My understanding is it seems to be the age of the protagonist to a great extend. My "Avatar Wizard" series is consider YA because Jeremy ranges from 12ish to 16 ish so far. NA seems to be college age 18 up to something. The level of violence or perversion doesn't really matter unless you are selling in a niche. For example, a Catholic Writer's Guild editor told me no naked people but didn't mind some rather messy deaths. YMMV
"What is YA?" is a really hard question. I mean, "young adult" arguably spans from junior high to older high school. And what kind of content such kids can handle can vary wildly.
John Ringo's Substack novel opened with him saying "This is a YA because the protagonist is a teenager." After reading the first chapter, I would not hand it to a teen.
Basically what everybody here said. It's more or less the age of the protagonist + Coming of Age storyline. I used to read YA because I wanted to write it. What I wound up writing was a YA paranormal romance trilogy that intentionally lampooned the popular tropes of the time (stupid, uninvolved parents, high school setting, unhealthy relationship, the same old monsters, the heroine having zero responsibilities/too many responsibilities and therefore panic attacks, the stupid heroine who knows nothing about the monster she is dating, etc.). After that I was done with YA and wandered off to write superheroes in Atlantis. These days I never read YA unless I'm tricked into it because I hate it so much. Stupid heroines in high school dating smoking hot monster men got old back in 2012.
My understanding is it seems to be the age of the protagonist to a great extend. My "Avatar Wizard" series is consider YA because Jeremy ranges from 12ish to 16 ish so far. NA seems to be college age 18 up to something. The level of violence or perversion doesn't really matter unless you are selling in a niche. For example, a Catholic Writer's Guild editor told me no naked people but didn't mind some rather messy deaths. YMMV
Considering what I read as a teen (I'm 63), I have no idea! Current YA ranges from bland to appalling.
I guess for me, it's the age of the protagonists and how graphic you are.
The pornography of violence and sex instruction manuals are not YA.
Intimations of the messy, real world when handled tastefully and within the context of the story are.
"What is YA?" is a really hard question. I mean, "young adult" arguably spans from junior high to older high school. And what kind of content such kids can handle can vary wildly.
John Ringo's Substack novel opened with him saying "This is a YA because the protagonist is a teenager." After reading the first chapter, I would not hand it to a teen.
Well, that's because it's John. I think we all saw that coming.
Basically what everybody here said. It's more or less the age of the protagonist + Coming of Age storyline. I used to read YA because I wanted to write it. What I wound up writing was a YA paranormal romance trilogy that intentionally lampooned the popular tropes of the time (stupid, uninvolved parents, high school setting, unhealthy relationship, the same old monsters, the heroine having zero responsibilities/too many responsibilities and therefore panic attacks, the stupid heroine who knows nothing about the monster she is dating, etc.). After that I was done with YA and wandered off to write superheroes in Atlantis. These days I never read YA unless I'm tricked into it because I hate it so much. Stupid heroines in high school dating smoking hot monster men got old back in 2012.