Sophia's Guide to Young Adult Books

The House of the Scorpion was one of the best YA reading experiences I have ever had. It is the wildest book ever: It follows a young boy right after he finds out that he is actually the clone of one of the biggest Mexican drug lords. The premise is crazy and the book does not disappoint. The writing is compelling and will keep you turning the pages until the end.

The Fault in Our Stars is the closest you can get to a YA modern classic. It is the gold standard for books involving sick teens in love and nothing has surpassed it. The book also stands for all of John Green's books, which all hold a place in this category (arguably, with the exception of Katherines, but that's a bit more subjective). Green writes with a hightened language that shows he respects his readers and does not have low expectations from teenagers. Even YA avoiders should read John Green.

Better Than the Movies is better than half the adult rom-coms I have read. It will have you genuinely cry and laugh, and never once does it underestimate its readers in language or subject matter. Although lighter than the other two books, it most definitely does not disappoint and ranks among one of my top books of the year and top rom-coms ever.

As the cover will tell you, Twilight is an international bestseller and a cultural phenomenon. There is nothing more stereotypically YA then this vampire romance saga. If we are being honest, these books are not good. They started off as fan fiction, which should be the first indicator, and read like fan fiction. It's cheap and dumb and as cheezy as cheezy gets. However, once you can look past all of its red flags, The Twilight Saga is a fun time. The romance will have you cringe and swoon at the same time. It's one of those series made up of true bricks that you get through in an afternoon.

10 Blind Dates is one of those books where you know where the story is going to go as soon as you pick it up. Very arguably, its most impressive feat is that Sophie manages to go on so many dates and never once are you fooled about what will happen at the end. In no way is this book brilliant, but it is a cute little story that is perfect for a snowy afternoon during winter break. I think the story shines with Sophie's family and Ashley Elston does a fantastic job developing them and their relationships. There is a wild number of people in this book and yet you know them all by name pretty quickly.

Confession time: I prefer the Netflix limited-series adaptation over the book, ten times out of ten. However, that does not make Dash and Lily's Book of Dares a waste of your time. It's still got New York, The Strand, the dares, a Christmas-loving Lily and Grinch Dash. But it also has them getting arrested, cooking show aunts, and too much "mommy app" action for its own good. I would say that the limited-series fixed everything wrong with the book. But all of the little problems in the adaptation are not problems in the book. It's a cute little time and will get you in the spirit of Christmas, in it's weird, cringey, YA way.

I have nothing against middle grade fiction. I am a very big fan of the School for Good and Evil series, for example. However, I like to know that I am reading middle grade so that I am ready for it. The Inheritance Games is the most middle grade- nay, fifth grade- book I have ever read. It is so basic from its language to plot. It felt like literal torture to read this book and it feels extremely insulting that someone would label this as YA. This is a book that gives YA a bad name and I would prefer if it didn't associate with classics like The Fault in Our Stars.

American Royals is a book with a fantastic premise: What if the United States was a monarchy? It is very unfortunate that it was so poorly excecuted. The book is full of drama, which I very much appreciated. My main problems with it are the writing style. The author simply did not wow me. The writing felt cluncky and did not flow at all. I remember having a massive reading slump while reading this one. In short, it is another one that because of the excecution, feels like a bit of an insult as a YA book.

I would call One of Us is Lying the most disappointing of them all. It started off great. The set up was good, the characters were very mildly interesting but still interesting enough. Then, evidence is gathered that clearly points to solution and all of the characters furstraitingly continue blindly trying to solve the whodunit that has clearly already been solved. If I was annoyed about figuring out the Evelyn Hugo twist thirty pages early, don't even get me started on how I felt about the eternity it took them to figure it out (especially when it wasn't even one of the main four who did figure it out).