3.74 avg rating — 2,819,077 ratings

"9th grade! I had always had the shallow "stupid teenagers fall in love in 3 days" view of the play, but reading it really changed me and my view of what it's about––I no longer believe it's supposed to be a love story, but a study on how a stilted, prejudiced nobility treats young people. "

3.91 avg rating — 1,881,645 ratings

"Summer reading before junior year. Had me shaking––you can see it in my wobbly underlining!"

3.80 avg rating — 3,887,597 ratings

"Summer reading before junior year as well. This one made me cry about how no adult ever reassures you about growing out of childhood, and there are days where they all seem dead inside, and there is nothing to tell you that they aren't. You're terrified and sad and you end up clinging with false hope to a picture of childhood innocence you've conjured in your head to shield you from the transformation no one ever talks about. "

4.26 avg rating — 6,872,071 ratings

"Required reading, twice. I can't say it's twice as good as all the other books on this list I was never assigned to read, but it was my first exposure to an unfair legal system, and the first time I read a significant work of fiction set in the South. It's definitely often referenced. "

3.97 avg rating — 2,829,134 ratings

"Summer reading before tenth grade! I loved the way the flowy writing of Ray Bradbury adapts to a harsh and anything-but-flowy world. It's a unique dystopian work because it doesn't make use of fear, like the Hunger Games, or 1984––it's simply what happens when the desire to stop thinking takes over. "

3.89 avg rating — 1,018,631 ratings

3.93 avg rating — 5,904,199 ratings

4.17 avg rating — 405,233 ratings

3.58 avg rating — 33,984 ratings