Age appropriate books for advanced reader 13yr old boy

Also the Skulduggery Pleasant books by Derek Landy. Theres alot of books in the series but DD was desperate to get the next book before she completed the last, after each book! (it made brilliant presents).

I read classics at that age. Dickens, War and Peace (yes, I know....).
To be honest I was probably too young for them.

How about A Wizard of Earthsea and sequels?

Clary, I did the same with my son - the writing was so much more sophisticated in the originals compared with the later editions. I loved them though. I also had my dad's Enid Blyton Adventure series books. I know a lot don't like Enid but those books actually gave me a love of reading.

As a 13/14 year old I read John Grisham, Sidney Sheldon, Jeffery Archer and Danielle Steele. I would say of all the authors, Steele was the most age inappropriate one for 14 year old me as I cried a lot at the heart wrenching stories. The archer books are great and are a bit of a series like The prodigal daughter, shall we tell the president, etc. I miss those days of just sitting down and immersing myself in a book 🥰

Has he tried Agatha Christie books or Arthur Conan Doyle it is the basics but they are all a good read. My DD loved the Eragon books at that age but that is more fantasy style. Terry Pratchett's books are amazing, but try and read them in the correct order. The first books can be slow but stick with it, it is worth it.

I recall reading the William books (which my brother loved as a 10yo) aloud to my DC when they were about 11/9yo and I had to skip lots of words that were way too hard for them! So that's a good shout actually. They are deeply satisfying, like the one where William makes a room full of food appear :)

Hopsalong - I have my father's Just William books from the 1940s. The writing is amazing, so different to the updated versions that have been dumbed down/simplified.

At your son's age OP I was reading Agatha Christie, Stephen King, and the odd James Herbert, Alistair Maclean, Ken Follett. Anything that I found on the bookshelves at home, at friends' houses or the library in the crime/thriller section. I can't remember any sex in any of them. I can't really remember the sex in the Jackie Collins books I read either. I read the classics from about age 16. At 12-15 I just wanted adventure, travel, a good storyline that moved at a pace, page turners, basically.

I started reading the Dan Brown books when I was 11 & he's still my favourite author now :)

If he’s anything like mine then the OP is likely after suggestions to help him find engaging books, rather than actively policing his reading materials. My kid’s school librarian is good for that - he often turns up with new books from the school library that he wouldn’t have come across otherwise and really enjoys.

Stephen King may have some very occasional sex stuff in it in a very small way. But a lot would go over his head, as it did mine at that age. He is just a very good writer. It's not Jackie Collins.

There’s rape scenes in some of his books, there’s anal sex, really disturbing threesomes-maybe the more popular ones have less/ no sex?! I can’t remember, but I remember flinching at some of his sex stuff

I’d agree Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie, or at his age I lived for Terry Pratchett

DS really enjoyed Animal Farm at that age.

If he liked Eragon then Temeraire might also be a good call. It’s a dragon/ Hornblower mash up. My 12 year old loved it.

You want adult books published before 1960. Not only are they very light on sex (many, of course, have sexually charged and complex relationships that will be a bit beyond him — but not descriptions of bonkings), but they are well written.

My kids are younger but it seems to me that YA books are unnecessarily graphic, as well as being, for the most part, not very good.

Dickens isn’t a bad shout. Has he read Just William? About a child but really written for adults. James Herriot. Graham Greene. Maybe Conrad if he has an appetite for nautical descriptions. John Le Carre, Eric Ambler etc. Isherwood’s earlier fiction — Mr Norris Changes Trains, Goodbye to Berlin. H G Wells and classic science fiction.

I would have been so upset if my mother had tried to police my reading matter at that age. I had absolutely no interest in books about sex, or even romance and from age eleven, having outgrown the junior section at my local library, was given free range of the adult library.
Just let him choose for himself.

Tolkien

Older thrillers won't have too graphic scenes. Try Geoffrey Household, Rogue Male.

My nearly 13 year old reads almost everything but I’m keeping him away from Sharpe. I remember lots of sexual violence in them. He did enjoy the Hornblower books though, similar genre and very little sex as they’re mostly set at sea.

The Dark Is Rising books are good for that age group. I remember enjoying them at around 13-14 and my nearly 13 year old enjoyed them. He still loves the Skulduggery Pleasant books too.

The Dominic Sandbrook Adventures in Time books are great historical fiction.

Edited because I got Dominic Sandbrook’s name wrong!

Stephen King has some super graphic violence and weird sex scenes, I'd not want a 12 year old reading some of those.

DS loved the Skulduggery Pleasant series at around that age - might be a good intro to horror.

The Percy Jackson books are really good. Even as an adult I enjoy them. There are 2 sets of the books, 1 is the Greek mythology set and the other is roman mythology.
Obviously the Harry Potters, LOTR etc.
Sherlock holmes.
The maze runner set
Alex Cross
The bones books by Kathy Reichs. Amazing reads. Great for a curious intellect!

My 12.5 yr old is reading The Eyes Of The Dragon which is a Stephen King book that’s ok for this age.
Alan Gratz books and The Dead series are highly recommended.

Yeh I was going to suggest Agatha as well – absolutely no violence or sex, but just clever puzzles that are really hard to solve. Maybe a bit dated (well, a lot) but that's of interest in itself IMHO – a time when quite ordinary people had maids and everyone wrote letters.

How about going to your local library and asking? My DD works in a library and loves to advise ppl.

Or yy I agree with a PP – and advanced 13yo is basically at adult reader level. Has he read LOTR? Yes to Dickens or Thomas Hardy or Sherlock Holmes

<reads thread> yy to Orwell too and how about RLS and Picture of Dorian Grey?

@Zeitumschaltung as an adult I really love children's/teen books but the (original) Hardy Boys were just so dull.
I did read some modern graphic novel adaptions of the early Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and they weren't so bad.

My 12 year old loves the Eragon series.

Discworld is fantastic.

A Single Stone by Meg McKinley is one of the best YA dystopian novels we've both read.

My 11 year old reads whatever is in the bookshelves. I've told him that if he decides to pick up some Stephen King or some Brett Easton Ellis books ( it's ok, I did not keep American Psycho in the house, and the Shards is on my kindle), he will never be able to unthink them and that I found them too much at that age. He's quite terrified of his imagination, so he said he really didn't want to. He sometimes reads a Dick Francis at my mum's, innocuous horse racing thrillers.

I doubt they’d be very interesting for an adult, but I read at least 40 of them the summer I was 11 once I had read all the Nancy Drews in the library. They were probably the only books we had at home that all my brothers read too.