My Top 5 YA Books From My Early Teens

Recently, I’ve been redecorating my room, and in the process I’ve found a lot of old books. Books I read and re-read numerous times in my early teens, when ‘YA’  wasn’t quite yet the booming market that it is today.

The books I loved in my early teens, from about 12-15, seem to have been forgotten about as YA became such a ‘big thing’ and new books flooded the market. The only few books from the 90s and early 00s that seem to have hung on have been Harry Potter and The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. So, I’m here to showcase some of my favourite YA books from my early teens, and why they shouldn’t just be swept under the carpet.

It’s ten years since the terrible war in the cities that took Kat and Tanka’s parents. A new life in the New Frontier beckons them, far from bullet holes and bomb craters. New Frontier people are building a fresh, liberal society, without the genetic classification and discrimination that led to the war. Kat and Tanka have a beautiful new home, Cherry Heaven, and everything promises them peace and happiness. But Cherry Heaven carries haunting marks of the past, bubbling to the surface in mysterious and frightening ways. 

Cherry Heaven came out whilst I was halfway through Year 8, so when I was almost 13. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was actually the second in a series. However, it read like a standalone and I never really felt confused.

I think I probably picked this one up because I liked the cover, but I’m fairly certain it might just have kick-started my love for all things dystopian. It was a really gripping and exciting read, with complex yet mysterious world-building. I’m not sure why I’ve never picked up the first book or the sequels – maybe because I was young and not too bothered about reading things in order or finishing series – but perhaps that’s something I’ll do now I’m older and at least a little more organised.

For fans of: dystopian thrillers.

Jessica Allendon is bored and Googles her name. Weirdly, she finds another girl, same age, same name, also living in London. They arrange to meet. At the designated time and place, Jess sees the girl, shock registering on both their faces as they realise they look identical. They shake hands and in that instant are catapulted into each other’s worlds. Jessica finds herself somewhere which looks like the London of 50 years ago, but the year is still 2008. In this parallel London, the history is different, key war memorials are missing, and the Jessica whose life she now inhabits was involved in a dark and sinister conspiracy. Jess must convince everyone she is the same girl, at all costs, if she wants to get back to her London – alive.

This is another published in February 2008, and I kept re-reading this all the way until I was 16, I enjoyed it that much. I suppose this is another dystopian-ish YA novel but, just like Cherry Heaven, it’s also a great thriller with some interesting and funny characters.

I can actually still remember much of this book and can still envisage particular scenes, which goes to show how much I enjoyed this one because I can’t even remember what I read two years ago.

For fans of: alternate history thrillers and a witty protagonist.

Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother’s death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true.

Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls’ academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions.

Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions “for a bit of fun” and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the “others” and rebuild the Order.

To say I worshipped this series would be an understatement.

My dad actually chose the first book in this series for me. For someone who doesn’t read fiction, he’s strangely good at choosing books.

I can still partly remember the last page of the final book, The Sweet Far Thing, because it was so bittersweet and profound. Not only does this series have great writing, but it has intriguing characters, magical realism and a great romance. Also, this is probably the only book/series on my list that I still see mentioned today in the bookish community.

For fans of: historical fantasy and romance.

The days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve are dead days, when spirits roam and magic shifts restlessly just beneath the surface of our lives.

A magician called Valerian must save his own life within those few days or pay the price for the pact he made with evil so many years ago. But alchemy and sorcery are no match against the demonic power pursuing him. Helping him is his servant, Boy, a child with no name and no past. The quick-witted orphan girl, Willow, is with them as they dig in death fields at midnight, and as they are swept into the sprawling blackness of a subterranean city on a journey from which there is no escape.

I was a big fan of Marcus Sedgwick when I was younger. In fact, practically my whole family was. Me, my mum and my sister all read the Book of Dead Days series. I liked to try and read the same things as my mum and sister when I was younger, which is how I found out about my favourite YA series, Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series, when I overheard my mum and sister chatting about it and wanted to be involved. The same happened for The Book of Dead Days and Sedgwick quickly became one of my go-to authors in my early teens.

This duology is quite sinister and dark for a YA series, but it’s one reason why I loved it. Not to mention the covers were made of this mottled kind of card and so they even felt creepy. Also, an honorary mention to one of Sedgwick’s other novels, My Swordhand is Singing, for being extremely creepy and helping to kickstart by zombie obsession.

For fans of: creepy historical horror and dark magic.

Ever since she was child, Jem has kept a secret: Whenever she meets someone new, no matter who, as soon as she looks into their eyes, a number pops into her head. That number is a date: the date they will die. Burdened with such awful awareness, Jem avoids relationships.

Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. The two plan a trip to the city. But while waiting to ride the Eye ferris wheel, Jem is terrified to see that all the other tourists in line flash the same number. Today’s number. Today’s date. Terrorists are going to attack London. Jem’s world is about to explode!

Even just thinking about this series gets me pumped up. This trilogy was action-packed and didn’t pull punches. Plus it had POC and biracial main characters, discussed issues like teen pregnancy and drugs, and looked at how the British government can fail young people from poorer areas. Not to mention it featured superpowers, of course.

For fans of: dystopian thrillers (again. Maybe my dystopian obsession did start earlier than I thought) and gritty, raw characters.

Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? What books did you enjoy when you were younger? Let me know in the comments below!

 

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A Novel Round-Up: 5 Lesser-Known Classics Every Bookworm Should Read

I used to avoid the ‘classics’ like the plague. I was stuck in the realm of YA and whilst of course there are some great YA books, an aspiring English graduate and author has to read widely.

So, when I got to university and was suddenly bombarded with books that were written anywhere between the 1000s and the 2000s, I was dreading it. But three years later I can now look back and safely say that some of the books I’ve enjoyed the most were written centuries before I was born.

I’ve picked out 5 of my favourite classics that aren’t as well known as the staples like Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice. From romance to crime to horror, there’s a bit of everything here for all kinds of readers, so get stuck in!

 

Roxana by Daniel Defoe

Published: 1724

Synopsis: Defoe’s last and darkest novel, is the autobiography of a woman who has traded her virtue, at first for survival, and then for fame and fortune. Its narrator tells the story of her own ‘wicked’ life as the mistress of rich and powerful men. A resourceful adventuress, she is also an unforgiving analyst of her own susceptibilities, who tells us of the price she pays for her successes. Endowed with many seductive skills, she is herself seduced: by money, by dreams of rank, and by the illusion that she can escape her own past. Unlike Defoe’s other penitent anti-heroes, however, she fails to triumph over these weaknesses.

The novel’s drama lies not only in the heroine’s `vast variety of fortunes’, but in her attempts to understand the sometimes bitter lessons of her life as a `Fortunate Mistress’.

Why I loved it: Roxana isn’t always the nicest of characters, but she’s definitely ahead of her times. She’s determined to make something of her life and to better herself, and her headstrong personality is captivating. An early feminist narrative, the plot is gripping, and although Defoe attempts to undercut the inherent feminism he has weaved into Roxana (be prepared to read the word ‘wicked’ often), it’s a really interesting read.

The Monk by Matthew Lewis

Published: 1796

Synopsis: Ambrosio, a pious, well-respected monk in Spain, is lustfully tempted by his pupil, Matilda, a woman who has disguised herself as a monk. Having satisfied himself with her, he is overcome with carnal desire for the innocent Antonia. With the help of Matilda, who is actually Satan in disguise, Ambrosio seduces Antonia, a seduction that would ultimately lead to his downfall. Recognized as one of the first novels of the gothic genre, “The Monk” is a classic tale of the tragic ruin that may befall one tempted by desire.

Why I loved it: This book is just all kinds of deranged. I’m pretty sure I read most of it with a look of shock on my face, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a really enjoyable novel. You have murderous monks, Satan and ghost stories; what more could you want? Don’t expect to be bored.

Armadale by Wilkie Collins

Published: 1866

Synopsis: When the elderly Allan Armadale makes a terrible confession on his death-bed, he has little idea of the repercussions to come, for the secret he reveals involves the mysterious Lydia Gwilt: flame-haired temptress, bigamist, laudanum addict and husband-poisoner. Her malicious intrigues fuel the plot of this gripping melodrama: a tale of confused identities, inherited curses, romantic rivalries, espionage, money – and murder. The character of Lydia Gwilt horrified contemporary critics, with one reviewer describing her as ‘One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction’. She remains among the most enigmatic and fascinating women in nineteenth-century literature and the dark heart of this most sensational of Victorian ‘sensation novels’.

Why I loved it: Another headstrong female, love or hate Lydia you can’t deny that she’s an excellent character and powerful in her own right. Though the narrative is slow at the beginning, it soon picks up with the arrival of Lydia and turns from a plain old mystery to an exciting thriller.

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

Published: 1907

Synopsis: Mr Verloc, the secret agent, keeps a shop in London’s Soho where he lives with his wife Winnie, her infirm mother, and her idiot brother, Stevie. When Verloc is reluctantly involved in an anarchist plot to blow up the Greenwich Observatory things go disastrously wrong, and what appears to be ‘A Simple Tale’ proves to involve politicians, policemen, foreign diplomats and London’s fashionable society in the darkest and most surprising interrelations.

Why I loved it: This is actually quite a sad and harrowing novel of oppression and deceit, but it’s masterfully written. It’s full of dark humour and with intriguing characters, but don’t expect to feel very happy by the end of it…

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

Published: 1928

Synopsis: Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents – a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions. The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.

Why I loved it: At times this novel could be a little boring, but you can’t deny the guts Hall must have had to write and publish such a book when homosexuality was still deeply frowned upon. With bleak, beautiful prose, you really do feel sorry for the hardships that Stephen (and Hall) have had to face. Though it may be a little tough to get through, it’s worth a read when you compare it with the contemporary debates of gay and transgender rights.

And that concludes another ‘A Novel Round-Up’. Have you read any of them? What did you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!