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.

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 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.