Choose your own adventure with Carmen Maria Machado

I’m late to this but I remember reading Joan Lowry Nixon musty Murder mystery paperbacks which an elementary school teacher had an abundance of in her classroom for some reason 😅

Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Green - they also did a made-for-tv movie starring Kristy McNichol. ; )

Pardon Me, You’re Stepping on my Eyeball by Paul Zindel, My Darling, My Hamburger, or one of his other books. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is also great!

Very late to the party but want to second any and all Lois Duncan, especially Down a Dark Hall and Stranger with My Face. Also any Betty Ren Wright (Dollhouse Murders, Ghosts Beneath Our Feet), or Mary Downing Hahn (Daphne's Book, Wait Till Helen Comes).

I know polling is over but I missed this and I want to know if anyone else was as into Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice books as I was. Such a fascinating peering-through-hands-over-my-face window into heterosexual culture.

I hate myself for not suggesting this in time. But The Face on the Milk Carton series is absolute bananas. They made a Lifetime movie based on it, too

Any of the Fear Street books! It was Goosebumps made slightly risqué to appeal to teens. Ridiculous 80s/90s energy, insane teenage tropes, oddly compelling stories. Also incredible book covers!! Please check it out.

The Babysitter by RL Stine! Scared the sh*t out of me when I was 10-11 and a babysitter (the 80s were a different time- 10 year olds totally fine to watch infants for hours).

I know I'm late to the party on this one, but the books that come immediately to mind are The Secret Garden, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, and Anne of Green Gables. I loved reading as a kid but struggled to pick up anything new that I wasn't already sure I would like, which left me choosing books well below my reading level until a teacher got me to try some of these.

Izzy willy nilly!

My sweet Audrina pretty pleaseeeeee

Please, please let there be someone else who found a musty copy of “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” read it over and over from preteens to early 20s … I’m 49, for context, and maybe it’s the autism but I’m still wondering what I’m supposed to think of it 🤷‍♀️

The Phyllis Reynolds Naylor series with the Witch's Eye (the Witch Saga) is a great one!

Wuthering Heights is a good book, Brontes were great, but dang is it a bonkers story to a 21st century reader!

I thought you were going to read a large part of it like with the other books. I guess this book is probably utter garbage not worth reading, but I didn't come away feeling like I read it with you. I laughed so hard through Amityville and was hoping for a similar experience. Still a really good episode and insights that I never think of myself. Love the show and I especially love the collabs with American Hysteria!

Also saw someone mention Lois Duncan so I will throw in Killing Mr. Griffin! I read it when I was a preteen, and it definitely made me scared to be a teenager…. I will also never forget a quote from the book about how beauty fades but cute last forever- not sure why but it was the kind of deepness 12 year old me thought was next level

Hatchet! Loved hearing you guys talk about it tangentially. Would love to know why I was so obsessed as a middle school girl (also maybe has something to do my current obsessions with Yellowjackets, your flight 571 episode with Blair Braverman and Blair’s book Small Game (I was very interested in your discussion of what a survival story is in the 571 ep)).

Hi Sarah! I was obsessed with "young women's mental illness" books when I was a tween-teen. I was especially drawn to Multiple Personality Disorder books which, I'm sure you know, have a high degree of overlap with Satanic cult memoirs and gothic horror child abuse literature. I feel like these really had a Moment in the late 80s/early 90s, but maybe that's just the age I was - Stephen King, VC Andrews, etc. Have you covered the Satanic cult MPD crossover genre? Although the, it might be too grim and trigger warning heavy for a podcast.

What about lesser known Madeleine L'Engle, like And Both Were Young or Camilla. Also vote me in for Cynthia Voigt - Homecoming for sure but there was also Tell Me If the Lovers Are Losers (boarding school story! Love those).I'm sure I'll go off and think of tons more..

Stranger with my Face by Lois Duncan. It introduced me to astral projection and body snatching which haunts me to this day. There was a mini series recently that used a similar premise and it scared the crap out of me.

Also I haven't thought about this book I ages but The House of Dies Drear series, would be a great series to cover and it definitely falls into the musty paperback category and has a POC as the protagonist, it was such a cool read as a kid

Aaargh, one more, Someday Angeline by Louis Sachar actually kind of rocked my world as an eleven year old.

Ohhhh, shit. Nope, I just remembered something else. The Peter Lerangis series Watchers. Six books, each one was different, and each one completely blew my kid mind. Time travel, cloning, other earths, terrifying big rock candy island situation.

First I want to say, I love everyone who commented, you are all glorious and have impeccable taste and I'm so glad we're here together. Second, these are not really a recommendation for the pod, but just throwback stuff, did other people read the Gaia books? (born without the fear gene, this conventionally attractive yet extremely grumpy girl fights spies! and crime!)

I might be too late but, The Witch of Blackbird Pond.

Did anyone read Margaret Peterson Haddix books as a kid? I remember checking them out from either my elementary school or middle school library. There was one book where a girl finds out she is a clone of her dead older sister who died in an accident. It left a big impression on me when I was a kid.

Everyone has had great suggestions but I don't think I've seen The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. It's one of the first detective novels so it's hard to get mustier. I love to hate it.

The Pigman, Secret of NIMH, Blubber

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin. It's the second book in the Earthsea trilogy and it's so different than the rest of the series. A girl in training to be a priestess has to learn these tomb's passages as part of the ritual, and it slowly dawns on her that she is a pawn in a power game the adults are playing. Cool paperback cover, too.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson lit my brain up when I was a teen. Sisters living on their own in a big crumbly gothic mansion, poison, and a big secret. Great stuff.

Animorphs? I know that's like 50+ books, but! Maybe just one, like The Departure, which explores the ethics of not fighting as a child soldier even though your friends need you. Or The Encounter - the one where Tobias becomes stuck as a hawk.

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. Read it in 5th grade and loved it. Feel like no one else in the world my age has read it. Never gone back to it. I know there was a movie adaptation which was apparently terrible.

The book that sprung to mind (whose title I had to look up) was Running Out of Time by Margaret Peterson Haddix - girl finds out she's living in a Colonial Williamsburg-esque recreation of The Past. I haven't read it since I was a kid, so no idea if it's really relevant to this prompt, but I remember being totally taken in by it at the time.

Communion. The cover scared me way too much to read it and I'd love clever people to do that for me. Adult me hears it's about writer's block, but I was so scared of being abducted by aliens as a kid, I still can't do it. Apparently there was WAY too much Saturday arvo "Leonard Nimoy presents..." in my life.

Anne Rule’s The Stranger Beside Me

Petals on the Wind the next book in the Dollanganger series is the most batshit crazy book. But Heaven or My Sweet Audrina would be good choices as well

The Left Behind books. They’re like Premillennial Dispensationalism: the Series

Maybe not exactly what you are looking for but Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden - truly a mad girl classic

Nightmare Hall series by Diane Hoh, like Fear Street but set at a college. In "The Coffin" a gal is locked inside a soundproof room and later a homemade coffin as "punishment" by someone who has it out for her. Terrifying.

Valley of the Dolls!

I would love you to talk about more of the books in the Flowers in the Attic series. Although Christopher is Insufferable in the first book, Cathy becomes Insufferable in the later ones, and also goes to some pretty extreme lengths to exact revenge on her mother and grandmother.

The Curse of Collinwood by Marilyn Ross was part of a series published in the late ‘60s through early ‘70s tied in with the TV show Dark Shadows.I found it in a thrift store when I was around 11, and the “zombies awakened in the mausoleum by a shaft of moonlight” plot really scared me!

Oh. This is lovely. I fell into a deep dive of 'what did I read in middle school' after listening to Flowers in the Attic. (I lost all my books from a child in a flood) The Westing Game, True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Sweet Valley High (the one where Jessica gets kidnapped and it ends in a Gravitron at a carnival, I think??). I know those were on repeat for me.

The Heaven, Ruby or Flowers in the Attic series by VC Andrews are an absolute goldmine. They have incest, morally bankrupt parents/grandparents and more drama than the OJ Simpson trial.

The Woman In the Wall is a weird and interesting one!

OK I definitely remember the used copies of The Chocolate War/Beyond the Chocolate War that I had to buy for my Adolescent Lit course to be EXTREMELY musty and also those books were baffling to me as far as "what is the message here?" so that's my pitch

A Summer to Die by Lois Lowery is one of my fave "it's really hot outside and I am thirteen reading a paperback" books

The Cutler Series by VC Andrews, starting with Dawn.

I've read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's Magic, and Sideway Stories from Wayside School many times each and would love to hear your thoughts on any of them!

Sarah and Carmen, did you ever read anything by Sarah Dessen? All her novels are more or less white-girl-finds-herself-with-help-from-dude-probably-names-Wes, they are cheesy and formulaic and so fun to riff on — would love to hear your thoughts!

Not Without My Daughter. A) memoir (that I think deserves some fact checking) B) turned into a movie with Sally Field

Valley of the Dolls!

A kids setting up house book - During covid homeschooling, the kids and I read Mandy, which I had no relationship with prior to. It's a very strange little book that Julie Andrews (yes, that Julie Andrews) wrote about an orphan who climbs over the garden wall and finds an abandoned cottage in the woods that she gradually makes her own. My kids still talk about this book all the time. Everything we read during that difficult season has stuck with them, but this one really captured their imaginations (even though it isn't particularly good).

Scruples

Season of Passage by Christopher Pike. Vampires, aliens, a man writing women as one dimensional, horror, space travel, mythology about Mars… what more can you ask for in a musty paperback?

I agree with everybody who said christopher pike, I loved his books SO much bc they looked like normal fear street/point horror-esque teen pulp but the plots were so much more unhinged, usually working in high concept paranormal or speculative elements, lots of reincarnation and body swapping (in one a teen girl turns out to have swapped brains with a vulture, in another the evil teens are secretly ancient dinosaurs? if I remember right) cyborg grandfather paradoxes, witches trapping people in nightmare pocket dimensions... occasionally he did a non paranormal one where it was just like cheerleaders doing cocaine and murdering each other in elaborate revenge schemes or whatever. extremely formative to my 11 year old brain!

Zoo Station: the story of Christiane f

Another vote for Weetzie Bat. As a '90s teen I was obsessed with Francesca Lia Block's writing, but the Native American appropriation in particular aged like milk. (In addition to glorification of eating disorders throughout her books. There's a reason quotes from her work are used as thinspo to this day.)

Carrie by Steven King. It was my first “adult” horror, and I read it as a twelve-year-old at an all-summer camp in the boundary waters. As someone who was entering puberty, the bullies were definitely scarier than Carrie. Plus, it’s an epistolary novel!

Anything by Francesca Lia Block (Weetzie Bat, I Was a Teenage Fairy). A Wrinkle in Time series (any).

From previous suggestions, I also endorse Lace (I really liked the TV movie as as 12 yo ...), Valley of the Dolls, and Clan of the Cave Bear. If you go with any Lois Duncan it has to be Daughters of Eve (that's like You're Wrong About click bait). Christopher Pike you have to start with the book that made him famous with the middle school set, Slumber Party. I would also like to add, from the very musty paperback column, The Alchemist by Leslie H. Whitten. This one showed up in my Little Free Library and sounds bonkers. Also, thanks everybody for new recommendations!

Maybe ten years ago, before I taught a college YA Lit class for the first time, a friend recommended _Annie on My Mind_ by Nancy Garden, which I had never heard of, but apparently it's never been out of print. This friend said it kind of blew her mind when she first read it as a pre-teen. The two characters do sort of set up house in one section. It's just such an interesting book--1982 lesbian love story between two teenagers. Might not be exactly what you are looking for, but maybe?

In the Kids Setting Up House Vein: The Worry Week by Anne Lindbergh!

the Body (stephen king)

Anne of green gables!

I picked up this random paperback from a book sale called The Cat Who Sniffed Glue. I haven’t read it yet but apparently it’s a murder mystery??

Summer of the Swans, anything RL Stine (especially fear street), Scary Stories to tell in the Dark, Bunnicula, the Choose your own adventure books, My Teacher is an Alien, Hatchet, Sweet Valley High. I also remember loving Midnight in the Dollhouse but I think that’s more younger kids. Also thank you for delving into Go Ask Alice awhile back, as an adult I’m so mad my younger self spent book fair money on that mess (can I get a refund 3 decades later?)

Not sure if this has been mentioned as there are a lot of comments, but how about something from Sydney Sheldon who was the king of cheesy paperbacks. Master of the Game would be my choice.

Anything from the Boxcar Children, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, or A Wrinkle in Time 💓💓

The Westing Game, When You Reach Me and the Boxcar Children!!

Has anyone else said The Mists of Avalon yet? That book had an absolute chokehold on an entire generations of 90s fantasy teens. It had everything: multigenerational plot lines, matriarchy, sorceresses, accidental incest, murder, paganism, and a deeply fucked up problematic author.

This is perhaps a deep cut, but I would adore Figgs and Phantoms. I always felt like the only person on earth who knew and loved that book, but I know it can't be so. And musty paperbacks are basically a character! Love you, Sarah, thanks for being yourself and sharing it with all of us.

The virgin suicides! The Sophia Coppola film has become a cult classic, and it’s had a resurgence in popularity. It’s another girlhood book- sort of similar to “go ask Alice” but much more realistic. It really has the theme of young woman’s melancholy.

A deep dive into Sweet Valley High (and junior high) would be fantastic.

Harriet the Spy!

I vote the Virgin Suicides!!! Or Two Princesses of Bamarre

Someone said My Side of the Mountain and that is a great suggestion. I was particularly fond of Frightful's Mountain which was told from the pov of the falcon from that book. Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt and the rest of that series has that kids taking care of themselves + weird family dynamics vibes. Where the Red Fern Grows is a lovely and traumatizing story about a boy and his dogs. Eva Ibbotson's work are my go to for quiet angst with a happy ending historical romances - The Countess Below Stairs is my favorite of them. Louise Eldrich's The Birchbark House is a book that opened my eyes to parts of American history that I wasn't learning in school.

I loved the Narnia series as a kid. Reread them as an adult. Some are definitely problematic 😐 especially I think the horse and his boy, which was rife with racism

The Dear America series which is an insane series of books written as diaries from the perspective of children throughout us history. They are absolutely unhinged.

I never promised you a rose garden by Hannah Green

Clan of the Cave Bear by Jane Auel. I remember this being a huge paperback hit when I was a kid (my mom loved it, or at least found it fascinating bc it had a female lead character)

Judy Blume’s Forever. I was so stoked to discover this in my middle school library. Or any of the fiction books I used to teach myself how to have an eating disorder…like, Even If It Kills Me by Dorothy Jean Harris.

Dreamsnake by Vonda McIntyre 👀👀 probably the wildest book my mum told me about when I was like, ten

For me, the book I picked off my Mom’s shelf I was too young for was Brett Easton Ellis’s Less than Zero which haunted me for a long time

The Baby Sitter's Club! I re-read one recently. Some parts had aged well and others not so much.

Yes - Island of the Blue Dolphins and My Side of the Mountain. <3 The Face on the Milk Carton. Jacob Have I Loved?? (I feel like the ending of this book was super traumatizing.) The Spanish Kidnapping Disaster. I remember getting one of these books from a scholastic book fair - and being smug bc I read it fast enough to finish it before it got "banned" because of its "racey" content. Excited for this ep!! Thanks for the memories.

Literally anything by Christopher Pike, but especially the one that has Greek mythology woven through it. Those books were vital to my middle school experience.

Maniac McGee

Does Summer Sisters count? It’s a SEXY BOOK by Judy Blume. I stumbled upon it at age 12 due to my love for Blume and yeah. I learned some things.

Oh, and The Westing Game

I also need an entire episode on "Reviving Ophelia"

My nominations: Weetzie Bat Island of the blue dolphins ANY of the Dear America series (morbid, unhinged, great page holder and I believe deckled edges!!)

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. I cannot be the only adolescent girl to be given that book along with Go Ask Alice (!!!) by a mother who meant extremely well, but really missed the mark on what was appropriate for a depressed tween girl.

I vote The Face on the Milk Carton!!

Anything Christopher Pike!!

They also have expanded the brand into other items such as cat food 🤷‍♀️

The My Teacher is an Alien series!!!

Josie and Jack

I second The Face on the Milky Carton or anything by Cooney. Also, I'd love your take on VC Andrews' Heaven. It was my first intro to the hillbilly trope and the nouveau riche trope. Now that I actually live in Appalachia -- and given all the conversations around politics and Appalachia these days -- it would be a fantastic conversation

Angus, Thongs, & Full-Frontal Snogging - the raciest book I’d ever read at the time

I thought of two more! Interview with the Vampire is a paperback that I read again and again and Anne Rice was very important to my teenage goth self. It's also another book written as memoir. Then in "non-fiction", Sybil. I haven't read it myself but I clearly remember one of my best friends at school being obsessed with this and doing artwork based on it. I suspect it's very much in the Michelle Remembers section of book shelf.

I love the idea of Choose Your Own Adventure itself! More VC Andrews is always fun. I'd love to learn more about how books are ghost-written when the original author dies. I also remember reading Communion by Whitney Strieber ("true story" alien account of his alien abduction) way too young, and that really messed me up—more than VC Andrews, I think, because it was so straightforward not much went over my head. That'd be a fun one.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok rewired my brain in high school. One of my absolute favorite musty paperbacks. I would also LOVE to hear you guys talk about Lord of the Flies. I know you would have some piping hot takes

Ditto to Hatchet! I feel like I've requested this from YWA before, but this is the ultimate Blair bait and you know we love her too, Sarah.

Actually, the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series would be fun! I know it's not just a single book, though. First thing that came to mind was the horrifically morbid book for children, "Where the Red Fern Grows".

I would love if ya'll covered Valley of the Dolls. I read it when I was 17 and I remember that before I read it, I understood it to be a 'hard hitting' book about drug dependency and that Jacqueline Susann was a tortured soul (maybe she was, I don't know!)

The Bad Seed

Okay--I'm going to push for something a little basic that I think came up a bit on the recent pod, but Hatchet. Mid-grade survivalist novel with some hella misogynistic vibes... I feel like it's an interesting exploration into male fantasies. But also the very misunderstood mid-grade classic The Giver.

Submitting another vote for The Face on the Milk Carton! I used to took home a shelf full of Caroline B. Cooney books from the library about once a month and I realized that book was my clearest introduction to stranger danger and cults as moral panics.

I'm also seconding Valley of the Dolls but it's slightly behind Lace in my priorities!

Here is a trio of wildly different ideas: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Flowers for Algernon, and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler

I second the above request for Valley of the Dolls. And anything by Judy Blume. Or the Sweet Valley High series?

One I was obsessed with and still think about is Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien. Probably my first post-apocalyptic book I ever read and it had already been out for like 20 years. I was about 12 and way before my gender revelation in my 30’s so preteen female-presenting me navigating what it meant to be a woman in this world and that book bowled me over. I haven’t read it in a long time and I never watched the movie (the casting didn’t feel right and I didn’t want to be disappointed) but I’m very curious as to your thoughts of that book. It’s written in diary style too.

Valley of the dolls, forever by Judy Blume. Loved your episode with Carmen and the previous episodes with summer reading. Started reading Carmen’s memoir, so good.

The Goats by Brock Cole. As a bit of an outcast myself that book both thrilled and terrified me

Something by Poppy Z. Brite!!!

Maybe too literary but definitely available as a paperback with a lurid cover: We Have Always Lived In the Castle. Family secrets! Teen girls setting up house! A questionable movie adaptation with Taissa Farmiga and Crispin Glover. Page to screen??

The Man Without a Face by Isabelle Holland. I was intrigued and confused by it at age 12, and when I reread it in my thirties I was… still intrigued and still confused. Would love to hear your take on it, Sarah!

Once Is Not Enough by Jacqueline Susann. The entire book is a gigantic trigger warning but it seriously has everything you’d want from a trashy novel. Most importantly there is a scene of someone wearing silk pants on a silk couch and they aren’t slipping and sliding all around.

Chicken Soup for the Pre-Teen (or Teenage) Soul. Some of the essays I remember being good but some of them absolutely traumatized me and probably a whole generation of younger millennials/older Gen Z???

Daughters of Eve, Stranger with My Face, or Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan. Entry-level, gateway dusty, musty, gothicky goodness.

I also thought it was a You’re Wrong About for choose your own adventure books — which is also fun! I WISH I could remember anything I read when I was an avid reader — lots of mysteries is all I remember. But I’m very excited to read all these comments and see what gets read and discussed. Yay!

I'm going to throw out an obscure one; I vividly remember my paperback copy of Eva by Peter Dickinson. It's a YA sci-fi novel that equally terrified and enthralled me. It was so weird I remember being almost embarrassed that I liked it 😂 I'd love to read it again as I only remember the vague outline of the plot... All of these suggestions are great, though! Can't wait to see what gets chosen!!

“The Sister Act” by Blossom Elfman. The Heaven books by VC Andrews.

I would LOVE an exploration of the whole Dollanganger series (there are even recent prequels/tie-ins which may be an interesting compare/contrast point). But also, Caroline B. Cooney's Losing Christina/Fog, Snow and Fire trilogy.

- Afternoon of the Elves (1990) by Janet Taylor Lisle (devastating, Newbery Medal Honor baybee!) - Something Upstairs (1988) by Avi (gnarly ghost story, kid-in-a-new-house, "real" story) - Goodnight, Mr. Tom (1981) by Michelle Magorian (graphic & devastating, WWII setting, Abuse) - Welcome Home, Jellybean (1978) by Marlene Fanta Shyer (family dealing with disability) - The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978) by Katherine Paterson (foster care) I would not be who I am if there were not books like this in school libraries and at table sales (10-25 cents!!). The titles listed above are on my shelf to this day (delightfully worn, yellowed, and a bit musty). I've always gravitated to the darker stories and these are the darkest and most enduring for me. These words really helped me navigate my home/life situation and not feel so alone. Adults like to tell kids that they don't know anything...oh, but they do! I also want to support the suggestions of Remember Me (1989) by Christopher Pike, and The Dollhouse Murders (1983) by Betty Ren Wright, and The Girl in the Box (1988 - not the Colleen Stan case) by Ouida Sebestyen.

I saw the title and thought it'd be about Choose Your Own Adventure books specifically, so, uh, I guess I'll vote for that, as it were.

70s teen lesbian novel Hey, Dollface by Deborah Hautzig

The "romance" genre in general would be a really interesting thing to investigate. Often self-published, mostly female writers, anything from Christian courtship stories to basically almost porn. But it's also sometimes a very empowering avenue for women to explore their creativity in a genre that men usually don't read (and therefore don't criticize).

The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, or Anne of Green Gables!

I would love you to cover anything by Paula Danziger eg the Cat Ate My Gymsuit or Remember Me To Harold Square (a very Sarah title)

Mr. And Mrs. BoJo Jones was a musty paperback that lived in my grandma’s house, in the room my 4 aunts shared. I can imagine many generations stumbling upon that wild tale of teen pregnancy and marriage and odd naming choices. Also Forever by Judy Blume. I read it 3 times, once in a closet with a flashlight, in one afternoon.

I know it's more of a children's book than YA, but I would love to hear you all discuss Wait Till Helen Comes. The parents in that story are absolutely bonkers absent, and it was the first horror/gothic/ghost book I ever read.

I was just thinking I’d love to hear the You’re Wrong About treatment of Frances Farmer and her autobiography Will There Really be a Morning? I think it qualifies as a dusty paperback?

A Child Called It!!!! Similar to go ask Alice in that it’s allegedly a true story, but little dubious w/r/t how factual it actually is (the Wikipedia page has a “Controversies” heading, need I say more???) also similar in the sense that everyone in my middle school was weirdly fascinated with how dark and morbid it is. I’m also curious about how its depictions of the foster care system have held up since its publication

Summer Sisters by Judy Blume

I've been trying to read Valley of the Dolls for a while but am finding it hard to get through on my own. Would love to read it with yall <3 will love whichever u pick tho

Clan of the Cave Bear

The Time of the Witch

The Bailey School Kids might be a younger version of musty paperbacks, but these back-of-the-library finds, for me, encouraged imagination and an enduring belief in a wild, magical world PLUS a healthy distrust of any adult who tries to convince you different. Although, as an adult, kids have used this series' logic to accuse me of being a vampire due to my sharp canines, so...karma?

I read every Lois Duncan book in my middle school library— I know what you did last summer is the most famous but there’s tons and they’re all perfect

Twinkle Twinkle Killer Kain is a musty novella written by the amazing William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist. It's about a mitary psychiatrist who takes over a mental hospital for military veterans set up in an old castle. It's full of interesting and colorful characters and I personally love how Blatty writes. He made it into an amazing movie too called The Ninth Configuration. Also, Dean Koontz wrote so much weird stuff that may be of interest.

You guys mentioned My Side of the Mountain in the episode, which reminded me of another of my surprisingly dark kid-in-the-wilderness faves as a kid, also written by Jean Craighead George: Julie of the Wolves Speak and Island of the Blue Dolphins are two others I'm seeing in many comments that I'd be giddy to hear about in a YWA discussion. Speak especially felt so formative

Another vote for Dollhouse Murders and The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

What about Island of the Blue Dolphins or The Witch of Blackbird Pond?

I remember reading Julia by Peter Straub when I was like 12. Whoa. Haunted lady with a horrible husband - named Magnus for crying out loud - with a dead ghost daughter. Apparently they made a movie adaptation with Mia Farrow.

Not a suggestion for the pod, but someone else please read Kumquat May, I'll Always Love You by Cynthia Grant. Girl lives by herself while pretending her mom is still there so she doesn't get packed off to live with relatives. This book made such a big impression on me but I have never met another person who has HEARD of it, let alone read it. The protagonist is living an elaborate charade, but somehow also manages to have the presence of mind for an ongoing series of pranks involving putting inappropriate bumper stickers on other people's cars. And the ending is so improbable but also satisfying.

I would love to hear y’all discuss The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. It was made into a movie starring Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen. To me, it was the ultimate “kid setting up house” story but with creepy adults and murder.

One more vote for Valley of the Dolls and/or Judy Blume! But the first that came to my mind was We Have Always Lived In the Castle. Simultaneously such a comforting and disturbing story even when I reread as an adult a few years ago.

This is a bit of a different direction here in genre but Gordon Korman! Any other Gordon Korman fans here? Losing Joe’s Place is a book I’ll still pick up for a laugh, and my weathered paperback has been with me on many a summer vacation.

If you can even find a copy of Oracle Doll, my 5th grade self would give you my lunch money. Sidebar: check out the Wilder podcast about Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House series (books and tv). Libertarians, racism, mother/daughter rifts, Pa being bipolar- it's got more drama than the tv episode where Ma tries to cut off her own leg.

What about some Shirley Jackson? Great modern gothic practitioner

The face on the milk carton by Caroline cooney or Katie.com by Katherine Tarbox!

Outsiders or Thornbirds!

Only Lovers Left Alive by Dave Wallis for a post adult world where teens run free? Or maybe The Cheerleader by Caroline Cooney - teenage girl inexplicably lives alone with a sexy vampire + plenty of horrible decisions? OR anything Christopher Pike! Side note: these are my absolute FAVOURITE episodes of YWA, long may they continue!!

The Egypt Game and The Velvet Room were both books I adored and wore out as a kid. Zilpha Keatley Snyder. As well as Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck, the kickstart to my, and I imagine may other people's, Titanic hyperfixation.

oooh also clan of the cave bear! young human girls grows up around neanderthals during the ice age. very spiritual and entertaining

Walkabout, the book about two posh British kids stranded in the Outback and helped by an Aboriginal boy. Had to read it and school and it’s so strange!

(I also LOVE Valley of the Dolls)

deep cut (ya?) novel i had a weird obsession with as a middle schooler. “perfect” by natasha friend.

I haven't seen ME Kerr's Is That You Miss Blue? Yet. It's a boarding school story with quirky characters, but you don't really get to find out anyone's entire story, which is why I think I kept coming back to it

Forever by Judy Blume or Endless Love by Scott Spencer

How about Love Story by Erich Segal? So cheesy.

In the vein of cheesy paperbacks that meant everything to us kids in the 80’s… P.S I Love You by Barbara Conklin. I can still picture the cover!

Sabriel/The Abhorsen Trilogy 👀

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.

The bell jar; Silvia Plath!

Also echoing Valley Of The Dolls. I read that a few years ago and it was silly and fun but I still don’t understand why it seems to be widely regarded as one of the worst books ever written! Would love to hear you talk about that book and its legacy such as it is!

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Mandy by Julie Andrews and a DEEP examination of why these Secret Garden type books where little girl have their own secret domestic worlds appealed so much.

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney. Or just the general dark, twisty vibe of Lois Duncan novels

Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas! I’d love to hear y’all discuss a historical romance novel

When I was like 11, Virginia Hamilton's "Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush" obsessed me for an entire summer. Paranormal! First love! Family secrets! Ohio! A classic.

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

Anything Ellen Hopkins (Crank, etc.) or The Price of Salt (aka, Carol, genuinely good but probably wild stories around publication)

Audrey Rose by Frank de Felitta Cover description: young girl in a red dress and mary janes, in front of a headstone, surrounded by flames, eyes piercing I saw this book at the Christian thrift store the other day and stared at it for a whole 10 minutes. Very musty. Could not look away and almost bought it - but I knew there was no way this chicken could read it herself! Apparently there’s a movie too… 🫣

The animorphs! I just picked up my old collection from storage and they are so good.

Valley of the Dolls. Naked Came the Stranger. (You did say cheesey…)

Or any of the animorph books- they slipped under the radar of many a parent and impacted the psyche of many a young Weird child

I would LOVE to see your discussion on the virgin suicides, that feels so wonderfully in both your wheelhouses

Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan (the 1977 version). I was 11 when it came out and just thinking about how enchanted everyone seemed to be with Julia except for Rachel who saw a darker side still gives me the willies. I just learned that the author created an updated version of this book to modernize the language style. I only know the 1977 version and haven’t touched it since. Until Flowers in the Attic came along this is the book that both scared and intrigued me most in ways I could not fully explain at that age.

I can't think of any book titles but if you could just somehow give me access to my high school library circa 1994 I tell you what...

this is kind of not the exact right fit, but I want to see if anyone here has read the wonderful book "The Owlstone Crown"? It's a bit younger than truly YA but is so weird and silly and fantastic.

Sarah, you are living my dream! (and Carmen, vice versa as well(

I want to hear y’all read Mary Hahns YA ghost novels! I am. Probably the only one.

Several of my favorite scandalous books come to mind! “Run, Shelley, Run” about a teen runaway that lives in my mind alongside “Go Ask Alice” is one I’ve been trying to find for years. I also loved “Domestic Arrangements” which features a new starlet coming of age and open marriage (sort of). Also the Class Reunion and After the Reunion books seemed great at the time. I have to second John Neufield too. Oh, and “Seven Minutes in Heaven”. I’m sorry I don’t have more author names but now I want to reread all of these books.

anything by Ellen Hopkins or Sarah Dessen, The Virgin Suicides, and another vote for The Face on the Milk Carton. oh and All-American Girl by Meg Cabot!

The Outsiders! S.E. Hinton!

I have to nominate one of my gay roots, the Anne of Green Gables series, along with The Westing Game. OH- and maybe one of the best YA books ever written, When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Also, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

I second Flowers for Algernon, a book which devastated my young life, and I'd like to add (if it hasn't already come up) House of Stairs by William Sleator.

Bridge to Terabithia

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson was passed around my middle school like it contained government secrets

The Girl in the Box by Ouida Sebestyen

You should definitely do My Sweet Audrina if you didn't, my mom got my name from that book!

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Oh my god Wait Till Helen Comes was the most terrifying book I read as a kid, and coming in second was The Dollhouse Murders. If you guys could find a way to fit in either I’d just die.

I’m a children’s librarian so I was BORN for this question! How about Weetzie Bat?! Or Julie of the Wolves. Anything by Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting is the most well known but all of them are so weird. The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs (but only the version with the Edward Gorey illustrations!). The Dollhouse Murders. Pippi Longstocking somehow totally fits this assignment, so does Ronia Robber’s Daughter.

I'd like to second Wait Til Helen Comes and The Face on the Milk Carton, and add a couple out of left field suggestions from the mustier corners of our bookshelves: Rita Mae Brown's classic lesbian coming-of-age novel Rubyfruit Jungle, anything by Georgette Heyer, but I'd especially go for either These Old Shades or Devil's Cub for the everythingness of them, anything by Anne Perry.

King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry. I think I might have stolen the paperback from my teacher's classroom library? Sometimes the horse girl in me just took over.

Isle of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell would be a good choice too. I remember it as the first book that made me cry and have complicated feelings about the ending.

Also another vote for Homecoming by Cynthia Voight.

I was obsessed with Island Of The Blue Dolphins in grade school. I would love to revisit it!

I was obsessed with these kinds of books in Jr. High and early High School. I also found romances about that time- one that my grandmother had (!) was a secret obsession- Shanna by Kathleen Woodiwiss. So of an age- and I re-read a couple of years ago. Offputting. And I seriously wonder if it set me up for my early 20s obsession with tall, dark bad boys who needed saving. LOL- but that would be my choice- would love to hear your thoughts on that genre, especially from the 70s and early 80s.

Has anyone read The Ear, The Eye, and The Army by Nancy Farmer? I read it in fourth grade and I still think about it now that I'm thirty. I literally picked it up as a dusty paperback and holy moly did it leave an impression.

I would love for y'all to cover the house of Dies Drear. It's a ya novel from the 60s about a black family who moves into a haunted house previously owned by a famous abolitionist. I had to read it for a fifth grade English class and it started my lifelong love of gothic house horror novels.

oh actually i just remember the face on the milk carton. i read that when i was in like grade 4 ???

Any book by SE Hinton! The YA who launched YA itself. Her most famous book is The Outsiders, which she wrote when she was only 16 god damn years old. I read it in my 6th grade honors English class in 1991, then wolfed down the rest of her stuff just as fast as I could. I'd say her YA books now qualify as pretty dusty. I am not sure they have "aged well," if one makes that judgment based on how discombobulating the time and place of them would be to the YAs of today. I LOVE THIS THREAD THANK YOU HELL YEAH LET'S DO THIS

would love a rundown on old ostensibly nonfiction books, like in cold blood or another go ask alice type maybe. also ykno what would be fun anything straight up horror

My favorite kids/YA paperbacks: “Wait Til Helen Comes” by Mary Downing Hahn, “Remember Me” by Christopher Pike, “Daughters of Eve,” “Don’t Look Behind You,” or “Stranger with My Face” Lois Duncan, SVH “Pretenses”, “Dear Sister,” or the one where Regina dies after snorting coke once, Nancy Drew Case Files “Till Death Do Us Part” or “Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes” by Chris Crutcher. Lots of great options on this thread, looking forward to hearing what you pick!

The Flowers in the Attic episode reminded me of a book I got from the scholastic fair growing up called Woman in the Wall. It was about a young girl who was so hated/neglected by her (step?)mother that she literally just decided to live inside the walls of their house, and managed to somehow do this for years without being discovered. I don't remember much else about it, but with that premise, I assume it was not very good.

I don’t know if anyone else had this experience but I had a fixation on Summer of My German Solider as a middle schooler when we had to read it in 7th grade English

Seconding The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler, also the series of unfortunate events books and The Book Thief, in regards to “girl coming of age in the Holocaust” subgenre from another comment

Heartburn

13 is Too Young to Die

Blood Secrets by Craig Jones

Harvest Home by Tom Tryon- you've got your folk horror, your cult, your human sacrifice, everything a gal could want.

I would love to hear y'all talk about A Wrinkle in Time. It has incredible thematic depth that was totally lost in its adaptations. Especially if you get into the whole trilogy.

Anything by Lois Duncan, she was my jam when I was 11. Or maybe actual choose your own adventure books! There was one where the protagonist got sucked into a black hole and came out in a universe where the planets were inside out and I still think about it all the time.

Six Months to Live by Lurlene McDaniel had a grip on preteen girls of the 1980s that needs explaining

The Thorn Birds! Summer trash of my mother’s generation.

Annie On My Mind — the depressing yet hopeful(?) queer YA a bunch of us read before there was queer YA

Nancy drew!

As you and Carmen were talking about the theme of children creating a life for themselves unrelated to adults, I flashed back to what I now know (thanks, Google) was a scene from Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. I read it in late elementary school or middle school, but I vividly remember a scene where the oldest kid, a 13-year-old girl named Dicey, is counting out change to see if she has enough money for milk and bananas for her three younger siblings. I think this had an impact on me because, at the age I was reading it, I couldn’t imagine grocery shopping by myself, much less taking care of my younger siblings while trying to look for my mother who’d abandoned us. I have no idea how this book holds up, but it definitely fits the spiritually musty theme!

The Secret of The Tolling Bell: an original Navy Drew novel with a giant clitoral cave metaphor/location

Gone by Michael Grant! It’s like if Stephen King wrote Lord of the Flies

So many of these I was also thinking of and support but I have to throw my vote behind the face on the milk carton. I don’t feel like I belong to my family because my “parents” bio daughter was a cult member who kidnapped me from a Weasley style family and they just assumed I was her kid? Talk about a convoluted basis for not feeling connected to your mom lol. Would also love clan of the cave bear or thorn birds for the bodice ripping though lol

I’m old I know but as a early teen I loved the woman of substance trilogy. One of the rare sex scenes set me up for lifelong disappointment! Also Catherine Cookson wrote several of these girl comes from nothing to make a success of herself novels. And Sweet Valley High of course - blonde twins, boys who can’t tell the difference and not a single bipoc or gay character…..!

I loved any of the Magic Faraway Tree and Wishing Chair books by Enid Blyton, those kids had adventures and packed their own lunches. Ditto for Heidi by Johanna Spyri

It’s OK if you don’t love me by Norma Klein, which is all about teen sex! All of her YA has teens being really mature about having sex, which was unusual in the 80s.

At high school we were all obsessed with Easy Connections by Liz Berry, and I was probably the most obsessed. it was the book I thought of when you mentioned rape as romance. It’s about a girl who gets raped by a rockstar who then stalks her. But it’s all cloaked in the fact that they have some sort of psychic connection. I am gob smacked it’s rated so high on good reads because looking back it was fucked up. . https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/82647

I was moderately obsessed with this book as a teen: The Girls of Huntington House https://a.co/d/8ugf5R9 It was adapted into a movie with Sissy Spacek and Shirley Jones.

I had an intense attachment to this completely random beaten-up paperback I found somewhere as a kid called Queenie Peavy. It's from 1966, written by Robert J. Burch, and I really can't explain why I read it over and over--was it the Depression? Her rebelliousness? Her imprisoned dad? Something about it fascinated me. I think the only time I re-read it recently, I was horrified by some of it...but I still tucked it away with my other childhood books. The fact that nobody else seems to have grown up with it or even heard of it makes it feel like it made its way to me on purpose.

The Little Gymnast by Sheila Haigh (1987). Literally published as an “Apple Paperbacks” book. Haven’t read it since I was little, but fond associations!

I vote for more VC Andrews/continuing the Flowers in the Attic series, Judy Blume (Forever especially), and Twilight!

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith!! Coming of age girl obsessed with writing and Austin. She lives in a crumbling castle and gets involved in a love triangle in a convoluted attempt to secure the family's finances

Ooh could you do Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan? I found her various spooky teen books in my school library aged 12 and I loved them, this was my favourite. I think it's gone out of print unfortunately (or at least I couldn't find it in the UK except an old copy on ebay) but it has it all! A creepy boarding school for wayward teens! Tortured geniuses! And *spoiler* angry ghosts!

Pin by Andrew Niedermayer

What about Fear Street? I think that was my version of VC Andrews

Paula Danziger! The Cat Ate My Gymsuit/ this place has no atmosphere/ remember me to Harold square. Paula, Lois and Judy are the trifecta!

I don’t know what the best/most exemplary title would be, but I would love an exploration of the YA sub genre of “young girl coming of age during the holocaust” (ie. when hitler stole pink rabbit, the borrowed house, number the stars, someone named Eva etc.) and why it has such enduring popularity. The protagonists are often, but not always, Jewish, but more often than not these stories don’t involve concentration camps and instead focus on the experience of fleeing the nazis. Some also feature protagonists whose families are in the nazi party and have to ultimately grapple with the atrocities they are committing. I think some of it might be due to the popularity of the diary of Anne frank, but there’s something that feels both fascinating and disturbing about the way these tween girl vs genocide stories continue to be so resonant with and appealing to young readers (particularly young girls).

Let's go play at the Adams' by Mendal W. Johnson. How this book ever go published is beyond me, the most twisted 70s horror lit I've ever read. It was OOP for a long time but looks like it got a recent printing in 2020 which is wild!

Homecoming or Dicey's song by Cynthia voigt.. both about kids trying to make it without any parents and both meant so much to me as a 10 year old in the 90s❤️

The Celestine Prophecy the Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice EXIT TO EDEN - Anne Rice writing as Anne Ramplings

I would love another satanic panic story!!

My Sweet Audrina!

My go-to paperbacks when I was a young teen were anything Agatha Christie. I'm pretty sure the pages of Death on the Nile were completely unglued before I finished high school. What did I see in these books as a young person? The historic elegance paired with casual racism and colonialist overtones? The dark depths of the human psyche under the bright, blazing desert sun? A study in contrasts? Perhaps it was an attempt to understand why adults acted the way they did

For the VC side of it, My Sweet Audrina would provide for an insane conversation

Ok honestly not sure what the you’re wrong about angle would be but I would love to see a dive into YA girl directed fantasy books- Ella Enchanted, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, Talking With Dragons, various Cinderella novels, Earthsea, etc. Maybe way too niche 😅 but also what did these authors want us to learn, how’d they impact us, etc?

I’d really love to follow up the rest of the Dollanganger books from VC Andrews, Petals in the Wind etc. But also another vote for Judy Blume, Deenie in particular, which was recommended to my by my orthopedic surgeon when I was diagnosed with adolescent scoliosis!

Rebecca by Daphne DesMaurier. I think I read it in 6th or 7th grade and thought it was REAL LITERATURE. I read it again as adult and...ummm...well...yeahhhh....

I would LOVE an episode about Valley of the Dolls! I had a well worn copy that came with me on beach vacations and reread it in the sun until it finally fell apart on me. Pretty please!

Maybe just going through both of your fav gothic/ horror children’s & teen books? Goosebumps, Edward Gorey, Scary Stories to tell in the Dark, etc.

My Sweet Audrina would be great, if we're not tired of VC Andrews.

Hot Zone! But also The Bell Jar. Or Angela's Ashes.

Valley of the Dolls or The Thorn Birds!

All of the lurlene mcdaniels books about beautiful dying teens!

Omg, Wait Til Helen Comes!

Another vote for a Chicken Soup for the Soul discussion!!! Those books were wild

Valley of the Dolls!

I'd love to hear a discussion about the 90's "Chicken Soup for the Etc" craze, because what even was that? Surely those books smell like basement by now

Thorn Birds! Possibly the best example of “that didn’t age well” -- wildly problematic with triggers galore, but still as great a read as it was when I was 12 and found it in the hidden cache of books too adult for me. (Ironically it was scandalous at the time but not for the things it should’ve been.) It also has one of the best examples of peak 80s miniseries. Last, but not least, the author’s story is wild (and creepy) (and, ooof, problematic). She’s married to a man who hailed from the island “founded” by the Bounty mutineers. You wouldn’t believe me if I tried to sum it up quickly, but this article fills everything in: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/01/pitcairn200801

Anything by Lois Duncan feels like a good fit for this prompt! Alternatively, I would *love* a languishing-in-an-imposing-castle-with-nothing-but-a-nightgown-a-candelabra-and-existential-dread gothic romance novel. Maybe Virginia Coffman??

a more wholesome setting-up-house: from the mixed-up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler by e. l. konigsburg!

The Thorn Birds

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane- my grandmother kept the paperback behind the respectable books. That and The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer were formative in my furtive I’ve-got-a-secret adolescent era.

Unsure if this follows “kid setting up house” prompt, but a pulpy paperback that stuck with me is Wait Till Helen Comes. Moving into homes with backyard cemeteries + child ghosts, let’s go!

Mazes and Monsters by Rona Jaffe. It has the added touch of being a ripped from the headlines fictionalization of the disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III.

Posted as a reply upthread: Clan of the Cave Bear pleeeease! I somehow ended up reading it in 6th grade and tried to continue reading the series before my mom read ahead and took them from me 😂 I eventually managed to find the stash (as did my sister) and the paperbacks were completely battered and dog-eared by our repeat readings by the end of our teen years. They were definitely formative texts! And some random ones that maybe only I remember: Phone Call From a Ghost, which absolutely haunted me for years after I got it at a Scholastic Book Fair. Also I remember a book called Baby Island where two shipwrecked girls take care of several babysitting charges while marooned. I loved reading about their mini-society, but haven't revisited it.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler! No one particular book, but I'd also love to hear your thoughts on the Babysitters Club.

Another vote for Face on the Milk Carton, but I'd also like to add Tricks by Ellen Hopkins into the mix

Valley of the Dolls! The unhinged ur-paperback

I would love you to chat about a book by either Lois Duncan or Judy Blume, two hugely influential authors who don’t get the reflection they deserve.

Did anyone else read Slam Book by Ann M Martin? That book has haunted me ever since I read it as a teen in the ‘90s. Big trigger warning on suicide. Or maybe Danielle Steele? Zoya or Kaleidoscope would be amazing.

Sybil. It was in every used bookstore when I was growing up.

An episode about Lurlene McDaniel books would be dope. WHAT was happening in her world??

Lisa Bright and Dark by John Neufeld (about a teenage girl's descent into madness, it was formative for me and helped shape my taste in literature) Any classic Christopher Pike (eg, Chain Mail or The Midnight Club) Any Judy Blume My Sweet Audrina by VC Andrews

I can remember finding my mom’s copy of Return to the Secret Garden by Susan Moody as a grade schooler and reading it in one huge, titillating gulp over the summer. It’s a raunchy romance novel sequel to Frances Hodgkin Burnett’s childhood classic that includes queerness, war trauma, and adultery(no gardening that I can recall, though). Judging by the reviews on goodreads, this has not set well with a lot of readers! I think it could offer some interesting discussion points

Cheeper by the Dozen (might be good with Alex too) which I read in 10th grade honors English.

maybe for a different convo but i would love to hear an episode on jane eyre, wuthering heights, or pride and prejudice. i also think a series of unfortunate events applies to the weird ya kids setting up home theme.

“Stranger with My Face” by Lois Duncan is like The Parent Trap but with astral projection!

The silver kiss but Annette Curtis Klaus was my Proto-twilight favorite and I’d love a discussion on paranormal romance in general. I also don’t know if it’s available anywhere, but the most ridiculous in my vintage gothic romance collection is Jean Anne Bartlett’s “Angelica” about a reincarnated Angelica Hamilton being haunted by Aaron Burr. I’m obsessed with it.

Crank by Ellen Hopkins! Same vibes as Go Ask Alice

I feel like My Sweet Audrina might be an obvious choice, but it’s not wrong.

The face on the milk carton is a great suggestion and I'd also throw out some sweet valley high

I suggest "Clan of the Cave Bear" in the why-are-girls-in-my-eigth-grade-class-in-1993-reading-this-? genre that Flowers in the Attic was also in. In the out-of-left field genre, I'll go with Ian Flemming's "Moonraker" because it is a loathsome offensive brute yet you cannot look away.

I read The Thirteenth Tale when I was way too young and more or less forgot about it until the flowers in the attic episode... maybe that one?

VC Andrews! My Sweet Audrina was seriously f*cked up!

I’d LOVE to hear some Judy Blume, maybe Forever or Deenie. Also A Separate Peace, or Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. Love these episodes so much ❤️

I keep trying to name books but only thinking of things that are quintessentially decommissioned library editions not musty paperbacks.

Lisa, Bright and Dark

Face on the Milk Carton! For some reason listening to this episode reminded me of those books.

I read Reviving Ophelia like it was a guidebook on puberty. Would love your take if you read it too!

I’m going to throw out a mainstream recommendation with The Da Vinci Code because I vividly remember being a preteen when adults were losing their minds about it and it seemed so dark and mysterious and grown-up at the time. Funnily enough, it ended up being one of the first adult books I read because I snuck it off my dad’s shelf and read it in secret one afternoon while my parents were out…I wonder if anybody else had similar experiences and if it affected how you perceived adult lit/ religion? If anything, it really reflects where we were as a culture in like 2004 haha

The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser (1979). I read it when it was new and I was 11? 12? (Far too young.) It's a weird story about two women who undergo time travel/a body swap and she's in the past and makes a life and the other is in the present. Well. It's late 70s sorta supernatural without much explanation weird. I read it once and still remember it. There are problematic parts to it, but it was also interesting.

Oh, and The Changeover by Margaret Mahy—a girl's baby brother gets possessed, so she needs the help of the local bad boy and his witch mom and grandma to save him.

A whole VC Andrews series would be incredible. I also echo Valley of the Dolls.

It Happened in Boston by Jonathan Greenan! Your class i out of print masterpiece

Would definitely enjoy covering the rest for the Flowers in the Attic series or at least the second book. My other vote is Forever by Judy Blume which was such a big one in the discovering teenage sexuality category!

We Children From Bahnhof Zoo - at least in Poland (but I guess a big part of Europe in general) it was the “Scare the children so much they won’t even smoke weed” book. This didn’t fully work but scared me off trying anything more than weed for life 😌😌😌 it was also v stereotypical and BAD

Might I suggest a deeper cut—Mel by Liz Berry. It features a hoarder mom, a teen discovering her flair for interior design as she sets up house on her own, and being torn between an actual rock star and a creepy high school teacher.

This is timely, given the movie coming out soon - what about “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”

I'd love to hear your take on Where the Lillies Bloom. It's a YA novel centered in Appalachia with themes of parentification and children creating domestic spaces for themselves. Also as someone in the midst of a foraging hyperfixation it really scratches my brain in nice ways.

twilight 😈

Would love to hear your reaction to the Maximum Ride books!

John Bellairs books blew my mind at around 12 years old!! look into him if you aren't familiar. illustrations by Edward Gorey!

SYBIL

I echo the recommendation for Scott O’Dell and either Island of the Blue Dolphins or The Black Pearl. I also was obsessed with Gordon Korman’s Dive, Island, and Everest trilogies. And finally I would love to hear someone talk about RL Stine’s *non* Goosebumps books! I was captivated by The Babysitter and Beach House.

Valley of the Dolls!

What about “ From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler”?

My favorite kid-setting-up-house book when I was a kid was Mandy by Julie Andrews (yes, that Julie Andrews). It's about an orphan who climbs over the orphanage wall, finds an abandoned cottage, fixes it up, and then there's of course drama.

It would rock my whole entire world if you would do the whole flowers in the attic/Dollanganger series, including the prequel Garden Of Shadows

Cruising by Gerald Walker. It's very-much in the same vein as Amityville and Flowers in the Attic in both its style and legacy. It's out of print, but I found it on archive.org.

The Painted Girls – Cathy Marie Buchanan

The Dollhouse Murders, or anything by Betty Ren Wright. Alternately, Bruce Coville's ghost books- The Ghost in the Third Row, etc

Suffer the Children. So cheesy!

My favorite “kid setting up house” musty paperback is Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards (yes, that Julie Andrews!)

Clan of the Cave Bear was a *gigantic* hit at the time, and I suspect in some under-remembered ways? I remember high school girls at the time trading around a dogeared copy and whispering page numbers for The Good Bits - something the adults seemed totally unaware of.

Horror at the Haunted House by Peg Kehret. I read a copy of this book from my school library that smelled of mildew and it is such a core memory. The book has a Wedgwood bowl in it that practically becomes a character and I found this fascinating as a kid.

Hot Zone Early-mid Stephen King - Needful Things or It. Bridget Jones' Diary (because it's INFURIATING but I LOVE IT)

I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

I'd love to hear both of your perspectives on Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden, the first book I picked up as an early teen when I realized I was queer.

I'm going for a while *flowers in the attic* series -- if you think the first was wild, the rest of them will really blow your mind.

Mommie Dearest!!

this might be too "Canadian boy" but Gordon Korman books were a staple. I also secretly read my sister's BSC books they got from the library but was embarrassed so I'd just put them behind my bed when I was done resulting in copious overdue fines a mild confusion as to where they went. I think my mom found them and didn't say anything because one day they were gone.

Midnight Hour Encores, which had a profound impact on me as a preteen but which I have no concept of as an adult

Deenie or Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

V.C. Andrews for sure, but may I also suggest The Dollhouse Murders?

Suffer the Children. Honestly, *I* want to come on the podcast and talk about this book, because it was hugely important to my adolescence, but anyway—here’s the synopsis: “In a story as shocking as Sybil, Spencer describes the life of Jenny, a young girl initiated by her mother into a Satanic cult at the age of two. To cope with the horrors of her life, Jenny formed multiple personalities—and did not receive therapy until she was 34 years old.”

Scary stories to tell in the dark series would be interesting

Thought this was literally going to be about Choose Your Own Adventure books 🤣 I submit for your consideration Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell, if only because I just found a copy in a little free library and have been reading it in the pool while I cat sit for my parents. I'm really regressing here in my childhood home.

Chasing Redbird

Of mice and men or Letters for Algernon

Bunnicula 🐇🧛‍♀️

The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B Cooney, please!

Boxcar children count? Or is that too simple

Flowers in the attic pleassssse