Best Young Adult Books

Melinda Sordino begins ninth grade as a social pariah after calling the police at an end-of-summer party — haunted by a secret she cannot speak about and slowly losing her ability to function.

The first volume of Philip Pullman's Book of Dust trilogy, a companion to His Dark Materials. Set ten years before The Golden Compass, it follows eleven-year-old Malcolm Polstead, who discovers a conspiracy around the infant Lyra and must carry her to safety through a catastrophic flood.

Holden Caulfield, expelled from his fourth prep school, wanders New York for three days before a breakdown — narrating his alienation with an intensity that defined adolescent literary voice.

Sixteen-year-old cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster meets Augustus Waters at a support group and falls in love — while both of them confront their mortality with wit, books, and each other.

The conclusion of the Inheritance Games trilogy finds Avery Grambs confronting the final deadly game of the Hawthorne brothers as she races to solve the mystery of Tobias Hawthorne's true intentions before time runs out.

Avery Kylie Grambs continues navigating the Hawthorne brothers' games and the mystery of why billionaire Tobias Hawthorne left her his entire fortune.

Ponyboy Curtis narrates the conflict between the Greasers and the Socs on the streets of 1960s Tulsa — and learns that the divisions between the have-nots and the haves cost everyone something essential.

Through a series of letters to an anonymous friend, fourteen-year-old Charlie navigates his first year of high school while carrying secrets he doesn't yet understand.

An assassin is released from the salt mines and offered her freedom in exchange for competing in a tournament to become the king's champion.

Lara Jean Song Covey writes letters to every boy she has ever loved — and keeps them in a box, never intending to send them. When the letters get mailed to all five recipients at once, Lara Jean's carefully managed inner life collides with reality, and she strikes a fake-dating deal with one of the recipients to manage the fallout.

A Beauty and the Beast retelling set in a dangerous fae world where a mortal huntress is dragged into an immortal court and must navigate deadly magic and forbidden love.

The conclusion of the Once Upon a Broken Heart trilogy, in which Evangeline must untangle the curses, memories, and bargains that bind her, and decide the fate of her heart and the Prince of Hearts.

Meg Murry, her genius brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin travel through space and time using a tesseract to rescue Meg's father from an evil force controlling the universe.

Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on a school bell tower, both there for the same dark reason, and fall in love while completing a state geography project that keeps Finch anchored to life.

Sixteen-year-old Clary Fray discovers a secret world of Shadowhunters, demons, warlocks, and vampires hidden within New York City.

In 1986 Omaha, two misfit teenagers fall in love over comic books and mix tapes on the school bus, in a beautiful, melancholy story about first love and the courage it takes to be seen.

Twin sisters Cath and Wren arrive at college as inseparable unit — and Wren immediately tries to separate. Cath retreats into her beloved Simon Snow fan fiction while the real world crowds in.

The conclusion of the Caraval trilogy, in which the Dragna sisters face the consequences of their bargains, the Fates' growing power, and the final choices that will decide their hearts and their world.

A fantasy romance set in a war college for dragon riders, following a young woman who must survive her first year among the most dangerous cadets in the world.

The second Caraval novel, told from Tella's perspective, as she plays a far more dangerous game with the Fates themselves and the mysterious Legend at stake.

Miles Halter leaves home for Culver Creek boarding school in search of a 'Great Perhaps' and finds Alaska Young — dazzling, troubled, and unforgettable.

Set in the world of Caraval, a young woman who believes in true love strikes a dangerous bargain with the wicked, charismatic Prince of Hearts to stop the wedding of the man she loves.

The second Once Upon a Broken Heart book, in which Evangeline and the Prince of Hearts are bound together on a perilous quest, their dangerous bond deepening amid new curses, betrayals, and magic.

A mortal girl raised in the world of the faerie courts must navigate dangerous politics and her complicated feelings for the prince who torments her most.