If you’re not quite sure what “young adult” means when it comes to books, it’s the category that covers the Twilights, Hunger Games and Divergents of this world. They usually have protagonists who are in their late teens, often involve first love and coming of age and while scenes of extreme violence are common, sex tends to be absent. There are of course also worthier books written for and read by teens (Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird are obvious classic examples), but I’m going to focus on the fluffier stuff here.

I love an occasional YA book for entertainment, but it can be difficult to find one that gives you the escapist factor without being excessively silly. Reading the reviews on Goodreads can actually be counterproductive, as the gushing (or bashing) that goes on there is not particularly helpful. So after some encouragement from the readers here, I decided to do an overview of some of the most popular YA books of recent years. I’ve split the post in two, as otherwise it’d be excessively long and would also take me two more months to deliver: there are several books I want to add to the list below.

This is not a best off post, these are books you’d see shared on Instagram or trending on Goodreads and possibly wonder about, if you’re so inclined. The selection of course also reflects my personal tastes: it only features books that have a fantasy or SF element, as I simply have no interest in the contemporary YA. When it comes to genre fiction – and many other things – it’s important to know your poison.

1-2. A Court of Thorns and Roses & A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. Maas is one of the most popular YA authors writing today and her Throne of Glass series (which I have not read, but sort of plan to) is still everywhere on #bookstagram. I have however read the two instalments of her newer, still unfinished A Court of Thorns and Roses saga that is equally ubiquitous. This has a fairy tale vibe (shades of Beauty and The Beast there) with faeries, magic, enchanted castles, rival courts and a pretty tough human girl suddenly finding herself in the middle of it all. I thought the first book was gripping and read it very fast, but I had several issues from instalove* and relationship dynamics to uninspiring characters. I read the second book mostly because many people promised it would address my issues – and whaddayaknow, it did. The world building got cooler, the characters more interesting, the romance bit improved and was also less central to the plot than before (I love some love in my YA, but it’s not my only or even main interest). I also want to hand out bonus points to Maas for giving Feyre, the protagonist, a family – never an easy thing to navigate in YA. That’s why they are all orphans. Oh, and directly contradicting what I said above, this actually includes sex, but frankly I don’t think that convincing sex scenes are where the talents of Maas lay.

3-4. Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. If there’s anything I see more often than the Maas books, it’s Bardugo’s duology and for a good reason. I’m going to come straight out and recommend it – I liked both books a lot and the fact it’s only a duology also makes it less of an investment. The first book is a classic heist story with an impossible mission and an unlikely crew of misfits that will, of course, turn out to be the perfect crew, because this is YA. The second book deals with the fall-out of the first and is a bit messier in terms of structure, but I was too involved in the story to care. The tone is pretty dark but not too depressing, the pace is fast, the plot is tight and the stakes are high. The six main characters are ridiculously smart, talented, good looking, physically able and witty, but in a very entertaining way. As befits a gritty YA setting, they are also damaged and vulnerable and sometimes behave very, very badly (genius criminal mastermind alert!). I liked all of them and I even liked ALL the romantic story lines, which is almost unheard of. It was also refreshing to read urban fantasy that takes place in a world inspired by old Amsterdam, while the attitude to sexual and racial diversity in the books is thoroughly modern. Well done. As a side note, I did try to read Bardugo’s earlier Grisha trilogy (set in the same world) and didn’t get far. It seems less mature than Six of Crows and I don’t want to spoil that experience.

5. The Selection by Kiera Cass. I am usually not ashamed of my reading choices, no matter how unclassy they may be**, but I did consider not putting this one on my Goodread shelf. I mean, a book about a reality show where 35 girls compete to marry the prince of a future North American kingdom? A main character called America Singer?? The cover features a girl in a long frilly gown and no matter how much I love dresses, this really isn’t my thing. The series has lots of ardent fans, however, so I decided to read it for this round-up. Maybe because my expectations were extremely low, I didn’t hate it in the end. The set-up is of course ridiculous (or maybe a bit less ridiculous now in Trump’s America?), the world-building flimsy and the plot consists entirely of coincidences, but I can see why people like it. I would not recommend this to anyone with standards, but I admit I had fun reading it and it goes very fast. I’m even sort-of considering reading the two sequels, but the likelihood that the entire second volume will consist of an agonizing love triangle*** is putting me off.

6. Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I expected this one to be much more my thing, but I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about Cinder. This is a Cinderella retelling that takes place in New Beijing, with our heroine a cyborg mechanic (detachable foot alert!) and the prince facing a threat from the Lunar kingdom. I’m not a fan of retellings, but that wasn’t my main issue – it’s not a close retelling anyway. I felt that it was a bit of a mish-mash of things with lots of potential going untapped. Why put the story in New Beijing if there is nothing to distinguish it from New York? Why make Cinder a kick-ass mechanic and then ruin it all with the most tiresome case of instalove (here I go again)? On the plus side, it’s still more interesting than most of YA out there and I think that I could get on board with it, if a little depth and thought is added. I still plan to read the second book (there are 4 novels in total, I think, plus short stories in the same universe), as this felt very much like a set-up and it’s too early to judge the series based on one book.

7. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. This is certainly one of the more intelligent YA books out there and it ticks several of my personal boxes: an interesting magical system, a heroine who wants to become a pirate, four different Londons (Grey, Black, White, Red) mirroring each other, a very special coat and a quiet man who might be very bad, but might in fact actually be suffering terribly and not be bad at all. I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t love it as much as I expected – it is well written and interesting and there are no embarrassing attitudes on display. I did like it, though, and if your main problem with YA is that it’s usually way too childish for you, this is definitely worth a try. The third one in the series has just come out, so I plan to catch up.

8. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Well, I said earlier that you should know your poison if you want your YA-reading to be successful. There are always exceptions, however. Dystopias and Roman-inspired settings are definitely not my thing, but I liked Sabaa Tahir’s book a lot. In the end, it’s all about HOW you do it and her totalitarian, military world is well realised. While the themes are very much the usual YA – forbidden love, an insanely hard-core school, parents from hell – it is deeper and more nuanced than most of the genre. It is also quite dark and occasionally agonising to read, but it’s welcome that the book doesn’t make a scholar girl spying on the military leaders of the Empire sound like a walk in the park. I liked the political-societal side of the story and appreciated that I wasn’t sure until the very end where the plot was going. The sequel came out recently and is on my list.

9. The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi. I had high hopes for this one, as I am always interested in YA/fantasy/SF based on non-Western cultures. The inspiration from India and the young, cursed queen who finds her power in an unlikely place sounded like a fantastic premise to me. Unfortunately, the execution just doesn’t match the concept. I did like some elements (the weirdest ever talking horse alert!), but the lyrical language kept crossing over to pretentious babbling; the mystical world had promise but was totally underdeveloped; I hated the way relationships between women were portrayed and the plot didn’t make much sense either. If there is a sequel, I’m not going to read it.

10. The Night Circus by Erin Morgernstern. I’m not entirely sure if this qualifies as YA**** – I think the appeal is wider, but I feel it makes sense to include it. I’m also not entirely sure where the JK Rowling comparisons came from, as I can see no common ground between Harry Potter and The Night Circus except that both involve magic in some form. This is a slow, quiet, intricate book about atmosphere rather than the plot or even the love story between the two magicians. I very much enjoyed the dreamy Wunderkammer feel and the descriptions of the circus, the gardens, contraptions, dishes, scents, houses, dresses and dinners (some of them magical). Whether you’ll like the book will mostly depend on to what extent the mental aesthetic of the book matches yours. Or whether you like to think about such things at all, to conceptualise them. I enjoy planning perfect masked balls in my head, matching my perfume to my mood and devising 5-course dinners with flamingos as centre pieces. I think that tendency of mine is the main reason I enjoyed it, but if you’re a cynical pragmatist, I doubt this will be for you.

*I probably overuse this word, but it captures the problems I have with many YA (and not only YA) romances. Not that instant attraction isn’t possible, but it should feel believable. And I just prefer a slow burn myself.
** Trust me, they can be very unclassy.
***I despise unconvincing love triangles almost as much as I despise instalove.
****It’s also the only stand-alone on this list.