For The Love & Perks of Reading YA Fiction

For The Love: I absolutely love YA fiction! In fact, I rarely read anything else other than YA fiction. I mean, yes, I do happen to read the occasional Non-Fiction and Middle Grade Reader books and all, but overall I prefer to read YA literature and the various branches and genres that lie therein. I love how adventurous and imaginative and fearless the characters and the authors in the YA field are. I'll be honest, adult fiction usually bores me to tears (sans a few books), mostly I assume because I am such a dreamer myself (a true idealist really), an unrequited lover of fairytales and otherwordly settings which dwell beyond the usual realms of possible...or is it plausible?...adult belief (except those authors of which of course are adult YA fiction writers.) I decidedly like to dwell somewhere, through finely woven stories, in between dreams and sweet fantastical improbability. YA literature is the gateway to that reckless abandon, so full of dreams, and that anything-goes-because there-aren't-any-rules mentality. Oh, and the vividry of escapism into a time of youth! Yes, I simply love it. 

Honestly, I feel kind of weird admitting (just like my blogger friend Kristin did in her post) that I truly enjoy reading YA fiction, even more so than mainstream adult fiction. And the reason for this is mostly because I was never the typical teenager, nor did I face most issues that are dealt with in YA literature. I mean, I've always got along with my family swimmingly. I was never the angsty or rebellious teenager, and I always took a book with me to friends' birthday parties growing up, just because that was how I rolled. So, I was always the "different" kind of teenager who couldn't relate to many YA characters growing up, but now I just so happen to looooove reading about them, especially if their story is set as a fantasy, or in outer space or in an alternate world or even in a different historical time period altogether. 

So, yeah, even though I rarely, if ever, have identified with YA characters growing up as a teenager myself, I absolutely love reading about them now! Now, usually I read nothing but YA fiction. I love the coming-of-age story, and the budding romances and, again, the reckless abandon that storms across the plethora of pages in most YA fiction nowadays. Really, I just love YA fiction versus all other fiction genres. Probably because I myself love to read YA fiction, and I love to write in this medium too. YA fiction opens up my mind to imagination's flight, and I cannot stop the dream-train, for it is far too alluring not to do so. At least I think so.

For The Perks: Reading through the lives of other fictional, yes fictional, teenagers fuels my mind and soul with so much wonder that I can barely contain myself. I love seeing a "story-life" through the eyes of teenage or young adult characters in other worlds, or even sometimes set in our own world. I really do. Like I said up above earlier, the realms of YA are not afraid to travel outside the box of normalcy, which is utterly exciting to me. I mean, YA novels/authors are not afraid to abandon all and just dream wide open. This, my friends, is why I read YA fiction, and I will continue to do so until the day I die. I want to be the incessant dreamer, the proverbial portrait of the literary idealist, and the young woman who is grown up enough in appearance, but never truly is at heart. See, there are perks aplenty with YA lit! Please say you'll pick up a YA book now, will you?

Below are some of my favorite YA authors/books...

YA Books I Love (in no particular order):
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
The Healer's Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Holes by Louis Sachar
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Replication: The Jason Experiment by Jill Williamson
A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle

YA Series I Love (in no particular order):
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry
The Wrinkle In Time Quintet by Madeleine L'Engle
Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
Swipe Series by Evan Angler
DragonKeeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul
Angelaeon Circle Series by Karyn Henley
River of Time Series by Lisa T. Bergren
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
The Earthsea Cycle by Ursula K. Le Guin 
The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
The Door Within Trilogy by Wayne Thomas Batson
The Shadowmancer + The Wormwood Series by G.P. Taylor


YA Books I'm Currently Reading:

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Guardian by Heather Burch *review coming soon to the blog!

So, what about you? Do you love YA fiction as much as I do? What are your fave YA books? Do YOU have any YA book suggestions to share with us here at the nest? 

I love to chat about books and authors and YA fiction, so feel free to converse of such things at your leisure!

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If you like YA fiction too, Beth Revis, author of the Across The Universe Trilogy, is hosting a huge book giveaway on her blog! Seriously, there are tons of signed YA books up for grabs! 

Find out more info about the YA Book Giveaway HERE

4 comments:

  1. Lovely post! I was totally going to mention Melanie Dickerson's two books in mine, but only remembered after I had published it and I was too lazy to go back and change things. :)

    I have Waterfall (from the River of Time series) and I'm so anxious to start it after the good things I've heard, but then I know I'll have to have the rest of the series afterwards and I can't afford them all right now. :) {I wish I had snatched up the first few when they were bargain book priced on Amazon!}

    ~Kristin

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    1. Kristin, you're gonna loooooove Waterfall! And I know what you mean! I hate starting a series if I don't already have all of the books. Goodness do I ever panic when I read book #1 of a brand new series and then find out I have to wait like 6 months to a year to read book #2. It's crazy!

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  2. The Night Circus and Beautiful Creatures are both fantastic. Though I should have a tad of a disclaimer because I have yet to actually finish Night Circus *sadness*. Just so busy and other people seem to always have it checked out!
    But, right now I'm reading Anna Karenina and, if nothing else, I just love Tolstoy's voice. The narration and the way the words flow, it's something that kind of doesn't happen much anymore.
    Now that I think about it...I really want to re read Beautiful Creatures and finish the rest of the series. One of the best books I read the year it came out!

    blessings~

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    1. I haven't had much time to make it through The Night Circus lately either, mostly because when I start to read it (or listen to the audio version) I love nothing more than to get lost in the world of Celia and Marco and forget the dull real world. Sigh. I also secretly love just how rebellious Erin Morgenstern is as an authoress! I mean, she breaks nearly every writing rule, and she does it splendidly and with such dazzling panache! We'll have to swap thoughts on TNC after we've both finished reading it, Siri! =)

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