Most Popular Young Adult Novels of Recent Time: Best YA Novels

Unless you have been living under a rock, or you were just born there is probably not any chance that you haven’t heard about the Twilight phenomenon. The Twilight series by Stepenie Meyer started the big vampire and werewolf craze that took over the media from 2008-2012. It all began with the Twilight series and then expanded into television shows such as “Teen Wolf”, “True Blood”, and “The Vampire Diaries.” Eventually the book series would be made into a series of movies grossing hundreds of millions of dollars, starring Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart.

The Twilight series follows teen Bella Swan as she falls in love with a mind reading and glittering vampire named Edward Cullen. As Bella ventures further into Edward’s vampire world she meets other mythical creatures such as her shape shifting best friend Jacob, who just happens to shape shift into a wolf. A love triangle begins between Bella, Edward, and Jacob and a romantic adventure series was born.

Twilight wasn’t just for young adults it became quite popular with adult women too. Stepenie Meyer wrote another book not in the twilight series and it was also made into a movie but it did not find the success that the Twilight series found.

The Hunger Games series was told over three separate novels. The first being called “The Hunger Games”, the second being “Catching Fire”, and the last book being named “Mockingjay.” The Hunger Games trilogy was written by Suzanne Collins, and it became the next “big thing” after Twilight’s success.

The series is set somewhere in North America after much of the continent has been destroyed by what… we never quite find out. The continent has been divided into twelve districts and it is now known as Panem. Adding a strange survivor and reality TV twist to the plot of the story, it follows a young girl, Katniss, and a young boy, Peeta, as they are thrust into the yearly hunger games. Each district must select one boy and one girl to compete in a competition for the ultimate survival known as the Hunger Games. The contestants literally battle to the death, with only one competitor living.

Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series takes a strange look into society’s fixation on reality TV and the survivor like shows that have popped up over the current years. It’s a unique story that has now been made into four feature films starring Jennifer Lawrence. The films have been widely successful and may ever surpass the Twilight movies.

Not long after The Hunger Games entered the mainstream it was followed by the Divergent series written by Veronica Roth. The Divergent series extends over three novels. This dystopian trilogy follows the protagonist Tris, as she is forced to make a very important life choice at a very young age. The city she lives in has been divided into factions and she must choose the faction that she will remain in for the rest of her life. When Tris makes her choice she is thrown into an unknown world with a handsome stranger. The factions soon begin warring against each other and the trilogy follows the faction wars and the growth of her love story.

The Divergent series is currently being made into a movie franchise with the first movie already being released. With the success of the first movie, there is no doubt that the movie will be made into a series similar to it predecessors Twilight and Hunger Games.

This story is very different from the previously named novels. This story does not involve a dystopian world or a world of mythical creatures. This story follows a simple girl and her real life experiences. There is nothing mythical or fantastical about this story. “Fault in Our Stars” is a very raw and real look into the life of a terminally ill young teenage girl who is dying from cancer. It follows the girl as she falls in love knowning that it won’t last because of her mortality. This novel written by John Green follows Hazel and her love story as she falls in love with Gus at a Cancer Support meeting.

This novel has recently been made into a feature film starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort. The movie has done very well in theaters and is known to be one of the best movies of recent time to be adapted from a book. The movie stays very true to the book, which makes book lovers and movie goers very happy.

How can anyone have a best young adult novels of recent time list without including Harry Potter. Harry Potter took over the world from 2001 to today. It is a seven series novel following a young boy named Harry Potter, who is a wizard learning the trades of being magical. Readers grow up with Harry and his other wizard friends in the world of Hogwarts. The friends learn the wand wielding trade as the series continues, each novel getting a little more mature. Written by J.K. Rowling, this beyond successful book series has been turned into a movie series of eight highly popular movies.

The world of Harry Potter has also been developed into an amusement park world at The Universal Studios Theme Park in Orlando Florida. If you are a fan of Harry you can be transported into his magical world.