It’s been a bit since I’ve pulled together a post on microtrends in YA (you can read previous installments here, here, here, and here). Part of the reason is that there haven’t been a whole lot of these coincidences popping up on my radar. There haven’t been huge trends in the greater landscape of YA lit over the last year or so — thrillers being on the rise isn’t especially new, for example, given that it began in the wake of Gone Girl post-2013 — so sussing out even smaller “microtrends” has been tougher.

I’ve probably read more YA this year so far than I have in a long time, and it’s really interesting to see that lack of unique connections among titles. While this has been a stronger year for YA than the past couple, the books have been more different than alike; this is great for readers, though it also makes things like finding commonalities, which readers like, challenging.

That said, here’s what I have found so far this year in my own reading, both in full books and in reading a lot of book descriptions. I’d love to know if you’ve seen any microtrends in your own reading this year of this year’s books. These are not big things, but small details or situations which connect two or more books together which might otherwise not be pulled together. They’re also highly specific plot points or characteristics that haven’t popped up in abundance and stand out because of that.

Descriptions come from Goodreads.

Emergency Contacts

In college and through graduate school, I had a cell phone. But in college, I was so rural that it didn’t always work, and through grad school, I pretended I didn’t have text messaging so I didn’t have to deal with it (I’m still notoriously terrible with texting). That’s a story to say that this microtrend stuck out to me because it’s something that’s so today’s teen: setting a friend or love interest as your “emergency contact” in your cell phone. I’ve never seen this before in YA, and this year, I’ve seen it pop up twice — in Mary HK Choi’s so-named Emergency Contact and in Gayle Forman’s I Have Lost My Way. The emergency contact in both cases works as someone who is important enough to be reached in case of emergency, and someone who has a closeness to the main character, wherein that phone designation has a hefty weight and meaning.

I won’t be surprised if we see this pop up some more over the next few years. Teens today are not only generally tech savvy, but more, the choices and interactions they have in their digital lives have significance in a way that, say, mine never did. For readers who find the phenomenon of digital life and meaning one worth spending more time thinking about, I cannot recommend the “Why’d You Push That Button?” podcast from The Verge enough; in particular, I’d encourage listening to the episode of text message threads and unfriending (season 1 and 2 respectively).

Emergency Contact by Mary HK Choi

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind.

Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he’s a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it’s less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch—via text—and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman

Around the time that Freya loses her voice while recording her debut album, Harun is making plans to run away from everyone he has ever loved, and Nathaniel is arriving in New York City with a backpack, a desperate plan, and nothing left to lose. When a fateful accident draws these three strangers together, their secrets start to unravel as they begin to understand that the way out of their own loss might just lie in help­ing the others out of theirs.

Girl Drummers

Teens who are into music and being in a band isn’t new. But what is new is seeing not one, but two, female drummers. These are girls who are not fronting their bands, not the singers in their bands, but rather, they’re girls who are in the back setting the beat. There’s something cool in thinking about that as a metaphor, and in the cases of both these books, we have strong, voicey female leads.

Also fun? Both of these book covers feature teens wearing sunglasses.

The Brightsiders by Jen Wilde

As a rock star drummer in the hit band The Brightsiders, Emmy King’s life should be perfect. But there’s nothing the paparazzi love more than watching a celebrity crash and burn. When a night of partying lands Emmy in hospital and her girlfriend in jail, she’s branded the latest tabloid train wreck.

Luckily, Emmy has her friends and bandmates, including the super-swoonworthy Alfie, to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She knows hooking up with a band member is exactly the kind of trouble she should be avoiding, and yet Emmy and Alfie Just. Keep. Kissing.

Will the inevitable fallout turn her into a clickbait scandal (again)? Or will she find the strength to stand on her own?

Leah On The Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Leah Burke—girl-band drummer, master of deadpan, and Simon Spier’s best friend from the award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—takes center stage in this novel of first love and senior-year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic. An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high. It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.

Girl vs. Nature

This could likely be a post in and of itself, but we can maybe refer to this as the Wild effect: the growth of YA books about girls going out into the woods or nature either as punishment, to deal with trauma in their lives, or as a means of finding themselves. These are survival stories and they’re a fresh take on the story; growing up, I recall sitting through read alouds of Hatchet more times than I can count. These books offer a different perspective, with four very different main characters in four very different settings. They’re also a refreshing departure from Lord of the Flies.

What is worth thinking about here though is the lack of inclusivity. I think there’s a lot to be said about how white girls can more easily find themselves in nature because they have the means to do so and while being female is in and of itself a liability, skin color and ability in these books don’t play the role they would for many others. Which is to say, I’d love to see some books doing this survival in nature theme with more diversity (and kudos to Lemon’s book, which addresses this very thing through the narrative).

I love these books and find myself wanting more.

I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall

After
Jess is alone. Her cabin has burned to the ground. She knows if she doesn’t act fast, the cold will kill her before she has time to worry about food. But she is still alive—for now.

Before
Jess hadn’t seen her survivalist, off-the-grid dad in over a decade. But after a car crash killed her mother and left her injured, she was forced to move to his cabin in the remote Canadian wilderness. Just as Jess was beginning to get to know him, a secret from his past paid them a visit, leaving her father dead and Jess stranded.

After
With only her father’s dog for company, Jess must forage and hunt for food, build shelter, and keep herself warm. Some days it feels like the wild is out to destroy her, but she’s stronger than she ever imagined.

Jess will survive. She has to. She knows who killed her father… and she wants revenge.

Notes From My Captivity by Kathy Parks

Adrienne Cahill cares about three things: getting into a great college; becoming a revered journalist like her idol, Sydney Declay; and making her late father proud of her.

So when Adrienne is offered the chance to write an article that will get her into her dream school and debunk her foolish stepfather’s belief that a legendary family of hermits is living in the Siberian wilderness, there’s no question that she’s going to fly across the world.

But the Russian terrain is even less forgiving than skeptical Adrienne, and when disaster strikes, none of their extensive preparations seem to matter. Now Adrienne’s being held captive by the family she was convinced didn’t exist, and her best hope for escape is to act like she cares about them, even if it means wooing the youngest son.

The Other Side of Lost by Jessi Kirby

Mari Turner’s life is perfect. That is, at least to her thousands of followers who have helped her become an internet starlet. But when she breaks down and posts a video confessing she’s been living a lie—that she isn’t the happy, in-love, inspirational online personality she’s been trying so hard to portray—it goes viral and she receives major backlash. To get away from it all, she makes an impulsive decision: to hike the entire John Muir trail. Mari and her late cousin, Bri, were supposed to do it together, to celebrate their shared eighteenth birthday. But that was before Mari got so wrapped up in her online world that she shut anyone out who questioned its worth—like Bri.

With Bri’s boots and trail diary, a heart full of regret, and a group of strangers that she meets along the way, Mari tries to navigate the difficult terrain of the hike. But the true challenge lies within, as she searches for the way back to the girl she fears may be too lost to find: herself.

Valley Girls by Sarah Nicole Lemon

When 17-year-old Rilla is busted for partying 24 hours into arriving in Yosemite National Park to live with her park ranger sister, it’s a come-to-Jesus moment.

Determined to make up for her screw-up and create a stable new home for herself, Rilla charms her way into a tight-knit group of climbers. But Rilla can’t help but be seduced by experiences she couldn’t have imagined back home. She sets her sights on climbing El Capitan, one of the most challenging routes in Yosemite, and her summer becomes one harrowing and ecstatic experience after another: first climb, first fall two thousand feet in the air, first love. But becoming the person Rilla feels she was meant to be jeopardizes the reasons why she came to Yosemite—a bright new future and a second chance at sisterhood. When her family and her future are at odds, what will Rilla choose?

Legacy by Jessica Blank

Ever since her older brother Andy died, Alison’s life has been just as dark as her home in Tacoma, Washington.

Her mom is in perpetual mourning, her father ran out on them, and after hanging out with Andy’s hard-partying friends for a year, Alison’s reputation is trashed. She planned on taking the path of least resistance during her senior year–hanging out with her punk rocker boyfriend and trying not to flunk out of school–until a massive fight with her mother pushes her over the edge, and she runs away.

At first, joining a group of radical environmentalists who are occupying a Washington State forest is just about having a place to crash. But the ancient woods prove to be as vibrant and welcoming as they are vulnerable, and for the first time, Alison realizes that she might be more powerful than she thought. As tensions in the forest mount and confrontations with authorities get physical, Alison has to decide whether she’s willing to put her own life on the line to fight for what she believes in.

Teen Hackers

This isn’t a particularly new microtrend, but I’m including it for two reasons: first, I noticed it immediately upon hearing the description for Lange’s book (below) and because I know there’s a third one that I’m failing to recall the title of and am hoping someone can remember. Both books also have great covers and while one is the third and final installment in a series, these should have great appeal to many teen readers.

With the current news and political world, it’s not surprising to see hacking as a theme emerging n YA. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this one popping up more and more. It’s a fresh and wide arena across all genres — it could easily be part of a YA romance as much as it’s a thing you’d expect in YA science fiction or realistic fiction.

Active Memory by Dan Wells

For all the mysteries teen hacker Marisa Carneseca has solved, there has been one that has always eluded her: the truth behind the car accident in which she lost her arm and a mob boss’ wife, Zenaida de Maldonado, lost her life. Even in a world where technology exists to connect everyone’s mind to one another, it would seem that some secrets can still remain hidden.

Those secrets rise violently to the surface, however, when Zenaida de Maldonado’s freshly severed hand shows up at the scene of a gangland shooting. If Zenaida is—or was—still alive, it means there’s even more about Marisa’s past that she doesn’t know. And when she and her friends start digging, they uncover a conspiracy that runs from the slums of Los Angeles to the very top of the world’s most powerful genetic engineering firm. If Mari wants the truth, she’s going to have to go through genetically enhanced agents, irritatingly attractive mob scions, and some bad relationships to get it.

The Chaos of Now by Erin Jade Lange

Eli Bennett is coasting through high school, spending most of his time writing code and hiding from the real world–until he receives a cryptic message, leading him to Seth and Mouse. They’re seeking a third member for a prestigious hacking competition, after their teammate and friend Jordan committed suicide last year. Intrigued by the challenge, Eli agrees.

But soon it becomes clear that Seth and Mouse are after more than winning a competition–they’re seeking revenge for the abuse that caused Jordan’s suicide. Eli is in way over his head, and he’s hiding a dangerous secret that could lead to even more trouble if he isn’t careful.

In a story about the shift of power from those who rule at school to those who rule online, the difference between bully and victim is blurred and Eli–whose coding skilled have taught him to make order out of chaos–will find the real world is much harder to control.

Rape Culture & Institutional Tradition

There’s been a growth in YA books digging into rape culture over the last few years, which has been much needed. As that body of fiction (and nonfiction!) has grown, we’ve seen these books get even more specific, and as is the case in these two books out this year, both look at how rape culture is able to grow and thrive in private, elite institutions which claim “tradition.” Both books aren’t quite as successful as they could be, though what stands out is that both shine a light on the ways that rape culture can seem innocuous because of how it’s built into an institution’s history and prestige.

Burkhardt’s book does something that Kiely’s doesn’t that is worth nothing — it not only addresses the ways rape culture impacts male-female relationships (which we see most frequently in these books because of the patriarchy and see in patriarchal institutions like private schools) but it also looks at the ways that girls can perpetuate this culture upon other girls when it comes to needing to meet certain beauty and body standards.

Honor Code by Kiersi Burkhart

Sam knows how lucky she is to be part of the elite Edwards Academy. As she dreams of getting into Harvard one day, she’s willing to do anything to fit in and excel at the private high school. Even if that means enduring hazing, signing up for a sport she hates, and attending the school dance with an upperclassman she barely knows.

But when she learns the high cost of entry, will Sam be willing to bury the worst night of her life in order to “keep the community sacred”? As the line between truth and justice blurs, Sam must find out for herself what honor really means.

Tradition by Brendan Kiely

Prestigious. Powerful. Privileged. This is Fullbrook Academy, an elite prep school where history looms in the leafy branches over its brick walkways. But some traditions upheld in its hallowed halls are profoundly dangerous.

Jules Devereux just wants to keep her head down, avoid distractions, and get into the right college, so she can leave Fullbrook and its old-boy social codes behind. She wants freedom, but ex-boyfriends and ex-best friends are determined to keep her in place.

Jamie Baxter feels like an imposter at Fullbrook, but the hockey scholarship that got him in has given him a chance to escape his past and fulfill the dreams of his parents and coaches, whose mantra rings in his ears: Don’t disappoint us.

When Jamie and Jules meet, they recognize in each other a similar instinct for survival, but at a school where girls in the student handbook are rated by their looks, athletes stack hockey pucks in dorm room windows like notches on a bedpost, and school-sponsored dances push first year girls out into the night with senior boys, the stakes for safe sex, real love, and true friendship couldn’t be higher.

As Jules and Jamie’s lives intertwine, and the pressures to play by the rules and remain silent about the school’s secrets intensify, they see Fullbrook for what it really is. That tradition, a word Fullbrook hides behind, can be ugly, even violent. Ultimately, Jules and Jamie are faced with the difficult question: can they stand together against classmates—and an institution—who believe they can do no wrong?