This is making the rounds on reddit:

And I beg your pardon, WHAT?

And listen, I may read (and listen to! which helps!) over 100 books each year, but I’m not holding that up as the must-meet standard for all. Five books? Super! Ten? Amazing! Just, you know, please read with your eyes or your ears, I don’t care.

So, this post!

My sister asked me for book recommendations for her daughter, my fourteen-year old niece. And because I am very EXTRA I wrote up an enormous list and thought I'd share it with y'all while I was at it.

The only tip she gave me was that my niece enjoyed The False Prince series by Jennifer Nielsen, so this is fantasy-heavy, though I tried to balance it out with classics and must-reads I think she's probably ready for below.

Have anything you’d add? Hit reply and let me know!

Note: She asked for Amazon links, so there are some affiliate links herein (at least before I ran out of steam).

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITES:

• Nevermoor Series - 5-book series (incomplete, there will be 9 books) by Jessica Townsend: Nevermoor, Wundersmith, Hollowpox, Silverborn. They are so funny and so clever and the magic world is unlike anything else. The audiobooks in particular are incredible, with lots of voices done by Gemma Whalen. Link to first book: https://amzn.to/4dz2a5N

• The Old Kingdom Series by Garth Nix - 5 book series (complete): Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorson, Clariel, and Goldenhand. I re-read this series every year. It is AMAZING. There is also a book of short stories called Across the Wall which is quite good. I tend to own all copies of books I love (paper, e-book, and audiobook) and the audiobooks are good, read by Tim Curry) Link to Sabriel: https://amzn.to/3RBoVxk

• The Seven Realms Series by Cinda Williams Chima - 4 book series (complete): The Demon King, The Exiled Queen, The Gray Wolf Throne, The Crimson Crown. My whole family loves this series. The author did a spin off with The Shattered Realms (4 more books - complete) which is pretty good, but she kills off a beloved character in the first book so most of my kids pretend the second series doesn’t exist. Link to the first book: https://amzn.to/4viqGye (I don’t love the narrator of the audiobooks, but I do own them & listen to them).

• The Queen’s Thief Series by Megan Whalen Turner - 6 books series (complete, but author may write more). The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, Thick as Thieves, A Conspiracy of Kings, Return of the Thief. SO good, all my kids enjoyed these. I still reread these every few years. Audibooks are well done. https://amzn.to/4e6YLv3

• Howl’s Moving Castle Series by Diana Wynne Jones - 3 book series (complete): Howl’s Moving Castle, Castle in the Air, House of Many Ways. UGH, this series is SO GOOD. If she likes these, look up everything else Dianna Wynne Jones wrote, she was so good at magical kid stories that are really inventive and fun. Also, Howl’s Moving Castle can stand on its own if she doesn’t want to read a whole series. There is a movie of Howl’s Moving Castle that changes a few things in the book but is still really excellent. First book: https://amzn.to/3Ry7Zb3 Movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl%27s_Moving_Castle_(film)

• The Elemental Trilogy by Sherry Thomas - 3 book series (complete): The Burning Sky, The Perilous Sea, The Immortal Heights. Okay I absolutely LOVE this series. A magical prince called Titus has prophecies from his mother about a great elemental mage he’ll need to protect, he does so by disguising her (Iolanthe) at a school for boys. The magical world is incredible!, I reread these once a year! https://amzn.to/4wPMIdb

• The Mirror Visitor Quartet by Christelle Dabos - 4 book series (complete): A Winter’s Promise, The Missing of Clairdelune, The Memory of Babel, The Storm of Echoes. I LOVE these! Ophelia is the main character and she can travel through mirrors. She’s quiet and nerdy and is being set up in an arranged marriage. The world has been blown apart so each country is floating on its own piece of rock. Audiobooks are fantastic. https://amzn.to/4dAdO0d

• The Scholamance Series by Naomi Novik - 3 book series (complete): A Deadly Education, The Last Graduate, The Golden Enclaves. This has incredible world building and an amazing magic system. The audiobooks are great. Link to first book: https://amzn.to/4wR32ds - Novik also wrote some stand alone magic/princess books that are very good. She could try Spinning Silver before Scholamance and see if she likes it: https://amzn.to/4tWCIvN

ALSO OWN AND LOVE:

• Fablehaven Series by Brandon Mull - 5 book series (complete): Fablehaven, Rise of the Evening Star, Grip of the Shadow Plague, Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary, Keys to the Demon Prison. There’s a spin off/sequel series called Dragonwatch which is also very good. Really fun magical world set around siblings and a care preserve for magical creatures; all my kids loved these books. I do NOT like the audiobooks of these, the reader is whiny and sounds like he’s reading to kindergartners. These are my favorite of all Mull’s books, but see also his Beyonders series which was my oldest's favorite). Link to the first Fablehaven book: https://amzn.to/4e6YLv3

• Books of Bayern Series by Shannon Hale - 3 book series (complete): The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, Forest Born. Both Katie and Nathan LOVED these: https://amzn.to/3PsGPlr - They have some nice coming of age themes for someone entering high school.

• City of Ghosts Series by Victoria Schwab - 3 book series (complete): City of Ghosts, Tunnel of Bones, Bridge of Souls. Ghost stories but honestly really cute. A girl’s best friend is the ghost of a boy. Her parents are seekers of paranormal activity and have a TV show. https://amzn.to/4vheFcj - I really liked these as a grown up, but if these feel too young, she could try Schwab’s Shades of Magic series: https://amzn.to/3RwhiIB - there are three different London’s accessible by magic.

• Blackthorn Key Series by Kevin Sands - 6 books (still adding to this series, I believe): The Blackthorn Key, Mark of the Plague, The Assassin’s Curse, Call of the Wraith, The Traitor’s Blade, The Raven’s Revenge. Set in olden times, there are clues and coded messages to figure out as the characters solve mysteries and murders. The audiobooks are well done, but reading print or e-book is better if she wants to try and solve the codes. https://amzn.to/3PsH149

• Amari and the Night Brothers by BB Alston - 4 book series (complete): Amari and the Night Brothers, Amari and the Great Game, Amari and the Despicable Wonders, Amari and the Metalwork Menace. Strong female character, fun magic! https://amzn.to/4vcQons

• Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan - 5 book series (complete with/ some extras): Lightning Thief, Sea of Monsters, The Titan’s Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, The Last Olympian. The teens in the book go to a special summer’s camp where they find out one of their real parents is a Greek God. Super fun magic and adventure. https://amzn.to/4e7ff6q (The movies are terrible, but the Disney + series is good!)

• Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer - 8 book series (complete): Artemis Fowl, The Arctic Incident, The Eternity Code, The Opal Deception, The Lost Colony, The Time Paradox, The Atlantis Complex, The Last Guardian. - I only read the first few, but Jake and Nate loved these and were very disappointed with the movie/series attempt; they changed too much. https://amzn.to/4wZI9NA

• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill - stand alone book. Beautiful book about a girl raised by a witch! https://amzn.to/4e8Xi7y

• Inkworld Series by Cornelia Funke - 5 book series (complete): Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath, Chicken House Inkheart, The Color of Revenge. I’ve only read the first three books with my kids, but we loved them! There’s a movie of the first book with Brendan Fraiser which is good. Characters come to life out of books when people with special reading powers read the pages. https://amzn.to/4nWW2b5

• Incarceron by Catherine Fisher - 2 book series (complete): Incarceron, and Sapphique. I like Incarceron best! It’s such a cool book where Claudia’s father is the warden of a magical prison that has a very interesting twist. https://amzn.to/4uEpOnw

• Anything by Frances Hardinge! I love all of her stuff, she usually writes stand alone, but the Fly By Night series has two books. Here’s the first one: https://amzn.to/3PvzP7j Fly By Night’s protagonist, Mosca Mye has been taught to read by her father (reading is forbidden) and has a funny goose companion. All her books are fantastical and a little weird. Her most popular one is called A Face Like Glass: https://amzn.to/4v8n5T1 where a girl called Neverfell navigates an underground world where they make cheese. I know it sounds weird, but it’s really good!

• Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - Okay, I don’t love his stuff. [Our brother] LOVES it and so does my oldest. I tried really hard and gave it multiple tries. They are very cool worlds with cool magic. If she ends up really liking fantasy and kings/queens stuff, she might want to give this a try. https://amzn.to/4uHkAaK

• The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien - Eric read these to the kids when they were little and they fell in love. Have her start with the Hobbit (much shorter) and if she likes it, she’ll probably love the longer Lord of the Rings. The Hobbit: https://amzn.to/4nSI7Tn LOTR trilogy: https://amzn.to/4dPqa3k The movies are all excellent, though they change some things, and there are good audiobooks out there, though the free ones are pretty dry.

• The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer - 4 book series (complete): Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter. Fun for a soon-to-be 9th grader! These are rewrites of Cinderella & other fairytales in a sci-fi/fantasy world. Cinder is part cyborg and the prince is, if I remember correctly, ruling the moon. More romance/coming of age as she enters high school. https://amzn.to/3Ppts5u If she likes these, look at the other Marissa Meyer books.

• Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer - 4 book series (complete): Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn (plus some short stories & Midnight Sun from Edward’s perspective). I know, ridiculous! But really so fun if you don’t take them too seriously. All my kids love these (and so did Eric!). The Edward vs Jacob love triangle makes for endless fun and the movies are campy and silly but we marathon them at least once every year. Audiobooks are decent! Linking to the new box set because it’s so pretty: https://amzn.to/4u6BLRP

• Scythe Series by Neal Shusterman - 3 book series (complete with some short story additions): Scythe, Thunderhead, The Toll. Dystopian world where we’ve cured cancer and other diseases and people would live forever causing an overpopulation problem. Scythes choose when your life is over and are responsible for sending you on. The book follows two kids who are chosen to be Scythes and their rebellion as they turn over the regime. Everyone loved this though my youngest has notes on how it ended. https://amzn.to/4wVc3Cg

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins - 3 book series (complete, though she keeps writing terrible prequels): The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mocking Jay. She’s probably already read these? I love the original trilogy and think the movies are very well done. Don't tell [my niece], but I have hated the two prequels she’s put out about Snow & Haymitch, however they are very popular, so she might like them! https://amzn.to/3RyZVH9

• Gregor the Overlander Series by Suzanne Collins - 5 book series (complete): Gregor the Overlander, The Prophecy of Bane, The curse of the Warmbloods, The Marks of Secret, Code of Claw. No one knows about this series! We read it long before Collins wrote The Hunger Games. Might be a tad young? But it’s a fun adventure story. Gregor discovers an underground world kind of like Alice in Wonderland. https://amzn.to/4wPkcIJ

• Divergent Series by Veronica Roth - 3 book series (complete) - Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant. Dystopian society where kids are sorted into different factions where they must fight for their lives. There’s a slow burn romance. https://amzn.to/4dPtnjo I think they made the first book into a movie which I thought was done pretty well, but they didn’t make the others.

• The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater - 4 book series (complete): The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and The Raven King. https://amzn.to/4uaVGze If she likes these, she might also like Stiefvater's Shiver trilogy (kind of like Twilight only with just wolves and not as cheesy): https://amzn.to/4dBmDHf

LOVE THESE BUT ARE DEFINITELY FOR YOUNGER (OR YOUNG AT HEART) READERS:

• Princess Academy Series by Shannon Hale - 3 book series (complete): Princess Academy, Palace of Stone, The Forgotten Sisters. Katie LOVED these & honestly still does. (If too young for Hannah, Hailey will love) https://amzn.to/3PP7xon

• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart - 4 book series (complete): The Mysterious Benedict Society, Perilous Journey, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Riddle of Ages. (All your kids may like to listen), but so fun! I think audiobooks are read by the author. https://amzn.to/4wPbWsd

• A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket - 13 book series (complete): The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room, The Wide Window, The Miserable Mill, The Austere Academy, The Ersatz Elevator, The Vile Village, The Hostile Hospital, The Carnivorous Carnival, The Slippery Slope, The Grim Grotto, The Penultimate Peril, and The End. I personally found these a little tedious after the first 4 or 5; they might also feel too young at this point! But my kids still really like them and Nate just rewatched the Netflix series with Neil Patrick Harris and he’s in his 20s! First book: https://amzn.to/42YLcHW

CLASSICS/MODERN CLASSICS:

• All of Jane Austen’s stuff! She can read the books and then watch the movies. So fun. Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion. Then for fun, watch Austenland (nerd fact: collaborated on by authors Shannon Hale and Stephenie Meyer).

• Bronte Sisters Stuff! Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (watch the different movies after, my favorite is the 2007 TV series with Toby Stephens as Mr. Rochester), Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (she’ll probably have to read this in school), The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte.

• Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare - watch the Clare Danes movie afterward. This also goes well with Twilight, honestly.

• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I’m a snob and always recommend ALL 9 books, but really the first one is amazing and there’s a fantastic audiobook of it narrated by the actress Rachel McAdams that is so good. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon is also excellent.

• Frances Hodgson’s stuff! A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Secret Garden… most have really lovely audiobooks available, and there are good movies of all to watch afterward.

• The Giver Series by Lois Lowry. She’ll probably read the first book in school at some point. Good to read on your own as it’s kind of the grandmother of the dystopian novel. The movie adaptation is interesting & made me like the book more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver_(film)

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Ugh, SO good. Nazi Germany story. So good, heartrending, and important. https://amzn.to/3PrDmDF

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. I think this should be required reading in schools! Incredibly heartbreaking and riveting. Has language because of where the characters live and grow up. The movie is also done very, very well - we cried our eyes out. https://amzn.to/4viGTDA

• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Gorgeous writing (like a poem), very high-quality literary YA. Short, important. Audiobook is excellent. Ben wrote a paper on this in the ninth grade. https://amzn.to/4fLgOIw

• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. Powerful and important. Need to be able to handle tough WWII material. I th.ink Jake wrote a paper on this in high school. https://amzn.to/42ZWfRe

MORE AUTHORS TO CONSIDER:

This has gotten so long! So please also look into:

• Tamora Pierce: Start with the Song of the Lioness quartet or Protector of the Small.

• Robin McKinley: The Blue Sword and its sequel, The Hero and the Crown are great. I think I own all her fairytale retellings.

• Patricia C. Wrede: the Enchanted Forest Chronicles are charming! Katie loved them.

• Jonathan Stroud: especially the Bartimaeus trilogy and Lockwood & Co. has Smart main characters and funny sarcasm!

• T. Kingfisher: for later high school maybe? She can be dark and gothic. A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking is a lighter, inventive fantasy to try!

• Kristin Cashore: the Graceling books are fun with some more growing up themes (romance, if I recall correctly).

• Susan Cooper: The Dark is Rising (I think there are four books? It’s a classic if she is liking older fantasy/mythic vibes.

• Lloyd Alexander: I haven’t read Chronicles of Prydain but Jake says they are a classic and everyone should read.

• Catherynne M. Valente: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making is SO CUTE and inventive and fun. It’s young but super enjoyable for older teens and adults. There are sequels, too.

• Nnedi Okorafor: Akata Witch is fantastic YA fantasy. So interesting to see magic brought in from other cultures.

• I used to recommend Neil Gaiman, especially The Graveyard Book, but he’s very problematic! If you can find this in the library, it’s excellent. Spooky without being scary, interesting, and well written. He also wrote Coraline if she’s seen the movie, might be fun to read the book, too.