“Crossover” is what the publishing industry calls books that appeal to both adults and teenagers. Books can cross over in both directions: they’re especially popular if they win awards, or reviewers rave about them. Here are thirty great reads that both adults and young adults might enjoy, organised by date of first publication.
Updated January 2024
- Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen, 1817
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, 1847
- Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte, 1847
- Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, 1861
- Animal Farm, George Orwell, 1945
- Lord of the Flies, William Golding, 1954
- Night, Ellie Wiesel, 1956
- The Princess Bride, William Goldman, 1973
- The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1985
- The Whale Rider, Witi Ihimaera, 1987
- A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson, 2003
- Blankets, Craig Thompson, 2003
- Dreamhunter (duology), Elizabeth Knox, 2005
- The 10pm Question, Kate De Goldi, 2008
- The Mirror Visitor (series), Christelle Dabos, 2013 (2018 in English)
- Wayfarers (series), Becky Chambers, 2014
- This One Summer, Mariko Tamaki, 2014
- A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J Maas, 2015
- The Chimes, Anna Smaill, 2015
- The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas, 2017
- The Daevabad Trilogy (series), S. A. Chakraborty, 2017
- The Book of Dust (series), Philip Pullman, 2017
- Washington Black, Esi Edugyan, 2018
- Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, Ari Folman, 2018
- Auē, Becky Manawatu, 2019
- Bloom, Kevin Panetta, 2019
- The Roots of Chaos (series), Samantha Shannon, 2019
- Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro, 2021
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo, 2021
- Eddy, Eddy, Kate De Goldi, 2022
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