The Best 2,000+ pages of YA Awesomeness to Take Your Mind off Being Stuck at Home
It’s been one weekend of social distancing and I feel like I’m going insane. My roommate is away, and I am slowly but surely turning into a hermit witch. I’m oscillating between cleaning my apartment until it shines and then exploding it again with a ‘project’ that I will half finish before cleaning the apartment again and the cycle repeats. The only thing I can foresee breaking this cycle is a really, really, really long book binge. So here are some of the series I’m recommending for us all to dive into to try and take our minds off being stuck at home. Now excuse me while pace in my living room and chase pigeons away from my windows while I consider facetiming my mother for the eighth time this morning just to see another human face.
The Diviners Series by Libba Bray
This series was ten years in the making and well worth the wait! With over 2,000 pages, these books are BIG and b-e-a-utiful! When Evie O’Neill is exiled from her boring hometown and shipped off to New York City, she’s absolutely thrilled! It’s 1926 and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and bustle! The only catch being that she has to live with her uncle Will and his obsession with the occult. Evie is afraid he’ll discover her secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble thus far. But when the police find a girl murdered and branded with a cryptic symbol, Will is called to the scene. Evie realizes her gift could help catch a serial killer. As she jumps head-long into a dance with a murderer, we meet more young people with supernatural powers and their stories unfurl across the city. What begins as a murder mystery will develop into a struggle against evil that could consume the entire nation, and possibly the world.
The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer
I beg your pardon, but does this really need any introduction? We all rememebr those iconic lines: “About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him – and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be – that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.” Now is the perfect time for a walk down memory lane and full-on re-read. Or if you’ve never read the books before, first of all what are you doing? Second of all, it’s time you caught up with the zeitgeist.
Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling
Again, needs no introduction. We all know the global phenomenon that is Harry Potter. Why not take this time to experience or re-experience the books that started it all? With literally thousands of pages, these magical books are the perfect way to distract yourself from the fact that these few days away from the sun are starting to make you look like Lord Voldemort.
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Supernatural romance? Gimme, gimme! These capital B Big Books in the Beautiful Creatures series are here to deliver some southern gothic romance! Ethan Wate, who has been counting down the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he’s never met. But when a stranger, Lena Duchannes, moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her. Meanwhile, Lena is struggling to conceal a power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even in the overgrown gardens, murky swamps, and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, nothing stays secret forever.
The Heir Chronicles by Cinda Williams Chima
With five books of epic magical warrior badassery, The Heir Chronicles are bound to distract you from the fact you haven’t spoken to another person in almost 24 hours. Sixteen-year-old Jack lived an unremarkable life in the small town of Trinity, Ohio. Only his daily medicine and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from other kids. But when Jack skips his daily dose, he suddenly feels fiercer, stronger, and more confident. Right up until he loses control of his own strength and nearly kills another player during soccer tryouts. Soon Jack learns the startling truth: he is a Weirlind, part of an underground magical society at who’s helm sits two feuding houses: the Red Rose and the White Rose. Their power is determined by playing The Game, a magical tournament in which each house sponsors a warrior in a battle to the death. Jack’s story intertwines with others until their stories become part of an epic battle for the fate of the world over the course of the series.
Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar
Who is ready to escape their reality and dive into the fashionable back-stabbings of NYC’s Upper East Side elite? With eleven books, a prequel, and a horror re-telling of the first book aptly named Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer, the Gossip Girl series will keep you Hermes and spilled tea for a minute. The secrets of Manhattan’s trendsetters are told in delicious detail by the eponymous gossip girl, an online blogger with a penchant for letting drop that hot goss. Get ready for scandal! Xoxo, gossip girl.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
How could I make a list of long book series and not include at least one by the one-and-only queen of the BIG BOOK, Sarah J. Maas. I’ve read all of ACOTAR, but it is a major mar upon my YA fantasy reading history that I’ve not read Throne of Glass. Well, my time has come. After serving a year of hard labor, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. He offers her freedom in exchange for being his champion in the competition to find the new royal assassin. When the other contestants start showing up dead in rapid succession, Celaena will have to find the killer before she becomes a victim.