6 YA book series that reigned festively in its era

In my school days, I remember the craze of YA book series consuming my friends and classmates through to their souls. It was the only thing they ever talked about and they wouldn’t stop at that. They would persuade the rest of us to get in the loop just so they could swoon over the story, the characters, the plot twists, and literally any and every aspect of the book. I still remember wondering how they had the time to finish that many books within a week’s time because not only do they take home books from the library, but they would also read on many websites such as Wattpad and Quotev. There used to be all sorts of YA fiction that blazed its reign gloriously and it had marked an era in my life. Here is a list of book series that will forever be evergreen in some of our memories.
1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Panem is a small nation somewhere in North America, set in a post-apocalyptic-dystopian time of what once was the USA, where the glimmering Capitol is surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol, maybe a beautiful place but, is as cruel as any can be. Every year a boy and a girl are selected from each district to be taken to the Capitol, to take part in a reality TV show called the Hunger Games. It is quite literally a game of life or death for the ones playing in it, but to the spectators and the viewers, it is no more than a festive entertainment. The story begins with Katniss Everdeen, a sixteen-year-old girl from District 12, whose family comprises only of a mother and a sweet little sister. As every year it does, the time comes for the Hunger Games. Being her little sister’s first entry, and Katniss’s twentieth entry, she was confident that neither of their names would be called out. But, to her shattering astonishment, the name that is being picked turns out to be none other than Primrose’s. She couldn’t allow it. Without a shred of doubt, she steps forth willingly, volunteering to keep her sister safe. The story then follows Katniss into the world of Panem, elite snobs, sponsors, fashion, fame and last but not least, death and life hand in hand, testing her capabilities every step of the way. If she wills to win, she must fight her competitors, friends, lovers and enemies, all alike, without mercy or care, but, will she do so? An elegant, thrilling and adventurous series brought to us by none other than Suzanne Collins.

2. Harry Potter by J.K.Rowling
The Harry Potter era never ended. If I may be so bold, it has only gotten that much more magical. This masterpiece is still a trending storyline for the booktok and dracotok fans. Harry Potter, a frail little boy with a strange scar, shaped like a lightning bolt on his forehead, who lives off of the scraps of his cousin’s, never understood his place in the world. He was tiny, insignificant and his very presence caused trouble, trouble he could never explain. On the night of his eleventh birthday, he finds the answers to all his questions when a humble giant named Rubeus Hagrid barges into his life and tells him that he’s a wizard! Harry’s life made sense that moment. Instantly he was thrust into a world of spells, potions, and what-not. And soon he came to know the story of his scar. It was the outcome of a deadly and unforgivable curse cast by a dark wizard to kill Harry but here he was alive. His life from then and forward pans into a world of all sorts of wonderful memories as well as near-death experiences with the one person who gave him the scar, Voldemort. Dive into an unfathomably mesmerizing world of wizards and witches, where Harry finds solace in his friends, Ron & Hermoine and the school that immediately becomes his very home, Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An exceptional series written by the one and only J.K.Rowling.

3. Percy Jackson and The Olympians by Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson is a twelve-year-old boy, who grew up without a father but an amazing mother who always did her best to give him all the love she could with her every bit of strength and then there was smelly Gabe, the man whom his mother lives with, so it just so happens, Percy lives with him as well, unfortunately. Percy doesn’t have many friends, just one, a limping little guy named Grover, who walks around with crutches and sticks around Percy at all times. He has had many unbelievably bizarre incidents happen in his life but nothing as wild as his pre-algebra teacher turning into a monster and trying to kill him. When his mother, Sally, finds out, she tells him the truth about who he is. She tells him about a place where he would be safe and he must get there before anything dire happens. Grover, without a second of hesitation, tags along with Percy and Sally. Percy and Grover find their way to a place called Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp for kids like him, demigods. Percy finds out why his mother never spoke to him about his father a lot, because his father was the great Greek god Poseidon. His best friend Grover did not have crippled legs, instead he had hooves and turns out to be a Satyr. Percy is shot into a world of chaos and danger where he stands with all the arrows pointing his way, ready leave their bow strings and into his heart. As he sets out on a perilous quest to find the gates of Hell, along with Grover Underwood and a daughter of Athena, Annabeth Chase, he finds himself caught in an untamed storm, where if he did not accomplish on time, he just might let the world be destroyed to dust. Join Percy on an endlessly deadly journey to save the world, not once but innumerable times. A marvelous series authored by one of my favourite authors, Rick Riordan.
(Ps: The web series comes out in 2024, but until then get a sneak peek of some snippets and behind-the-scenes by following the author and the cast members on social media!)

4. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Thomas finds himself in a rumbling elevator with knowledge of only his name. He remembers nothing other than his name and when the elevator stops at some point, he wakes up to being surrounded by a bunch of boys who, just like him, have no memory of their past but just their name. Stepping out of the box, he is brought to a place the boys called the Glade, which was surrounded on all sides by a towering 100ft stone wall beyond which lies an everchanging maze, which might be their only way out, but no one knows. Things get intense when the boys open the box, yet again, and find a girl in it instead of a boy. The message she brings with herself causes uncontrollable turmoil amongst them but Thomas takes it upon himself to find the way out of this living hell, only to lead them to their freedom. Will he lead them to their freedom or a much worse fate? This series literally screams ‘the survival of the fittest’. Remember. Survive. Run. Three words that could be their only way to live. Read this incredible series, set in the distant future of our world where the best of us is tested to limitless lengths, written by James Dashner with utmost thrill and an adventurous take on Sci-Fi.

5. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Isabella Swan, usually known as Bella, moves from her mother’s home in Pheonix to a small town called Forks in Washington, a rainy and drenched town with thunder clouds always hanging above. She’s beautiful, clumsy and absolutely intriguing to her fellow students who effortlessly become friends with her while some even flirt with her, but Bella has her eyes set on one guy and one guy only, Edward Cullen. He is unusually pale, completely mysterious and painfully rude to Bella, but things start to turn around when Edward saves Bella from being crushed to death by a skidding van. She saw him run so fast to her rescue, almost as if he teleported next to her. Her thoughts from then on revolved around only Edward and to her surprise, he started to warm up to her as well. When Bella finds out who he really is, he expected her to run away in fear for her life, instead, she stood there and accepted him for who he was. Bella realized then that she had fallen deeply in love with Edward and there was no going back. The Twilight series was and is one of the most popular book series as well as movies, that has its very own fandom. Travel to the damp town of Forks and venture into Bella’s life as a seductive, heart-pacing, vampire romance sparks between a human teenage girl and a vampire who has lived for a century looking like a teenager, an irresistible series authored by Stephenie Meyer.

6. City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare
Clarissa Fray, a fifteen-year-old girl, has an exceptional talent to sketch out her emotions in the form of the most beautiful art, just like her mother. When Clary goes out for a night with her friend Simon Lewis to the Pandemonium club in New York City, she is encountered with something dumbfounding. She witnesses three teenagers, with strange symbols drawn over them, murdering a boy quite brutally, but that is not the strange part because, she seems to have been the only person to have seen it happen. Her curiosity didn’t allow her to let it go. Upon confronting them Clary is introduced to a world of demons and Shadowhunters. Within few hours of knowing what she knows, she is attacked by a demon herself and even worse, her mother goes missing. It is from then on Clary finds out the truth about her mother, her past and herself. Follow Clary on a dangerous journey to unveil the truth of everything that has been hidden from her while finding out more about her new-self in this phenomenal series written by Cassandra Clare.