A used to love reading. I’ve read a whole lot of books this year and have been unable to fall in love with many fiction books the way I used to. I feel like YA books focus a lot more on their characters than the adult books that I’ve read. I have nothing against adults reading YA but due to some personal history of mine, I’m uncomfortable being an adult and reading a love story between children. And even if there’s not romance, I don’t want YA to be all I read. I feel like a lot of YA series are fantasy. Which I’m okay with (as long as there’s just as much of not more character building and growth than world building) but isn’t necessary.
YA and more adult books I love: Harry Potter series, Hunger Games series, Gregor the Overlander series, holes, Beartown series, fourth wing, The invisible life of Addie laRue, where the red fern grows, project Hail Mary
Bonus points for it being a series I can fall down the rabbit hole with.
by endlessnessnessness
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The Unmaking of June Farrow
Anxious People
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Spells for Forgetting
A River Enchanted
Poppy War
Babel
Mexican Gothic
Recursion
Priory of the Orange Tree
Dark Water Daughter
Godkiller
Don’t worry about the label – just find good books and enjoy them. A new genre is also developing called ‘new adult’ – look it up. 😊
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (and the companion books afterwards)
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey
These are my favorite character oriented adult books:
Gonzo Girl
The Maidens
In Five Years
In Five Years has a bit of romance but the rest do not
A Fine Balance is the best character driven book I’ve ever read.
“Cozy murder mysteries” are often heavy on character development. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, the Finlay Donavan series, and The Christie Affair all rely heavily on character development.
There are also a lot of romance novels that are all about the characters and who they are as people. Just Haven’t Met You Yet, Nora Goes off Script, and People We Meet on Vacation are low spice, high character development.
Where’d You Go Bernadette, Carrie Soto is Back, and Devolution are all sort of fake documentaries. All character focused.
Remarkably Bright Creatures is all about the characters (including a narrating octopus). It’s weird and great.
{{Discworld by Terry Pratchett}}; very long (40+ books), very good series.
{{The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J Klune}}, good as a standalone but there’s a sequel coming out next year I think.
Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor
this one is fantastical and although there are young characters the main character duo i thinks r alike 19/17 ? idk if that’s too young but i really enjoyed it and felt it was a bit more mature than regular ya
Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
beautiful story about two friends who build a video game in college that gains popularity. super character focused but also doesn’t feel boring at all because there’s a lot of moving parts, love this one personally!
Vicious by V.E. Shwabb
the main characters are college aged-early thirties i think. this book was super fun to get through i highly recommend it 🙂
Normal People by Sally Rooney
the characters start out in high school but it follows them into college and into adulthood this one is very character focused but just a warning that it does have themes of depression and self harm
– Murderbot Diaries
– Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey
– City of Brass
Vicious, Vengeful, and the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern