Reluctant reader - former bookworm, suggestions for older girls please!

[stirling]

Mumsnet recommendations really served my children well throughout primary and early secondary years. Then phones and lockdown wiped out their good reading habits.

DD is almost 16 and in y11. She's being urged to read (esp classics) by the teacher and tutor.
She hates, and has always hated classics. Is there a good modern day classic you'd suggest in terms of it being engaging? She loves a good non-put-downable.

Thanks

Demon Copperhead by Kingsolver. All the younger people I know have been mesmerised by it. It's a long read, so maybe when she's back into reading!

DD suggested The Goblin Emperor, which is just life affirming and lovely.

How about you two just wander into a bookshop and see what's there?

Thank you again. Really great to see all these suggestions.

Following as dd also struggling to find books that she can get into.

Even some of the "older" classics can be easy reading. I still haven't finished Pride and Prejudice, but the language wasn't difficult. And I don't know if I just got lucky with a translation, but Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Around the World in 80 Days were almost contemporary in nature and I read them over and over again.

Mistborn (Brandon Sanderson) is really good if your DD likes fantasy. It's set in a unique and interesting world and is definitely one of the more engaging fantasy books I've read.

And two more that I kept hearing about but only caught up on as an adult:

• What's Left of Me (Kat Zhang)- about a world where everyone is born with two souls in one body and one soul "fades" while the other takes over. People who retain both souls have to keep it hidden or risk being taken away.
• Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo)- heisty type story featuring a small band of thieves. Really enjoyed the first book but was less impressed by its sequel. Still, a popular novel among your DD's age group.

Home Fires is really good and is now being set as a literature text in schools. Also Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adiche and White Teeth by Zadie Smith.

Leigh Bardugos Shadow and Bone/Six of Crows has been adapted on Netflix as well - having a visual might help ease back in as well

Forget the classics, what does she like watching and go from there. I wiil, and do, read anything but classics do nothing for me. If she likes fantasy then Cassandra Clare and Holly Black will be great for her. Looking at my bookshelves there are loads of YA books because I like the way they are written. Mark Hayden and Hannah Lynn are great if she's got a kindle. I can't finish without mentioning my all-time favourite, Jodi Taylor who is loved by all ages

some “modern classics” to consider

Gone with the wind
The Good earth- Author Pearl S Buck
Vanity Fair - William Thackeray
Short stories by Guy de Maupassant
Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
Howards End - EM Forester
A passage to India
The woman in white - Wilkie Collins
The Moon and sixpence - Somerset Maugham
The ground beneath her feet - Rushdie

Crime and Punishment - read it aged 16 and it wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Unputdownable.

Something like Wolf Hall or A Place of Greater Safety? Half of a Yellow Sun? Road to Wigan Pier? L’Etranger?

Get her looking at BookTok - some great recommendations for YA books on there.

Even at 16, I loved the Anne of green gables series. I watched the TV films with Megan Fellows first then discovered all the books.

Lots of great suggestions here! It's worth considering whether she's into realism or is more on the dystopian and/ or fantasy side of the reading spectrum. As an English teacher and mother of two teenage girls who are both readers, I'm bemused by the suggestion that she needs to read classics. Why?
I think The Secret History is the best suggestion on the board - DD2 read this in two sittings in the summer and I've done it with my Year 10 and 11 book group. It completely dazzles them! I'd also add A Thousand Splendid Suns and/ or The Kite Runner if something less YA is desired.
The verse novel suggestion is a good one. The Poet X is mega and has been v popular over the last few years at our place.

Have a look at the “Booktok” threads on TikTok. Lots of content from young people (mostly young women) talking about books they enjoy in a short, fun format.

Most of the recommendations will be young adult romance/fantasy books rather than classics, but I don’t think that matters if it gets her into a positive mindset about reading and finds that girls her age tend to enjoy.

Anything by Natalie Haynes. The Amber Fury would be a good one to start with as it's about a bunch of disaffected teens who have been excluded from school and a teacher who is attempting to re-engage themin education via the Greek Myths.

I second Demon Copperhead and Home Fires - also Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin - contemporary setting and an easy read.

I would echo suggestion of the Handmaids Tail

Also:
Sarah Waters books - Fingersmith is my favourite.
The Bell Jar -Cynthia Plath
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
Frost in May - Antonia White
Testament of Youth - Vera Brittain

Other than Sarah Waters, I read all of these in my teens, intercepted with Virginia Andrews, Jilly Cooper and John Saul! I doubt her teacher would be impressed by the latter options though! 😂

Seconding The Handmaid’s Tale. I first read it at that age.

And then you’ve got The Testaments as a follow on. (Apparently that’s good on audible as Aunt Lydia from the tv series narrates her chapters.)

Also, more of a ‘going to be a classic’- on a similar theme- The Power by Naomi Alderman.

another easy read but really well written group of books are the Georgette Heyer regency romances. Totally fun and frivolous but actually very historically accurate and lots of period details - i think they make a nice bridge to proper classics (although I was a total bookworm and read all the classics and only found GH as an adult).

I read a lot of the flowers in the attic/thornbirds etc as a teen. totally inappropriate but think just reading for enjoyment is key.

If she likes History then try The Other Boleyn girl by Philippa Gregory.

@stirling a reluctant teen reader may not want to read any classics at the moment, but you've had some good suggestions

The Maze Runner series
Noughts and Crosses
Heartstopper
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Every Light in the House Burnin
The Promise Boys
You Should See Me In A Crown
Rock Paper Killers
Girl In The Window
I Have No Secrets
I Am Thunder And I Won't Keep Quiet
Rose Interrupted

The Colour Purple, the film is good as well.

I would suggest watching some of the BBC Classic Series, Vanity Fair, Middle March, even some Dickens. She may enjoy the plot so much she wants to read the books.

@ElleWoods15 The Power is a great shout. It's quite short too.

I would flag that The Virgin Suicides suggested upthread is very much about what it says. Needs a TW tbh, so be aware.

I think Girl, Woman, Other is brilliant but it is quite long and complex - Evaristo's equally excellent The Emperor's Babe is a bit easier (don't be put off by it's being in blank verse).

The Secret History is amazing but again, maybe a big challenge for a less accustomed reader.

I always suggest Agatha Christie for teens - no sex or gore but cracking puzzles and short too. Body in the Library, Murder on the O Express, Death on the Nile, The Mirror Crack'd are all good ones.

My 22yo DD (who works in a library and is a massive reader) un-recommends Colleen Hoover btw - I know she is really popular (CH not my DD!) but DD suggests avoiding as they are not what romance is about - there are better ones out there (DD says how about Casey McQuiston or Bolu Babalola).

She also says lots of teen books are great and may suit - Holly Jackson or Leigh Bardugo for example. Also Alice Oseman obvs.

Both DD and I think some of these suggestions are a bit old for a non-reading teen (I love White Teeth but it's not an easy read) so she could browse teen fiction shelves in a bookshop (or a library!) for sone more approachable ideas.

Two actual classic suggestions from me (both short and brilliant) Great Gatsby and Catcher in the Rye. But I should add that DD hated both of these haha.

Holly Bourne is great, and there are lots of fab adaptations of Greek myths via Natalie Haynes, Madeline Miller and Jennifer Saint. Check out the Carnegie shortlists. Rebecca Kuang also has two fab yet very different books that are highly praised: Babel and Yellowface.

Circe