Yay for YA!

I have recently discovered the wonder that is YA literature. Well, I say that but it's only partially true. Perhaps I should rephrase that. I have recently discovered how much I enjoy YA books by many different authors. Yes, that is more accurate.

I have been a fan of Tamora Pierce for many years. I received my first of her books, Wild Magic, for Christmas when I was a teen and loved it. I have since become a regular reader of all her books, and I own just about all of them. I tend to reread them a lot, and more than one is starting to wear along the binding. Other than Tamora Pierce, I had never really given YA books much thought. In fact, it wasn't until a couple of years ago that I made the connection that her books fell into the YA category. Since then, I've sloooooowly started exposing myself (in a G-rated way) to YA literature. I read and loved (and bought) the Hunger Games trilogy, and somewhat to my chagrin bought and read the books of the Twlight Series almost as soon they came out. Hey, everyone has a guilty pleasure. And besides, the books were way better than the movies.

And now, over the last few months, I've been diving into YA and reading almost anything I can get my hands on. Some of what I've chosen I picked because of its popularity, some of what I've chosen have been serendipitous finds that were sitting on the library shelf as I was browsing. It's been an eclectic mix of YA distopia (would that be considered a genre?), YA fantasy/sci-fi, and YA fiction. I'm a fantasy/sci-fi girl at heart, so my favorites have of course been from that genre, although I've very much enjoyed books from other genres too. I'm well beyond my teenage years, but I find the emotional and physical struggles of the characters to be interesting, compelling, and mirrors of some of my own struggles. Some challenges we face as teens never really go away and continue to come to the fore over and over again, so I find myself relating to the feelings and thoughts of many of the protagonists. And some of these books are just awesome stories in their own right.

For the other fantasy/sci-fi folks out there that might be willing to take a dip in the YA lit pool, here are a few titles you can try out to see if YA would appeal to you.

Graceling and Fire by Kristin Cashore (Fire is a companion to Graceling, not a true sequel)
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr