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    13 Literary Books That Young Adult Readers Will Love

    What to read after you’ve finished Harry Potter and The Hunger Games.

    Over the last decade, the young adult boom has overtaken the literary conversation. Sometimes it can seem like mega-series such as Harry Potter and The Hunger Games are the only things keeping the publishing industry afloat. However, the popularity of young adult fiction has also opened up more space for weird, unreal, dystopian, and/or fantastic works. Many of the college and high school students I teach are eager for more recommendations in this vein. Below are 13 "literary" books that fans of YA will love. Let me be clear: I'm not making any argument about "literary" fiction being better or worse than "young adult" fiction. Genre is often more about marketing than content, and some of the titles below might have been labeled YA if they were published today. These are simply books typically shelved among adult literary fiction that young adult fans will certainly enjoy.

    1. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

    2. The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

    3. The Orange Eats Creeps by Grace Krilanovich

    4. Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link

    5. Long Division by Kiese Laymon

    6. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

    7. Jakob von Gunten by Robert Walser

    8. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

    9. Third Class Superhero by Charles Yu

    10. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz

    11. The People of Paper by Salvador Plascencia

    12. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

    13. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender