Category: What’s Up in YA

I am not entirely sure the cover conveys that this is a magical thriller, but that’s the genre we’re in. Liv Whitlock has lived in several foster homes and has never found a place where she feels fully herself. She’s a bit (a lot?) self-destructive. She knows she needs to turn her life around, and the way she’ll do it is by stealing her sister’s identity.

That works. Liv scores an amazing internship on a film set in Alaska. Before she can even blink, she’s on a luxury yacht with some of the most famous names in the business and Liv cannot believe her luck.

But then a storm destroys the yacht and the entire crew is stranded on island. It’s not only the starvation and the worries about not being prepared for long term survival that cause chaos. It is also the predator who lives there. When the survivors of the wreck find themselves injured on the island, weird things begin to happen in their bodies…and they begin to see how much more like the strange predator they are than they are not.

This one is pitched as Yellowjackets meets House of Hollow.

Are you looking for a silkpunk fantasy? Here’s one for the TBR.

Aihui Ying is 18 and looking forward to following in the footsteps of her father, a world-class engineer. But when he’s murdered, Ying is left with nothing but a journal of his engineering secrets and a jade pendant that she grabbed from his murderer. She needs to know what happened, and so she takes off to the prestigious and mysterious Engineers Guild. That’s where the father’s past has been hidden.

To get into the Guild, Ying disguises herself as her brother and infiltrates their apprenticeship trials with the help of Aogiya Ye-yang, a prince. Ying has to keep herself quiet since the murder of her father means her safety is also at significant risk. Her father’s murderer still wants to get their hands on his journal.

Inside the Guild, there are not only secrets but deadly weapons. Despite early trust in the prince, Ying begins to wonder what secrets he might be harboring and how they might hurt her plans. Can she get the closure—and, perhaps, revenge—that she needs?

Evvie just wants to get through the last month of high school and graduate, but that’s not going to be easy. She’s got to write a final biology report on foxes, and despite the fact she knows she’d do a better job writing about the octopus she works with while volunteering at the zoo, her teacher, Mrs. Dearborn, won’t have it. Mrs. Dearborn has been far from helpful or accommodating to Evvie at all throughout high school, despite knowing about Evvie’s neurodiversity.

So Evvie finds solace in the Lair, a place for people like her who need time away from the chaotic and unaccommodating world around them. But as Mrs. Dearborn becomes more difficult to manage and a class bully begins upping his harassment of the students who hang in the Lair, things come to a head in an act of violence that forces Evvie and her friends to make a change in the world around them in order to create spaces that are safe and meaningful to them.

This is a book about being true to yourself and standing up for yourself exactly as you are.

Deaf pride is at the heart of this one, which follows Lilah, who always feels she’s not “enough.” She’s not deaf enough to be part of the Deaf community, but she has hearing loss.

She decides to spend the summer as a camp counselor at a place for those who are Deaf and/or blind. Here, she finally finds a world where she not only fits in but where she can thrive…and fall head over heels for some of the cute campers. Along the way, she’s able to learn ASL, too.

Lilah might be falling hard for a Deaf counselor, which was never on her agenda. And yet, he might be just who she needs to help her become fully who she wants to be.

This book is so clever and creative. It’s a novel and a mystery but it’s presented as a series of interwoven stories by 18 different YA authors. There’s been a murder of a well-known professor at Galileo Academy, and now every student is a suspect. The school is a magic academy, and over the years, it has become far more of an inclusive institution. Though welcomed by many, there are still people angry that, you know, don’t like the fact it’s diverse.

The young magicians each have a voice in this collection and work not only to clear their names from the list of murder suspects but also to track down who is responsible for Septimius Dropwort’s death.

Check out the contributor list here: Cam Montgomery, Darcie Little Badger, Hafsah Faizal, Jessica Lewis, Julian Winters, Karuna Riazi, Kat Cho, Kayla Whaley, Kwame Mbalia, L. L. McKinney, Marieke Nijkamp, Mason Deaver, Natasha Díaz, Preeti Chhibber, Randy Ribay, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Victoria Lee, and Yamile Saied Méndez. Whew!

In this social justice thriller, Calvin and his family are white-passing. They’ve lived in Chicago forever but a tragedy in the city forces them to move. The family goes to an all-white suburb that offers them everything imaginable. Calvin’s dad pressures everyone to conform to the standards set there, especially because they can pass. The problem is Calvin can’t in good conscious do it. He’s instead elected to make friends across down where he doesn’t have to perform as someone he is not. It doesn’t hurt he can see his crush there, either.

But Calvin is beginning to uncover dark secrets about this suburb. It’s not safe for him nor his family, and now, he feels compelled to push back against his dad’s wishes to keep nice in order to save them—and in order to be who he truly is.

The latest read from bestselling fantasy author Cashore is a contemporary novel…with a magical bent and it sounds so dang good.

Wilhelmina is the class of 2020. That means she began with a terrible presidential election in 2016 and ended with the pandemic shutting down schools before she could experience a graduation ceremony in 2020. She experienced a ton of personal losses during this time, too, and as a result of such upheaval, she’s elected to defer going to college. What she’ll do during this time, she’s not sure, but she cannot plow through like nothing has happened.

But magic is beginning to show up everywhere. She’s seeing weird flashes of whimsy, and while they don’t make sense when they appear, Wilhelmina is convinced they’re trying to send her a message. Now, she’s down the rabbit hole—heh—following a trail of elephants, birds, stale donuts, and more.

Ezra Cloud hates northern Minnesota, where he lives with his family. It’s not pretty, it’s not the rez at Nigigoonsiminikaaning First Nation, and it’s got the meanest bully he’s ever come face to face with in Matt. Matt is mean to Ezra, as well as Ezra’s best friend Nora.

Then Matt’s house burns down, and it happens the night after Ezra and Matt have a big brawl. Ezra is a prime suspect in the fire, even though he didn’t do it. There is no way he’ll get a word in about it, and his parents decide that the best recourse at this point is to send Ezra elsewhere. So he’s shipped to remote Canada where he’ll live with his grandfather.

Getting that far away won’t stop Matt’s family from trying to find Ezra and lay the blame of the fire on him, but it will help Ezra learn how to stand up for himself, lean into her heritage, and build a powerful relationship with one of his elder family members.

Shireen Malik might be mourning the breakup she’s had with Chris, but it’s not prolonged once she learns that she’s been accepted as a contestant on a new teen baking competition television show. Not only is Shireen stoked for the potential prize money but it’ll also bring attention to her family’s donut shop.

But you know this isn’t going to be easy.

See, Chris is also a contestant on the show.

And Shireen is starting to become close with the good-looking Niamh, first as friends and then as maybe something more.

Can she keep her eyes on the prize and avoid sabotage to win the competition? Or will love take all?

If you love creative anthologies, look no further. What happens during one epic party? That’s the premise, with ten excellent YA authors telling interconnected stories of that magical night.

Florence Hills High School seniors are having a party at a megamansion in the Chicago suburbs. DeAndre Dixon, the school’s golden boy, is the host, and everyone is invited, whether they’re popular, jocks, nerds, or something else altogether. What transpires is loud music, lots of kissing, new friends, relationships crumbling, and much more.

Contributors to this book include Angeline Boulley, Jerry Craft, Natasha Díaz, Lamar Giles, Christina Hammonds Reed, Ryan La Sala, Yamile Saied Méndez, justin a. reynolds, Randy Ribay, and Jasmine Warga

Love verse novels and Greek mythology? This one is for you!

Arachne has been outcast, except for her family and best friend, Celandine. By learning how to weave, Arachne is able to find herself, her talents, and even her voice. When her family is tragically lost, and she and Celandine leave for the city of Colophon, wherein Arachne is challenged by Athena. Arachne refuses to give in to Athena, so the two of them will engage in a weaving contest that will alter both of their fates.

Margaret Owen’s riveting fantasy starts with Little Thieves. A sequel is already out, with a third book coming out in 2025.

The story follows Vanja Schmidt, the adopted goddaughter of the Gods of Death and Fortune. When the time comes for her to choose a path and a god, she decides to choose herself, steal the life of the woman who she’s been serving, and become a princess. The Gods, of course, are not happy, and she is then cursed by another God for her greed. Now, time is running out, and she must break her curse to save her life.

Cindy Pon easily enchants you with her sci-fi novel, Want, a thrilling story set in a futuristic Taipei where one ragtag group of misfits craft a plan to infiltrate high society in order to take down a corrupt corporation. While going through the mission, our main character, Zhou, meets Daiyu, the heiress of this corrupt corporation, who makes Zhou realize that maybe not everything is black and white.

If you’re into high stakes, glamorous parties, and dangerous bike rides, I’m sure that Want is the perfect book for you.

Unseelie is a fae fantasy about twin sisters who get caught up in a heist gone wrong and find themselves being part of an eclectic group of individuals. Action-packed and full of magic, this novel is ideal if you’re looking for a character-driven story that takes you to unimaginable places.

While Seelie and Isolde are twins, they couldn’t be more different. Seelie happens to be a changeling, and she just wants to learn more about her origins. Meanwhile, Isolde is searching for a fabled treasure that might not even be real. Together, alongside some unlikely allies, they are about to unravel a mystery bigger than themselves.

Boarding schools, Chinese mythology, magic, intrigue, and so much more are what you can expect to find inside Zodiac Rising, Katie Zhao’s newest YA heist/dark academia novel.

In the book, you’ll get to meet four very different personalities: a vampire, a shifter, a werewolf, and a mortal. They will have to join forces and form an unlikely partnership to save the Descendants of the Chinese zodiac.

This is one for thriller readers who like the books American Street and Barely Missing Everything, too. It follows Deja, whose parents moved abroad and ship her clothes and food back to Jamaica (a “barrel girl”). Gabriel is in a gang and wants out. When Gabriel and Deja meet at a party, Gabriel begins to wonder if he could be part of her life and escape what he doesn’t like about his own.

While out fishing, Deja runs into a stalled boat, and the injured man inside hands her a bag. He asks her to deliver it to its intended destination but not to say a word. She makes the promise—and she promises to get the man help—not realizing that the bag is stuffed with half a million dollars. That kind of money is precisely what the gang Gabriel is in wants to get their hands on, and the two of them are now stuck in a precarious position. Can they save themselves and each other?

At 10, imperial forces destroyed the rebel moon home of Hwa Young. Despite it all, six years later, she’s now a citizen of the empire which ruined her young life.

Hwa wants to rewrite her past and she dreams of becoming a lancer pilot, a group of warriors who enter battle using giant martial robots. So when her boarding school is attacked and Hwa and her classmates are stuck imperial space fleet, all of them get the chance to step into the lancer role.

But being a lancer is not what Hwa nor her classmates anticipated. Indeed, it’s a word of secrets and as Hwa discovers a conspiracy that could change the fate and face of the entire world, she has to decide whether to follow that dream of becoming a full-fledged lancer pilot or lean into her rebel planet roots.

Readers looking for a disaster bi-ode to cozy mysteries will eat this one up. Gigi is in detention again, and for once, she’s grateful because it’s her alibi. She and her friends just got an email to go to the room of Mr. Ford—their favorite teacher—and when they arrive, he’s dead.

His death makes no sense, and Gigi, alongside her best friend Sean and long-time crush Mari, are teaming up with the school’s mystery club to find out what happened. It’s not an easy case to solve under normal circumstances, but no one said anything about junior year of high school being normal. The culprit doesn’t want to be found, and Gigi will have to fight to figure out who it is while also navigating IBS flare-ups and a flirtatious relationship.

The Soler sisters are supposed to be polished and poised in polite society, but they aren’t. Their grandmother, who has raised them, has not cared until now. She realizes that life will be especially difficult for two Latina girls if they can’t at least blend in with their manners and attitudes. Grandma is able to get both girls a spot at Alarie House, a prestigious and hard-to-get-into finishing school.

In one day, younger sister Isla has come back home. She cannot do it, and she cannot stand how fake everything is at Alarie. Older sister Renata, though, sticks it out and when she comes home months later, she is a completely different person. Isla sees Renata behaving with eerie politeness and pleasantness…and murderousness. The night Renata returns home, she also vanishes.

While Grandma does what she can to find Renata, Isla decides to go back to Alarie House and find out what’s going on there. But it is a demanding finishing school and it certainly isn’t going to simply tell Isla what’s going on.

This is a harrowing work of nonfiction about author Elvira’s life as a teenager in the border town of Laredo, Texas. At 14, she was given 24 hours to find $40,000; the drug cartels had her mother and that was the cost of her mother’s freedom.

Caught up in the Mexican Drug War, Elvira ends up in a dangerous juvenile detention facility. When she’s finally released, she’s bound and determined never to go back, and she works toward realizing her new dream: getting an athletic scholarship to get her out of Laredo. She is working her butt off to become as good as possible at track and field, including breaking into her school before the sun rises to get extra practice time in. Although she catches the attention of a highly decorated high school coach, his attention soon turns to more than her performance on the team. Now, at 17, Elvira is dealing with the pressure of being sexual with an adult man in his 30s—it’s a reality of young athletes in too many situations, especially those teen athletes who are from any marginalized background.

Though tough and tragic, Elvira succeeds in her journey, becoming the first in her family to go to college and a top-ranking hurdler.

This is an enemies-to-lovers romance set in the world of MMORPG.

Viola is over the fact that her friend thinks she needs to be more likable, that her campaign for a tabletop game was rejected, and that the person in the position of student body president—Jack—is annoying and too laid back, which makes her job as vice president so much harder than necessary. She finds stress relief and joy in the MMORPG called Twelfth Knight, even though that isn’t a particularly safe space for an outspoken, confident girl like her either. To solve this problem, she creates a masculine alter ego in the game and suddenly, she finds herself being respected a heck of a lot more.

So when Jack sustains an injury and has himself become sucked into the world of Twelfth Knight, Viola is surprised at how well-matched their two online egos are. The problem is, of course, they get along too well online and, well, Jack doesn’t know that her fake persona online is her.

This YA fantasy-in-verse has a protagonist who’s often overlooked, even among retellings. Arachne’s mother teaches her to weave and tells her stories of the gods and goddesses. The book also mentions concepts from ancient Greek drama: hubris (arrogance) and hamartia (a character’s tragic flaw). These become relevant to Arachne’s story when she says her tapestries are better than Athena’s. The details are vivid, and the subject and structure of this book are unique. Maybe skip this one if you have a strong phobia of spiders, though!

Historians think Spartan women had more freedom than women from other ancient Greek city-states and were taught to handle weapons. This allows Daphne to replace her brother in a competition, though she’s still one of the mothakes (outsiders). The goddess Artemis needs Daphne’s help. This novel is partly inspired by the story of Daphne and Apollo. In Roman poet Ovid’s version of the myth, Daphne was turned into a laurel tree to avoid being raped by Apollo. Many ancient myths, like this one, have fascinating potential for YA and feminist retellings.

This is a contemporary thriller inspired by the myth of Icarus and his inventor father, Daedalus. In the myth, Daedalus makes wax wings for Icarus, who flies too close to the sun. In this novel, Icarus’ father, Angus, is an art forger, and Icarus steals originals and replaces them with Angus’ imitations. As metaphors, the danger and arrogance of flying too near the sun fit the art heist premise perfectly. I also recommend Darling, Ancrum’s modern crime thriller that reimagines Peter Pan.

When Santi accidentally leaked Memo’s song and it became an overnight hit, Memo — Santi’s best friend and romantic interest whom he only knows from the internet — disappears. Santi’s heart is broken.

Three years and a new high school later, it’s possible Santi has found Memo, but in a way he never anticipated nor dreamed.

This one’s for fans of enemies-to-lovers stories and features a significant trans character.

Ariana Ruiz is an autistic girl with bold fashion choices. But because she’s so quiet, her classmates mostly don’t notice or pay attention to her. So when Luis begins to, Ari is excited because he’s cute and he’s popular.

The attention grows and one night, Luis and Ari have sex at a party. Ari didn’t say yes to this, but she also didn’t say no, and now she’s not sure how to feel about it. Except Ari doesn’t get time to process the experience because now she’s at the center of the rumor mill and being seen as easy.

So when a mysterious note appears in Ari’s locker, telling her she’s not alone in her experience with Luis, she’s intrigued. It leads her to find a group of students who want to take Luis down for his behavior. While this has helped Ari make some real and genuine friends, it also means she’s got to reckon with what happened that night in order to see justice.