An e-mail:

re your comment:
“YOUNG ADULT USED TO MEAN 12 TO 18,” HE SAID. “NOW IT’S FOR READERS AS OLD AS
25.” [K. J. Lopez ]
I suspect this says more about the reading comprehension of 25-year-olds than it
does about the maturity levels of 12-year-olds.
——
I think this betrays your (understandable) ignorance of why Young Adult
publishing exists. It’s a publishing category holdover from when libraries
refused to put science fiction and fantasy on the “adult” shelves because
librarians believed all science fiction and fantasy works were/are juvenile in
nature. Many libraries still do this: I’ve been to libraries where unabridged
versions of Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” sit on the juvenile stands
near Dr. Seuss’s more advanced books.
Anyway, young adult was a way to get science fiction and fantasy out of the
juvenile shelves and into another category somewhere between juvenile and adult.
Ursula K. LeGuin’s first three Earthsea books were marketed as “young adult.”
The latest three Earthsea
were marketed as “adult” because 20 years later publishers and libraries finally
realized that science fiction can be aimed at adults. The Young Adult market
now contains many non-fantastical works, but it’s really a label reflected more
of compromise than content.