Recommendations for betting a teenager to move on from 'teenage' novels

[highlove]

Hi, any recommendations of things we could buy for a bright 15 Y/O who is an avid reader but generally only sticks to 'teenage' novels? (E.g e twilight series - repeatedly! Oh and Harry Potter, also repeatedly!)

Certainly don't want to get her anything too heavy and I'd also rather avoid anything too trashy. Any ideas of things to get her to move on a bit?

Thanks

Cats Eye is a great book

Agatha Christie
Jane Austen
Tolkien (esp if enjoys the fantasy genre)
Richard Adams
Brontes
Jasper Fforde - great once has read the above but also inspires to read more as loads of literary references, esp in the "Thursday" series.
Alexander McCall Smith
Pratchett
Antonia White's Frost in May series is a semiautobiographical school/early adulthood story that goes into mental healthcare in the ?1900-1910era. Depends what DC's into, but I enjoyed it at that age.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of trash/chicklit occasionally either - some of my fave stories are never going to be great literature, and at 15 in the run up to GCSEs, a bit of light relief might just help encourage your DC to keep on reading as relaxation. A nice easy book in the bath is a pretty nice chilled way to end a hard day of study!

Re-reading the same old favourites can work in the same way - I still know I need a holiday if I start re-reading "Lord Of The Rings" - works more as escapism when it's familiar, somehow.

My daughter was also obsessed with twighlight so english teacher gave her Bram Stoker's Dracular and Mary Shelly's Frankenstein to compare.

Sophie Mckensie , "Girl Missing" another modern fav series:0

I got some fantastic recommendations on here for my teens - Ds and dd loved everyone of them.

Gaiman
Mal Peet
Neil Ascherman
(will look up the rest)

Dd is currently reading a very long and involved series about wolves by Jane Lindskold which is reasonably demanding writing, but fantastic fantasy plot.

A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly-- I think was originally published as a teen genre book but was so popular with adults that it got republished as an adult novel. I loved Rebecca as a teen and am so glad I read it then as re-reading it recently (for an MN book swap, natch) I had such a different reaction to it. Any F. Scott Fitzgerald; Gatsby is an easy read because so short but I really loved Tender is the Night.

I'd second to kill a mockingbird, also hitchhikers guide to the galaxy (Douglas Adams) and Catch 22 (Joseph Heller) were favourites at that age.

Terry Pratchett Discworld novels and Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere: both have wonderful invention and loony humour, and never, never could be offputting.

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger games. Still YA fiction, but breathtakingly good.

Never, never anything by Margaret Atwood.

My dd aged 14 likes my Amanda Craig novels: Love in Idleness, Hearts and Minds.

Trying to remember what I read of my own volition/was recommended to read by my mother at that sort of age. (as opposed to books on the curriculum.)

Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood. Not as gloomy as most of hers, has lots about 'little girl dynamics' and I loved it at about age 14.

I was obsessed with 'Perfume' by Patrick Suskind at about 15-17. Read and re-read it. Really great book, unusual topic and a page-turner.

I read my way through Gerald Durrell from about 11 or 12. My Family and Other Animals is hilarious (and the other two in that series are good too) if she's interested in animals at all. Made me want to live in Greece!

Terry Pratchett will teach her about the world. If she's not fantasy-inclined, start her on the Watchmen books in the Discworld series. If she's likely to be interested in female empowerment (and why would she not be?!) try the Witches books, starting with Equal Rites. There's a vampire-y book or two in the canon too (is it Carpe Diem?? also The Fifth Elephant) but not his best, and also better read after she's got into the Discverse a bit.

I always found the Hitchhikers books a bit of an acquired taste (heresy emoticon) and much prefered them on the radio - however, his Dirk Gently books are wonderful and I think I fell in love with Dirk aged about 16.

I also read 'classic' odds and sods at that age - Cold Comfort Farm is wonderful, how could anyone not like it? and Northanger Abbey (not a set book) used to make me laugh a lot. 1984, Animal Farm both pretty entertaining.

Stephen Fry's The Liar probably a bit too mature for a 15 yr old, but it's engrossing and fun.

Bill Bryson travel books are hilarious and certainly aimed at 'grown ups' but a bright 15 yr old would probably like them.

And I might be sticking my neck out here, but how about Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books? Funny, endearing, shlocky, quick reads. They ought to be required reading, as far as I'm concerned!

Oh, and it's hardy adult literature, being aimed at mid-teens (I re-read it last week!) but Margeret Mahy's The Changeover is SO much better than bloody twilight. If you think that what she loved about Twilight was the whole supernatural romance thing, Sorensen Carlisle is a far better boyfriend role than Sparkly Edward Cullen.

I was going to say Rebecca too. Classic crossover literature.

And I can second Frost in May by Antonia White, especially the first one. I read it compulsively over and over at that age. Also a second vote for My Family & Other Animals and for Perfume.

Also Wilkie Collins Woman in White. An absolutely cracking story.

A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth. Long. Very long, but highly narrative and with a really appealing twenty year old female lead.

Atonement - Ian McEwan. Although I gather that this is now an A level set text.

I enjoyed as a teenager:
The Go-Between (there was something so exciting about reading a first line and thinking 'so this is where that comes from', I'm still a sucker for famous first lines)
To Kill a Mocking Bird
The Darling Buds of May
The Color Purple

I didn't read as a teenager but wish I had read
I Capture the Castle (this is really a teenager's novel but is fantastic to read even as an adult)

What about
The Pursuit of Love
Cold Comfort Farm
Anything by Wodehouse
The House of the Spirits
Something that looks like it might be boring but actually has quite dirty bits like the Decameron
Tales of the City
Any of Wilkie Collin's sensation novels, great female characters and complete page turners
Frankenstein and Dracula would be good intros to the classics if she's into fantasy
Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime
Breakfast at Tiffany's
I know why the caged bird sings
Goodbye to All That (looks like it might be boring but is written in such a modern style that that period of the past suddenly feels very recent)

Ask at school as well for their suggestions. I don't think it's that surprising that a 15 year old is still reading lots of children's fiction, a teacher told Mum (who was despairing at the trash that my sister and I were reading as teenagers) that it's pretty common to go through a stage of genre reading before starting to read 'adult' fiction.

Lots of good suggestions - I also think Cat's Eye is a good introduction to Margaret Atwood for teenagers/young women.

How about crime fiction series? I think I'd probably tracked down and read all 76 Agatha Christie books by the time I was 15 - there are better writers in the genre. Liz Evans and Lauren Henderson have written good series about female PIs set in England - I was going to say I started reading Sara Paretsky when I was only a little older, but I was probably about 19 or so as I think her first book was published in 1987 when I would have been 18, and it wouldn't have arrived in paperback on my stepdad's shelves straight away.

Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Beautiful Visit
Elaine Dundy, The Dud Avocado
Colette, Claudine at School
Francoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse
Irene Sabatini, The Boy Next Door

Some romantic stuff, some saucy stuff, but about quite young women and bridging that gap.

Is she or has she ever been into school stories? Someone's mentioned Frost in May which is excellent, and the Colette above is fun. A recent boarding school story is Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep.

Her books are children's/YA but the late Diana Wynne Jones' books were and are still read avidly by lots of adults and I'm sure J K Rowling read them (as well as the Worst Witch series which is for younger children).

As a 15/16-year-old my favorite book was White Oleander by Janet Fitch. Just recommended it to my 15.5 year old sister who is also now in love with it.

Yes, to Diana Wynne Jones. Also, the vampire Terry Pratchett is Carpe Jugulum (terrible pun).

Please don't make the poor girl read Lord of the flies or Brave new world, I got both inflicted on me at school. Both are depressing beyond belief. Lord of the flies is just horrible and Brave new world spouts a mixture of inaccurate science and Shakespeare at you < I can't cope with either of these>
animal farm is clever, short and relevant. I have DDs who haven't a clue what communism is/was and look when you try to explain.

Do you have to move her on by force?

Quite a few of the books recommended on here - great as they are, are endlessly reapeated on recommended reading lists at schools and therefore seemed automatically dull to me at that age! If she likes wizards and vampires I would stick to genre but pick more adult stuff and see where it leads her... she will undoubtedly read Lord of the Flies at school anyway.

Pratchett and Gaiman might be the right level. Or if you don't mind her reading sex scenes Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld (it starts with Bitten) is a great supernatural series, with strong female leads.

I'm not sure this classifies as "Adult" fiction, but is an excellent series - Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

Very interesting books recently made into a movie. I've read them 3 times... the last time quite recently, and I'm 30. They are also well enjoyed by most members of my family, including my Dad and younger siblings.

I agree with La about the 'institution'-sounding titles that have been mentioned in a couple of posts on here. Several are school reading list fodder and therefore automatically dull to her ears.

Hence why I suggested White Oleander - I somehow happened upon the film, which I then learned was a book - which I then devoured. It was the first book I loved enough that I felt compelled to write in the margins, underline things, and insert random musings. Before that, I didn't know it was okay to write in books.

I do love To Kill a Mockingbird, but as they were forced to read it in school I know several people who hate it.

A few of the books that I enjoyed reading as a 'grown up' teenager were;
The Outsiders (S.E Hinton I think?)
The Color Purple (Alice (?) Walker I think?)
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou) (and her other ones)
Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)

I did love 1984, which was on one of our reading lists at school but wasn't a 'definitely must read this before the year is out' book - it was just suggested.

I think 1984 was on our recommended list as well, and Pygmalion, both of which I liked. Not sure if I Capture The Castle was too, but I loved that as well.

But the slower romance books like Wuthering Heights and Ewan Mcthingumy books I really struggled with.

As an adult I'm actually still quite a fan of teenage fiction and genre books in many ways, I enjoy the fact that even when terrible things happen the characters keep going and eventually things get better (if not perfectly so) - whereas in adult books there seems to be a general trend where in those kind of circumstances everyone sinks into depression and everything gets more awful.

If she likes horror then Edgar Alan Poe is good, and short stories, so easy.
I think early Attwood is okay, the last one I tried to read was awfully depressing (and felt like it had been written by her husband).
I loved Anne McCaffrey at that age, and Diane Duane is good.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt was one I read at around that age and I've re-read it nearly every year since.