YA Books that have Adult Me in a Chokehold

The young adult label on books is merely a suggestion that I chose to ignore.

I have so many books from my childhood that I still very much love as an adult, probably even more now that I am grown. There are many more I could add to this list, but that will be a post for another day. So here’s some of my favorite childhood books I still adore to this day. 🩷

✨Crank by Ellen Hopkins✨ anything by this woman had me sobbing at 9:00am on a Monday morning before PE. If you’ve never picked up one of her books, you’re really missing out. The Crank series was a terrifying dive into teenage addiction and how quickly it spirals out of control. Rape, drugs, alcohol, abuse… you name it this series has it. And this is only ONE of her books. Go grab em. (PS. They’re written in verse)

✨ The Monsters of Morley Manor by Bruce Coville✨ this shabby looking book I’ve had since the 3rd grade. Picked it up at a book fair for having good grades. I loved this book. Cute little monsters. Science experiments. Creepy haunted houses. Brother and sister trying to save the world from aliens. I adored this book and desperately wanted to find my own box of mini monsters.

✨The Warriors Series by Erin Hunt✨ I love me some talking animals. And boy did I eat up this series. And the series after. And the mini series. Literally anything to do with the Warriors I was all over. These books were also quite sad. Had me crying a lot. But a lot of books made me cry. But yeah. Also, in every single book, there’s a character list. I LOVED that. With descriptions of the cats too. Which I loved even more.

✨The Thief and the Beanstalk by PW Catanese✨ if you love fairy tale retelling, this was a good one. But to me, which was around like age ten ish, it was way way scarier than just a boy climbing a bean stalk. Jack had it easy with sleeping giants. The spiders with the baby heads? Those kept me up for weeks. Probably drove my mama crazy talking about them.

✨Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Stolarz✨ this series is DEFINITELY what got me into witchcraft as a child. I also wanted to go to boarding school because of these books. And I never wanted to baby sit after reading this one. This is the first in a series. And I still love reading it to this day. There are five total. But I hate the very last one because it’s written as a comic book. I don’t know why they changed it up but it kinda ruined the series for me having one be.. different. But that’s just me personally. Still love them regardless. If you like spooky stories and witchcraft check em out!

✨The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle✨ did you ever watch this movie as a kid? Cuz I did. I was stupid obsessed with it. Didn’t care that it was kinda scary and there are some mildly inappropriate scenes for a child. It was the 80s things were unhinged then. Imagine my surprise when I turned 16 and my mama gifted me the book version of my favorite movie. Hooked I was. Better than the movie. Still creepy. More so actually. And much like the movie, a sad ending. Only worse, because there’s a part two where Lir and Unicorn see each other again (no spoilers). As a kid I really thought it was a happy ending. But it’s kinda.. bummy. And once upon a time my copy had a jacket but I’ve had it for a while and well life happens.

What were some of your favorites as a child? Do you still read them as an adult? What was the book that got you into reading?

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