General Discussion

Hey guys! I haven't been reading near as much as I would like to, and I'd like to start building a new goodreads full of book recs I'm actually excited for.

For reference, my favorite genres are fantasy, horror, and LGBT+. My favorite books are Scythe by Neal Shusterman, Maximum Ride by James Patterson, and Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. I also enjoy lots of classics, my favorite being To Kill a Movkingbird.

If you haven't read it yet, I think you'd enjoy the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater

Some other books I've enjoyed:

- The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
- Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
- any of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett

And some interesting ones:

- The Resurrectionist by E. B. Hudspeth (horror; tbh I bought it for the illustrations, but the story's not half bad either!)
- really anything by Mark Z. Danielewski (The House of Leaves is probably his most famous work)

- Renegades by Marissa Meyer (sci-fi featuring superheroes and stuff, i really enjoyed the first book but I can't speak for the sequels cuz ive only read the first book)
- Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee (again, not fantasy, but historical fiction set during the 1906(i think) San Francisco earthquake)
- The Reader & The Speaker by Traci Chee (actually fantasy this time! again, can't speak for the last book cuz I havent read it but these were pretty good)
- The Glass Sentence by S. E. Grove(kind of fantasy, kind of historical fiction, hard to explain but great nonetheless)

Tamora Pierce writes fantastic fantasy with strong female leads.

Her first series is the Lioness Quartet, the first book of which is called Alanna: The First Adventure.

Other series she has written:
The Immortals
Protector of the Small
Trickster's Choice
Beka Cooper
The Circle of Magic
The Circle Opens
The Circle Reforged

Plus Tempests and Slaughter, the only book so far in a new prequel series.

Pretty much any of these series are good jumping off points, though my personal favorite places to start are the Lioness Quartet, Protector of the Small, and Beka Cooper.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede features a princess who runs away from an oppressive life to volunteer in the service of a dragon. Hijinks ensue. There are four books in the series, I believe the first is called Dealing with Dragons.

Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms series are fantastic subversive fairy tale narratives. There is, uh, adult content in them sometimes. Nothing gruesomely explicit, but on some occasions there are PG-13 descriptions of sex scenes. The books themselves are not romances, but there tend to be romantic subplots.

The Fairy Godmother is a good start as it introduces the world very well, though other good ones are The Sleeping Beauty, One Good Knight, and Beauty and the Werewolf.

While we're on Mercedes Lackey, the Hunter series she wrote is also very good. If you liked The Hunger Games, you'd like this one. Basically it takes place in a post-nuclear future where mythical monsters are now running around the world, and elite warriors called Hunters are tasked with hunting them down...on live TV, with ratings and rapport among the citizens being massive deals to them.

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater is one of the only YA series I read. It's fantasy and it's got an LGBT+ couple at the end (although it's just barely mentioned, as I recall). I think the author has come out with something new for it since the last time I looked?

I also read the Wings of Fire books, but I think they're more for younger readers than YA? Darkstalker was my favorite, and I do try to keep up with them. They mention LGBT+ couples existing a few times in the series, but it's not until you get to the waaay end of the many books in the series that it starts being at the front.

The only other YA book I've read recently was Fiendish by Brenna Yovanoff, at the recommendation of a friend. It's fantasy/horror and it really stuck in my mind. Would recommend reading the synopsis to see if it's your thing.

gonna second The Raven Cycle even though I never finished it- the first book was AMAZING.

*scrolls through my goodreads shelf that contains 357 read books* this might be a minute.

seconding lots of titles here. six of crows, raven cycle, renegades, and the darkest minds. tho anything by these authors in particular are great.

i will say that the raven cycle goes through a lot of ups and downs. the second and fourth books are usually love it or hate it and there's no inbetween, to my knowledge. book three is all right, but book one is my absolute favorite. book four introduces a lot of plot points and concepts that are completely abandoned, but may be resolved in the spin off series about ronan. we'll have to see *squints at ronan book*

i've enjoyed everything by leigh bardugo (six of crows) so far. lots of people hate on her shadow and bone trilogy but i really liked it. i haven't read king of scars yet but i'm sure i'll love that too. leigh has another book coming in october called ninth house, tho, WHICH IS NOT YA. NINTH HOUSE IS VERY VIOLENT AND VERY ADULT so if you're considering that, at the very least take a look at reviews on goodreads for content warnings beforehand.

renegades is a super fun incredibles-type superhero novel. not trying to reinvent the superhero genre, but an entertaining read. her other series the lunar chronicles is great if you like sci-fi/dystopian/fairy tale retellings. heartless is okay imho but a good read nonetheless.

i wholeheartedly recommend the darkest minds, it has some of the best character relationships i've ever read, period. the platonic and romantic and even enemy relations are so teen-like it's astounding. and the dad jokes liam makes are a+. i don't really recommend her passenger duology tho, it's far slower.

if you want tons of lgbt+ stuff, i recommend shaun david hutchinson and adam silvera. both are ownvoices gay writers who primarily write speculative contemporaries, with heavy emphasis on mental illness. the timekeeper trilogy by tara sim is a great lgbt+ steampunk series. the devouring gray has raven cycle book three/four vibes to it and more lgbt+ characters than raven cycle, so that might be up your alley. these rebel waves contains a gay character, and it has lots of plant-magic politics going on, so that might be a good fantasy for ya. we set the dark on fire is also a fantasy with a f/f relationship. autoboyography is a really good book about being gay and mormon, which was super fun to read. aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe is a classic ya lgbt+ contemporary. it mainly focuses on characters and dialogue, tho, which a lot of people dislike. the song of achilles is a retelling of the iliad and it doesn't shy away from the fact achilles and patroclus were super unabashedly gay, like most scholars do.

looking at all those, my recs are very white and very cis gay, so if you want something other than that i can't help you, but lgbtqreads on twitter is always promoting poc and other identities, so scrolling through that may give you some more recs!

I would recommend:

-The Throne of Glass (Series)
-The Giver (Series)
-School of Good and Evil (Series)
-Anything by Rick Riordan
-Dreamtheif
-Goose Girl (Series)
-The Black Mage (Series)
-Boundary Born (Not sure if its a series or not)

Hope one of these sparked your interest!