It’s no secret that Young Adult, or YA, literature is popular with more people than just teenagers, with series from The Hunger Games to the After books gaining devoted followers among adults who follow along on youthful adventures. The broad nature of the label of YA literature, which seems to span anyone from thirteen years old to university students, means that there’s something for everyone in the genre. Whether your bag is high fantasy or realistic fiction, the intense, character driven nature of most YA novels can engage all types of readers.
Marketed to older teens and young adults, “crossover” is a genre that has wide appeal to readers across the age spectrum, and often feature older teens or main characters in their early twenties. Below are five novels that span a variety of types but are tied together by the intensity with which their subjects are experiencing life, providing a meaningful reading experience, no matter your age. Adolescence is both a great and horrible time because of how strongly we experience life, often because something is happening to us for the first time. Revisiting YA literature as an adult allows us to step back into that world and in doing so process some of our own emotions and current choices.
1. Sawkill Girls – Claire Legrand
Fantasy master Legrand tries her hand at twisted horror in this dark tale of two girls and their widowed mother who move to a windswept island. Reeling from the death of her father, Marion, her sister, and her new friend find themselves drawn into the orbit of Val, the most beautiful and popular girl at school.
With an eerie setting full of dark forests, ancient demons, possessed animals, and ancient spells, Sawkill Girls will chill you with the world it builds. Described by the author as a “queer Young Adult novel” this book offers something new and unique for fantasy fans looking for a darker side to their stories.
2. The Mothers – Brit Bennett
A novel that starts when the characters are teens and spans into their adult lives, The Mothers gets to the heart of the question so many of us ask: what if I had chosen differently when I was young?
Centering around seventeen-year-old Nadia and Luke, the boy she has a fling with that results in an unplanned pregnancy, the book traces Nadia, Luke, and their friend Aubrey as they move from adolescence to adulthood, making choices big and small along the way. Exploring the painful cracks in the narratives we tell ourselves, Bennett looks at what it’s like to feel tied down by decisions we made at an age when we had no idea what else was out there and invites us to reconsider what might have been.
3. Shout – Laurie Halse Anderson
If, like me, you grew up reading and loving Halse Anderson’s novel Speak, you will feel equally moved by Shout, its companion and a memoir-in-verse. Telling the story of her own sexual assault as a young woman, Halse Anderson turns her always powerful writing toward the #metoo era. Encouraging others to “shout” their traumas and rages as a form of healing, the book is a poetic balm to all women who have felt the slow burn of anger within them when thinking about what their younger selves underwent.
4. Wilder Girls – Rory Power
A female-driven take on the Lord of the Flies, the-kids-are-in-charge-now concept, Wilder Girls opens as the inhabitants of the Raxter School for Girls face their eighteenth month under quarantine. Plagued by The Tox, a mysterious disease that first picked off their teachers and now comes for their classmates and themselves, the girls have become completely isolated in an insular world of their own making.
One of them, Hetty, will finally be driven by the loss of her best friend to brave the woods beyond the school, where she learns the confines created for the girl’s protection are not what they seem. The boarding school setting, slow, suspenseful build, and shocking reveal make this an easy choice for fans of Never Let Me Go as well as thrillers like The Girl on the Train.
5. Turtles All The Way Down – John Green
With the Looking for Alaska series launching on Hulu and the BBC recently, it’s the perfect time for fans of Green’s earlier works to indulge in his writing again with one of his newer books. Known for quirky characters and twists of phrase, Green is known as one of the standard bearers of young adult literature because of the achingly realistic nature of his characters and his ability to connect with readers on an emotional level.
Turtles All the Way Down, written after Green’s own mental health struggles, follows the story of Aza. A high schooler dealing with crippling anxiety, she’s also investigating the mystery of the recently missing Russell Pickett: fugitive and local billionaire. Mixing Green’s trademark uniqueness in creating protagonists with a more grown-up feel than his earlier works, Aza’s journey toward self-confidence will resonate not only with teens but also with those who can connect with her mental healing.
MORE BOOKS: Children’s | Horror/Sci-Fi| Non-Fiction | Crime/Thriller | Young Adult.
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
