Finding Modern Young Adult Books to Read

I have a lot of trouble finding young adult books that are of the type that I enjoy.  I have read Kindle samples of dozens of YA books over the years that I have not found interesting enough to read past the sample.

I seldom find anything I want to read from YA lists found online in various places.  It's like taking a stab in the dark trying to find something good.  It doesn't help that a lot of people lump adult books in with the YA books.  I'll check a book that's on a YA list and discover that it's aimed at adults.  Not helpful.

Even worse, we now have to deal with books written by artificial intelligence.  I've heard that Amazon is now full of such books, and I wish to avoid them.  I want to read books written by actual people, not a fake book created by a computer that copied content from real books.

This means that I must now be wary of books published by independent authors.  With some care, I can still partake of works by independent authors, but I will have to vet them first.

But still, there's the problem of finding books that appeal to me.

I got really lucky in early February when I stumbled across the book That's Not My Name by Megan Lally.  I wasn't even looking for a book to read.

I was reading this post on Reddit:

The lack of appealing teen literature is causing teens to stop reading

It's an odd post that was debunked by commenters.  Something about the post or its comments which I now can't remember caused me to run a Google search for YA books.  I ended up looking at teen book pages on both Simon & Schuster's and Barnes & Noble's sites.  Based on my browser history, I apparently saw the title These Deadly Prophecies on the Barnes & Noble site and then visited Amazon's page for that book. 

Immediately after I viewed the page for These Deadly Prophecies, I visited Amazon's page for That's Not My Name.  Amazon has dynamic content on all pages listing other books and products for sale, and I must have seen That's Not My Name and clicked on it.  The summary intrigued me, and I enjoyed the free sample.  That resulted in me purchasing and reading the book.  

That's Not My Name is the best book I've read in months (aside from Keeper of the Lost Cities).  I would love to duplicate this serendipitous sequence of events.  But how?  I found the book solely by chance.  I guess that's also what happened with Keeper of the Lost Cities nearly a year ago. 

If only I could do this more often!  Many great books exist that I would love reading, but I have to find them myself.  Books have to be in a certain style with a certain tone in order for me to enjoy them.  Many books are recommended to me that just don't appeal to me.  I'm on my own here.

I always read through reviews right after I finish a book.  As I read through the reviews for That's Not My Name, I saw praise for Sourcebooks Fire.

Sourcebooks is a publishing company, and Sourcebooks Fire is the imprint it uses for its young adult books.  One reviewer said that they get excited whenever Sourcebooks Fire has a new YA book, and they immediately read it.  I was intrigued.  Could the Sourcebooks Fire imprint lead me to some good books?  Off I went to the Sourcebooks website, checking out the YA section.

Sourcebooks Fire books for young adults

I'm interested in YA books that are dystopian, suspenseful, or have a really good mystery.  I like romance if it's just secondary to the main story.  I am uninterested in YA books that are just romance novels.  I find those tend to be a bit tedious and annoying.  I like romance only when it's part of a story where the characters are in a dangerous situation or have a lot of intense problems of some sort (zombies, deadly viruses, nuclear war, murderers on the loose, etc.).  

I began checking the Sourcebooks Fire listings, focusing mainly on the YA Thrillers subcategory. I also checked out the YA Sci-Fi subcategory.

I found a number of good books to read.  Since early February, I have read these Sourcebooks Fire books.

That's Not My Name by Megan Lally - outstanding
They're Watching You by Chelsea Ichaso - a bit flat but overall good
The Warning and The Fallout by Kristy Acevedo - excellent
The Plague Land trilogy by Alex Scarrow - very good to excellent
What Happened on Hicks Road by Hannah Jayne - very good
Swarm by Jennifer Lyle - excellent
Don't Let In the Cold by Keely Parrack - excellent
The Last to Die by Kelly Garrett - good to very good

I then decided that I should look directly on the sites of other publishers.  I checked a few, and I found it interesting that the Sourcebooks Fire inventory is much easier to navigate than the inventory offered by other publishers.  Sourcebooks Fire also seems to have more books that are to my liking.  As a result, I ended up right back on the Sourcebooks site, looking for more books.

I am now reading The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Tiffany Brooks.

I will stick to Sourcebooks Fire to see if any others are to my liking.  After that, I'm going to check on some of the authors whose books I've read in the last 10 years.  Perhaps they have some new books that will appeal to me.