Jen's Don't-miss-absolute-favorites for teens and adults

It can be hard to choose books to read as a teenager. Confident readers may feel, as I did, that if it’s not an adult book, it’s just a dumb kid’s book and not worth reading. (gasp!) But now that I’m a little older, and (perhaps?) a little wiser, I’ve come to appreciate the rapidly growing genre of young adult literature.

As a teen, I read everything I could get my hands on by Michael Crichton, Robin Cook, Stephen King, and Dean Koontz. But now, in the wake of Harry Potter and Twilight – both written for younger audiences, but read widely by adults - I present my list of young adult books that I’ve read in my twenties and (surprise!) completely enjoyed. There's a mix here of regular fiction and fantasy, but they are all great stories that I have read multiple times.

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding
• Poison by Chris Wooding
• The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld
• Dairy Queen and Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
• The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud