The article discusses contemporary young adult and post-adolescent literatures, which respond to the modern world with its catastrophes and challenges in a more acute manner than fiction for adults. A new literary genre, the problem young adult novel needs a comprehensive literary analysis. The age bracket of the genre, which is still open for discussion, is examined by the author in detail. While young adult fiction has a different agenda from children’s literature, it often surpasses ‘grown-up’ books in terms of issues raised and their relevance, which is especially true for the problem young adult novel, typically centred on a specific problem of modern society and featuring a teenage protagonist fighting for his/her survival. The main themes of the genre include deadly diseases, trauma, adaptation of special children in the society, suicide, abuse, murder, drugs, terrorism, and others. Little discussed and often tabooed in class or at home, these topics are raised by young adult literature, while teenagers get a chance to examine them and relive their anxieties with protagonists.