A next year for books always has potentials for new favorites, as well as breaking ground for YA in general. But this topic wants to focus on certain tropes, themes and genres you want to see more of next year without naming upcoming titles. I think this is good because while there’s hype around certain books coming out, it’s good to discuss things we want to see more of so that hopefully these wishes come true. These aren’t ranked for me, but here’s five things I hope to see next year and the future.

1. More YA Westerns*

Now here’s a catch with this one. While I’ve enjoyed reading about the Gold Rush era in YA, I want to see different YA Western novels with a couple things left in the dust: dressing up as a boy and the Gold Rush story-line. While these are intriguing things, I want to see more westerns that are: survival stories, interactions with Native American people (heck, why not a Native American MC?), coming of age and other genres. There’s a wealth of potential to write about the American west (and even Mexico and other near locations as well) with having different themes attached to them.

2. Books with Different Creatures

There comes a point where all you see when it comes to creature books is vampires, ghosts, sometimes mermaids/sirens and other creatures. But I want to see authors tackle different creatures from around the world, or even create their own. Why not do: incubus, banshee, ghoul, gorgon and other creatures from around the world? I’m sure there’s mythological creatures from anywhere from Australia, Africa, Iceland to any other place. I want to see authors think outside the box and not do so much Greek Mythology or the normal staple like vampires and such for their books. More variety makes happy readers 🙂

3. Down with the “everyone has to be paired up” trope!

You heard me! So many of us are getting fed up with so many books, regardless of the genre, where EVERYONE is paired up by the end of the book/series. There are people out there who aren’t successful with the first person they date, or are even romantically inclined at all. So why does everyone have to have a love interest? Can’t they just be allies or friends? Or even something can be hinted at for the future, but never shown. I feel like all the books in YA being so romance heavy creates unnatural expectations for younger readers when they face reality. So, can anyone listen and not pair everyone up romantically?

4. More Male POV’s in YA

I don’t know what happened, but why is YA about 80% female POV with very little male POV’s? I feel like male readers are having a hard time finding YA novels to relate to. A good amount of the males in YA right now are: love interests, “problematic” characters or just a pretty face. Why write books with a male POV? Write about a boy who overcomes bullying, fulfills a dream, family life, religion or finding good friends? I think that Stranger Things is popular for a reason: those boys are funny and genuine kids and I think modern kids can relate to those male characters. So please publishers, publish more male POV YA novels, regardless of genre! Make YA more equal with both male and female protagonists 🙂 *sorry if this feels like a rant, hopefully I worded this well*

5. Stop giving too much away in the synopsis!

This is something I’ve been angry about for years now. I understand you need some information about a book, but why is there so much printed on the jacket, Goodreads and even reviews? Books and reviews need to be more like how tight lipped the Star Wars films and Christopher Nolan films. Not knowing a lot creates a fun suspense for whatever movies are in store and books need to be the same way. If a book is mysterious, it’s more fun because you don’t create extremely high expectations than if you know a few details. For example, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor has been a favorite for many people (including me) because while the dust jacket or Goodreads synopsis does give  small details, there’s SO much more to the story and characters than you know. Publishers need to start keeping stuff about upcoming novels more secret because I feel like people can go in with more of a blank slate and less expectations. As far as reviews are concerned, that’s a whole other topic. But anyways…secrets are fun 🙂

What’s your 2018 wishlist? What do you want to see more of/less? Let me know in the comments about your answers 🙂