The top 5 best-selling YA novels of 2018 (so far)

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Last week, we analyzed the top-selling novels for adults of 2018. But one book beat out every other novel on the list – Madeleine L’Engle’s classic A Wrinkle in Time. It made us wonder: What else is a top-selling title in YA? And are they selling better overall than adult fiction?

While the second work of fiction on Amazon’s best-selling list, Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, is written for adults, the next YA title isn’t far on its heels. But all are eventually outpaced by adult fiction: The third best-selling title on this list comes up just behind the third best-selling adult novel, but the following two titles don’t appear until position #68 and #76 – a much, much lower ranking than the fourth and fifth best-selling titles on the adult fiction list. And it’s worth noting that three out of these five all have recent blockbuster movie releases attached to them, which is always a guaranteed boost for sales.

Here are the best-selling YA books of the year thus far:

1. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Wrinkle was originally published in 1962. So what’s driving such high sales? Clearly, being a beloved classic and an award-winner doesn’t hurt, but the recent uptick in sales is almost certainly due to the Disney film adaptation released earlier this year. Critical reviews may have been lackluster, but that didn’t stop the film from bringing in more than $100,000,000 at the box office (and increased book sales to boot).

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2. Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Second on the list is our boy Wonder, another book-turned-film success. To be fair, similar to A Wrinkle in Time, Wonder was an acclaimed best-seller long before Julia Roberts entered the picture. The novel has also witnessed extreme crossover success, earning just as many adult fans as young ones.

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3. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

With the release of Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation, this book is gaining more and more adult attention, but many still consider it to be a classic example of the YA dystopian genre – which, as The Hunger Games and Divergent have proven again and again, sells quite well at both bookstores and box offices.

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4. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Finally, a book on the list not tied to a recent Hollywood blockbuster…yet. The rights to Adeyemi’s first book in an intended trilogy were purchased by Fox 2000 last year – for a whopping seven figures. Adeyemi, a Harvard alum, was just 23 when the deal was brokered.

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5. The Trials of Apollo, Book Three: The Burning Maze by Rick Riordan

Lastly, at #76 on the list, we have the third book in The Trials of Apollo series, written by best-selling author Rick Riordan. The author is most known for writing the popular Percy Jackson and the Olympian books as well as the Heroes of Olympus series, and this series ties into Riordan’s fast-growing fictional world.