The Goodreads Choice Awards were announced this week, and for me there were was only one real surprise. With these “people’s choice” type things, it’s always more interesting to see what the preferences of a mass group of people are.
Goodreads Choice Awards & 2012 Trends
First: Please forgive me for being painfully obvious, but young adult fiction DOMINATED.
Naturally the Young Adult and Young Fantasy & Science Fiction categories were chock full, but so was the top Goodreads Author section.
Not only did Veronica Roth win best Goodreads author, but Cassandra Claire, Richelle Mead, Marissa Meyer, Lauren Oliver, Jennifer L. Armentrout and Marie Lu topped the list.
The top books in the Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction section were:
Insurgent being at the top didn’t surprise me, but the sheer number of votes did: 23,827 with the next highest number of votes at 14,814.
Second: Out of the books in the top 12 (the other top books were Shadow and Bone, The Rise of Nine, Legend and Under the Never Sky):
- 7 were sequels
- 5 were debut novels
- 1 was science fiction
- 6 I personally read
- 6 were dystopias
Third: I don’t have any strong objections to these picks.
Out of the 6 I read on the list, I rated 5 books with 5 stars each and 1 book with 4 stars. Good job people!!
My only other comment is that I would like to see more science fiction in YA. I think books like Cinder have reawakened more science fiction lovers, but the trend is still determinedly bent toward dystopia. You’d think people had had enough…
Final: After ALL of the crap people said about J.K. Rowling’s book…it’s still managed to make it’s way to the very top of the best Fiction list. I am so confused.
This is the classic the-critics-hated-it-but-the-people-loved-it scenario.
Do you agree or disagree with the Goodreads Choice Awards results?
