The reactions have broadly appeared along two lines. (I loved His Dark Materials so much that I named my dog after one of its characters, so I hold my own hand up to that one.) For years, adults have tentatively admitted to reading YA or even children’s fiction – one study, from 2012, found that 55% of YA fiction readers were over 18 – and there have always been adult editions of His Dark Materials and Harry Potter, for example, with more muted jackets.
Perhaps it shouldn’t have been such a shock. Netflix is famously coy about who watches what so this is purely anecdotal, but over the last couple of weeks I have been surprised at how many of my fully grown adult friends have mentioned Heartstopper.
