Is 'Pax' Suitable For Young Adult Readers?

The title is misleading. My cousin bought this thinking it would be a fantasy sort of video game. Instead, it is a really sad story about a kid and a dog (even though the wolf is NOT a dog). I tried to tell my cousin that this was NOT a video game, but he just wouldn’t listen. I told him it was all angst, and he said that he was looking for lots of action. You can’t win ‘em all.

One of the most fascinating things about 'Till We Have Faces' is how it defies easy categorization. While it's often shelved as adult literary fiction, I've seen it resonate deeply with thoughtful teens who enjoy mythology and complex characters. The retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth through Orual's raw, emotional voice offers so much to unpack—sibling rivalry, faith, love, and self-deception. It’s heavier than typical YA fare, but for readers who gravitate toward philosophical depth like 'The Book Thief' or 'The Giver,' it could be transformative. That said, the pacing is slower and the themes more abstract than most contemporary YA. Younger readers expecting fast plots or romance might struggle, but those willing to sit with its questions about identity and divinity will find it hauntingly beautiful. I first read it at 16 and still think about Orual’s journey years later—it’s that kind of book.

You might be afraid in places where the Black John entity turns up. In the dark of sinister rituals. When you are being hunted. But you will never be haunted by anything in the pages of the Miss Peregrine novels. That would be traumatic horror and a terrible way to be entertained. What I mean is that the fear that you will experience reading these books is fun and exciting. It is a roller coaster ride of safe scares that can be really thrilling. For a YA reader, this novel is the perfect introduction to darker material. Instead of graphically showing how terrible things are, the author relies on psychological and atmospheric horror. This helps the reader understand how to deal with the fear evoked by fiction in a healthy way.

A more practical approach would be to go to a site like Common Sense Media to get all the info about the book, including all instances of violence, language and sex that your kid might encounter. As a parent you know best how to determine what’s appropriate for your child. My 14 year old old can probably handle this book but I think 12 year olds should wait a couple of years to read it. The reading level for The Hand of Fatima is very advanced for vocabulary and sentence structure, so this would be a very good novel for young adult readers. While not ‘fluff’ of a book, it demands close attention but is well worth it in terms of rich and complex plotting.

I grew up with Jules Verne's books on my shelf, and they were my gateway to adventure before I even hit double digits. 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea' was the first one I picked up, and honestly, the sheer imagination in it blew my little mind. The language can feel a bit old-fashioned now, but that's part of the charm—it’s like stepping into a time capsule of wonder. Younger readers might need some help with the denser passages, but the core ideas—submarines before they existed! exploring volcanoes!—are timeless. My niece just turned 10, and I gave her 'Around the World in Eighty Days' with a map to track Phileas Fogg’s journey. She’s obsessed with the quirky characters and the ticking clock. That said, some of Verne’s works get technical (looking at you, 'The Mysterious Island' with its endless engineering details). I’d recommend starting with abridged versions or audiobooks with lively narrators to keep younger kids engaged. The themes are generally clean—courage, curiosity, teamwork—though colonial attitudes pop up ('Five Weeks in a Balloon' has some cringe moments). But hey, that’s a teachable moment. Verne’s stories are like training wheels for sci-fi: no dystopian gloom, just pure 'what if?' excitement.

If I had to choose an age range for the book, I’d say 11–13 years old. ‘Faerie Wars’ is a great book to mirror the era where a child starts to question things and realises that the world is not just black and white. In the faerie realm of Faeries there are politicians, questionable actions and even demons with their own agendas and reasons for things. In ‘Faerie Wars’ Henry has to make very difficult decisions with extreme consequences and this is enjoyable for a reader of an older but still ‘young’ age. Although a lot of description has been used in order to enable the reader to picture scenes, it is not over-excessive or overly poetic in places, thus becoming boring or annoying. It is a ‘bridge’ book in the sense that it is a magical, exciting, fun adventure, and slowly but surely it introduces more complex ideas that eventually lead to epic fantasy of greater complexity.

I think the real value in this debate is how it shows just how far YA has come as a genre. There’s more than one way to write YA these days and ‘Fourth Wing’ is at the upper end of the YA readership and teeters on the edge of New Adult too. There are plenty of readers of older YA for stories about first love, making choices about how to earn a living, and trying to break away from family when you’re not quite an adult yet. In fact, a book like ‘Fourth Wing’ is perfect for older YA readers – people in their early teens and early twenties who are on the cusp of adulthood and can relate to the very real and often very challenging circumstances of the main characters in this book, even if they are described in imaginative and often fantastical ways.

My copy was borrowed by my neighbor’s 14-year-old son. He did not finish the book and his comments were: ‘Too much science and not enough people talking and interacting’. I said that the book was a novel of interior monologue and therefore if he were used to reading books full of dialogue and lots of character interaction then he would find the book to be a very sparse read. The film, of necessity, included many more scenes set on Earth. It is a one-man show for long stretches.

There’s a tremendous amount of love for humor as a genre driver. A book that makes people laugh has a devout and persisitent reader base, often from crossover audiences (fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, for example). Humor can also be witty and winning, especially in books with lots of dialogue in the romantic comedy genre and beyond. And even when humor is used to explore tough, serious topics, popular and successful YA authors like David Yoon and Mary HK Choi and Phil Stamper use humor to fantastic end in their work. I believe a funny YA book can rise above the rest in a crowded field of books because most people seek out authentic experiences of joy and are willing to spread the word to others when they encounter something humorous. This can be a very difficult talent to master above the typical plot device, so it makes the books that are laughing their way to the top all the more impressive.

I feel that the later books, especially the Half-Blood Prince, were written for people who were growing up with Harry. Although there are many children reading the series, I have recently met a few retirees who love the audiobooks. I think that they enjoy the depth of the world-building in the stories. It is not a children’s story, it is life with magic.