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Original poster

Ideas for discerning (picky!) 13yo reader?

35 replies

SpringBluebellWoods · 21/06/2021 10:17

I’m looking for books for my 13yo dd who loves to read but is finding it hard to find things she likes. She is currently re-re-reading Terry Pratchett, has tried (and disliked) teen books like Everyone Is Lying and various other dystopian type novels, and has tried but rejected all the fantasy / sci-fi stuff that I read at that age (Asimov, Clarke, McCaffrey).

She doesn’t like scary / gruesome / angsty or anything with adult themes. I think she’d like murder mysteries if they were gentle enough, but definitely no rape / torture / graphic stuff. She’s very academic, so difficult is fine, but she has already read Pride & Prejudice, Jane Eyre etc. She just won’t read anything badly written.

She likes fact books, too, but is specifically looking for fiction if possible.

I had amazing advice from MNers last time I had this problem, so I’m asking again (a few years later).

OP posts:
FelicityBeedle · 22/06/2021 14:06

How about the Chronicles of St Mary’s? Some sex and deaths but nothing too disturbing. Humour is reminiscent of pratchett at times

Beamur · 22/06/2021 14:01

I have one of these too!
She has recently read and enjoyed several books by Matt Haig.
Currently reading the Lovely Bones
Has also been feeding her feminist indignation with the Handmaid's tale and Difficult Women.

Original poster
SpringBluebellWoods · 22/06/2021 13:56

She’s not really enjoyed historical novels (even the kids ones, she didn’t really get in to Rosemary Sutcliffe). I haven’t read much George Eliot, and I remember finding Middlemarch hard going at 13yo, though I’ve re-read it since and enjoyed it.

She has read all the Sherlock Holmes novels, so I think would enjoy that sort of mystery without much gore.

OP posts:
BlueChampagne · 22/06/2021 13:12

A bit of George Eliot? Daphne du Maurier?

Does she like historical novels? If so, Mary Renault, or Hilary Mantel.

Original poster
SpringBluebellWoods · 21/06/2021 23:06

Thanks! That’s given me a list to start with, though she has read some of them (Flowers for Algernon short story was a real hit in lockdown).

@JaninaDuszejko, that’s exactly the problem., she could read anything but she’s wise enough to know that some things will be too disturbing or adult, and to ask me for help finding things that are challenging but age appropriate. Which is why I really don’t want to let her down.

OP posts:
MadMadMadamMim · 21/06/2021 17:24

If she's read Austen and the Brontes try her on Georgette Heyer.

Extremely well written historically - and gentle, whimsical romances. I would have endless recommendations, but The Toll Gate or Frederica are a good couple.

JaninaDuszejko · 21/06/2021 17:01

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Oranges are not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
Jeeves and Wooster by PG Wodehouse
The Pursuit of Love and Love in aCold Climate by Nancy Mitford
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga (I read this earlier this year and thought it was brilliant with lots of interesting ideas in it, should really be on english lit lists if we weren't so obsessed with books by dead white men)
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Daré (main character has an arranged marriage to a much older man and it describes their very unsatisfactory sex and there's an attempted rape so you might want to check you are OK with that but otherwise it's about a teenage girl chasing an education)
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (maybe the short story rather than the novel which has sex in it)
City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende (it's years since I read House of the Spirits so you'd need to check the content but that migh5 be an option)
Aya of Yop City by Clément Oubrerie and Marguerite Abouet (this is a graphic novel, some consensual sex but nothing too graphic)

I've got a 13yo as well, I think the transition to adult books is hard, finding things with engaging stories but not too adult themes. I'm finding graphic novels are popular at the moment, the Heartstopper series was a big hit.

Fivemoreminutes1 · 21/06/2021 16:29

No 1 Ladies Detective Agency
Truly Devious
Ruby Redfort
Agatha Oddly

Original poster
SpringBluebellWoods · 21/06/2021 10:46

She’s tried Agatha Christie, but wasn’t very gripped. I can definitely see if The Moonstone works, I suspect it might. Thanks!

OP posts:
mogtheexcellent · 21/06/2021 10:44

Has she read any Agatha Christie? I loved her books at that age. And they are not graphic at all. And she can watch the films/tv series as well.

I then went on to Victorian sensational novels like Lady Audleys Secret and early detective novels like The Moonstone. Also Sherlock Holmes.