I’m always on the lookout for a good book. That’s pretty normal for anyone who loves reading. Since it can be hard to find high-quality books with no sexual content, I make an effort to keep track of all the gems I find. You probably already know about classics like The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter. I wanted to share additional clean books I’ve found to help y’all. That turned out to be a much longer, more complicated process than I’d planned, so I’ll start here. Here are some underappreciated books with no sexual content. Go figure, all the series were Middle Grade books.
Part 1: Series
The Wingfeather Saga
- Rating: No Sexual Content
- Each time I read one of these books, I’m surprised by how good they are. This is a secondary world with unique worldbuilding, plenty of humor, action, and tension, many surprising twists and turns, as well as plenty of powerful emotional moments and strong themes. The characters come to life in wonderful ways, and the frequent side comments from the narrator are always entertaining. Each book is very good, and the series has a very satisfying conclusion. I suppose with its own TV show, it might be questionable if these are underappreciated books, but since I haven’t heard anyone talking about them and they’re amazing, I think they count.
- Content: Nothing I can remember. I’m pretty sure it’s squeaky clean.
Beyonders
- Rating: No Sexual Content
- This book has one of the best endings for a fantasy series I’ve ever read. The first book is wildly imaginative and clever, and the other two books build on that solid foundation. The original fantasy races like Displacers, the Amar Kabal, and Drinlings are both creative and mesh well with worldbuilding, which is full of fun, quirky ideas. The action is very well done, including some epic swordfights and battles. Lots of great characters and ingenious solutions to perplexing problems from both heroes and villains. This fits comfortably as either a Middle Grade or Young Adult book, though the marketing is towards Middle Grade (which fits with most of the author’s other books).
- Content: No sexual content. There is fantasy violence and some explosions/lightly gruesome deaths. Honestly, Brandon Mull is the author I trust most when it comes to finding an entertaining, well-written book with no content issues. (Incidentally, it’s one of his younger books, The Candy Shop Wars, that my wife doesn’t like because she feels like the idea of wizards giving magical candy to kids that gives them superpowers sounds too much like drugs, but I think it’s fine.)
The Mystwick School of Musicraft
- Rating: No Sexual Content
- This series is funny and heartfelt, and all the music they add into the background of the audiobook adds a lot to an already stunning performance. The music-based magic system is very fun and well-thought-out, even if it breaks just a little in book 3 (with the translator devices). Each book has simple but very well-done themes about accepting yourself, working through grief, and forgiving people who’ve wronged you. Come enjoy these underappreciated books!
- Content: No sexual content. There are multiple creepy scenes involving ghosts, mind control, etc.
Talespinners
- Rating: No Sexual Content
- This was a trilogy I’m very glad was recommended to me. It’s about the lives that characters have outside of the books they’re in, and how they spend their time going to school, practicing the necessary skills for their next book. All of the ways that writing, reading, and famous stories are woven into the world are absolutely great. Each book feels very different, but they come together to form a great arc.
- Content: No sexual content that I can remember. Even the fighting avoids any gore while still being quite entertaining.
Five Kingdoms
- Rating: No Sexual Content
- The most interesting worldbuilding by Brandon Mull to date, this series stays fun and imaginative with lots of good action and cleverness. It builds to an ambitious climax, and while Book 4 is my favorite, Book 5 does manage to stick the landing
- Content: No sexual content. There are some spooky elements, but the most disgusting part is very mild gore in Book 1 as monsters get ripped up.
Chronicles of Prydain
- Rating: No Sexual Content
- Probably one of the series that least qualifies as “an underappreciated book,” since it actually had a Disney movie made based on it (albeit one that failed at the box office), but it was still one I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was once I read it as an adult. This is a solid world with courageous heroes, evil villains, unexpected dangers, hard choices, and plenty of opportunities for a young assistant pigkeeper to grow into being a man. The first three books are okay, but Book 4 is great, and Book 5 is on my (somewhat long) list of favorite fantasy books.
- Content: Lots of scary elements, but nothing sexual and no gore other than walking skeleton warriors.
Diamond Brother Mysteries
- Rating: No Sexual Content (at least for the ones I’ve read)
- Want to stumble through dangerously hilarious mysteries as the 14-year-old younger brother of the world’s most incompetent detective as he tries to survive each new mess his brother gets him into. Each story’s name is a fun twist on a classic mystery title, and while I like the first 2 books best, I haven’t read a bad one yet (to clarify, I’ve read The Falcon’s Malteser, Public Enemy Number 2, The Blurred Man, The French Confection, I know what you did last Wednesday, and South by South East)!
- Content: In the French Confection, the villain injects the main character with a lethal drug overdose, and he has a scary, nonsensical drug trip, but otherwise it’s generally “we’re running away from people trying to kill us with an assortment of weapons/threats, or we’re captured and hoping to escape or be rescued before dying.” What I’ve read of his adult mystery novels contains more sexual content, so be warned.
Turns out, this kind of post takes a lot more time and research than my usual one, so I’ll wait until another post to add my list of stand-alone underappreciated books. I hope this has provided some entertaining reading. Let me know if there are other books that I ought to check out or review! I’m also working on a better explanation of my thoughts and personal guidelines for sexual content in stories.
Until next time, I’ll just be putting in the work.
