Books like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are fun books. However, they don't show the real side of being a kid or a teenager. Life as a teenager is chaos. The best example of the real side of teen life is the show, "Skins" (The UK version). There is sex, drugs, family drama, and absolute madness.
As an author, I cannot lie to my readers. What's so scary about showing the raw side of real life. I not saying Harry Potter didn't have teen drama. But, was there any talk of sex or even suicide? Can you image Harry and Ron watching a dirty movie or Harry trying to hang himself due to all his trauma?
In my books, Josh, Nick, and Seth go through hell and I don't shy away from the brutality of it all. I can understand this might turn off some readers. But this is why I say the Young Adult Genre is crap as a whole. Middle School life is CHAOS! High School life is MADNESS! And College life is PAIN!