DD has asked for 'hard books'

[Mercedes]

Hi my dd (13) has asked for 'hard books' for xmas. she is a voracious reader and been through most teen fiction. I am looking for recommendations for adult fiction that she could read and enjoy that would stretch her but not be inappropriate. Any ideas?

Calamitouslywrong, I would agree, but as a pp said, have you read the teen fiction that's around now!

Lark Rise to Candleford (Flora Thompson)
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
Hons and Rebels (Jessica Mitford)
The Pursuit of Love (Nancy Mitford - most of her fiction is great fun and very suitable for teenage girls)
Pennington's Seventeenth Summer (KM Peyton - the first of a trilogy)
Flambards (KM Peyton - there are several in the series)
Brother of the More Famous Jack (Barbara Trapido)
The Magic Toyshop (Angela Carter)
How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff)
Hideous Kinky (Esther Freud)
An Episode of Sparrows (Rumer Godden)
My Friend Flicka (Mary O'Hara)

Also, the London girl trilogy - three books of autobiography following Mary Hughes' life from girlhood in the 1870s through her education at the North London Collegiate school and to one of the early Women's colleges. Absolutely fascinating, and ideal for a 13 y/o girl to see actually how similar in many ways teenage girls were 100+ years ago. Period Piece by Gwen Raverat (Charles Darwin's granddaughter) is similar, and also good.

Frost in May is maybe also worth considering - one of those books that I think is perhaps best read as a teenager, though perhaps a bit older than 13

Flowers in the attic. I seem to remember reading it at around that age.(although I also read a lot of James Herbert at 13 as well)

Not Flowers in the Attic! It's awful! I read it as a young impressionable teenager and now thoroughly wish I hadn't. It's full of incest, teenagers seducing older men to "thank" them for looking after them etc. Bleugh.

At her age I loved Jane Eyre, The Hobbit, A Daughter of Time, 1984, Animal Farm... if she likes fantasy/imaginary stuff then she might like dystopian fiction such as that written by John Wyndham (Day of the Triffids, the Chrysalids), which can also raise some great philosophical questions.

She might be a bit too young for the Handmaiden's Tale? Can't remember when I read that, possibly 13 or 14. I also liked Eva when I was her age, Empty World and Children of the Dust. I would say they have difficult themes in them, but no more disturbing than Jane Eyre and Mrs. Rochester.

Earthsea trilogy.

Phillip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series - amazing.
Another vote for the Chaos Walking trilogy. I've just finished the first one and loved it.

I was reaading Stephen King at that age but it depends on her disposition!

Treasure Island by RL Stevenson

I have read a great deal of the teen fiction that's around now. I still don't think a song of ice and fire is really suitable for a 13 year old.

I loved reading autobiographies at around 13/14ish. There are some great ones from WW2 survivors. now desperately trying to remember what some of the ones I read were called.

Helga? I am sure it was Helga was one - let me look it up. www.amazon.co.uk/Helga-Womans-Refugee-Re-united-War-scattered/dp/0952193302/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418600239&sr=1-2 as with anything you would probably be best advised to read it first and I haven't read it for a long time so can't honestly remember what it was like but I do remember finding it very interesting and I had the second book as well. I still have them in the loft.

there is obviously The Diary of Anne Frank but also the books written by Eva Schloss are very interesting. I do remember there being similar books about being a teenager during the war but I can't remember the titles or authors unfortunately.

The House by the Dvina might interest her too - I didn't read it until I was a bit older, purely because I hadn't found it.

if she wants really quite heavy going stuff but interesting then books about the Enigma code cracking are good.

That's fair enough, Calamitous - actually, I haven't read GoT either as I'm not sure its suitable for this 45 yr old

I read Mary Renault and Robert Graves in my early teens.

I read D. H. Lawrence at this age and I'm so glad I did because I find him hard-going now but found it overwhelmingly beautiful and serious then. I think maybe it's an advantage to be an adolescent for him! I know he is not very fashionable these days but 'The Rainbow' is wonderfully written and an unforgettable read when you are yourself a teenage girl, if you catch the moment. (I read many of the others too, but it was that one that really resonated with me at that age, because so much of it is about adolescence.) I also read Woolf - especially 'Jacob's Room' and 'Orlando' (both of which are a bit more accessible than some of the others); I loved Woolf as a teenager though missed the humour of them at that age. Also lots of Hardy. I tried and totally failed with Austen at that age, though she is often recommended - but the humour is very sophisticated and I only really found that enjoyable as an adult.

Of things people have already suggested, I remember reading and enjoying - Jane Eyre (especially the first half - was a bit bored by the second), Josephine Tey, Mary Renault, Salinger (not just a Catcher in the Rye), Daphne Du Maurier, some Hemingway, L. P. Hartley 'The Go-Between', John Wyndham.

I also really enjoyed pretty much all the novels by the American novelist Chaim Potok - I think I read 'The Chosen' first which is an amazing book, but many of his are mostly about adolescence.

Cider with Rosie
Grapes of Wrath
Elizabeth Goudge

Is she a bit of a tomboy? I'd have found a lot of the ones recommended a bit 'girly' for me but I was a weird kid!

I was into Stephen King, James Herbert and various Victorian ghost story writers - much like my DS (14) who is busy reading H G Wells.

Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy

The Handmaid's Tale

Some crunchy science fiction e.g. anything by Phillip K Dick or Robert Heinlein

Perhaps Ender's Game?

The Life and Loves of a She Devil

I read Mary Renault in my teens too. Loved them - especially the Alexander trilogy. Lots of sex and violence in those books too.

Oh yes, northern, I loved Mary Renault too. Lots of sex, gore, action and high emotion!