Poll

Lots of great choices!!

TOWER OF DAWN ISN'T YOUNG ADULT. Please don't come and tell me that if a "children" imprint is behind the publication of the book the book is automatically YA. If a "children" imprint were publishing fifty shades of grey, the book wouldn't be young adult no matter the name of the company.

Sarah J. Maas had one of the most read erotic book of the goodreads two weeks ago. I took a screenshot before the list changed. And I know of that list because I DO READ EROTIC content.




And of course tower of dawn is the most read book in the new adult section



That's a screenshot of last week. This week all Sarah J. Maas titles are amongst the most read in the new adult section. Check the most popular of the new adult genre here:
https://www.goodreads.com/genres/most...

I know my message won't get to most readers because goodreads users and librarians plus some booktubers have been covering up the real genre and the erotic content of Sarah J. maas. I'm really creeped out because due to this lack of honest reviews that mention the real content and the real genre (new adult/adult) of the Throne of glass series I received reports of 9 YO reading Empire of storms and of 7th graders reading ACOMAF. That will keep happening as long as the books appear in the young adult and middle grade sections of libraries and bookstores.

SJM should write whatever she pleases including erotic contents, but I consider our responsability as fans of the series to spread the voice that TOG and a court of thorns and roses might be too erotic for the younger readers and then let them make their decisions.

This book club for all I know might be part of an effort of the big publishers to promote their books to young readers, knowing well that Miss MAss popularity guarantees the top stop in the reading polls. I just want to warn you that there should be disclaimers for erotic content because most parents and readers think of YA as a clean, sexless genre and that hasn't been the case. Plus not a single Main character of throne of glass is under 18. All are rather adult.

I'll ask politely to the moderators to remove Tower of Dawn and any other "young adult" series that is heavy in erotic content or that you add a warning for erotic content. Yes, I know TOD has less erotic content than Empire of storms but still. I know some people in this club have strong links to New york publishers, and that the purpose of this club might be promotional of new releases. Just keep in mind that child molesters use erotic content to lure their victims and that having overhyped, popular books with sexless looking covers in the same section where 9-15 YO buy their books is a potential risk for Children. The well-being of those children should always be above the well-being of a marketing team and the finances of the big publishers.

The Hidden Orcale

Veronica PARENTAL GUIDANCE ALERT: A Court of Mist and Fury is an EROTICA/NEW ADULT but most booktubers won't tell you wrote: "TOWER OF DAWN ISN'T YOUNG ADULT. Please don't come and tell me that if a "children" imprint is behind the publication of the book the book is automatically YA. If a "children" imprint were publishi..."

I’m not quite sure what you mean by anyone trying to "cover up" the genres. Addicted to YA judges books based on how Goodreads users shelve the book, which is in Young Adult. As Young Adult is a 13-18 year-old age group, it may contain some more mature content as, again, this category includes 16, 17, and 18 year olds. It is up to the child’s/parent’s discretion to censor the reported 9-year-old you referenced, especially when Tower of Dawn is specifically labeled YA and NA, and it is not up to a publishing company or any Goodreads user or librarian to censor YA content.

Furthermore, Addicted to YA is in no way affiliated with the publisher of Maas’s books, or with any publisher for that matter. Additionally, we do not take requests from publishers to make their books BOTM. All of our books are suggested by readers (as authors are not allowed to suggest their own books) and all suggestions are voted on by the entire Addicted to YA community.

Addicted to YA’s Books Of The Month are always optional, so our members can decide if they're comfortable with reading something or not. The Moderators of Addicted to YA are not going to take Tower of Dawn down because some people do consider the book YA and when the series was started it was shelved mainly as YA.

Oh dear, so many good choices this month! How am I to choose only ONE?! lol

Nikki wrote: "Veronica PARENTAL GUIDANCE ALERT: A Court of Mist and Fury is an EROTICA/NEW ADULT but most booktubers won't tell you wrote: "TOWER OF DAWN ISN'T YOUNG ADULT. Please don't come and tell me that if ..."

I don't think it's a matter of censorship. It's a matter of shelving books correctly. If the content is really more new adult than young adult (and many books are right on the line, I know), I appreciate having that information as a reader.

I'm not arguing the group's decision to keep the book on the list in any way. I just think censorship is a strong word and should only be used when someone is actively trying to keep a book or sections of a book away from readers. It's not the same thing as saying a book has been mis-categorized. (I do strongly disagree with Veronica's suggestion that this mis-categorization was somehow deliberate.)

Just my opinion. I can't imagine any parent letting a nine-year-old pick freely off the YA shelf, anyway. MG, sure, but not YA. A nine-year-old isn't even a tween yet.

Katrina wrote: "Nikki wrote: "Veronica PARENTAL GUIDANCE ALERT: A Court of Mist and Fury is an EROTICA/NEW ADULT but most booktubers won't tell you wrote: "TOWER OF DAWN ISN'T YOUNG ADULT. Please don't come and te..."

Hi Katrina! Thank you for the feedback.

While I know censoring is a strong word, I believe it fits since I was using it in the context of the supposed report of the nine year old reading Tower of Dawn. As a 9 year old should not even be reading YA, let alone NA in the first place, I personally believe that it is the parent's responsibility to censor mature content for their child if they believe that their child is not ready. I do not think that Tower of Dawn's categorization or mis-categorization has anything to do with this 'incident' since they are nowhere near the book's designated age group.

As far as having the genre information goes, Goodreads provides the genre information for all books on the book's page! I assume anyone going to read a book will go to this page in order to shelve the book, but perhaps this assumption is a misjudgment on my part. However, this information is readily available for speculative readers!

As the moderators do not have the time to read every book that wins our BOTM poll, we have to go by the genres assigned to the book, primarily from Goodreads as this is readily available information for us. If a book is categorized as YA by Goodreads users, which Tower of Dawn has been, then it belongs here.

I apologize if any of this sounded like an argument, the intention was just to provide more context and information for you and any other members with questions! I'm not quite sure where we could add genres if we wanted to implement them within Addicted to YA as the polls and the "currently reading" section at the top of the group page does not allow for additional text. If you have any suggestions on the matter, let us know!

Didn't sound like an argument at all -- I appreciate your explanation and all you're doing for the group. :)

Katrina wrote: "Didn't sound like an argument at all -- I appreciate your explanation and all you're doing for the group. :)"

: )

Hey Katrina and Nikki! Thanks for not censoring or deleting my comment and for your polite responses. I'm not stating my personal opinion but facts and I like to discuss them politely with mature adults and kudos to you for allowing polite discussion.

I apologize if it sounded like an unfair accusation. Not my intention at all, I'll address that in a later message in answer to the DM Nikki sent me.

The problem is that Tower of dawn is most likely the book that will win if the results in previous polls for BOTM are any indication. That's why in my Original Post I asked tower or down to be removed from the poll choices. But Not because censorship but because Erika asked not to add New adult books and I know you list books by the way people shelve books. I sent visual evidence (backed up by goodreasd own list of most popular erotica and new adult books) that thousands of users have added Throne of glass and A court of mist and fury, A court of thorns and roses Crown of Midnight, Empire of storms and most recently TOWER OF DAWN to new adult shelves and to erotica shelves.

I also gave another option in case you don't want to remove. I asked to add content warnings. I understand why you can't remove it for the poll but then the option is adding warnings. That way the club members can make their own informed decisions whether they are willing to read erotic content of the previous books or skip the book. That decision should be in the reader.

It's not my opinion, but a fact that the books appear in the young adult section of the stores. It's not like only kids 16 and older will read Young adult books because YA books aren't a restricted area of bookstores and libraries and I never implied it should be. I received reports in my own reviews of users telling me of the books being miscategorized. That happens because:

* there are not warnings in a lot of copies of empire of storms and A court of mist and fury
* There are not enough top reviewers talking about this (even Kirkus reviews lied about this issue)

* because most parents don't know about the sexual content of Maas books. They think of YA as a sexless genre and the name of the imprint (bloomsbury children's) and the fact the book is in THE CHILDREN section of the New york times adds to the problem.

So could please the moderators in the likely event of Tower of Dawn becoming the most voted book for October BOTM add warnings of the series as a whole containing erotic content? Not necessarily with those words. When I talk erotic contentI'm talking about not fade to black, use of sexual language, and vivid description of nudity. That's somehting that no other popular YOung adult series has. Ignite me by Tahere Mafi, Graceling by Kristin Cashore and ClockworK princess by Cassandra clare have sex scenes but they are fade to black. The content of Throne of glass 5 and A court of thorns and roses 1 isn't fade to black. It's graphic and vivid.

Only a small sample of the reports I have received are here:
Message 6 and also Message 26 of this thread
https://www.goodreads.com/review/2068...
By a real goodreads member who is a mother.
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2...

And on a last note as we speak almost 90 people have shelved Tower of Dawn as New adult:
https://www.goodreads.com/work/shelve...

New adult is an emerging genre, not as known as YA. many people don't know about it, so the very fact that 90 users including top reviewers have shelved as NA and Erika asked us not to add New adult reads means that probably the book shouldn't be in the BOTM, but that's up to you of course. In any case add warnings, because that didn't happen when Erotica/new adult books have been Addicted to YA BOTM selections in the past.

And the publisher itself added warnings to their UK edition of tower of dawn. Why wouldn't the moderators add one? Not many people know about this and that's why parents don't know at first glance that their kids are reading mature content.

Hi Veronica,

My only addition to the conversation was whether or not removing the book actually qualified as censorship. It was a minor point and not one that I think is worth debating any further.

As to warnings, yes, I appreciate them, but I as a parent, I know some YA books contain sex scenes. I also know they might contain violence and strong language. A book being in a questionable category on GoodReads or in the bookstore is frustrating, but ultimately, it's my responsibility to be aware of what my child is reading until s/he is old enough to make those choices independently.

I support whatever decision Nikki feels is best in this situation.