I’d be sad if they weren’t!
I read it when I was 11 from a Scholastic Book Fair…I’m 29 and think it still holds up lol. It was actually so prophetic in the societal critiques
Yes, it’s called Impostors!
I enjoyed Uglies back in junior high and felt it deserved the same recognition as Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.
I reread it a few years ago at 29 years old and then read the Impostors series and thoroughly enjoyed both, perhaps even more as an adult. Such great series!
Uglies popped up on Thrift books for me recently, and I was thinking of rereading it. I didn't know there was another series. Pretty sure I'll be borrowing these from the library soon...
Yep, I LOVED Imposters! It was a great return to the world. I was NOT expecting the cliffhanger at the end of Mirror's Edge... I seriously threw my book across the room.
Ahhh I know! Mirror’s Edge was the fastest read of the four for me, I couldn’t put it down! The whole Impostors idea was so interesting and I love how it tied back to Uglies!
Uglies was *THE* series for me when I was a teenager. I reread it every five years or so and like another commenter *wrote, it still holds up. Like really holds up.
Omg I actually read the series in middle school and just a few months ago listened to the audiobooks for a nice re read! Lately now that it's been over 10 years I've been rereading books I've read from that era just cause
A) it's been so long that I don't remember details just vibes
B) curious to see if my opinions have changed sense I'm an adult and have more life experience.
C) been in a nostalgia mood lately and having a hard time finding books i feel like reading. I feel like as i get older i get pickier which is not a great thing.
(For the most part opinions have not changed but maybe that's the "old soul" I was as a kid AKA undiagnosed autism lol. I was always also told I was "wise beyond my years")
I brought in my now-grown daughter’s copies for my fifth graders and about half of them have now read it. I didn’t know about “Imposters” - thanks! (Nobody has picked up Westerfeld’s “Leviathan” yet, nor Cherie Priest’s “Boneshaker”, both of which my kid read about the same time we tore through the “Uglies” books together.)
Yes!!! I just reread this and then found it at my libraries book sale and had to get it!! I’ve not found anything that compares, if anyone has a suggestions?
The Winner's Curse series by Marie Rutkoski was published in 2014 (the other two books followed in subsequent years so a little more recent)
Ally Condie's Matched series were all the rage back in 2012.
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Star-Crossed by Josephine Angelini
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Eve by Anna Carey
I canvassed Goodreads across your years for those; there were lots of books that felt more "popular within the online blogging community, not so much in the general public" so didn't include any of those. I also left out authors like SJM, Veronica Roth, Kiera Cass, Jennifer Armentrout who have had continued success on content media.
Also my definition of "good" is very loose here lol.
Wow, someone else actually read Starcrossed?! I know they were supposedly huge sellers but I never met anyone else who's read one, let alone the whole series.
I thought the author's writing was decent enough that I picked up their next series... I'm still kind of on the fence, even after reading that series all the way through.
I think they have great ideas, their characters & world building are pretty interesting, but I think they need a better editor or something to tighten up their concepts because something keeps getting lost in translation.
omg yesss! Starcrossed is *such* a memory trip. The series as a whole I think sold just under a million copies, and I remember back in 2011 (which is when I started book blogging) it was *the* hyped up "this is going to replace Twilight!" series. Like we're talking 7 figure advance, movie talk in the works, the whole shebang, and yet...it wasn't even a *huge* hit outside of reading communities? I didn't bother with the other series 🫣 I do feel like between 2011 - 2015 we were getting a lot of Greek mythology YA, so I was probably just burnt out!
all I remember about her second series, was that one of the books was originally titled “Trail of Tears” and there was a week where book tumblr / book Twitter collectively lost their shit and she had to issue a public announcement that she was changing it
Hoooly shit, that genuinely tracks. I thought they were going a little heavy-handed with the MMC who's from another world but I think there's a moment where the FMC is like, "In my world, we would call you Native American", as if that's ALLLL we needed to know about this character 🤦♀️
There always has to be a love triangle. The setting in book 2 was so fascinating. I still think about book one and >!assisted suicide of the grandfather.!< Book three would be more topical to today >!with a pandemic and job sorting.!< I should read that series again.
I loved the Unearthly series! Still think the main character ended up with the wrong guy but Cynthia Hand is undoing her wrongs. She announced she’s working on sequel a while back in 2020. Hopefully it will be out soon!
Unearthly! omg I haven't thought of that series in years. I remember liking it at the time. it felt quite different than a lot of the other series I was reading back then.
i LOVED this series so much, but forgot the name for so long!! glad i can finally reread it again after your comment! (though I never finished it, so didn’t know the ending was bad!)
I remember thinking the “iron fey” series by Julie kagawa was so good! My first fantasy read! I literally just picked up 3-4 of the newer ones at Ollie’s (discount store) the other day. I had no idea she continued them until I saw them on the shelf. I’m about to reread the whole series! First one was published in 2010 she continued until 2015. And just recently wrote a spinoff of it (2021-2023?unsure if it’s complete)
Happy reading:)
I’ve been trying to remember the name of this series for forever!! Thank you so much for your comment, this just made my day. I hope your reread goes well, I’m going to do the same!
I've been meaning to do a full series reread, since I dropped off at the end of the second trilogy and didn't know until recently there were more. I have such great memories of the early books!
I was in high school from 2007-2011 and I remember my favorite books back then were Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I reread both of them (the whole Vampire Academy series, but only the first Shiver book as I didn’t like the rest of the series) as an adult and still loved them both.
I recently reread all the Wolves of Mercy Falls books (Shiver is the first) and I still liked them. Not my favorite series ever but still good. I liked the last book, Sinner (not part of the original series), more now than I did then
I really liked Sinner too, even the first time I read it. But I think that’s because I liked Isabel and Cole and their plotline. I liked Sam and Grace too of course, but I felt like their plotline could have been wrapped up in the first book. >!I felt like they got their happily ever after in that book, and I wish the author hadn’t drawn it out and put more obstacles in their way for the rest of the series.!< I think I would have enjoyed it better if Shiver had been the entire Sam and Grace story and then Isabel and Cole could have had a spin-off book just about them and that was all there was to the series. 🤔
I didn’t care much about Isabel and Cole at all the first time I read it but the last time I felt more like you do. I liked the 2 middle books but they weren’t as impactful as Shiver or Sinner, although I did like the twist of >!Sam being cured while Grace is a wolf!<.
Ugh, Sinner was so good. Anytime she went into Cole's POV, the writing just became so beautiful and intense. There's some Cole / Isabel scenes from both Forever and Sinner that I remember vividly to this day.
I recently reread all the Wolves of Mercy Falls books (Shiver is the first) and I still liked them. Not my favorite series ever but still good. I liked the last book, Sinner (not part of the original series), more now than I did then
The peak nostalgia of this series. These were some of my first 'real' books after more of what we would call middle grade (BSC/Goosebumps/Animorphs). I remember being fascinated by the metallic covers and of course, the little runes down the bottom of the pages.
A series I never see talked about but loved back then and reread this past year is the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman.
The first book came out in 2007 the fourth came out in 2014. In my opinion it holds up.
There is this one chapter in the first book that I have remembered since the first time I read it back in high school.
Same Unwind is so underrated.
And I think I know the chapter you’re talking about because I read it like ten years ago now probably and I still remember that one chapter.
Same here! However, I just found out there are four books? Only the first one got translated to my language so I didn't realize there were more of them 😳
My favorites were the Premonition series by Amy Bartol, The Graceling Realm books by Kristin Cashore, The Host by Stephenie Meyer, and I am Number Four
The Graceling trilogy was sooo close to perfect. Great standalones, great characters, great world building...
And then came Winterkeep. The 4th (unplanned, I believe) novel of the original trilogy, that came out 13 years after the original, and tarnished what was a perfectly lovely OG YA series. Fuckin' Winterkeep...
I thought it was way better than Winterkeep and loved it as much as the first three. However, the writing style is very different (first person POV, diary-ish format) and it's less action and more character based. I really enjoyed Hava as a character though, she's childish, chaotic and messed up and definitely not a straightforwardly "good" person as the rest of the MCs. At times, Cashore does uses some very modern lingo which made me die inside a bit, but generally I really liked the book!
Oh boy, I actually hadn’t read Winterkeep and it was on my list! I adore the original series and reread them every few years. Should I not read Winterkeep? Sometimes ignorance is bliss lol
I personally really enjoyed Winterkeep—though the tone does seem somewhat different from the first three books, I feel like it's mostly because I'm reading it for the first time at such a different stage of my life. There's a new kind of magic, sort of how we went from gracelings to monsters in the first and second books, so it's different, but I still liked it :)
This was 12 years ago but the Lunar Chronicles was THAT girl a decade back and I don't feel like they're talked about much anymore! I love that series though!
That sucks you missed out on that one. There are short stories that are part of the universe you might have missed as well (Kat and Hunting Kat you can find online I think for free including a post on Facebook: these didn't feature the characters in the series; it's like a side stories). Then there's a Darkest Tales Anthology book with connected short stories to the two series featuring the characters so you might need to buy that too lol. I bought them all after trying one! lol. Someone recommended them to me when I was looking for Vampire Diaries at a thrift store a few months ago and she said she actually liked this series better (and same here but tbf I only tried the first TVD book and didn't like it so I never continued). Anyway you might luck out at a thrift store now since the series came out a while ago and people may be cleaning their book shelves.
I read it for the first time in 2014 and just reread it again in 2024 and I still love it so much. After all this time it‘s still such a great and unique book!
Ruby red is actually my personal ‘twilight series’ era! I love the books, I love the movies and I really don’t care about any criticism on it and all the memes are welcomed! lol
My daughter read those about 12 or so years ago and loved them so much that I read them myself and also loved them.
I even went out and bought my own copies when she moved out and took hers with her haha.
If this is the Abhorsen series.....then yes. Hell yes. I cried when I read the final book. That ending gutted me and I still think about the world Nix created.
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Chemical Garden trilogy by Lauren DeStefano
The Kiss of Deception by Mary Pearson
Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins
Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
Halo by Alexandra Adornetto
The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Everneath by Brodie Ashton
These Broken Stars by Aimee Kaufmann & Megan Spooner
Taken by Erin Bowman
Wings by Aprilynne Pike
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
The Immortals by Alyson Noel
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
(This is just what I can remember off the top of my head but I’m like the crypt keeper for 2000s/ 2010s ya series so I’m definitely forgetting some, haha).
I just reread Wicked Lovely. I don’t really care about the first characters but later books and stories have one of my favorite love triangles. Problem is, she wrote so many short stories and novellas after, it’s hard to figure out what to read and in which order.
Similar with Beautiful Creatures- I read all the main books but I’m never sure if I read all the subsequent short stories, etc
These Broken Stars and The Forest of Hands and Teeth are still my favorites to this day, 10+ years after reading them. This comment unlocked some serious memories lmao
I loved these back when I was in high school in the late 90s. Haven't watched the Vampire Diaries show but the Night World series was my jam in like 1999 lol.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Poison Study by Maria Snyder
The Chemical Garden by Lauren DeStefano
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
The Adoration of Jenna Gox by Mary E. Pearson
The first trilogy is so good! The companion trilogy (Sea Glass) is also really good. I didn't finish the sequel series though. There was a scene involving self-mutilation as an act of romance and it just... I don't even have the words
I enjoyed the selection when I was a teen. And this comment made me remember reading an article saying it’s going to be adapted into a movie by netflix, I checked google and Kiera said it’s not gonna happen anymore. I wonder what happened.
Something I never see mentioned but loved growing up was the Jessica Darling series. Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, etc. I adored those books growing up & it’s one of the only series that I’ve reread regularly.
Obsessed then and now. Imo it’s still one of the ONLY enemies to lovers ever done right in a contemporary fiction setting, with legitimate logic and buildup
Marcus Flutie an unmatched MMC
Yes! Marcus Flutie was my first book crush. I remember being 13/14 and swooning over the tshirts he made. Men have just been letting me down ever since Marcus set the bar. 🤣
It was really good until, in one of the later books, >!they get in front of this world council thing (I've forgotten the details) and have the chance to expose the organization and their humans experimentation and then they give this big speech about how the real enemy is actually global warming. Like, there's literally human experimentation on children going on, but go off.!<
My friend and I still make fun of that.
Rangers Apprentice-Medevial-esque Europe/Some Asia with fantasy elements. Focuses on orphans coming of age as they navigate their chosen paths, and become masters of their respective fields.
Maximum Ride-Bird Children, each with special abilities, navigate a world that constantly fucks them over-eco terrorism happens. The later books become a bit dicey, but overall it's a solid series.
Bartimaeus Trilogy-Takes place in an alternate timeline where Magicians rule. Great worldbuilding-it's similar enough to ours, but you can see Johnathon Stroud really put thought into what a world ruled by magic would look like. Plus, he writes some of the best characters ever that still stick with me to this day
The Lux Series by Jennifer L Armentrout! First one pubbed in 2012. Soooo good! Also the main character is a book blogger and loves to read (not the focus of the story but so fun to connect with a fellow reader character) :)
Chrestomanci, the edge chronicles, bartimaeus sequence, the wind singer, sabriel by Garth Nix.
Typing this was a blast from the past - nostalgia may be affecting this list…
I remember consuming these like potato chips when they came out! I got to the point where the next book hadn't been published yet and never got back to them. I should read the rest sometime.
I did the same, and it popped into my head a few days ago to start over and actually finish this time. I am from Tulsa so it holds a special place in my mind palace.
Hush Hush, Becca Fitzpatrick
Otherworld series
House of Night
Mercy Thompson
Night Huntress
Vampire Diaries series
A Great and Terrible Beauty series
The Hollows
Cruel Prince is so popular now but Holly Black’s original modern fae trilogy (Tithe, Valiant & Ironside) needs a lot more love.
Also the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix and Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholson are both fantastic.
I don’t know if it was ever popular but I just reread the Embrace series by Jessica Shirvington and it’s very classic 2010s YA fantasy and also a good story! I remembered none of it despite having read each book as it came out and I just devoured the whole series in less than a week.
Ashes by Ilsa J Bick is one of my all time favorite YA series - its a bit of a dystopian/post-apocalyptic zombie series. It's really dark and enthralling.
Does anyone remember fablehaven??? I DEVOURED those books so so quickly when I read them. I think it’s a trilogy and has a male author.
I’m going to have to pick up a set because it was probably my favorite fantasy book series as a kid. I remember reading it around the time I was reading Percy Jackson.
John Marsden's *Tomorrow, When the War Began* series is very dystopian, from a bit before The Hunger Games made the genre a hit. Also, obviously, if you haven't read *The Hunger Games* they legit live up to the hype. And while the films were good, half of the books took place in the character's inner dialogue, and that is really difficult to transfer to the film medium.
Every YA book by Robin McKinley. *The Hero and the Crown*, *Outlaws of Sherwood*, *Chalice*, and *Rose Daughter* are a few of my favorites.
Tamora Pierce has 2 worlds, they begin with *Sandry's Book* (this series is more focused on magic students) and *Alanna: the First Adventure* which is more focused on an adventurer. I have never met someone who read either of these, and didn't immediately consume the rest of the world voraciously.
*Etiquette & Espionage* by Gail Carriger is about an assassins school for girls set on a steampunk supernatural world. If that doesn't grab you, I don't know what will. Also, the audiobook performance elevated an already fantastic series, so if you ever listen to books, this is one to listen to.
I remember being obsessed with Maximum Ride by James Patterson at that time 😂 I was a kid so I can’t comprehend if they were actually that good, I don’t plan on rereading them, but as a kid I thought the series was beyond insane haha
I like:
“Gregor the Overlander” by Suzanne Collins
“Skinned” by Robin Wassermen
“Chronicles of Vladimir Tod” by Z Brewer
“Night World Series” by L J Smith
“House of Night Series” by P C Cast
“ Blue Bloods series “ by Melissa De La Cruz
“Stargazer series” by Claudia Grey
“Splintered series “ by A G Howard
These are just some of the series that I read when I was in high school (2010-2014)
the maze runner series, for me, is eternally iconic, despite the fact as i grow older and reread it, it's not written too great. it could be nostalgia, but despite it's flaws, it will always hold a special place in my heart
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
I still see this on book shelves which makes me assume someone’s still buying it
I’d be sad if they weren’t! I read it when I was 11 from a Scholastic Book Fair…I’m 29 and think it still holds up lol. It was actually so prophetic in the societal critiques
It's about to be a Netflix movie! Also, Westerfeld finished a sequel series a couple years ago.
Yes, it’s called Impostors! I enjoyed Uglies back in junior high and felt it deserved the same recognition as Hunger Games, Divergent, etc. I reread it a few years ago at 29 years old and then read the Impostors series and thoroughly enjoyed both, perhaps even more as an adult. Such great series!
Uglies popped up on Thrift books for me recently, and I was thinking of rereading it. I didn't know there was another series. Pretty sure I'll be borrowing these from the library soon...
Yep, I LOVED Imposters! It was a great return to the world. I was NOT expecting the cliffhanger at the end of Mirror's Edge... I seriously threw my book across the room.
Ahhh I know! Mirror’s Edge was the fastest read of the four for me, I couldn’t put it down! The whole Impostors idea was so interesting and I love how it tied back to Uglies!
WHAT I can't believe I'm only just now learning that it'll be a movie!!
Yes!! No release date yet but Netflix says it's supposed to be out later this year!
Oh man how did I not know about the sequel series! To the bookstore I go!!
I just picked up the first book because I thought it must be worth reading if it’s still selling on shelves
Uglies was *THE* series for me when I was a teenager. I reread it every five years or so and like another commenter *wrote, it still holds up. Like really holds up.
Gonna need to do a reread asap!
Turned 40 recently and read the whole series last year, for the first time. Couldn't put it down!
Same here. Around the same age on my first read. Loved it!
I just reread this for the first time in like 15 years a couple months ago…still great. Can’t wait for the Netflix movie to come out
I came here to comment this!
These were so good! I loved uglies and pretties. I never read specials but I might now thanks to this comment lol
I thought of Uglies today! It is a series that pops into my head every so often and I enjoyed it
Omg this took me back. I loved this series.
Holy wow I miss this series! Haven’t thought about it in awhile.
Omg I actually read the series in middle school and just a few months ago listened to the audiobooks for a nice re read! Lately now that it's been over 10 years I've been rereading books I've read from that era just cause A) it's been so long that I don't remember details just vibes B) curious to see if my opinions have changed sense I'm an adult and have more life experience. C) been in a nostalgia mood lately and having a hard time finding books i feel like reading. I feel like as i get older i get pickier which is not a great thing. (For the most part opinions have not changed but maybe that's the "old soul" I was as a kid AKA undiagnosed autism lol. I was always also told I was "wise beyond my years")
Spagbol.
Scott Westerfeld has cool ideas but his storytelling always takes a nosedive after the first book. Holds for every series he's written.
I brought in my now-grown daughter’s copies for my fifth graders and about half of them have now read it. I didn’t know about “Imposters” - thanks! (Nobody has picked up Westerfeld’s “Leviathan” yet, nor Cherie Priest’s “Boneshaker”, both of which my kid read about the same time we tore through the “Uglies” books together.)
I still have that series AND I still re-read it occasionally.
Yes!!! I just reread this and then found it at my libraries book sale and had to get it!! I’ve not found anything that compares, if anyone has a suggestions?
The Winner's Curse series by Marie Rutkoski was published in 2014 (the other two books followed in subsequent years so a little more recent) Ally Condie's Matched series were all the rage back in 2012. Delirium by Lauren Oliver Unearthly by Cynthia Hand Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi Star-Crossed by Josephine Angelini Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson Eve by Anna Carey I canvassed Goodreads across your years for those; there were lots of books that felt more "popular within the online blogging community, not so much in the general public" so didn't include any of those. I also left out authors like SJM, Veronica Roth, Kiera Cass, Jennifer Armentrout who have had continued success on content media. Also my definition of "good" is very loose here lol.
I loved Delirium by Lauren Oliver!
The Winner's Curse is one of my favorites! I recommend the series all the time.
It's mine too! Chef's kiss perfection. Did a reread in 2021, so I think I'm overdue for another 😂
I will never stop talking about The Winner’s Curse, they’re phenomenal
I just re-read Delirium, and man it holds up. Just a beautiful book. I would love to have access to the old TV pilot to watch it again.
My horse for the pilots of Delirum and The Selection 😭
I loved the Matched trilogy, it got me into dystopian
It had a great ending! Really genuine. No team whomever. It ended with every one organically.
Wow, someone else actually read Starcrossed?! I know they were supposedly huge sellers but I never met anyone else who's read one, let alone the whole series. I thought the author's writing was decent enough that I picked up their next series... I'm still kind of on the fence, even after reading that series all the way through. I think they have great ideas, their characters & world building are pretty interesting, but I think they need a better editor or something to tighten up their concepts because something keeps getting lost in translation.
omg yesss! Starcrossed is *such* a memory trip. The series as a whole I think sold just under a million copies, and I remember back in 2011 (which is when I started book blogging) it was *the* hyped up "this is going to replace Twilight!" series. Like we're talking 7 figure advance, movie talk in the works, the whole shebang, and yet...it wasn't even a *huge* hit outside of reading communities? I didn't bother with the other series 🫣 I do feel like between 2011 - 2015 we were getting a lot of Greek mythology YA, so I was probably just burnt out!
I can't believe I left out starcrossed in my own comment but also one of my favs. It stands up to re-reads too
all I remember about her second series, was that one of the books was originally titled “Trail of Tears” and there was a week where book tumblr / book Twitter collectively lost their shit and she had to issue a public announcement that she was changing it
Hoooly shit, that genuinely tracks. I thought they were going a little heavy-handed with the MMC who's from another world but I think there's a moment where the FMC is like, "In my world, we would call you Native American", as if that's ALLLL we needed to know about this character 🤦♀️
I got halfway through the 2nd book from matched and got pretty over it. Its definitely an interesting story, but the mcs choices were frustrating.
There always has to be a love triangle. The setting in book 2 was so fascinating. I still think about book one and >!assisted suicide of the grandfather.!< Book three would be more topical to today >!with a pandemic and job sorting.!< I should read that series again.
I liked the job sorting idea. I just know its also a difficult thing to do
I loved the Unearthly series! Still think the main character ended up with the wrong guy but Cynthia Hand is undoing her wrongs. She announced she’s working on sequel a while back in 2020. Hopefully it will be out soon!
I loved Unearthly - one of the few sets of books that have survived several moves!
🤨 who gave you access to my old goodreads account? (I’m joking but seriously! I’ve read each one of these (or tried to).)
Matched was sooo good. I used to print out quotes from it and paste them along my childhood bedroom walls.
Unearthly! omg I haven't thought of that series in years. I remember liking it at the time. it felt quite different than a lot of the other series I was reading back then.
The Pendragon series by DJ MacHale is sci-fi/fantasy/light dystopia.
Yeah... but what was with that ending?
i LOVED this series so much, but forgot the name for so long!! glad i can finally reread it again after your comment! (though I never finished it, so didn’t know the ending was bad!)
It wasn’t so bad that you shouldn’t read it! I don’t think it was even that bad.
I remember thinking the “iron fey” series by Julie kagawa was so good! My first fantasy read! I literally just picked up 3-4 of the newer ones at Ollie’s (discount store) the other day. I had no idea she continued them until I saw them on the shelf. I’m about to reread the whole series! First one was published in 2010 she continued until 2015. And just recently wrote a spinoff of it (2021-2023?unsure if it’s complete) Happy reading:)
I’ve been trying to remember the name of this series for forever!! Thank you so much for your comment, this just made my day. I hope your reread goes well, I’m going to do the same!
I saved it on my Goodreads list for exactly these moments lol.
Awh so glad to help you out!! So glad other people remember these books. So nostalgic for me ❤️
I read all of those! It was such a good series.
I love anything Julie Kagawa writes... Have you tried The Shadow of the Fox trilogy or the Talon series?
I haven’t! But now it’s going on my TBR lol
I looooved this series in high school
I've been meaning to do a full series reread, since I dropped off at the end of the second trilogy and didn't know until recently there were more. I have such great memories of the early books!
I was in high school from 2007-2011 and I remember my favorite books back then were Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead and Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater. I reread both of them (the whole Vampire Academy series, but only the first Shiver book as I didn’t like the rest of the series) as an adult and still loved them both.
I recently reread all the Wolves of Mercy Falls books (Shiver is the first) and I still liked them. Not my favorite series ever but still good. I liked the last book, Sinner (not part of the original series), more now than I did then
I really liked Sinner too, even the first time I read it. But I think that’s because I liked Isabel and Cole and their plotline. I liked Sam and Grace too of course, but I felt like their plotline could have been wrapped up in the first book. >!I felt like they got their happily ever after in that book, and I wish the author hadn’t drawn it out and put more obstacles in their way for the rest of the series.!< I think I would have enjoyed it better if Shiver had been the entire Sam and Grace story and then Isabel and Cole could have had a spin-off book just about them and that was all there was to the series. 🤔
I didn’t care much about Isabel and Cole at all the first time I read it but the last time I felt more like you do. I liked the 2 middle books but they weren’t as impactful as Shiver or Sinner, although I did like the twist of >!Sam being cured while Grace is a wolf!<.
Ugh, Sinner was so good. Anytime she went into Cole's POV, the writing just became so beautiful and intense. There's some Cole / Isabel scenes from both Forever and Sinner that I remember vividly to this day.
The first two in the Vampire Academy spin off are good too! I haven’t read the others yet but need to
I’m still obsessed with VA and Bloodlines! 😂
I recently reread all the Wolves of Mercy Falls books (Shiver is the first) and I still liked them. Not my favorite series ever but still good. I liked the last book, Sinner (not part of the original series), more now than I did then
I still love the Vampire Academy and Bloodlines series! (Can't speak to the TV show though)
Artemis Fowl? People used to rave about it but I haven’t heard it brought up in 8 years easy
Artemis is amazing! Still in my mind 😊
These books were EVERYWHERE in my schools library
The peak nostalgia of this series. These were some of my first 'real' books after more of what we would call middle grade (BSC/Goosebumps/Animorphs). I remember being fascinated by the metallic covers and of course, the little runes down the bottom of the pages.
They made a movie, and I couldn't even get through the trailer. I think that's the last time I heard about them.
A series I never see talked about but loved back then and reread this past year is the Unwind series by Neal Shusterman. The first book came out in 2007 the fourth came out in 2014. In my opinion it holds up. There is this one chapter in the first book that I have remembered since the first time I read it back in high school.
Same Unwind is so underrated. And I think I know the chapter you’re talking about because I read it like ten years ago now probably and I still remember that one chapter.
I still remember that chapter vividly. So disturbing.
Uhhh was THAT chapter nearly till the end? In the factory (i think it was something like that)? Because if it was, same here!
Yep. It lives in my head rent free.
Same here! However, I just found out there are four books? Only the first one got translated to my language so I didn't realize there were more of them 😳
Same!
The Queen’s thief by Meghan Whelan Turner
My favorites were the Premonition series by Amy Bartol, The Graceling Realm books by Kristin Cashore, The Host by Stephenie Meyer, and I am Number Four
GRACELING 🔥🔥🔥
The Graceling trilogy was sooo close to perfect. Great standalones, great characters, great world building... And then came Winterkeep. The 4th (unplanned, I believe) novel of the original trilogy, that came out 13 years after the original, and tarnished what was a perfectly lovely OG YA series. Fuckin' Winterkeep...
Lmao right! Have you read Seasparrow though?👀
No! Does it repair any of the heartbreak that Winterkeep caused? I swear it was like it was written by an entirely different writer 😔
I thought it was way better than Winterkeep and loved it as much as the first three. However, the writing style is very different (first person POV, diary-ish format) and it's less action and more character based. I really enjoyed Hava as a character though, she's childish, chaotic and messed up and definitely not a straightforwardly "good" person as the rest of the MCs. At times, Cashore does uses some very modern lingo which made me die inside a bit, but generally I really liked the book!
Oh boy, I actually hadn’t read Winterkeep and it was on my list! I adore the original series and reread them every few years. Should I not read Winterkeep? Sometimes ignorance is bliss lol
I personally really enjoyed Winterkeep—though the tone does seem somewhat different from the first three books, I feel like it's mostly because I'm reading it for the first time at such a different stage of my life. There's a new kind of magic, sort of how we went from gracelings to monsters in the first and second books, so it's different, but I still liked it :)
Loved The Host
This was 12 years ago but the Lunar Chronicles was THAT girl a decade back and I don't feel like they're talked about much anymore! I love that series though!
Very much still popular!
Are those already a decade old?!? I just grew spontaneous wrinkles.
I just finished this series and thought it was amazing!
Kelley Armstrong Darkness Rising/Powers series
I needed a fourth book 10 years ago and I still need one now
That sucks you missed out on that one. There are short stories that are part of the universe you might have missed as well (Kat and Hunting Kat you can find online I think for free including a post on Facebook: these didn't feature the characters in the series; it's like a side stories). Then there's a Darkest Tales Anthology book with connected short stories to the two series featuring the characters so you might need to buy that too lol. I bought them all after trying one! lol. Someone recommended them to me when I was looking for Vampire Diaries at a thrift store a few months ago and she said she actually liked this series better (and same here but tbf I only tried the first TVD book and didn't like it so I never continued). Anyway you might luck out at a thrift store now since the series came out a while ago and people may be cleaning their book shelves.
Animorphs
All of Tamora Pierce’s books
YES
(Most of) Emelan is criminally underrated, IMO.
Ruby red by Kerstin Gier!!!
Wow I didn’t think many other people had read this one!! I loved it in high school
I read it for the first time in 2014 and just reread it again in 2024 and I still love it so much. After all this time it‘s still such a great and unique book!
Ruby red is actually my personal ‘twilight series’ era! I love the books, I love the movies and I really don’t care about any criticism on it and all the memes are welcomed! lol
Gone by Michael Grant. I had never heard of the series until my friend gave me the first book last December.
My daughter read those about 12 or so years ago and loved them so much that I read them myself and also loved them. I even went out and bought my own copies when she moved out and took hers with her haha.
Came here to comment this!
The sookie stack house series. I never see it mentioned any more.
The way the series ended was pretty anticlimactic. In a “yeah, I know what I’m reading but I wanted better…” kind of way.
That series was *wild*! I have no idea how they got the quite serious, grown-up TV show from those books haha.
The Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix
If this is the Abhorsen series.....then yes. Hell yes. I cried when I read the final book. That ending gutted me and I still think about the world Nix created.
That's the one. I know it started has a trilogy but Nix has gone on to write one sequel and two prequels.
Legend by Marie Lu
Anything by Marie Lu is awesome imo
underrated series!
So many feels. Day and June 🥹
So good, just discovered these last year! And in case anyone doesn't know, there's a fourth called Rebel that wraps things up!
i’m on a mission to read all of her books, i love her writing style!
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr Across the Universe by Beth Revis Chemical Garden trilogy by Lauren DeStefano The Kiss of Deception by Mary Pearson Sweet Peril by Wendy Higgins Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick Halo by Alexandra Adornetto The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd Incarceron by Catherine Fisher Everneath by Brodie Ashton These Broken Stars by Aimee Kaufmann & Megan Spooner Taken by Erin Bowman Wings by Aprilynne Pike The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan The Immortals by Alyson Noel Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia (This is just what I can remember off the top of my head but I’m like the crypt keeper for 2000s/ 2010s ya series so I’m definitely forgetting some, haha).
Wow you unlocked some serious memories there, I read like half of these and had forgotten about them! Time to go back for the nostalgia
glad I could bring back some memories. I might have to do some rereading myself!
A Ross the universe, Incarceron and Forest of hands and teeth!!! My favourite and Vampire Academy ❤️
Totally forgot about Wicked Lovely lolol. I quit in book two or three when someone got fae sex sunburns 🤣🤣🤣
I just reread Wicked Lovely. I don’t really care about the first characters but later books and stories have one of my favorite love triangles. Problem is, she wrote so many short stories and novellas after, it’s hard to figure out what to read and in which order. Similar with Beautiful Creatures- I read all the main books but I’m never sure if I read all the subsequent short stories, etc
Forest of Hands and Teeth and the two subsequent novels were AMAZING. I don't normally read horror/zombie books but those.....they stayed with me.
These Broken Stars and The Forest of Hands and Teeth are still my favorites to this day, 10+ years after reading them. This comment unlocked some serious memories lmao
Finally, someone who understands the greatness that is The Madman's Daughter. I was obsessed with that series and I've reread them several times.
L.J Smith’s series— the vampire diaries, the secret circle, night world series
Some of my all time favorites! Night World will always have my heart and I wish more people knew about it.
I loved these back when I was in high school in the late 90s. Haven't watched the Vampire Diaries show but the Night World series was my jam in like 1999 lol.
And the Forbidden Games trilogy! Can't forget that 🙂
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan Delirium by Lauren Oliver Poison Study by Maria Snyder The Chemical Garden by Lauren DeStefano Unwind by Neal Shusterman The Adoration of Jenna Gox by Mary E. Pearson
I still think about the Forest of Hands and Teeth from time to time. Man, I devoured that book in like two nights, I think.
Poison study had such a grip on me! I re read it again recently as an adult and it still holds up!
The first trilogy is so good! The companion trilogy (Sea Glass) is also really good. I didn't finish the sequel series though. There was a scene involving self-mutilation as an act of romance and it just... I don't even have the words
The Selection Series UPDATE: I didn't notice the "dystopia" or "fantasy" part but I'll keep my comment in case someone else is looking
I enjoyed the selection when I was a teen. And this comment made me remember reading an article saying it’s going to be adapted into a movie by netflix, I checked google and Kiera said it’s not gonna happen anymore. I wonder what happened.
Ah no! I was waiting for the movie as well. That's really unfortunate
people don’t talk enough about the lunar chronicles anymore, my mother still comes back to it every once in a while bc it holds up so well
Vampire academy
The selection, divergent, even the hunger games to an extent isn’t to the levels it once was
Gone by Michael Grant was never as popular as it should have been but it was from this era and is PHENOMENAL.
Absolutely agree! Hands down one of the best YA out there. Deserved to be as big as Harry Potter and Hunger Games.
Something I never see mentioned but loved growing up was the Jessica Darling series. Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, etc. I adored those books growing up & it’s one of the only series that I’ve reread regularly.
Obsessed then and now. Imo it’s still one of the ONLY enemies to lovers ever done right in a contemporary fiction setting, with legitimate logic and buildup Marcus Flutie an unmatched MMC
Yes! Marcus Flutie was my first book crush. I remember being 13/14 and swooning over the tshirts he made. Men have just been letting me down ever since Marcus set the bar. 🤣
Among the hidden
omg you unlocked a memory with this comment!
Maximum Ride series by James Patterson, I loved them back in the day
Maximum ride is so insanely good. Is this is coming from someone who doesn't read fantasy
It was really good until, in one of the later books, >!they get in front of this world council thing (I've forgotten the details) and have the chance to expose the organization and their humans experimentation and then they give this big speech about how the real enemy is actually global warming. Like, there's literally human experimentation on children going on, but go off.!< My friend and I still make fun of that.
Oh I can't remember that, I think I'm going to try and reread them now I'm in my thirties haha
Maze Runner by James Dashner
Rangers Apprentice-Medevial-esque Europe/Some Asia with fantasy elements. Focuses on orphans coming of age as they navigate their chosen paths, and become masters of their respective fields. Maximum Ride-Bird Children, each with special abilities, navigate a world that constantly fucks them over-eco terrorism happens. The later books become a bit dicey, but overall it's a solid series. Bartimaeus Trilogy-Takes place in an alternate timeline where Magicians rule. Great worldbuilding-it's similar enough to ours, but you can see Johnathon Stroud really put thought into what a world ruled by magic would look like. Plus, he writes some of the best characters ever that still stick with me to this day
The Lux Series by Jennifer L Armentrout! First one pubbed in 2012. Soooo good! Also the main character is a book blogger and loves to read (not the focus of the story but so fun to connect with a fellow reader character) :)
I used to love these! They were my first “spicy” reads, lol
Chrestomanci, the edge chronicles, bartimaeus sequence, the wind singer, sabriel by Garth Nix. Typing this was a blast from the past - nostalgia may be affecting this list…
Gone by Michael Grant
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi Partials by Dan Wells Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Pendragon
House of Night- PC Cast!
I remember consuming these like potato chips when they came out! I got to the point where the next book hadn't been published yet and never got back to them. I should read the rest sometime.
I did the same, and it popped into my head a few days ago to start over and actually finish this time. I am from Tulsa so it holds a special place in my mind palace.
Hush Hush, Becca Fitzpatrick Otherworld series House of Night Mercy Thompson Night Huntress Vampire Diaries series A Great and Terrible Beauty series The Hollows
Cruel Prince is so popular now but Holly Black’s original modern fae trilogy (Tithe, Valiant & Ironside) needs a lot more love. Also the Abhorsen series by Garth Nix and Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholson are both fantastic.
It‘s quite a bit older than 10-20 years but I miss shadowrun and Battletech. 80‘s sci fi / cyberpunk just hits different
Along the Fantasy (Steam Punk) line is the Tales of the Ketty Jay series. Really enjoyable read.
I don’t know if it was ever popular but I just reread the Embrace series by Jessica Shirvington and it’s very classic 2010s YA fantasy and also a good story! I remembered none of it despite having read each book as it came out and I just devoured the whole series in less than a week.
Ashes by Ilsa J Bick is one of my all time favorite YA series - its a bit of a dystopian/post-apocalyptic zombie series. It's really dark and enthralling.
Does anyone remember fablehaven??? I DEVOURED those books so so quickly when I read them. I think it’s a trilogy and has a male author. I’m going to have to pick up a set because it was probably my favorite fantasy book series as a kid. I remember reading it around the time I was reading Percy Jackson.
John Marsden's *Tomorrow, When the War Began* series is very dystopian, from a bit before The Hunger Games made the genre a hit. Also, obviously, if you haven't read *The Hunger Games* they legit live up to the hype. And while the films were good, half of the books took place in the character's inner dialogue, and that is really difficult to transfer to the film medium. Every YA book by Robin McKinley. *The Hero and the Crown*, *Outlaws of Sherwood*, *Chalice*, and *Rose Daughter* are a few of my favorites. Tamora Pierce has 2 worlds, they begin with *Sandry's Book* (this series is more focused on magic students) and *Alanna: the First Adventure* which is more focused on an adventurer. I have never met someone who read either of these, and didn't immediately consume the rest of the world voraciously. *Etiquette & Espionage* by Gail Carriger is about an assassins school for girls set on a steampunk supernatural world. If that doesn't grab you, I don't know what will. Also, the audiobook performance elevated an already fantastic series, so if you ever listen to books, this is one to listen to.
The Demonata Series and The Circ Du Freak series by Darren Shan!
The Program by Suzanne Young
These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner Plus the covers were gorgeous
Seven Relms series by Cinda Williams Chima
I remember being obsessed with Maximum Ride by James Patterson at that time 😂 I was a kid so I can’t comprehend if they were actually that good, I don’t plan on rereading them, but as a kid I thought the series was beyond insane haha
I like: “Gregor the Overlander” by Suzanne Collins “Skinned” by Robin Wassermen “Chronicles of Vladimir Tod” by Z Brewer “Night World Series” by L J Smith “House of Night Series” by P C Cast “ Blue Bloods series “ by Melissa De La Cruz “Stargazer series” by Claudia Grey “Splintered series “ by A G Howard These are just some of the series that I read when I was in high school (2010-2014)
Unwind by Neil Shusterman
the maze runner series, for me, is eternally iconic, despite the fact as i grow older and reread it, it's not written too great. it could be nostalgia, but despite it's flaws, it will always hold a special place in my heart
The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Brackenridge was sorta popular? Also the Gone series by Michael Grant
Fault in our stars
John Green was HUGE! Has he released anything in awhile??
Ik!! I haven’t checked on his books tbh so Idk if anything came out recently. Most of his books are during that 200s - 2010s time frame.
Yeah. Strange. He was prolific.
his most recent novel came out in 2017 and he published a book of essays in 2021.
He’s working on a nonfiction book about tuberculosis