Best modern YA fiction?

Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

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I'm looking for recommendations on what are the best modern YA fiction books.

I've already read Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy and Veronica Roth's Divergent trilogy - the first book in each are potential masterpieces in themselves, IMO.

I also greatly enjoyed Joe Abercrombie's Shattered Sea trilogy and think it's his best writing to date - though I suspect that falls under YA fantasy as a subgenre of YA.

Anyway, I'm very much open to suggestions - what have I missed, and what should I consider reading?
 
I liked Melina Marchetta's series starting with Finnikin of the Rock, Holly Black's Curseworkers trilogy, Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon trilogy, anything by Franny Billingsley, most things by N.M. Browne. I also liked Snow Like Ashes, and the first of Leigh Bardurgo's Grisha trilogy (the second is OK too, but I don't think it should have been a trilogy). You should also read the Sarah Maas books.

If you're looking for weird, then Francis Hardinge is good (though perhaps on the MG/YA borderlines).
 
My daughter suggests The Young Bond books and Trusted by Krista Wayment (not sure if it's YA or MG). She loved Fault in Our Stars. And after that she says she doesn't think her other favourite books this year are YA.

Also Ted and Phil's most bogus adventure --- well she says it's called "The Amazing Book is not On Fire" By Dan Howell and Phil Lester. It's non-fictionish though.
 
The Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore.

Not just a book series. For some young people it has become a way of life! The author Pittacus Lore is actually one of the characters that tells the story of his long gone race and the legacy they left behind. There are various rumours online who the actual author is. I think there are about 6 books at the moment with more coming out. The first one is called 'I am number 4.' (Don't watch the film it is awful and doesn't have much to do with the book.)

I loved the Hunger Games and I equally loved this series, reading a book a day when I got my hands on them.
 
Pittacus Lore's ID is pretty well known, iirc (James Frey.) They divide opinion massively - have a look on good reads - over the quality of the writing. I found them unreadable, sadly.

Ness is a good one, though - I wasn't entranced (I got fed up of false cliffhangers) but am in a minority.
 
My 15 year old daughter is quite a fan of the Hunger Games and The Maze Runner series. If you include the popularity of the Divergent series, it seems the current trend of YA fiction leans toward post-apocalyptic dystopian epic tales.
 
No mention of Ready Player One yet.

This book is good largely because it is near future fiction. If it were real it would have characters who would be alive right now. Some of them would have been teenagers in the 1980s. It depicts the state of the United States in 2045.

It should be thought provoking for today's teenagers.

I read The Hunger Games trilogy because such a big deal was made of it. I don't understand why.

psik
 
I did a word count test on Ready Player One.

The input file is: EC.Ready_Player_One.txt with 775351 characters.

It uses 67 SF words 495 times for an SF density of 0.639
The word count limit of: 77 was exceeded by: 5

24 Fantasy words used 215 times for a Fantasy density of 0.278

actually that is:

26 Fantasy words used 218 times for a Fantasy density of 0.282

I added vorpal and Vorpal

I am going to have to modify the program for capitalization.

The word counts for Hunger Games are:

The input file is: SC.HG_All.txt with 1665900 characters.
It uses 47 SF words 178 times for an SF density of 0.107

10 Fantasy words used 29 times for a Fantasy density of 0.018

This is for the entire Hunger Games trilogy. It is more than twice as long as RP1.

Ready Player One has a high fantasy density for a science fiction story. But most of the book occurs in a simulation where fantasy is simulated so it does fantasy without violating science in the real world. But it still has a relatively high science word density. The Hunger Games are pretty feeble.

psik
 
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I'll second Hex's 'Sarah J Maas' recommendation. I've reached the third book in her Throne of Glass series, and I'll say the second one was brilliant. I also recommend 'An Ember in the Ashes' by Sabaa Tahir. I'm near the end, and would have finished it if my iPad hadn't broken down. But I can tell you right now, without finishing it, it is worth a read. It came out this year too, so it's quite new.

The next few books I've not read myself, but I own already and have piqued my interest over others:

Snow Like Ashes
Steelheart
Six of Crows (something tells me I'm really going to like this one).
Ready Player One
Seraphina
The Thief
and Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

Most of them are fantasy, but that's just what I gravitate towards. Also, there's plenty of dystopia stories and that's technically sci-fi.

Also, to Brian, or anyone else who might be reading this who likes Ready Player One, I suggest you keep your eyes peeled for a story coming out called 'Arena' by Holly Jennings. It's scheduled for a 2016 Spring release, and seems to follow in a similar vein to RPO.
 
I liked Seraphina a lot.

The Thief (if that's the one by Turner) got awfully slow for me. In a small book there was a lot of discussion of mountain scenery, and I abandoned it about a third of the way in.

Six of Crows *does* look good!

I have An Ember in the Ashes out right now from the library, so I'll get on and read it :)

EDIT: My word, Ember in the Ashes starts really, really well.
 
Hex said:
I liked Seraphina a lot.

The Thief (if that's the one by Turner) got awfully slow for me. In a small book there was a lot of discussion of mountain scenery, and I abandoned it about a third of the way in.

Six of Crows *does* look good!

I have An Ember in the Ashes out right now from the library, so I'll get on and read it :)

EDIT: My word, Ember in the Ashes starts really, really well.
Click to expand...
I have just started listening to Seraphina. I love the audiobook narrator. She sounds like she's from the 1920s or something. Out of curiosity, what did you like about the book? One thing that's stood out to me so far is the prose. I love when an author puts effort into the language, but I prioritise plot and character over all else.

I'll still try out The Thief and see how it turns out for me.

And yes, an Ember in the Ashes' beginning was what convinced be to buy it so quickly. I read the excerpts and they were great. I finished it a week or so ago, so I can confidently say it's a great book throughout. I hope you enjoy it too!
 
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I read it a while ago, because it was one of the books they were giving away at World Fantasy Con at Brighton, so my memory of it isn't perfect, but yes, I loved the language -- it's beautifully written. I liked the world, and the story was well-plotted and interesting. The mc herself was sympathetic too.

I've read so many good things about The Thief... I should probably go back to it and just skip the bit with the mountains (I also read the author talking about how she'd had to work to slow the story down, and add in description, so it may be that was what was worrying me). Certainly the idea is a nice one, and I liked the characters. I'd be interested to hear what you think when you read it.

(in passing Snow Like Ashes is very good!)
 
I liked Seraphina, too, but was not disappointed by the ending to the sequel.

The Grisha series by Bardugo is a good one. Not perfect by any means but I found it compulsive reading.
 
The Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer are some of my favorites, along with The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart and the Inkheart books by Cornelia Funke.
 
I haven't read a lot of YA but Sanderson's Reckoners series is really great. Steelheart and Firefight are the first two.
 
Teresa and Hex, I recently read the first Grisha book and really liked it.

Second Ratsy on the Reckoners series; lots of fun.

The Maze Runner was fun, too, though I liked the first one best.
 
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