Get Yer YA Book Recommendations Here!

[Jessica_312]

Thank you for the rec's!

I just started reading The Book Thief. Once I'm finished I'll start Under the Never Sky, looked it up on google and it definitely sounds like something that would appeal to me

[Aslera]

Rossi can't write the sequel to Never Sky fast enough for me. It started out SLOW, so really have to push past the first two or three chapters, but it was worth slogging through.

[totopink]

What is this book? I remember reading it in a bookstore ages ago but never picked it up.

A girl plays a ouija board with her friends and then later her 2 friends and her friends brother die when the roof of a building collapses on them.
Then she gets made to move to another school or something?
Anyone know?

[eparadysz]

Originally Posted by totopink

What is this book? I remember reading it in a bookstore ages ago but never picked it up.

A girl plays a ouija board with her friends and then later her 2 friends and her friends brother die when the roof of a building collapses on them.
Then she gets made to move to another school or something?
Anyone know?

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

[totopink]

Originally Posted by eparadysz

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

yes yes yes! thank you!

[CoryG]

I love the "Chaos Walking" series by Patrick Ness... highly recommend!

[Cai]

I'm looking for recs for contemporary YA novels in which the MC works off some kind of to-do list. Since I'm working on a manuscript with this concept, I would love to see how it can be done without becoming boring or predictable or just the same over and over again.
I already know I'll look into Before I die. I don't think I could handle more than one heart-wrenching book, so I'd especially love funny or bittersweet suggestions.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Periwinkle]

I don't know if this will help, Cai, but the only "list" book I could think of was The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart which I admit I haven't read yet.

[bobcat22]

I just finished WONDER by R.J. Palacio, and I LOVED it. It's so great and sweet and just makes you feel good. I have a feeling it might be a contender for the Newbury this year.

It's categorized as MG, but I could argue that some of it reads as YA, because we get into the heads of many different characters, include two high school students.

[Yeasayer]

I loved Wonder. I cried like a baby multiple times (mostly happy tears). I think it actually has three high school narrators, right? The sister. Sister's boyfriend. Sister's best friend. And three middle school narrators.

[Lunatique]

It seems to me that most YA novels aren't really literary--they tend to be genre novels or mainstream teen dramas. Are there any examples of literary YA novels? Or because they have literary quality, they are no longer considered YA and are simply literary fiction involving young characters (for example, J.D. Salinger's work).

[Old Hack]

Skellig must be literary YA. Also, Nicola Morgan's brilliant Wasted, and all sorts of other books. There are lots.

[Lycoplax]

Literary YA sounds almost like an oxymoron to me, because, IMO, literary fiction seems like it would bore the YA demographic. Granted, I really don't care much for literary fiction as a genre, personally. So there is a bias there. But, Old Hack has cited examples, so there must be a market for it.

[willietheshakes]

I guess this butts up against a few questions, by way of definitions: what makes YA YA? Is it approach? Subject matter? Audience (actual audience, or intended audience)? Etc, etc. Then, what makes "literary" "literary"?

Cue rabbit-hole.

Take Salinger, though. Catcher is probably one of THE classic YA novels. Except... it's not. It wasn't written for a YA audience, the category didn't exist at the time of the writing, etc. So it's an adult novel adopted by younger readers...

[mccardey]

Originally Posted by Lycoplax

Literary YA sounds almost like an oxymoron to me, because, IMO, literary fiction seems like it would bore the YA demographic..

God, that's depressing. Thank heavens it's not true.

[Smish]

Originally Posted by Lycoplax

Literary YA sounds almost like an oxymoron to me, because, IMO, literary fiction seems like it would bore the YA demographic.

Right. Because all teens are the same. You must not remember high school.

There are several threads about literary YA in the YA room. I'd suggest doing a search there.

The thing about literary YA is that it's not a designated category, so it's incredibly subective. Though everyone will have different opinons, there is a lot of literary YA out there.

Some books I'd consider literary YA, off the top of my head: The Book Thief and I am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak; Some Girls Are, by Courtney Summers; Looking for Alaska, by John Green; Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi; Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson; Feed, by M.T. Anderson; The Sky is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson; Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr; Raw Blue, by Kristy Eagar; Fat Kid Rules the World, by KL Going.

[LJD]

I thought Hannah Moskowitz's Invincible Summer could be described as literary YA. Having said that, I don't read an awful lot of YA or literary fiction.

[Smish]

Originally Posted by LJD

I thought Hannah Moskowitz's Invincible Summer could be described as literary YA. Having said that, I don't read an awful lot of YA or literary fiction.

Sure, Hannah's book could be considered literary YA. And it's so good I read it twice.

[flapperphilosopher]

I'd consider The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides to be literary YA... I have no idea at all what it's technically classed as, but that's what I'd call it.

[river.rising]

As a teacher I'm realized that most literary fiction, even if it's historically taught to middle or high schoolers, does not hold their interest. Many of the kids I get in the classroom have never enjoyed a book before they come to me, and if it takes Hunger Games rather than Catcher in the Rye to awaken a love for reading, I'll do it. There's nothing like force-feeding the classics to make kids fear and despise reading.


Students who are more advanced can handle and find value in literary-type novels, but my struggling readers often shut down and get frustrated with vocabulary and concepts that are beyond their level of comprehension. I love Shakespeare, but try teaching Romeo and Juliet to the tenth grader with a 2nd grade reading level I had last year.

[mccardey]

Originally Posted by river.rising

As a teacher I'm realized that most literary fiction, even if it's historically taught to middle or high schoolers, does not hold their interest. Many of the kids I get in the classroom have never enjoyed a book before they come to me, and if it takes Hunger Games rather than Catcher in the Rye to awaken a love for reading, I'll do it. There's nothing like force-feeding the classics to make kids fear and despise reading.


Students who are more advanced can handle and find value in literary-type novels, but my struggling readers often shut down and get frustrated with vocabulary and concepts that are beyond their level of comprehension. I love Shakespeare, but try teaching Romeo and Juliet to the tenth grader with a 2nd grade reading level I had last year.

Yes, but that's not quite the same thing as

literary fiction seems like it would bore the YA demographic.

For starters, we can assume that the YA demographic consists of young adults who enjoy reading. And believe me, there are plenty of that group who like reading literary.

[Sage]

Moving to YA. Then the recommendations thread.

And then I will suggest On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

[Lycoplax]

Originally Posted by Smish

Right. Because all teens are the same. You must not remember high school.

I was homeschooled, so no, I don't remember high school in the typical sense. But I did say I was biased against literary fiction. So I thought that literary YA must be boring. Old Hack provided evidence of otherwise. I can be wrong. I can't learn new things if I think I'm always right. I might even give the suggestions a try.

I had a college professor who championed what must have been the worst in literary fiction, while stating her narrow-minded opinion as hard facts in writing. All I took from her class was that the reading was as boring as she was incompetent. (She wrote poetry. That somehow qualified her to teach a Fiction course. I'm still scratching my head on that one.) To this day, literary fiction reminds me of her, which I know isn't very fair to the literary fiction community. That experience chafed me in a seriously bad way, and I'm still getting over it.

[missesdash]

I don't get this idea that adults are all sitting around reading literary classics when the NYT best sellers list indicates the exact opposite.

[Windcutter]

More YA thrillers, please. Mara Dyer style--that is to say, not realistic, crime-based, etc--but mindbending and mysterious, with a dash of paranormal or SF.