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STACKED

books

  • STACKED
  • About Us
  • Categories
    • Audiobooks
    • Book Lists
      • Debut YA Novels
      • Get Genrefied
      • On The Radar
    • Cover Designs
      • Cover Doubles
      • Cover Redesigns
      • Cover Trends
    • Feminism
      • Feminism For The Real World Anthology
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Mental Health in YA Lit and Serving Teen Readers

November 4, 2019 |

At the YALSA Young Adult Services Symposium in Memphis this last weekend, I had the honor of moderating a panel of contributors to my anthology (Don’t) Call Me Crazy. Our goal was to highlight some of the best when it comes to mental health and illness in YA lit, as well as how to be an effective advocate when it comes to working with teens and these topics. To take this beyond that panel, I wanted to pull together a resource guide to mental health in YA books, as well as some of the key highlights of our discussion. The below book lists are those with titles vetted by the panelists, including myself, Hannah Bae, Christine Heppermann, S. Jae Jones, and Shaun David Hutchinson.

Mental health in YA lit and serving teen readers. A resource guide for teachers, librarians, and other teen advocates.   ya books | ya lit | mental health | ya mental health books | mental illness | mental illness and teens

Great YA Books About Mental Health: Titles and Resources

  • Over on School Library Journal, a guide to nuanced and thoughtful approaches to mental health in YA lit. I put together this piece as a tool for helping find high quality, inclusive, and intersectional mental health experiences.

 

  • In honor of World Mental Health Day in 2018, (Don’t) Call Me Crazy contributors talked about the most important mental health books they’ve read, along with what they’ve written about the subject.

 

  • 50 must-read YA books about mental illness.

 

  • Powerful teen books about depression.

 

  • This is a reality so many teens experience, but it’s not explored quite as much as it should be. But here’s a start! YA books about social anxiety.

 

  • I find reading to be a challenge sometimes, when I’m dealing with anxiety and depression. I pulled together some of the tips and tricks that have helped me while reading with mental health challenges.

 

Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Teen Readers: Topics Worth Discussing

Whether or not you heard the panel discussion, there are a number of things we discussed that are worth thinking about or discussing within your own libraries. Here are some vital mental health related topics to consider:

  • Why is it vulnerable to discuss mental health? Whether or not you experience mental illness, mental health is in and of itself still often taboo. What holds you back from discussing it and how does it make you feel when you do? If you’ve been at the receiving end of someone discussing their mental health — particularly teens — how does it make you feel? Why? In what ways do you navigate those conversations?

 

  • What makes for a “good” depiction of mental illness in YA? I wrote a bit about the idea of “getting it right” over on To Write Love On Her Arms that’s worth thinking about, since there’s a lot to chew on when it comes to the idea of a “right” depiction of mental illness. 

 

  • #OwnVoices stories– books about a particular experience or background written by an author who shares it — are especially powerful when it comes to mental illness stories and this is particularly true when it comes to intersectional explorations of mental illness. When it comes to talking about mental illness, though, it can be tricky to know whether or not a book is #OwnVoices if the writer doesn’t disclose that in the book itself or openly on the website/social media. How can you as a librarian take this into consideration in your collection development decisions? What about in your reader’s advisory decisions? How and where might it be appropriate to connect teen readers with authors who are open about their mental health?

 

  • Are there YA books or depictions of mental illness in the pop culture that teens consume that are actively harmful? What makes them so? 

 

  • While we’ve certainly seen an increase in mental illness representation in YA, we can all agree there are holes. What’s lacking? What do you hope to see more of as more writers share stories that explore mental health? What are you seeing with teens that deserves more representation in the books written with them in mind? 

 

  • How can librarians use books that explore mental health with teens? What are some resources beyond the books for librarians to know in order to be the best advocates for their teens possible? Kelly talked on panel about developing a book display with compassion and care after a teen suicide rocked her community, written about here, as well as about her experience being part of Port Washington, Wisconsin’s project to have a community read of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, 

 

 

Filed Under: big issues, readers advisory, reading, ya, ya fiction, Young Adult, young adult fiction, young adult non-fiction

A Guide To Mental Health Reading for Mental Health Awareness Month (& Beyond)

May 6, 2019 |

We’ve been blogging at STACKED for ten years now, meaning that we have a whole host of backlist posts worth highlighting periodically. Likewise, I’ve got a whole collection of things I’ve written at Book Riot and elsewhere around the web, and sometimes, rather than reinventing the wheel, it feels worthwhile to draw those pieces together in one centralized place. This is particularly the case when there’s a topic worth talking about that has been talked about extensively before.

A couple of years ago, I pooled together a post of links relating to horror and young adult horror, and today, in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, it feels like a good time to gather some of the best of my writing on mental health and wellness in one place.

I often get asked to talk about how it is gatekeepers, especially teachers and librarians, can be advocates for mental health for young people. The answer is being open and honest with them, both in your own experiences, as well as in your own weaknesses. It’s okay to talk with teens about bad mental health days, just as it’s okay to be open about not understanding something they may be experiencing and then offering up to them resources that may help them find the help they’re looking for. In some cases, it’s a matter of wanting to talk and get it out there, without any expectation of needing help or to be fixed (which can’t happen — we can lead people to tools, but management comes from each person individually).

One thing that’s always helpful, especially for young people, is to offer them books and reading resources that can help them develop the language and understanding of what life is like with a brain that sometimes works and sometimes, well, might not work. The books included on the lists below are excellent tools and resources for cracking open some of these challenging, but vital, conversations about mental health.

A resource guide to great mental health books and mental illness books for teens and adults for mental health awareness month and beyond.   book lists | lists of book lists | mental health | mental illness | mental health books | books about mental health | books about mental illness | ya books | ya book lists | ya books about mental health

Please note that some of the older backlist posts here at STACKED might look a little weird or image may be strange. When we shifted web hosts a few years ago, going back through archives to update didn’t turn into a priority. Everything is readable, though!

 

Mental Health Book Resources and Guides

 

  • 50 Must-Read YA Books About Mental Illness

 

  • Comics about depression

 

  • Excellent mental health books across all genres and styles

 

  • 7 tips for reading if you struggle with your mental health

 

  • The best teen books about depression

 

  • Powerful and moving depression poems

 

  • YA books about social anxiety

 

  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA books about bipolar disorder

 

  • On depression and learning to write through mental health challenges

 

  • I published a book about mental health — and reckoned with my own history of anxiety and depression

 

  • Learning to write your way into mental health clarity

 

  • Mental health and teens of color (guest post by Patrice Caldwell)

 

  • Read alikes to Netflix’s To The Bone for readers wanting to know more about eating disorders.

 

  • Suicide and depression in teen books

 

  • Mental illness in YA

 

  • A roundup of your favorite mental health books

 

  • Rachel M. Wilson on how mental illness is a minefield

 

  • On the rise of suicide in YA

 

  • Hilary T. Smith on mental health narratives and YA literature

 

 

Naturally, here’s a reminder of why I put together (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start The Conversation About Mental Health, along with essay excerpts from the book by Shaun David Hutchinson, Adam Silvera, Victoria Schwab, and Nancy Kerrigan.

Filed Under: book lists, mental health, mental illness, readers advisory, Young Adult, young adult fiction, young adult non-fiction

“For Fans of THE HANDMAID’S TALE” Is This Year’s YA Marketing Darling

March 18, 2019 |

Every year, it seems, there is a book or a movie that a number of new books find themselves compared to. For a long time, we were seeing everything compared to John Green or Rainbow Rowell. That’s certainly waned — and it feels even weirdly dated when it does pop up.

Fortunately, 2019 has a new popular catchphrase for YA books. They’re all being compared to The Handmaid’s Tale. More specifically, books featuring a compelling female lead (see: “strong female character”) is being thusly named as great for fans of Atwood’s classic. The rise in the show’s popularity makes this no surprise, but it is becoming not only overwhelming to see on book after book, but it’s becoming meaningless, too. Do people genuinely become fans of the book or are they intrigued/disgusted/frustrated by the realities it showcases?

I’ve pulled together all of the books I’ve seen so far either compared to The Handmaid’s Tale in official marketing — press releases, ARC jackets, descriptions — or in their “meets” pitches from official marketing. These are 2019 books only. I know there are more out there, so if you know another one or two getting that billing this year, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Descriptions from Amazon. Not all of these descriptions, which are publisher descriptions, contain the comp, but many of them do.

 

Eve of Man by Giovanna Fletcher and Tom Fletcher (June 18)

Scythe meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this gripping new dystopian trilogy written by UK-bestselling authors Tom and Giovanna Fletcher.

On the first day, no one really noticed. All those babies wrapped in blue blankets–not a pink one in sight. On the third day, people were scared–a statistic-defying abundance of blue. Not just entire hospitals, not only entire countries, but the entire world. Boys. Only boys.

Until Eve. The only girl born in fifty years. The savior of mankind. Kept protected, towering above a ruined world under a glass dome of safety until she is ready to renew the human race.

But when the time comes to find a suitor, Eve and Bram–a young man whose job is to prepare Eve for this moment–begin to question the plan they’ve known all along. Eve doesn’t only want safety, and she doesn’t only want protection. She wants the truth. She wants freedom.

 

Girls With Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

Westworld meets The Handmaid’s Tale in this start to a thrilling, subversive near future series from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young about a girls-only private high school that is far more than it appears to be.

Some of the prettiest flowers have the sharpest thorns.

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behaved—it says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardian, they receive a well-rounded education that promises to make them better. Obedient girls, free from arrogance or defiance. Free from troublesome opinions or individual interests.

But the girls’ carefully controlled existence may not be quite as it appears. As Mena and her friends uncover the dark secrets of what’s actually happening there—and who they really are—the girls of Innovations Academy will learn to fight back.

Bringing the trademark plot twists and high-octane drama that made The Program a bestselling and award-winning series, Suzanne Young launches a new series that confronts some of today’s most pressing ethical questions.

 

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis (No cover or release date yet)

Good Luck Girls was pitched as “The Handmaid’s Tale meets Thelma and Louise in an alternate Wild West setting.” The novel, which is slated for fall 2019, follows five girls who, Hellegers explained, “escape from the ‘welcome house’ that owns them and embark on a dangerous journey to find freedom, justice, and revenge.”

 

Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart (out in paperback this year, with a sequel to come in July)

Bold, brutal, and beautiful–a must-read fantasy full of fierce sisterhood, action, and political intrigue for fans of The Selection series, Caraval, and The Handmaid’s Tale.

Serina Tessaro has been groomed her whole life to become a Grace–someone to stand by the heir to the throne as a shining, subjugated example of the perfect woman. It’s her chance to secure a better life for her family, and to keep her headstrong and rebellious younger sister, Nomi, out of trouble. But when Nomi catches the Heir’s eye instead, Serina is the one who takes the fall for the dangerous secret her sister has been hiding.
Trapped in a life she never wanted, Nomi has only one option: surrender to her role as a Grace until she can use her position to save Serina. But this is easier said than done…. A traitor walks the halls of the palazzo, and deception lurks in every corner.
Meanwhile Serina is running out of time. Imprisoned on an island where she must fight to the death to survive, surrounded by women stronger than she is, one wrong move could cost her everything. There is no room for weakness on Mount Ruin, especially weaknesses of the heart.
Thrilling and captivating, Grace and Fury is a story of fierce sisterhood, and of survival in a world that’s determined to break you.

 

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett (September 17)

A speculative thriller in the vein of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Power. Optioned by Universal and Elizabeth Banks to be a major motion picture!

No one speaks of the grace year. It’s forbidden.

Girls are told they have the power to lure grown men from their beds, drive women mad with jealousy. They believe their very skin emits a powerful aphrodisiac, the potent essence of youth, of a girl on the edge of womanhood. That’s why they’re banished for their sixteenth year, to release their magic into the wild so they can return purified and ready for marriage. But not all of them will make it home alive.

Sixteen-year-old Tierney James dreams of a better life―a society that doesn’t pit friend against friend or woman against woman, but as her own grace year draws near, she quickly realizes that it’s not just the brutal elements they must fear. It’s not even the poachers in the woods, men who are waiting for their chance to grab one of the girls in order to make their fortune on the black market. Their greatest threat may very well be each other.

With sharp prose and gritty realism, The Grace Year examines the complex and sometimes twisted relationships between girls, the women they eventually become, and the difficult decisions they make in-between.

 

Internment by Samira Ahmed

Rebellions are built on hope.

 
Set in a horrifying near-future United States, seventeen-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens.
With the help of newly made friends also trapped within the internment camp, her boyfriend on the outside, and an unexpected alliance, Layla begins a journey to fight for freedom, leading a revolution against the internment camp’s Director and his guards.
Heart-racing and emotional, Internment challenges readers to fight complicit silence that exists in our society today.

The Virtue of Sin by Shannon Schuren (June 25)

A compelling novel about speaking out, standing up, and breaking free — perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale and Tara Westover’s Educated.

Miriam lives in New Jerusalem, a haven in the desert far away from the sins and depravity of the outside world. Within the gates of New Jerusalem, and under the eye of its founder and leader, Daniel, Miriam knows she is safe. Cared for. Even if she’s forced, as a girl, to quiet her tongue when she has thoughts she wants to share, Miriam knows that New Jerusalem is a far better life than any alternative. So when God calls for a Matrimony, she’s thrilled; she knows that Caleb, the boy she loves, will choose her to be his wife and they can finally start their life together.

But when the ceremony goes wrong and Miriam winds up with someone else, she can no longer keep quiet. For the first time, Miriam begins to question not only the rules that Daniel has set in place, but also what it is she believes in, and where she truly belongs.

Alongside unexpected allies, Miriam fights to learn–and challenge–the truth behind the only way of life she’s ever known, even if it means straying from the path of Righteousness.

 

We Set The Dark On Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

In this daring and romantic fantasy debut perfect for fans of The Handmaid’s Taleand Latinx authors Zoraida Córdova and Anna-Marie McLemore, society wife-in-training Dani has a great awakening after being recruited by rebel spies and falling for her biggest rival.

At the Medio School for Girls, distinguished young women are trained for one of two roles in their polarized society. Depending on her specialization, a graduate will one day run a husband’s household or raise his children. Both paths promise a life of comfort and luxury, far from the frequent political uprisings of the lower class.

Daniela Vargas is the school’s top student, but her pedigree is a lie. She must keep the truth hidden or be sent back to the fringes of society.

And school couldn’t prepare her for the difficult choices she must make after graduation, especially when she is asked to spy for a resistance group desperately fighting to bring equality to Medio.

Will Dani cling to the privilege her parents fought to win for her, or will she give up everything she’s strived for in pursuit of a free Medio—and a chance at a forbidden love?

 

Filed Under: readers advisory, ya fiction, young adult fiction

Readalikes for Station Eleven

January 30, 2019 |

Ever since I read Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, I’ve been on a quest to find the perfect readalike for it. I never expected to love it as much as I do. I checked it out on a whim in 2016 because I wanted to read something written for adults, and I had a hankering for science fiction (I had been reading a ton of other genre fiction and needed something different). This was available on audio and read by one of my favorite audiobook narrators, Kirsten Potter, so I checked it out.

I was immediately blown away. I couldn’t stop listening. This book is how I learned that I love literary science fiction, science fiction that has a speculative backdrop but isn’t necessarily about that backdrop. It’s science fiction that’s driven by character and not plot. Teenage me is giving adult me the side eye right now because for sixteen year old Kimberly, plot was king. No swoony romance? No intriguing plot twists? A story focused on relationships? Teenage me: no thank you. Adult me, though? It turns out I can’t get enough.

Since Station Eleven was a big critical success, many books published since then have been compared to it, so finding recommended readalikes isn’t too difficult. Whether they’re actually good readalikes is another story, though, and it depends on what the reader liked about Station Eleven. For me, it was a number of things: the futuristic/post-apocalyptic backdrop that was detailed but not actually the most important thing about the book, the characters whose stories intertwined, the narration from multiple perspectives, the quality of the writing, the quality of the audiobook narration, and a thoughtful pace that is slower than most without being glacial. This was a story I fell into and never wanted to leave.

I’ve read a bunch of books since then (and went back to a couple I read in previous years) that I’d recommend as readalikes based upon these factors. None of them quite match the quality and feel of Station Eleven and the enjoyment I derived from each has varied, but they get close, and they’re worthwhile, fascinating reads. If you, too, are on a quest for thoughtful, literary science fiction, usually about the end of the world, you might enjoy these as well. I’ve also listed a few titles that have been recommended to me by others and are currently on my TBR. My own opinions are on the first list; the Goodreads synopses are on the second.

Books I’ve Read

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

I first read this book in a class in college over ten years ago, and it’s stuck with me. I like it better than The Handmaid’s Tale, which to me at the time I first read it felt hyperbolic and now just feels too real/prescient to be enjoyable. Oryx and Crake is about the end of the world, or at least the end of humanity’s rule of the world, brought on by out of control genetic engineering. It features a man named Snowman, who was called Jimmy before the cataclysm and who might be the last person left alive. The novel alternates between the “present” day (post-cataclysm) and the past (which would read more as our present), showing how the world got to be the way it is as well as Jimmy/Snowman’s role in it and the two lives he led before and after.

Atwood’s science fiction premise is fascinating and detailed. I loved reading about the futuristic society pre-cataclysm, its excesses and technological advances, and how it all fell apart. Equally intriguing was the landscape of the world afterward, which is unique enough that it doesn’t really compare with any other post-apocalyptic novel. And while all of this is intriguing and a big part of why this is my favorite of hers, the book is actually primarily about the relationships between Snowman, his best friend Crake, and the girl they loved called Oryx. This may sound like the setup for a melodrama, but it doesn’t read that way at all. This is a book that continually surprised me when I first read it, and I’m looking forward to a re-read soon.

 

Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton

When the world comes to an end, astronomer Augustine is in the Arctic conducting research. Dedicated to his work and not wanting to leave it, he declines to follow his fellow researchers back home as they anticipate the cataclysm, wanting to spend the remainder of their time with their families. But he’s not alone there: he finds a little girl, Iris, who has somehow also been left behind. He anticipates a parent will come get her soon, realizing their mistake, but time goes on and no one does.

During the same time frame, astronaut Sully is on a spaceship on a return voyage from Jupiter when communication from Earth suddenly cuts out. For the remainder of the journey, which has several months left, she and the rest of the crew are unable to receive any messages from any human on the planet. After they determine that there is no error or malfunction on their end, they come to the inevitable conclusion: there is no one left alive on Earth.

Brooks-Dalton follows these two characters over the course of the novel, exploring their failed past relationships, their burgeoning new relationships, and what they come to value at the end of the world. Personalities change and priorities shift. What was once so important is now meaningless. Unlike some of the other books on this list, the connection between Sully and Augustine will likely be apparent to most readers early on. But even if it’s not a surprise, the connection is meaningful and moving. Augustine in particular is unpleasant to read about for a lot of the book – he’s selfish, hyperfocused on his career to the detriment of the well-being of others, and relates how he often willingly hurt other people in order to learn how they would react. But Brooks-Dalton adds depth to him over time, and while my feeling toward him near the end wasn’t exactly sympathy, I felt his regret for his various mistakes – both intentional and not – keenly. The final reveal will likely make your heart squeeze painfully too. The two different settings – the cold loneliness of the Arctic and the emptiness of space – are also exceptionally well-realized.

This is the lightest on plot of all the books I recommend in this post. What precisely has wiped out humanity is never explained. It’s barely even alluded to, with a short reference to whispers of war as the only real clue. The book ends before any of the astronauts land back on Earth, deliberately preventing the reader from discovering what happened. I’m not even sure Brooks-Dalton herself knows; it could be anything. For Brooks-Dalton, it really is completely beside the point. Readers of science fiction may be frustrated by just how nearly irrelevant the SF backdrop is here, but for those who crave the literary more than the SF, this is a good pick.

 

The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne

Byrne’s book, set entirely in non-Western countries, features two young women at two different points in the future. Meena is making a forbidden journey across an energy-harvesting Trail in the middle of the Arabian Sea, a road not meant for human travel, and Mariama is journeying across Saharan Africa toward Ethiopia, running from an act of violence she witnessed. Their journeys eventually converge, and like many of the characters in Station Eleven, the ways in which these two women are tied to each other will resonate as well as surprise.

I loved reading about the Trail and how Meena survived on it (it’s not easy). I also loved that this was set entirely in Asia and Africa, two continents I don’t read much about in my fiction. While it’s not a strictly post-apocalyptic novel, Byrne’s near-future world is much more inhospitable than it is now, and there are signs that a cataclysmic turning point may be fast approaching. The story and its setting are imaginative and deep with lots to discuss.

 

The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones

In the near future, the United States has been nearly overrun by Shreve’s Disease, which is carried by ticks that burrow into the skin. Once bitten by a tick, you have thirty seconds to burn it off with a device called a Stamp. After those thirty seconds, they’ve laid their eggs inside your body, and you have about a 50% chance that they will be carriers of the disease, which is fatal. The country has coped by creating something called the Salt Line, which cuts off the majority of the landmass, leaving it to the ticks, while the rest of the country is divided into strictly-regulated zones that are tick-free. Wealthy daredevils who live in the Atlantic Zone will sometimes pay vast sums of money to go on special excursions past the Salt Line, and Jones’ book follows a group of these people. Each person in the group has their own motivations for taking such a risky journey, which takes a very fast turn into even greater danger soon after they cross the Salt Line. This book is a combination dystopia, survival story, and crime novel, and it mostly melds all three together well.

Like Station Eleven, The Salt Line also alternates perspectives between multiple interesting, flawed characters. The apocalyptic backdrop is creative and probably the most different from any other on this list. Also like Station Eleven, it’s interested in the relationships between its characters, which are complex and often surprising. Jones is mostly interested in the relationships between mother and child, and occasionally father and child, as most of the characters’ motivations involve their children or their desire to not have children. She also delves deep into surrogate parent-child bonds. I particularly liked the focus Jones placed on one character’s decision to not have kids. This character’s reasons go beyond the stereotypical and dig into themes of sacrifice and how a person claims ownership of her life. It’s rare to find a book that treats lack of motherhood as an equally fulfilling avenue for its female characters.

 

Version Control by Dexter Palmer

Physicist Philip Steiner has been working on a Causality Violation Device for the past decade. This is really a fancy phrase for time machine, but he hates it when anyone calls it that. A time machine is fiction; the CVD is real. Or it would be, if it worked. He and his assistants are on test number three hundred something and the result is always the same: nothing.

On the surface, Palmer’s novel is about Steiner, his wife Rebecca Wright, Steiner’s lab assistants (also respected scientists), and Rebecca’s best friend Kate. It traces Rebecca and Philip’s meeting and marriage, their respective jobs (Rebecca works for the dating site where she met Philip), their relationships with their friends, and the fallout from Philip’s obsession with the CVD. Like Station Eleven, there are POV shifts at times between all characters, though Version Control focuses mainly on Rebecca (with Philip a close second). The primary relationship explored is the marriage between Philip and Rebecca, which is now falling apart.

But this is science fiction, so that isn’t the whole story. From the beginning, readers will notice small details that are different about the world Rebecca and Philip inhabit. It’s the present-day, but self-driving cars are ubiquitous. The president will pop up on people’s electronic devices every so often, addressing them by name and complimenting them on a particular detail of their dress, for example. It’s…weird. Off-putting. Intriguing. Rebecca has a general feeling that something isn’t quite right, and when others start to feel this too, psychologists put it down to a side effect of the overuse of technology like smartphones. But because this is a science fiction novel, readers will know right away it has something to do with the Causality Violation Device, that folly of Philip’s that has never shown any evidence of actually working.

Palmer’s novel is clever in many ways. It’s divided into three parts, each more intriguing than the last. The finale is elegantly perfect, reasonable in context of the “physics” Palmer has created for his story, and satisfying in a story sense as well. This is the most cleverly plotted of all the readalikes on this list, but it’s still plenty literary, with the focus squarely on the characters and how the extraordinary circumstances they find themselves in change them and their relationships with each other.

 

The Book of M by Peng Shepherd

This is the weirdest book on the list, I think. It’s set in the near future when people start losing their shadows, and soon after, their memories. Humanity learns that our shadows are what held our memories, and there’s no way to stop the loss of the latter once the former is gone. But there is a tradeoff: the Shadowless gain the power to physically change the world around them using their quickly fading memories. When a Shadowless forgets a wedding ring, for example, the wedding ring is suddenly no longer there. It can be very dangerous to be around a Shadowless because of this, and as the phenomenon spreads, so too does violence. The two main characters are Ori and Max, a couple who become separated when Max loses her shadow and decides to save Ori the pain of watching her completely lose herself by setting out on her own. Ori goes after her, and the two eventually fall in with different groups of people, unwittingly heading toward the same destination.

The Book of M has a lot of very close parallels to Station Eleven: the end of human society as we know it, multiple POVs, small groups traveling separately that eventually meet up with each other, dual narratives about the characters’ pasts as well as their presents. At the same time, it’s completely different. Unlike St. John Mandel’s story, this is not something that could actually happen. Memories are not tied to people’s shadows, and shadows cannot be lost like we’re in a horror novel version of Peter Pan. It gets a heck of a lot weirder close to the end of the book, too. Readers will need to cultivate a healthy suspension of disbelief to get into Shepherd’s book, but for those who manage to do so, it’s a worthwhile journey. The end is particularly effective, surprising but also inevitable. Through her fantastic premise, Shepherd explores if and how our memories define us – and how the loss of them can change us and the ones we love.

 

Books on My TBR

Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich

The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her. But for Cedar, this change is profound and deeply personal. She is four months pregnant.

Though she wants to tell the adoptive parents who raised her from infancy, Cedar first feels compelled to find her birth mother, Mary Potts, an Ojibwe living on the reservation, to understand both her and her baby’s origins. As Cedar goes back to her own biological beginnings, society around her begins to disintegrate, fueled by a swelling panic about the end of humanity.

There are rumors of martial law, of Congress confining pregnant women. Of a registry, and rewards for those who turn these wanted women in. Flickering through the chaos are signs of increasing repression: a shaken Cedar witnesses a family wrenched apart when police violently drag a mother from her husband and child in a parking lot. The streets of her neighborhood have been renamed with Bible verses. A stranger answers the phone when she calls her adoptive parents, who have vanished without a trace. It will take all Cedar has to avoid the prying eyes of potential informants and keep her baby safe.

A chilling dystopian novel both provocative and prescient, Future Home of the Living God is a startlingly original work from one of our most acclaimed writers: a moving meditation on female agency, self-determination, biology, and natural rights that speaks to the troubling changes of our time.

 

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Hig somehow survived the flu pandemic that killed everyone he knows. Now his wife is gone, his friends are dead, and he lives in the hangar of a small abandoned airport with his dog, Jasper, and a mercurial, gun-toting misanthrope named Bangley.

But when a random transmission beams through the radio of his 1956 Cessna, the voice ignites a hope deep inside him that a better life exists outside their tightly controlled perimeter. Risking everything, he flies past his point of no return and follows its static-broken trail, only to find something that is both better and worse than anything he could ever hope for.

 

The Wanderers by Meg Howrey

In four years Prime Space will put the first humans on Mars. Helen Kane, Yoshi Tanaka, and Sergei Kuznetsov must prove they’re the crew for the job by spending seventeen months in the most realistic simulation every created.

Retired from NASA, Helen had not trained for irrelevance. It is nobody’s fault that the best of her exists in space, but her daughter can’t help placing blame. The MarsNOW mission is Helen’s last chance to return to the only place she’s ever truly felt at home. For Yoshi, it’s an opportunity to prove himself worthy of the wife he has loved absolutely, if not quite rightly. Sergei is willing to spend seventeen months in a tin can if it means travelling to Mars. He will at least be tested past the point of exhaustion, and this is the example he will set for his sons.

As the days turn into months the line between what is real and unreal becomes blurred, and the astronauts learn that the complications of inner space are no less fraught than those of outer space. The Wanderers gets at the desire behind all exploration: the longing for discovery and the great search to understand the human heart.

 

California by Edan Lepucki

A gripping and provocative debut novel by a stunning new talent, California imagines a frighteningly realistic near future, in which clashes between mankind’s dark nature and deep-seated resilience force us to question how far we will go to protect the ones we love.

The world Cal and Frida have always known is gone, and they’ve left the crumbling city of Los Angeles far behind them. They now live in a shack in the wilderness, working side-by-side to make their days tolerable in the face of hardship and isolation. Mourning a past they can’t reclaim, they seek solace in each other. But the tentative existence they’ve built for themselves is thrown into doubt when Frida finds out she’s pregnant.

Terrified of the unknown and unsure of their ability to raise a child alone, Cal and Frida set out for the nearest settlement, a guarded and paranoid community with dark secrets. These people can offer them security, but Cal and Frida soon realize this community poses dangers of its own. In this unfamiliar world, where everything and everyone can be perceived as a threat, the couple must quickly decide whom to trust.

 

Severance by Ling Ma

Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’s content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend.

So Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.

 

Filed Under: Adult, readalikes, readers advisory, reading lists, Reviews, Science Fiction

The Ultimate List of YA Book Lists

December 31, 2018 |

The Massive Mega List of Young Adult Book Lists (AKA: Any Kind of YA Book List You Could Desire)

Kelly Jensen and Kimberly Francisco have been writing for STACKED books (stackedbooks.org) for nearly ten years and both of us are trained librarians. We make a lot of young adult book lists, and  know how useful they are for collection development and reader’s advisory purposes. More than that, they’re useful for readers itching for a good book.

The best way to navigate this list is by doing a keyword search. It’s Kelly’s hope as curator to eventually develop a basic spreadsheet to make searching even easier.

This list was updated December 2018.

The ultimate guide to young adult book lists for YA readers | book lists | ya book lists | ya books | books for young adults | book lists for young adult book lovers | #YALit

 

The Ultimate Guide to YA Book Lists

 

Get Genrefied Series

All of these lists focus on specific genres or subgenres within YA fiction and were created by Kelly Jensen and Kimberly Francisco at STACKED. They each talk about the defining characteristics of the genre (or format!), followed by a big book list, and other websites and blogs to explore that delve even further into the specified genre. This series ended in mid-2015, so more recent titles may not be listed, but this is a goldmine for back list titles!

  • Steampunk
  • Dystopia
  • Romance
  • Graphic Novels
  • Historical fiction
  • Contemporary/Realistic
  • Verse Novels
  • Mysteries and Thrillers
  • High Fantasy
  • Science Fiction
  • Horror
  • Humor
  • Short Stories
  • Urban Fiction
  • Fairy Tale Retellings
  • Realistic YA Novels Made into Teen Movies
  • Historical Fantasy
  • Magical Realism
  • Alternate History
  • Climate Fiction (cli-fi)
  • Mythology
  • Gothic Fiction
  • YA in Translation
  • Christian Fiction
  • YA Memoirs
  • Urban Fantasy
  • Alternate Format Books
  • Westerns

 

Beyond the Bestsellers

At Book Riot, Kelly Jensen ran a series called “Beyond the Bestsellers,” offering suggestions of lesser-known titles to read after you’ve read a well-known, bestselling YA book or author. This series was revisited in 2018 and will continue being updated. 

  • So you’ve read The Hate U Give
  • So you’ve read This Is Where It Ends
  • So you’ve read The Perks of Being a Wallflower
  • So you’ve read Divergent
  • So you’ve read Ellen Hopkins
  • So you’ve read Sarah Dessen
  • So you’ve read Marissa Meyer’s “The Lunar Chronicles” (Cinder, Cress, Scarlet)
  • So you’ve read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
  • So you’ve read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
  • So you’ve read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
  • So you’ve read If I Stay by Gayle Forman
  • So you’ve read the “His Fair Assassins” trilogy by Robin LaFevers

 

3 On A YA Theme

Also at Book Riot, Kelly Jensen has been writing a weekly column called “3 On A YA Theme” for many years. It takes one theme and highlights at least three books that fit. Kelly discontinued writing the series in early 2018, handing it over to Tirzah Price (and her lists are excellent, too!). 

As this has been a long-running series, older posts feature older titles and may not have the most current titles listed. Many of these lists are ripe for revisiting, and many are goldmines for backlist reads.

  • 3 On A YA Theme: 2018 YA Books In Translation
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Award-Winning YA Audiobooks
  • 3 On A YA Theme: The “Art” Of The Book Title
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Binge-Worthy Backlist Titles
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Queer Girls Of Color In YA Written By Women of Color
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teens With Guitars
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Interracial Couples On YA Book Covers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teen Girl Sleuths
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Real Women of History As Seen Through YA Fiction
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Short Story Collections About Love
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Young Female Pilots 
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Books With Recipes
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teens With A Passion for Fashion
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Book Titles With “End” In Them To Celebrate The End of The Year
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Short YA Books
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Book Awards To Know
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Epistolary YA Titles
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Set on Mars
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Books With Coffee On The Cover
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Poetry Collections
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Angry Girls in YA Literature
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Takes on Snow White
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Verse Novels For Black Poetry Day
  • 3 On A YA Theme: A Rainbow of Queer YA
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Set in Puerto Rico
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Adaptations to Stream
  • 3 On A YA Theme: 2017 YA Novels in Translation
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teens With Odd and Fantastic Jobs
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Great YA Books for Book Clubs
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Earworms (Book Titles Sharing Names With Songs)
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Soccer Books
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Social Justice in YA Nonfiction
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Author Known Aliases (YA Authors Who Write Under Other Names As YA Authors)
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Social Justice in YA Fiction
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Memoirs
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Aliens
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teen Photographers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Books With Sun-Themed Titles
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA With Days of The Week In Their Titles
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teens Obsessed With Real Life Bands
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Authors Inspired by THE HANDMAID’S TALE
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Girls Who Play Baseball
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA About Teen Sex Trafficking
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA With Bird Titles
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Books With A Production of Shakespeare
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Dandelion Covers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Girls Who Create Art
  • 3 On A YA Theme: True Stories of Female Athletes
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Girls in the Labor Movement
  • 3 On A YA Theme: International Girls of YA
  • 3 On A YA Theme: STEM Girls
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Bipolar Disorder
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Authors Adapting Their Novels to Graphic Novels
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Spy Stories
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Stand Alone Fantasy YA
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Misfit Teens
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Books With “Start” In The Title
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Refugee Books
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA For Fans of Moana
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Adoption Reads
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Girls Who Graffiti
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Hits of 1956
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Written By Ghostwriters
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Stories Set in Far-Flung Places
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teen Memoirs
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Hits From 1986
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Takes on William Shakespeare for Teens
  • 3 On A YA Theme: The San Francisco Earthquake
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Set in London
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Homeschooled Teens
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Math Nerds
  • 3 On A YA Theme: High Tech Hijinks
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Abortion (Revisited)
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Books Set in Mexico
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Books With Math Equation Titles
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Hits of 1976
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Female-Driven Thrillers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Vegetarians
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Think Pink (Book Covers)
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Queer Stories That Aren’t Tragic
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Magical Libraries
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Books About Unabashed Geeks
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Companion Novels
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Books Set in Hawaii
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Pirates!
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Complete Fantasy Series To Pick Up
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Islands Where Weird Things Happen
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Stories About Farm Kids
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Conjoined Twins
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Books Set in the 1970s
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Authors Related To Other YA Authors
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Hits From 1966
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Authors Who Also Write Middle Grade
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Technology That’s Too Smart
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA with Orange Covers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Young Reader Editions (YA Nonfiction)
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Adult Novels for YA Readers (& Vice Versa)
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Books for Fans of Twin Peaks
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Hit YA Books of 1996
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Diverse Takes on Romeo and Juliet
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Intersectional Feminism (it’s actually 11 books!)
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Takes on Sherlock
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Ghostwriters
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Comic Novelizations
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Ferris Wheels
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Graphic Memoirs of Foreign Places
  • 3 On A YA Theme: So You Love THE HANDMAID’S TALE
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Let’s Get Political
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Funny Books
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Social Media and Teens
  • 3 On A YA Theme: All Things ‘Midwest Gothic’
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Dream Stories
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Recent Urban Fantasy
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Witches and Witchcraft
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Diverse Mysteries
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Rock Stars In YA
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teens In (Love With) Space
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Indie Press Titles
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Ice Cream on the Cover
  • 3 On A YA Theme: First Love
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Gender Fluid, Genderqueer, and Gender Unspecified Teens
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Intersex Teens
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Books Featuring Pets
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Diverse Speculative Short Story Collections
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Asexuality
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Realistic Fairy Tale Retellings
  • 3 On A YA Theme: A *Small* Selection of Verse Novels
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Post-It Note Covers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teens Who Are Poets
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Bisexuality
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Blind Characters
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Short Books
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Persephone Tales
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Twisting Mythology
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Girls of Color Who Dance
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Tattoos
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Historical Fiction in Verse
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Candy on the Cover
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Trans* Teen Experiences and Lives
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Characters with Disabilities
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Stories Set in Africa
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Beautiful Covers for “Anne of Green Gables”
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Takes On “Little Women”
  • 3 On A YA Theme: It’s Basketball Season
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Teens Who Are Writers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Parents Who Are Writers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: It’s Halloween, Or, Books With A Halloween Scene
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Girls Who Love Horror Movies
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Be Ready To Be Scared
  • 3 On A YA Theme: If You Love Watching Supernatural
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Sylvia Plath
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Aussie YA
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA-Inspired Art
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Football
  • 3 On A YA Theme: YA Films on Netflix Instant
  • 3 On A YA Theme: More YA Films on Netflix Instant
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Astral Projection
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Dolls On Covers
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Girls Who Run
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Dystopian YA Nail Polish
  • 3 On A YA Theme: Summer Camp

 

Other YA Book Lists

These thematic lists come from both Book Riot and from STACKED, and they’re authored by Kelly Jensen or Kimberly Francisco, unless otherwise noted. Some are very current, while others are older and feature backlist titles exclusively.

 

  • YA Books Set In Chicago
  • 50 Must-Read YA Books About Mental Health
  • The Ultimate Guide To YA Book to Movie Adaptations
  • YA Books About School Shootings
  • Where To Begin Reading The Work Of Nova Ren Suma
  • YA Books About Social Anxiety
  • 25 Great YA Books About Witches
  • 24 Poetry Books for Teens
  • The Best Teen Books About Depression
  • Brilliant YA Quotes About Reading
  • 40 Award-Winning YA Books
  • Genderbent YA books
  • Powerful YA Books About Immigration
  • 30 YA Horror Books from 2018
  • New Collective Biographies of Women and Nonbinary People Through History
  • 50 Must-Read YA Books About Music
  • 25 Excellent Books for Young Adult Readers
  • Inspiring and Motivating YA Book Quotes
  • YA Books About Divorce
  • 100 Must-Read Short YA Books Under 250 Pages
  • Latin American YA Books
  • YA Books With A “Thing” About Their Title
  • Historical Fantasy YA Reads
  • Teens in the Military
  • 25+ YA Mystery Series To Devour
  • #Hashtags In YA Book Titles
  • Teens Competing To Go To Outer Space
  • YA Short Story Collections
  • Books About The Influenza Pandemic of 1918
  • YA Book Covers Featuring Sunglasses
  • Retold Fairytales
  • YA Book Titles Featuring Lists of Two or Three
  • YA Books Featuring Teens With Amnesia (an update!)
  • A Bookish YA Tour of San Francisco
  • YA Book Covers Get Bloody
  • YA Book Covers and Titles On Fire
  • #Resist and #Persist In YA Nonfiction
  • YA Books With 3 Or More Authors
  • 50 Must-Read Young Adult Anthologies
  • A List of YA Book Titles With A “List” Title
  • 100 Must-Read YA Books For Feminists and Feminists-in-Training
  • Rad Older Adults in YA Fiction
  • 20 YA Books for Older Teen Reluctant Readers
  • Funny Recent YA Books
  • 15 Of The Doomiest, Gloomiest YA Reads
  • 100 Must-Read YA Books With Little or No Romance
  • The Longest YA Books You Can Read
  • YA Books About Mental Health and Teens of Color (by Patrice Caldwell)
  • YA Books for Fans of STRANGER THINGS
  • Where to Start Reading Books By Meg Medina
  • 100 Must-Read YA Books Written in Verse
  • Excellent Nonfiction About Girls and Women for Teens (& Tweens)
  • 65 Great YA Horror Reads by Women
  • #OwnVoices Native Stories
  • Light Novels
  • YA Book Covers Set In The Graveyard
  • YA Books “On The Edge” (“Edge” Is In Their Titles)
  • A YA Reading List for Views of “To The Bone”
  • Teens in Space
  • Young Reader Editions of Adult Books
  • Teens Who’ve “Gone Viral” in YA Fiction
  • Political Thrillers for Teens
  • Social Media Stars Turned YA Authors
  • September 11 Books for Younger Readers
  • Teenage Spies in 2016
  • A “Crown” Of YA Books
  • YA Takes on Young Journalists & Journalism
  • Lesser-Known Retellings in YA Fiction
  • Sherlock Holmes in YA
  • Horror (from School Library Journal)
  • Favorite Female-Driven YA Titles
  • YA Books With “Moon” in The Title
  • YA Roadtrip Books in 2016
  • Fandom in YA Fiction
  • Abortion in YA Lit
  • Black Teen Girls Matter: A Reading List
  • #1000 Black Girl Books
  • Refugee Stories
  • Ballet in YA
  • Swords on YA Book Covers
  • Interracial Romance in and on YA books
  • Glass Fantasies
  • Takes on Arabian Nights
  • Experimental Hybrid Novels
  • Teens in Witness Protection Programs
  • Witches in YA
  • Microtrends in YA Fiction: Reality TV, Missing Mothers, Kleptomaniacs, and More
  • Ampersand Titles
  • Set in the Summer Between the End of High School and Start of College
  • Co-written YA Books
  • Feminism
  • Microtrend: Amnesia
  • Secret Historical Societies of Teen Girls
  • Complicated/”Unlikable” Female Characters
  • Sex, Sexual Assault, and Rape: Discussion Guide and Reading List
  • A Little Heart on the Cover
  • Titles By Number
  • Books That Happen in a Single Day — or Less
  • Teen Girl Sleuths
  • Juvenile Delinquent Stories
  • Reality TV and Teens & Reality TV Part Two
  • Reading Pathways: Blake Nelson (or where to begin if you want to read his work and don’t know the best starting points)
  • Teenage Criminals
  • Prom Books
  • Hacking, Gaming, and Virtual Reality
  • Hispanic Heritage Month: Books Featuring or Written By Hispanic People
  • Teens in the Death Business
  • Teen Suicide and Depression
  • Adrenaline-fueled, male-centered realistic fiction
  • Less financially-privileged teens and teens who have part-time jobs
  • Ancient Historical YA, not set in Greece, Rome, or Egypt
  • Ballet in YA
  • Circus Reads
  • Non-Fiction YA Reads
  • Prom in YA
  • Revisiting Parallel Worlds
  • YA Takes on GONE GIRL
  • Stories featuring dynamic or interesting families
  • Humor
  • Mental Illness
  • Multiple Points of View or Alternative Formats
  • Diverse and Multicultural Stories
  • Sports
  • Memorable Settings
  • Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll: Edgy Stuff
  • Grief and Loss
  • Series Books

 

Filed Under: book lists, readers advisory, reading lists, ya, ya fiction, Young Adult, young adult fiction, young adult non-fiction

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