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Revisiting War Stories

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Two years ago on Veterans Day, I posted a book list of titles featuring stories of war. I thought since it has been a couple years, I’d revisit the topic and update it with a slew of new titles. I’m taking this with a bit of a different angle this time. Rather than tackling stories that just talk war, I’ve got stories that feature the consequences or challenges of war, too. There will be stories that feature veterans full-on and those that feature other people whose lives have been deeply impacted by war somehow.

Something to think about — these books and stories we’re getting now about war — are the veterans stories for this generation. As such, the bulk of these books are about serving in or being impacted by the Iraq War. 

All descriptions come from WorldCat, and all titles are from the end of 2010 through today. These are all YA titles (though a few are middle grade appropriate), since adding in adult titles would make this post miles long. If I’ve missed something, feel free to leave a comment. 

After Eli by Rebecca Rupp: After the death of his older brother, Daniel Anderson became engrossed in recording details about dead people, how they died, and whether their deaths mattered but he is eventually drawn back into interaction with the living.

Badd by Tim Tharp: A teenaged girl’s beloved brother returns home from the Iraq War completely unlike the person she remembers.

Dear Blue Sky by Mary Sullivan: Shortly after Cass’s big brother is deployed to fight in Iraq, Cass becomes pen pals with an Iraqi girl who opens up her eyes to the effects of war

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller: When Travis returns home from Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother has stolen his girlfriend and car, and he has nightmares of his best friend getting killed but when he runs into Harper, a girl who has despised him since middle school, life actually starts looking up.

Personal Effects by E. M. Kokie: Matt has been sleepwalking through life while seeking answers about his brother T.J.’s death in Iraq, but after discovering that he may not have known his brother as well as he thought he did, Matt is able to stand up to his father, honor T.J.’s memory, and take charge of his own life.

Gigged by Heath Gibson: Georgia high school junior J.T. relies on the discipline of the Reserve Officer Training Corps to cope with grief, life in foster care, and his physical limitations, as well as to prove himself to his mother, dead in a car crash, and his father, a soldier killed in Desert Storm.

If I Lie by Corrine Jackson: Seventeen-year-old Sophie Quinn becomes an outcast in her small military town when she chooses to keep a secret for her Marine boyfriend who is missing in action in Afghanistan.

In Honor by Jessi Kirby: Three days after she learns that her brother Finn died serving in Iraq, Honor receives a letter from him asking her to drive his car from Texas to California for a concert, and when his estranged best friend shows up suddenly and offers to accompany her, they set off on a road trip that reveals much about all three of them.

While He Was Away by Karen Schreck: When Penna Weaver’s boyfriend goes off to Iraq, she’s left facing life without him. Then David stops writing. She knows in her heart he will come home–but will he be the same boy she fell in love with? 

Sweet, Hereafter by Angela Johnson: Sweet leaves her family and goes to live in a cabin in the woods with the quiet but understanding Curtis, to whom she feels intensely connected, just as he is called back to serve again in Iraq.

Somebody Please Tell Me Who I Am by Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis: Wounded in Iraq while his Army unit is on convoy and treated for many months for traumatic brain injury, the first person Ben remembers from his earlier life is his autistic brother.



This is Not a Drill by Beck McDowell: Two teens must work together to protect a class of first-graders when a soldier with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder takes them hostage.

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick: Cambodian child soldier Arn Chorn-Pond defied the odds and used all of his courage and wits to survive the murderous regime of the Khmer Rouge. When soldiers arrive at his hometown in Cambodia, Arn is just a kid, dancing to rock n roll, hustling for spare change, and selling ice cream with his brother. But after the soldiers march the entire population into the countryside, his life is changed forever. Arn is separated from his family and assigned to a labor camp: working in the rice paddies under a blazing sun, he sees the other children, weak from hunger, malaria, or sheer exhaustion, dying before his eyes. He sees prisoners marched to a nearby mango grove, never to return. And he learns to be invisible to the sadistic Khmer Rouge, who can give or take away life on a whim. One day, the soldiers ask if any of the kids can play an instrument. Arn’s never played a note in his life, but he volunteers. In order to survive, he must quickly master the strange revolutionary songs the soldiers demand, and steal food to keep the other kids alive. This decision saves his life, but it puts him into the very center of what we know today as the Killing Fields. And just as the country is about to be liberated from the Khmer Rouge, Arn is handed a gun and forced to become a soldier. He lives by the simple credo: Over and over I tell myself one thing: never fall down. Based on the true story of Arn Chorn-Pond, this is an novel about a child of war who becomes a man of peace.

This is Not Forgiveness by Celia Rees: Everyone says Caro is bad, but Jamie can’t help himself. She is totally different from the other girls. But he soon realizes there is more to Caro-much more. Consider: How she disappears for days at a time, or the scars on her wrists, or her talk of revolution and taking action. Jamie’s also worried about his older brother Rob. Back from Afghanistan and struggling with PTSD, Rob is living in a world of his own. Which is why it’s so strange that Rob and Caro know one another-and why their secrets feel so very dangerous.

Contemporary YA Fiction 2012 Book List of 2013 Contemporary Titles to Watch For

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I have one more book list, and this one is by request. I’ve been keeping tabs on forthcoming 2013 contemporary YA titles, and I’ve done a quick survey to grab titles I might miss. I’ve pulled them together for an incomplete list of titles to keep on your radar. Please note that the bulk of these are in the early portion of the year simply because I had access to publisher catalogs for winter and spring 2013, but not for fall. 

If you know of a contemporary title — and I reemphasize contemporary meaning realistic — coming out next year some time, please feel free to leave a comment. I am including only traditionally published books, be they from big presses or smaller ones. I have included title images where they’re available, and descriptions come from WorldCat, Goodreads, or publisher catalogs. I’ve done my best to make this list alphabetical, as well. Note that not all of the books have covers yet, but I’ve included a handful to break up the blocks of text.

Because I am crazy, I’ve starred debut novels, too. 

* Canary
by Rachele Alpine (August): Kate
Franklin’s life changes for the better when her dad lands a job at
Beacon Prep, an elite private school with one of the best basketball
teams in the state. She begins to date a player on the team and
quickly gets caught up in a world of idolatry and entitlement,
learning that there are perks to being an athlete. But those perks
also come with a price. Another player takes his power too far and
Kate is assaulted at a party. She knows she should speak out, but her
dad tries to silence her in order to protect the team. The world that
Kate was once welcomed into is now her worst enemy, and she must
decide whether to stay silent or expose the corruption, destroying
her father’s career and bringing down a town’s heroes.
Right
of Way
by Lauren Barnholdt (July): Told
in their separate voices, seventeen-year-old Peyton convinces
eighteen-year-old Jace to drive her from a Florida wedding toward her
Connecticut home with the intention of staying in North Carolina
rather than face her parents’ marital and financial problems, while
both avoid the obvious attraction they have felt since they met at
Christmas.
* 45
Pounds by KA Barson (July): Ann, a
sixteen-year-old girl who doesn’t fit—not in her blended family
and certainly not in Snapz! clothes—is convinced that if she could
only lose 45 pounds, her life would be perfectly normal. She soon
learns that there is nothing perfect about normal.
Surfacing
by Nora Raleigh Baskin (March): Though
only a sophomore, Maggie Paris is a star on the varsity swim team,
but she also has an uncanny, almost magical ability to draw out
people’s deepest truths, even when they don’t intend to share
them. It’s reached a point where most of her classmates, all but
her steadfast best friend, now avoid her, and she’s taken to giving
herself away every chance she gets to an unavailable — and
ungrateful — popular boy from the wrestling team, just to prove she
still exists. Even Maggie’s parents, who are busy avoiding each
other and the secret deep at the heart of their devastated family,
seem wary of her. Is there such a thing as too much truth?
* Dancing
in the Dark
by Robyn Bavati (February): Ditty
was born to dance, but she was also born Jewish. When her strictly
religious parents won’t let her take ballet lessons, Ditty starts to
dance in secret. But for how long can she keep her two worlds apart?
And at what cost?
A
dramatic and moving story about a girl who follows her dream, and
finds herself questioning everything she believes in.
Also
Known As by Robin Benway
(February): As
the active-duty daughter of international spies, sixteen-year-old
safecracker Maggie Silver never attended high school so when she and
her parents are sent to New York for her first solo assignment,
Maggie is introduced to cliques, school lunches, and maybe even a
boyfriend.
Emmy
& Oliver
by Robin Benway: The
story of two childhood friends who grew up next door to one another
until they were six years old, when Oliver was kidnapped by his dad
during a custody dispute. Ten years later, Oliver comes home and he &
Emmy are forced to deal not only with their losses, but also with
their new romantic beginnings.
Sin-Eater’s
Confession by Ilsa J Bick: While
serving in Afghanistan, Ben writes about incidents from his senior
year in a small-town Wisconsin high school, when a neighbor he was
trying to help out becomes the victim of an apparent hate crime and
Ben falls under suspicion.
* Dear
Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden
(March): In
this emotionally powerful, funny debut, Cricket Cherpin needs to
figure out what to do with his life before he turns eighteen. But
life sucks–so why not just give up?
* Leap
of Faith
by Jamie Blair: Now
that Leah Kurtz has a place to call home, there’s no way she can
tell the truth.
That
her name is Faith, not Leah.
That
she’s seventeen, not nineteen.
That
the baby isn’t hers—she kidnapped her.
She
had to kidnap Addy though. She couldn’t let her newborn sister grow
up like she did, with parties where the drugs flow all night and an
empty refrigerator in the kitchen holding nothing but pickle juice
and ketchup packets inside.
She
can’t risk losing Chris—the only guy she’s ever given herself
to completely—by telling him she’s been lying. He’s the most
generous person she’s ever known, and he’s already suffered the
tragic deaths of his mom and infant sister.
But
being on the run with a newborn catches up with her when a cop starts
asking questions, and Chris’s aunt finds a newspaper article about
Faith and a missing baby. Faith knows it’s time to run again—from
Chris and the only place that’s ever felt like home.
Thousand
Words by Jennifer Brown (May):
Talked
into sending a nude picture of herself to her boyfriend while she was
drunk, Ashleigh became the center of a sexting scandal and is now in
court-ordered community service, where she finds an unlikely ally,
Mack.
* Anthem
for Jackson Dawes by
Celia Bryce (April): When Megan, thirteen, arrives for her first
cancer treatment, she is frustrated to be on the pediatric unit where
the only other teen is Jackson Dawes.
* Out
of This Place
by Emma Cameron (May): Luke
spends his days hanging out at the beach, working shifts at the local
supermarket, and trying to stay out of trouble at school. His mate
Bongo gets wasted, blocking out memories of the little brother that
social services took away from his addict mom and avoiding the
stepdad who hits him. And Casey, the girl they both love, longs to
get away from her strict, controlling father and start anew in a
place where she can be free. But even after they each find a way to
move on and lead very different lives, can they outrun their family
stories — and will they ever be able to come together again? Set in
Australia and narrated in alternating points of view, here is an
affecting look at the evolving lives of three friends from talented
new author Emma Cameron.
Perfect
Scoundrels by Ally Carter (February):
When feisty teenaged thief Kat’s on-again off-again boyfriend,
Hale, suddenly inherits his family’s billion dollar company, Kat gets
a tip-off that the will is a fake.
* Me,
Him, Them, and It by Caela
Carter (February): Playing the “bad girl” at school to get
back at her feuding parents, sixteen-year-old Evelyn becomes pregnant
and faces a difficult decision.
* Red
by Alison Cherry (October): Felicity
St. John has it all—loyal best friends, a hot guy, and artistic
talent. And she’s right on track to win the Miss Scarlet pageant.
Her perfect life is possible because of just one thing: her long,
wavy, coppery red hair. Having red hair is all that matters in
Scarletville. Redheads hold all the power—and everybody knows it.
That’s why Felicity is scared down to her roots when she receives
an anonymous note: I
know your secret. Because
Felicity is a big fake. Her hair color comes straight out of a
bottle. And if anyone discovered the truth, she’d be a social
outcast faster than she could say “strawberry blond.” Her
mother would disown her, her friends would shun her, and her
boyfriend would dump her. And forget about winning that pageant crown
and the prize money that comes with it—money that would allow her
to fulfill her dream of going to art school. Felicity isn’t about
to let someone blackmail her life away. But just how far is she
willing to go to protect her red cred?
Return
to Me by Justina Chen
(January): Always
following her parents’ wishes and ignoring her psychic inner voice
takes eighteen-year-old Rebecca Muir from her beloved cottage and
boyfriend on Puget Sound to New York City.

All I Need by Susane Colasanti (May): Skye wants to meet the boy who will change her life forever. Seth feels their instant connection the second he sees her. When Seth starts talking to Skye at the last beach party of the summer, it’s obvious to both of them that this is something real. But when Seth leaves for college before they exchange contact info, Skye wonders if he felt the same way she did—and if she will ever see him again. Even if they find their way back to each other, can they make a long-distance relationship work despite trust issues, ex drama, and some serious background differences?

* A Point So Delicate by Brandy Colbert: A ballet prodigy’s life begins to unravel when she is forced to admit to the role she played in her childhood friend’s abduction.

* Pretty
Girl-13 by
Liz Coley (March): Sixteen-year-old Angie finds herself in her
neighborhood with no recollection of her abduction or the three years
that have passed since, until alternate personalities start telling
her their stories through letters and recordings.
* Blaze
by Laurie Boyle Crompton (February): Blaze
is tired of spending her life on the sidelines, drawing comics and
feeling invisible. She’s desperate for soccer star Mark to notice
her. And when her BFF texts Mark a photo of Blaze in sexy lingerie,
it definitely gets his attention. After a hot date in the back of her
minivan, Blaze is flying high, but suddenly Mark’s feelings seem to
have been blasted by a freeze-ray gun, and he dumps her. Blaze gets
her revenge by posting a comic strip featuring uber-villain Mark the
Shark. Mark then retaliates by posting her “sext” photo,
and, overnight, Blaze goes from Super Virgin Girl to Super Slut. That
life on the sidelines is looking pretty good right about now.
Period
8
by Chris Crutcher (March): Paul
“the Bomb” Baum tells the truth. No matter what. It was
something he learned at Sunday School. But telling the truth can
cause problems, and not minor ones. And as Paulie discovers, finding
the truth can be even more problematic. Period 8 is supposed to be
that one period in high school where the truth can shine, a safe
haven. Only what Paulie and Hannah (his ex-girlfriend, unfortunately)
and his other classmates don’t know is that the ultimate bully, the
ultimate liar, is in their midst. 
Fault
Line
by Christa Desir (November): Ben
could date anyone he wants, but he only has eyes for the new girl —
sarcastic free-spirit, Ani. Luckily for Ben, Ani wants him too. She’s
everything Ben could ever imagine. Everything he could ever want.
But
that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani
goes to alone.
Now
Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the
truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame?
Ben
wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes
Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save
the girl he loves.
The
Moon and More
by Sarah Dessen (June): Set
in the fictional beach town of Colby, where several of Dessen’s
novels take place, it features 18-year-old Emmeline, who is spending
her last summer before college working for her family’s vacation
rental business and enjoying a summer romance with a young aspiring
filmmaker.
* How
My Summer Went Up in Flames
by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski (May): Placed under a temporary
retstraining order for torching her former boyfriend’s car,
seventeen-year-old Rosie embarks on a cross-country car trip from New
Jersey to Arizona while waiting for her court appearance.
All That Was Lost by Trish Doller (October — note the title may change): Callie is skilled in the art of leaving. She and her mother have crisscrossed the country for more than a decade, on the run since the day her mother–who suffers from borderline personality disorder–abducted her. When her mom is arrested, Callie is reunited in Tarpon Springs, Florida, with a father she doesn’t remember. There Callie must learn to navigate the life of a normal 17-year-old girl–one that includes friends, guys, and an extended Greek American family she never knew existed. But a childhood secret and her mother’s reappearance threaten the tentative security of her new life, and Callie must choose between staying and leaving–and what she’s willing to leave behind.

Panic
by Sharon Draper (March): As rehearsals begin for the ballet version
of Peter Pan, the teenaged members of an Ohio dance troupe lose their
focus when one of their own goes missing.
Revenge
of the Girl with the Great Personality
by Elizabeth Eulberg (March): Everybody loves Lexi. She’s popular,
smart, funny…but she’s never been one of those girls, the pretty
ones who get all the attention from guys. And on top of that, her
seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie, is a terror in a tiara, and part of
a pageant scene where she gets praised for her beauty (with the help
of fake hair and tons of makeup). Lexi’s sick of it. She’s sick of
being the girl who hears about kisses instead of getting them. She’s
sick of being ignored by her longtime crush, Logan. She’s sick of
being taken for granted by her pageant-obsessed mom. And she’s sick
of having all her family’s money wasted on a phony pursuit of
perfection. The time has come for Lexi to step out from the
sidelines. Girls without great personalities aren’t going to know
what hit them. Because Lexi’s going to play the beauty game – and
she’s in it to win it.
Hooked
by
Liz Fichera (January): HE
said: Fred
Oday is a girl? Why is a girl taking my best friends spot on the
boy’s varsity golf team?
SHE
said: Can
I seriously do this? Can I join the boys’ team? Everyone will hate me
– especially Ryan Berenger.
HE
said: Coach
expects me to partner with Fred on the green? That is crazy bad.
Fred’s got to go – especially now that I can’t get her out of my
head. So not happening.
SHE
said: Ryan
can be nice, when he’s not being a jerk. Like the time he carried my
golf bag. But the girl from the rez and the spoiled rich boy from the
suburbs? So not happening.
But
there’s no denying that things are happening as the girl with the
killer swing takes on the boy with the killer smile.
Just
One Day by Gayle Forman (January): Sparks fly when American good
girl Allyson encounters laid-back Dutch actor Willem, so she follows
him on a whirlwind trip to Paris, upending her life in just one day
and prompting a year of self-discovery and the search for true love.

Our Song by Jordanna Fraiberg (May): Olive Bell has spent her entire life in the beautiful suburb of Vista Valley, with a picture-perfect home, a loving family, and a seemingly perfect boyfriend. But after a near-fatal car accident, she’s haunted by a broken heart and a melody that she cannot place. Then Olive meets Nick. He’s dark, handsome, mysterious . . . and Olive feels connected to him in a way she can’t explain. Is there such a thing as fate? The two embark on a whirlwind romance—until Nick makes a troubling confession. Heartbroken, Olive pieces together what really happened the night of her accident and arrives at a startling revelation. Only by facing the truth can she uncover the mystery behind the song and the power of what it means to love someone

The
39 Deaths of Adam Strand by Gregory
Galloway (February): Adam Strand isn’t
depressed. He’s just bored. Disaffected. So he kills himself—39
times. No matter the method, Adam can’t seem to stay dead; he wakes
after each suicide alive and physically unharmed, more determined to
succeed and undeterred by others’ concerns. But when his
self-contained, self-absorbed path is diverted, Adam is struck by the
reality that life is an ever-expanding web of impact and forged
connections, and that nothing—not even death—can sever those
bonds.

* Reclaimed by Sarah Guillory (October): A girl determined to flee her small town finds a reason to stay when she falls in love with twin brothers, one who can’t remember his past and the other who doesn’t want him to remember, told in three alternating points of view.

* Nobody
But Us by Kristin Halbrook
(January): Told
in their separate voices, eighteen-year-old Will who has aged out of
foster care, and fifteen-year-old Zoe whose father beats her, set out
for Las Vegas together, but their escape may prove more dangerous
than what they left behind.
* Crash
and Burn by
Michael Hassan (February): Steven “Crash” Crashinsky
relates his sordid ten-year relationship with David “Burn”
Burnett, the boy he stopped from taking their high school hostage at
gunpoint.
* OCD
Love Story
by Corey Ann Haydu (July): In an instant, Bea felt
almost normal with Beck, and as if she could fall in love again, but
things change when the psychotherapist who has been helping her deal
with past romantic relationships puts her in a group with Beck–a
group for teens with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I’m
With Stupid by
Geoff Herbach (May): Felton
Reinstein, dork-turned-athlete, must make peace with his father’s
death and accept his own ability to be brutal like his dad once was.
Final chapter in the Stupid Fast series.
* That
Time I Joined the Circus
by J.J. Howard (April): After
her father’s sudden death and a break-up with her best friends,
seventeen-year-old Lexi has no choice but to leave New York City
seeking her long-absent mother, rumored to be in Florida with a
traveling circus, where she just may discover her destiny.
* Nantucket
Blue by Leila Howland (May):
Seventeen-year-old
Cricket Thompson is planning on spending a romantic summer on
Nantucket Island near her long time crush, Jay–but the death of her
best friend’s mother, and her own sudden intense attraction to her
friend’s brother Zach are making this summer complicated.
FML
by Shaun Hutchinson (June): At a party near the end of senior year,
seventeen-year-old Simon Cross imagines his life with and without
Cassie, the girl he has yearned for since they were freshman, and
begins to discover the unpredictable wonders of life his best
friends, Ben and Coop, have urged him to explore.



Things
I Can’t Forget by Miranda Kenneally
(March): Seeking God’s forgiveness for a past sin, eighteen-year-old
Kate finds summer employment at a church camp, where she is tempted
to have a fling with co-counselor Matt.
Goldfish
by Kody Keplinger: About
a teen dealing with the fallout from her failed suicide attempt and
her romance with a boy with secrets of his own.
Golden
by Jessi Kirby (May): Seventeen-year-old
Parker Frost may be a distant relative of Robert Frost, but she has
never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential
good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having
kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a mystery in
her lap—one that might be the key to uncovering the truth behind a
town tragedy, she decides to take a chance.

* Five Summers by Una LaMarch (May): The summer we were nine: Emma was branded “Skylar’s friend Emma” by the infamous Adam Loring . . . The summer we were ten: Maddie realized she was too far into her lies to think about telling the truth . . . The summer we were eleven : Johanna totally freaked out during her first game of Spin the Bottle . . . The summer we were twelve : Skylar’s love letters from her boyfriend back home were exciting to all of us—except Skylar . . . Our last summer together: Emma and Adam almost kissed. Jo found out Maddie’s secret. Skylar did something unthinkable . . . and whether we knew it then or not, five summers of friendship began to fall apart. Three years after the fateful last night of camp, the four of us are coming back to camp for reunion weekend—and for a second chance. Bittersweet, funny, and achingly honest, Five Summers is a story of friendship, love, and growing up that is perfect for fans of Anne Brashares and Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters.

* Alice in Everville by S. C. Langgle (March): Alice Little thinks she’s read every word the world-famous poet Sylvie Plate published before her untimely death…until she discovers a coded message hidden in Sylvie’s final collection of poems–a message that may explain the poet’s mysterious demise. All she has to do is decipher the code and she knows she can convince her beloved English teacher, Miss A, that Sylvie’s message is real. Unfortunately, she only has one manic day at Everville Mall to do it. And between keeping track of her fountain-splashing, havoc-wreaking sister, finding a new copy of Sylvie’s poems, and…oh yeah…dealing with the blue-eyed, guitar-playing, majorly swoon-worthy Jaden Briar, who keeps popping up everywhere she goes, Alice wonders if she will ever finish deciphering in time.
Going
Vintage by Lindsay Leavitt
(March): When sixteen-year-old Mallory learns that her boyfriend,
Jeremy, is cheating on her with his cyber “wife,” she
rebels against technology by following her grandmother’s list of
goals from 1962, with help from her younger sister, Ginnie.
Pieces
by Chris Lynch (March): Eighteen-year-old
Eric deals with the loss of his older brother Duane by meeting three
of the seven recipients of Duane’s organs a year after his death, and
pondering who they are to him, and he to them.
Kissing
Mr. Glaser
by Erin McCahan: Brainy
16-year-old Josie Sheridan falls in love with a guy who falls in love
with her older sister who is engaged to a man Josie hates. When
Josie’s sister appears to return the feelings of Josie’s love
interest, Josie finds herself armed with the ammunition she has been
looking for that will stop her sister’s wedding. But emotions cloud
Josie’s normally logical mind, and she struggles to balance her
feelings with her sister’s. At the same time, she must learn what to
do when the person she loves might never love her back.
* Brianna
On the Brink
by Nicole McInnes (January): Sixteen-year-old
Brianna Taylor finds herself lost, alone and pregnant after a
one-night-stand (let’s just say it’s complicated). Just when she’s
got nowhere left to turn, help arrives from the one person who is
closest to her big mistake, but accepting that help will leave
Brianna forced to choose between clinging to the ledge of fear and
abandonment – or jumping into the unknown where a second chance at
hope might just be waiting.
Yaqui
Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by
Meg Medina (March): One
morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui
Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn’t even
know who Yaqui is, never mind what she’s done to piss her off. Word
is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she
walks, and isn’t Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and
no accent. And Yaqui isn’t kidding around, so Piddy better watch
her back. At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out
more about the father she’s never met and how to balance honors
courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as
the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take
over Piddy’s life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without
closing herself off or running away? In an all-too-realistic novel,
Meg Medina portrays a sympathetic heroine who is forced to decide who
she really is.
* The
Summer I Became a Nerd
by Lisa Rae Miller: On
the outside, seventeen-year-old Emma Jean Summers looks like your
typical blond cheerleader. But inside, Emma spends more time
agonizing over what will happen in the next issue of her favorite
comic book than planning pep rallies with her quarterback boyfriend.
That she’s a nerd hiding in a popular girl’s body isn’t just unknown,
it’s anti-known. And she needs to keep it that way. Summer break is
the only time Emma lets her real self out to play, but when she slips
up and the adorkable guy behind the local comic shop’s counter
uncovers her secret, she’s busted. Before she can shake a pom-pom,
Emma’s whisked into Logan’s world of comic conventions, live-action
role playing, and first-person-shooter video games. And she loves it.
But the more she denies who she really is, the deeper her lies
become, and the more she risks losing Logan forever.
* If
You Find Me by Emily Murdoch (March): A
broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home
fifteen-year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her
threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger
sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they
have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with
greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears
for good, and the girls are found by their father, a stranger, and
taken to re-enter the “normal” life of school, clothes and
boys.
Rotten
by Michael Northrop (April): When
troubled sixteen-year-old Jimmer “JD” Dobbs returns from a
mysterious summer “upstate” he finds that his mother has
adopted an abused Rottweiler that JD names Johnny Rotten, but soon
his tenuous relationship with the dog is threatened.
Book
of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler
(May): Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most
important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious
heartbreakers. But as Jude begins to fall for Emilio Vargas, she
begins to wonder if her sisters were wrong.
Salvation
by Anne Osterlund (January): Salvador
Resendez–Salva to his friends–appears to have it all. His Mexican
immigrant family has high expectations, and Salva intends to fulfill
them. He’s student body president, quarterback of the football team,
and has a near-perfect GPA. Everyone loves him.
Especially
Beth Courant, AKA the walking disaster area. Dreamy and shy, Beth is
used to blending into the background. But she’s also smart, and she
has serious plans for her future.
Popular
guy and bookish girl–the two have almost nothing in common. Until
fate throws them together and the attraction is irresistible. Soon
Beth is pushing Salva to set his sights higher than ever–because she
knows he has more to offer, more than even he realizes.
Then
tragedy strikes–and threatens to destroy everything that Salva has
worked for. Will Beth’s love be enough to save him?
The
Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Robin Palmer (June):
Sixteen-year-old Annabelle Jacobs never asked
to be famous, but as the daughter of Janie Jacobs, one of the biggest
TV stars in the world, she is. Growing up is hard enough. Having to
do it in public because your mother is a famous actress? Even harder.
When your mom crashes and burns after her DUI mug shot is splashed
across the internet? Definitely not fun. Then your mom falls for a
guy so much younger than she that it would be more appropriate for
you to be dating him? That’s just a train wreck waiting to happen.
Isla
and the Happily Ever After by
Stephanie Perkins (May): Falling
in love in the world’s most romantic city is easy for hopeless
dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their
senior year at the School of America in Paris, Isla and Josh are
quickly forced to deal with the heartbreaking reality that
happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever. Their romantic journey
is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and
Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in
a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.

Rules of Summer by Joanna Philbin (June): THE RULES OF SUMMER is about two 17 year-old girls living in the same beachfront mansion in East Hampton for the summer, one “upstairs” (the daughter of a very blue-blooded family) and one “downstairs” (the niece of the family’s housekeeper.) Isabel is the privileged daughter who’s used to having guys fall at her feet. Rory is the no-nonsense girl from a small New Jersey town who’s always been the friend, never the girlfriend.  Besides becoming each other’s unlikely allies, both Rory and Isabel have a summer romance that will change her life.

* The
S Word by Chelsea Pitcher (May):
Angie’s quest for the truth behind her best friend’s suicide drives
her deeper into the dark, twisted side of Verity High.
This Is How I Find Her by Sara Polski: Sophie Canon has just started her junior year when her mother tries to kill herself. Sophie has always lived her life in the shadow of her mother’s bipolar disorder, monitoring her medication, rushing home after school to check on her instead of spending time with friends, and keeping her mother’s diagnosis secret from everyone outside their family. But when the overdose lands Sophie’s mother in the hospital, Sophie no longer has to watch over her. She moves in with her aunt, uncle, and cousin, from whom she has been estranged for the past five years. Rolling her suitcase across town to her family’s house is easy. What’s harder is figuring out how to build her own life.
Forgive
Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew
Quick (August): Today
is Leonard Peacock’s birthday. It is also the day he hides a gun in
his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best
friend, and then himself, with his grandfather’s P-38 pistol.
* The
Symptoms of My Insanity
by Mindy Raf (April): When
you’re a hypochondriac, there are a million different things that
could be wrong with you, but for Izzy, focusing on what could be
wrong might be keeping her from dealing with what’s really
wrong–with her friendships, her romantic entanglements, and even her
family
Over
You
by Amy Reed (June): A novel about two girls on the run from their
problems, their pasts, and themselves. Max and Sadie are escaping to
Nebraska, but they’ll soon learn they can’t escape the truth.
* Dr
Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets
by Evan Roskos: A
sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to
cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and
figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house.
My
Suicide Playlist
by Leila Sales: 16-year-old named Elise Dembowski, who stumbles on an
underground dance club in her town and gains entry to a world of
late-night dance parties, until, as Barbara explained, “her
ordinary life threatens to intrude.”
* Riptide
by Lindsey Scheibe (May): For
Grace Parker, surfing is all about the ride and the moment.
Everything else disappears. She can forget that her best friend, Ford
Watson, has a crush on her that she can’t reciprocate. She can
forget how badly she wants to get a surf scholarship to UC San Diego.
She can forget the pressure of her parents’ impossibly high
expectations.
When
Ford enters Grace into a surf competition— the only way she can
impress the UCSD surfing scouts—she has one summer to train and
prepare. Will she gain everything she’s ever wanted or lose the
only things that ever mattered?
* Uses
for Boys by
Erica
Lorraine Scheidt (January): Anna
remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made
sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them
against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing
the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on
her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From
Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what
they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the
other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna’s
new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the
loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can’t know.
Then
comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just
useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories,
the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it
feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. 
Severed
Heads, Broken Hearts
by Robyn Schneider (June): Star
athlete and prom king Ezra Faulkner’s life is irreparably transformed
by a tragic accident and the arrival of eccentric new girl Cassidy
Thorpe.
Falling
for You by Lisa Schroeder (January): Very good friends, her
poetry notebooks, and a mysterious “ninja of nice” give
seventeen-year-old Rae the strength to face her mother’s neglect, her
stepfather’s increasing abuse, and a new boyfriend’s obsessiveness.
* Bruised
by Sarah Skilton (March): When Imogen, a
sixteen-year-old black belt in Tae Kwon Do, freezes during a holdup
at a local diner, the gunman is shot and killed by the police, and
she blames herself for his death. Before the shooting, she believed
that her black belt made her stronger than everyone else — more
responsible, more capable. But now her sense of self has been
challenged and she must rebuild her life, a process that includes
redefining her relationship with her family and navigating first love
with the boy who was at the diner with her during the shootout. With
action, romance, and a complex heroine, Bruised introduces a vibrant
new voice to the young adult world — full of dark humor and hard
truths.
Winger
by Andrew Smith: Two years younger than his classmates at a
prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West
grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his
female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing
on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new
dorm-mates.
This
is What Happy Looks Like by
Jennifer E. Smith (April): Perfect
strangers Graham Larkin and Ellie O’Neill meet online when Graham
accidentally sends Ellie an e-mail about his pet pig, Wilbur. When
the relationship goes from online to in-person, they find out whether
their relationship can be the real thing.
Trinkets
by Kirsten Smith (March): When
three Lake Oswego High School girls from different social groups,
good-girl Elodie, popular Tabitha, and tough Moe, meet in a
rehabilitation group, they discover they have much more in common
than shoplifting.
* The
Reece Malcolm List by Amy
Spalding (February): While
attending a performing arts school, making new friends, landing the
lead in the musical, and falling for the attractive Sai,
sixteen-year-old Devan attempts to forge a relationship with her
enigmatic mother, Reece Malcolm, after her father’s death.
Ink is Thicker Than Water by Amy Spalding (December): Kellie has a pretty easy life: great friends and a job at her mom and stepdad’s tattoo shop, the Family Ink. But when Kellie’s sister Sara’s birth mother contacts her, and Sara starts to slip away from the family she’s always known for the one she’s just discovering, Kellie can’t help but feel that everything is falling apart. When the college guy she hooked up a few months ago makes a reappearance in her life–just when everything else seems to be going wrong–Kellie finds an intense relationship may be just what she needs — or is it?
Then
You Were Gone
by Lauren Strasnick (January): Adrienne and Dakota’s long-term best
friendship has been over for two years, but when Dakota goes missing,
a presumed suicide, Adrienne is overwhelmed, leading to problems at
school and with her boyfriend.

All the Rage by Courtney Summers (Fall): A 17-year-old girl’s attempt to blackmail her rich classmates results in her waking up on a dirt road with no money, no memory of how she got there and a semi-erased message she left for herself the only clue as to why. When she tries to piece together the evening before and all the events leading up to it, a dark and sinister game is revealed. 

The
Language Inside
by Holly Thompson (May): Raised in Japan, American-born tenth-grader
Emma is disconcerted by a move to Massachusetts for her mother’s
breast cancer treatment, because half of Emma’s heart remains with
her friends recovering from the tsunami.
Fat
Angie
by E. E. Charlton-Trujillo (March): Angie
is broken — by her can’t-be-bothered mother, by her high-school
tormenters, and by being the only one who thinks her
varsity-athlete-turned-war-hero sister is still alive. Hiding under a
mountain of junk food hasn’t kept the pain (or the shouts of “crazy
mad cow!”) away. Having failed to kill herself — in front of a
gym full of kids — she’s back at high school just trying to make
it through each day. That is, until the arrival of KC Romance, the
kind of girl who doesn’t exist in Dryfalls, Ohio. A girl who is one
hundred and ninety-nine percent wow! A girl who never sees her as Fat
Angie, and who knows too well that the package doesn’t always match
what’s inside. With an offbeat sensibility, mean girls to rival a
horror classic, and characters both outrageous and touching, this
darkly comic anti-romantic romance will appeal to anyone who likes
entertaining and meaningful fiction.
* OCD,
the Dude, and Me by
Lauren Roedy Vaughn (March): Danielle Levine stands out even at her
alternative high school–in appearance and attitude–but when her
scathing and sometimes raunchy English essays land her in a social
skills class, she meets Daniel, another social misfit who may break
her resolve to keep everyone at arm’s length.
* My
Life After Now
by Jessica Verdi (April): When she loses a leading role and her
leading man to another girl, sixteen-year-old Lucy, a member of the
high school drama club, does something completely out of character
that has life-altering consequences.
In
Too Deep
by Coert Voorhees (July): Annie
Fleet, master scuba diver and history buff, knows she can’t fight
her nerd status as a freshman at her Los Angeles private school. And
she doesn’t care—except for the fact that her crush, Josh, thinks
she’s more adorable than desirable. Annie is determined to set him
straight on their school trip to Mexico. But her teacher has other
plans: he needs Annie to help him find Cortez’s lost-long treasure.
Suddenly,
Annie finds herself scuba diving in pitch-black waters, jetting to
Hawaii with Josh, and hunting for the priceless Golden Jaguar. But
Annie and Josh aren’t the only ones lured by the possibility of
finding the greatest treasure ever lost at sea. Someone else wants
the gold—and needs Annie dead. In deeper danger than she ever
imagined, can Annie get the boy and find the Jaguar, or is she in
over her head?
Empty
by KM Walton (January): Deeply depressed after her father cheated on
and divorced her mother, seventeen-year-old Adele has gained over
seventy pounds and is being bullied and abused at school–to the
point of being raped and accused of being the aggressor.
The
Distance Between Us
by Kasie West: Seventeen-year-old
Caymen Meyers studies the rich like her own personal science
experiment, and after years of observation she’s pretty sure
they’re only good for one thing—spending money on useless stuff,
like the porcelain dolls in her mother’s shop. So when Xander
Spence walks into the store to pick up a doll for his grandmother, it
only takes one glance for Caymen to figure out he’s oozing rich.
Despite his charming ways and that he’s one of the first people who
actually gets her, she’s smart enough to know his interest won’t
last. Because if there’s one thing she’s learned from her
mother’s warnings, it’s that the rich have a short attention
span. But Xander keeps coming around, despite her best efforts to
scare him off. And much to her dismay, she’s beginning to enjoy his
company. She knows her mom can’t find out—she wouldn’t approve.
She’d much rather Caymen hang out with the local rocker who hasn’t
been raised by money. But just when Xander’s attention and loyalty
are about to convince Caymen that being rich isn’t a character
flaw, she finds out that money is a much bigger part of their
relationship than she’d ever realized. And that Xander’s not the
only one she should’ve been worried about.
When
You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
(June): An
American teenager travels from California to Tokyo to uncover the
secrets surrounding the death of his mother, all while trying to both
hold onto and let go of the girl he’s been in love with his whole
life.
Made
of Stars
by Kelley York: 18-year-old
Hunter Jackson and his half-sister, Ashlin, have been summer-friends
with Chance Harvey since they were kids. Chance, charismatic and
adventurous, was everything from their first friend to their first
kiss, always bringing their summers to life.
But
when they’re reunited with Chance for the first time in years, they
start to see Chance’s oddities in a whole new light. Like the bruises
he tries to hide, or how he refuses to go home for days at a time.
What the siblings used to think of as Chance’s quirks—the lies
about his parents, his clinginess and dangerous impulsiveness—are
now warning signs that something is seriously wrong.
Then
Chance’s mom turns up with a bullet to the head, and all eyes turn to
Chance and his dad. Hunter thinks Chance is innocent…he just has to
prove it. But how can he protect the boy he loves when Chance keeps
running away?
The
Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
(May):Sixteen-year-old
San Franciscan Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a
concert pianist. Her chance at a career has passed, and she decides
to help her ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own
future.

Feel free to add others in the comments. Remember that these are contemporary realistic novels. Not just any novels published in 2013.

Contemporary YA Fiction on Grief Book List

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I wasn’t quite ready to end contemporary week yet, so I thought I’d share another book list before wrapping up the series. I mentioned yesterday that I’d left books about grieving off the tough issues list, in hopes that I could compile those titles into a separate booklist. And voila! The grief and grieving booklist is here, and it is lengthy. 

All of these titles have been published in the last two years, and all of them tackle grieving in different ways. I’ve tried to organize them by topic as best possible, but since some have more than one topic addressed, this is also somewhat subjective. If you can think of other contemporary titles published between 2010 and today exploring grief in its myriad ways, feel free to leave a comment. As usual, all descriptions are via WorldCat. 

Losing a friend


I’ve included not just friends, but significant others in this category. 


A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend by Emily Horner: As she tries to sort out her feelings of love, seventeen-year-old Cass, a spunky math genius with an introverted streak, finds a way to memorialize her dead best friend.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep by Amy McNamara: In the aftermath of a car accident that kills her boyfriend and throws her carefully planned future into complete upheaval, high school senior Wren retreats to the deep woods of Maine to live with the artist father she barely knows and meets a boy who threatens to pull her from her safe, hard-won exile.

One Moment by Kristina McBride: Rising high school senior Maggie remembers little about the accidental death of her boyfriend, Joey, but as she slowly begins to recall that day at the gorge with their long-time friends, she realizes he was keeping some terrible secrets.  

The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab: For eight of her sixteen years Carolina Mitchell’s older sister Hannah has been a nun in a convent, almost completely out of touch with her family–so when she suddenly abandons her vocation and comes home, nobody knows quite how to handle the situation, or guesses what explosive secrets she is hiding.

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller: When Travis returns home from Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother has stolen his girlfriend and car, and he has nightmares of his best friend getting killed but when he runs into Harper, a girl who has despised him since middle school, life actually starts looking up.

The Secret Year by Jennifer R Hubbard: Reading the journal of the high-society girl he was secretly involved with for a year helps high school senior Colt cope with her death and come closer to understanding why she needed him while continuing to be the girlfriend of a wealthy classmate.



You Are Not Here by Samantha Schutz: Annaleah’s grief over the tragic death of seventeen-year-old Brian is compounded by the fact that her friends did not like him, while his friends and both of their families knew nothing of their intimate relationship.

Freefall by Mindi Scott: A bass guitar player in a teen rock band deals with alcoholism, his best friend’s death, and first love.

Family


Entire family






The Beginning of After by Jennifer Castle: In the aftermath of a car accident that killed her family, sixteen-year-old Laurel must face a new world of guilt, painful memories, and the possibility of new relationships.

Mother


Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak: A new girl in Amherst, Massachusetts, comes to terms with her mother’s suicide and her best friend’s disappearance with the help of Emily Dickinson’s poetry–and her dress.

Someone Else’s Life by Katie Dale: When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother dies from Huntington’s Disease, a devastating secret is revealed that sends Rosie on a journey from England to the United States with her ex-boyfriend, where she discovers yet more deeply buried and troubling secrets and lies.

The Survival Kit by Donna Freitas: After her mother dies, sixteen-year-old Rose works through her grief by finding meaning in a survival kit that her mother left behind. Rose’s Survival kit includes an iPod, a picture fo peonies, a crystal heart, a paper star, a box of crayons, and a tiny handmade kite.

The Sharp Time by Mary O’Connell: In the week following her mother’s death in a freak accident, eighteen-year-old Sandanista Jones finds small measures of happiness even as she fantasizes about an act of revenge against an abusive teacher at her high school.

Father


After by Kristin Harmel: When her father is killed in a car accident, Lacey feels responsible, so when she is given a chance to make a difference in the lives of some of her fellow students, she jumps at the chance.

The Beautiful Between by Alyssa B Sheinmel: Connelly Sternin feels like Rapunzel, locked away in her Upper East Side high-rise apartment studying for the SAT exams, until she develops an unlikely friendship with her high school’s Prince Charming and begins to question some of the things that have always defined her life.

Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers: As she searches for clues that would explain the suicide of her successful photographer father, Eddie Reeves meets the strangely compelling Culler Evans who seems to know a great deal about her father and could hold the key to the mystery surrounding his death.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr: Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill’s mother agrees to adopt Mandy’s unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson: Taylor Edwards’ family might not be the closest-knit–everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled–but for the most part, they get along just fine. Then Taylor’s dad gets devastating news, and her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer all together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains. Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get toknow each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former best friend is still around, as is her first boyfriend…and he’s much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve. As the summer progresses and the Edwards become more of a family, they’re more aware than ever that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance–with family, with friends, and with love.

Sign Language by Amy Ackley: Teenaged Abby must deal with her feelings about her father’s cancer and its aftermath while simultaneously navigating the difficult problems of growing up.



Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R Hubbard: The summer Ryan is released from a mental hospital following his suicide attempt, he meets Nicki, who gets him to share his darkest secrets while hiding secrets of her own.

What Comes After by Steve Watkins: When her veterinarian father dies, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight must move from Maine to North Carolina where her Aunt Sue spends Iris’s small inheritance while abusing her physically and emotionally, but the hardest to take is her mistreatment of the farm animals.

Brother


In Honor by Jessi Kirby: Three days after she learns that her brother Finn died serving in Iraq, Honor receives a letter from him asking her to drive his car from Texas to California for a concert, and when his estranged best friend shows up suddenly and offers to accompany her, they set off on a road trip that reveals much about all three of them.

Personal Effects by E. M. Kokie: Matt has been sleepwalking through life while seeking answers about his brother T.J.’s death in Iraq, but after discovering that he may not have known his brother as well as he thought he did, Matt is able to stand up to his father, honor T.J.’s memory, and take charge of his own life.

Waiting by Carol Lynch Williams: As the tragic death of her older brother devastates the family, teenaged London struggles to find redemption and finds herself torn between her brother’s best friend and a handsome new boy in town.

Adios Nirvana by Conrad Wesselhoeft: As Seattle sixteen-year-old Jonathan helps a dying man come to terms with a tragic event he experienced during World War II, Jonathan begins facing his own demons, especially the death of his twin brother, helped by an assortment of friends, old and new.

Sister


The Freak Observer by Blythe Woolston: Suffering from a crippling case of post-traumatic stress disorder, sixteen-year-old Loa Lindgren tries to use her problem solving skills, sharpened in physics and computer programming, to cure herself.

Losing Faith by Denise Jaden: Brie tries to cope with her grief over her older sister Faith’s sudden death by trying to learn more about the religious “home group” Faith secretly joined and never talked about with Brie or her parents.

Saving June by Hannah Harrington: After her sister’s suicide, Harper Scott takes off for California with her best friend Laney to scatter her sister’s ashes in the Pacific Ocean.



The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson: In the months after her sister dies, seventeen-year-old Lennie falls into a love triangle and discovers the strength to follow her dream of becoming a musician.

Tell Me A Secret by Holly Cupala: Seventeen-year-old Rand’s unexpected pregnancy leads her on a path to unravel the mystery of her sister’s death and face her own more hopeful future.

Without Tess by Marcella Pixley: Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Cohen recalls what it was like growing up with her imaginative but disturbed older sister Tess, and how she is striving to reclaim her own life since Tess died.

Contemporary YA Fiction Featuring Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll (Edgy Stuff) Book List

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Nothing gets people more riled up about contemporary YA fiction than books that tackle the tough stuff and tackle it in a manner that’s frank. As much as we want to believe teens live happy and easy lives, that’s far from the truth. The books below aren’t afraid to wrestle with the tough issues and present them in honest, painful, and sometimes downright chilling ways. Sometimes, they’re tackled with levity, too. 

These books are important not only to know but to read and to share. Shying away from “dark” books is the same as shying away from the “dark” challenges that teens — that people — face every single day. This list is lengthy, but I didn’t want to cut out important topics in the interest of space. And since I know I won’t hit everything, feel free to add additional titles in the comments. 

All titles below were published between 2010 and today, and all descriptions come from WorldCat. I’ve tried to note what tough topics they cover and organize them accordingly.

Sex, Sexuality, and Teen Pregnancy


Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills: Gabe has always identified as a boy, but he was born with a girl’s body. With his new public access radio show gaining in popularity, Gabe struggles with romance, friendships, and parents–all while trying to come out as transgendered. An audition for a station in Minneapolis looks like his ticket to a better life in the big city. But his entire future is threatened when several violent guys find out Gabe, the popular DJ, is also Elizabeth from school. 

The Best and Hardest Thing by Pat Brisson: When she is a sophomore in high school, Molly gets rid of her good-girl image but ends up becoming pregnant and having to make some difficult decisions.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez: When Lance begins to date Sergio, who’s bisexual, he’s not sure that it’ll work out, and when his best friend Allie, who has a boyfriend, meets Sergio’s lesbian friend, she has unexpected feelings which she struggles to understand.

Crossing Lines by Paul Volponi: High school senior Adonis struggles to do the right thing when his fellow football players escalate their bullying of a new classmate, Alan, who is transgendered.
Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma: Sixteen-year-old Maya and seventeen-year-old Lochan tell, in their separate voices, of their confusion and longing as they fall in love with one another after years of functioning as parents to three younger siblings due to their alcoholic mother’s neglect.
Hooked by Catherine Greenman: After their relationship survives Will going to college, their love is tested again when Thea realizes she is pregnant.

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr: Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill’s mother agrees to adopt Mandy’s unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

I am J by Cris Beam: J, who feels like a boy mistakenly born as a girl, runs away from his best friend who has rejected him and the parents he thinks do not understand him when he finally decides that it is time to be who he really is.

In Too Deep by Amanda Grace: Trying to make her best friend Nick jealous, high school senior Sam becomes involved in a terrible lie that spirals out of control.

Jersey Angel by Beth Ann Bauman: Shapely seventeen-year-old Angel Cassonetti, who lives with her younger siblings and single mother in a house at the Jersey Shore, finds it hard to stay away from ex-boyfriend Joey Sardone.

Kiss It by Erin Downing: Small-town Minnesotan Chastity (Chaz) Bryan wants nothing more than to get some sexual experience before she graduates from high school and moves away, but when she meets an intriguing boy visiting from North Carolina over Christmas break, her tough-girl facade slowly breaks down.

Kiss the Morning Star by Elissa Janine Hoole: The summer after high school graduation and one year after her mother’s tragic death, Anna and her long-time best friend Kat set out on a road trip across the country, armed with camping supplies and a copy of Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, determined to be open to anything that comes their way.

The Lighter Side of Life and Death by CK Kelly Martin: After the last, triumphant night of the school play, fifteen-year-old Mason loses his virginity to his good friend and secret crush, Kat Medina, which leads to enormous complications at school just as his home life is thrown into turmoil by his father’s marriage to a woman with two children.

Love Drugged by James Klise: Fifteen-year-old Jamie is dismayed by his attraction to boys, and when a beautiful girl shows an interest in him, he is all the more intrigued by her father’s work developing a drug called Rehomoline.

Pieces of Us by Margie Gelbwasser: Four teenagers from two families–sisters Katie and Julie and brothers Alex and Kyle–meet every summer at a lakeside community in upstate New York, where they escape their everyday lives and hide disturbing secrets.

Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan: Married, pregnant, and living at a “fat camp” in Maine, sixteen-year-old Eleanor has many questions about her future, especially whether the marriage will last and if she should keep the baby.

Purity by Jackson Pearce: Sixteen-year-old Shelby finds it difficult to balance her mother’s dying request to live a life without restraint with her father’s plans for his “little princess,” which include attending a traditional father-daughter dance that culminates with a ceremonial vow to live “whole, pure lives.”

Shut Out by Kody Keplinger: Fed up with the increasingly violent rivalry between the football and soccer teams at Hamilton High, Lissa and other players’ girlfriends go on strike, but the girls will succeed only if their libidos can be controlled longer than the boys’ can. 

 



Every Little Thing in the World by Nina de Gramont: Before she can decide what do about her newly discovered pregnancy, sixteen-year-old Sydney is punished for “borrowing” a car and shipped out, along with best friend Natalia, to a wilderness camp for the next six weeks.

My Book of Life by Angel by Martine Leavitt (also abuse and drug abuse): 16-year-old Angel struggles to free herself from the trap of prostitution in which she is caught.

Mental and Physical Illness


Cancer


All These Lives by Sarah Wylie: Convinced that she has nine lives after cheating death twice as a child, sixteen-year-old Dani tries to forfeit her remaining lives in hopes of saving her twin sister, Jena, whose leukemia is consuming their family.

I’m Not Her by Janet Gurtler: Brainy Tess Smith is the younger sibling of the beautiful, popular, volleyball-scholarship-bound Kristina. When Kristina is diagnosed with bone cancer, it drastically changes both sisters’ lives. Sometimes the things that annoy us the most about our siblings are the ones we’d miss the most if we lost them.

Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic: Seventeen-year-old Austin, aware that life is short, asks his best friend and secret love, Kaylee, to take him to visit people and places in and around Tacoma, Washington, so that he can try to make a difference in the time he has left.

Radiate by Marley Gibson: Just after making the varsity cheerleading squad the summer before her senior year of high school in Maxwell, Alabama, Hayley Matthews learns she has an aggressive form of cancer in her leg, and she turns to her family, her cheerleading, and her Christian faith to sustain her through her treatment.

Send Me A Sign by Tiffany Schmidt: Superstitious before being diagnosed with leukemia, high school senior Mia becomes irrationally dependent on horoscopes, good luck charms, and the like when her life shifts from cheerleading and parties to chemotherapy and platelets, while her parents obsess and lifelong friend Gyver worries.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.



Me & Earl & The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews: Seventeen-year-old Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.

Disordered Eating and Weight Issues




Never Enough by Denise Jaden: Sixteen-year-old Loann admires and envies her older sister Claire’s strength, popularity, and beauty, but as Loann begins to open up to new possibilities in herself, she discovers that Claire’s all-consuming quest for perfection comes at a dangerous price.
Skinny by Donna Cooner: After undergoing gastric-bypass surgery, a self-loathing, obese teenaged girl loses weight and makes the brave decision to start participating in high school life, including pursuing her dream of becoming a singer and finding love.

Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price: Zoe goes to a facility to help cure her anorexia as she comes to terms with the loss of her friend and her own identity.

The Stone Girl by Alyssa Sheinmel: Zoe goes to a facility to help cure her anorexia as she comes to terms with the loss of her friend and her own identity.

Bullying


Butter by Erin Jade Lange (also fits under weight issues): Unable to control his binge eating, a morbidly obese teenager nicknamed Butter decides to make live webcast of his last meal as he attempts to eat himself to death.

Cracked by KM Walton: When Bull Mastrick and Victor Konig wind up in the same psychiatric ward at age sixteen, each recalls and relates in group therapy the bullying relationship they have had since kindergarten, but also facts about themselves and their families that reveal they have much in common.

Everybody Sees the Ants by AS King: Overburdened by his parents’ bickering and a bully’s attacks, fifteen-year-old Lucky Linderman begins dreaming of being with his grandfather, who went missing during the Vietnam War, but during a visit to Arizona, his aunt and uncle and their beautiful neighbor, Ginny, help him find a new perspective.

Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti: Bullied at school and neglected by her poor, self-absorbed, single mother at home, high school junior Noelle finally reaches the breaking point after a classmate commits suicide.

Leverage by Joshua Cohen: High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.

Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: Regina, a high school senior in the popular–and feared–crowd, suddenly falls out of favor and becomes the object of the same sort of vicious bullying that she used to inflict on others, until she finds solace with one of her former victims.

Unlocked by Ryan G Van Cleave: While trying to impress a beautiful, unattainable classmate, fourteen-year-old Andy discovers that a fellow social outcast may be planning an act of school violence.

Speechless by Hannah Harrington: After her behavior causes her to lose her popular friends and results in one person being hospitalized, Chelsea takes a vow of silence.

Physical and Sexual Abuse (Including Hate Crime)




34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues: After Ellie dies of a drug overdose, her brother, her best friend, and her best friend’s sister face painful secrets of their own when they try to uncover the truth about Ellie’s death.

Bitter End by Jennifer Brown: When seventeen-year-old Alex starts dating Cole, a new boy at her high school, her two closest friends increasingly mistrust him as the relationship grows more serious.

But I Love Him by Amanda Grace: Traces, through the course of a year, Ann’s transformation from a happy A-student, track star, and popular senior to a solitary, abused woman whose love for the emotionally-scarred Connor has taken away everything–even herself. 

Exposed by Kimberly Marcus: High school senior Liz, a gifted photographer, can no longer see things clearly after her best friend accuses Liz’s older brother of a terrible crime.

Glimpse by Carol Lynch Williams: Living with their mother who earns money as a prostitute, two sisters take care of each other and when the older one attempts suicide, the younger one tries to uncover the reason.

LIE by Caroline Bock: Told in several voices, a group of Long Island high school seniors conspire to protect eighteen-year-old Jimmy after he brutally assaults two Salvadoran immigrants, until they begin to see the moral implications of Jimmy’s actions and the consequences of being loyal to a violent bully.

Live Through This by Mindi Scott: From the outside, fifteen-year-old Coley Sterling’s life seems imperfect but normal, but for years she has buried her shame and guilt over a relationship that crossed the line and now that she has a chance at having a real boyfriend, Reece, the lies begin to unravel.

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney: When Alex, a junior at an elite preparatory school, realizes that she may have been the victim of date rape, she confides in her roommates and sister who convince her to seek help from a secret society, the Mockingbirds.

Shine by Lauren Myracle: When her best friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover the culprits in her small North Carolina town.



Split by Swati Avasthi:  A teenaged boy thrown out of his house by his abusive father goes to live with his older brother, who ran away from home years ago to escape the abuse.

Trafficked by Kim Purcell: A seventeen-year-old Moldovan girl whose parents have been killed is brought to the United States to work as a slave for a family in Los Angeles.

What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton: The stress of hiding a horrific incident that she can neither remember nor completely forget leads sixteen-year-old Cassidy “Sid” Murphy to become alienated from her friends, obsess about weight loss, and draw close to Corey “The Living Stoner” Livingston.

Stay by Deb Caletti: In a remote corner of Washington State where she and her father have gone to escape her obsessive boyfriend, Clara meets two brothers who captain a sailboat, a lighthouse keeper with a secret, and an old friend of her father who knows his secrets.

Mental Illness, Including Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and More




By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters: High school student Daelyn Rice, who’s been bullied throughout her school career and has more than once attempted suicide, again makes plans to kill herself, in spite of the persistent attempts of an unusual boy to draw her out.
Compulsion by Heidi Ayarbe: Poised to lead his high school soccer team to its third straight state championship, seventeen-year-old star player Jake Martin struggles to keep hidden his nearly debilitating obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Crazy by Amy Reed: Connor and Izzy, two teens who met at a summer art camp in the Pacific Northwest where they were counsellors, share a series of emails in which they confide in one another, eventally causing Connor to become worried when he realizes that Izzy’s emotional highs and lows are too extreme.

Dirty Little Secrets by CJ Omololu: When her unstable mother dies unexpectedly, sixteen-year-old Lucy must take control and find a way to keep the long-held secret of her mother’s compulsive hoarding from being revealed to friends, neighbors, and especially the media.

Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J Bick: An emotionally damaged sixteen-year-old girl begins a relationship with a deeply troubled older man.

The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin: A troubled sixteen-year-old girl attending a wilderness school in the Idaho mountains must finally face the consequences of her complicated friendships with two of the other girls at the school.

Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly: When Drea and her mother move in with her grandmother in Bellingham, Washington, the sixteen-year-old finds that she can have real friends, in spite of her Asperger’s, and that even when you love someone it does not make life perfect.

Life is But a Dream by Brian James: When fifteen-year-old Sabrina meets Alec at the Wellness Center where she is being treated for schizophrenia, he tries to persuade her that it is the world that is crazy, not them, and she should defy her doctors rather than lose what makes her creative and special.

The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab: For eight of her sixteen years Carolina Mitchell’s older sister Hannah has been a nun in a convent, almost completely out of touch with her family–so when she suddenly abandons her vocation and comes home, nobody knows quite how to handle the situation, or guesses what explosive secrets she is hiding.

Perfect Escape by Jennifer Brown: Seventeen-year-old Kendra, living in the shadow of her brother’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, takes a life-changing road trip with him.

Something Like Normal by Trish Doller: When Travis returns home from Afghanistan, his parents are splitting up, his brother has stolen his girlfriend and car, and he has nightmares of his best friend getting killed but when he runs into Harper, a girl who has despised him since middle school, life actually starts looking up.

Things I Shouldn’t Think (formerly The Babysitter Murders) by Janet Ruth Young: Imaginative Massachusetts seventeen-year-old Dani Solomon confesses she has been troubled by thoughts of harming Alex, the little boy she loves to babysit, triggering gossip and a media frenzy that makes “Dani Death” the target of an extremist vigilante group.

Substance Abuse


Beneath a Meth Moon by Jacqueline Woodson: A young girl uses crystal meth to escape the pain of losing her mother and grandmother in Hurricane Katrina, and then struggles to get over her addiction.

Clean by Amy Reed: A group of teens in a Seattle-area rehabilitation center form an unlikely friendship as they begin to focus less on their own problems with drugs and alcohol by reaching out to help a new member, who seems to have even deeper issues to resolve.

Narc by Crissa-Jean Chappell: When his little sister is caught with a bag of weed, seventeen-year-old Aaron Foster takes the fall. To keep the cops from tearing his family apart, Aaron agrees to go undercover and help bust the dealer who’s funneling drugs into his Miami high school. But making friends with the school’s biggest players isn’t easy for a waste-case loner from the wrong part of town.

Out of Reach by Carrie Arcos: Accompanied by her brother’s friend, Tyler, sixteen-year-old Rachel ventures through San Diego and nearby areas seeking her brother, eighteen-year-old Micah, a methamphetamine addict who ran away from home.

Recovery Road by Blake Nelson: While she is in a rehabilitation facility for drug and alcohol abuse, seventeen-year-old Maddie meets Stewart, who is also in treatment, and they begin a relationship, which they try to maintain after they both get out.

The Rivals by Daisy Whitney: Alex’s role in the Mockingbirds, an underground student justice system at her elite boarding school, is challenged when she tries to stop a group of students using prescription drugs to help other students cheat, as school officials turn a blind eye to the wrongdoing.

Additional Titles: Two on Technology and Two on Suicide


Note: I want to include many more suicide-related titles, but many of them are related much more to grief than suicide (including, I’d argue, the two here). I plan on writing a lengthy booklist on grief titles in the future.


Going Underground by Susan Vaught: Interest in a new girl and pressure from his parole officer cause seventeen-year-old Del, a gravedigger, to recall and face the “sexting” incident three years earlier that transformed him from a straight-A student-athlete into a social outcast and felon.

Saving June by Hannah Harrington: After her sister’s suicide, Harper Scott takes off for California with her best friend Laney to scatter her sister’s ashes in the Pacific Ocean.



Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R Hubbard: The summer Ryan is released from a mental hospital following his suicide attempt, he meets Nicki, who gets him to share his darkest secrets while hiding secrets of her own.

Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman: Insecure about the changes high school brings, Abby ignores advice from her parents and her only friend to “make an effort” and, instead, withdraws from everyone but with Luke, who she met online.



Contemporary YA Fiction Featuring Memorable Settings Book List

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Memorable settings in contemporary YA take a number of shapes — sometimes it’s the actual where of the story taking place and sometimes, it’s more about the atmosphere surrounding the where of the story’s place. I’ve rounded up some of the memorable settings I’ve read in the last couple of years, but I’d love to hear any other titles you think make good use of setting.

I’ve purposely left out all books featuring road trips because I’ve already posted an extensive booklist of road trip books this year.

All of these books were published between 2010 and today, and all descriptions come from WorldCat. I’ve tried to note what the setting is, too, to give an idea of why it stands out.

The Princesses of Iowa by M Molly Backes (Iowa): After being involved in a drunk driving accident in the spring, Paige Sheridan spends the summer in Paris as an au-pair and then returns to her suburban Iowa existence for her senior year of high school, where she begins to wonder if she wants more out life than being popular, having a handsome boyfriend and all the latest clothes, and being a member of the social elite.

Narc by Crissa-Jean Chappell (Miami): When his little sister is caught with a bag of weed, seventeen-year-old Aaron Foster takes the fall. To keep the cops from tearing his family apart, Aaron agrees to go undercover and help bust the dealer who’s funneling drugs into his Miami high school. But making friends with the school’s biggest players isn’t easy for a waste-case loner from the wrong part of town.

Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach: Just before his sixteenth birthday, Felton Reinstein has a sudden growth spurt that turns him from a small, jumpy, picked-on boy with the nickname of “Squirrel Nut” to a powerful athlete, leading to new friends, his first love, and the courage to confront his family’s past and current problems.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins (Paris): When Anna’s romance-novelist father sends her to an elite American boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school, she reluctantly goes, and meets an amazing boy who becomes her best friend, in spite of the fact that they both want something more.

Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff (Brooklyn/Greenpoint): Sixteen-year-old Kid, who lives on the streets of Brooklyn, loves Felix, a guitarist and junkie who disappears, leaving Kid the prime suspect in an arson investigation, but a year later Scout arrives, giving Kid a second chance to be in a band and find true love.

Don’t Breathe A Word by Holly Cupala (Capitol Hill, Seattle): Joy Delamere is suffocating from severe asthma, overprotective parents, and an emotionally-abusive boyfriend when she escapes to the streets of nearby Seattle and falls in with a “street family” that teaches her to use a strength she did not know she had.

Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard (rural Wyoming): When shy, awkward fourteen-year-old Grace Carpenter is paired with the beautiful and wild Mandarin on a school project, an unlikely, explosive friendship begins, but all too soon, Grace discovers that Mandarin is a very troubled, even dangerous, girl.

Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson (Poconos, Pennsylvania): Taylor Edwards’ family might not be the closest-knit–everyone is a little too busy and overscheduled–but for the most part, they get along just fine. Then Taylor’s dad gets devastating news, and her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer all together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains. Crammed into a place much smaller and more rustic than they are used to, they begin to get toknow each other again. And Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere. Her former best friend is still around, as is her first boyfriend…and he’s much cuter at seventeen than he was at twelve. As the summer progresses and the Edwards become more of a family, they’re more aware than ever that they’re battling a ticking clock. Sometimes, though, there is just enough time to get a second chance–with family, with friends, and with love.

Frost by Marianna Baer (Frost House at a remote boarding school): When Leena Thomas gets her wish to live in an old Victorian house with her two closest friends during their senior year at boarding school, the unexpected arrival of another roommate–a confrontational and eccentric classmate–seems to bring up old anxieties and fears for Leena that may or may not be in her own mind.

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E Smith (airplane): Hadley and Oliver fall in love on the flight from New York to London, but after a cinematic kiss they lose track of each other at the airport until fate brings them back together on a very momentous day.

Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker (boat): Taking the family sailboat on a summer-long trip excites everyone except sixteen-year-old Clementine, who feels stranded with her parents and younger sister and guilty over a falling-out with her best friend.

Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whaley (rural Arkansas): Seventeen-year-old Cullen’s summer in Lily, Arkansas, is marked by his cousin’s death by overdose, an alleged spotting of a woodpecker thought to be extinct, failed romances, and his younger brother’s sudden disappearance.

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield (small town Appalachia): Unveils the details of a horrific murder, its effects on permanent and summer residents of the small Appalachian town where the body is discovered, and especially how the related violence shakes eighteen-year-old Becca’s determination to leave home as soon as possible.

Shine by Lauren Myracle (small town southern US): When her best friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover the culprits in her small North Carolina town.

Dreamland Social Club by Tara Altebrando (Coney Island): Jane, her twin brother Marcus, and their father have been on the road since her mother’s departure years ago, but when they inherit a house on Coney Island, Jane not only begins to find a home, she learns much about her mother, too.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher (rural Australia): Sixteen-year-old Gemma, a British city-dweller, is abducted while on vacation with her parents and taken to the Australian outback, where she soon realizes that escape attempts are futile, and in time she learns that her captor is not as despicable as she first believed.
The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin (rural Idaho school): A troubled sixteen-year-old girl attending a wilderness school in the Idaho mountains must finally face the consequences of her complicated friendships with two of the other girls at the school.
Wanted by Heidi Ayarbe (Carson City, Nevada): Seventeen-year-old Michal Garcia, a bookie at Carson City High School, raises the stakes in her illegal activities after she meets wealthy, risk-taking Josh Ellison.
Please feel free to add your favorite contemporary titles published in the last two years to the comments that feature great settings — the more interesting, the better!