Can anyone recommend some good books, fiction, young adult is okay, dealing with hardships?

Question

By hardships I mean things like hunger or homelessness or orphans told in a story where you feel for the character and like to read how they search for food or shelter etc. These can be in any category because I also enjoy Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Religious but not looking for non-fiction or stories involving abuse or neglect though I know some may be needed to make the story work. So witches or vampires or spaceships or Armageddon are all acceptable. And yes, I've read all the Left Behind series. And stories about people getting lost in the wilderness are great!
I'd also like some "end of the world" type books, not preaching but just stories, about plagues and catastrophes especially, if they detail how they survived and how the landscape was changed and such.

I think most everyone doesn't really get what I'm looking for.
I'm adult & a voracious reader so there are no limits theologically or intelligence speaking and I've read most of the classics, atleast the ones I liked and already enjoy Greek mythology.
Here I'm looking more for stories with details about the day-to-day way that the characters got food or stayed warm or made shelter whether they're just poor or there was an asteroid that destroyed half the earth or some sickness that killed 90% of the population or there was a plane crash and they had to survive on a real deserted island, whatever.
And no chick flick kind of things, I'm not looking for how someone didn't fit in when they were in highschool or how they overcame a disability or found their true love after dating half of New York.

Thank you to everyone who is seriously answering this. I appreciate your effort and have received some great ideas.

Answer 1

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (though this isn't at all Sci-fi).

That's all I can think of! :-)

Answer 2

I am reading Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier which although doesn't exactly meet your decription, it does have people surviving a future pandemic, but he is very literary and has whole pages of descriptive passages that are as elegant as "old school" classics.

Also, while not dealing with homelessness, a book of a teen hardship that is extremely well written (set in the 1980s even though written a couple of years ago) is Center of Everything by Laura Moriarity, also a very new and up and coming author. She worked on it while being a writer in residence at Exeter Academy and Pam Houston had reviewed it for O magazine talking about its powerful writing.

On a side note, Mary Gaitskill, herself had a very challenging life and so her novels and stories have a definite edge to them that is very powerful.

I know all of these may miss the mark a bit, but happen to be three authors that would speak to the quality of writing you are looking for, albeit, by contemporary voices.

Answer 3

Ball Don't Lie---Matt de la Pena
Tyrell---Coe Booth
Candy---Kevin Brooks
33 Snowfish---Adam Rapp
Static : a Novelization---Walter Sorrells
The Darwin Expedition---Diane Tullson
Camp Wild---Pam Withers
The Kindling---Jennifer Armstrong
Tomorrow When the War Began---John Marsden
The Last Book in the Universe---W.R. Philbrick
River Rats---Caroline Stevermer
Memory Boy : a Novel---Will Weaver
Soldier X---Don L Wulffson
Siberia : a Novel---Ann Halam
Life As We Knew It---Susan Beth Pfeffer
The Copper Elephant---Adam Rapp

Answer 4

Piers Anthony's MODE /series fills the bill! make sure you read them in order or you might not enjoy them as confusion could set in.
{1} Virtual Mode
{2} Fractal Mode
{3} Chaos Mode
{4} DoOon Mode

Charlaine Harris wries some good ones you might enjoy too.

"Killobyte" by: Piers Anthony is about a paralyzed Cop and a young diabetic girl who are trapped inside a video game and fighting to survive.

"Dream a little dream" Piers Anthony & Julie Brady
here's a summary:
A disturbingly whimsical tale of myth and moonshine from one of the bestselling fantasy authors in America. Nola and Tina are both girls with problems. They don't know each other yet, but they will, because each is a Creator, with the magical ability to turn dreams into reality.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST
"The Stand" by Stephen King
This book is a hard read for some. I enjoyed it and the movie is very close to the book too! Both are very long and thought provoking.

Answer 5

I definitely recommend Gary Paulsen.. He wrote Hatchet, Brian's Winter, Brian's Hunt, Brian's Return.. all stories involving a young man who fends for himself in the middle of nowhere.. He has to figure out where to live to stay warm, and he has to create his own tools, clothes.. Good stuff.

I'd also mention My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George--it's a great story that basically follows this teenager as he walks out of the city and just keeps walking, and ends up setting up a home in a hollowed-out tree, making friends with a weasel and a falcon... He goes hunting, makes his shoes, clothes, tools, etc.
You could always look these up on Amazon.com..

Also..I haven't read it, but I've heard Lucifer's Hammer is a good sci-fi kind of story about the remnants of the human population all getting together to try to eke out their existence after a bunch of catastrophes..

Anyway, I hope you've gotten some good ideas from here!

Answer 6

Try Philip Pullman - The Dark Matters. It's a series of three books, main characters are two kids and their 'demons'. It's way darker then Potter, esp. the first book, but gosh, I loved it. Definitely a good read, whether you're young or old.

Oh, I just read your ado... though I still think Dark Matters will fit you, here are some more:

John Christopher - the death of grass [not sure about the title] post apocalyptic but good detail on the surviving
Robert Merle - Maleville
James Clavell - anything, but maybe Rat King, Shogun, etc.
John Wyndham

Answer 7

Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath
On the Beach by Neville Schute
Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
Oliver Twist by Dickens
Things Fall Apart
The Things they Carried by Tim O'Brien
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Of course all books involve some sort of hardship. That provides the conflict that makes a story possible.

Answer 8

Not about the issues that you are talking about like hunger or homelessness, but the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books are amazing. They really develop the relationship that you have with the characters. They make me cry everytime I read them...and I read them alot! They are really amazing books. And for a little younger, the books by Cornelia Funke are great! I still read them! She did Inkheart and Inkspell (the sequel) as well as the Thief Lord. Those are really good books. Thief Lord has a group of orphans in it, but the book might not be as advanced as you wanted. If you haven't read the book yet, I definetley reccomend it! If you want end of the world stories, go look through Greek Mythology...it's loaded!

Answer 9

Armstrong's Fire-Us trilogy is good. It is about 4 kids under 12 who survive a plague and are all alone in Florida. The series starts four years after the plague.
There is also a very good series set in Australia. A group of teens are camping in the outback when the country gets invaded. I can't remember who wrote it but one of the books is called Tomorrow When The War Begins.

Answer 10

The Grass Arena by John Healy, fantastic book about how he was homeless (no self indulgence) . Hes now a chess champion, really effective and written many years ago, way before all this 'pained life' stuff became prolific.

In the country of last things by paul auster is futuristic and deals with all kinds of moral and societal issues.

Answer 11

Try What Do I Read Next for Young Adults. Besides recommending read-alikes that will take you from a book you've read to others written in a similar fashion, it groups books by subject.

You can usually find this series at the public library.