Riot New Media

Hey YA fans!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Mary E. Pearson’s The Beauty of Darkness. 

Lia and Rafe have escaped Venda, and the path before them is winding and dangerous–what will happen now? This third and final book in the Remnant Chronicles is not to be missed. New York Times-bestselling author Mary  E. Pearson’s combination of intrigue, suspense, romance, and action makes  this a riveting page-turner that you won’t be able to put down!

This newsletter won’t have a huge amount of new things to talk about — just a short round-up of newsy items at the end — in part because this will be a longgggg read. Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, let me explain.

In early July, as well as in the last newsletter, I asked you to share your favorite 2016 YA reads so far.

And you responded.

It wasn’t a small response. We’re talking roughly 1,700 of you — about 10% — of the subscribers to this newsletter chimed in with your favorite reads. Because there were so many responses, I whittled down the favorite reads by these criteria:

1. The book was published between January 1, 2016 and August 8, 2016. I kept off books that are coming that people have read advanced copies of or are anticipating (I loved reading so many responses along the lines of “I haven’t read x yet but I know I’m going to love it”).

2. The book was published as a YA book. I didn’t worry about fiction or non-fiction; it just needed to be a book explicitly marketed as YA. A lot of stuff skirts both the middle grade and the adult lines and YA readers read up and down, but just to keep numbers easier, I made the executive calls.

3. The books were published in the US. Not that I don’t appreciate the responses for books that were published outside the states — again, awesome to see those! — but they’re likely hard for readers here to check out.

4. I consolidated multiple responses for the same titles. In the list, you’ll see some titles have a * beside them. That means 15 or more readers listed it as their favorite.

5. For those responses with multiple answers, I went with the first title or the first title that was published this year in the timeframe.

6. Errors are mine. Because 1,700 responses!

That brought a grand total of 131 unique titles among your favorite YA reads this year.

This is such a fun list, rich with YA of all shapes and sizes. There are series books, there are stand alone titles, there are books which got a lot of buzz, as well as quieter reads. There’s both fiction and non-fiction represented here. It was neat to see the responses and be pleasantly surprised a book showed up that wasn’t one I’d expected to see. It’s also nice to see titles that published early on in the year — the ones that could be easy to forget — make an appearance.

Grab your TBRs. Here are your 131 favorite YA reads from January – August 8, 2016, in alphabetical order. I’m linking the titles so you can click through to read descriptions. Pasting them here would kill everyone’s bandwidth (& apologies if this comes out as one longgggg list — if that doesn’t work for you, click here for the readable and clickable spreadsheet).

*A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry

A Tangle of Gold by Jaclyn Moriarty

*A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

*A Tyranny of Petticoats edited by Jessica Spotswood

A World Without You by Beth Revis

After the Woods by Kim Savage

All the Feels by Danika Stone

American Girls by Allison Umminger

*And I Darken by Kiersten White

Ask Me How I Got Here by Christine Heppermann

Asking For It by Louise O’Neill

Assassin’s Heart by Sarah Ahiers

Autofocus by Lauren Gibaldi

*Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings

Beware That Girl by Teresa Toten

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandiera

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie

Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh

*Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

Chasing Impossible by Katie McGarry

Consider by Kristy Acevedo

*Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Cure for the Common Universe by Christian McKay Heidicker

Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

Devil and the Bluebird by Jennifer Mason-Black

Down with the Shine by Kate Karyus Quinn

Drag Teen by Jeffry Self

Dreamology by Lucy Keating

Escape from Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Everland by Wendy Spinale

*Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick

*Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston

Firstlife by Gena Showalter

Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

*Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima

Flannery by Lisa Moore

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

Forest of Ruin by Kelley Armstrong

Front Lines by Michael Grant

Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

*Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes

*Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Half Lost by Sally Green

*Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Hurricane Kiss by Deborah Blumenthal

I Woke Up Dead At The Mall by Judy Sheehan

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh

Into the Dim by Janet Taylor

Julia Vanishes by Catherine Egan

*Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Let The Wind Rise by Shannon Messenger

Lois Lane: Double Down by Gwenda Bond

Mirror in the Sky by Aditi Khorana

Misunderstood: Why The Humble Rat May Be Your Best Pet Ever by Rachel Toor

My Kind of Crazy by Robin Ruel

*My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Nil On Fire by Lynne Matson

No Love Allowed by Kate Evangelista

Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

*Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff

Rebel Bully Geek Pariah by Erin Jade Lange

*Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Riders by Veronica Rossi

Ruined by Amy Tintera

Run by Kody Keplinger

*Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Saving Montgomery Sole by Jillian Tamaki

*Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here by Anna Breslaw

See How They Run by Ally Carter

Shadow Queen by C.J Redwine

Starflight by Melissa Landers

*Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

*Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach

The Blood Between Us by Zac Brewer

*The Crown by Kiera Cass

*The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle

The Haters by Jesse Andrews

The Island by Olivia Levez

The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker

The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian

The Last Star by Rick Yancey

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone

*The Love That Split The World by Emily Henry

The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork

The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder

The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson

The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight

*The Problem With Forever by Jennifer Armentrout

*The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

*The Rose & The Dagger by Renee Ahdieh

The Safest Lies by Megan Miranda

The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

*The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet R. Hapgood

*The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokhi

The Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

Titans by Victoria Scott

*The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith

*The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

This Is The Part Where You Laugh by Peter Brown Hoffmeister

*This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Three Truth and a Lie by Brent Hartinger

*Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

Unbecoming by Jenny Downham

Up To This Pointe by Jennifer Longo

*We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

*When We Collided by Emery Lord

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

With Malice by Eileen Cook

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

 

A huge, huge thank you to everyone who submitted a response. I know I asked some additional questions but after playing with these answers, I figured this would be enough to bust even the biggest reader’s to-read lists.

 

A handful of interesting/news-worthy links worth sharing:

* Though this piece is about books for kids under the YA set, it’s really worthwhile reading since the same observations about female protagonists made there can be said about YA.

* A wonderfully in-depth look at the evolution of LGBTQ+ YA stories.

* The Thousandth Floor, which is publishing later this month, has been picked up for a TV series. Not surprising at all, given it’s an Alloy book — they’re the same company behind things like Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl.

* The adaptation of the “Chaos Walking” series by Patrick Ness has scored a big name — Daisy Ridley.

* A sweet little reminder that reading YA is totally okay for adults.

 

And a few links from Book Riot: 

* I was blown away by the tremendous (!) response to this piece about why YA needs more quitters.

* A round-up of queer YA set at summer camp.

*Podcasts for YA fans.

 

Thanks for hanging out with us for another collection of YA news and fun. “What’s Up in YA?” will hit your inboxes again in two weeks.

In the meantime, perhaps a book or two mentioned here will suck you in.