Looking for your next great contemporary read?
Of course, there are hundreds of titles that will appeal to fans of John Green, but we filled this list with our current favorites. If you’re wondering why these books made it on our list, the reason’s under the novel’s blurb!
THIRTEEN REASONS WHY by Jay Asher
THIRTEEN REASONS WHY
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
WHY? If you liked the mysteries in LOOKING FOR ALASKA or PAPER TOWNS, Asher’s dual narrative structure will appeal to you. Pack some tissues, this book is deep and dark and wonderful.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING OT LARRY by Janet Tashijian
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LARRY
After creating a controversial and hugely popular website, teenager Josh Swensen becomes trapped inside his brilliant creation and must find a way to remain anonymous.
I am lying on my bed doing my homework in Greek and Latin roots for Advanced English. ‘Ped’ for foot, ‘homo’ for man, ‘nym’ for name. I sit with the dictionary in front of me, coming up with as many words as I can to complete the assignment. Pedestrian, homicide, pseudonym . . . I have more than thirty of them. By accident — that’s always how these life-changing things happen — I connect two halves that don’t seem like a word until I look it up. ‘Pseudo’, false; and ‘cide,’ to kill = pseudocide. To pretend to kill (yourself).
I stare at the word for a good long time. Homicide, suicide, genocide: these are words you can find in the newspaper every day. But pseudocide . . . now here was something different. My mind wanders from my homework to the blue cotton threads of my bedspread. Pseudocide. A way to start again as someone completely new, a way to burn the old self and try on a new one.
Josh Swensen isn’t your average teenager – when he observes America, he sees a powerhouse of consumerism and waste. He’s even tried to do something about it, with his start-up controversial website. But when Josh rises to messiah status of the internet world, he discovers that greed and superficiality are not easily escaped. Trapped inside his own creation, Josh feels his only way out is to stage his death and be free of his internet alter-ego, “Larry.” But this plan comes with danger, and soon Josh finds himself cut off from the world, with no one to turn to for help. In this suspenseful young adult novel, Janet Tashjian has written a probing tour-de-force.
WHY? Tashijian’s writing strikes the same vein as John Green with great characters and a funny narrative voice that will appeal to readers of LOOKING FOR ALASKA. It’s got an anti-establishment plot that appeals to the inner-rebel in all of us.
THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS by Gavin Extence
THE UNIVERSE VERSUS ALEX WOODS
A rare meteorite struck Alex Woods when he was ten years old, leaving scars and marking him for an extraordinary future. The son of a fortune teller, bookish, and an easy target for bullies, Alex hasn’t had the easiest childhood.
But when he meets curmudgeonly widower Mr. Peterson, he finds an unlikely friend. Someone who teaches him that that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make it count.
So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the front seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he’s fairly sure he’s done the right thing…
Introducing a bright young voice destined to charm the world, The Universe Versus Alex Woods is a celebration of curious incidents, astronomy and astrology, the works of Kurt Vonnegut and the unexpected connections that form our world.
WHY? Alex’s narrative might remind readers of AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES, but the plot is all Extence’s own brilliance. Continue reading
Lake Forest High School Library 