ADULT BOOKS I ENJOYED READING BEFORE I GOT INTO YA

Hullo, bookdragons!

I’m becoming an inconsistent blogging icon now but I swear I’ll get back on track after my final exams. I can’t believe I’m almost at the end of my high school journey. SIX YEARS IN AZKABAN AND I’M ALMOST FREE. I’m not expecting college to be easier but let me be happy for now.

Expect to know more about my dragon-ness by the end of this post because I’m about to share some THINGS. Oh and guard your TBR pile because I’m about to dump more books on it. You’re welcome.

Okay first confession: I actually didn’t know what YA was until I heard about it in 2017 (or was it early 2018??? I can’t trust my rusty memory). Yes I have been living under a rock. I actually didn’t know about the vast book community until I became caught up in book twitter and @PaperFury’s blog. It’s safe to say that I had the social life of a bookmark before twitter.

Also, no one really recommended YA books to me in real life and so I just read any book that was accessible to me and most of them were adult books. I just sort of read what I could get my hands on at that time. Looking back, I realize that I haven’t been that picky with books before. I was still a huge mood reader though. That part of me has been constant since ’01.

Today, I’m going to share some adult books I enjoyed reading before I got caught up in YA. Some favorite non-YA books like The Poppy War, A Darker Shade of Magic and Vicious are not in this list because I read them when I started loving YA.

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I owe this book a huge chunk of my bookdragon soul. This book has so much power over me it’s almost unreal. The Night Circus sparked my love for fantasy and made me discover one of my most favorite words ever (see: exsanguinated). The prose is also nothing short of beautiful and the forbidden romance gave me feels that will probably last a lifetime.

I’m salty that I still haven’t found any HB copy of this book. If I ever get rich or find some hoard of gold under a sentient mountain, I will definitely build a shelf in honor of The Night Circus. This I swear.

• ‎The All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness

There was a time when I just straight-up decided to be full on vampire trash and went out of my way to hold a personal vamp read-a-thon. I may have read close to 20 books with vampires (some were trashy but apparently I didn’t care) during that time. One obvious fave was this series. I sang praises for the All Souls trilogy for months because my heart was overflowing with too much love for it.

I just felt like this series was made for me, you know??? It has vampires, witches, time travel, prophecies, alchemy, Shakespeare, and the forbidden love trope (I might just love that trope a little too much). It’s obvious that Deborah Harkness made a lot of research to write this series and I love her for it. There’s also a TV adaptation of this now and it kills me that I haven’t seen it yet. I haven’t read the companion novels yet too. Clearly I am failing spectacularly at life.

• ‎If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon

I may have had a Sidney Sheldon read-a-thon a couple of years ago and although I admit that some of his books gave me nightmares, I also can’t deny that the man is a complete genius. He’s extremely insane at writing backstories. I don’t even know how he pulled all of them out of his brain.

This book is a heavy and emotional book about a woman framed by the Mafia and her later life as a badass con artist. TRACY’S CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IS A+++++ and it was thrilling to witness her transformation. If Tomorrow Comes is pure genius cosplaying as a book and it will remain in my all-time favorite list for as long as I live.

• ‎Absolute Power by David Baldacci

So I also had this crime fiction phase where I read 10+ David Baldacci books and lived in a world of detectives and political schemes. Let it be known that Baldacci is a superb writer. It’s no mystery that I gobbled up all his books which usually have intricate plots and serial killers.

Absolute Power is a book that gives insight on the deepest and darkest corners of the government. Sure, it’s fiction but it’s also something that can and is possibly happening in real life. Its mystery and crime elements can also make the heart leap. Highly recommended for fans of crime fiction.

• ‎The Girl Before by J. P. Delaney

Aside from the vampire and the crime fiction phase, I also reached a point in my life where I craved psychological thrillers like air. PEAK MOOD READER VIBE HERE. Look, psych thrillers can be creepy and scary in more ways than one and sixteen-year-old me apparently wanted that for herself.

The Girl Before is a book with twisted characters and page-turning prose that will keep you guessing everytime. Of course, I hardly remember everything about this one but I’m sure that I loved the mystery (I have always loved mysteries. Before fantasy, that was my peak choice genre) in it. If you love books that will make you suspect everyone and will give you the chills, try out this one.

• ‎Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

I read this during my psychological thriller phase and I didn’t expect to love it so much. I can still remember that this book once extracted me from a bad case of reading slump. ALL HAIL LIANE MORIARTY FOR SAVING ME FROM SUCH TRAGEDY. The characters, story-telling, and witty dialogues made me fall in love with this book in no time.

Big Little Lies is a book that focuses on three mothers, all of them harboring dark secrets and experiencing different struggles. I love Moriarty’s writing style and how this book is told in reverse chronology. Celeste, Madeline, and Jane have great dynamics and their friendship is something I admire. This book is not just about motherhood and friendship with mystery spirnkled on top though. It also gives an eye-opening take on abuse and is a very powerful book altogether. 

STILL NEED TO SEE THE TV ADAPTATION TOO.

I can’t stress just how amazing this book is. JUST READ IT AND SEE FOR YOURSELF THANK YOU.

• ‎How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

I read this book because of Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s a tale I’ve told a hundred times so maybe you’re familiar with it by now. Anyway, I heard that Ben C’s production company bought the movie rights for this book and because I’m a huge trash who will go through huge leaps for the sake of fangirling, I hunted this book down and read it. This book introduced me to Matt Haig and I’m grateful for it.

How To Stop Time is a story about a man (Tom) who has a condition where he ages fifteen times slower than a normal human. He’s basically a really really old dude in a younger man’s body. I particularly loved the flashbacks in this book where I got to know more about Tom’s early life struggles. The thing about a Matt Haig book is that it always has so much soul. This one warmed my heart about a million times. If you just want to go inside a rabbit hole filled with tears, this book is perfect for you.

It’s amusing how I read adult books when I was younger and am now reading YA books years later. I love YA but I’d like to see more books from the adult genre because even though I believe YA is for everyone, I really want to read about characters who have the same age bracket as me (I am not a shriveled up bean but I’m not getting younger) when I grow older.

I need more adult fantasy books and college mysteries with main characters in their 20s. It’s just frustrating how some books that are supposed to be Adult are miscategorized into YA just because YA “sells better”. Publishing needs to do better tbh.

What are your favorite adult books? Which books that are marketed as YA do you think should be categorized as adult?