Recommendations for betting a teenager to move on from 'teenage' novels

[highlove]

Hi, any recommendations of things we could buy for a bright 15 Y/O who is an avid reader but generally only sticks to 'teenage' novels? (E.g e twilight series - repeatedly! Oh and Harry Potter, also repeatedly!)

Certainly don't want to get her anything too heavy and I'd also rather avoid anything too trashy. Any ideas of things to get her to move on a bit?

Thanks

[highlove]

Oh and In the header I meant getting not betting, obviously!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - a lovely romance about an older lady but v sweetly written (my dd1 loved it when she was about 14).

Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic books - they are absolute trash but dd1 had a bit of a binge on them at around 14 for light reading.

I Capture The Castle

Cold Comfort Farm

Rebecca / My Cousin Rachel etc by Daphne Du Maurier


Margaret Atwood - maybe The Handmaid's Tale / Alias Grace

She loved The Road by Cormac McCarthey and The Green Mile and various others by Stephen King.

She also loved all of the Austens bar Mansfield Park, which she hated.

Will try and think of some more and come back again.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Yes to the Ladies' Detective Agency - v lightweight but sweet.

I've been underwhelmed by Meg Rosoff and dd1 read two before giving her up in disgust. The one about the strange person in the hut is the one that most put us off - just clumsy and silly imho.

For other teenage novels Kevin Brooks is worth a look, as is Patrick Ness.

If she likes vampire stuff she could try pride And Prejudice And Zombies, though she'd need to read the original first. Also The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Oh dd liked The Time Traveller's Wife and The Lovely Bones too. And the novel that inspired the film, Slumdog Millionnaire - can't remember what it's called. And White Tiger - won the Booker a couple of years ago.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

And Evelyn Waugh - especially A Handful of Dust.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Yes to Room and The Help - dd1 liked both of those.

[IHeartKingThistle]

Sorry but I'd never recommend The Handmaid's Tale for a 15 year old. I know it's an A Level text but still...

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Why not Thistle? DD1 really liked it.

[pointydog]

George Orwell

[Auntiestablishment]

Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights (I loathed it but it's a classic)

Agatha Christie (Tommy & Tuppence books are fun)

Thomas Hardy (relatively upbeat ones - not Jude the Obscure)

Pride & Prejudice, Northanger Abbey

Georgette Heyer (how could I nearly forget?!)

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Ooh yes to Agatha Christie - but only the Hercule P ones!

DD liked Jane Eyre and hated Wuthering Heights. She liked Animal Farm but hated 1984. She couldn't stand Thomas Hardy, which did surprise me.

She didn't like Georgette Heyer, which also surprised me.

She liked The Kite Runner too.

[TheMitfordsMaid]

At that age I read and re-read 1984, Animal Farm, P&P and Vanity Fair. Also:

French Lieutentant's Woman - John Fowles
A day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The Outsider - Albert Camus

[WidowWadman]

Sounds like she likes fantasy - how about the Anne Rice vampire books which are miles better than Twilight anyway?

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

She's here now and says to say The Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde and The Woman In Black (which I hated).

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

And she loved Madame Bovary (I can't stand it).

[HoneyPablo]

Robin Hobb
Stephen King
Charles Dickens
Terry Pratchet
Clive Barker- Weaveworld
Dean Koontz

[TheMitfordsMaid]

Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

[cyb]

Mallory Black novels are VERY good according to my Dd (16)

I dont think theres any rush to move on- reading is reading

Classics are DULL

[GeorgeEliot]

Some classics I loved at that age:

Little Women

The Secret Garden

Jane Eyre

To Kill a Mocking Bird

Catcher in the Rye

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

1984

Lord of the Flies

Brave New World

None of the above are remotely dull.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Yes, yes, yes to lord Of The Flies. Of Mice and Men is a v good easy-read classic too.

Malory Blackman's Noughts And Crosses series is excellent apart from the fourth one, which makes Twilight look like great literature it's so dreadful.

We have ordered dd1 some Kafka for Christmas.

Also - John Wyndham
War Of The Worlds
Dracula
Frankenstein
Lolita

[highlove]

Ooh some great stuff here, thanks. Animal Farm is a definite I'd not thought of, I loved it when I was about 14. Anyway thanks and keep them coming. I will do a big pre-Christmas amazon order this week!

[MillyR]

I'd suggest Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood instead of A Handmaid's Tale. Cat's Eye has a lot in it about girls.

Angela Carter maybe?

[unitarian]

Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer, The Bean Trees and The Poisonwood Bible.

I Capture the Castle, The Catcher In The Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird have already been mentioned.

Nerdy DD (a non-fiction reader) took to Steinbeck in a big way, particularly The Grapes of Wrath. She also enjoys Stephen Fry's autobiography and novels.