Tuesday, 25 August 2015

A Way Into YA Day Three: A Bit of Everything!


Welcome to A Way into YA; a series of guest posts where some lovely YA loving bloggers will give you their best recommendations and try to get you to love YA as much as they do! If you've always wanted to give it a go but have been overwhelmed by the amount of choice then hopefully this week will help you find a place to start!

I hope you've had a chance to check out the posts we've already featured this week. If not go ahead and catch up, we'll wait! 

Now that you're back, today's guest blogger is Iris of IrisjeXx and she has recommendations for you from across the genres! 

One of the things I love so much about young adult, is that there’s a book out there for absolutely anyone, no matter the age. It is so enormously vast, there are so many titles and genres, and because of this it can be a bit overwhelming if you’re new to it. No problem, because I love to recommend some of my favorite YA titles!

Fantasy

Fantasy is my comfort genre, and I have tons of recommendations for  you, but there’s one that is a MUST read: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. When I first saw the book I fell in love with the cover. It’s so pretty and badass. When I started reading I fell in love with the world Sarah J. Maas created. The world-building in these books is so incredibly strong. The characters have SO MUCH depth. The plot is awesome, and keeps getting better and better each book. This is one of my favorite fantasy series of all time. Sarah J. Maas has a way with words, and these books are an absolute masterpiece! (So is A Court of Thorns and Roses, her latest YA book and the start of another epic series). This series isn’t finished yet, the fourth book is releasing September 2nd, and it’s going to be a series of six books.

Another fantasy series you might want to check out: The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini.

Science Fiction

I wasn’t much of a fan of Sci-Fi to be honest, until I started The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer. This series takes a spin on classic fairy tales, such as Cinderella (the first book ‘Cinder’); Little Red Riding Hood (the second book ‘Scarlet’); Rapunzel (the third book ‘Cress’); and finally Snow White (the fourth and final book ‘Winter’). The best part is that the characters in the series intertwine, and it makes for an epic series. I’m so happy I branched out and tried this series, because it’s one I wouldn’t want to miss! The last book, Winter, comes out later this year!

 
Contemporary

So far my recommendations have all been series. And I know that sometimes a standalone is perfect because it is just one book. There’s no next instalments, it’s just one book, you get  the whole story and then it’s finished. For this genre, I am going to recommend an author, because all her contemporary books are just THAT good. Rainbow Rowell. My favorite books from her are Fangirl and Eleanor & Park. Although they’re both contemporary books, you can’t really compare the two.

‘Fangirl’ tells the story of Cath, a fangirl that writes Simon Snow fanfiction, and is starting college. Something that is completely and utterly out of her comfort zone. It’s a coming of age story and when I read this book for the first time I was completely emotionally invested. I was close to starting University when I read this, and even though I’m not as awkward in social situations as Cath is, I was a nervous wreck. ‘Fangirl’ helped me work through that, I love this book, it’s about finding yourself in no-so-comfortable situations. ‘Eleanor & Park’ is a love story as real and emotional as it can get. It captures what it feels like to fall in love for the first time, the awkward uncertainties and the overwhelming nature. I don’t even truly know how to describe this one, but just describing it as a love story doesn’t do it any justice, because besides love it deals with various social issues such as poverty, domestic abuse and racism. It’s a beautiful book. The writing is deep and complex (and utterly addictive) and the characters have so much depth. But above all, the characters are realistic and unique. It’s an absolute must read.

The books I mentioned above are some of my favorite young adult titles. Books I think would be a great place to start if you’re new to YA. But, like I said before, YA has such a vast amount of beautiful books, there’s tons of other titles out there worth exploring. You never know whether you like it until you’ve tried!
For the first time this week I've actually read at least some of the books Iris talks about and I can absolutely second the recommendations! Rainbow Rowell and Sarah J. Maas were on my recent list of auto buy authors and I'm reading The Lunar Chronicles at the moment and loving it!

As usual, title links go to Goodreads. Check back tomorrow for another guest post of awesome!

The series so far:
Make Mine an Indie: Alma Books
A Way into YA Day 1: Science Fiction
A Way into YA Day 2: Backlist Books

4 comments:

  1. The trouble with YA is that it tends to come in a series and drags on and on, so I'm weary of reading series that are incomplete. (Same goes for TV shows!)

    However, I keep seeing The Lunar Chronicles around the reading circuit and now that I know that it's ending soon, I'm going to start reading them when the first book on my list is released from the library queue!

    And as always, Rainbow Rowell is the reason why I still read YA :)

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    1. She's the thing that made me start reading YA pretty much. I only started Throne of Glass because I thought it was a trilogy then realised halfway through the second book that it's a six book series and now I'm too invested not to carry on. Grr!

      I do like series though if its a great world and great characters because you get to immerse yourself for so much longer!

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  2. YA isn't something I normally gravitate to but I have enjoyed Rainbow Rowell and would recommend her or John Green (cliche!) to anyone looking to pick something up a little lighter. Like Etudesque, I'm not a fan of series and that seems to be so prevalent in YA. Love when I can find something great that's standalone!

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    1. Yeah Rainbow Rowell is a total genius! I get the not wanting to get involved in series- its the same reason I don't read a lot of fantasy anymore.
      I did just read I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson the other day which is an awesome standalone!

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