Here are 100 books that Stolen fans have personally recommended if you like
Stolen.
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Having written in the genre of psychological/crime thriller fiction for some years, I am always drawn to original voices, particularly those who are prepared to go that extra mile to produce something fresh or a concept that hasnāt been touched on before. With this kind of writing, it is quite easy to get pigeonholed, and the author has to be as meticulously authentic as they possibly can. Thinking and then using the absurd in writing is probably the best endorsement for any book; the stranger, the better. In this modern, media-fueled world, you always have to go to different places and ignite new ideas and narratives.
This book is an unusual, magical story about differences and how we often react to those who donāt conform to the norms in society.
The plot is tremendously intertwined with suspense, the type that unexpectedly creeps up on you and surprises you every time. You are instantly hooked from start to finish.
Unputdownable. I was totally immersed from the first page. It's an unforgettable book. If you believe in non-conformity, then this book is for you.
Soon to be an original film on Disney+ streaming service!
Before ELEANOR AND PARK, there was STARGIRL. The seminal life-affirming YA novel celebrating first love and self-acceptance - now in a beautiful new edition for the next generation of readers.
She's as magical as the desert sky. As mysterious as her own name. Nobody knows who she is or where she's from. But everyone loves her for being different. And she captures Leo's heart with just one smile.
STARGIRL is a classic of our time that celebrates being true to ourselves and the thrill of first love. A life-changing readā¦
Like all of you reading this, I am an infinite multi-dimensional being of incredible beauty and light with my own unique connection to Source! The answer to the question āwho am I?ā (for anyone) is not to be found in all the constructs of identity we get encouraged to build, covering our brightness with ego and opinion and beliefs and values and supposed fragility where we are not in fact fragile at all. My book subject choice for this list, though, is all about our first steps into that weird and wonderful world of ārelationships,ā fuelled by exploding hormones, romantic dreams, social programming and, somewhere underneath (underneath the inadequacy), a perfect connection with other.
Kind of to the other extreme now, and a focus on where the hormones and desires of three teen boys will lead them. Funny, painful, and unashamed, this story of sexual desire and clumsily finding a path where things often seem out of control is excellent. I thought of it when I was watching the hilarious Netflix series Sex Education recently.
Yet underneath the whole nightmare of where your private parts might lead you (especially if you are a boy) the questions are still there. How to be ātrue.ā How to ignore the judgment of others. How to hear clearly what we really desire.
Without getting those things right, relationships are always going to be trouble!
I was lucky enough to meet Melvyn on a book tour years ago. His teen fiction is always beautifully āin your face.ā
A much heralded, compelling sex story for teenage boys from this provocative writer. Melvin promised us all a 'knobby book for boys' during the astonishing publicity for Lady, his book that stripped all the sensibilities about sex from books for teenagers. This is it. Three teenage boys have a healthy interest in sex: Dino's girlfriend won't commit; Jonathon's biggest fan is very keen; and Ben gets embroiled with a predatory teacher. Put all these ingredients into an unsupervised teenage party, and allow to steam gently!
Like all of you reading this, I am an infinite multi-dimensional being of incredible beauty and light with my own unique connection to Source! The answer to the question āwho am I?ā (for anyone) is not to be found in all the constructs of identity we get encouraged to build, covering our brightness with ego and opinion and beliefs and values and supposed fragility where we are not in fact fragile at all. My book subject choice for this list, though, is all about our first steps into that weird and wonderful world of ārelationships,ā fuelled by exploding hormones, romantic dreams, social programming and, somewhere underneath (underneath the inadequacy), a perfect connection with other.
I have to be honest, K.M. Peyton is one of the best natural writers to draw breath IMHO and this beautiful and gripping story of a teen girl in Victorian England who seems destined to moulder away in a thwarted life, finding instead rebellion, wildness and love, is right up there with her best.
All books are for all people, of course, but this one (like many of her books) was marketed to teen girls in particular. Personally, I cried often, was moved and delighted by heroine Charlotteās spirit and fight, and by the vital essence that runs through the story.
When true love comes, it comes, like an avalanche through our lives, beautiful and destructive, but who would not choose that?
1
author picked
Snowfall
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
4,
5,
6, and
7.
What is this book about?
In a finely written novel of adventure and romance, K. M. Peyton presents an engaging cast of characters who choose not to be bound by the conventions of their time. As the small group of friends become intricately bound to and dependent on each other, they confront British class divisions, dangerous adventures, and the challenge of their hidden livesāand secret loves.
Mal's older brother has disappeared into thin air. Laura's parents went away for the weekend and when she gives them a call, they have no idea who she is. In pursuit of answers, the teens become entangled with two others similarly targeted by a force they don't understand and now,ā¦
Like all of you reading this, I am an infinite multi-dimensional being of incredible beauty and light with my own unique connection to Source! The answer to the question āwho am I?ā (for anyone) is not to be found in all the constructs of identity we get encouraged to build, covering our brightness with ego and opinion and beliefs and values and supposed fragility where we are not in fact fragile at all. My book subject choice for this list, though, is all about our first steps into that weird and wonderful world of ārelationships,ā fuelled by exploding hormones, romantic dreams, social programming and, somewhere underneath (underneath the inadequacy), a perfect connection with other.
At one point I was going to go for Romeo and Juliet as it is such a great study of young teens being in love with the idea of being in love, choosing the forbidden, and living in the moment/living without thinking (you decide!) no matter the cost. But then I decided to go for the Donne instead.
Donne would have started writing his love/sex poems when he was a teen himself and in an age when it was deemed normal that young peopleās thoughts turned to these matters during puberty. Perhaps more than any other writer he can encapsulate in only a few lines everything from the most āout thereā and ridiculous persuasion used by a young man trying to get his would-be girlfriend to ādo itā with him (as in "The Flea") to a kind of ideal for love that seems as perfect as it can get, asā¦
This is a collection of the love poems of John Donne (1571-1631) who is regarded as one of the greatest of the English metaphysical poets. The son of a merchant, he studied at both at Oxford and Cambridge, and later at Lincoln's Inn. He secretly married Ann More and took holy orders in 1615.
Novels are my medium and my first love, but Iām a huge fan of comic books too. Even though visual arts have never been my strength, I adore how many different things are possible in superhero stories. Sci-fi and epic fantasy and all different kinds of horror coexist in these enormous fictional universes. Youāve got comedic, child-friendly mysteries and pitch-black serial killer thrillers and deep meditations on love and family all going on at once. Comic book tropes and general disregard for genre boundaries definitely inform my writing style, and I love when I discover other novelists who incorporate comic book inspiration in various ways.
For a grounded take on superheroes in novel form, itās hard to go wrong with Zeroes. This one isnāt about its bright costumes or cackling villains. Itās about a motley group of superpowered teens who can occasionally be called friends, and who do their best to become the superhero team that some of them feel they should be. The results are about as polished and stable as youād expect. Not from a book, but from your actual high school clique given superpowers. What I love about this one is that it doesnāt re-hash the conflicts that go with the usual powers like strength and speed. These kids have some really original abilities, which get them into some accordingly interesting scrapes.
Six teenagers. Six unique powers. One bag of stolen drug money. One bungled bank robbery. One action-packed week.
Ethan, aka Scam, has a way with words. But Scam isn't just a smooth talker - he has a voice inside him that'll say whatever people want to hear. But when the voice lies to a drug dealer, it lands Scam in a massive mess.
Nate, aka Bellwether, is the 'glorious leader' of the Zeroes - a group of teens with flawed superpowers that they haven't quite got control over. After Scam's latest mischief, Bellwether pulls theā¦
I am instantly drawn to stories with voyages, spices, and trade. But as much as these, I love meddlesome and crafty gods. Iām not a religious person, but I love to understand how people behave around religion, how it influences their choices, and how our worldās history can be chronologized as a series of fanatical events and conquests. Fantasy gives me the option to explore characters and worlds where gods are not only inherently intrusive but also cast a long shadow on peopleās nature, giving birth to folklore, myths, and, of course, great stories to tell. They drive destinies, but more importantly, they drive the resistance against being puppeteered.
I instantly dug the vibe of this book. Pacific Ocean, pirates, kidnappings, mythical South Asian relics, historical fantasy. Give me it!
This book blew me away like a sea squall, so much so that a year after I finished reading it, I still use nautical metaphors to make my point. Not to mention how much I love older, middle-aged protagonists. Weary mothers and retired cartographers with families to feed and perilous old habits, setting sail on an adventure? Aye, aye, Captain!
"A thrilling, transportative adventure that is everything promisedāChakraborty's storytelling is fantasy at its best." -- R.F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and The Poppy War
"An exhilarating, propulsive adventure, stitched from the threads of real history, Aminaās adventures are the reason to read fantasy." -- Ava Reid, internationally bestselling author of Juniper & Thorn
Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one womanās determined quest to seize aā¦
When Elliot finds herself dead for the third time, she can't remember her past, is getting the cold shoulder from her best friend, and has no idea why she keeps repeating the same mistakes across her previous lives. Elliot just wants to move on, but first, she'll be forced toā¦
I love books that entertain and uplift when characters learn and overcome. As a teenager, things happened that threw me into a painful tailspin, ending in a wilderness program for troubled kids. It taught me that I can do hard things and face challenges in life. Iāve lost loved ones, have a special needs child, divorced, been broke, earned my black belt, returned to school as a single mom for a degree, and co-founded a nonprofit to support literacy for kids. None of that was easy, but it increased my compassion and hope. Stories can be powerful reminders of human resilience, and that battle scars make someone more beautiful than before.
I got this book in a subscription book box and was immediately intrigued by the premise. The town of Bone Gap is full of āgaps,ā openings to other realities that someone can slip into and disappear. This story is not your usual read. The writer creatively mixes mystery, magic, love, loss, regret, forgiveness, and overcoming.
The story follows Finn, a teenage boy, who tries to discover why his brotherās girlfriend disappeared, and the girlfriend, who is made a prisoner because sheās beautiful.
The book made me think about a lot of things: that there is a difference between looking at and seeing someone else; that past trauma may not show on your face, but itās part of you; that things seem more beautiful when you leave them behind; and that everyone has their reasons to see things differently. This book is character-focused, weird, entertaining, and very cathartic.
He'd been drawn here by the grass and the bees and the strange sensation that this was a magical place, that the bones of the world were a little looser here, double-jointed, twisting back on themselves, leaving spaces one could slip into and hide . . .
Everyone knows Bone Gap is full of gaps - gaps to trip you up, gaps to slide through so you can disappear forever. So when young, beautiful Roza goes missing, the people of Bone Gap aren't surprised. After all, it isn't the first time someone's slipped away and left Finn and Sean O'Sullivanā¦
I studied Human Zoos, the subject of Paris Savages, for my PhD. Tens of thousands of performers were transported to Europe and America for exhibition, reaching a peak in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, the stories of this time are largely Eurocentric. I sought to shine a light evocatively into this largely forgotten part of history, and to see it through fresh eyes. Paris Savages is an epic and very human tale that saw me reflect on teenage memories of exploring Fraser island. I also travelled to Europe to follow in the footsteps of the three Aboriginal performers the story is based on: Bonny, Jurano, and Dorondera.
I have just started reading this book (actually listening to it as an audiobook) and already it is one of my favourites. De Kretser is such an incredible writer. I found myself ārewindingā the audiobook to hear sentences again and again. I lived with my young family in France in 2012 for the year, and De Kretserās observations of French life are so (at times) cuttingly on point. I particularly loved the repetition of whether or not something was deemed interessant. "What is interesting about potatoes?" she asks. Her exposure of the historical French treatment of Algerians is woven into the Parisian narrative seamlessly, and at times shockingly. De Kretser is a very powerful, clever, and generous writer.
'Every page of her story feels charged, like an open circuit waiting for its switch; a lurking wallop. It's magnificent, peerless writing' Guardian
'When my family emigrated it felt as if we'd been stood on our heads.'
Michelle de Kretser's electrifying take on scary monsters turns the novel upside down - just as migration has upended her characters' lives.
Lyle works for a sinister government department in near-future Australia. An Asian migrant, he fears repatriation and embraces 'Australian values'. He's also preoccupied by his ambitious wife, his wayward children and his strong-minded elderly mother. Islam has been banned in theā¦
Iām a lecturer in medical humanities at the University of Leeds in England and Iām currently writing a book about the portrayal of traumatic pregnancy in fantastic literature (science fiction, horror, fantasyā¦). āMedical humanitiesā is a field of study that looks at medical issues using the tools of the humanities, so it encompasses things like history of medicine, bioethics, and (my specialty) literature and medicine. Thinking about literature through the lens of traumatic pregnancy has led me to some fascinating, gory, and philosophical books, some of which Iām including on this list.
The unnamed protagonist of this book is a pregnant woman who has recently moved to the isolated Australian outback with her (pretty useless) husband. The couple have fled the city in part because of our narratorās fear of a novel pandemic that is sweeping the land. As her pregnancy develops, skin cells replicating inside her body, the narrator fears that her fetus may harbour the virus.
This virus really speaks to my interest in difficult, gory pregnancies and births: cutis is an illness that causes the skin cells to hyperactively replicate, sealing over the bodyās orifices and suffocating or starving its victims.
While this book has a Wicker Man-style horror of small-town life, I particularly appreciate the way that its dystopian setting reflects and distills the anxieties that many women really experience during pregnancy.
Sealed is a gripping modern fable on motherhood, a terrifying portrait of ordinary people under threat from their own bodies
Heavily pregnant Alice and her partner Pete are done with the city. Alice is haunted by rumors of a skin-sealing epidemic starting to infect the urban population. She hopes their new remote mountain house will offer safety, a place to forget the nightmares and start their family. But the mountains and their people hold a different kind of danger. With their relationship under intolerable pressure, violence erupts and Alice is faced with the unthinkable as she fights to protect herā¦
"This novel is a boundary-crosser. Although it is a work of fiction, it is well researched and could pass as a memoir or a work of Holocaust history." āNew York Jewish Week (JOFA Journal)
My multi-award-winning book is inspired by the Stermer family and other families who hid undergroundā¦
I'm a writer whoās always been obsessed with early childhood. No experience we have later in life is any more emotionally charged, resonant, intense, bewildering, or wondrous as those we have as young children. A day can feel like forever; what we imagine can be so vivid as to be indistinguishable from reality; weāre not wholly sure whatās animate and inanimate; we're still at least half-feral. My interest in childhood led me to write about childrenās psychology for Psychiatric Times and for the UCLA/Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. Recently, I designed two related university courses that I teach at Antioch University Los Angeles: Representations of Childhood in Literature and the Trauma Memoir.
Robert Goolrick does not pretend in this memoir to have overcome or prevailed or found redemption from his horrendous childhood. Instead, he tells us the number of psychotropic prescriptions he must take every day just to be able to function. Something unthinkably awful happens in his seemingly genteel family at the hands of the father who is supposed to protect him, and as a result, he will never be the same. When he tries to tell what happened and seek comfort, let alone redress, his whole family turns on him. Yet Goolrick tells this story with an amazing lyricism and compassion. He unravels his tale slowly, protecting and preparing the reader in a way that no one in his family ever protected or prepared him.
It was the 1950s, a time of calm, a time when all things were new and everything seemed possible. A few years before, a noble war had been won, and now life had returned to normal.
For one little boy, however, life had become anything but "normal."
To all appearances, he and his family lived an almost idyllic life. The father was a respected professor, the mother a witty and elegant lady, someone everyone loved. They were parents to three bright, smiling children: two boys and a girl. They lived on a sunny street in a small college town nestledā¦