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A Closer Look at The New York Times YA Bestsellers List, Part 1

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*This is part one of a two-part post. Part two will publish tomorrow.

How often do we hear that YA is full of women? That this is a land where there aren’t boys or men? That readers and writers are girls and the implications of what that might mean?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. And I decided it was time to finally sit down and look at one of the most well-known and highly-revered tools that the book world looks to when it comes to status and acclaim: The New York Times Bestsellers List.

Before diving into the data and making some connections among the things I saw, I thought I’d break down the NYT list a little bit. You may or may not remember that last December, the Times decided they were going to change up how they handled their Children’s lists. It used to be that all Children’s books were on one list, thereby having 10 spots for books published among all categories for children. The change that was made ended up splitting middle grade and YA from the general Children’s list, giving them their own lists. This offered more spots for books within those categories, and with the extension of the list, there are 15 books labeled “Bestsellers” each week.

In addition to those lists, there are series lists. When (theoretically) there are three books published within a given series of books, the books within that series are tied together and placed on the series list, rather than offered individual spots within the overall list.

The NYT list tracks sales within a given week and highest sales correlate to placement on the list. For YA (and MG), e-book sales are included in the totals, whereas children’s sales are not. Keep this in mind with the data below because I think that those e-sales play a role in what emerges. Sales numbers are reported from big retailers, online and off, and rather than rehash all of the details of how it works out, it’s worth reading the Wikipedia article to know what does and doesn’t count, as well as the controversies surrounding the counting — there are enough citations here to fill you with all kinds of glee, don’t worry.

I’ve focused all of my number-crunching on only the YA list. There is nothing in here about the MG list and nothing in here about the series list, except where I’ve chosen to make it a relevant point.  There is a big one, too. In total, I looked at 47 bestseller lists from the NYT, which is everything from the beginning of their separate list through the week of 11/5/13.

What you should know if you don’t already is that the lists are printed two weeks in advance of the sales. In other words, the list for November 5 covers the sales for the week of October 13 through 20. Knowing this will contextualize much of what you see later on in the data, as books which are published on a certain date that would no doubt make the NYT List don’t do so immediately — there is a two-week lag in the reporting.

The reason that I pulled November 5 as my final counting date for the data is simple: the list for November 12 is one that changes the game, as it’s the week when sales for Veronica Roth’s Allegiant come through, and thus it’s the week when the two spots she’s held on the list for YA are opened up. Her series, now three books, leaps over to the series list instead. More on that in a bit.

Other notes I made in my data collecting I should share: when there were author teams, each of the authors counted. So when Maureen Johnson and Cassie Clare’s book made the NYT list, each of them were tallied for women. The single exception to this came through a personal judgment call you may or may not agree with, but which changes the data and results very little. That exception came for books written by James Patterson and a co-author. I chose not to count the co-author because, as anyone who works with readers will tell you, it’s Patterson who is the author. Readers do not ask for the Maxine Paetro book. They ask for the newest Patterson. Without his name leading the book, there is little doubt in my mind that that book would not make the list. I did also make an exception for the Gabrielle Douglas book, which is authored by her but was written “with” someone else. I did not count the person it was written “with,” since “with” indicates something different than “by.”

As in the past on data posts, there is a LOT to sift through here. I like numbers and correlations among them. I like to take guesses and talk about what I’m seeing and what I think it means. I invite you to do the same thing. As should be noted, I’ve rounded all of my numbers to the nearest whole to make the data easier to read.

You can see my raw data, with some miscellaneous notes-to-self, here.

Individual Gender Representation on the NYT YA List


The first thing I wanted to know was how well men and women were represented on the lists. I’ve always suspected that men outnumbered women on the list, and when I’ve made that claim before, I’ve been told that’s not true.

But actually, it’s startlingly true.

Starting on the very basic level, I counted up the number of different men and the number of different women who occupied a space within the NYT YA List. Because I wanted to cast the widest net possible from the beginning, I looked at not just the top ten list, but the extended list of 15.

On average, there were 7 men on the list and 4 women. Again, these are the number of individuals, so authors who appeared more than once were only counted one time.

Let’s look at this more granularly.

This is a week-by-week comparison of the number of men represented individually on the NYT List in blue against the number of women represented individually on the NYT list in red. Note that except for a few scant weeks in the middle of the chart — that would be around May and June — men appear more frequently on the list.

So how does the top ten fare when it comes to individual gender representation? If we remove the extended list, will women show up more frequently?

Not so much. In fact, the top ten list is even more disappointing to look at if you’re looking for the proof of women dominating YA.

On average, men appeared 5 times on the top ten for YA, while women represented a scant 2. Again, these are the number of individuals, so authors who appeared more than once were only counted on time. 
So more granularly:
As should be absolutely clear, there has never been a time women have outnumbered men on the NYT List in the top ten. Never. There have been six weeks where there have been a grand total of four women in the top ten — January 6, February 24, March 31, May 5, May 19, and June 9. For the weeks of May 5 and June 9, we had female coauthors on the top ten (each counted as an individual) and for the weeks of Mach 31 and June 9, Abbi Glines and Nicole Reed — both “new adult” authors whose books were listed for readers 17 and older — also occupied spots on the top ten. 
It gets more interesting if you look at how few spots individual women have had on the top ten list. There have been nine weeks when only one woman has had a spot on the top ten. That woman is, of course, Veronica Roth. 
The fewest number of men to occupy space on the top ten list is 3, and that has only happened a grand total of five times. 

Books and Gender Representation on the NYT YA Bestseller List


The charts above looked at the individuals represented on the lists. So despite an author having more than one book on the list, she or he only counted once.

In addition to looking at the unique frequencies of gender on the list, I decided to do a more thorough count of the books and their authors by gender to get a truer sense of how men and women occupied the list. This time, every book was looked at individually, rather than every author. Multiple books by the same author were counted each time in their respective author’s gender column.

It got even less pretty for women who “dominate” YA.

First, looking at the books with the use of the extended list, here’s what our averages are when it comes to spots that men have on the list and spots that women have on it:

On average, 9 of the books on the list are written by men and 6 are written by women.

Let’s see what this looks like on a week-by-week basis, too.

So about the fact that women dominate YA, take a hard look at this data.

Every single week — except for two — men have outnumbered women on the NYT List. Those were the weeks of March 31 and May 19, 2013. But before you get excited thinking that women had finally “taken over” in their representation on the list, I’ll report to you that they didn’t take over in numbers. Those weeks showed five individual women on the list, which is a number still smaller than the average number of men who appeared on a weekly basis. Women “dominated” as individuals none of the time.

Those five individual women on the list represented a grand total of 8 books on the 15-book extended list on those two weeks.

Eight books.

Five women.

Fifteen spots.

For two weeks out of forty-seven total.

Just sit with that for a few minutes.

There are, of course, some variables that made these two weeks of “lady domination” happen. For the week of March 31, we see the debut of Eleanor and Park, nearly a month after its release. But the sales for the book that week most certainly reflect the John Green review in The New York Times — the review was published March 10, which is the week that the March 31 NYT List covers here. Without devaluing the book and its merits, it’s fascinating to see that the book ended up on the List nearly a month after publishing but immediately following the glowing review it received in the same publication by a male who himself regularly occupies 3 or 4 spots on the list. It would be hard to argue that without the Green review that book would have landed on the list that week.

That week also includes Nicole Reed’s “new adult” book (which I argue should not have been on this list at all because of its 17+ age recommendation and the fact it’s self-published — there is a whole other list for that). There were also two spots on the extended list held by Cassie Clare; the sales for this week were one week prior to the paperback release of Clockwork Prince, and I have some theories which I’ll get to in a bit.

For the week of May 19, I note that Abbi Glines was on the list (who, again, I argue should not have been since her book was for a 17+ audience). There are also dual appearances by Kiera Cass, Marie Lu, Veronica Roth, and an appearance by Sarah Dessen for What Happened to Goodbye.

Because I looked at the data of individuals limited to the top ten list, I decided to do the same thing with the books. So the following charts look at gender representation in the top ten by books. Same deal: multiple books by the same author were gender coded multiple times.

On average, there were 7 books written by men in the top ten of the NYT List and 3 by women.

More granularly, so you can see what it looks like on a week-by-week basis:

Books written by women have never once — never once — had at least half of the spaces on the top ten list. They’ve had a few weeks occupying four spaces but never have they had five books in the top ten slots in the 47 weeks that the YA List has existed.

A couple of other factoids to include at this juncture: there have only been five weeks where a woman held the number one spot on the New York Times List for YA. Five. They were held by Veronica Roth (for four weeks — three of which were in mid-July, on the 14th, 21st and 28th, which would reflect a bump in sales immediately following the release of the first stills of the movie and the fourth week, September 15, likely reflects sales following the release of the film’s trailer) and Kiera Cass for The Elite, which stayed for one week only. Cass’s novel debuted at #1 on the May 12 list, which reflects the sales for the week her book was available for purchase.

Again, in 47 weeks, there have only been two women to see the top spot. They only held it for a combined five weeks.

Average Length of Stay on the NYT List


This data is much trickier, it’s limited to the top ten list, and it doesn’t really say anything. But I wanted to look at it for comparison with the next data set after this one.

Because the list is only 47 weeks long, we only have 47 weeks to compare average length of stay against. And it moves backwards, of course: so the books which were on the list during week one had an average stay of one week. Those which were on the list during week 23 which had been there since week 1 now averaged 23 weeks. And so on.

I wanted to look at gender against the average stay of books on the list. But it wasn’t really too telling of anything. Part of that is because the top ten list had a higher number of male authors on the list, though only a handful were around the entire 47 weeks (many jumped from the top ten list to the extended list then back again). And really, comparing 8 books by men’s average stay on the list against 2 books by Veronica Roth which have been on the list the entire time didn’t show a whole lot.

But it will tell us something soon.

For men, the average length of stay on the NYT YA List was 18 weeks.
For women, it was 17 weeks.

Keep those numbers in your head in conjunction with everything above.



Trends Within the NYT YA List

Tomorrow’s post will look at some more data, including data from the first NYT List that will publish after Veronica Roth’s series is off the YA list and onto the series list. It’ll also look at publishers represented on the list and other interesting variables. But before ending this post, I thought it would be worth talking a little bit about some of the interesting trends I noticed.

I noted above more than once that lists reflect the sales two weeks prior to their publication date. That’s something to keep in mind when you notice things like drastic e-book sales for certain titles or authors. Because the YA list does reflect e-book sales, I have been curious to know what impact that makes on who is on the list and who is getting those books on the list.

Ever notice huge slashes in e-book prices? I haven’t kept track of them this year, and can’t make any certain connections, but it seems to me there’s something to be said about the appearance of some books on the list which might reflect those drastic cost reductions. Publishers can set the price of a Kindle or Nook Book at $1.99, drum up huge sales, get the book on the list, and then it’s a bestseller. Doing that prior to a paperback release or a release of the next book within a series would help that title appear on the list. A lot of times those books appear for that week and then they fall off again when the price returns to something higher.

It is not price that gets books on the list; it’s the number of sales.

Keep that in the back of your mind when the list for November 20 comes out, as last week a number of well-known YA names had their e-book prices dropped to $1.99 or even $1.40. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rainbow Rowell appear on the list twice, for example, since both of her books were dropped to a mere $1.40 for Kindle. I’d even not be surprised to see one or both of them in the top ten lists (I should note here that on the first post-Veronica Roth list, which I’ll talk about tomorrow, Eleanor and Park is on the extended).

Many books will appear for a week or two on the list — usually on the list reflecting the sales of the week their new book published — and then they will slide off. This happens in more drastic numbers for female authors than male authors, which seems like it’s reflected in the data above. And when you look at the titles that do this, it’s hard not to think about why that might be. Is there a reason Kiera Cass’s The Elite debuted at #1, lasted a second week at #6, moved to the extended, and then disappeared? It seems to me perhaps this sort of quick on and off reflects the true audience purchasing the book, and the true audience for this one? Teenagers. They get very excited about the release of the next book in a series, buy it during release week or immediately after, and then the sales fall off for any number of reasons. Books that are perennially on the NYT List definitely reflect teen sales, too, but I suspect part of why they maintain their positions is continued purchasing and recommendation from adult readers as “good YA.” Even if it’s only 55% of adults purchasing YA (which has been spun to sound like it’s adults being huge purchasers of YA books when it’s only slightly more than half of purchases are made by adults), it’s likely that those adults recommended books to other adults are doing what adults who recommend books tend to do: repeat and recommend the books they read from the bestsellers list because that bestsellers list suggests a “good book.” A bestseller is a bestseller for a reason, as the logic goes.

They’re safe.

Books written by women are much more likely to see one week or two weeks on the list and then fall off than those by men. It’s depressing to think about what that might say about the value of women in YA fiction, the reflection of their work as having significant merit, and so on and so forth. But one thing is for certain: the assertion that “women dominate” is completely false, at least when it comes to Bestsellerdom.

Men do.

Links of Note: November 2, 2013

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This is a cat dressed like Edward Cullen. These pets in literary-inspired costumes are ridiculously amusing. 

Ready for a roundup of all things book, literary, reading, and otherwise worth clicking? I’ve got a mix of all kinds of stuff to share.

  • Remember a few weeks ago that survey about book blogging? The results from that survey are in, and it’s interesting to see how long people have been blogging and what’s made their blogging change. Anyone who blogs goes through times of feast and times of famine, and it’s comforting to look at these results and feel like you’re not alone in those experiences.
  • If you haven’t read Eliot Schrefer’s New York Times piece about the value of YA books, it’s a good one. No confessional or persuasion here. Just reason. 
  • “It’s amazing how many different ways you will hear this kind of sentiment leaving the mouths of a disappointing amount of people. Another book about a girl falling in love. Another book about a girl with trauma. Another book about mean girls. Oh no not another book about a girl that is breathing and alive and on and on and on. Why write them? When is enough enough with these girl stories? I think I was ready for just about anything in terms of push-back relating to the questions I hoped my work was asking about gender expectations and stereotypes relating to girls, but I was not prepared to hear those questions weren’t worth asking in the first place.” Courtney Summers’s excellent post about writing for girls has got me thinking about how we as readers interpret, react to, and invest in stories about girls. There’s a LOT to dig out here. 
  • Elizabeth Wein looks closely at who is buying YA books — is it really as many adults as we’ve made it out to be? 
  • Design*Sponge is one of the blogs I regularly read that has absolutely nothing to do with books (and I LOVE it so much). But recently, they had a really fascinating piece about book covers and what they do or don’t do in today’s world. It’s interesting to read about this from outside the book world. This is nice long-form journalism. 
I’ve had a number of posts over at Book Riot these last couple of weeks, too. I’ve talked about what happens when fans are disappointed by the finale in a book series (without spoilers), I created a downloadable crossword puzzle and reading list to YA zombie lit, the differences between criticism and censorship, and I made a booklist of YA stories set in 24 hours or fewer. 
Have you read anything great in the last couple of weeks I should know about? I’d love to know in the comments! 

The In-Between by Barbara Stewart

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Barbara Stewart’s The In-Between begins when Ellie, along with her mom, dad, and her cat, are in a car accident in the Poconos. They were moving from a small town in Pennsylvania to a smaller town in New York, where dad was taking a new job, mom was studying for her real estate license, and where Ellie could get a fresh start. Fourteen-year-old Ellie was — and is — troubled. Best friend Priscilla wasn’t the friend she thought she was, and she went through her life in a state of unease, disappointment, and ultimately, she attempted suicide as a means out. But the car accident puts everything into a different type of tail spin. Just as things felt like they could be a fresh start, they’re not.

When Ellie awakes and finds herself in her new home, she’s visited by the ghost of her deceased mother. The car accident had killed her and left just Ellie and her father to build a new life together. But Ellie sensed mom all around her; mom often pressed into her palm, reassuring her that even in the afterlife, her presence was still around.

So was the presence of Madeline.

Madeline was everything Ellie ever wanted to be. Stylish. Fun. A little bit wild and unashamed. This was not just who Ellie hoped to be in her new town, but Madeline was also the kind of person Ellie wanted to be friends with. They spent countless hours together, and it was Madeline who Ellie opened up to about everything: her broken friendships back in her old town, her depression, her suicide attempt, everything. Ellie and Madeline’s relationship bordered on obsessive; Ellie couldn’t stop thinking about her and desiring to be with her at all times. She even let Madeline tattoo her body with an “ME” over he heart — “ME” standing, of course, for “Madeline” and “Ellie.” Mostly.

But Ellie’s father wasn’t the one who survived the accident. He died. He never got to be at the new house. Ellie’s mother was the one who lived. So when Ellie wakes up — really wakes up — from the accident, everything in the house feels familiar, but her father isn’s there. Her mother is. And Madeline isn’t really there either. Except her presence is. On top of the weird and unnerving deja vu, Ellie has to be nice to Autumn, a girl who lives near her, who her mother wants her to be friend, and who is too much like the people back in her old town that she didn’t like. Fortunately, Ellie also meets Jess, a popular girl. But Jess won’t befriend her, not really. And Autumn will get a very different impression of Ellie when Ellie admits to trying to kill herself, to the strange visions she’s seen, and to Madeline.

It’s a sonogram in a box of items that makes things snap into place for Ellie. First when she discovers it in her afterlife with her dad, and second, when she confronts her mother about it. But mom isn’t forthcoming. Mom won’t be forthcoming. Mom insists Ellie mind her own business, get herself together to be the New Ellie she’s supposed to be in her new life, and spend more time with Autumn as a means to get there.

Ellie can’t stop thinking about Madeline. Can’t stop embodying her spirit. Can’t stop embodying her.

The In-Between is wonderfully complex — as a reader you’re never sure what reality Ellie is taking you through. Is she mentally ill? Is this a side effect of the car accident, in that she’s seeing and connecting with spirits that reside in her mind? Or is Ellie truly being visited by a ghost in this new place? There are many layers to this cake, and each one makes sense alone. Together, they blur the lines between reality and madness, between mental illness and the supernatural. I love books that do this, forcing the reader to consider the lines between what mental illness is and what the supernatural may be. In many ways, Stewart’s novel is reminiscent of Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls or 17 & Gone because of this.

There aren’t answers here, either, so spending time trying to find an explanation isn’t worthwhile. The story is about that unknowing, that line in between madness and sanity. Between the real world and the not-so-real world. Is there a distinction? Should there be one? Does it matter?

Of course, Ellie offers ideas, and the way the book is written, she is in many ways addressing a readership. This isn’t a diary. But maybe it is a diary. It’s never entirely clear whether Ellie is alive or dead. Whether Madeline is the one alive or dead. Plenty of the holes in the story could lead readers to believe either story or explanation. Ellie isn’t entirely reliable, and we know this near-immediately. We first believe she’s living with her father in the new house, then we’re told shortly after that she’s living with her mother. That her mother is pregnant with twins.

Twins.

Stewart weaves into the story an element about twins. The sonogram Ellie discovers shows that when she was in utero, she wasn’t alone. She’d had a twin, but that twin had disappeared. There hadn’t been a miscarriage; it was vanishing twin syndrome. Armed with that knowledge, as well as her own experiences with depression and suicide, Ellie tells herself that the reason for her life never being good was because she was a murderer event before she was born. That because of her, her twin sister Madeline never got the chance to live. That because of her, the good girl, the cool girl, the one who would have been popular and well-liked and a good daughter never got the chance to exist. Instead, she can only exist in the mind of Ellie and within the body of Ellie.

Ellie is just her carrier.

Mom being pregnant with twins post-accident, post-death of her father, is both the best thing and the worst thing Ellie can imagine. The best because her siblings will have one another. The worst because what does that leave Ellie? Ultimately, it is those twins — and what happens to them — that forces Ellie to confront Madeline head-on. And, ultimately, it’s where the story leaves readers wondering what just happened, what will happen, and whether we’ve been taken on a wild ride with Ellie’s mental illness.

Stewart’s writing is crisp, tight, and completely believable. Many YA books featuring younger teen protagonists can miss the mark. Here, Ellie is 14. Though the book does tackle the creepy head on, and though Ellie does discuss her suicide attempt and does participate in an act of violence, the book is suitable for younger teen readers. The story is a trip, and because it’s not one which has any solid resolution, it will frustrate those readers who seek answers. Fortunately, many readers who love darker stories, who love horror and the supernatural and ghosts, will be very satisfied with how many possibilities exist in this book. Because what is living? What is death? Can we exist in a world between the two of them and interact with both sides? Does mental illness hold the power to allow both sides in?

And perhaps “ME” means something greater than simply Madeline and Ellie.

Pass this off to readers who love Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls or 17 & Gone. In many ways, this reminded me of Sarah McCarry’s All Our Pretty Songs in terms of writing — it’s got a magical quality to it that doesn’t override the story.

Review copy received via the publisher. The In-Between will be available November 5 from St. Martin’s Press.

Audiobook Review: The Waking Dark by Robin Wasserman

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On a seemingly normal day in Oleander, Kansas, five people attacked anyone and everyone around them, using whatever weapons were at their disposal. Afterward, all the murderers killed themselves – except for one: Cass Porter. Cass doesn’t remember killing, but she knows she’s done it. She doesn’t know why she would have done such a thing, but she knows she’s a monster. She’s locked away in a mental hospital, the sentence she received instead of prison, until the tornado hits.

No one understands why five people suddenly became murderers, killing people at random. When a tornado rips through Oleander, it destroys much of the town and kills off a great number of its population. The town is quarantined – for its safety, supposedly. The tornado also unleashes something inside of Oleander’s surviving residents. They start to turn on each other. Small slights turn into bigger transgressions. Religion and small-town politics collide. People start dying again at their neighbors’ hands, only this time, no one seems to care. In fact, many of the residents seem to regard it as business as usual. It turns out the Killing Day wasn’t the worst thing to happen to Oleander; what came after the tornado will be much, much worse.

The story follows several teenagers in the town (a football player, the sister of a murdered child, a girl from the meth-dealing family, etc.), Cass among them, shifting perspectives but keeping everything third person past tense. Their stories overlap in different ways, and they do all end up together near the end (more or less).

This is a tough one to evaluate. It’s not a “jump out at you scary” type of horror novel. I wouldn’t say that I was ever on the edge of my seat, itching to hear what would happen next. It did feel a bit long to me. I think Wasserman sacrificed pacing in order to give us more in-depth character development. That’s not a bad thing, on the whole – but it’s not a choice I personally liked. This is not a quick read.

The key question, the one Wasserman clearly wants the listener/reader to ponder, long after the book is over, is “Did these people do what they did because they always had it in them, or did something external turn them into something they never were?” It’s a question the surviving characters themselves address directly, with different theories. No conclusions are given. We’re deliberately left to wonder. That is the power of the book – and also its most horrifying aspect, I think. What if all your neighbors, your friends, your family harbor the ability to do these terrible things? What if all it takes is something to set it off – and no one would even recognize the difference?

The body count is high. Wasserman doesn’t shy away from killing off her main characters, some in particularly horrible ways. It does make the whole listening experience quite tense, since it’s never clear who’s going to make it to the next chapter – and who’s going to end up burned alive. It doesn’t ever feel exploitative, though, thanks to the time and care Wasserman has taken in creating her characters. They don’t all like each other – and they shouldn’t all like each other – but they’re people you’ll recognize. What they do to each other – both good and bad – is what we all do to each other. Even the horrible things start with a few minor things and escalate.

Kelly’s read this one too, and she’d be able to speak much more to the Midwest setting. I grew up in Southern suburbia and have lived in a large-ish city plus a rural/suburban Southern hybrid, and none of them seem close to what I’ve seen a small town in the Midwest described as. Oleander, Kansas seems very suffocating, even before it’s quarantined – and I’m sure this metaphor will not be lost on teens.

Give this to teens who appreciate thoughtful horror and a more leisurely pace. I’d recommend it on audio as well. Reader Mark Deakins gives the story the appropriate amount of gravitas without making it seem melodramatic. Though I do have to mention that one of his female characters sounds a bit like a character from South Park at times…

Finished copy received from the publisher.

Austin Reads

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As I may have mentioned once or twice or a hundred times (particularly if you follow me on Twitter), I recently made a big move to Austin, Texas for a new job. It’s an exciting place. We have people like Sandra Bullock! Matthew McConaughey! Lance Armstrong! Frodo! Richard Linklater! Sadly, we no longer have Leslie, but we do still have other natural wonders like Barton Springs Pool, Hippie Hollow and Mount Bonnell.

With Kidlitcon (in Austin this year!) fast approaching, Austin books and Austin authors have been on my mind. I always get a kick out of reading a novel and being able to recognize particular landmarks that may only be known to locals. (My previous town makes a brief cameo in The Passage, but the geography of restaurants and such is all wrong.)

Below is a short reading list of YA books set in Austin – some written by Austin authors, but not all. Descriptions are from Worldcat. Am I missing any? I’ll give honorable mentions to books set in any Austin suburb.

Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences by Brian Yansky: When a race of aliens quickly takes over the earth, leaving most people
dead, high-schooler Jesse finds himself a slave to an inept alien
leader–a situation that brightens as Jesse develops telepathic powers
and attracts the attention of two beautiful girls. Kimberly’s review

Derby Girl by Shauna Cross: When sixteen-year-old rebel Bliss Cavendar, who is miserable living in a
small Texas town with her beauty pageant-obsessed mother, secretly
joins a roller derby team under the name “Babe Ruthless,” her life gets
better, although infinitely more confusing.

How Not to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler: Seventeen-year-old Sugar Magnolia Dempsey is tired of leaving friends
behind every time her hippie parents decide to move, but her plan to be
unpopular at her new Austin, Texas, school backfires when other students
join her on the path to “supreme dorkdom.”

Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker: Quinn plans to enjoy her summer in Austin, Texas, working for a record
company, even though she has to live with her cousin Penny. Kelly’s review

Reunited by Hilary Weisman Graham: Alice, Summer, and Tiernan were best friends who broke up at the same
time as their favorite band, but four years later, just before they are
preparing to go off to college, the girls reluctantly come back
together, each with her own motives, for a road trip from Massachusetts
to Austin, Texas, for the band’s one-time-only reunion concert. Kelly’s brief review

Solstice by P. J. Hoover: Eighteen-year-old Piper lives with her controlling mother amid a Global
Heating Crisis, but when she gets her first taste of freedom she
discovers a universe of gods and monsters where her true identity, kept
secret from her birth, could make all the difference in the world.

 
Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith: When multiple murders in Austin, Texas, threaten the grand re-opening of
her family’s vampire-themed restaurant, seventeen-year-old, orphaned
Quincie worries that her best friend-turned-love interest, Keiren, a
werewolf-in-training, may be the prime suspect.

Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore: Seventeen-year-old Amy Goodnight has long been the one who makes her
family of witches seem somewhat normal to others, but while spending a
summer with her sister caring for their aunt’s farm, Amy becomes the
center of weirdness when she becomes tied to a powerful ghost. Kimberly’s review