must-read YA books

Looking for Alaska
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Smack
Twilight, probably, but I haven't read it. If you're writing fantasy, I suppose this one's important.
The Year of Secret Assignments

If you're writing sf or fantasy (urban or otherwise) I would add Blood and Chocolate, Uglies, and The Hunger Games.

also, Break.





lock thread

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Before I Die by Jenny Downham

I second Looking for Alaska, and Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld is a great crossover novel. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a good, popular series.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Paper Towns by John Green (same author as Looking for Alaska)

I totally agree with Speak.

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart (if you're wanting a light read)
The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot (nothing like the movie, and pretty funny)


I'm sure I have more, but that's right off of the top of my head.

For SF, I'd also suggest Patrick Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go - it won the Guardian Award last year and is attracting attention in adult-SF circles. I would not be surprised if it ends up on the Clarke Award shortlist, due this month. (If it does, it would be the second YA novel shortlisted - the first was Stephen Baxter's The H-Bomb Girl, last year. The Clarke Award, for those who don't know, is for the best SF novel published in the UK - the most prestigious British genre award.)

Another YA book that crossed over to an adult genre audience was Margo Lanagan's collection Black Juice. Most of the stories are fantasy/horror. Lanagan (who is Australian) has a novel out now called Tender Morsels, which is YA fantasy and by all accounts VERY edgy.

Seconding most of these -- especially Looking for Alaska or Paper Towns, Speak, the Hunger Games, Dreamland or Just Listen, Smack, Twilight and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks -- with the addition of Little Brother, Wicked Lovely and Feed. Reading all of those would be a pretty decent crash course in (mostly) well-written, ultra-popular YA, from Sci-Fi/Fantasy to Contemporary, Edgy to Romantic.

I third the suggestion of Disreputable History. It was a great read. Prep was also good--Disreputable History reminded me of it. Breathe My Name was good, too, as well as anything by RK Kelly Nelson, if you're looking for literary.

Cut by Patricia McCormick

And...though it's not YA, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN (Garth Stein) (I'm currently reading) is so tender and heartfelt. It made me cry so much.

I really like the Luxe novels by Anna Godberson. They take place in 1899/1900, and it is very historically accurate. The books are written beautifully, and the characters really come to life.

Heidi
Oops. You were looking for new books.

Shady Lane said:

Twilight

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Twilight isn't something anyone should be imitating lest the world go stupid...er.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Starting with Lightning Thief until Battle of the Labyrinth.

Islaitha Frost said:

Twilight isn't something anyone should be imitating lest the world go stupid...er.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Starting with Lightning Thief until Battle of the Labyrinth.

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Yes!
I don't think you can even just say YA any more: YA SF? YA fantasy? YA chicklit? You can as well have YA mysteries, YA westerns, etc, though AFAIK those categories aren't booming like the others, at this moment.

But one question is, do you want the books adults are awarding, or the books kids (and adults!) are reading? From what I hear, Percy Jackson is definitely in the latter class. And for good or bad, so is Twilight.

(I really enjoy the Percy Jackson books. Also Scott Westerfield's Pretties trilogy. The biggest boom, though, seems to be in fantay - Melissa Marr's and Holly Black's books are good exemplars of a certain stream of dark fantasy that seemes to be doing well.)

Can I chime in with another question releated to what the OP was asking?

Which of those listed above are Romance, fantasy and Sci Fi? That would be awesome because I wanna do the same thing and I really need to get back to reading like I used to.

Well, here are the ones I suggested (and some others suggested) in organized order:

Speak (Contemporary)
Dreamland (Contemporary)
Just Listen (Contemporary, mild romance)
Twilight (Fantasy, romance)
Princess Diaries Series (Contemporary, comedy, romance-ish)
Disreputable HIstory of Frankie Landau-Banks (Contemporary, comedy)
Hunger Games (Fantasy)
Looking for Alaska (Contemporary)
Paper Towns (Contemporary)
Wicked Lovely (Fantasy)

Islaitha Frost said:

Twilight isn't something anyone should be imitating lest the world go stupid...er.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Starting with Lightning Thief until Battle of the Labyrinth.

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Definitely didn't suggest the OP imitate it. I wouldn't suggest imitating anything, actually...

Islaitha Frost said:

Twilight isn't something anyone should be imitating lest the world go stupid...er.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Starting with Lightning Thief until Battle of the Labyrinth.

Click to expand...

Though opinions on Twilight run far and wide I think it's important for anyone who plans to write YA horror or YA urban fantasy to read it, if for no other reason than to defend your own work by being able to counter agents and publishers who want reassurance that you're not just a Meyer rip off.

The OP has finished her novel and is looking for a taste of what's selling. It's almost impossible not to include Twilight when talking about YA sales.

Kats said:

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Before I Die by Jenny Downham

I second Looking for Alaska, and Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld is a great crossover novel. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is a good, popular series.

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Those are two of my favourite YA novels EVER.

laidback said:

What do you think are the must-read YA books, for someone who wants to get a feel for what's selling in YA these days? Especially stuff that's sold well in the past couple years.

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I guess the questions are what you mean by "sold well" (sheer numbers? lists? critical response? some combination thereof?) & in which subgenre.

Not sure of your specs, so my thoughts are a combo of sales & response.

If you're going for fantasy, I suggest GRACELING (Cashore) & GRAVEYARD BOOK (Gaiman). They are 2 of my absolute favourites, & both have done extremely well. Gaiman's book was the Newbery winner AND #1 on the NY Times. Cashore's book has been all over the place listwise. It's gorgeous.

If you're doing contemporary, LOOKING FOR ALASKA (Green) & 13 REASONS (Asher) are both well crafted and succeed both literarily & commercially.

One very recent hottest picks (released last week) is FOREST OF HANDS & TEETH (Ryan). It's literary & commercial, & if it doesn't rock a reader, nothing will. I think it's dark fantasy/literature.

Post-apoc & darker & steampunk texts seem to be a trend in progress. There are a few of these heading out soon.

Urban fantasy/paranormal romance is still strong. Sarah Rees Brennan's THE DEMONS LEXICON (not yet released) & Cassie Clare's MORTAL INSTRUMENTS (book 3 out soon) are biggies in that category. SRB's book isn't out yet, but the deals & buzz are noteworthy already. (And the book is very good.) I expect it will do very well.

In the paranormal, there are a bunch of ghost texts. I have a ghost w golem one in my TBR pile, & I've recently had 2 other ghost ones on my desk. One, Gillian Shield's IMMORTAL, is an interesting blend of 19th century Brit novel & contemporary paranormal ghost. It's garnering strong buzz. It's also quite lovely.

More fantasy-- HUNGER GAMES (Collins), ADORATION OF JENNA FOX (Pearson), IMPOSSIBLE (Werlin) & LITTLE BROTHER (Doctorow) were all well rec'd. I've only read Pearson's text & Werlin's text, and they are fabulous.

In historical, you have the OCTAVIAN NOTHING (MT Anderson). In issue/contemp, RULES OF SURVIVAL (Werlin) and WINTERGIRLS (LH Anderson) are both brililant. Srsly, WINTERGIRLS might be one of the most artistic, powerful, disturbing, brilliant books I've ever read. (I don't know if it's out, but if not it will be v soon.)

GENERAL THOUGHTS:
You might look at the LOCUS rec reading list to see what they are recommending for the fantasy readers. RWA has the RITA for for the best in YA romance. RT has a list for the best in Young Adult. See what Kirkus, SLJ, & PW give stars to. Remember, though, that these are all very subjective.

If you're talking abt sheer sales numbers, you can look at Publishers Marketplace for the "major" deals. Remember, though, that not all deals are reported.

Good luck to you.

M.

I LOVE Cassie Clare's books as well as the Hunger Games. I'd definitely second those two. The Forest of Hands and Teeth was amazing. Definitely dark, but amazing. I'm also a big fan of Kenneth Oppel's AIRBORN (which is one of those steampunks that Melissa was talking about) and its sequels.

laidback said:

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I didn't include the genre of my story since unfortunately it doesn't seem to fall solidly into any of them.

Would you consider Suspense to be a subgenre of YA?

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Not falling solidly in a genre isn't bad (To be honest, I'm still not sure what I write. I've heard it's fantasy & romance, & it's on lists as both; I've heard it's YA or crossover, and it's being published as YA & adult in diff places. *shrug* I write books. I know THAT much.)

Suspense . . . BLISS by Lauren Myracle is the first thing I think of. FOREST OF HANDS & TEETH is almost as instant. They're both thrillerish in terms of what they do for my pulse. I haven't read HUNGER GAMES or LITTLE BROTHER, but from what I've heard from my teen readers, they both are very much fit for the suspense readers.

I think there's merit in looking at the subcats for YA, but there's the wonderful not-all-genre-divided thing in YA (& MG) where we don't have to fit in any one box. So, if I were shopping for read-alikes, I might check out a few of these, read summaries, and then do that Amazon thing where it lists "customers also bought." I find that to be the most useful thing on Amazon. It really helps a person get a quick sense of a book's demographic(s).

Islaitha Frost said:

Twilight isn't something anyone should be imitating lest the world go stupid...er.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Starting with Lightning Thief until Battle of the Labyrinth.

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Ah-greed. I mean, unless you're into that whole abusive boyfriend deal. And not the good ones, where the girl manages to get out of the relationship and grows a pair.

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