The other day, I was thinking about the books I used to read when I was growing up. I wish I could pick the books off the shelf, but I donated a lot of my old books a few years ago. Looking back on the books I enjoyed reading is fun.

It helps me to reflect on the literature that shaped me as a young girl. How what I read ultimately influenced my taste in literature and my love for creative writing and preference for storytelling, my own, and by other creators of film, tv, and books. And also how I learned what literature I hate reading or watching.

Today, I’m sharing some of my favourite YA books from my adolescent years and why I either loved or hated them. I guess this post is more of a personal story or a review than anything else, but I hope you will still enjoy reading it.

“Blue Bloods” series by Melissa De La Cruz

The setting of these books is Manhattan, New York, in a world where vampires exist and are reincarnations of angels that cast out of Heaven. Over the centuries, they’ve crafted an elite secret society, and while they are ‘blue bloods’ the term is also a play on words because their blood is blue instead of red. A group of young teenagers learns for the first time they’re reincarnations, and vampires and their abilities start to manifest. The story itself centres on three heroines. Schuyler Van Alen, a half-vampire, and other new vampires Bliss Llewellyn and Mimi Force. The action begins when a vampire is killed, and they believe an ancient enemy is responsible, even though they haven’t been seen for years.

The main character, Schuyler Van Alen Chase in this series was my favourite. She was wealthy, but always wore Dr. Martens with duct-taped toes, and torn stockings, and layered black sweaters. She was grungy and gothic, and she never changed her appearance throughout the books, even when she caught the attention of the popular boy at school, Jack Force. I loved the use of Latin words and phrases, in a way that was so different from Harry Potter (if I had to pick something to compare it to) and I loved all the setting changes: Manhattan, Italy, Paris, and even Hell itself.

Now…in hindsight, there were some things I didn’t like about the series then (that I still don’t like now). Such as the vaguely romantic, borderline-inappropriate relationship between Mimi and Jack Force. They were ‘soul-mates’ in a sense but reincarnated into the same family where they were brother and sister. The same thing happened to Schuyler’s mother and her uncle. It was weird at the time and it still is now. Also, I don’t recall there being many characters of colour in the books, which is something I never thought to consider back then, but I consider it now.

“The Chemical Garden” Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano

This trilogy was published amidst the dystopian trend. Set in a world where a strange virus kills every young woman at the age of twenty and all young men at the age of twenty-five. The main character Rhine Ellery is separated from her twin brother Rowan when she is captured off the street and sold to a young man to become his wife, alongside three others. She’s trapped in a decadent mansion, namely on the ‘wives’ floor’ where she plots an escape to run away and return to her brother who is far away in New York.

My favourite part about these books was the author’s style of writing. I think what she missed in plotting and pacing, she made up for in her beautiful, lyrical prose. Her writing has somewhat of a dreamy quality and paints a picture-perfect in your mind. I enjoyed her new series “The Internment Chronicles” especially because of the way she described its fantasy, steampunk-esque setting. No doubt, she’s an inspiration to my own writing in terms of her style, not her subject matter.

Speaking of, that’s what I didn’t really like about this series. The subject matter. More so, now that I’ve watched “A Handmaid’s Tale” and can say that this book series reminds me of it. While Rhine is sixteen, another wife in the house is only thirteen (or fourteen, I forget) and she’s the only one of the wives to give Linden, twenty-one, two children. It’s very bleak and messed up, especially when Cecily is happy to do it and adapts to live at the manor quickly. As bleak as it was, it’s probably realistic to some extent, right?

“Elementals” series by Brigid Kemmerer

This series (I’ve discovered I don’t have the final book of btw) is about a small town and four brothers who lost their parents and learned from a young age that they can control the four elements: water, earth, fire, and air. Each book focuses on a different brother and, of course, their romantic and other personal adventures, while the townsfolk continually grow uneasy about their presence and whether they’re to blame for mysterious occurrences in the town.

One thing I enjoyed the most about this series was how it read more like an anthology. All the stories were related but also very different from each other. I think the second book was the most enjoyable, about the brother Gabriel labelled as the ‘bad brother’. This series was such a fun read because it had magic, that small-town aesthetic, and a LOT of teen drama. I remember relating to a lot of it. The writing was very genuine and real. Also, the little subplot about the twin brothers switching classes so they both get good grades was amazing!

The only bad thing I can say about this book is that the worldbuilding was confusing. The four brothers could control the elements and some of the townsfolk knew it because they were also centred around the elements but couldn’t manipulate them themselves. It wasn’t the best-written worldbuilding I’ve seen in YA fantasy, but it was okay.

These are three of my favourite book series from when I was growing up (as a teenager), and only a handful of the library that made me love speculative fiction and creative writing. What I loved the most was how underrated these books were when they were first published and in a weird way, I felt like I could enjoy them and keep them all to myself because no one in my school, my peers especially, knew about these books at all. I hope you enjoyed this little story of mine and the mini-reviews along with them.

Happy reading!

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