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There was a time when 16 was the age to be. Katniss Everdeen was 16 when she volunteered for the Hunger Games. Tris Prior was 16 when she chose to leave her home behind and join Dauntless. Blossoming Shadowhunter Clary celebrated her 16th birthday in “City of Bones,” while Percy Jackson’s entire heroic journey (the first one, at least) culminated in his unlikely, prophesied survival until 16.

These young adult books ruled the world in the 2000s and early 2010s. Leigh Bardugo’s “Six of Crows” and “Crooked Kingdom” arrived on the scene in 2015 and 2016, going on to secure their place in the young adult canon and earning a spot on Time Magazine’s “The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time.” On Sept. 30, for the 10th anniversary of “Six of Crows,” Henry Holt and Co. released “The Dregs Edition” of the duology. The repackaging includes eye-catching new cover art in bold red and yellow, stained black edges, and updated maps of the “Grishaverse” — the fictional universe conceived by Bardugo — all enveloping the same story known and loved by legions of fans.

Well — not quite the same.

According to readers who possess both new and old copies, the six titular Crows seem to have had direct mentions of their current ages scrubbed. In select scenes identified in an X post by @ghafaera, Wylan says that he’s “old enough” instead of “sixteen,” Kaz deflects a question about his age where he previously answered a direct “seventeen,” and Inej’s status as a “a sixteen-year-old girl” is completely erased. While some mentions of ages remain in the Crows’ backstories, their ages during the narrative itself have been rendered ambiguous.

Repackaged books with flourishes redesigned for current tastes — covers, sprayed edges, book jackets, endpapers — are welcomed by fans who want beautiful collectors’ editions. Is re-editing, then, becoming just another add-on?

This subtle editing is not new. The 10th anniversary re-release of “City of Bones” in 2017 sparked some eagle-eyed readers’ attention: one Reddit user, @LonkAndZolda, identified that a line in which Clary calls another female character the B-word was removed. Given heightened awareness of the internalized misogyny rampant in media targeted for teen girls, the change seemed to be a response to evolving standards of offensiveness.

Re-editing hasn’t been reserved only for young adult books, but for established older authors as well. In 2023, Puffin Books published new editions of Roald Dahl’s catalogue with numerous minor changes for inclusion and sensitivity. Its editors argued that Dahl’s books are read by young people who could internalize their harmful rhetoric.

Being 16 has, strangely, joined the ranks of offenders like internalized misogyny, flat-out misogyny, and general lack of inclusivity. Rather than modern standards of offensiveness, however, Bardugo’s duology seems to have been edited to align with current book trends and an evolving reader base. 10 years later, the presumably teenaged readers of 2015 are now in their twenties, and it is these grown-up fans who might be forking over their dollars for a gorgeous new edition of one of their longtime favorite series. If 16 was the age to be 10 years ago, today’s readers have grown past that.

It’s true enough that the Crows — emotionally intelligent, eloquent geniuses — do not act like normal teenagers. Moreover, they bear their seriously traumatic pasts with remarkable grace. NPR criticized this very lack of realism in their original review of “Six of Crows,” arguing that any of the Crows could be “aged up to 32 and be more believable.” With the new Dregs Editions, such potential interruptions to readerly immersion have been erased.

Perhaps this is a retroactive response to an issue that we might not have registered as teens, but certainly feel now: Why do adults like writing about teenagers so much? To write a coming-of-age novel inspired by your own youth is one thing, but is it really necessary to choose teenagers to anchor fantasy plots — especially ones that can get violent and dark?

To comfortably make room for mature themes, “new adult” fiction — a niche mostly inhabited by 18 to 25-year-old protagonists — has grown. Bardugo herself entered it in 2019 with her adult debut, the Yale College-centered novel “Ninth House.” One of the most representative fantasy authors in this genre is R. F. Kuang, whose debut novel “The Poppy War” centered a teenage protagonist but was a touch too dark and complex to be considered YA, and whose more recent works “Babel” and “Katabasis” are set during university. New adult also allows for more mature depictions of romance, aligning itself with the ongoing boom in “spicy” — AKA, smutty — romance.

Despite changing book trends, the question of when and why it’s acceptable to rewrite published fiction remains. Omitting character ages seems geared specifically for reader relatability and comfort as time goes on. If the Crows aren’t explicitly underage, overage fans may feel more comfortable expressing attraction to them, or getting excited about their intense romantic plotlines. Yet many fans themselves are unhappy about these changes, feeling strongly that the Crows’ youth makes their forced maturity all the more impactful.

The loyal fanbases for books that get a rewrite at all could be relied on as a protection mechanism against any sweeping changes to content. This practice of rewriting popular fiction, then, might wind up more unwise than disastrous. Publishers who hope to position themselves better with audiences should weigh the backlash against even minor edits that will, in all likelihood, be delivered by fans.

Even if new readers take issue with the communication of mature themes through teenage protagonists, it’s valuable to remember that nostalgia — especially if it’s considered the selling point for these special editions — is a powerful mitigator for the faults of fiction. Our nostalgia for 2010s young adult loves the fact that these books get the experience of being 16 so, so very wrong — but with the magic of a bygone era that convinced so many of us to believe in these books in the first place.

—Staff writer Isabelle A. Lu can be reached at isabelle.lu@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @IsabelleALu.