Article contributed by Marta Paraschiv
If you love reading YA books, but you’re also looking to expand your reading tastes, you are just in the right place! Or you might feel like you have outgrown the YA genre somewhat, but you don’t really know where to start when it comes to adult books. Either way, I understand you perfectly and that’s why I came up with this list of adult fiction books that can appeal to readers that aren’t quite familiar to the genre and they can also ease your transition from young adult books to adult books if that’s what you want. There is no better time to get into a new genre than right now as we have more time to read due to the current state of our world. Hopefully, you will be able to do just that with the books that I’m recommending right now!
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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This is very accessible due to its format – it’s told in interviews and it focuses on a rock band (Daisy Jones & The Six) describing how they became famous and why they split up. What I liked the most about this book is how you can easily imagine that this band existed at some point because of how realistic the characters and the conflicts between them are. Reid’s writing is as great as always, but I might be biased as she’s one of my favourite authors of all the time. I think this book would be great for someone who’s getting familiar to the adult genre – and you can also try the audiobook which is very popular among the readers due to its full cast.
Normal People by Sally Rooney
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Normal People tells the story of Marianne and Connell, who get involved in a secret relationship during their senior year of high-school and then continue to have this on-and-off relationship during college. They come from very different backgrounds – Marianne is rich, but unpopular, while Connell is somewhat of a jock, but comes from a poor family. This book is very character-driven, each of the protagonist is on a self-discovery journey and while their life-styles keep on changing, something remains constant – their relationship and how drawn they are to each other. The movie adaptation will come out this year as well, so you might want to prepare in advance for it by reading the book!
Lie With Me by Philippe Besson
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This is a beautiful and raw book about first love, plus it’s very short which means you can easily get into it and finish it within days. It plays a lot into the saying that you can never quite forget your first love – the book is about Thomas and Philippe who fall in love in 1980 and then get separated at the end of high-school because of their quite different aspirations. There’s a lot of longing, heartbreak, and you’ll want to keep on reading to find out what’s going to happen next to these two. Because it has so much to do with teenage love, I think it’s a great transition from YA to adult.
If We Were Villains by M.L.Rio
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This one is so mysterious and captivating that it’s hard not to enjoy every page of it. It focuses on seven actors that are studying Shakespeare at an elite college – in the vein of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, it’s as pretentious as it sounds. The relationships between the characters are very explosive, there is murder, envy, obsession, and the book is going to keep you guessing, keep you questioning the morality of every character and whether they are innocent or not.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
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Margaret Atwood is a brilliant writer, but I admit that I’ve been quite intimidated by her for a very long due to the raving reviews and how much everyone loves her. I started reading The Handmaid’s Tale after watching the TV show and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The book is so relevant even today with its brave feminist themes, the way it handles censorship ,and generally it has subjects that you will keep on thinking about even after you’re done with the book.
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel
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Listening to the audiobook of Sleeping Giants is an out-of-the-world experience even for those of us who don’t listen to audiobooks in general. I recommend you read it in that format because the reading experience will be enhanced in that way! It’s very fast-paced and the world is very unique! It’s about a scientist who discovered in her childhood the hand of a very odd robot – later on, when she’s all grown-up, she leads this team of experts on a mission to find all of the pieces of this robot in order to put it all together and find its purpose. Everything is more complicated than that though as there are political intrigues, conflicts between the members of the team and the mystery of the origin of this robot – is it alien? Is it something else? What can they do with it?
