Does anyone else love reading about people with superpowers? Ever since I watched the X-Men cartoons, I’ve always loved them. I spend a stupid amount of time figuring out which power combo would be best for me to have, and thinking about what I would do if I could, say, teleport. So I seek out all the books and movies that I can that feature superpowers. Lucky for me, superheroes are HUGE right now.
I Would Recommend
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Red Queen was a recent read for mine, and I was thoroughly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It’s not literary masterpiece, but it was addictive and thrilling. Plus, there were superpowers! In this world, the citizens are split up into Silvers and Reds. Silvers are the upper class, with silver blood running through their veins and special abilities that make controlling the working class Reds easy as pie. The Red main character rises up to fight for her people against the Silvers’ oppression.
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
And I had to put the sequel on here too, because it was just as awesome as the first book. Again, it’s not flawless, and it’s not going to win any significant awards, but I loved it because I love the characters and the powers and the action-packed plot.
Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld
In the Zeroes world, there is a small group of people with special powers. In the beginning, they’re broken up and have a whole lot of history together, but they slow start to come together as their lives once again intertwine. The powers in this book were all very interesting, as most of them had a bit of a twist on “normal” superpowers.
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
I didn’t actually like this book, but a lot of people did. In Steelheart, supervillains with powers have taken over the country (and the world?) and our main characters have to try to conquer them. It’s an interesting portrayal of what would happen if people got powers in real life, and whether they would be evil because of their powers or if their powers just allowed them to commit evil crimes.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
The Graceling trilogy is a pretty popular one, and it’s one that I’ve not continued with. Yet. In the first book, we’re introduced to a world in which some people have all kinds of abilities, called “Graces”, and the main character is Graced with the art of killing.
Vicious by V. E. Schwab
SUPERVILLAIN MAIN CHARACTERS WHO ARE IN LOVE. I N L O V E. I loved Schwab’s take on the superpowers thing, as in this book it’s dying and then coming back to life under the right circumstances which gives people powers. And the main characters were amazing. Victor and Eli allllllll day.
Gone by Michael Grant
I read Gone and Hunger years and years ago, and just never carried on with the series. I think younger readers will very much enjoy this series. I’m not sure I would if I were to read it now for the first time, but we’ll see. Anyway, in Gone, all the adults and older teenagers vanish. And no one knows why. Then mysterious things start happening and people start developing strange abilities.
Blackout by Robison Wells
Blackout is such an underrated book! It’s set in the USA, where people with powers created a terrorist group which has started targeted cities in the States, and as a result, teenagers are being hunted down and catalogued. The main characters are a mixture of villains and good guys, and the powers are all over the place, with the normal ones like superstrength, and others like mind manipulation and all sorts of good stuff like that.
Blood Bound by Rachel Vincent
The powers in Vincent’s Unbound trilogy are a bit more restricted than others on this list. There are limited abilities that characters can possess. That’s not a bad thing, though, as Vincent has created a fantastic world full of criminal undergrounds and crime lords.
Storm by Brigid Kemmerer
Storm is the first book in the Elementals series, which features four brothers and their love interests. As the series name suggests, the characters in this book have elemental powers. The main character in this one – one of the brothers – is basically a water bender.
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
I don’t want to talk about this one at all because of spoilers, but there are hints of powers here. Just a few.
Pivot Point by Kasie West
Pivot Point is one of the books that set off my enthusiasm for debut novels. It was my first read of the year a few years back, and I absolutely fell in love with it. While the sequel isn’t quite as good, Pivot Point is an absolute thrill ride, with timelines running parallel to each other and featuring people with awesome powers.
The Diviners by Libba Bray
The Diviners is set in the 1920’s in New York City, a place I have never been but would really love to go to. It’s a blend of historical fiction, paranormal, and a tiny bit of horror. It’s about people with abilities who are called – you guessed it – Diviners.
White Cat by Holly Black
The Curse Workers series is freakin’ awesome, you guys. And quite underrated. In this world, crime families have special powers and basically rule their city. The main character comes from one of these families, albeit a lower ranking one. And obviously he has to go and fall for a pretty important person. I loved the darker powers, but the romance was a bit dull.
Illusive by Emily Lloyd-Jones
Illusive is about a teenager who tries to be a con artist and kind of isn’t very good at it. She almost gets caught and has to go on the run. It’s not a very popular book, which is odd because it’s a thrill ride. I really enjoyed it, although I haven’t yet read the sequel and continued with this series.
Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Rossi blends post-apocalyptic, dystopian, and paranormal with this series. In Under the Never Sky, people have developed powers that help them to survive the apocalyptic wasteland. This series was HUGE when it was still going, and I can see why. It’s highly addictive.
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
The Body Finder is a series that grew and grew, and then had a pretty disappointing ending. I would recommend finishing the series with the third book, as the fourth seemed rushed as hell. Anyway, it’s about a girl called Violet who can sense where dead bodies are, and it’s AWESOME. I really want to do a reread of this series at some point because I enjoyed it so much.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
I’m in the minority here because I didn’t adore this book, but I liked it well enough. The best thing about this book was the photos in between the chapters. They were creepy and scary, and some were just simply mystifying. This is another series that I haven’t continued with, but I plan to in the future.
The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
I wasn’t going to put any epic fantasy on this series because it’s pretty much a given that people will have some sort of superpower. However, I couldn’t pass up on one of my favourite series of all time, could I?! Mistborn features characters that have certain talents. They can either burn and use one kind of metal, giving them abilities that you’ll find freakin’ amazing, or they can burn all kinds of metal. Obviously, our main character VIN, LOVE OF MY LIFE, can burn all of them because she is a Mistborn and the flawless queen of the universe.
Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep
This is an urban fantasy, the first in a long, long series, set in a world where there are people with Elemental powers. The main character is an assassin with ICE MAGIC. Again, I’ve only read the first book in this series but it was a great little urban fantasy. Loads of action, a crack!ship, and the best kinds powers.
Mystic City by Theo Lawrence
And, finally, we have Mystic City! An extremely underrated book that I requested from NetGalley on a whim years ago. I picked it up around its release date, and I was incredibly shocked by how much I loved it. In this world, the rich and the poor are separated, and we have a main character from each side of the line. And, of course, there are AWESOME POWERS INVOLVED.
I Want To Read
- One by LeighAnn Kopans
- The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June by Robin Benway
- Dark Star by Bethany Frenette
- The Young Elites by Marie Lu
- Playing With Fire by Gena Showalter
- The Emissary by Kristal Shaff
- Pulse by Patrick Carman
- The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
- Hunting Lila by Sarah Alderson
- Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
- Sekret by Lindsay Smith
- Ill Wind by Rachel Caine
Movies & TV Shows
Jumper isn’t the best movie, but I enjoy watching it occasionally.
Again, Push isn’t very acclaimed, but I enjoyed it. Particular the Chris Evans parts.
I LOVE X-MEN SFM.
And, finally, if you haven’t seen Avatar: The Last Airbender then you need to get on with that. It’s brilliant.
Gretl says
Thanks for this list. I’m working on superhero blog event and you’ve got some books I haven’t thought of here.
Becky @ A Fool's Ingenuity says
You have basically written a post about my kryptonite. I too adored X-Men as a child (did you watch the 90s cartoon too? Man, I love those cartoons so much) and was convinced I would one day develop the mutant gene (probably around the same time as I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter) so I love books with powers involved. You have a lot of good ones on here, and so many I’ve not heard of! I am now going to have to hunt down all these books and get reading. One series I don’t see on here is the Brilliance series by Marcus Sakey. I am probably the only person I know who has read these books (I’ve not read the third so I can’t vouch for that one) and I really enjoyed it. It’s an adult series about a select number of people who develop these powers and I think you should check it out. You may not enjoy it, but you can never have too many books like these, right?
Alexa S. says
I’m a sucker for stories of people with superpowers! Definitely going to have to add a bunch of these books onto my TBR now 😉 I’m especially excited to read Pivot Point! 😀
Precious says
I love this post!! I also loved X-Men as a kid. Growing up didn’t change that, though.
Red Queen and Glass Sword ftw!
Precious @ Fragments of Life