Teen boy reading recommendations please

[confusedofengland]

We always get the DSes books for their stockings & I am pondering what to get DS1! He will be (just) 13.

He always used ti be a bookworm, but that has tailed off lately, as he now prefers his screens 🙄 I would love to find his passion for books again, but not sure where to start!

He used to (still does) love reading Horrible Histories books. He loves history at school, too. He has also recently enjoyed an old Red Dwarf book of mine, Sophie's World & the Hunger Games series. He tried but didn't particularly enjoy Ready Player One etc. He doesn't really like gory books, the Hunger Games was about his limit for that.

Does anybody have any recommendations please? Thanks

I've consulted DS15. He's a voracious reader and recommends:

13 was a big manga phase in our house - lots of assassination classroom.

Has he read the Artemis fowl books? DS loved those.

13 is ok for the discworld books (if that's his jam - red dwarf suggests it might be).

Derek Landry books - skulduggery pleasant series.

Lord of the rings trilogy.

Maze runner series are good (books better than films, not as gory as hunger games)

Frances Hardinge is worth a look.

Garth Nix and Neil Gaiman

I'd ask DS 14 what he's reading but he's asleep after a "sleepover" last night (nobody slept).

My DS14 still loves the Rick Riordan books, especially the Trials of Apollo series.

The Pittacus Lore 'Lorian Legacies' series starting with ' I am Number Four' is also very good.

The Divergent series by Veronica Roth are good reading (better than the films IMO).

Most recent books DS asked for was the Spook's Apprentice Wardstone Chronicles series by Joseph Delaney. There are 13 books is that series so it kept him going for a little while!

Interested to see what other recommend - also looking for Xmas books for DS!

My son started on Stephen King at that age but I would choose his first ones carefully as some are a bit gory.

I also second the Terry Pratchett recommendation.

Start with the Guards series or the Wee Free Men

Some great suggestions to start with, thank you. I will look out for some secondhand (I prefer preloved anyway & even better if he doesn't end up liking them, doesn't feel like a such a waste of money)

I've found that watching film adaptations encouraged my DS to read the books and get more out of them. So the Hobbit and LOTR series worked well, also a big thumbs up for The Martian which I was pleased about because I thought it was a bit of a stretch.
Graphic novels also work well, especially batman etc. Graphic novels are also my top tip for Eng lit GCSE revision as they illustrate the best quotes making them much easier to remember!

Terry Pratchett might be a winner, or Good Omens with Nail Gaimen.

Anthony Horowitz might also be of interest with the Alex Rider series? Or Darren Shan, he's got a couple of different series.

I was going to suggest Joe Abercrombie’s young adult trilogy “shattered sea” - the first book is Half a King. But it might be a bit gory - probably similar to Hunger Games. If you are familiar with adult joe Abercrombie don’t worry - it’s nowhere near as brutal as that! But it’s very compellingly written, and my 13 year old, who loves discworld (started with wee free men books) and Rick riordan and liked hunger games and geekily plays warhammer with his friends, has devoured them.

Ds was very into the Cherub and Henderson Boys at that point.
He also liked Alex Rider, and Biggles and that sort of thing too.

(He also enjoyed The Swish of the Curtain and the sequels at that age, but I don't think that would necessarily go down well)