Adult book ideas for nearly 13 year old boy please

[VanessaBet]

DS is a very prolific reader and has enjoyed all the usual suspects, loves Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Philip Pullman etc, has read Hunger Games, Watership Down, LOTR, Pratchett and so on but finds it hard to find anything in the 'teen' section at the library, claiming 'they're all either about love or someone is running away from something'!

I've introduced him to SE Hinton (one of my favourites as a teenager) and am now attempting to find less teenage/kid focussed books for him which aren't too unsuitable. (I know he'll find the less suitable stuff of his own accord - I guess I mean full on sex scenes or disturbing violence - but I don't want to be the one who gives it to him, if you see what I mean!). So far he's enjoyed the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell, the James Herriot vet books, Gerald Durrell's Corfu sage but he's fast and I'm running out of ideas from my shelves if I haven't reread them recently!

I'm thinking of suggesting Rebecca, The Woman in Black and Cold Comfort Farm which I remember enjoying as a teenager - any other suggestions please?

What about Malorie Blackman

And Douglas Adams is great

Re: Margaret Atwood I originally put down the handmaids tale as a sci-fi type novel, then thought the weird sex set up might be a bit much. But thinking about Oryx and Crake again, it does feature some inappropriate themes - there's so much that goes on in the story that I forgot about the odd strip club, and the fact that Oryx was a child sex abuse victim. Scrap that idea.

Mind i was reading Flowers in the Attic when I was younger than your son - incest and arsenic anyone?!

On a more modern note... I've read a few interesting post apocalyptic books recently. The girl with all the gifts and the end of the world running club spring to mind.

I was reading Mary Higgins Clark books at that age. If I remember correctly they were pretty low key murder mysteries without too much violence or sex.

Books by Susan Hill, Anne McCaffrey and Ursula le Guin.

@BertieBotts Much as I LOVE George R R Martin and know he would adore the worldbuilding/heraldry/magic and characters I think the numerous rapes, incest, and flaying are best left til he's more like 16, not 12!

He's read Douglas Adams and Ender's Game.

@Hobbes8 I think I read Flowers in the Attic when I was 13ish, but I was given that by peers, not my parents! Mind you I'd rather his friends passed round dodgy dogeared paperbacks than whatever is the equivalent on phones. I dread to think.

Oh yes, The Girl with all the Gifts - that could be ok, I really enjoyed it.

@SimultaneousEquation We have the Earthsea books which he's read, will have to look for more by her.

What does everyone think about Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell? It's been a while since I read it.

David Eddings - start with The Belgariad series.

The Martian by Andy Weir

To Kill A Mockingbird

Skulduggery Pleasant series

Absolutely loved the proper original
Sherlock Holmes at that age

@strawberrypenguin he loved The Belgariad and recommended them to his Dad! Also a Skulduggery fan.

The Martian could be a good shout, and he hasn't read To Kill a Mockingbird either.

Also how about John WynhAm - dat of the triffids, midwives cuckoos etc

Bloody autocorrect. Day of the Triffids and Midwich Cuckoos

How about all the Sherlock Holmes books?

@Oddlookingeyes Yes he's done Wyndham, at least Triffids, possibly not the others.

I have suggested Sherlock Holmes, another good suggestion from those who've made it!

strumpers we were obviously in sync and posting at same time :)

I loved the girl with all the gifts too, and there's a sequel called the boy on the bridge.

I was coming on to say David Eddings, Jasper Fforde, Anne McCaffrey, etc. But they've all been said already.

What about Sherlock Holmes? I've got a bit in my form at school who is steadily reading his way through them and thoroughly enjoying them.

Or Michael Grant. The gone series was very good and I believe he's written another series since that one but I haven't read it.

Kelly Armstrong's young adult books (the proper adult ones are a bit too graphic for what you're after) are good, but they do involve a bit of running away from things.

I would get the Kindle unlimited tbh. Once he's found a few he likes the recommendations learn what sort of books to put at the top of the list. Unless he can find most of the books he's reading either in a library or charity shops I find the Kindle unlimited the most cost effective way of reading for me and dd1 as we're both bookworms.

How about:

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Stonebird - Mike Revell
Skellig - David Almond

Mallorie Blackman?
Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy?
Curious dog author wrote boom,my D's loved that one

There is a set about Arthurian england, by Mary Stuart (? Sounds unlikely now.) called the Crystal Cave.

He might like Biggles, also MC Beaton's Hamish McBeth series.

If he liked Belgariad, he'll like Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. It's big too, so it will keep him going a while.

Piers Anthony's Xanth series is good, and enormous. In the line of Terry Pratchett.

There's enough there to keep him going quite a long time!

I was like your son. Presumably he’s read Aidan Chambers’ stuff?

George Orwell
Brave New World
Catcher in the Rye
YY to James Herriot, also similar stories about a teacher from Gervais Phinn
Bill Bryson?
Adrian Mole Series
YY to Douglas Adams

Tom Sharpe too

Have you tried him on Terry Pratchett? Lots of humour in those to appeal to a teenage boy!

Has he read the Philip Pullman Dark Materials trilogy? Could be right up his street if he likes magic / fantasy.

The Night Circus is wonderful and not too adult for a 13yo.

It might be a bit soon, but would he read dickens? The plots are so brilliant, and if he got through Tolkien he's probably not going to be daunted - perhaps try him on A Tale of Two Cities first as its the shortest and most accessible.

How about The Dark is Rising - that's a series I LOVED at that age.

Thought of a couple more - I Capture the Castle is lovely and might be something a bit different for him.

Also tentatively suggesting The Shadow of The Wind - it's a judgment call on your part because there are some adult themes (won't say what for fear of spoilers!) but it isn't at all graphic and it's one of the most thrilling and beautiful narratives ever.

Another vote for Sherlock Holmes
Great Expectations
The Turn of the Screw
Agatha Christie
1984
Catch-22
Another vote for John Wyndham
H G Wells
Wuthering Heights
Yes to Susan Hill
Wilkie Collins
The Marcus Didius Falco Roman mysteries series by Lindsay Davis
Oliver Twist
Oscar Wilde's short stories
The Sunne in Splendour

All 'adult books' I enjoyed in my early teens!

Also some YA suggestions

Lockwood and Co series (if he likes Skulduggery)
Yes to Lian Hearn trilogy
The Bloodsong trilogy by Melvin Burgess
Another vote for Malorie Blackman
Eragon trilogy by Christopher Paolini
The Cup of the World Peter Dickinson
A Gathering Light Jennifer Donnelly