Have I read the most popular recent YA novels?

Hello and welcome back to my blog for another quick and easy post because I am tired. Creative posts? Who dat? I don’t have the mental or physical energy for that right now, the heat is killing me, so instead I’m asking the question of: have I read the most popular recent YA novels?

It’s currently YA Week over on Goodreads, they’ve got a cute graphic and everything, so cute infact that I added it here to give this post a bit of “pizaz”. But they’ve basically got a list of the 40 most popular recent YA novels and today I’m going to be saying if I’ve read them and if not do I plan on reading them.

Super quick. Super easy. I say yes or I say no. And then I go sleep 🙂

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1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: YEP – I read this book back in 2018 and I saw the movie then as well (the movie was very good but seriously not promoted enough!).
2. Turtles All The Way Down by John Green: NOPE – John Green is not for me. I read Paper Towns by him and thought it was super pretentious. Dare say I hated it. Defintily am not planning on reliving that experience.
3. One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus: YEP – I have become a big fan of McManus since this debut.
4. The Cruel Prince by Holly Black: NOPE – Is this the first book or is this the second book? I can never remember. Either way this series doesn’t appeal to me and I doubt I’ll ever pick it up.
5. Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han: NOPE – I have read the rest of this trilogy but haven’t gotten around to this finale and while I do want to I’m in no rush. I’ll probably pick it up before watching the third movie (I haven’t even watched the second yet though lol)
6. Caraval by Stephanie Garber: NOPE – Circus’ and carnivals aren’t really my thing so I’ve never really been interested in this series.
7. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi: NOPE – I hope to maybe get around to this one day, maybe when the series is completed and I’m more confident in reading big high fantasy books (they still scare me).
8. Kings Cage by Victoria Aveyard: NOPE – I read Red Queen back when it came out but I wasn’t overly impressed. I actually unhauled it earlier this week which is kind of funny. I never continued on with the series.
9. Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Mass: NOPE – Listen. I’m so close. I swear. I am going to finish this one day. The operative word being “one day”. I’m up Empire of Storms so I don’t have far to go.
10. Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare: YEP – Ahh. The book that broke me.
11. The Gentlemans Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee: YEP – I took forever reading this but I did read this.
12. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera: NOPE – I want to give Adam Silvera another chance with What If It’s Us but I have a feeling I’m not gonna be a fan based on what I’ve heard. If that is the case I highly doubt I’ll ever pick this up.
13. WarCross by Marie Lu: NOPE – I read like a chapter sampler/expert from this and I wasn’t overly interested to pick it up for realisies.
14. The Book of Dust Phillip Pullman: NOPE – I have never heard about this book before.
15. Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott: YEP – I read this earlier this year and I really enjoyed it.
16. Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman: NOPE – Possible unpopular opinion but I have no plans in reading the Scythe series.
17. Carve The Mark by Veronica Roth: NOPE – I feel weirdly old. I remember when everyone was reading this on Booktube.
18. What If It’s Us by Adam SIlvera & Becky Albertalli: NOPE – I’m hoping to get to this soon. I’ve heard bad things about this which is why I want to read it. Is that mean? Probably. I like reading bad books on purpose sometimes.
19. The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli: NOPE – I get that Albertalli is a popular YA author but there’s only ever been Simon Vs which I’ve wanted to read of hers and I wasn’t impressed with Yes No Maye So which I read earlier this year either.
20. On The Come Up by Angie Thomas: NOPE – Not yet.
21. Renegades by Marissa Meyer: YEP – I miraculously started AND finished this series this year. One question: can I marry Adrian Everheart? Another question: can I marry Nova Artino??
22. Sadie by Courtney Summers: KINDA – I read half of this around Christmas time but fell into a book slump so I put it down because I wanted to give it a fair chance. I’m hoping to pick it back up or maybe even start from the beginning again soon.
23. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Lambert: NOPE – I see this on YouTube all the time but I can barely remember what it’s even about at this point.
24. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins: NOPE – I got excited about this back when it was announced but when I found out it was a President Snow origin story I kind of “noped” out. I’ve seen mixed (but tbh mostly negative) reviews so I don’t think it’s for me.
25. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli: NOPE – Another book I was excited about upon announcement until I heard bad reviews.
26. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo: NOPE – Now that I’ve read an Acevedo book I definitely want to read some more of her back log.
27. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds: NOPE – I’ve heard great things about Reynolds books but he writes in verse and I’m scared of that so I don’t know if I’ll ever pick up his books.
28. Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia: YEP – I did read this back when it was released and I really enjoyed it but I want to go back and re-read because there’s some things that have been pointed out so I want to read with a fresh pair of eyes, ya know.
29. Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell: NOPE – If I just waited a week to publish this then it could be a big fat YEP. This is going to be one of the next books I plan on reading especially because I backlisted the tag on tumblr and I wanna see everything.
30. To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo: NOPE – I have it on my Goodreads TBR but I don’t know why.
31. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer: NOPE – If I can ever get my hands on a decently priced e-book or I can pick up a library copy then I’d definitely be open to reading it.
32. We Are Ok by Nina LaCour: NOPE – I read like one chapter of another LaCour book and lowkey hated it so I doubt I’ll ever pick this up.
33. Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson: YEP – I did read this. I was disappointed. I’m holding out hope I’ll like it more upon a re-read or at least enjoy the sequel.
34. Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurn: NOPE – Ehhh. Some people love this. Some people hate it. Again if I can get it for cheap on Kindle or borrow it then I’d be interested in doing that.
35. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Manon: YEP – This was ok. I liked the characters but I wasn’t a huge fan of the romance.
36. Two Can Keep a Secrete by Karen M. McManus: YEP – I always think of the Pretty Little Liars theme song when I see this book.
37. King of Storms by Leigh Bardugo: NOPE – I’ve not even finished the original Grisha trilogy.
38. Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson: YEP – A disappointment.
39. History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera: YEP – I didn’t like the writing style and I lowkey wanted to punch the characters.
40. Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh: NOPE – I think I wanted to read this at one point. Wasn’t it a Mulan retelling or inspired by it at least??? Possibly. Maybe. I don’t know.

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TOTAL POPULAR BOOKS READ: 12/40.

I don’t think this is totally terrible. There’s also 3 series which I’ve started but haven’t read the precise book mentioned.

My reading experience so far has basically been scrambling to catch up on the hard-core popular series like The Mortal Instruments, catch up on new releases as well as finding more lowkey books I’m randomly interested in. 

So there we go. I’d love to know how many books or series on this list you’ve read. Thanks so much for reading and stay safe 🙂

Elli xx