I find I have a lot of book series’ on my shelf that aren’t very well known or don’t get as much attention as I feel they should, so I’ve decided to create this post with some recommendations for book series’ that I feel should be more loved than they are.
The one I find myself trying to tell people about the most (which is why I’m listing it first) is The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins. This is a Middle-Grade Fantasy series by the same author as The Hunger Games, about a boy named Gregor who falls down an air vent in pursuit of his little sister in their New York apartment building. They find an incredible city beneath New York where there are gigantic bats, rats, and insects – some of whom are friendly and others whom are not. Gregor, his sister, and their new allies go on many adventures throughout the five books in this series, and each one is more exciting than the last. Be warned though: the ending of the final book will break your heart and leave you with the biggest book-hangover of your life.
Next up is another Middle-Grade Fantasy series, this one called The Land of Stories by Chris Colfer. This is a New York Times bestselling series; it’s very popular with its target audience, and a lot of people have heard of it, but I’ve put it on this list because I feel it’s under-appreciated within the online bookish community. It’s about two twins, Alex and Connor, who fall into their grandmother’s magic fairytale book and find themselves in a world where fairytale characters are real – and that’s just book one! The story is so fun and gets more complex as the series progresses so there’s never a dull moment.
This next one is yet another Middle-Grade series (and as I’m writing this I’m realising how under-appreciated Middle-Grade fiction is in the bookish community) by a very well-known author, Rick Riordan. Many people have read his series’, and there’s a lot of hype around them, including Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and The Trials of Apollo. He also has a series, however, called The Kane Chronicles, which is set in the same universe as all of his other books and focuses of Egyptian Mythology. This series isn’t as well-known as Riordan’s others even though it’s just as good and includes a lot of diversity and excitement.
Moving into Young Adult fiction now, I recently read a duology that isn’t very well-known, and I would recommend to anyone who loves science fiction / dystopian novels. It’s the Breathe Duology by Sarah Crossan, which includes Breathe and Resist. These books are set in a post-apocalyptic future in which there is very little oxygen left on the planet, and the last remaining pocket of civilisation lives underneath a dome where there is a strong separation of classes. In typical dystopian fashion, a group of teenagers set out to rebel against the corrupt government. It isn’t totally original; there’s so much dystopian out there and they tend to follow the same tropes. But the concept is really cool, and the writing is amazing, so I feel it deserves more love.
The last series I’m putting on this list is another duology, this one a Young Adult contemporary consisting of The Intern and it’s sequel, Faking It, by Australian author, Gabrielle Tozer. This duology is about a university/college student named Josie, who wants to be a newspaper journalist, but the internship she is given through her school is at a magazine where she has no idea what she is doing. These books are like a YA version of The Devil Wears Prada, and Josie is such a relatable character, so I highly recommend this one.
That wraps up my list of underrated book series’. Of course, there are so so many more out there, and I could spend an entire day – or two – talking to people about books that need more love. Sometime soon I might do a similar post about underrated stand-alone novels because I have a large list of those as well.
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