Barry Lyga Books In Order

Publication Order of Archvillain Books

Publication Order of I Hunt Killers Books

Publication Order of Un/Edited Books

Publication Order of The Flash Books

Publication Order of Wolverine Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Graphic Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Barry Lyga is a bestselling young adult novelist from New York who has been called the rebel of the Young adult genre. Over the course of more than a decade, he had published more than twenty novels, most of which have gone on to become New York Times bestsellers. His debut novel was “Archvillain” of the “Archvillain” series of novels first published in 2010. He has gone to publish several more series including the “Flash” and the New York Times bestselling series “I Hunt Killers.” His novels have been published in several languages in Asia, Europe, North America, and Europe. In 2018 he collaborated with Marvel Cinematic Universe to write the novel “Thanos: Titan Consumed.” “I Hunt Killers” which is most popular series of novels to date has been deemed one of the most innovative young adult novel concept in recent times. It tackles themes of nurture versus nature in an alluring trilogy. Making the USA Today and New York Times bestselling lists, the series is set to be adapted into a TV series by Silver Pictures/Warner Bros. Lyga currently lives with his wife Morgan Baden in New York City from where he writes his novels and collects comic books.

Lyga has always wanted to become an author and remembers telling his mother that he wanted to become a writer when he was just seven years old. In fact, his earliest writing experiences were from very early on as he remembers writing as a second-grader. The class had been given an assignment to combine the spelling words they had learned during the week into sentences and he wrote a story instead. By the time he was a fourth-grader, he was trying his hand at writing a novel and was submitting stories to magazines in middle school. He wrote his first novel of more than 300 pages while he was in high and even as he claims the book sucked, it was quite an achievement for a person his age. As a teen, he was very much into fan fiction and regularly contributed to several comic book fan websites. Barry asserts that since the stories had a common frame of reference, he did not have to worry about exposition or backstory and hence it made it possible to focus on plot development, dialogue, and structure. After graduating from high school, he studied English literature at Yale and went on to work for Diamond Comic Distributors where he spent 10 years. He quit his job in 2004 and living off the money he had squirreled away he wrote his debut novel “The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl” in 2006 and “Boy Toy” in 2007.

Barry Lyga’s “I Hunt Killer” series is the story of Jazz the narrator and hero, who is the son of the best serial killer the world had ever seen. Lyga goes beyond the usual tropes expected from the genre as he explores the effect of murder on the community and the family of the killer. He has never been one to tiptoe around darker themes as his first two novels were about sexual abuse and teen depression. He continues to explore such topics and combines them with several others to make for a solid narrative. The trilogy is very detailed as the author spent a lot of time on research about things such as history of serial murder, serial killer pathology, and forensic science. Strangely, he was never freaked out by it and joked that he could read and write about it because he was born without a soul. His lead character Jazz is an intriguing man with conflicting desires and complex personality. He was brought up by a serial killer father and goes through psychological torment as he is all too aware of who his father is. He is struggling with the darker parts of himself and the desire to do good which he wishes he was more inclined to. Lyga writes a beautiful story of his inner conflict from the normal front he puts up to the charismatic man he really is, to the struggle against lifelong programming from his father. Jazz is street-savvy, intelligent, and persuasive and with such skills, it is up to him to decide what to do with them.

Barry Lyga’s “I Hunt Killers” introduces Jasper “Jazz” Dent, a teenager coming to terms with his identity. He has one problem no other teenager ever has to face – He was brought up and trained to be a serial killer by his father Billy Dent. Billy had been the world’s worst serial killer before he was caught by the police, leaving his son all alone. His father had been bringing him along on his murderous spree, showing him the best ways of killing and getting away with it. Jasper knows how the mind of a criminal works from observing his father do it and not get caught for a record-breaking period of time. His father had finally got caught after killing more than a hundred people, and it is expected that Lobo’s Nod will see a reduction in the number of homicides. But there are more bodies piling up around town and the victims seem to be eerily similar to the first several murders committed by Billy his father. They are of the same age and sex, have the same occupation and even initials of the people Jazz’s father had first killed. Who was the killer who knew everything about his dad including the order he killed by and his modus operandi. Jazz needs to know the man and becomes part of the investigation team hunting for the newest serial killer in town.

In “Game” the second novel of the “I Hunt Killers” series Jasper is still coming to terms with a copycat serial killer that may have been his father’s protégé. Meanwhile, his father Billy managed to escape prison and the police are sure he is going to pop up somewhere and start killing again. Sure enough, a homicide detective from New York contacts him asking for help on a bizarre series of murders in NYC. The killer carves hats and dogs into his victims’ bodies and has been nicknamed ‘The Hat and Dog Killer’. The interesting thing is that he shows the same brutality evident in Billy Dent’s earliest kills. While Jasper makes a lot of headway given that he was trained under Billy, NYPD top brass soon hound him out. They are unable to deal with the press coverage of a teenager outwitting them in the investigation into the serial killer. Back home, he convinces Connie his girlfriend and Howie his best friend to help him in the investigation. But the fact that the killings ramp up once he is back in town does not sit well with the locals who also have to deal with the buzz. His knowledge and experience are not so easy to ignore though he may come in handy in an investigation.

Barry Lyga’s “Blood of My Blood” opens to Jasper waking up locked in a container. There are a few bodies around him covered in blood and he knows that he is in a lot of trouble. He needs to make sense of things and flee from the scene before he is framed for the crimes that he was witness to. Meanwhile, Connie his girlfriend has been captured by his father while sleuthing in New York. She meets another prisoner who she soon learns is Jasper’s mother that everyone thought was long dead. In the meantime, Jasper’s best friend Howie also has to deal with his own crisis having killed a man. They may have their own crises but they still need to deal with the cunning Billy Dent if they are to have their lives back. But then Connie manages to get away from Billy and back in Lobo’s Nod, finds some family secrets that might alter Jasper’s thinking about his own identity. It ultimately comes down to a battle for supremacy between Billy Dent and Jasper in an encounter in which Jasper learns of the existence of an elite group of serial killers with a leader named the “Crow King.” Will the king manage to convince him to join with him and his fellow killers or will he fight and win against the powerful group?