Friday, May 13, 2016

Discussion Post: This Review Should Come With a Warning - Or is it Okay to Review New Adult, Adult, and Young Adult on the Same Blog?


Today I'm doing my 3rd discussion post as part of the 2016 Discussion Challenge hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction and It Starts at Midnight. My first one was all about if teens are really as dumb as we think, and will expect what happens in books to be real life.  My second one was about giving ratings in your reviews.  You can go read my thoughts and then share what you think on those two HERE and HERE. Today I want to talk about the different age levels of books and how to review them on blogs.

So, recently I've started reading books that I would definitely not recommend to my high school students because of their sexual content.  It's not that in any way I want to censor what they read, I just know what is appropriate for me to suggest, and what isn't any of my business.  The reason I am thinking about this is because up until these past few months, the majority of what I read and blogged about was YA.  Once in awhile I'd throw in a nonfiction, memoir, or a Stephen King type of book.  None of which I would have an issue with a student of mine reading about.  But as I started this paragraph out saying, I seem to have gotten a bit of a trend with the types of books that I'm reading, and it all kind of started with the After series by Anna Todd.


I'm a 43 year old woman, so there's nothing wrong with what I read.  And I don't intend to be very explicit with my reviews.  I plan to talk about the story just like I would with any other book.  But since I usually only review books that I liked and finished, I will be saying good things about them.  So I guess my question to anyone who decides to join into my discussion post here is, should I be worried about who reads my posts?  I've started doing an "NA" in front of the new adult books I read, and then "YA" in front of the teen/young adult books.  Although some of my romances I'm reading aren't necessarily NA, but I feel silly putting the word "Adult" by itself in front of a review title.  I mean, I would have to do that with Stephen King and Dean Koontz, etc.

 

So tell me, what do you think about all this?  Do you think for me to review both types on the same blog is a horrible idea?  Do you think the way I'm differentiating in the titles is a good thing?  Or do you think I need to be worried about any of this if I don't intend to actually put the explicit stuff within my review?


I'm feeling a bit conflicted on this, because as a high school librarian, it is very possible that I might have students who want to follow my blog.  And then I don't know if it is bad for me to post things that I wouldn't tell them outright they should read.  Of course it could just be my silly brain that won't stop dwelling on the thought.


I'd love to hear your thoughts if you'd like to join into the discussion.  And this last gif is because I can't resist a Supernatural one any time I do a post like this.