Publishers love creating new genres in order to try to sell more books and the newest addition to the genre pool is "new adult" fiction. That's the label that has been created for books in which the main characters transform from teenagers into adults and try to navigate the difficulties of post-adolescent life: first love, starting university, getting a job, and so on.
The new genre is meant to be for readers aged 14-35 but how likely is it that a 14-year-old reader would enjoy the same story as a 35-year-old? There may be issues with the content – a story set in a university could include adult language and themes that are either inappropriate for a 14 or 15-year old – or, more likely, what one age group finds exciting may simply be boring for the other.
The book that has sparked this flurry of marketing excitement, Tammara Webber's, Easy, begins with the main character being raped. Is "new adult" a sufficient enough warning to younger readers that the content of the book may be darker than an old-style "young adult" book, or does it just muddy the waters even further?
: but untrue.