted America's Best-Loved Novel in PBS's The Great American Read

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South--and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred

One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father--a crusading local lawyer--risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

by Betty Smith

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

A special 75th anniversary edition of the beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century.

From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family's erratic and eccentric behavior--such as her father Johnny's taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy's habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce--no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans' life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans' daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness.

Popular New Adult Books

It Ends with Us

by Colleen Hoover

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING BLAKE LIVELY AND JUSTIN BALDONI!

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of It Starts with Us and All Your Perfects, a "brave and heartbreaking novel that digs its claws into you and doesn't let go, long after you've finished it" (Anna Todd, New York Times bestselling author) about a young woman in a new relationship who can't stop thinking about her first love.

Lily hasn't always had it easy, but that's never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She's come a long way from the small town where she grew up--she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. And when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily's life seems too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He's also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn't hurt. Lily can't get him out of her head. But Ryle's complete aversion to relationships is disturbing.

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune--and control of the OASIS itself.

Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he's beset by rivals who'll kill to take this prize. The race is on--and the only way to survive is to win.

Fourth Wing

by Rebecca Yarros

A #1 New York Times bestseller - TV series in development at MGM Amazon Studios with Michael B. Jordan's Outlier Society - Amazon Best Books of the Year, #4 - Apple Best Books of the Year 2023 - Barnes & Noble Best Fantasy Book of 2023

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general―also known as her tough-as-talons mother―has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them.

The Love Hypothesis

by Ali Hazelwood

The Instant New York Times Bestseller and TikTok Sensation!

As seen on THE VIEW!

A BuzzFeed Best Summer Read of 2021

When a fake relationship between scientists meets the irresistible force of attraction, it throws one woman's carefully calculated theories on love into chaos.

As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn't believe in lasting romantic relationships--but her best friend does, and that's what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.

That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor--and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford's reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive's career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding...six-pack abs.

Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

by Sarah J Maas

The sexy, action-packed first book in the #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses series from global phenomenon Sarah J. Maas.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a terrifying creature arrives to demand retribution. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she knows about only from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not truly a beast, but one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled her world.

At least, he's not a beast all the time.

As she adapts to her new home, her feelings for the faerie, Tamlin, transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But something is not right in the faerie lands. An ancient, wicked shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it, or doom Tamlin-and his world-forever.

From bestselling author Sarah J. Maas comes a seductive, breathtaking book that blends romance, adventure, and faerie lore into an unforgettable read.

Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy

by E L James

"And in this quiet moment as I close my eyes, spent and sated, I think I'm in the eye of the storm. And in spite of all he's said, and what he hasn't said, I don't think I have ever been so happy."

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana's quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too--but on his own terms.

This book is intended for mature audiences.

Slow Dance

by Rainbow Rowell

A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Back in high school, everybody thought Shiloh and Cary would end up together . . . everybody but Shiloh and Cary.

They were just friends. Best friends. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh's porch steps, dreaming about the future. They promised each other that, no matter what, their friendship would never change.

Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed.

Now Shiloh's thirty-three, and it's been fourteen years since she talked to Cary. She's been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she's back living in the same house she grew up in. Her life is nothing like she planned.

As always, we’ll remind you that all reading counts, whether it is on a tablet, a phone, an audiobook, or a nice hardcover novel. Read what makes you happy! Life is too short to waste any reading time.

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