We’ve all grown up reading or hearing fairy tales; legends of faraway lands, magic and mystique. We may not be children anymore, but those fantastical stories never quite lose the charm they hold for us. As youth, we have so much influence over what captures the imagination of our world and in appreciation of that, our monthly theme for August is Young Adult Fantasy!
You may have seen that we don’t review a lot of YA on Pemberley, but that doesn’t mean we don’t read anything from that genre. Through this theme, our goal is to delve deep into #yafantasy, review it with the same scrutiny as we would any other book. A lot of YA books are popularised by bookstagram, their popularity and commercial success may leave you wondering if these books are worth the hype. Worry not, this month we’re going to check out some of the most well-known books in YA, as well as find some hidden gems in the genre for you!
While not every book has to be meaningful and deep, we feel its important to ensure that the books we read resonate with our ideals. Many readers critique young adult literature because of the level of commercialisation in the genre, and as part of this theme we will be scrutinising those points as well - how YA is saturated with books that are actually new adult or adult fantasy, the several problematic themes propagated in books which are given the same amount of exposure as the original YA bestsellers like "The Hunger Games". Since we’re looking at YA Fantasy specifically, we’ll be focusing on the level of world-building as a key factor in our reviews.
We are so excited to share this month’s theme and the book reviews we have planned! We hope that you’ll enjoy this journey with us.