YA fiction and your favorites.

I've read very little YA fiction (save for the first 2 to 3 Last Apprentice books, the first Harry Potter, and the first 100 pages of Twilight...until I couldn't take it anymore), but I feel very comfortable with writing for the large, general audience that most of these books cater too. That being said, I've decided to do some research in a few of the more tastier titles so I'm asking for any recommendations. So far I'm going to grab the first Hunger Games as well as the first Eragon. Thanks ahead of time!


~Chad Lutzke

 

Read the rest of the Harry Potter series. Her writing actually got better as the series progressed, and it's a fun read IMO. Looking for Alaska by John Green is good. I remember reading it when it first came out about 10 years ago. This next one isn't a novel but a memoir: Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther. It's about a teenager who has a brain tumor, and his dad chronicled the young man's life up until his death. It may not be what you had in mind, but it's a great book and worth reading.

 

The Giver is certainly interesting, though some people find its premise hard to swallow.

 

The Old Kingdom trilogy is one of my favorites, as well as City of Masks!

 

Save yourself the pain of Eragon (unless you are studying how to cram maximum cliches into a book). I don't like to dislike anything in print, but it was just awful for me. As a piece of fan fiction, it would suffice but doesn't have enough legs to stand on it's own. I think it was popular largely because it was extremely unchallenging and people could finish it and say...hey I finished a really thick book. Sorry to anyone who did like it.

 

LOL...I JUST got a used copy of Eragon in the mail yesterday Thanks for the heads up though


~Chad Lutzke

 

In which case, enjoy your study in why a good editor and honest feedback is vital.

 

I really liked The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong. It has its cliches, but she does horror scenes pretty well and left me scared at times. The House of Night series is good in the beginning. It's about vampires but has a very original take on them. It gets a little annoying around book five or six. The characters seem to get more immature instead of more mature. The Percy Jackson series (The Olympians and Heroes of Olympus) are amazing books. They're technically children's books (found near Harry Potter in a bookstore) but they are my absolute favorite. The last Percy Jackson book comes out in October and I'm really upset about that. But Rick Riordan said his next series is about Norse gods this time, so that's exciting.