Hello Loves!
Since I listed my favourite Children's Books yesterday, today we look at some of my favourite Young Adult Books I read in 2021.
I really like the list I have curated here. A mix of India and elsewhere.
Amazing books, good for teen and great for not-teens.
Let's get started.
1. The Truly Devious Series by Maureen Johnson: OK this is a little bit of a cheat since it's three books instead of one, but this whole series was read, well binged in pretty much one swift week. Three books all great. This series revolves around a cold case from 1936. Iris Ellingham and her daughter, three-year-old Alice, left for a drive on a spring day in 1936. They never returned home. Iris' husband, industrialist and millionaire, Albert Ellingham, left no stone unturned to find his wife and daughter, but to no avail. Ellingham Academy, the special school for gifted children and home to the Ellinghams, which is still open after almost 100 years forms the backdrop for the events of these books. The setting and backdrop for these stories is steeped in history and tragedy, which makes these books so atmospheric.
A full review for the entire series can be found here.
4/5
A solid read that I think you'll enjoy.
2. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo: I love books by this writer. I have read two of her previous books and I really enjoy the stories she tells and the people and places and situations she writes about. I also adore her style of mixing prose and poetry. This book was a powerful look at grief after the loss of a loved and about two sisters, one in New York and the other in the Dominican Republic, who find out about each other's existence following the death of their father in a plane crash. It's so well done, this sense of betrayal and the weight of secrets. Moving and stirring and a wonderful to ode an unexpected sisterhood.
4/5
I highly recommend this author in general too. Do check out her work.
3. The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky: I loved this book. It took me by surprise how much I enjoyed the ride this book took me on. This book is a mix between Gossip Girl style super upper crust, upper east side school shenanigans and secret club, severe pranks, horror films and a mystery. Very enjoyable and fast paced and thoroughly entertaining. This was such good fun and I made a long list of old horror films I need to watch.
4/5
4. Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas: I felt so silly when I was 12% in this book and suddenly I realized that this was a prequel to THUG..aka The Hate You Give. Silly me! That little belated realization made me immediately love this book more. Set 17 years before the events of THUG, this book is about Starr's dad and when he was a teenager and dealing with being a single dad out of the blue. How he deals with the pressures of parenthood and acting like an adult and being a member of a gang all while still being a child himself. A moving and genuinely real look at a hard life. This book was wonderful, great to be back in a familiar world. So good.
4/5
5. Saira Zariwala is Afraid by Shabnam Minwalla: A mystery. A little spooky. And a protagonist who reminded me so much of who I was as a teenager. The mystery was nicely done and I also really enjoyed spending time with Saira, her friends and family.
4/5
A full review can be read here.
This book was sent to me by the publisher for review, so thank-you Harper Collins.
6. A People's History of Heaven by Mathangi Subramanian: This book is both a young adult read and then some, what I mean by that is that this book while features characters that are teens, I guess it possibly falls under the genre of literary fiction. You know books that have young adult characters but aren't strictly young adult books? I hope I am making sense. This was a great read, real and gritty and not at all sugar coated. It is an important read and one I think is great for teens and adults. A wonderful and diverse cast of characters that you find yourself rooting for. So nicely done!
4/5
A full review for this is also up on the blog, find it here.
7. Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson: This writer has been one of my happy discoveries this year. I read two of her books and loved them both, this one I loved a little bit better. This author takes real life cases and situations and writes around them. So there is a certain familiarity with her work and the stories she tells. This one is about a young, talented black girl who is seduced by a hip-hop superstar. Sounds familiar? Yes, it's sorta like the Aaliyah and that horrible man R. Kelly. This book takes inside the mind of a young girl enamored with a man who really should have done better. It shows the power dynamic and the manipulation that comes when there is an age difference between a "couple" and of course when one of the people is a minor.
Really good.
4/5
8. Mirror Mirror by Andaleeb Wajid: This book is so important, not just for teenage girls grappling with body image issues but for every woman who has been there and is quite possibly still there, feeling less than good about how she looks and how much she weighs. I loved the message of this book, how it tackles issues with body image and how to navigate these issues. Nicely and realistically done this book was such a heartfelt and warm read. Plus, I really liked the family at the heart of this novel. Even the supporting characters were all wonderful. A good book full of mostly all good people.
4/5
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