Hey guys! I'm also new here!
I lean towards writing fantasy YA, but the themes I work with can be quite dark and violent. I guess i have watching Inu-Yasha as an 8-year-old to blame ha ha. While we're on the subject of teen Anime, I fell in love with Evangelion and I think that's where a lot of my dark YA inspiration comes from. Just having these young, maturing, and emotionally unstable individuals in situations where the stakes are so high not just for themselves, but for the world is just pure joy to write.
As for books, I too am a victim of Harry Potter; I liked it more for the world rather than the characters. I loved His Dark Materials, especially the more character-driven plot. Reading that trilogy in high-school inspired me to begin writing stories of my own.
I have two main projects at the moment: one is an epic YA fantasy that I'm trying to publish traditionally, the other is a YA urban fantasy that I'm publishing on Tapas (see shameless plug below). I love reading and commenting on this platform. If anyone ever needs a constructive criticism on their work, I'm happy to take a look