Top Ten Tuesday is an original weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.
This Week’s Theme:
YA Series Bloggers Can Read
To Earn Street Cred
Initial Thoughts:
It’s kinda like a cult thing (but not really a cult thing).
Fandoms can be fun–and crazy–but you got to have read (or attempted to read) the book to even have a chance at happy flailing or angry flailing. This list features some Young Adult trilogies/series you ought to consider reading for the community appeal that are “popular but not too popular“. (I omit massive franchises that have far greater than 100k review ratings on Goodreads on it’s first installment because at that point, everyone and their pets have read the series).
But being a black sheep is fun too.
I use “street cred” as an adaptive term to just say that its neat when you find someone in the community you can be like “oh hey, I read this and enjoyed it too!” fully knowing that it’s not in the same popularity sphere like The Hunger Games or The Lunar Chronicles etc. (If that makes sense?)
Red Rising (Pierce Brown)
Yes…I too am surprised this [first] book only had 70k ratings despite winning every single award on Goodreads like whoa.
Shadow and Bone (Leigh Bardugo)
Neat world bogged down (for me) by its cast. But I do not regret reading it for it introduced me to Six of Crows.
The Darkest Minds (Alexandra Bracken)
Pretty sure I’ve been spoiled per some character revelations for reasons of an earlier TTT post that I had requested input from other bloggers. Woops.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Laini Taylor)
All I can say is that I’ve heard this series is beautifully written.
The Winner’s Trilogy (Marie Rutkoski)
I think I’ve heard every yay/nay argument for this series.
Unwind Dystology (Neal Shusterman)
I would make time to read this if it weren’t for everythingelsethatexiststoruinmytbr.
Chaos Walking (Patrick Ness)
I don’t recommend reading this so at least our friendship can remain a standstill because ignorance is bliss and if you hate this story I hate you.
The Raven Cycle (Maggie Stiefvater)
I tried and couldn’t make it past like the second or third scene. Woe is me.
The Program (Suzanne Young)
This series has been chilling on my desk forever.
Angelfall (Susan Ee)
Angels? Angels. (That’s all I got.)
Afterthoughts:
Moral of the post: read wtf you want.
Did I miss out on a series that’s in the “middle of the pack” in terms of visibility and fan following? (re YA and ~100k or less reviews)
Cheers,
Joey
connect:
afterthoughtAn // twitter
anotherafterthought // goodreads
picturevomit // instagram
thoughts and afterthoughts. 
I’ve read the majority of the books on this list. The Unwind Dystology is super good you definitely read it (when you have time).
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Shoot. I have no street cred. (Probably didn’t surprise you!) I’ve only read the first Daughter of Smoke & Bone and The Raven Cycle. I think I need to give The Raven Cycle another chance.
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4/10 ain’t bad haha. You are very right in saying that the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series is beautifully written. Most people already know how much I adore the Raven Cycle and Red Rising haha. I really want to read the Chaos Walking trilogy but I am slowly being flooded by all the other books that I have that also need reading haha.
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Lol I’ve read 6.5/10 of these series/books which is actually kind of suprising considering I consider myself a hipster when it comes to popular YA books but I just gotta know what all that hype is about. However, I do refuse to read Red Rising though..although I really can’t tell you why..THIS IS WHY I CONSIDER MYSELF A HIPSTER.
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Haha I have 1/10! I have no street cred what so ever! A lot of these books are on my TBR though! xx
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4.5/10, and 2.5 of those I had no clue as to what the heck the hype was about.
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I have read none of these series and I have varying degrees of interest for most of them. I feel like I’ll end up reading most of them though because I cannot handle peer pressure haha
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Great list! I just started reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which I’ve heard is beautifully written. It is intelligently written, but in terms of beautiful prose I’m just not seeing it. Totally agree re: the yay/nay of The Winner’s Trilogy–I just can’t decide yet if I want to take the time to read it! One series I might add to your excellent list is Throne of Glass. Or is that already a given?
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LOL, I love this topic. I’m brand new to blogging and I swear everyone’s read and loved/hated all the same books. Me too I guess, I’ve read 5/10 on your list. but the other 5 keep getting ignored, no matter how many times I remember when buying books.
Definitely read WTF you want! I’m a grown woman in love with YA refusing to touch historical or non fiction.
Great list
My TTT
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Woo, I’ve read 7 of these? Soo, some street cred for me? The ones I haven’t read yet is Red Rising (will get to it asap though), Unwind Dystology (sounds intriguing), and The Program (totally has been laying on my desk forever too). 😛 I’ll get to them.. someday. Nice topic!
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Amen to your moral of the post. I’ve read and loved some of the series in this list (I especially love Laini Taylor and Maggie Stiefvater), am doubtful of some, and have been wanting to read the others (especially Neal Shusterman!). But…. “everythingthatexiststoruinmytbr” is a good way of putting it :p
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Ahh awesome list, Joey! I was a bit surprised to see that Red Queen wasn’t here…but then I realised it is probably has a huge following haha 🙂 loved the books you picked and agree one hundred percent – I know the Winner’s trilogy is on my shelf RN waiting for me to get around to it!
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6/10, and I think Seven Realms could be on the list!
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Great list, Joey! Red Rising is EVERYTHING. I can’t believe it doesn’t have over 100k reviews yet on Goodreads!
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There are a lot of books on this list that I need to buy and read ! Especially the first 3 !
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I loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone and the The Winner’s trilogy 🙂 I DNFed The Program, though. Great list
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Let’s see now…
Loved Red Rising, Angelfall, Unwind. Grisha Trilogy was cool (although I’m in the minority ’cause I loathed the Darkling and shipped Malina.) Program and Darkest Minds are okay. Haven’t read Chaos or Winner’s. Didn’t finish Smoke and Bone. As for The Raven Boys, I couldn’t get past the second or third scene either, until I made a second read recently and was able to finish and enjoy the whole thing.
All subjective, I guess.
Might I suggest the Testing Trilogy by Joelle Charbonneau?
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I’ve at least started if not finished the majority of series on this list. So yay for me, street cred. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is indeed beautifully written, amazing metaphors for days. I’m currently reading The Winner’s trilogy and it’s positively surprising me in every way. And yes, I wasn’t expecting much from Unwind (especially as it’s an ‘older’ YA novel) but it was also really good. I think you’d like it-make time!
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Haven’t read any of these. I tend to shy away from popular books and these books just hit that pop radar. Will probably read them after ten years lol
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1/10 😥 I’m reading the Raven Cycle right now and tbh, I’m baffled about what is going on! The other books are mostly on my TBR list 😁
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LOL I truly did feel like I was going through some sort of initiation when I picked up Chaos Walking! I just couldn’t stop raving about it enough! I completely agree with Winner’s Trilogy and Shadow and Bone, but I haven’t gotten past the first book for S&B or Dosab yet. I need to pick up Unwind as well, it’s just on my shelf!
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I really need to read Chaos Walking. I feel like I’ll love anything Ness breathes.
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