Genre
The best Young Adult books
Coming-of-age fiction with high stakes and clean prose. The best of it reads as well at forty as it did at fifteen.
11 reviews in this genre.
Editor's picks
Highest-rated young adult on the shelf
The Cruel Prince
by Holly Black
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black 2018 review. Jude Duarte, a human raised in the High Court of Faerie, navigates Prince Cardan's cruel politics. Canonical contemporary YA romantasy.
Children of Blood and Bone
by Tomi Adeyemi
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi 2018 review. In a West-African-inspired fantasy kingdom, a young woman fights to restore magic to her people after the king has it eradicated. The YA fantasy debut that defined the late-2010s book-club moment.
Six of Crows
by Leigh Bardugo
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo 2015 review. A crew of six outcasts attempts an impossible heist in the corrupt city of Ketterdam. The YA fantasy heist novel that defined the contemporary Grishaverse and made Bardugo the major YA fantasy writer of her generation.
The Lightning Thief
by Rick Riordan
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 2005 review. Percy Jackson, twelve, discovers he is the son of Poseidon and that someone has stolen Zeus's master lightning bolt. The first Percy Jackson novel and the middle-grade fantasy series that defined the post-Harry Potter mythological-YA register.
Wonder
by R. J. Palacio
Wonder by R. J. Palacio 2012 review. August Pullman, born with a facial difference, attends a mainstream school for the first time in fifth grade. The middle-grade novel that became required reading in U. S. school curricula across the late 2010s and 2020s.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
YA semi-memoir about a kid who transfers off the rez to a white school. Funny, brutal, repeatedly banned, deserves to be read.
Behind the Curtain
by Peter Abrahams
A Peter Abrahams YA mystery. The first Echo Falls book. Teenage detective work with adult moral weight.
Dangerous Games
by Joan Aiken
A Joan Aiken Wolves Chronicles entry. Dido Twite in Roman Britain and Aiken at her wild best.
The Youngest Miss Ward
by Joan Aiken
Joan Aiken writing about the third Ward sister, the one Austen never bothered with in Mansfield Park. Quietly subversive.
It's my Life
by Melody Carlson
It's My Life by Melody Carlson review. The 2nd Diary of a Teenage Girl novel. Christian YA fiction about a high-school girl negotiating faith, family, and growing up.
The Edge of Nowhere
by Elizabeth George
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George 2011 review. A YA mystery on Whidbey Island about a fourteen-year-old with a psychic gift she cannot control and a boy who disappears.
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