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I (Jamie) consider myself to be pretty decently well read in the contemporary YA genre and I wanted to talk about some books that I think are SUPER underrated in the genre!
1. If I Lie by Corrine Jackson: OH MY GOSH THIS BOOK. Slim little thing but I SOBBED my eyes out. I raved about it like crazy after I finished because WHY HAVE MORE PEOPLE NOT READ IT?!
2. Not That Kind of Girl by Siobhan Vivian: This is a book I want every teenage girl to read -- it discusses sexuality and slut-shaming and I just really saw a lot of my high school experience in this book in terms of trying to reconcile "what kind of girl I am" and what that REALLY means.
3. Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert: This book is SO under the radar! Very gritty and raw! Set near Chicago, a girl who left her hometown and never came back is actually back and she has to confront the memories of her teen years which were filled with rock music and drugs.
4. I'll Be There by Holly Goldberg-Sloan: This book was beautiful and heartbreaking and so, so cinematic. It makes me sad it isn't more well known!
5. What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton: This book tells the story about a girl and the aftermath of a rape. Resilience and emotion just pour out of these pages!
6. Nantucket Blue by Leila Howland: This one is super popular in the book blogging world but I am so surprised that it's not more popular outside of this space!! Good beach read with emotional depth.
7. How To Say Goodbye In Robot by Natalie Standiford: GOD I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH. It's quirky and definitely different but OH MY LORD MY EMOTIONS.
8. When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney: I feel like this book got lost in the shuffle or something. Daisy Whitney really wrote a beautiful book here!
9. Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez: I was drawn to this book because of the cover to be honest but it ended up being an AWESOME book that didn't get nearly enough attention when it was published!
10. Sex & Violence by Carrie Mesrobian: That title caught your attention yeah? It did mine plus some rave reviews. I really liked this book -- very character driven and very, very underrated!
Yay, contemporary! I haven't read many of these, but I loved When You Were Here, I'll definitely look into some of these!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big reader of contemporary YA (in fact, I don't think I've read any.) But there are sure some great covers in that bunch.
ReplyDeleteI ended up doing underrated mystery authors for mine. :-)
Read Not That Kind of Girl this weekend and agree with everything you say about it. I want to make sure I read a bunch of other ones on this list.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to pick some of these up soon. I love reading contemporary; it's become my thing lately.
ReplyDeleteI didn't do a TTT this week, but I'll be back next week. :)
Contemporary is probably my least-read area of YA, so I haven't read any of these. But some of them look great! Hearing that you sobbed during If I Lie perversely makes me want to pick that one up, ha.
ReplyDeleteLove that both of us had BALLADS OF SUBURBIA on our lists! And VIRTUOSITY is such a good call - I loved that book. She's such an auto-buy author for me. I actually own every book on this list that I haven't read, so I clearly need to get reading!
ReplyDeleteINteresting list - I haven't read any of these, but I'm contemplating on taking a look at these and maybe checking out one of those books.
ReplyDeleteThat's too funny. About 5 minutes ago, I finished Not that Kind of Girl, and then saw this in my inbox. I liked it a lot, and it certainly made me glad I don't have teenage daughters. What a nightmare!
ReplyDeleteBallads of Suburbia always makes my list of recommendations. It is gritty and heartfelt and far too underrated. I almost put it on my list this week, but I've included it in a couple previous lists, so I kept it off this one.
ReplyDeleteI recently read Nantucket Blue and loved it! Agree that it wasn't talked about more...
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Ballads of Suburbia but I really like the whole gritty / rock music aspect :) Thanks for pointing it out to me!
ReplyDeleteIf I had time to create a list today (sadly--don't) - this would EXACTLY 100000% be it. Like every single book on this list . Great taste? eh? ;-) I looove What Happens Next- it's one of my favorite books of 2012 and completely underrated in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteMy wish list just got a lot longer. I love contemporary and these all sound excellent.
ReplyDeleteYES FOR HOW TO SAY GOODBYE IN ROBOT. It's one of the weirdest and best stories I've read. I love it so much, and I constantly think about it's wonderful characters. This is one I hurl at people when they need book recommendations.
ReplyDeleteCassie @ Happy Book Lovers
Oh no I forgot to add my link this week!
ReplyDeletehttp://chasedbymyimagination.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/top-ten-tuesday-my-picks-for-underrated.html