books

Zoella Book Club: The eight books that made the cut

8 years ago
by Joshua Aldwinckle-Povey

Zoe Sugg does a lot. She hit 1 million subscribers on YouTube in April 2013 (but her current subscriber count stands at over 10 million), has released two novels with a third on the way, has a line of beauty products, but on top of all of this (and plenty more), she announced in a video on her YouTube channel that she had selected eight titles for the ‘Zoella Book Club,’ an exclusive book club with WHSmith.

There’s been a lot of excitement surrounding which books have been selected as part of the book club, but which books have made the cut?

Zoella said in the video running through the titles and her reasons for picking them, that she’s stuck to mainly YA titles for this list, and there’s plenty of titles covering a wide variety of topics on her book club list. The list I’m about to give you is in no particular order, but I definitely do have plenty of favourites on this shortlist. Plus, the books on the book club list have been given new covers as well, adding a small twist to coincide with the book club.

UK YA features on this shortlist, such as the highly popular Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard, which follows best friends Caddy and Rosie, who are completely inseparable. When she turns sixteen Caddy wants to be more like Rosie, which is also the point that Suzanne comes into the equation, who is beautiful, damaging, exciting and mysterious, and Caddy begins to see how much fun a little bit of trouble can be. Published earlier this year here in the UK, it’s also been translated and is being published in France, Germany, Italy and Denmark.

YA favourites are also on this shortlist, including All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, a book about two characters named Finch and Violet who both meet at the top of the school bell tower just as they are about to jump, which is where the book begins to follow the two stories as Violet and Finch grow closer to each other, including how as “Violet’s life grows, Finch’s life shrinks.” All The Bright Places is not only an amazing novel, it’s also an upcoming movie as well starring Elle Fanning, and the screenplay is being written by Jennifer herself. She also has a second novel coming out later this year, entitled Holding Up The Universe.

The Potion Diaries doesn’t really cover any themes like many of the other picks do, but the book still has a really interesting plot and concept. It follows a princess who drinks a faulty love potion that makes her fall in love with her own reflection, and how the kingdom in which she lives is set on a hunt to find a cure for the princess before it is too late.

Also on the list is Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, a book set in LA that follows Madeline, a girl who is severely allergic to the world, and who hasn’t left her house in seventeen years. She only ever sees her mother and her family nurse, Carla. But then a boy called Olly arrives to move in next door. Madeline knows that she is going to fall in love with Olly, and it is definitely going to be a disaster.

Another hugely popular YA novel on the book club list is We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. This is a book about a girl called Cadence Sinclair, who comes from a privileged family that regularly stays on the island that the family owns. It’s a very difficult book to describe without giving anything away, so if you’re interested in this book, the best thing to do is read it and work everything out for yourself!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is also on the book club list, which many people have read as Rainbow is a hugely popular author. This book is about a girl called Cath who is a huge fan of a character named ‘Simon Snow.’ She regularly writes fan fiction and is a huge fan of him, but her sister Wren has told her that she doesn’t want to be Cath’s roommate when they go to college. Unlike Cath, Wren has largely grown distant from the fandom. The biggest question for Cath is whether she can make it, even if it means leaving Simon behind? This book has an average Goodreads rating of 4.16 stars out of 5, so it’s definitely worth a read.

The final picks on the shortlist are Billy and Me by Giovanna Fletcher. It’s about Sophie, who lives in a small English village which is visited by a famous actor as it is to be the setting for a movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and this famous actor who visits, Billy, only wants Sophie’s arm around his. The book follows Sophie to find out if she can deal with being in the spotlight whilst being associated with Billy, despite the fact that she’s spent years shying away from attention.

And last, but by no means least, is The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Jandy is an amazing writer, and this particular book is about seventeen-year-old bookworm and band geek Lennie, who spends her time being protected by her much more ‘fiery’ sister Bailey. But when Bailey dies unexpectedly, Lennie is placed in charge of her own life, and suddenly has to juggle two boys at the same time, but the two can’t collide without the world exploding. It’s an amazing novel by a talented writer and is well worth a read. It’s one of my favourites on the book club list.

So those are the eight picks for Zoella’s WHSmith Book Club!

Will you be joining in and reading along? Let us know in the comments below!

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