Just about a week, Book Riot put out a list of their top fifty must read young adult contemporary novels of the 2010s. It is crazy to me that this kind of list is even a thing – because in just a couple months the decade is over! WHAT! And it makes sense that this is a huge topic because the 2010s were definitely the boom of YA literature. Twilight came out in 2005 and really helped to create what YA is now and I love that this past decade has been full of fantastic young adult literature.
So yes, Book Riot put our their list and thoughts on their top fifty contemporary YA novels of the 2010s. To read this list and their thoughts, you can follow the link here to the original story. The full list will be there!
For now, I’m going to go through all of the ones I’ve read and let you know what I rated them, share my reviews of them and let you know if I think they deserve to be on the list. Let’s do this!
I’ve only read 18 out of the 50 but most of the rest are my TBR. I’m not entirely surprised by this – while I love YA as a whole, my favorite genre is fantasy. If there was a list of 50 fantasy YA novels, I’d win that for sure!
A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahreh Mafi
GoodReads Rating: 4 out of 4 Stars
Reviewed on Blog: No. Sadly. I should fix that.
Should It Be On This List: Absolutely. Its timely and poignant and gives a voice to those who were shunned during a time where we thought everyone was getting along but it wasn’t quite that way. Everyone tends to think of post 9/11 as this wonderful time when we all got along but honestly, that is just simply not true for the thousands of Muslims living in the country at the time. Tahereh gives those people a voice.
Autoboyography by Christina Lauren
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on Blog: Reviewed in 2017. Linked Here.
Should It Be On This List: Absolutely. First off, the main character is bisexual, which is why it became such an important book to me. But secondly, it shows a story where coming out doesn’t always work out and I think its important to showcase those kind of stories because they happen every day. I wish every queer kid out there got all the love they deserved but they don’t and Christian Lauren writes an insanelky emotional and deep and touching story.
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on Blog: Sadly no. I should do a throwback!
Should It Be On This List: YES! Its basically Lord of the Flies with women and its funny and poignant and perfect. Everything about this book is just pure perfection and I wish people talked about it more. Every time its mentioned that an all female version of LotF is being made, I just wanna be like, uh, so you mean, Beauty Queens???
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on Blog: Reviewed in 2013 – Linked here.
Should It Be On This List: Its interesting because my automatic answer would be yes because this is one of my favorite books in the whole world. But I guess I just would have expected Eleanor and Park over Fangirl but genuinely, I think Fangirl is the better book and I love that its so much deeper than you would think just by the title and premise.
Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: Reviewed in 2017. Linked here.
Should It Be on This List: Absolutely. Hands down, no question. There are so many reasons this book received the National Book Award and those are the same reasons that this book in on this list. Robin shows the many ways a family exists and its just beautiful and emotional and ugh, I could go on for ages about how much I love this book.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
GoodReads Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: Reviewed in 2012. Linked Here.
Should It Be on This List: For the impact that it had on kids and teens as readers? Absolutely. As a book on its own? No. Sorry. I think this book is overrated and overhyped and I don’t even think that its John’s best book.
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: Reviewed in 2014. Linked Here.
Should It Be on This List: Yes. This book is SO good, so weird. I wouldn’t have put it as contemporary but I guess that’s how they listed it here. Its just so weird and funny and not enough people have read this book so it should be on the list for the mere fact that more people need to read Andrew Smith. His books are just fantastic.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
GoodReads Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: I did not.
Should It Be on This List: Yes. Without question. This book is incredibly important as a cultural thing and as a political thing and as a social thing. With young black men (and women nowadays too) being shot by police officers all the time and it being constantly swept under the rug, this book is just so important. There’s a reason that this book has been on the NYT bestseller list for over a year now and its because of the impact it has.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sanchez
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: Reviewed in 2017. Linked Here.
Should It Be on This List: Yes. Yes. YES. Yes. Do you know how many books there are for young Latinx readers? Do you know how many of them are about young teen Latinas? This book captures so much of what it is like to be a Latina girl that is not “perfect”, is a total rebel, and I love this book. It is one of my favorite books, hands down, because of how much I related to it.
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: I did not. WHAT
Should It Be on This List: Yes. For the reasons that I said Autoboyography should be on the list because it shows the realities of the bad things that can happen to a teen that comes out, we need a book with the good things that happen when a teen comes out. Simon is such a beautiful, hopeful book and it shows such great family and friend relationships and there’s no question that it should be on the list.
Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: Reviewed in 2014. Linked Here.
Should It Be on This List: I have no doubt in my mind that
Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman
GoodReads Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: Reviewed in 2018. Linked here.
Should It Be on This List: Sure. There’s a lot going on here and I think that a lot of people can benefit from reading this book. What jumped out to me was the main character’s anxiety, which I definitely have But what I think is important is the character’s struggle to understand her half-Japanese identity. Its HARD to be biracial and more and more of us are being born biracial and I love a book that tackles that.
This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
GoodReads Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: I do not write negative reviews on the blog
Should It Be on This List: Without getting into too much detail – I didn’t think the story was good, I thought that a school shooting story could be written so much better and that the writing just isn’t very good. So no, I would not put this on the list. The subject matter? Absolutely. But not this version.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
GoodReads Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: Reviewed in 2014. Linked here.
Should It Be on This List: Yes. For the pure fact that this is one of the best contemporary romance novels to come out in YA in the decade, hands down. Its just a great book – a fantastic story, a well-rounded relatable main character, great writing. This book is amazing and there is no reason it shouldn’t on this list unless you’re a hater.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
GoodReads Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed on the Blog: Apparently I didn’t. Sad.
Should It Be on This List: Absolutely! Again – we need more diverse books and this book is chock full of diversity and different culture. Did I connect with it? No, because its not my culture. But I still love this book so much and the others as well, because Sandhya writes her culture so well, so richly and her characters are so great.
