Young Adult is a very diverse genre, spanning many other genres and subgenres. We all know it from the huge boom of dystopian YA books, and paranormal YA had its heyday a little before the dystopian with the huge popularity of the Twilight series. With this huge boom in the genre, there’s gonna be some awful books that seem interesting but just flop, but there will also be some hidden gems. I’m here to help you sort through the huge pile, and give you my Top Ten favorite YA novels:
10.) Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly
This book is the start of a four-book series about a group a mermaids who are called to defeat an ancient evil. Each of the six mermaids are from a different ocean/large body of water, where the main character, Serafina, is from the Mediterranean waters. Her best friend, Neela, is from the Indian ocean, and wears a sari. The characters are all diverse both in ethnicities as well as types of aquatic life. Not all mermaids have generic mermaid tales: Serafina is the typical mermaid image, but all the others are varied (Neela is bioluminescent, Astrid has an orca’s tale because she’s from the Arctic, and Ling has a koi’s tale). If you like mermaid stories and stories that are unique and diverse, this book (and series) are definitely for you.
9.) This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee
This book is technically a retelling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, but is completely unique from the original text. Its plot is obviously based around Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley herself plays a role in the novel, but it’s all about Alasdair (our young Victor Frankenstein) being truly morally sound and trying to do the right thing, and deal with the guilt of bringing his brother back from the grave. It’s written so well, keeps you entertained and invested with every page, and combines steampunk elements into the Victorian setting really well in really unique and interesting ways. Definitely give this book a read.
8.) Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
This book is a contemporary YA novel that centers around Samantha Kingston and her perfect life. February 12 seems to be just a normal day, where she’s later going to a Valentine’s Day party with her popular friends and boyfriend when the loner girl at school kills herself. When she goes to bed that night, she wakes up reliving the same day. The plot surrounds Samantha trying to figure out why she’s reliving the same day and what she’s supposed to do. It’s a real tear jerker, and a true coming-of-age story with a phenomenal character arc for Samantha. This book recently got a film adaptation in March 2017, which I haven’t seen, but the book so is great and haunting that it’s definitely worth a read.
7.) Reboot by Amy Tintera
This here is a not-zombie zombie book, where Wren is a Reboot who came back to life after 178 minutes of being dead. In this dystopian society, towns are full of crime and Reboots are the slave/soldiers that go and kill criminals and try and bring justice and order back. All Reboots are referred to by the time they were dead, and Wren (178) is the deadliest and longest-dead Reboot there ever was. As someone dead for nearly 200 minutes, she is very cold and inhuman-like. She starts training 22, aka Callum, a brand new Reboot who’s struggling with his new lifestyle and coping with the fact that he’s dead. It’s a really interesting story, where at first Wren seems annoyingly cold, but gets great character development with the help of Callum.
6.) Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
I feel like if you’re into YA lit, you know who Rainbow Rowell is. Her thing is writing one-off contemporary novels, like this one. Eleanor & Park is about two outsider kids in the 1980s who take the bus together, and are forced to share a seat (mainly because no one else was willing to make room for Eleanor the first day). It’s a real coming-of-age story about true love, dysfunctional and abusive households, and trying to fit in when you just have one too many faults to “make it”. With great pop culture references (mainly Watchmen, as it was released by issue), a truly heartwarming first love plot line, Eleanor & Park is one of those stories that is a quick but memorable read (and great as an audiobook!)
5.) Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Also by Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl follows Cath as she enters her first year of college, where she’s trying to find her place in a new town, new place, and surrounded by completely new people. She also happens to be the anonymous author of an insanely popular fanfiction about Simon Snow (aka Harry Potter), and is determined to finish her novel-length fic by the time the final Simon Snow book is released. It’s another great coming-of-age story any college freshman can identify with, and it’s really relatable and fun to read. Rowell has a gift at making all characters multi-dimensional (even minor characters have this aspect!). If you haven’t already, pick this book up.
4.) The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
This book is about the daughter of fortune tellers who bumps into this group of boys, and how their lives intertwine involving a mystery. With a world full of real magic, and a town with a hidden secret, it’s a really phenomenal book. Raven Boys fits in the magical realism genre, where everything is the same as modern day society except that magic happens to be real–it’s literally as if you woke up tomorrow and found out that magic exists (which is basically what happens for some of the boys in this book). Each character is unique and has their own flaws and problems, and it constantly keeps you intrigued or builds it even higher. If you like magic and mystery, this is definitely the book for you.
3.) Feed by Mira Grant
It breaks my heart how little love this book and book series gets. It’s about the zombie apocalypse, told through the point of view of an online journalist. A team of three: Georgia (the journalist), Sean (the parkour expert), and Buffy (the tech guru) work for an online blog where they drop facts about the zombie post-apocalypse, when they get picked to cover the campaign of a Republican presidential candidate for the upcoming election. It covers what the world is like, and what it’s like to campaign when it’s not safe to go outside with zombies all around. Mystery is also involved, and it becomes a question of who’s trying to sabotage Senator Ryman’s campaign. This trilogy is phenomenal, and it reads nothing like a horror novel.
2.) Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor
This book/series follows Karou, a girl with natural azure hair as she lives as a normal teenage girl by day, but takes jobs to steal teeth by night. She was raised and lives with chimaera, mythical beings that are human and animal, and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The plot really develops when Karou meets Akiva, a beautiful angel that for some reason wants to kill her. I really can’t say much else, but that the chimaera Brimstone has the ability to create wishes out of beads. It’s sort of a love story, with a budding romance between Karou and Akiva, but really just focuses on Karou being a badass and trying to figure out what’s going on between the chimaera and angels, and how she got caught up in a huge war she never knew about.
1.) The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
The Percy Jackson series, and by proxy the House of Olympus series, are my hands-down favorite series of all time. I could easily reread all ten of these books and never get tired of them. I put down The Lost Hero because it’s the start of the House of Olympus series, which is much more diverse and mature compared to its predecessor. It focuses on Jason, who wakes up not knowing who he is, who these people surrounding him are, but finds himself with these strange powers. He’s called a demigod, taken to Camp Half-Blood, and sent on a quest with Piper McLean and Leo Valdez. This time around, Rick Riordan packs his new characters with spunk, diversity, and personalities that you can’t help but love. Each is very unique, and it’s really just such a great story. It builds off the prophecy given at the very end of The Last Olympian (the last Percy Jackson book), and the books just get better and better. If you like mythology, and love Rick Riordan’s other books, read this series. If you’ve already read this series, read this series again. It’s that good.