Hello! So I was thinking about quite a few different bookish things the other day, and figured that rather than writing twitter threads at 11pm when I can’t always trust my brain and my typing to match up, I’d try writing an actual blog post every time I think about something that I can’t fit in to a tweet.
So get yourself a cuppa, and let’s get chatting!
The other day, I was thinking about fantasy books as you move from MG to YA. This came off the back of me finishing the very enjoyable A Darkness of Dragons (more on that in my May Reading Wrap Up!) which is everything I want from a middle grade adventure. And then I started thinking - where does that all GO when you reach YA fantasy?
So I went back over my reading, and realised for me, the books that really nicely bridge the gap to YA fantasy are books like the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, the Magician’s Guild series by Trudi Canavan, and the Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon (and I’d say read them in that order, too). Then I realised, these are all Australian authors - which isn’t a criticism by any means, but I was rather surprised that more UK authors weren’t in that collection.
That got me thinking - where ARE these transitionary books in fantasy for readers that are beyond MG but maybe aren’t ready for YA? For me, MG includes adventure, friendships, humour, and Mild Peril (where you know they’ll really be okay but you want to see how they win). YA, on the other hand, includes more complex friendships, adventure, seems to have less humour, and definitely has Major Peril (where you’re not entirely sure who’s going to be alive at the end of it).
Now that’s not a bad thing - goodness knows I’m a fan of YA where you are terrified all your faves are going to die *side-eyes Bex Hogan* - but to me that seems quite a jump from a nice cosy romp to ‘oh my god everything’s terrible’.
Where is my Medium Peril?!
And so I suppose that’s what I wanted to ask you all in today’s blog post. What books can you think of, a bit like the Old Kingdom books or Magician’s Guild, that are a nice segue in to YA fantasy? What books can you think of that fit the description of Medium Peril, that haven’t quite made that final leap to Major Peril? (I feel like I should draw a scale).
I certainly want to sustain my fantasy reading as I love the genre, but I’d really like to broaden my reading within the genre, and I want more Medium Peril books! And bonus points if they’re diverse, of course. White male-centric hetero fantasy is not the one.
Can’t wait to hear your recommendations!
(PS: I’d love to do more of these ‘Let’s Chat…’ posts. Let me know if there’s a particular topic you’d like me to blog about and I’ll try to get to it in a future blog post!)
