Young Adult, Bestseller | featured news

Colleen Hoover's Hopeless, a self-published mature young adult novel about the darker side of sex, enters the list at an eye-popping position: No. 2. Hoover's reaction? "This entire experience has been surreal," she tells USA TODAY. Hoover had two books on the list last year: Point of Retreat, which reached No. 31 in July, and Slammed, which peaked at No. 17. Hoover says she turned down the chance to have Hopeless published by a major house and opted for self-publishing. It's obviously working.

The story of 2012 in publishing was the story of "Fifty Shades of Grey," in more ways than one. E L James' erotic trilogy was easily the year's biggest hit, selling more than 35 million copies in the U.S. alone and topping bestseller lists for months. Rival publishers hurried to sign up similar books and debates started over who should star in the planned film version. Through James' books and how she wrote them, the general public was educated in the worlds of romance/erotica, start-up publishing and "fan fiction."

The perfect alignment of the gift-giving season and anticipation for The Hunger Games movie is boosting sales for Suzanne Collins' popular young-adult trilogy. The first book, The Hunger Games, reaches No. 1 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list for the first time (its previous peak was No. 2, on Sept. 29). Catching Fire is No. 7, Mockingjay is No. 8, and the boxed set is No. 27. "As strongly as The Hunger Games trilogy has been selling all year, it's been amazing to see how many new readers continue to discover the books every day through word-of-mouth recommendations, holiday gifts, and the incredible buzz for the upcoming movie," says Scholastic's Ellie Berger. The movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen, opens March 23.