11 Books (& Trends) You Missed in 2011

Words Like Silver turns 15 years old on April 15th, and I’ve puzzled over what to do to celebrate the anniversary. Many of my old reviews—written by my thirteen-year-old self—are both embarrassing and endearingly sincere.

Last year, I walked down memory lane with a photo gallery, which felt full-circle with some developments in my author life (which I should be able to share details about soon.)

This year, with so many existential questions and crunches plaguing publishing, I considered how the book industry has shifted overall in all the years I’ve borne witness. Even having maintained my book blog for this long, things feel different. The nature of what we post about books has moved, social media is more toxic and yet more ingrained, and I don’t think it’s for the better (myself included.)

This spring, I returned to some of the books I was excited about as a teenager (coming up during the YA supernatural boom), and I thought a great way to honor 15 years of Words Like Silver would be to do a spotlight of each year: the books I loved, the books that everyone buzzed about, some books I read later—with an attempt to highlight some backlist picks y’all might have missed too.

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Starting with 11 Books for 2011, 12 Books for 2012—you get the picture. While I’m organizing these specifically for books that released during those years, I’ll note when I picked up a book years after. In certain years, I was great about reading solely new releases; in others, I diverged more. For obvious reasons, the earlier lists will generally skew younger to reflect the age designation I was in at the time, and I don’t claim this to be a comprehensive history—just one personal to the blog.

My 11 Most Formative Books of 2011

In no particular order, the most significant books released in 2011 to my reading history:

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone has a mythology like no other. The series is vivid and immersive. It captures an intense sense-of-place in Prague that made me absolutely yearn to visit. Years later, when I took figure drawing and minored in studio art in college, I flashed back to this book and credited it as a major inspiration. The story is phenomenal, and deserves its laurels.

Torment by Lauren Kate

The first book in this series, Fallen, has one of the most alluring book covers I’d ever seen as a teenager—sure enough, girl in dress. It’s dark and Gothic and moody—another for readers who love starcrossed lovers finding each other in every life. The atmosphere of this one—a boarding school for troubled teens in rural Georgia haunted by fallen angels—is absolutely dripping in shadows and angst that embody this period in YA lit. I devoured the sequel too. While this series hasn’t lived up in time for me when I’ve revisited, I vividly remember the ending of the first book blowing me away. Absolutely satisfied a craving.

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

I loved Ruby Red for its refreshing humor and levity. While most fantasies at the time were moody or intense, Ruby Red was clever and funny and entertaining. A bit lighter—but still exciting. I’m not big on time travel narratives, especially time slips, but thought the worldbuilding in this one was fantastic. The trilogy is a great pick for younger YA readers and those looking for a grounded fantasy that feels singular.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorite authors, and The Scorpio Races is likely my favorite work of hers. I have so much I could gush about, from the precise sense of place (gorgeous), the stunning sentence-level prose, the folky undercurrent, the creativity of the mythology. As corny as it sounds to say this, the entire book itself feels like the ocean darkening right before a storm (the wind carrying salt), which is a sensation I relish finding in a book.

The Long Goodbye by Meghan O’Rourke | REVIEW

I read this book years after release in 2019, which was a year that had a lot of grief and death for me. To this day, it’s unfortunately the book I send to friends when they have a loved one pass away. There are so many lines in it that capture the distinct disorientation you feel when your world shifts ever-so-slightly off its axis and you know you’ll never be able to go back to a before. The book itself details the author’s experience with her mother in hospice, and can be brutally sad but cathartic for both myself and friends.

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

As noted, 2011 was a peak time for YA supernatural, and the Mara Dyer series excelled at walking a psychological/supernatural line that aligns with my own preferences. I loved how, unlike most others at the time, Hodkin wasn’t afraid to go bold with the setting—a gritty, hot Miami backdrop that might have detracted from a lesser book. (It’s much easier to write moody across a desolate moor or rainy forest, for example.) The series diverges significantly from its original subgenre/feel in the later books, but the first was A+ for my teen taste.

Moonglass by Jessi Kirby | REVIEW

I don’t hear nearly enough people talk about Moonglass. It’s gentle and serene in a way that could very easily feel plain in YA contemporary, but instead feels piercing. It really does feel like walking the beach at night when everything is hushed and nobody else is awake, and certain scenes transported me entirely—like the main character Anna diving with her dad. Can any other book capture the weird peace you only feel underwater? (As obvious from the picks I’ve highlighted, I’ve always loved a cinematic quality.) The relaxed Southern California setting seeps through the book, so quiet doesn’t mean boring here. I talked recently about my mourning that YA has fixated so entirely on high-concept that we lose some narratives like this, and Moonglass is a title that exemplifies the value of that. A book that can make your mind go still—not inactive, but calm—is also a necessary balm.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern | REVIEW

I reread The Night Circus maybe once a year. I’d originally read it one July, so now it feels like summer to me. Its non-chronological nature would be so difficult for any other book to pull off; I have yet to find one that layers so perfectly. The magic of the circus itself is intoxicating, and so The Night Circus is a transportive book that you can sink into for complete escape. I love it. (Bonus: this one is great on audio too—narrated by Jim Dale, who did Harry Potter.) A lot of circus/fantasy/theater-esque books try to capture this same balance and either go too dreamy/abstract in which the plot completely falls apart, or isn’t quite spectacular enough for its premise. The Night Circus is the blueprint.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver | REVIEW

As I noted above, I’m not a big fan of time-slip or purgatory narratives, but Before I Fall is one exception. Before I Fall is such a striking book, with a complicated main character who’s muscled her way into a mean-girl clique in high school; when she dies, she then has the opportunity to relive her final day repeatedly and attempt to sway the outcome. For that reason, the main character is harsh but self-aware (morally gray), the friendships are complicated and oddly heartwarming, and the speculative elements are layered, thematic, resonant. Yet another book that feels like it distills something important, and the details absolutely make it.

I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan | REVIEW

I’ll Be There occupies a similar feel and role for me as Melina Marchetta’s Jellicoe Road, one of my all-time favorites. It’s in the same vein as Beth Kephart’s Small Damages, or Kristen-Paige Madonia’s Fingerprints of You: elegant, warm, restrained, poignant. It even reminds me of the same feel as To Kill a Mockingbird: addressing this shedding of naivety. It’s simple without feeling unaddressed, and a bunch of subplots intertwine together at the end in such a satisfying way.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano | REVIEW

The Chemical Garden trilogy is essentially YA’s answer to The Handmaid’s Tale, which I obviously hadn’t read when I was thirteen. Similarly to Fallen, I thought this cover was absolutely jaw-dropping. In a dystopian world where genetic advancements had an unexpected twists—men dying at 25 and females dying at 20—Rhine finds herself trafficked as a bride in a wealthy household and desperate to escape back to her twin brother. The science and ticking clock in this one are devastating, while the prose is searing and colorful.

NOTE: It’s wild to see which books get the 2026 treatment. (Like, The Book Thief got a reissue and has been sailing on the NYT bestseller list for the last few weeks.) For its 15th anniversary, Wither apparently just got an illustrated cover and sprayed edges. Which—fits just as well, but goes to show how the same book can get an entirely different aesthetic treatment that suits its appeal in any given market.

Book Publishing Trends in 2011 (+ Notable Titles)

Dystopian + Post-Apocalyptic Stayed Hot

Divergent by Veronica Roth came out right on the heels of Mockingjay’s release in fall 2010, kickstarting that second ‘10s wave of YA dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction (Eve, Delirium, Legend, The 5th Wave, etc.) For the record, I’ve loved the blog writing Veronica Roth has put out recently reflecting on her time in that series and the rest of her career. She seems like a very grounded person, I like what she did in Divergent, and she was also wonderfully nice the next year when I met her at BEA as a 14-year-old. So: even beyond her writing, I’m a fan.

The Emergence of Some “Frontlist Sells Backlist” Authors You’d Now Recognize

Everyone in publishing has an expression that “frontlist sells backlist.” If you’re an author who pops off with your later books, people go back to read your previous works. There are a few examples of this embedded in 2011, from Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow) to Victoria Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.)

The Near Witch by V.E. Schwab was a quieter release, but it was actually my favorite of her works. Unfortunately, the rest of her catalogue has not been to my taste, but The Near Witch was atmospheric and folky in a way I like. I also use this one as an example of the difference between books being “out of print” and “banned.” The Near Witch briefly went out of print until she enjoyed such commercial success with her other books that her debut was reprinted with a new tie-in cover.

Gabrielle Zevin, meanwhile, was publishing books like All These Things I’ve Done (which, fun enough, is about a mob centered around sales of illegal chocolate.)

Paranormal Fare and Girls in Dresses

There were a lot of mermaids, apocalypse, angels, and werewolves, each of which would continue through maybe 2015. Also: this was the period of “girls in dresses” on book covers, which I do actually prefer to the illustrated fare of late. Think Die for Me (revenants in Paris) or Entwined (a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.)

Everything’s a Greek Tragedy

There was a lot of Greek retelling, like Fury and Starcrossed. Also The Goddess Test, Abandon, and The Song of Achilles, although I didn’t know about Madeline Miller at 13 years old. I do remember getting sick of Persephone retellings.

Edgier YA Contemporary Maintained Its…Edge

Invincible Summer by Hannah Moscowitz was gritty but great—a particular flavor of YA contemporary at home with Courtney Summers’s Cracked Up to Be, or Christa Desir’s Bleed Like Me. (In hindsight, what happened to Simon Pulse? S&S was killing it on that front; everything had such as specific aura.1) That Looking for Alaska-type. Every You, Every Me by David Levithan also came out that year, which was similarly angsty and philosophical. Then again, this was the era of Tumblr.

Hannah Harrington debuted with Saving June, which fit with other road trip books like Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, which I honestly forgot was Morgan Matson’s debut (but darker than both.) Since I loved Harrington’s sophomore novel, her debut sticks in my memory.

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger — a modern-day retelling of Lysistrata as a high-school sex strike (very well-depicted, as even girls who just kissed or held hands participated.) Bonus: also technically a classics retelling. I brought up this book when the Korean 4B movement was being discussed in the latest election cycle. Keplinger was always very bold in YA contemporary, as she started with The Duff, and I was of course obsessed with any teen author like her and Moskowitz. Also like—

More Teen Authors

Halo by Alexandra Adornetto — Alexandra Adornetto used to be my queen. She was living the dream: a bestselling angels trilogy? This was around the time that Hush, Hush2 and Fallen and other dark Nephilim stories (like I said, it was YA supernatural’s peak) were dominating the charts, so it was incredibly cool to see a take on non-fallen angels too.

Fallen Angels > Vampires?

City of Fallen Angels, the fourth book in the Shadowhunters series by Cassandra Clare, was the highly-anticipated release of the year—the one I begged my mom to take me to the store for the afternoon it released, probably running in before swim practice. Nowadays, I miss those centralized moments of a book release.

Books Getting Attention Now

Jenny Han’s books were always passed around, but that year was also when the third The Summer I Turned Pretty book came out: We’ll Always Have Summer. I like to track which books had their heyday years later; in this case, The Summer I Turned Pretty blew up most when the Amazon Prime TV adaptation dropped this past summer. (Forgive the pixelation here; I have tried, where possible, to stick to the original covers.)

Other Notable Titles and Observations from 2011

Frost by Marianna Baer (underrated psychological thriller); Want to Go Private? (terrifying grooming story of the Internet—so good and necessary); Bloodlines by Richelle Mead. I still think the Riders of the Apocalypse series has such a unique hook i.e. Famine is about a girl with an eating disorder. So clever.

Contemporary covers were white—in more ways than one. Girls in dresses, lots of flames, objects, orange, florals, and close-up eye-focused portraits.

Next, I’ll go through the books and trends of 2012, and track what’s remained and what’s faded over time. Regardless, I’m grateful to the canon of these 2011 picks for forming my taste and habits today—which, also, is why we need to protect the rights of teens to read. (Please call your reps to oppose H.R. 7661, a nationwide book ban.) Some have dropped off my favorites list, while others are just as special or crucial to me today upon rereading. All in all, I’m so lucky that my 13-year-old self thought to start this website, and you can browse through my lists, reviews, etc. on the blog itself.