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Young adult books that aren't fluff


Lara

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I've never really gotten into YA literature, even when I was in high school, but I've found that some can be pretty nice, even insightful, light reading. 

 

Some I've enjoyed include:

 

The Distance Between Lost and Found - Kathryn Holmes

 

Every Day - David Levithan

 

An Abundance of Katherines - John Green

 

Someone Named Eva - Joan M. Wolf

 

The Hunger Games trilogy

 

& Ellen Hopkins for sure!

 

What are some that you all have enjoyed? 

 

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Every Day is a great book, and I enjoyed reading the 'companion' book that reads from Rhiannon's point of view. The Hunger Games trilogy is also eminently readable. I have An Abundance Of Katherines waiting for me on my kindle, and having enjoyed John Green's The Fault In Our Stars, Looking For Alaska, and Paper Towns I have high hopes for this one. 

 

In recent years some YA books I have really enjoyed include;

 

Hitler's Canary by Sandy Toksvig

My Sister Lives On The Mantlepiece by Annabel Pitcher

We Were Liars by E Lockhart

The Sky Is EVerywhere, and I'll Give You The Sun both by Jandy Nelson

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

 

In each case they are well written and thought provoking reads, and I found myself thinking of them long after I had finished reading them. 

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Every Day is a great book, and I enjoyed reading the 'companion' book that reads from Rhiannon's point of view. The Hunger Games trilogy is also eminently readable. I have An Abundance Of Katherines waiting for me on my kindle, and having enjoyed John Green's The Fault In Our Stars, Looking For Alaska, and Paper Towns I have high hopes for this one. 

 

In recent years some YA books I have really enjoyed include;

 

Hitler's Canary by Sandy Toksvig

My Sister Lives On The Mantlepiece by Annabel Pitcher

We Were Liars by E Lockhart

The Sky Is EVerywhere, and I'll Give You The Sun both by Jandy Nelson

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

 

In each case they are well written and thought provoking reads, and I found myself thinking of them long after I had finished reading them. 

 

Ooh I didn't know Every Day had a companion...thanks! 

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I liked Marie Lu's Legend and Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers... which might be more science fiction though, Starship Troopers. 

 

Seed by Lisa Heathfield is disturbingly good.  Sugar by Deirdre Riordan Hall is good as well.

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I liked Marie Lu's Legend and Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers... which might be more science fiction though, Starship Troopers. 

 

Seed by Lisa Heathfield is disturbingly good.  Sugar by Deirdre Riordan Hall is good as well.

I look up Seed it looks pretty interesting. Thanks 

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I've read a lot of good YA books. Out of your list, I quite liked An Abundance of Katherines and The Hunger Games trilogy. I haven't read the rest. I would like to read Every Day some time. I see YA as more of an age range rather than a genre, since The Hunger Games is a dystopian and therefore very different from a contemporary read such as An Abundance of Katherines. I loved both, though. Some other YA books I really liked are:

 

Maria V. Snyder - Study series and Glass series

J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter series

Holly Black and Cassandra Clare - Magisterium 1: De Ijzerproef (Magisterium 1: The Iron Trial)

Veronica Roth - The Divergent series (including the Four stories)

Marie Lu - Legend series

Cynthia Voigt - Tillerman Cycle 1-4: De Tillermans (this is the Dutch translation)

Gabrielle Zevin - Memoirs of Teenage Amnesiac and other books by the author

Rainbow Rowell - Fangirl and other books by the author.

A. S. King (I read several books by her and liked them)

Thea Beckman's books (she's Dutch though, so that won't really help you)

Markus Zusak - The Book Thief

John Green - The Fault in Our Stars

 

There are probably more that I can't think of right now.

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I'm seconding A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, amazing book.

 

Also, both Only Ever Yours and Asking For It by Louise O'Neill.

 

Some others:

The Death House - Sarah Pinborough

The Art Of Being Normal - Lisa Williamson

Dante & Aristotle Discover The Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Fly By Night - Frances Hardinge (childrens book, really, but like 400 pages of fairly dense fantasy prose, worth a look)

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I'm also recommending Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. In addition, I would recommend The Perks of Being a Wallflower Stephen Chbosky and Hate List by Jennifer Brown :)

 

Ooh totally forgot Perks and Hate List on my list. I really enjoyed both of them, especially Perks. 

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I've never really gotten into YA literature, even when I was in high school, but I've found that some can be pretty nice, even insightful, light reading. 

 

Some I've enjoyed include:

 

The Distance Between Lost and Found - Kathryn Holmes

 

Every Day - David Levithan

 

An Abundance of Katherines - John Green

 

Someone Named Eva - Joan M. Wolf

 

The Hunger Games trilogy

 

& Ellen Hopkins for sure!

 

What are some that you all have enjoyed? 

 

Editing my list to add:

 

Waiting for Normal - Leslie Connor

 

Hate List - Jennifer Brown

 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky 

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I didn't like it much - I thought The Future of Us by the same author was a lot better, even though it didn't deal with such serious issues and was far 'fluffier'!

 

I just didn't think Thirteen Reasons tackled the issues well.

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I didn't like it much - I thought The Future of Us by the same author was a lot better, even though it didn't deal with such serious issues and was far 'fluffier'!

 

I just didn't think Thirteen Reasons tackled the issues well.

I definitely agree with this. Valiant effort at tackling serious issues, but fell short. Some of the characters really grated on my nerves.
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  • 7 months later...

Not a big fan of Hunger Games personally. I tend to read quite a bit of YA, for whatever reason. These are some of the standouts off the top of my head. 

 

  • The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner (books 2-4 are orders of magnitude more complex and deep than book 1, so don't judge it by the first book.)
  • Jumper by Steven Gould (way better than the movie, but it's a teen problem novel with a speculative element. Know what you're in for. Daddy issues, sexual abuse, etc.)
  • The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
  • The Recokoners series by Brandon Sanderson
  • The John Cleaver series by Dan Wells
  • The Graveyard Book
  • Lost Stars by Claudia Grey
  • A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
  • The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
  • The Invention of Hugo Cabret
  • Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix
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