YA Literature

I'm 24 years old, but I'm not ashamed to say, I still enjoy me some Young Adult literature. Yes, my interest in reading about stupid high school characters has dwindled, but there is no denying there is something special about YA fiction. I am walking myself down memory lane here to give props to the authors and the books that molded me into the eclectic reader that I am today. Once a TAB member, always a...creepy old person reading teen books. I'll try to only include the older stuff, to cut down on this list being too long and depressingly revealing about how few friends I had.

1. Christopher Golden: Body of Evidence series
2. Caroline B. Cooney: Janie Johnson series, Both Sides of Time
3. Christopher Pike: The Last Vampire, The Starlight Crystal, Final Friends
4. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes: In The Forests of the Night (and everything else she wrote)
5. Vivian Vande Velde: Never Trust a Dead Man, Heir Apparent
6. Annette Curtis Klause: Blood & Chocolate, The Silver Kiss
7. Susan Cooper: The Dark Is Rising series
8. Robin McKinley: Spindle's End, Sunshine, Rose Daughter, Beauty
9. Joan Lowery Nixon: The Gift (probably more? she wrote 100 or so books)
10. Francine Pascal: Sweet Valley High, Fearless
11. Tamora Pierce: Song of the Lioness series, The Immortals series
12. L.J. Smith: The Vampire Diaries, Night World, The Secret Circle, Dark Visions
13. R.L. Stine: Fear Street, Goosebumps, 13 Tales of Horror
14. Scott Westerfeld: Peeps, Uglies, So Yesterday
15. Anne McCaffrey: Acorna, The Crystal Singer trilogy
16. V.C. Andrews: The Dollanganger series, the Orphans series, the Logan series, the Wildflowers series
17. Katherine Applegate: The Animorphs, Everworld series (got a free cd with my purchase of the first book)

most awesome covers ever

So yeah, not a complete list or anything, but this is what I was doing from ages 10ish to 16ish. And why I know far too much about vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and mythology in general. Also, I have to specially mention The Girl in the Box by Ouida Sebestyen, which was basically the most terrifying thing ever. The (not) ending still haunts me.

What were your favorite YA books/authors?

24

I was born on this day 24 years ago! God, that's depressing. I'm almost 25. Not that I'm feeling female vanity or anything, it just doesn't feel like I should be an adult yet. And yet, here I am, 24. Teenagers don't know half the music I grew up listening to. I often get this thing called acid reflux. And hangovers. I remember life before texting, and cellphones, and the internet.

I'm old:(

But at least I'm past the Blink 182 curse (Nobody likes you when you're 23).