Moving from YA to adult fiction

33 replies

newyorkbreakfast · 02/05/2026 17:55

Seeking good novels for a 14yo girl who’s a keen reader. She’s read loads of those YA books about groups of teens / murder/apocalypse etc and could do with branching out. My thoughts were:

A Thousand Splendid Suns
Great Gatsby
Catcher in the Rye
Tove Janson’s A Winter Book

but I haven’t read them in years and can’t remember if they’d be appropriate or not. She read Pride and Prejudice but didn’t massively enjoy it as it’s too period and intense.

Any ideas gratefully received!

OP posts:

RaininSummer · 03/05/2026 09:36

Fairytale by Steven king. Not his usual horror.

NoYouCantComeToTheWedding · 03/05/2026 09:21

YA is generally contemporary, so rather than suggesting any classics or older novels, I would take her to a book shop and see what she might like from the recently published adult novels.

Blueberry586 · 03/05/2026 09:18

The book thief?
Has she read the holly jackson ones?

hahabahbag · 03/05/2026 09:16

I remember my dd enjoying my copy of Sophie’s World around that age and other novels I had by that author.

Original poster

newyorkbreakfast · 03/05/2026 09:13

@DoorOpeningthank you. Great list. I think for Metamorphosis a child might need some guidance. Do you know of a young teen who read it solo? I did Mice and Men at school but was 17.

OP posts:

Original poster

newyorkbreakfast · 03/05/2026 09:11

@tokennamechangethanks for those. Did you mean Secret History by Donna Tart? I wasn’t a fan but I can be open minded! By appropriate I mean not too horrifically violent or graphic sex.

OP posts:

DoorOpening · 02/05/2026 18:33

Animal farm and maybe 1984
the go between
mice and men
Wide sargasso sea
metamorphosis
french lieutenants woman
jamaica inn and rebecca
History of the world in 10 and a half chapters
obvs lord of the flies

tokennamechange · 02/05/2026 18:24

Klara and the Sun/ Never let me go
The Secret History (had a renaissance amongst teens a few years ago for the dark academia bit)
In memoriam
The Eights

All fairly easy reads in terms of language but a bit of depth to them in terms of topics, and just generally enjoyable (imho at least!). Also all about teenagers/young people - there are loads of lit fic books (like the Names for example) but some of them you probably get more out of them if you've got a bit more life experience.

What do you mean appropriate though, is there anything you'd specifically like to avoid? e.g. I was going to suggest something like Women talking as it's quite short but interesting but it is about rape.

If she does feel like trying some Austen again in a few years I think Northanger Abbey is maybe the most accessible.

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