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Good YA series recs?


Good Guy Garlan

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That's right, I'm looking for that most rare of creatures, a really good YA (fantasy/sci fi) novel, a true white whale of a book (kidding, I respect YA as much as any other genre). So far these are the YA books I've read and enjoyed for different reasons:

1) Harry Potter series (let's get that out of the way first)

2) The Book Thief by Markus Suzak (for what is worth one of the most beautifully written books I've read in recent years)

3) Un Lun Dun by China Mieville (Mieville Lite, to be sure, but head and shoulders above 90% of the genre. I also have Railsea somewhere in my shelf waiting to be read)

4) The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman (it's not perfect by any means, but you won't find more flawed or realistic characters in YA (that I know of))

5) Red Rising series by Pierce Brown (not the best written series, but engaging enough space opera)

6) The Hungry City Chronicles by Philip Reeve (Municipal Darwinism, still awesome)

Also: The Hunger Games, Ender's Game, The Giver, The Hobbit, about half of all things Narnia...and I think that's it, that's my YA baggage. Any recs?

The Weirdstone of Brisangamen, by Alan Garner, is a classic.

I don't know if I'd describe Earthsea as YA. it features teenage protagonists, but I only came to enjoy it as an adult.

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Earthsea is yeah prolly regular fantasy that just happens to have young characters. ASOIAF does as well.

 

I loved Beautiful Creatures and the other Caster Chronicles hardbody. Would recommend it to anyone, though it is very YA, HS age.

 

Blood Red Road was a bit cliché for me, but for an actual young adult I think it would be great. Started out promising.

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35 minutes ago, SeanF said:

The Weirdstone of Brisangamen, by Alan Garner, is a classic.

Good choice. Really liked that one. For me both sequels were very disappointing.

Krabat (aka Satanic Mill) by Ottfried Preussler is another fine older book.   

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3 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

oh I'd believe that.

the uprooted as YA thing still bugs me. Hard to really get into it without spoiling Vaguely but 

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It has some naughty bits plus some gruesome violence.

 

Since it was me who suggested it, I'll point out that I didn't think it was Young Adult myself (though I struggle with the distinction quite often tbh). But, it's well worth recommending anyway because I enjoyed it so much

 

Eta: does YA have its own magazine I wonder? That would clarify matters... :leaving: 

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5 hours ago, Jo498 said:

I am not quite sure what "Young adults" is supposed to mean. For me (as an old geezer in his 40s) a young adult is someone between 18 and 25 but this is probably not meant, so I guess it's kids between 13 and 16 or what? (Sorry, they are not adults, except maybe in a very narrow biological sense of being technically fertile.)

For me, YA means books were the primary protagonists are between 12 and 20, and the reading is easy.

 

4 hours ago, Peadar said:

Thanks, REG!

My pleasure!  Both to recommend it, and while I read the books ;)

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1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Since it was me who suggested it, I'll point out that I didn't think it was Young Adult myself (though I struggle with the distinction quite often tbh). But, it's well worth recommending anyway because I enjoyed it so much

 

Eta: does YA have its own magazine I wonder? That would clarify matters... :leaving: 

Oh, I wasn't targeting anyone here specifically, I just see it brought up as YA a lot in other places and it baffles me to no end. And yes, everyone should read it, and if you don't love it then we can't be friends and you're not invited to my parties anymore.

And yeah, I find YA is sometimes as hard, or even harder, to pin down then certain other unnamed genres that have their own magazines. :P

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I tend to think of Young Adult Literature as literature that is geared towards readers aged 13ish to 18ish.  It could feature characters who are younger than that or characters that are adults.  It could be enjoyed by a more mature reader younger than 13 or a reader over 18, but the intended reading audience is basically a teenager.

 

Of course marketing by publishers can throw a loop into this because sometimes a writer thinks they are writing Adult Literature but their publisher thinks they will sell more if it is marketed as YA and so it gets released and pushed as such.  Because YA is selling so well right now, a number of books have gotten this treatment.  At Worldcon last summer I sat in on all the YA panels and more than one author told of having this experience.  In that case does the author’s intention prevail over the publishers?

 

Sarah J. Maas is an example.  The first few books in her Throne of Glass series were written as and marketed as YA.  But her next series that stars with A Court of Thornes and Roses was written by her with the intention that it was for a more mature audience.  However, the publisher felt it would sell more copies if released as YA so that’s how it was published.  Which is why you will notice the occasional shocked comment in the reviews objecting to the book being marketed to teens.  Or in the case of Uprooted and the Magicians series - Naomi Novik and Lev Grossman didn’t set out to write YA novels, they were writing (Adult) Fantasy.  Their publishers didn’t push them as YA in their marketing.  But the YA reading community has really taken to both and they show up on a lot of YA lists and YA award categories and now Lev Grossman tends to go to a lot of YA book conventions.

 

As for YA Fantasy / Science Fiction novels that I have enjoyed in recent years…

 

Sarah J. Maas Throne of Glass series – I actually really really disliked the first two books in the series.  But the third and fourth books in the series were vastly different good solid fantasy novels and worth reading.  Why did I keep reading the series after disliking the first two?  Well at that point I was hate reading for fun and the ebooks were on sale when I purchased them.  Boy was I surprised.

 

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – YA Fantasy

 

The Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo starting with Shadow and Bone – YA Fantasy

 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer starting with Cinder – YA Science Fiction

 

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson – YA Fantasy

 

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge – YA Fantasy

 

Across the Universe by Beth Revis – YA Science Fiction

 

A College of Magics by Caroline Stevermer – YA Fantasy

 

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray – YA Fantasy

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2 minutes ago, Darth Richard II said:

I'm on my phone and sleep deprived, but doesn't Valente have a YA series?

Yes and the first book was wonderful.  YA that is smarter than I am.  Those that I would second  from above are Dealing With Dragons and Six of Crows.  I wish I could say the whole Grisha trilogy but I really on liked the first book.  That said, I liked it a ot.

The School for Good and Evil was an enjoyable read I have not seen yet on this thread.

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I'd hate to derail another thread on the tedious and odious topic of bookselling classification, but "young adult" seems really stupid. I cannot be aimed at 8-14 year olds because they are definitely children or young teenagers. What is wrong with alling them books for teenagers?

Usually, there are about three dimension according to which books are deemed appropriate for younger (as 18 is majority age in most of the world, let's take this as threshold) people: sex/erotics, gore/brutality and general difficulty in themes and vocab. The last takes care of itself, so for "protection" of the youth we used to regulate the first two aspects to some extent (and still do).

Today we are fairly relaxed about sex and gore (and gory bits often stayed even in the bowdlerized editions of fairy tales or mythological stories for kids). I admit that I am so square I was mildly shocked about 10 years ago when my sister worked in a library she gave me a fantasy novel apparently aimed at teenagers (and with a teenage girl as protagonist) that had received some prize and it contained both a fairly steamy lesbian scence between 15-16 yo girls as well as an attempted rape by a boyfriend. [The book was "Tell me what you see" (Sag mir, was Du siehst) by Zoran Drvenkar] They were not porn style explicit but still somewhat. I do not doubt that teenagers might want to get such material (we tried to get our hands on Henry Miller's stuff as 15 yo but this was not encouraged or received prizes as teenager lit...) but as books are usually read by a fairly wide age spectrum I am not sure if I wanted such scenes read by an 11-12 yo.

So that leaves a preference for teenaged or children protagonists I guess.

 

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Even ASOIAF is sometimes sold beside Twilight on the teenager/youth shelf in my experience.

I talked to an editor that told me that recently they specifically chose a more "adult" version of a book cover (featuring a painting of a naked lady) in order to show that this writer is also suitable for adults, not just for teenagers. When I see that book in the bookshop, it is still among the teenagers' literature.

Apparently fantasy is very much considered a non-adult genre. :dunno:

14 hours ago, Peadar said:

For me, I'd recommend Sabriel by Garth Nix.

I would recommend it too, I used to like it a lot. But never managed to finish the sequels.

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[mod] I would prefer that this thread not descend into the shitfest of arguing book classifications. It's one of the most tedious discussions going. We have a good working definition going with Lady Narcissa's post and let's just leave it at that. As such, please focus on recommending books rather than grumbling about opinions on what is or isn't YA. I will be deleting posts that continue on in that vein. Thank you. [/mod]

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3 hours ago, Jo498 said:

I'd hate to derail another thread on the tedious and odious topic of bookselling classification, but "young adult" seems really stupid. I cannot be aimed at 8-14 year olds because they are definitely children or young teenagers. What is wrong with alling them books for teenagers?

Usually, there are about three dimension according to which books are deemed appropriate for younger (as 18 is majority age in most of the world, let's take this as threshold) people: sex/erotics, gore/brutality and general difficulty in themes and vocab. The last takes care of itself, so for "protection" of the youth we used to regulate the first two aspects to some extent (and still do).

Today we are fairly relaxed about sex and gore (and gory bits often stayed even in the bowdlerized editions of fairy tales or mythological stories for kids). I admit that I am so square I was mildly shocked about 10 years ago when my sister worked in a library she gave me a fantasy novel apparently aimed at teenagers (and with a teenage girl as protagonist) that had received some prize and it contained both a fairly steamy lesbian scence between 15-16 yo girls as well as an attempted rape by a boyfriend. [The book was "Tell me what you see" (Sag mir, was Du siehst) by Zoran Drvenkar] They were not porn style explicit but still somewhat. I do not doubt that teenagers might want to get such material (we tried to get our hands on Henry Miller's stuff as 15 yo but this was not encouraged or received prizes as teenager lit...) but as books are usually read by a fairly wide age spectrum I am not sure if I wanted such scenes read by an 11-12 yo.

So that leaves a preference for teenaged or children protagonists I guess.

 

When I was a teen, we were all into James Herbert, what with babies being eaten alive by rats, house masters being raped by schoolboys, steamy lesbian sex scenes, and page after page of gore.  Yet, publishers were still refusing to translate the more risqué poems of Catullus, many schools refused to teach The Miler's Tale, The Porter Scene was firmly excised from every textbook of Macbeth, and school libraries only stocked heavily censored versions of the Three Musketeers!

I do think though, that some books aren't really age-appropriate for under 16's.  I'd put ASOIAF in that category, if only because I think I'd have been pretty distressed by parts of it, had I read it at that age (eg Chiswick's jolly tale about raping the Innkeep's daughter and murdering her brother).  James Herbert was cartoonish, rather than distressing. 

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54 minutes ago, Buckwheat said:

Even ASOIAF is sometimes sold beside Twilight on the teenager/youth shelf in my experience.

I talked to an editor that told me that recently they specifically chose a more "adult" version of a book cover (featuring a painting of a naked lady) in order to show that this writer is also suitable for adults, not just for teenagers. When I see that book in the bookshop, it is still among the teenagers' literature.

Apparently fantasy is very much considered a non-adult genre. :dunno:

I would recommend it too, I used to like it a lot. But never managed to finish the sequels.

I read the Sabriel books too. I think there was Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen, then a collection called Over the Wall, and another book that was released after I had read them. I seem to recall liking Lirael the most, especially the bits in the Library

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Truthwitch (The Witchlands #1) by Susan Dennard (published by Tor Teen):

"Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lie. It’s a powerful magic that many would kill to have on their side, especially amongst the nobility to which Safi was born. So Safi must keep her gift hidden, lest she be used as a pawn in the struggle between empires. Iseult, a Threadwitch, can see the invisible ties that bind and entangle the lives around her, but she cannot see the bonds that touch her own heart. Her unlikely friendship with Safi has taken her from life as an outcast into one of reckless adventure, where she is a cool, wary balance to Safi’s hotheaded impulsiveness. Safi and Iseult just want to be free to live their own lives, but war is coming to the Witchlands. With the help of the cunning Prince Merik (a Windwitch and ship’s captain) and the hindrance of a Bloodwitch bent on revenge, the friends must fight emperors, princes, and mercenaries alike, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a Truthwitch."

It got a starred review from Publishers Weekly: http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-7653-7928-3

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