Better as an adult book

[Howlan]

I completely agree that this should not be marketed as Young Adult fiction, but needs a more mature audience. I said that in my review as well.

I did enjoy the book, but it was heavy especially in the beginning. Then it changed tone and was much more young adult themed, but not balanced. Therefore, yes, adult themed all the way through would be better.

In the beginning it seemed like alittle dark but the rest of the story feels as any Y A novel. I would definitely have not read this book myself it was marked as something else with the same story.

[gilliansisley]

There is more to the book genre than the character's age. Just because they are what high school age that makes it okay to put this book in the YA category. I agree with you..topics in this book are better suited to be a sci-fi thriller more than anything else.

I couldn't agree more with you on this. The heavy sexual undertones, the themes of kidnapping, rape, murder, and such are wildly inappropriate. And while this may not be a popular opinion, as so many people are raving it's 4-star quality, but I really did not enjoy this book, at all. The best I can give it is a 2.

I think that the relationship between Carly and Adam is anything but healthy. He is an immature child, who attacks and screams at his loved ones, and is both obsessive and possessive of Carly. While his "character develops", I never felt he actually redeemed himself. And when Carly finds out Adam kidnapped, almost raped and facilitated the death of a young girl and it's like, "Yeah, okay, whatever. But we're in high school and in LOVE and I'm going to fix you and that's all that matters!" I wanted to chuck my eReader out the door and into the freezing rain, it was so cringy.

I imagine my young daughter reading this book thinking this kind of relationship is normal, and it truly disturbs me. A lot. I've been in an emotionally abusive relationship before, and have been sexually assaulted, and to me, Adam is not a hero-- he's a garbage human being, and I just could not get past what he did to Terry.

In no universe is this a YA fiction novel. Sexually explicit thoughts of f*cking his mom? What he did to Terry? Nope. Nopers. So incredibly wrong.

I couldn't agree more! I couldn't really understand why it had so many 4 star ratings myself... Adam and Carly made me cringe so much as I read about their "love"... I do admit, that when you are in high school and experiencing your first love, it CAN feel that deep... but the author seemed to want to portray that their love really was legit.

I also 100% agree that this type of story can be very dangerous for young adults to read about. Why do we want to show a story were someone "fixes" someone who is as terrible as Adam was? People don't make that drastic of change because they meet someone. Carly gives him a "fresh start" after finding out about Terry.. That is not ok to normalize! Just because he didn't know about his ancestors or powers doesn't make it ok what he did to her. Or for lusting after his mom just because she ingested a serum... the author could have illustrated a strong link between them without making it sexual.

I am so sorry to hear about your past but I am glad you vocalized your distaste about what you read! I didn't even think about reading about him could trigger someone who was the victim of an Adam. It must have been shocking (to say the least) to read about the "hero" behaving like that/1

This book should not be targeted towards those who don't understand how messed up the relationships in this book are and I don't blame you for not wanting your daughter to read this book.

We're definitely on the same page with this -- many thanks for the warm wishes. I just really hope this book doesn't fall into too many hands of very impressionable young people. It could do a lot of damage~

[Salma_asa]

From the beginning of the book, i thought it is no way suitable for teen agers. It is really inappropriate for them to read about someone fantasizing his mother.

[Erin Painter Baker]

I think high schoolers can handle the darkness. And it's not just the characters' ages that makes this a young adult book. It is the themes as well, with teenagers having to break away from the adults and forge their own lives and remake the world.
There are also some things Leigh-Reign got away with because it was a young adult novel that could not fly if it were an adult novel. This way, she gets to deus ex machina Adam's Oedipal complex. His father "deserves" his anger for cheating on his mom. He's attracted to his mom because of a mystery drug. None of it has anything to do with his own actual mental health. In an adult novel, these issues would need a lot deeper exploration. Hand-waving them would not work. And that would fundamentally change the theme and story of the book.

[Jocelyn Eastman]

I think high schoolers can handle the darkness. And it's not just the characters' ages that makes this a young adult book. It is the themes as well, with teenagers having to break away from the adults and forge their own lives and remake the world.
There are also some things Leigh-Reign got away with because it was a young adult novel that could not fly if it were an adult novel. This way, she gets to deus ex machina Adam's Oedipal complex. His father "deserves" his anger for cheating on his mom. He's attracted to his mom because of a mystery drug. None of it has anything to do with his own actual mental health. In an adult novel, these issues would need a lot deeper exploration. Hand-waving them would not work. And that would fundamentally change the theme and story of the book.

I agree that high schoolers could handle this kind of material and I even remember reading stories like Beloved and Oedipus Rex- both of which have some disturbing themes- in high school. I don’t think a 10 year old should read it, but a 16 or 17 year old? I think that would be a good age to discuss a book like this with them.

[Nym182]

I think high schoolers can handle the darkness. And it's not just the characters' ages that makes this a young adult book. It is the themes as well, with teenagers having to break away from the adults and forge their own lives and remake the world.
There are also some things Leigh-Reign got away with because it was a young adult novel that could not fly if it were an adult novel. This way, she gets to deus ex machina Adam's Oedipal complex. His father "deserves" his anger for cheating on his mom. He's attracted to his mom because of a mystery drug. None of it has anything to do with his own actual mental health. In an adult novel, these issues would need a lot deeper exploration. Hand-waving them would not work. And that would fundamentally change the theme and story of the book.

I am not quite familiar with the phrase "Oedipal Complex" ... would you be able to elaborate for me?

I completely agree with "oh it's because of the serum"is not a good "justification"... or even the fact he was adopted... he still grew up with her as her mother!

and to think he just replaces his obsession with him mom with Carly is probably not going to end well...

Do you think you will read the next book?

[Nym182]

I think high schoolers can handle the darkness. And it's not just the characters' ages that makes this a young adult book. It is the themes as well, with teenagers having to break away from the adults and forge their own lives and remake the world.
There are also some things Leigh-Reign got away with because it was a young adult novel that could not fly if it were an adult novel. This way, she gets to deus ex machina Adam's Oedipal complex. His father "deserves" his anger for cheating on his mom. He's attracted to his mom because of a mystery drug. None of it has anything to do with his own actual mental health. In an adult novel, these issues would need a lot deeper exploration. Hand-waving them would not work. And that would fundamentally change the theme and story of the book.

I agree that high schoolers could handle this kind of material and I even remember reading stories like Beloved and Oedipus Rex- both of which have some disturbing themes- in high school. I don’t think a 10 year old should read it, but a 16 or 17 year old? I think that would be a good age to discuss a book like this with them.

I think that they could handle it as well ( I also got really into dark and disturbing authors at a young age and i turned out fine )

My concern is someone who isn't into those kinds of books will want to read this and not realize how dark it gets. And the fact that the incestous thoughts, kidnapping, planned rape and death of Terry were not given the correct attention and were problematic... they happen in the begining of the book, Carly forgives him and that's that.

[Jocelyn Eastman]

I think high schoolers can handle the darkness. And it's not just the characters' ages that makes this a young adult book. It is the themes as well, with teenagers having to break away from the adults and forge their own lives and remake the world.
There are also some things Leigh-Reign got away with because it was a young adult novel that could not fly if it were an adult novel. This way, she gets to deus ex machina Adam's Oedipal complex. His father "deserves" his anger for cheating on his mom. He's attracted to his mom because of a mystery drug. None of it has anything to do with his own actual mental health. In an adult novel, these issues would need a lot deeper exploration. Hand-waving them would not work. And that would fundamentally change the theme and story of the book.

I agree that high schoolers could handle this kind of material and I even remember reading stories like Beloved and Oedipus Rex- both of which have some disturbing themes- in high school. I don’t think a 10 year old should read it, but a 16 or 17 year old? I think that would be a good age to discuss a book like this with them.

I think that they could handle it as well ( I also got really into dark and disturbing authors at a young age and i turned out fine )

My concern is someone who isn't into those kinds of books will want to read this and not realize how dark it gets. And the fact that the incestous thoughts, kidnapping, planned rape and death of Terry were not given the correct attention and were problematic... they happen in the begining of the book, Carly forgives him and that's that.

Those things would definitely be problematic. I think the author does try to say that those things are due to the serum, which is NOT the appropriate way to discuss those things.

I guess that’s where us book reviewers come in!

[Nym182]

I agree that high schoolers could handle this kind of material and I even remember reading stories like Beloved and Oedipus Rex- both of which have some disturbing themes- in high school. I don’t think a 10 year old should read it, but a 16 or 17 year old? I think that would be a good age to discuss a book like this with them.

I think that they could handle it as well ( I also got really into dark and disturbing authors at a young age and i turned out fine )

My concern is someone who isn't into those kinds of books will want to read this and not realize how dark it gets. And the fact that the incestous thoughts, kidnapping, planned rape and death of Terry were not given the correct attention and were problematic... they happen in the begining of the book, Carly forgives him and that's that.

Those things would definitely be problematic. I think the author does try to say that those things are due to the serum, which is NOT the appropriate way to discuss those things.

I guess that’s where us book reviewers come in!

Yeah, I agree, the serum explanation fell completely flat for me... He still grew up with her as him mom and still had sexual thoughts about her. Hypothetically he would have continued having those thoughts/feelings if Carly weren't around to subsitute.

[kdstrack]

The idea of having a superpower will appeal to the young adult mind. Nevertheless, I was very uncomfortable with some of the scenes in this book as a YA novel. I would suggest that this book be called a New Adult novel.

[jessinikkip]

I think it definitely would have been good as an adult level book. See with YA you tend to think 13+ in age (at least I do) and that really limits what you can do. I think if it was an adult book, it would have been able to delve deeper into things and really tackle issues.

[xoxoAnushka]

There is more to the book genre than the character's age. Just because they are what high school age that makes it okay to put this book in the YA category. I agree with you..topics in this book are better suited to be a sci-fi thriller more than anything else.

Oh yeah, I agree with you, but the way the book contains underlying sexual references, It'd be better to categorise into pg13.

[Salma_asa]

I felt it too. The storyline is suitable for young adults. But some portions like Adam's feelings towards his mother, his darkness,Terry's kidnapping can draw some bad impression on teenagers.

[Kristy Khem]

I agree that this book has inappropriate themes for the young adult audience. However, there may be some other reasons for this labeling.

Perhaps the author's reason for targeting this age group has more to do with marketing. Maybe book sales are higher among this age group? Nowadays, a lot of young adults seem interested in darker themes, both in books, TV series, and movies.

As for the author's potential, maybe she should have slowed the romance aspect of it, and definitely lean into a more full-fledged dark novel! But then she would have had to target a more mature audience...and maybe that would have had an impact on sales.

[Nym182]

The idea of having a superpower will appeal to the young adult mind. Nevertheless, I was very uncomfortable with some of the scenes in this book as a YA novel. I would suggest that this book be called a New Adult novel.

Yeah, that's a good point... Especially with all the Marvel movies out now... I like the new genre idea too!