A Court of Wings and Ruin combines the genres of high fantasy, romance, and action, each of which is known for intensely emotional or high-stakes scenarios. While popular with readers of all ages, these genres are often associated with the similarly heightened emotional landscape of young adult literature, which typically features story arcs related to first experiences, coming of age, and other significant events in a young person’s life. Maas takes advantage of these associations by grounding 19-year-old Feyre’s epic romance in her journey of self-actualization, but the sexually explicit and graphically violent series is tailored to a slightly older literary audience: new adults.

New adult literature is intended for readers who are 18-29 years of age, whose transition from adolescence to full-fledged adulthood mirrors many of the experiences of teenage coming of age (further loss of innocence, disillusion with heroes and previous beliefs, a need for greater confidence and self-sufficiency) but who may already have life experience with sexual intimacy and moral complexity. Maas’s use of generic tropes reflects this distinction explicitly. Most significantly, high fantasy often depicts the battle between good and evil; Maas’s world has some clear moral distinctions (Hybern is obviously evil; Velaris is a sanctuary), but characters often must confront how their biases and assumptions inform their understanding of ethical behavior.