Some of the first books I read which got me into YA are Twilight, and Vampire Academy. But before both of those, was Divergent. Now, you've probably heard me ranting about Divergent before but here's a short version: once my parents were at a retail store and they took forever. I got bored and at this time with the technology displays they had working kindles, with books stored on them. The kindle was open on Divergent, a few chapters in, and just skimming the content on the page, I was hooked and began reading from the start. By the time I finished, my parents had finally completed their shopping.* I forgot about the book, not knowing it was a series, until 2014 when I found and bought book two and three. These three series catapulted me into the world of YA, especially Dystopia which became a large part of my life.

*oh wait didn't I say this was gonna be a short summary? Never mind. Sorry guys.

2014 saw the birth of this blog for a school project, but it definitely took me far longer to get my footing right. During this period I read a lot of Dystopia (The Darkest Minds, Partials, Shatter Me, Matched, The 5th Wave...) and also started getting into what I called Paranormal Romance, though it was really more just stuff like The Iron Fey, Wicked Lovely. During this time I was introduced to pop music and it was really when puberty hit everyone so I got shoved right into the world of mainstream. And at this moment in time in the book universe, Dystopia was really all the buzz.

STAGE THREE: 2016-2017 (junior high, a fresh start schooling wise)

Starting high school was definitely a new experience, and going to a school where I knew hardly anyone changed my life. It was sort of a second chance to remake my image, which I didn't do in the most positive way. But putting that aside, during this time I read a lot more YA Contemporary; perhaps more in the spirits of popular reading. I also read a lot of YA Fantasy and debut novels, and when I think about it now a lot of the fantasy was very similar in nature and story line (what can I say, I listened to a lot of pop music. You can't get much more unoriginal than that).

Looking back on junior high I mostly laugh, but it's also a part of my past which I'm happy exists. I had to learn in order to move on. I think my reading taste reflects this too: dystopia has sort of faded into the past now but I still like the genre, and fantasy has gotten a bit too repetitive for me. I've always read mystery/thriller from before my YA days, but only now has it come to the forefront of my reading life, it's pretty much become my first pick when deciding what to read. High school has been a journey of development and I'm proud of how I've emerged from that.

What has your reading journey been like? Have you had any stages which are similar to mine?