Khristina Chess, YA Author, Blog
Khristina Chess is the author of books about teens tackling tough issues like anorexia, drinking, anxiety, and depression.
To see more popular articles, see Other Good Reads.
You can also scroll below to see all the blog posts available.
As you can see from this list of posts, I read and review a ton of YA contemporary books about tough topics, and I’m always looking for new great reads!
Photo by Perfecto Capucine
I binge-read a new favorite author the same way I consume a great new series on Netflix: in multiples. Why have just one title when there are three by the same author? Or six? Or ten!
And with Kindle Unlimited, you have subscription access to the world’s library of books, audiobooks, and anything you want on any device you want to read it on, not just a Kindle but also your tablet or phone. You can walk and read with an audio book. Or drive and listen to one. You can binge your favorite authors all the time.
So what are the all-time best YA authors to binge on Kindle Unlimited? I have a list for you, and I promise that these binges are not series, although series are worthy binges in their own right. If you want to read The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, or Twilight, those classics are great binge-worthy collections, but the list below list focuses on those YA authors with standalone books that you can find on Kindle Unlimited.
Wow! Khristina Chess writes action-packed books that I usually binge in a single sitting.
All ten of her books deal with some kind of tough topic, such as anorexia, self-harming, or mental illness. What I love most about them is the way she balances these issues with hope, wit, and often a bit of romance. Others are pure high-octane thrillers. For example, Junior Missing is a steamy thriller about a runaway teenager who falls into the trap of an abusive relationship with an older man who takes her in—and won’t let her go. The Delinquent Hero is raw and unforgettable mystery involving a complicated sisterhood, eating disorders, and loss.
It’s hard to pick a favorite because the characters and story lines are so unique. Unquiet Riot is about school violence, bullying, and mental illness—told from the darkly humorous viewpoint of an unreliable narrator who claims he’s not a psychopath.
Khristina Chess is awesome and definitely someone to add to your list of best YA authors to binge on Kindle Unlimited. But don’t just take my word for it. Hundreds of Goodreads and Amazon reviewers also say that she rates as a binge-worthy Kindle Unlimited author. Check her out for yourself!
If you’re looking for dark and creepy YA novels, read Kate Alice Marshall. I loved, loved, loved Rules for Vanishing and Our Last Echoes, which are deliciously eerie. After reading these two novels, I immediately put this author on my Amazon Follow list. Her wilderness survival novel, I Am Still Alive, is one of my personal favorites. From the beginning, this book grabbed me and didn’t let go!
Although I prefer her earlier books more than her more recent ones, all of her books are pretty amazing. I have binged all of them on Kindle Unlimited in the past, although if you only find some titles in Kindle or other formats, you might read more about why so many of your favorite authors are leaving Kindle Unlimited.
Mindy McGinnis writes tough topics with a twist. The Female of the Species, for example, is about rape but also a traumatized teen girl who turned into a killer because of what happened. Her novel Heroine is a deeply compelling look at opioid addiction. What drew me into Heroine was the main character’s slow-motion slide into addiction and her denial about her situation. She justified every step of the way.
If you pick up The Female of the Species, be sure to check out Be Not Far From Me while you’re at it. There’s a reason they’re frequently bought together.
Honestly, I have loved every one of her books. She has a rich and diverse library of YA novels to choose from (too many to show on this page). They’re unique and thrilling! They’re binge-worthy books for your Kindle.
Kathleen Glasgow writes heart and soul like nobody I know. She makes me cry every time! Her characters really dig deep. In How to Make Friends with the Dark, I felt Tiger’s grief over her mom’s death in a way I never have in a novel before. It was real and honest. And so, so sad. You can see my full review in Which YA Books about Mother-Daughter Relationships Depict This Loving But Painful Dynamic.
In her highly popular novel, Girl in Pieces, which you can see my review in Which YA Books about Self-Harm and Cutting Should You Read Next, she introduces a character named Charlie that I genuinely worried about.
Kathleen Glasgow is one of the best YA authors to binge! Buy all of her books.
Another fantastic and classic author of issue-driven fiction is Laurie Halse Anderson. Her critically-acclaimed novel, Speak, about rape was my introduction to her work, and I worked my way through her titles about anorexia (Wintergirls), boys and masculinity (Twisted), and over-performance (Catalyst).
Although I said this list wasn’t about series, Anderson does have one; the first book is Chains, which addresses the issues of slavery and race in colonial America during the start of the Revolutionary War. Check these books out too!
Amazon reviewers also rate this author as one of the best YA authors to binge on Kindle Unlimited, and I agree! You can see my review of one of her most popular novels, Wintergirls, in my blog, Which YA Books about Eating Disorders Should You Read. Her critically-acclaimed novel, Speak, was also one of my favorites, and you can find my thoughts about it on Which Poignant YA Books about Rape and Sexual Assault Should You Read Next.
You definitely want to add Laurie Halse Anderson to your list of best YA authors to binge on Kindle Unlimited.
I wish Jandy Nelson would write another book. Truly. I love, love, loved The Sky Is Everywhere and I’ll Give You the Sun. These wonderful YA novels about siblings, love, loss, and life are lyrical. Beautiful! The language is breathtaking. If you haven’t read them yet, do yourself a favor.
You can read my full review of The Sky Is Everywhere in Which YA Books Have Love Triangles in Unexpected Places.
If you like twisty, thrilling novels with secrets and unreliable narrators, E. Lockhart’s books might be for you. I discovered her first with We Were Liars, which was completely unexpected and surprising, and its prequel, Family of Liars, is just as amazing. You won’t be able to put either of them down! Genuine Fraud is a modern-day take on The Talented Mr. Ripley. E. Lockart is a must-have author to add to your list of best YA authors to binge on Kindle Unlimited.
Just in case you have somehow missed this author, let me introduce you to John Green. A co-worker told me about him at lunch one day; she was reading The Fault in Our Stars, a YA book and told me how wonderful it was. I picked it up. After reading that one, I read everything he’d ever written. Immediately. And I pre-ordered Turtles All the Way Down. John Green’s books are that good.
But don’t take my word for it. Check them out for yourself. I think you’ll agree he’s one of the all-time best YA authors to binge on Kindle Unlimited.
You can find my review of The Fault in Our Stars in my blog Which Heartbreaking YA Books about Star-Crossed Lovers Should You Read Next? In fact, another great author is in that list, Jennifer Niven.
Okay, here are some more binge-worthy Kindle Unlimited YA authors. These are authors I pre-order every time they publish something new (and authors, some of you are due for a new book…):
1. Angie Thomas – The Hate U Give and On the Come Up
2. Nicola Yoon – Everything Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star
3. Jennifer Niven - All the Bright Places, Breathless, and Holding Up the Universe.
If one of these authors doesn’t appeal, there are several lists about great Kindle Unlimited book reads, like Best Romantic YA Kindle Unlimited eBooks on Goodreads and Kindle Unlimited Fantasy and SciFi Favorites on Goodreads. You may also want to check out The Best YA Book Recommendations for All Ages (And Why) or browse through Other Good Reads.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Do you have a favorite author to binge? Or a list worth sharing?
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Anthony Tran
Find your next great read for Self Injury Awareness Day by exploring my reviews of these YA books about self-harm and cutting.
Nonsuicidal self-harming is often misunderstood by family members and friends, which can only add to the sense of isolation, shame, and pain for the person who harms. Reading YA books about self-harm and cutting can be helpful for a person struggling to find a way to cope with pain, as well as someone who loves someone who self-harms. Storytelling can be the bridge that leads to trust and understanding.
Here are my personal recommendations for a few amazing YA books about self-harm and cutting that have changed my heart forever. These characters, their stories, their strength, and their scars are beautiful and inspiring. A couple of the books include eating disorders as well, which is more of an inadvertent method of self-harm.
“Sometimes my inside hurts so bad that I need to make the outside hurt worse so the inside will stop.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Cutting Edge of Friendship
Sadie and Elana are keeping dangerous secrets.
Best friends since elementary school, they know everything about each other, but on the night of the fireworks, something terrible happened to Sadie that she hasn’t told anyone. She can’t even say the word to herself. Instead, she’s started cutting to deal with the pain.
Elana has a secret of her own; she’s texting Hunter and making plans for a clandestine meeting with him. She doesn’t know what he did or why he really wants to keep their relationship secret.
To end this dangerous cat-and-mouse game, Sadie must reclaim her courage and rescue Elana before a rapist can attack again.
So powerful! The Cutting Edge of Friendship instantly drew me into the tangled conflict, and I couldn’t look away until the girls were safe.
What I love most about The Cutting Edge of Friendship is Sadie’s fierce and resilient character and the raw and authentic emotion as this painful story escalates toward its thrilling climax. This is the kind of novel that really shows how someone self harms to cope with pain in the aftermath of sexual assault. You won’t want to miss this powerful YA book about cutting that explores the complicated nature of friendship. Fans of Girl in Pieces will enjoy this one.
“People should know about us. Girls who write their pain on their bodies.” ― Kathleen Glasgow, quote from Girl in Pieces
This wonderful novel about self-harm was the kind of story that kept pulling me away to a quiet room to curl up with a cup of tea and a lamp until I finished. I had to know what was going to happen to Charlie. I had to know whether or not she was going to be okay in the end. Because although she seemed to be making progress, this guy in her life wasn't a good choice for her. And then her friend from the hospital shows up, and she doesn't seem to be a good direction either. And if you've ever known addiction or seen someone struggling with recovery from anything, you know that the line is so easy to cross.
For Charlie, crossing the line might have devastating consequences because she has her tender kit, and it's full of glass. It's not tender but slashes and cuts.
So I read and worried and loved this young girl, who was so alone and hungry and living on the edge. I wanted someone to help her. Someone good.
This YA book about self-harming and cutting―and this girl―will stay with me for a long while. In fact, Kathleen Glasgow is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
“They tied me back together, but they didn't use double knots. My insides are draining out of the fault lines in my skin, I can feel it, but every time I check the bandages, they're dry.” ― Laurie Halse Anderson, quote from Wintergirls
Readers consistently mention Wintergirls as a favorite in YA lists about self-harming—and for good reason! In addition to her severe eating disorder, Lia cuts herself.
This book is stark, beautiful, and also painful. Laurie Halse Anderson writes about many different tough topics, and Wintergirls addresses eating disorders, self-harming, friendship, grief, loss, and recovery. One girl is dead. The other one suffers from guilt, self-harming, and anorexia.
At times the book is disorienting and confusing, but this seemed to align with Lia’s state of mind. I was often uncomfortable while reading this story—which was the point, I think.
If you are looking for an intense YA book about self-harm and eating disorders, you won’t want to miss this one.
“It’s easier to think about food and the physical pain inside my body from not eating than the other pain of not having Kat. My sister would totally understand this. She would. As long as I’m connecting to her this way—our familiar, hungry old way—she’s with me.”― Khristina Chess, quote from The Delinquent Hero
Wow! The Delinquent Hero grabbed me from the first page and never stopped!
This YA is a raw and unforgettable story about a complicated sisterhood, eating disorders, and loss. The present story line is an investigation of the odd circumstances and events that landed Kat in the hospital on a ventilator, but as the hours and days unfold, the close relationship between these sisters becomes more and more apparent, and Molly finds herself connecting with her older sister in their same old way:
"I'm not very hungry. I am, and I'm not. I am hollow, but this feeling seems less about food and more about Kat. At any rate, I do not want to eat."
Physical cutting is not present in this novel, but in her attempt to deal with grief and what’s happening with her sister, Molly stops eating. Through this behavior, she tries to reconnect physically with her sister, who is slipping away, and for this reason, I’ve included The Delinquent Hero in this list of YA books about self-harm. Sorrow becomes physical pain in this book.
In fact, Delinquent Hero is one of three novels by Khristina Chess in the top 100 Best Sellers in Teen & Young Adult Fiction on Self-Harm and eating disorders.
“It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body.” ― Julia Hoban, quote from Willow
In this complex novel about self-harming and grief, I met the wonderful character of Willow. She is an orphan with terrible secrets. Guilt. Pain. Numbness. And love.
I can’t speak about whether or not Willow suffers from a deep self-harming mental illness, or if she’s simply a teenager who doesn’t know how to deal with the terrible things that happened in her life. Cutting seems like an answer. She feels alone and sad. At any rate, the book felt emotional and honest to me. I loved reading her story and connecting with her pain as she journeyed to wholeness.
Be sure to check out this thought-provoking and heartbreaking YA book that wrestles with cutting, grief, and the healing power of love.
“Other times, I look at my scars and see something else: a girl who was trying to cope with something horrible that she should never have had to live through at all. My scars show pain and suffering, but they also show my will to survive. They're part of my history that'll always be there.” ― Cheryl Rainfield, quote from Scars
Wow! What a powerful, thrilling, emotional, heartbreaking book. Scars packs a real punch, touching on multiple tough topics, including cutting, sexual abuse, and relationships. Kendra was raped at a very young age by a man whose face she cannot remember. The story opens with her in therapy with a counselor who is helping her to cope with the painful memories that have started to surface, but the plot accelerates quickly as Kendra feels her abuser is stalking her. She copes with her pain through self-harming and also in her art, which is both beautiful and darkly disturbing. Descriptions of her art in this book are very vivid.
The revelation of her abuser is both a shock and a non-shock, and I was rooting for her to confront him and find a path to justice and healing. Scars is a great read if you’re looking for a YA book about self-harm and cutting.
If you are looking other books about self-harm and cutting, check out the YA Self-Harm and Cutting Fiction (25 books) and Books about Cutting Yourself (78 Books) on Goodreads. For other books on mental health issues, including suicide or depression, you might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of YA contemporary books about tough topics for teens.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Sadie by Courtney Summers is a one of those YA mysteries about teen runaways that will stay with you long after the last page. I felt instantly drawn into her story and liked the format of alternating podcast interviews and young Sadie’s viewpoint as she sought justice against her sister’s killer.
Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these YA books if you enjoyed reading Sadie as much as I did.
“How exactly did Noel discover her? When? Why was he at her house in the first place? … Is it possible that instead of finding her, he’s the person who hurt her?” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Delinquent Hero
Wow! The Delinquent Hero grabbed me from the first page and never stopped!
Everyone is saying Kat fell and hit her head, causing a catastrophic brain bleed. She’s severely malnourished and on life support, and in a few days, the doctors will remove the ventilator.
But when 18-year-old Molly visits her sister’s rental house, it looks more like a crime scene that someone cleaned up. Stories about what happened are inconsistent.
Later at the hospital, when Molly whispers into her sister’s ear about the odd things she discovered, alarms start wailing on Kat’s cardiac monitor. It’s like, even though she’s supposedly brain dead, some part of Kat still hears her. Like maybe something evil happened in that house.
Like maybe someone tried to murder her.
What I love most about The Delinquent Hero is the puzzle that Molly is trying to solve—not just about the how this terrible thing happened, but also about her sister herself. It’s a great novel that shows the way eating disorders can impact the people who love them the most. There is so much pain in trying to answer why?
If you enjoyed reading Sadie, don’t miss this raw and unforgettable new YA mystery about a complicated sisterhood and grief. It’s hard to put down!
“He called me the most willing kidnapping victim in history. I’d invited him to my house, he’d said. I’d climbed into the car. I’d packed a bag. And a parakeet.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Junior Missing
Love shouldn’t take prisoners.
Sixteen-year-old Grace Keegan, darling of the child pageant world, is missing. Police initially believe she ran away—until they locate her abandoned cell phone along the highway. No one knows she met someone online, someone older, a musician named Quentin Brock who has a cool band named Acid Mozart. He seems to be romantic, cute, and funny. He seems to be the perfect guy.
By the time he reveals his true colors, Grace is trapped in another state with no way out.
She doesn’t even have shoes.
Junior Missing hooked me from the first page and never let me go!
What makes Junior Missing so special is the gripping, slow-boil depiction of how Grace falls into the trap of an abusive relationship with an older man who takes her in—and won’t let her go. I worried about her. I loved seeing her journey and choices as she befriends the neighbor girl. This is the kind of thrilling, authentic novel that really shows how someone can so easily be manipulated and hurt in this kind of situation.
In fact, if you liked Sadie by Courtney Summers, check out some of the other books by Khristina Chess, too. She’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she has so many suspenseful novels.
“Reeve’s End is the kind of town every kid can’t wait to escape. Each summer, a dozen kids leave and at least a quarter never come back. I don’t blame them—I’ll do the same in another year. We thought it was just something that happened in towns like ours. We were wrong.”― Kelley Armstrong, quote from Missing
Winter Crane’s sister is missing.
In missing-person cases, police only have so much time to find victims before their chance of returning home safe diminishes, and in this instance, the timeline for how long Winter’s sister has been missing happened to her—and other missing kids—is tied to an invisible clock like a heartbeat. It creates suspense is already unclear. As the mystery quickly unfolds, the urgency to find out what might have and raises the stakes. The tension increases with each turn of the page because we believe the situation is life-or-death. The hero spends a lot of time literally running from one place to another, trying to beat the clock.
I thoroughly enjoyed the plucky heroine and her determination to get to the bottom of the mystery of the missing teens, even at increasingly dangerous personal cost to herself. The West Virginia setting seemed vibrant and real without being cliched or overdone. The killer was gruesome, creepy, and sinister.
If you enjoyed Sadie, you won’t want to miss this thrilling story about missing teens and the search for what has happened to them.
“I know Becca didn’t run away. That leaves one possibility and one impossibility, and I long for the impossible. Because if she isn’t dead, if she’s only been taken, she can be brought back.”― Kate Alice Marshall, quote from Rules for Vanishing
Sara’s adopted sister Becca vanished a year ago.
Although everyone has given up the search, Sara is determined to find her because she believes Becca has gone into the woods and is lost on The Road. Sara convinces (tricks) a group of her friends to join her on this terrifying journey.
Not everyone comes home. Because at some point they break the rules:
Don’t leave the road.
Don’t let go.
Don’t follow other roads.
Rules for Vanishing is not a typical YA novel about teen runaways. It is dark, mysterious, creepy, and full of scary and supernatural stuff. I loved it and devoured it in a few days. The ending was an unexpected twist, especially because of the connection to Kate Alice Marshall’s other novel, Our Last Echoes, which I’d read first.
This is another recommendation I think fans of Sadie will really enjoy.
Chris is missing.
While he’s gone, his girlfriend Jessie decides to write letters to him, so the entire book is a series of scenes narrated to Chris. The mystery of his disappearance deepens as more of the bullying that Chris had endured unfolds.
Heartbreaking, beautiful, and powerful, Jessie’s letters are her way of coming to terms with the fact that the boy she loved went running one night but never came home again.
Check out this hard-hitting YA book about depression and racism. It’s a great third-person look at the impact of depression on those who love the person and feel helpless to ease their suffering. Fans of Sadie will also enjoy this one.
If you are looking other books similar to Sadie, check out the Books Similar to Sadie, Runaway Books, and Runaways in YA and Middle Grade Fiction lists on Goodreads. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type of tough topic.
What about you? Do you have any recommendations to add to my list? If you enjoyed Sadie, are there other similar books you loved?
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Ryan Parker
Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these evocative YA books about grief and loss.
Reading stories and knowing that you—or someone you love—is not alone with this sorrow can be a powerful way to cope. Grief can be profoundly lonely, so there is something powerful about connecting inside the head of a protagonist who shares your deepest thoughts and feelings or who is experiencing your grief at a gut level. Someone who really knows.
A book about death or dying won’t offer a hollow platitude or pretend that everything is fine when it’s not. Sometimes you just want to escape into another world—maybe a happy world—or maybe one where a fictional character is also struggling with confusion, mourning, and grief about a death that should not have happened.
Here is a list of YA books about grief and loss that I think are amazing. Be sure to have a box of tissues. Some of these stories about death and dying will wring your heart out. Sometimes, you’ll laugh while you’re crying, but that’s okay.
“I stare at my sister in this bed. She is mine. She is here, and I cannot imagine that she is not. That she will never be here again. How can it be true? I see her before me. Her chest is rising, falling, rising, falling. Her hand is warm in mine.“ ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Delinquent Hero
Kat is dying.
The big question is: why?
Everyone is saying Kat fell and hit her head, causing a catastrophic brain bleed. She’s severely malnourished and on life support, and in a few days, the doctors will remove the ventilator.
But when 18-year-old Molly visits her sister’s rental house, it looks more like a crime scene that someone cleaned up. Stories about what happened are inconsistent.
Later at the hospital, when Molly whispers into her sister’s ear about the odd things she discovered, alarms start wailing on Kat’s cardiac monitor. It’s like, even though she’s supposedly brain dead, some part of Kat still hears her. Like maybe something evil happened in that house.
Like maybe someone tried to murder her.
“Stay, Kat. Do not leave me alone.”
Wow! The Delinquent Hero grabbed me from the first page and never stopped!
What I love most about The Delinquent Hero is the puzzle that Molly is trying to solve—not just about the how this terrible thing happened, but also about her sister herself. Although pitched as an action-packed murder mystery, this YA is also a raw and unforgettable story about a complicated sisterhood, eating disorders, and loss. It’s hard to put down. The present story line is an investigation of the odd circumstances and events that landed Kat in the hospital on a ventilator, but as the hours and days unfold, the close relationship between these sisters becomes apparent.
You won’t want to miss this evocative YA book about grief and loss. Fans of If I Stay will enjoy this one.
“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.” ― Jennifer Niven, quote from All the Bright Places
Theodore Finch has more than a touch of the blues.
Violet Markey wants to escape the grief that lives in her hometown where her sister recently died.
Violet and Theodore are an unlikely couple, paired together on a school project to explore the natural wonders of their state. At first, Theodore seems to be the one helping Violet with her sadness, but Violet doesn’t have any understanding about the depth of Theodore’s despair. Along their journey, they make several unexpected discoveries about one another.
After re-reading this book a second time, I enjoyed it every bit as much as the the first. I liked the writing, the dual character viewpoints, the story, the language, and the symbolism.
Blue is a primary color.
This lovely YA book is about grief and loss, and Niven handles these difficult topics with honesty and resonance. All the Bright Places is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, Jennifer Niven is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
“You do realize that a car is a mobile make-out location, right?” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Drive to June.
Eighteen-year-old Adriana refuses to text anymore.
She doesn’t drive.
And she’s secretly guzzling her dead mother’s wine collection.
With her father traveling so much and her older sister away in college, no one knows about Adriana’s drinking. She drinks to forget something awful that she did; she drinks to go numb. To avoid her grief. And now she can't seem to stop. Since moving to this new school, she doesn't have close friends or teachers, so there's nothing to stop her free-fall.
But then one night, Ian spots her on the roof and makes an offer she can’t refuse. He comes into her life, and everything begins to change.
Wow, what a ride! Drive to June took off from the start and accelerated all the way to the finish. I had to find out Adriana’s secret. What makes this book so special is the sweet relationship that develops between Adriana and Ian as he teaches her how to drive and helps her get her driver’s license. Although it starts as a story about alcohol abuse, this is a dreamy and hopeful YA novel with heart.
You won’t want to miss this this surprisingly romantic YA book about grief and loss. Fans of The Astonishing Color of After will love this one. In fact, Khristina Chess is also on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited, so be sure to check out her other books.
“You are carrying so many heavy feelings. There just isn’t enough room for them all.“ ― Kathleen Glasgow, quote from How to Make Friends with the Dark
After Tiger Tolliver's mom dies of a brain aneurysm, she becomes a ward of the state, an orphan, suddenly faced with an uncertain future. She doesn't have any living relatives. She doesn't know anything about her father. It's just her and her mom--and now just her. A minor.
What Tiger begins to learn is that her mom kept some important secrets from her. For example, she has a living dad. And a sister.
This YA novel about death and dying is a real tear jerker! Tiger strikes me a sheltered girl with little real life experience; on the day her mom died, she was kissing a boy for the first time. She wasn't prepared for the events that followed as she entered the system. Yet, despite her tragic circumstances, she makes a path for herself. She makes mistakes but doesn't fall off a cliff. She keeps people at a cautious distance, but she does make friends and finds a way to build a new family for herself.
How to Make Friends with the Dark is an evocative YA book about grief and loss that will tug at your heartstrings. Bring extra tissues for this one! And if you like it, be sure to check out my post on Which YA Books about Mother-Daughter Relationships Best Depict This Loving But Painful Dynamic for similar books.
“What kind of girl wants to kiss every boy at a funeral, wants to maul a guy in a tree after making out with her sister’s boyfriend the previous night? Speaking of which, what kind of girl makes out with her sister’s boyfriend, period?” ― Jandy Nelson, quote from The Sky Is Everywhere
I love, love, loved this book! The writing is so lyrical, and the story is incredibly sad. It begins with protagonist Lennie, who is grieving the sudden death of her sister. Although Bailey is dead, the relationship between these siblings is very much alive on the pages of this novel. Lennie writes beautiful poems, and she spends time in their room and shares so many memories that I feel I know Bailey.
A charismatic new boy shows up at school, and Lennie ends up entering into 2 romances at the same time. This is the love triangle. One romance is with the new boy at school, and the other is with her dead sister’s grieving boyfriend. Sooner or later, she has to decide which one of these guys is the one she’s going to stick with. Oh, boy.
All of the characters are vivid, and the story is captivating. The creative visual aspect of the novel is also a nice touch; Lennie writes her poems on scraps and scatters them everywhere, and these appear at the beginning of chapters.
This book is a must-read for anyone looking for evocative YA books about grief and loss. In fact, I highly recommend that you also read Nelson’s other novel, I’ll Give You the Sun.
“Life feels beautiful that day. The four of us Liars, we have always been. We always will be. No matter what happens as we go to college, grow old, build lives for ourselves; no matter if Gat and I are together or not. No matter where we go, we will always be able to line up on the roof of Cuddledown and gaze at the sea. This island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from We Were Liars
What an unexpected and beautiful story about friendship, coming of age, and sorrow!
I wasn’t sure I’d like this book, but I fell in love with it. By the end it made me cry. This YA book about friendship is about a group of privileged young friends and their lies, family secrets, grief, and love. It’s a mystery. The beautiful and disorienting plot will leave you reader breathless until the very end.
If you haven’t picked this one up yet and are looking for a great YA book about grief and loss, do yourself a favor. It’s a whirlwind read.
“She peels an orange, separates it in perfect halves, and gives one of them to me. If I could wear it like a friendship bracelet, I would. Instead I swallow it section by section and tell myself it means even more this way. To chew and to swallow in silence here with her.” ― Nina LaCour, quote from We Are Okay
I wanted to read this book for many years on the basis of its cover alone. Look at it! I didn’t even know what the story was about, but it must be beautiful with artwork like that, right?
The book blurb doesn’t prepare you for what this story is about. The plot meanders between present and past. In the present, Marin is staying in her freshman dorm room alone over Christmas break because tragedy has occurred. What tragedy? Well, that’s the big mystery. Her best friend Mabel from California shows up to try to talk her into coming home, and oh by the way, the two of them were romantically involved in the past.
But not anymore.
Mabel doesn’t understand why Marin left without speaking, what happened in the interim, and why she is refusing to come home. Finding out these answers is the main story, but what this book is really about is grief, loneliness, betrayal, longing, being orphaned, and growing up.
I liked We Are Okay. It’s quiet. It’s understated and lovely. I really felt Marin’s sorrow.
If you are looking for an evocative YA books about grief and loss, you definitely want to add this one to your TBR pile!
“It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body.” ― Julia Hoban, quote from Willow
In this complex novel about self-harming and grief, I met the wonderful character of Willow. She is an orphan with terrible secrets. Guilt. Pain. Numbness. And love.
I can’t speak about whether or not Willow suffers from a deep self-harming mental illness, or if she’s simply a teenager who doesn’t know how to deal with the terrible things that happened in her life. Cutting seems like an answer. She feels alone and sad. At any rate, the book felt emotional and honest to me. I loved reading her story and connecting with her pain as she journeyed to wholeness.
Be sure to check out this thought-provoking and heartbreaking YA book about grief and loss.
“Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” ― John Green, quote from The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Stars is the ultimate YA book about grief and loss. Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace are two teens with cancer, and they fall in love during a sweet time of remission. They talk about literature and philosophy, and they go on a wonderful journey to meet the author of Hazel’s favorite novel. This person is not at all what she expected—a huge disappointment, as a matter of fact—but then, life happens that way.
When the inevitable plot turn comes and twists the knife in your heart, it doesn’t matter that you’re expecting it. Augustus and Hazel are supposed to be together, so every bittersweet moment of their parting is a gasp. Every breath counts. Every syllable.
If you’re looking for the sweetest and most heart-wrenching star-crossed love story, pick up this classic. If you read it a long time ago, it’s just as good the second time around. Trust me.
“Whose fault was it? That’s the question on everyone’s mind, isn’t it? Nobody will ever say it out loud. It’s a question people would call inappropriate. The kind of thing where everyone tells you, “It’s nobody’s fault.” But is that even true? It’s only human nature to look for a place to lay the blame. Our fingers are more than ready to do the pointing, but it’s like we’re all blindfolded and spinning. What makes a person want to die?” ― Emily X.R. Pan, quote from The Astonishing Color of After
A young girl, Leigh Chen Sanders, is grieving the death of her mother, who committed suicide. Leigh believes that she turned into a bird, and she goes on a journey to visit her grandparents in Taiwan in search of her mother, the bird, and other family secrets.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan is one of my top favorite YA reads. I discovered the novel after reading a Goodreads review so intriguing that I went hunting for the title during my next Barnes & Noble trip. The Astonishing Color of After was shelved under Teen Fantasy, a category where I never shop, so without seeing the great reviewer comments I might never have discovered this touching book about grief, culture, and family secrets.
This book wrecked me. The writing is so beautiful. Whether it’s the love story, the voice, the mystery, or the family culture aspect, there’s plenty of reasons why fans connect with this YA classic. I truly can’t say enough wonderful things about this amazing novel.
If you haven’t discovered it yet, you definitely want to make it one of the YA books on your list of evocative YA books about grief and loss you should read next. And if you have already read it, here’s my list of other great books for fans of The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan.
“We used to be pretty good friends, but fourteen-year-old girls are psychotic.” ― Jesse Andrews, quote from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
How can a book about a teenage girl dying from leukemia be so funny?
Greg and Earl are weird, unlikely friends and amateur filmmakers who manage to fly below the radar at school and enjoy their private world. Then Greg’s mom makes him reach out to Rachel, a childhood friend who has been diagnosed with leukemia and needs a friend.
Earl turns out to be the more compassionate of the pair, and the two of them set out to make a movie about Rachel. Their brilliant idea fails in execution and is the Worst Film Ever Made.
This fun, funny, and all-around wonderful YA book about grief, loss, and friendship is full of crude humor, heart, honesty, and surprises as Greg learns things about his long-time friend Earl, as well as himself, through this journey with the dying girl, Rachel. I can’t say enough good about it. Buy it. Read it. Laugh.
“She has compared me to my sister every single day of my life, so why should I expect that to change now that she’s dead?” ― Erika L. Sanchez, quote from I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
I loved the cover on this novel, and with so many stars and enthusiastic reviews, I figured I would love this story. There is an interesting mystery about what happened to Julia’s older sister Olga, who died in front of a truck. There is an interesting view into Mexican culture.
But.
The mother-daughter relationship (which is the title of the book) is not the real focus of the story. The mother is portrayed as traditional and strict, but she’s also mostly a shadow and underdeveloped character. Julia, the daughter, is a hard character to like because she has so many hard edges, and I never reached a point of real empathy or connection with her—even though she is a grieving person. Instead, I felt like the book was a checklist of YA book “issues” without any depth or focus on any of them: immigration, depression, first-time sex, death of a sibling, food, Mexican culture, drug usage, attempted suicide, rape… The list could continue.
You will probably feel differently. Literally thousands of readers on Goodreads loved this book.
“Murderers are not monsters, they're men. And that's the most frightening thing about them.” ― Alice Sebold, quote from The Lovely Bones
Susie Salmon is dead.
She was raped and murdered in a most gruesome fashion by a most gruesome man, and now she exists in an afterlife, observing her family and her killer.
The story is a bit disorienting, but I think that’s kind of the point. Most of the novel is about Susie’s struggle to come to terms with the fact that she’s dead and move on. The “why?” questions haunt her. Her family and former life haunts her. The desire for justice and vengeance haunts her.
It’s the disquiet that comes when a young person dies tragically, suddenly, whether or not by foul means. There is a profound unfairness. The soul cries out.
Although the scene where Susie is killed is horrific, this one also fits the list of YA books about grief and loss. Everyone in this book is grieving, including Susie herself.
If you are looking other YA books about grief and loss, check out the YA Grief Fiction, YA Death & Dying Books, YA Books Dealing with Grief, and Losing Someone - Grief-themed Books in Young Adult Fiction the lists on Goodreads. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of YA contemporary books about tough topics such as depression and anxiety.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Alice Alinari
Find your next great read for National Reading Month with these irresistible YA mystery and thriller books.
The mystery and thriller genre is so popular that you probably know most of the bestselling YA authors already: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson and everything by Karen McManus, author of One of Us Is Lying.
But, here are my personal recommendations for some irresistible YA mystery and thriller books that you might not have discovered yet. They’re full of bombshells and unforeseen curves. I hope you find a few new authors or titles to add to your reading list.
“Is it possible that instead of finding her, he’s the person who hurt her?” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Delinquent Hero
Wow! The Delinquent Hero grabbed me from the first page and never stopped!
Everyone is saying Kat fell and hit her head, causing a catastrophic brain bleed. She’s severely malnourished and on life support, and in a few days, the doctors will remove the ventilator.
But when 18-year-old Molly visits her sister’s rental house, it looks more like a crime scene that someone cleaned up. Stories about what happened are inconsistent.
Later at the hospital, when Molly whispers into her sister’s ear about the odd things she discovered, alarms start wailing on Kat’s cardiac monitor. It’s like, even though she’s supposedly brain dead, some part of Kat still hears her. Like maybe something evil happened in that house.
Like maybe someone tried to murder her.
What I love most about The Delinquent Hero is the puzzle that Molly is trying to solve—not just about the how this terrible thing happened, but also about her sister herself. It’s a great novel that shows the way eating disorders can impact the people who love them the most. There is so much pain in trying to answer why?
If you’re looking for an irresistible YA mystery, you won’t want to miss The Delinquent Hero.
“We might as well make some trouble together.” ― Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson, quote from The Agathas
I absolutely love Kathleen Glasgow and all her books. The Agathas is a good read, and I could not guess who the killer was until the very end. I enjoyed the growing friendship between Alice and Iris, as well as the secondary cast of sidekick characters they brought onto the case. “Fun” is the adjective other reviewers have frequently used for The Agathas, and I can agree with that. Plucky Alice and sensitive Iris make a fun pair of sleuths.
I felt the book fulfilled its mission in its mystery genre, and if the characters and writing weren’t as lovely as Glasgow’s other books, that’s more of a byproduct of the category. Also, it’s a collaboration and my first glimpse into anything by Liz Lawson.
If you’re looking for one of the best YA mystery books that will keep you guessing, you should definitely add The Agathas to your TBR pile. In fact, Kathleen Glasgow is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
"I think we're all quite mad. Some of us are just more discreet about it." ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from A Madness So Discreet
Imagine that you could be imprisoned in an insane asylum just because you're a woman and a male in your life wants to get rid of you. This sort of thing happened to women in the last century. For real. This is what happened to Grace, the protagonist in A Madness So Discreet. The man who sent her to the facility was her own father, and the inconvenient truth was that she was pregnant with his child.
This is the beginning of A Madness So Discreet. But the novel does not linger in the horrors of lobotomies and torture of mental patients. Instead, Grace escapes into the hands of a doctor who uses her talents to help solve murders.
As a serial killer mystery unfolds, though, you know that a showdown between Grace and her father, a powerful senator, is coming. He thinks she is dead. He is about to move on to her younger sister. She is motivated to stop him, even at risk to herself.
What happens in the end of this dark novel is astonishing. No spoilers here. Just treat yourself and read this unusual and twisty YA mystery. Mindy McGinnis is near the top of my favorite YA authors. A Madness So Discreet is one of her early works, so I didn't think it was as fabulous as Female of the Species or Heroine. Still, it was classic McGinnis and worth every single page.
“Fashion gets a reputation for being frivolous, but it's the one form of art I understand It has the ability to transform bodies and environments, to conceal or seduce, to break hearts or make them sing." ― Dana Mele, quote from People Like Us
This chilling YA mystery has the right ingredients for a great read. A young girl is found dead, and the main character is the primary suspect. Along the way, other bodies drop, and other suspects surface. Friends become enemies, and enemies become friends.
The main character, Kay, isn't especially sympathetic, and neither are her friends. Kay's flatness makes it hard to connect with her, even with the backstory about her brother or her romantic entanglements with the other girls. I just didn't like her very much; I wouldn't care if she went to jail.
Still, this book has the pacing, plotting, and setting just right, and the author kept me guessing until the end. For readers who like mean girls and the YA mystery and thriller genre, it's a quick read and offers several surprises. Don’t miss this irresistible YA mystery.
“The last laugh, the last cup of coffee, the last sunset, the last time you jump through a sprinkler, or eat an ice-cream cone, or stick your tongue out to catch a snowflake. You just don’t know.” ― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
Samantha Kingston is dead.
In this YA-version of Groundhog Day, a “mean girl” gets a chance to relive her last day and the party she attended with her friends before the fatal car crash. She has an opportunity to make the same choices over and over, until she makes different ones.
This beautiful novel is an atypical mystery about redemption as the reader follows Samantha’s journey to figure out how she died. Her character arc really blew me away, and although I disliked her in the beginning, I was cheering for her by the end, and I love the way Lauren Oliver wrote the ending. Fans of irresistible YA mystery and thriller books won’t want to miss this one.
“Before we were the Monsters of Brickhouse Lane—before everyone from Connecticut to California knew us by that tagline, and blogs ran pictures of our faces, and searching our names led to sites that crashed from all the traffic—we were just girls, and there were only two of us.” ― Lauren Oliver, quote from Broken Things
Once there were three friends who were writers and obsessed with a fantasy novel about a magical world. But one of the girls was murdered, and everyone thought the other two killed her. They didn’t.
Five years after Summer’s death, the friends are reunited and put on a path to find out the identity of the real killer.
This YA book about friendship is a mystery told in alternating viewpoints. I wanted to know what happened to Summer. Who murdered her and why? What happened that day in the woods? The dark plot twisted and kept me guessing until the end.
Both of Lauren Oliver’s novels, Before I Fall and Broken Things, are irresistible YA mystery and thriller books that you should add to your TBR pile. (Plus, isn’t the cover of Broken Things gorgeous?)
“You get away with a lot, even after you're caught.” ― Courtney Summers, quote from Cracked Up to Be
Parker Fadley has a secret.
She used to be the captain of the cheerleading team, top student, queen B, perfect at everything, but something happened. Something she never told.
By the time we meet Parker, we’re in the middle of her “after,” when she’s busy wrecking her perfect life and torturing herself, so it takes a while to understand how deep this secret really goes.
It’s not what you think.
It’s worse.
If you’re looking for an irresistible YA mystery and a protagonist who is mean, unsympathetic, and yet strangely someone you want to hug, this is the book for you. You won’t be able to stop until the final page.
“How do you forgive the people who are supposed to protect you? Sometimes, I don't know what I miss more; everything I've lost or everything I never had.” ― Courtney Summers, quote from Sadie
Sadie is another irresistible YA mystery book by Courtney Summers that’s so thrilling you won’t be able to put it down. I felt instantly drawn into her story and liked the format of alternating podcast interviews and young Sadie’s viewpoint as she sought justice against her sister’s killer. She has plenty of personal reasons to hate him, and he deserves to die for his crimes.
This novel alternates between young Sadie, who is a missing teen, and a podcast show, where details of her disappearance are told through a series of interviews. I think I would have loved this book even more in audio format than paperback
Still, Sadie is a great read. The pacing increases as the story unfolds and Sadie gets closer and closer to her target. The conclusion to her quest for justice is a surprise. This compelling YA book about teen runaways that will stay with you long after the last page. If Sadie sounds interesting, check out my list of Books You’ll Enjoy If You Liked Sadie.
“Life feels beautiful that day. The four of us Liars, we have always been. We always will be. No matter what happens as we go to college, grow old, build lives for ourselves; no matter if Gat and I are together or not. No matter where we go, we will always be able to line up on the roof of Cuddledown and gaze at the sea. This island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from We Were Liars
What an unexpected and beautiful story about summertime, friendship, coming of age, and sorrow!
I wasn’t sure I’d like this book, but I fell in love with this unexpected story. By the end it made me cry. We Were Liars is about a group of privileged young friends and their lies, family secrets, grief, and love. It’s a mystery. Its private island setting evokes all kinds of summer images: the beach, the heat, the sun. The beautiful and disorienting plot will leave you reader breathless until the very end.
It’s a classic, but if you haven’t picked this one up yet, do yourself a favor and add it to your list of irresistible YA mystery and thriller books. It’s a whirlwind.
"They're doing just as I asked them to. As we Sinclairs always do. Pretending. Lying. Trying to have a good time.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from Family of Liars
Lockhart's prequel to We Were Liars does not disappoint! The narrator, Carrie, tells the story of the summer of the boys' visit to the island, but long before those events, there are ominous hints of what is to come. In her early teen years, for example, Carrie's father insists on a surgery to break her jaw, and an infection sets in.
But Carrie bends to his will. She is a "credit to the family."
This novel has some brilliant symbolism, a few great twists, some predictable story-lines, and other unexpected turns. I finished in 4 days because the pages turned fast and furious. I had to know the secrets these liars were keeping.
The pages are full of great details about summertime on the island. The lemon hunt was very vivid, as well as the details about clothing, food, and the picnic table. Lockhart painted a vivid sense of place, siblings, and privilege.
Family of Liars definitely one of my new favorite YA mystery and thriller books!
“She believed that the way you speak is often more important than anything you have to say.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from Genuine Fraud
I picked up Genuine Fraud because I loved Lockhart’s other books so much, and the premise sounded intriguing.
Genuine Fraud is a close re-imagining of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley (another binge-worthy series of books), but with female protagonists and a plot that has been lightly shuffled, so events are in different sequence but still end up being very, very familiar when you encounter them.
Because the book opens with a bang and gives a great big story question, I definitely wanted to find out what happened and how things in the mystery were going to pan out. However, the ending felt a little anti-climactic to me. Still, Lockhart is one of those authors whose writing is worth following, wherever it goes, and I'll be back for more.
“If there's one thing I've learned, it's that people are bad at keeping secrets, and eventually everything shows.” ― Cristin Terrill, quote from Here Lies Daniel Tate
This YA mystery thriller is about a stolen identity, secrets, and scams. The story has a great premise, and the protagonist, Daniel Tate, is an interesting and unreliable narrator to the very end. The pacing of the story is excellent. I liked the way the author pulled everything together. I won’t give away the mystery except to say that it seemed both fitting and sad.
“I know Becca didn’t run away. That leaves one possibility and one impossibility, and I long for the impossible. Because if she isn’t dead, if she’s only been taken, she can be brought back.” ― Kate Alice Marshall, quote from Rules for Vanishing
Sara’s adopted sister Becca vanished a year ago.
Although everyone has given up the search, Sara is determined to find her because she believes Becca has gone into the woods and is lost on The Road. Sara convinces (tricks) a group of her friends to join her on this terrifying journey.
Not everyone comes home. Because at some point they break the rules:
Don’t leave the road.
Don’t let go.
Don’t follow other roads.
Rules for Vanishing is dark, mysterious, creepy, and full of scary and supernatural stuff. I loved it and devoured it in a few days. The ending was an unexpected twist, especially because of the connection to Kate Alice Marshall’s other novel, Our Last Echoes, which I’d read first. In fact, Kate Alice Marshall is also on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited. All of her books are awesome.
If you’re looking for an atypical and irresistible YA mystery, be sure to add this one to your list.
“That's the kind of person you can get away with killing: someone everybody else wants dead.” ― Karen McManus, quote from One of Us Is Lying
This list of irresistible YA mysteries and thrillers would be incomplete without Karen McManus’ book, One of Us Is Lying. What a fantastic novel! I spent all afternoon reading because I had to know who did it. The story is engrossing; the characters are unique and interesting; and I was surprised by the ending. There’s a reason it’s a top-selling book in the YA mysteries and detective, thriller, and suspense categories. Check it out!
If you are looking other irresistible YA mystery and thriller books, check out the YA Mystery Books and YA Thriller Books lists on Goodreads. Also, check out my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type of tough topic. There’s something for everyone here.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Ignat Kushanrev
Find your next great read for National Sisters Day by exploring my reviews of these heartbreaking YA books about sisters.
If you’re fortunate enough to have one or more sisters, you understand the joys, griefs, and complexities of this relationship. Good memories share space with bitter fights, envy, and shared experiences of coming-of-age together. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott may be one of the most beloved and classic novels about sisters.
Here is a list of heartbreaking YA books about sisters. What do all of the books in this roundup have in common? Tragedy, I’m afraid. One of the sisters is dead, dying, or dies. So, be sure to bring some tissues.
“It’s easier to think about food and the physical pain inside my body from not eating than the other pain of not having Kat. My sister would totally understand this. She would. As long as I’m connecting to her this way—our familiar, hungry old way—she’s with me.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Delinquent Hero
Wow! The Delinquent Hero grabbed me from the first page and never stopped!
Although pitched as an action-packed murder mystery, this YA is also a raw and unforgettable story about a complicated sisterhood, eating disorders, and loss. It’s hard to put down. The present story line is an investigation of the odd circumstances and events that landed Kat in the hospital on a ventilator, but as the hours and days unfold, the close relationship between these sisters becomes apparent, and Molly finds herself connecting with her older sister in their same old way:
"I'm not very hungry. I am, and I'm not. I am hollow, but this feeling seems less about food and more about Kat. At any rate, I do not want to eat."
Everyone is saying Kat fell and hit her head, causing a catastrophic brain bleed. She’s severely malnourished and on life support, and in a few days, the doctors will remove the machines.
But when 18-year-old Molly visits her sister’s rental house, it looks more like a crime scene that someone cleaned up. Rather than face her grief about what's happening, she becomes a detective and asks hard questions about the inconsistencies in stories, the crime scene at the house, and the knife beside her sister's bed. Kat was afraid of something. What?
What I love most about The Delinquent Hero is the puzzle that Molly is trying to solve—not just about the how this terrible thing happened, but also about her sister herself. It’s a great novel that shows the way eating disorders can impact the people who love them the most. There is so much pain in trying to answer why?
You won’t want to miss this great new YA book about sisters and dying. Fans of Wintergirls will enjoy this one.
“What kind of girl wants to kiss every boy at a funeral, wants to maul a guy in a tree after making out with her sister’s boyfriend the previous night? Speaking of which, what kind of girl makes out with her sister’s boyfriend, period?” ― Jandy Nelson, quote from The Sky Is Everywhere
I love, love, loved this book! The writing is so lyrical, and the story is incredibly sad. It begins with protagonist Lennie, who is grieving the sudden death of her sister. Although Bailey is dead, the relationship between these siblings is very much alive on the pages of this novel. Lennie writes beautiful poems, and she spends time in their room and shares so many memories that I feel I know Bailey.
A charismatic new boy shows up at school, and Lennie ends up entering into 2 romances at the same time. This is the love triangle. One romance is with the new boy at school, and the other is with her dead sister’s grieving boyfriend. Sooner or later, she has to decide which one of these guys is the one she’s going to stick with. Oh, boy.
All of the characters are vivid, and the story is captivating. The creative visual aspect of the novel is also a nice touch; Lennie writes her poems on scraps and scatters them everywhere, and these appear at the beginning of chapters.
This book is another must-read for anyone looking for YA novels about sisters.
“All the stupid people I know are happy.” ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from This Darkness Mine
What a disorienting and strange book!
Sasha Stone, high-achieving teen with a promising future in music, begins believing that she's sharing her body with a twin that she absorbed in her mother's womb. And, this twin sometimes takes over and does things. Things that Sasha herself would never do.
Well. Buckle up because this is a strange journey.
I began to believe that Sasha suffered from one type of mental illness, and that would explain this behavior and delusion. Then the plot took a hard left turn. And another. And in the end, I don't know WHAT happened. :-)
I love Mindy McGinnis books because she writes characters and stories that are unique. Nothing is cookie-cutter with her. In fact, Mindy MicGinnis is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing! You won’t want to miss this unusual and also heartbreaking YA book about sisters.
“I live in a place that's only good for leaving.” ― Courtney Summers, quote from Sadie
Sadie knows who killed her younger sister.
She leaves home and goes on a journey to seek justice against her sister’s killer. She has plenty of personal reasons to hate him, and he deserves to die for his crimes.
This novel alternates between young Sadie, who is a missing teen, and a podcast show, where details of her disappearance are told through a series of interviews. I think I would have loved this book even more in audio format than paperback
Still, Sadie is a great read. The pacing increases as the story unfolds and Sadie gets closer and closer to her target. The conclusion to her quest for justice is a surprise. This heartbreaking YA book about sisters will stay with you long after the last page.
And if you’ve already read Sadie, be sure to check out my blog about Books You’ll Enjoy If You Liked Sadie.
“I know Becca didn’t run away. That leaves one possibility and one impossibility, and I long for the impossible. Because if she isn’t dead, if she’s only been taken, she can be brought back.”― Kate Alice Marshall, quote from Rules for Vanishing
Sara’s adopted sister Becca vanished a year ago.
Although everyone has given up the search, Sara is determined to find her because she believes Becca has gone into the woods and is lost on The Road. Sara convinces (tricks) a group of her friends to join her on this terrifying journey.
Not everyone comes home. Because at some point they break the rules:
Don’t leave the road.
Don’t let go.
Don’t follow other roads.
Rules for Vanishing is not a typical YA novel about sisters. It is dark, mysterious, creepy, and full of scary and supernatural stuff. I loved it and devoured it in a few days. The ending was an unexpected twist, especially because of the connection to Kate Alice Marshall’s other novel, Our Last Echoes, which I’d read first.
Fans of Sadie will really enjoy this one.
“It's funny how someone's perception of you can be formed without you even knowing it.” ― Sarah Dessen, quote from Dreamland
I've read a couple Sarah Dessen books that were "okay," but wow, this one really, really grabbed me!
It starts when Caitlin's sister, Cass, runs away. I knew the story was about relationship abuse, and I was expecting the runaway sibling, Cass, to be with a bad guy, but no. After she disappears, Caitlin falls for a guy named Rogerson who ends up being the abusive one. Caitlin's downward spiral is emotional, realistic, and heartbreaking. From the first time Rogerson hits her, I kept waiting for someone to intervene or for her to wake up, but it went on and on until the climactic moment when something had to shatter.
I felt really bad for Caitlin. She seemed invisible to everyone who supposedly loved her. She was hiding her pain in front of everyone. And people she loved kept leaving her: first her sister Cass and then her new friend Corinna.
The sibling relationship in this book is that Caitlin lives in the shadow of a “perfect” older sister, and the parents remain focused on Cass, so no one notices that Caitlin is in trouble. If you’re looking for a YA book about sisters with an unexpected plot, check this one out. I couldn’t put it down.
"They're doing just as I asked them to. As we Sinclairs always do. Pretending. Lying. Trying to have a good time.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from Family of Liars
Lockhart's prequel to We Were Liars does not disappoint! The narrator, Carrie, tells the story of the summer of the boys' visit to the island, but long before those events, there are ominous hints of what is to come. In her early teen years, for example, Carrie's father insists on a surgery to break her jaw, and an infection sets in.
But Carrie bends to his will. She is a "credit to the family."
This novel has some brilliant symbolism, a few great twists, some predictable story-lines, and other unexpected turns. I finished in 4 days because the pages turned fast and furious. I had to know the secrets these liars were keeping.
The pages are full of great details about summertime on the island. The lemon hunt was very vivid, as well as the details about clothing, food, and the picnic table. Lockhart painted a vivid sense of place, siblings, and privilege.
Family of Liars definitely one of my new favorite YA books about sisters!
“It took us fifteen years to find each other, but we still did! And sometimes, family hurts each other. But after that's done you bandage each other up, and you move on. Together. You've got us now, like it or not, and we've got you.” ― Robin Benway, quote from Far from the Tree
Okay, I know this list is for heartbreaking YA books about sisters, but this book was so good it made me cry. As in, I had to leave the couch for tissues. Prepare yourself.
Grace, Maya, and Joaquin are siblings that were adopted to different parents as infants—except Joaquin wasn’t adopted. He went into foster care and had a harder time of things.
At 16, Grace finds herself pregnant and giving her baby up for adoption, which is the triggering event for reuniting these siblings and sending them on a search for their biological mom. In the process, they learn what it’s like to be family with one another as well.
This book won the National Book Award, and there’s a reason. If you haven’t read this one yet and you’re looking for great YA books about sisters, give it a look. You will not regret it!
If you are looking other heartbreaking YA books about sisters, check out the Sisters Fiction Books and Sisters Book Lists on Goodreads. You can also check out my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Юлія Дубина
Find your next great read for National Adoption Month by exploring my reviews of these heartwarming YA books about adoption.
These contemporary YA books are focused on the teen experience of adoption—either as the adopted child who is seeking a biological parent or as a teen mother giving up a child for adoption (or even both).
Here is my list of heartwarming YA books about adoption that will give you all the feels.
“It took us fifteen years to find each other, but we still did! And sometimes, family hurts each other. But after that's done you bandage each other up, and you move on. Together. You've got us now, like it or not, and we've got you.” ― Robin Benway, quote from Far from the Tree
This book was so good it made me cry. As in, I had to leave the couch for tissues. Prepare yourself.
Grace, Maya, and Joaquin are siblings that were adopted to different parents as infants—except Joaquin wasn’t adopted. He went into foster care and had a harder time of things.
At 16, Grace finds herself pregnant and giving her baby up for adoption, which is the triggering event for reuniting these siblings and sending them on a search for their biological mom. In the process, they learn what it’s like to be family with one another as well.
This book won the National Book Award, and there’s a reason. If you haven’t read this one yet and you’re looking for heartwarming YA books about adoption, give it a look. You will not regret it!
“Goodness, I was already a dork most of the times. I didn’t need to be a drunk or high dork.” ― Jennifer L. Armentrout, quote from The Problem with Forever
After four years of home schooling and therapy, Mallory Dodge takes the gigantic step of going to a public high school for her senior year. She’s ready. She’s pretty sure. But on the first day, she collides with her past as she comes face-to-face with the person who meant everything to her: Rider Stark.
The boy who saved her.
Everything about this book is wonderful. I couldn’t put it down. I loved the characters, and I loved the strong relationship between Mallory “Mouse” and Rider. I loved the way their characters grew and changed as the story unfolded. They were so encouraging with each other, and Mallory’s best friend Ainsley is such a great friend.
The themes in the novel are well developed: childhood trauma, class difference, foster care, adoption, the impact of good teachers (Mr. Santos, the speech teacher), good parenting.
This is simply an amazing book!
If you’re looking for romantic and heartwarming YA books about adoption, check out The Problem with Forever. You won’t regret it.
“But what I'm thinking in this moment is: none of us really get to have our own, separate lives. Our lives are always all horribly tangled up with the people around us. The people we love.” ― Cynthia Hand, quote from The How and the Why
There were not a lot of surprises in The How & the Why for me. I did not find any earth-shattering revelations or stunning plot twists.
And yet, Cassandra’s story is utterly compelling.
In many ways, she’s a typical teenager with a lot of ordinary conflicts: where to go to college, how to handle the boyfriend crush, and how to resolve a major fight with her best friend. She also has major non-normal conflicts like a mother who is dying because she needs a heart transplant and she’s contemplating a search for her biological mother.
As the reader, we meet Cassandra’s biological mother much earlier in the story because we read her letters, and so we understand the how and why of the pregnancy and adoption. We see this unfold while Cassandra is dealing with all that other teenager mess.
If you’re looking for heartwarming YA books about adoption, this is a good book and a worthwhile read. I was sad to see it end and wanted more.
What a weird and utterly hypnotic novel!
Frances Robinson is adopted. She has two loving, if overprotective, parents. When she was seven, her biological mother murdered her three younger sisters and almost succeeded in killing Frances too.
The premise of this book is so fascinating. What happened? Gosh! The pages turn at breakneck speed with this novel. And right from the beginning, there is a new boy at school, and Frances goes on a road trip with him to see her biological mother. This seems so random and out of character for Frances. But is it?
So many things about what happened seemed really over-the-top, especially in the second half of the book, but I could not put this book down. From the first chapter, I was all in. I had to meet this woman who could murder her own children and see how this situation would be resolved.
This isn’t a “heartwarming” YA book about adoption, but it’s definitely worth reading.
I really wanted to like this book. All the potential is there: heartwarming story, humor, romance, and the tough topic of a teen aging out of foster care. Muir’s character arc is well-developed, and some of the dialog is laugh-out-loud funny.
Unfortunately, the author kept blurting these heavy-handed and out-of-character statements about race into the protagonist’s viewpoint. These were incredibly jarring and kept pulling me out of narrative. It seemed that the author wanted this book to be about race, but rather than craft the novel in such a way to show this in a natural and authentic way, it failed. In fact, as a reader I was genuinely confused. At one point, I thought maybe the author herself had forgotten who her character really was—like maybe she changed her mind mid-novel about Muir’s identity and got lazy in the editing.
(p.11) I am white, and I know that buys me a definite amount of privileged safety…
Yet at the thought of being adopted by a white foster mother, she goes on this rant:
…this country was built on stealing babies from their mothers. White people did it to indigenous people, and they still try it; slave owners sure as fuck did it; white people still adopt kids from other cultures, name them Tiffany…
But… Muir is white. No one is stealing her. Where did this fake rage come from? It does not belong to Muir, and this speech breaks the flow of the rest of the story. It’s tacked in there. It falls flat.
I did like objects that Muir kept from all the foster families and the stories of how those objects came into her possession. I liked her resiliency in a life that was hard, and I liked her advocate, Joelle, who was the one constant in her life. The secondary characters were interesting. I liked the dog.
If you’re looking for YA books about adoption, What I Carry has good moments.
If you are looking for some other YA books about adoption, check out the YA Adoption Fiction and Adoption YA Books lists on Goodreads. You might also be interested in my post Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Dan Dumitriu
Find your next great read to celebrate the Summer Solstice by exploring my reviews of the best YA books that belong on your summer reading list this year.
For teens, summer is an unscheduled time. Free time. There’s no school, less supervision, more sleeping in, fewer restrictions, more opportunity to be with friends, more lying around and decompressing, even adventure. Reading a few great novels is a great way to spend some non-screen time. Summer-themed YA books may include stories where characters are traveling for summer vacation, preparing for college, having a summer romance, saying goodbye to a high school boyfriend, or working a summer job.
Here are my personal recommendations for which YA books belong on your summer reading list this year. It’s an eclectic list. Some of them are classics, and some are titles you may have never heard of before. With such an array of choices, you’ll be sure to find something that piques your interest.
Maybe this is the summer to try something new!
“This is supposed to be our best friend summer. You promised. No fickle-boyfriend distractions, just us one more time before senior year.“ ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Cutting Edge of Friendship
Sadie and Elana are supposed to be having one last, ultimate best friend summer before going their separate ways after high school. This is it. Their swan song. They’re going to have epic adventures, just the two of them.
But Sadie and Elana are keeping dangerous secrets from each other.
Best friends since elementary school, they know everything about each other, but on the night of the fireworks, something terrible happened to Sadie that she hasn’t told anyone. She can’t even say the word to herself. Instead, she’s started cutting to deal with the pain.
Elana has a secret of her own; she’s texting Hunter and making plans for a clandestine meeting with him. She doesn’t know what he did or why he really wants to keep their relationship secret.
To end this dangerous cat-and-mouse game, Sadie must reclaim her courage and rescue Elana before a rapist can attack again.
So powerful! The Cutting Edge of Friendship instantly drew me into the tangled conflict, and I couldn’t look away until the girls were safe.
What I love most about The Cutting Edge of Friendship is Sadie’s fierce and resilient character and the raw and authentic emotion as this painful story escalates toward its thrilling climax. This is the kind of novel that really shows how someone self harms to cope with pain in the aftermath of sexual assault. You won’t want to miss this thrilling summer-themed YA story about the complicated nature of friendship. It’s definitely one of the YA books that belongs on your summer reading list.
In fact, if you like to binge-read a new favorite author, Khristina Chess is on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited, so if The Cutting Edge of Friendship sounds intriguing, you might also want to check out some of her other titles too, like The Delinquent Hero and Junior Missing. For paperback fans, you could fill your whole beach bag.
“All these words and stories. My mom calls them the color of a human life: those little moments that are so uniquely ours.” ― Jennifer Niven, quote from Breathless
I might love this book even more than Niven’s All the Bright Places—and that's saying a lot!
Breathless is the story of Claude's trip to a remote island off the coast of Georgia after graduation with her mom following the sudden separation of her parents. She meets a boy and falls in love. So simple. Yet Jennifer Niven beautifully captures that lovely, breathless feeling of first love. Passionate kisses. Romantic trysts. Mosquito bites on sunburned skin.
There is so much growing up packed into this brief summer for Claude. She learns that parents have secrets and tell lies. She and her lifelong best friend grow apart even as they prepare to truly separate for fall college classes. And she has this deep relationship with Miah on the island that changes her in fundamental ways.
Breathless is the perfect beach read for your summer reading list. In fact, Jennifer Niven is also on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited, so you might want to check out some of these others, too.
“Life feels beautiful that day. The four of us Liars, we have always been. We always will be. No matter what happens as we go to college, grow old, build lives for ourselves; no matter if Gat and I are together or not. No matter where we go, we will always be able to line up on the roof of Cuddledown and gaze at the sea. This island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from We Were Liars
What an unexpected and beautiful story about summertime, friendship, coming of age, and sorrow!
I wasn’t sure I’d like this book, but I fell in love with this unexpected story. By the end it made me cry. We Were Liars is about a group of privileged young friends and their lies, family secrets, grief, and love. It’s a mystery. Its private island setting evokes all kinds of summer images: the beach, the heat, the sun. The beautiful and disorienting plot will leave you reader breathless until the very end.
If you haven’t picked this one up yet, do yourself a favor and add it to the top of your summer reading list this year. It’s a whirlwind read.
Lockhart's prequel to this one, Family of Liars, does not disappoint either! In Family of Liars, the narrator, Carrie, tells the story of the summer of the boys' visit to the island, but long before those events, there are ominous hints of what is to come. In her early teen years, for example, Carrie's father insists on a surgery to break her jaw, and an infection sets in. The pages are full of great details about summertime on the island. The lemon hunt was very vivid, as well as the details about clothing, food, and the picnic table. Lockhart painted a vivid sense of place, siblings, and privilege.
I recommend reading both of them while you’re at the beach!
“His bed’s really comfortable. And he never pees in it.” ― Huntley Fitzpatrick, quote from My Life Next Door
This adorable YA love story is compelling and has an unexpected ending. Everything about the messy Garrett house draws Samantha into it, but especially the good-looking son, Jase. He’s one of several children in the house. His little brother, George, has some of the best lines. I laughed out loud. The sneaking around teen love stuff was pretty wonderful. Samantha’s best friend is a jerk, and her sister is too. No wonder she’s so drawn to the loving family next door.
Samantha is keeping this relationship with Jase a secret from her mom and everyone else in her life, but eventually that blows up in her face. In the process, she learns some lessons about who she is and who she wants to be.
This dreamy YA book will leave you smiling for days and definitely belongs on your summer reading list this year. It evokes all those light feelings of happiness, joy, and romantic love. You just can’t help sighing about that first kiss. You can’t wait for Samantha and Jase to take their relationship to the next level, and your heart breaks when things get rocky. This is such a sweet story. So cute!
In fact, if I’m going to include My Life Next Door to the roundup of best YA books on your summer reading list this year, I also have to include The Unexpected Everything. This was another light, sweet, happy, and satisfying vacation read. The characters and story were perfect for each other. At first I didn't like them, but they totally won me over. They fit their world, and they grew as a result of the summer events. I will definitely read more of this author.
"We keep thinking there are only these two choices: We either grow apart or grow together. But maybe we can just kind of each grow on our own, and see how it goes. And then later, if it's right, we'll come back to each other and start again." ― Jennifer E. Smith, quote from Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between
In another “novel in one night” book, Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between explores the relationship of Clare and Aiden as they prepare to separate before heading off to college at the end of summer break. Along the way, they spend time with a cast of friends and visit places where they enjoyed some of their most memorable moments. I didn’t love-love the story and characters the same way that I did some of the other novels here, but there were sweet and romantic moments that kept me invested.
Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between definitely belong in this list of summer-themed YA books. If you’re looking for YA books that belong on your summer reading list this year, check out Jennifer Smith’s book.
If you are looking for some other great suggestions for which YA books belong on your summer reading list, check out the Summer-Themed YA and YA Summer Reads Books lists on Goodreads. If you haven’t found what you’re looking for yet, you might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Simon Rae
Find your next great read for Mother’s Day by exploring my reviews of these YA books about mother-daughter relationships.
What makes teenage daughters and mothers lock into bitter battles over clothing, hair, and friends? Doors slam. Windows rattle. Bitter words and angry silences prowl the house. While hormones are blamed, this is something different. Something deeper.
The daughter is trying to pull away and become her own person. The mother is trying to hold on to her little girl or maybe be her friend.
Maybe common ground can be found in stories, especially they’ve ever shared the joy of reading together. Books about mother-daughter relationships can bring a shared understanding. Even healing. All mothers and daughters fight. Sometimes a loving relationship becomes too painful, and a daughter moves far away—or runs away—and never comes home.
Here are my reviews of my favorite YA books about mother-daughter relationships. Sometimes they’ll make you smile. Sometimes they’ll make you cry. But in the end, you won’t forget them.
“All I knew with absolute confidence was that I could move and she couldn’t. If I stayed, we might both die waiting. If I left, we might both die alone. If I left, she might die alone, but I might find help and live. Or I might find help in time, lead them to the shelter, and we might both live.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Against the Pack
While walking on a rural road, Melender and her mom are attacked by a pack of dogs and fall down a near-vertical hillside into a ravine. Now they’re trapped on a narrow ledge and wounded. No one knows where they are. No one even knows they’re missing.
They have no food, water, shelter, or warm clothes. No phone to call for help. No medical supplies. Nothing.
The only positive is that Melender can walk. She doesn’t want to leave her critically-wounded mom behind, but it could be days before anyone starts looking for them.
They don’t have that much time.
Incredible! What I love most about Against the Pack is the way this story hooks you from the beginning and doesn’t let go. It’s impossible to put this one down. Melender is a gritty character who fights to live, and I was breathless as she journeyed toward the novel’s thrilling ending. This is the kind of wilderness survival adventure that explores the core spirit of a person, and as the hours and days unfold, the complicated nature of the relationship between Melender and her mom becomes apparent.
You won’t want to miss this action-packed YA book about mother-daughter relationships. Fans of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter will love this one.
In this absorbing novel, the mother-daughter relationship drives everything that’s happening, both in the present and in the past. The present is awful. Ingrid has been sent away to a 3-week wilderness program for at-risk teens, although she didn’t realize what she was signing up for at the time, and now she’s wet, miserable, mosquito-bitten, and trapped with a misfit group in the middle of nowhere. But she’s determined to see things through to prove something to her mother and earn the carrot, which is permission to attend a music school abroad.
The past is a complicated story about her mother’s beautiful opera voice and depression. There is a strong codependency relationship between the mother and daughter, since the mother is a depressed diva. From an early age, Ingrid took care of her mother since no father was in the picture.
I loved the mystery about how Ingrid ended up in the wilderness, and I was rooting for her to make it out.
If you are looking for a YA book about mother-daughter relationships, this one is one of my new favorites.
“And isn't that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark.” ― Elizabeth Acevedo, quote from The Poet X
What a surprising and lyrical story!
I wasn’t sure I’d like this book, which is told entirely in verse, but I couldn’t put it down. Xiaomara is a young girl whose traditional Catholic mother prohibits her from doing anything. Xiomara is a good and dutiful daughter. But she wants to participate in the poetry group.
The mother-daughter relationship was well-developed, and there was a powerful moment when the mother did something truly awful. Moments like those between mothers and daughters are the ones that can define the relationship forever. I liked the choices Xiaomara made in response to that. In fact, all of the primary and secondary characters played important roles in her journey. I loved her father, the teacher, the priest; it was refreshing to see so many supportive adults in a young person’s life in a YA novel.
This award-winning YA book about mother-daughter relationships definitely deserves all the accolades, hype, and great reviews it has received. Check it out!
“It's very hard to think of your parents as people. Full of bad checks and bad decisions, fistfights and broken hearts, all of it. Because if they can't goddamn take care of themselves, how will they take care of you?“ ― Kathleen Glasgow, quote from How to Make Friends with the Dark
After Tiger Tolliver's mom dies of a brain aneurysm, she becomes a ward of the state, an orphan, suddenly faced with an uncertain future. She doesn't have any living relatives. She doesn't know anything about her father. It's just her and her mom--and now just her. A minor.
What Tiger begins to learn is that her mom kept some important secrets from her. For example, she has a living dad. And a sister.
This YA novel about mothers and daughters is a real tear jerker! Tiger strikes me a sheltered girl with little real life experience; on the day her mom died, she was kissing a boy for the first time. She wasn't prepared for the events that followed as she entered the foster care system. Yet, despite her tragic circumstances, she makes a path for herself. She makes mistakes but doesn't fall off a cliff. She keeps people at a cautious distance, but she does make friends and finds a way to build a new family for herself.
How to Make Friends with the Dark will tug at your heartstrings. Bring extra tissues for this one!
“Maybe it's true that there are no happy endings. But, right now, Angie is grateful to be at what feels like a beginning.” ― Ava Delliara, quote from In Search of Us
The love story between Marilyn and James is so compelling and sweet. I wanted to stay with them for the whole book, and I wanted to know what happened to them, why Angie was searching for the truth about his death. Maybe he was still alive. If her mom had lied about the accident, couldn't she hope to find him and bring him back into their lives? This hope made her reckless and selfish.
That search was the only part that made Angie's story engaging for me. Her unanswered questions about her parents were also mine. I cared less about what was happening in her present with Sam and whether or not that might work out.
I sort of liked that Angie didn't really see her mom and dad as young people just like herself, full of love, dreams, hopes, and passions. But as a reader, I saw that. Marilyn as a mom was also Marilyn as a teen, and because of what happened to her, I was able to see it in her mothering. Her character arc was beautiful.
In Search of Us is definitely a great YA book about mother-daughter relationships.
“She has compared me to my sister every single day of my life, so why should I expect that to change now that she’s dead?” ― Erika L. Sanchez, quote from I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
I loved the cover on this novel, and with so many stars and enthusiastic reviews, I figured I would love this story. There is an interesting mystery about what happened to Julia’s older sister Olga, who died in front of a truck. There is an interesting view into Mexican culture.
But.
The mother-daughter relationship (which is the title of the book) is not the real focus of the story. The mother is portrayed as traditional and strict, but she’s also mostly a shadow and underdeveloped character. Julia, the daughter, is a hard character to like because she has so many hard edges, and I never reached a point of real empathy or connection with her—even though she is a grieving person. Instead, I felt like the book was a checklist of YA book “issues” without any depth or focus on any of them: immigration, depression, first-time sex, death of a sibling, food, Mexican culture, drug usage, attempted suicide, rape… The list could continue.
You will probably feel differently. Literally thousands of readers on Goodreads loved this book.
Still, this YA book about mothers and daughters definitely belongs on the must-read list for books in this category. It was a finalist for the National Book Award, after all.
If you are looking other YA books about mother-daughter relationships, check out the Mother Daughter Relationship Books list on Goodreads. You may also be interested in my posts on Other Good Reads.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Road Trip with Raj
Don’t you love discovering a book so engrossing it keeps you up at night? I do!
You’ve come to the right place. Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these binge-worthy YA books so addicting you can’t stop reading. It’s a magpie compilation. Some titles are classic binges, and some are authors you may have never heard of before. There are binge-worthy YA thrillers, mysteries, romances, issues-driven contemporaries, ghost stories, and series, and I’ve included multiple examples from each category. With such a varied collection, something is guaranteed rouse your curiosity.
In many places, I’ve noted that binge-worthy YA books turned into binge-worthy YA authors because everything I read by them was fast-paced and amazing.
By their very nature, the best mysteries and thrillers are binge-worthy YA books so addicting you can’t stop reading. They’re suspenseful. They’re full of conflict. They’re fast-paced with lots of plot twists to keep you interested.
“He kissed me again and again, and I began bargaining once more with the wind. I vowed to do better and try harder to keep this Quentin who loved me and kept me safe. The Quentin who I loved. Who loved me. Who didn’t treat me badly. Sex was the one place where he was always himself. His very best self. “― Khristina Chess, quote from Junior Missing
Love shouldn’t take prisoners.
Sixteen-year-old Grace Keegan, darling of the child pageant world, is missing. Police initially believe she ran away—until they locate her abandoned cell phone along the highway. No one knows she met someone online, someone older, a musician named Quentin Brock who has a cool band named Acid Mozart. He seems to be romantic, cute, and funny. He seems to be the perfect guy.
By the time he reveals his true colors, Grace is trapped in another state with no way out.
She doesn’t even have shoes.
Wow! Junior Missing hooked me from the first page and never let me go!
What makes Junior Missing so special is the gripping, slow-boil depiction of how Grace falls into the trap of an abusive relationship with an older man who takes her in—and won’t let her go. I worried about her. I loved seeing her journey and choices as she befriends the neighbor girl. This is the kind of thrilling, authentic novel that really shows how someone can so easily be manipulated and hurt in this kind of situation.
If you’re looking for a steamy thriller that you won’t be able to put down, this one is definitely a page-turner! In fact, Khristina Chess is on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she has so many suspenseful novels.
“The last laugh, the last cup of coffee, the last sunset, the last time you jump through a sprinkler, or eat an ice-cream cone, or stick your tongue out to catch a snowflake. You just don’t know.” ― Lauren Oliver, quote from Before I Fall
Samantha Kingston is dead.
In this YA-version of Groundhog Day, a “mean girl” gets a chance to relive her last day and the party she attended with her friends before the fatal car crash. She has an opportunity to make the same choices over and over, until she makes different ones.
This beautiful novel is a mystery about redemption. Samantha’s character arc really blew me away, and although I disliked her in the beginning, I was cheering for her by the end, and I love the way Lauren Oliver wrote the ending.
If you’re looking for a YA book so addicting you won’t be able to put it down, Before I Fall is worth a look.
"Sometimes people did this, closed their eyes for a few seconds and imagined it gave them insights into what it was like to be her. Only, at the end, they could still open their eyes and see." ― April Henry, quote from Girl, Stolen
This slender YA novel is a fast and engaging read!
The story is about sixteen-year-old Cheyenne Wilder, daughter of a famous Nike CEO, who is accidentally kidnapped by a boy named Griffen. He's about her age, maybe older, and he soon regrets his actions because his abusive father decides to hold her for ransom. Cheyenne is in danger. She has pneumonia; she's blind; bad men at Griffen's house are interested in assaulting her; and she expects to be killed once money has exchanged hands.
The prose is simple and effective. The viewpoint alternates between Cheyenne and Griffen, and we learn backstories of both protagonists through the story. I especially liked learning so much about what a blind person might experience in such a situation. Cheyenne was clever and resilient.
I haven't read a book straight through and stayed up to finish in a long time. Well done! If you’re looking for a YA book so addicting you won’t be able to put it down, you don’t want to miss this YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and YALSA Quick Pick winner.
“Before we were the Monsters of Brickhouse Lane—before everyone from Connecticut to California knew us by that tagline, and blogs ran pictures of our faces, and searching our names led to sites that crashed from all the traffic—we were just girls, and there were only two of us.” ― Lauren Oliver, quote from Broken Things
Once there were three friends who were writers and obsessed with a fantasy novel about a magical world. But one of the girls was murdered, and everyone thought the other two killed her. They didn’t.
Five years after Summer’s death, the friends are reunited and put on a path to find out the identity of the real killer.
This addictive YA novel is a mystery told in alternating viewpoints. I wanted to know what happened to Summer. Who murdered her and why? What happened that day in the woods? The dark plot twisted and kept me guessing until the end.
“Life feels beautiful that day. The four of us Liars, we have always been. We always will be. No matter what happens as we go to college, grow old, build lives for ourselves; no matter if Gat and I are together or not. No matter where we go, we will always be able to line up on the roof of Cuddledown and gaze at the sea. This island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from We Were Liars
What an unexpected and beautiful story about summertime, friendship, coming of age, and sorrow!
I wasn’t sure I’d like this book, but I fell in love with this unexpected story. By the end it made me cry. We Were Liars is about a group of privileged young friends and their lies, family secrets, grief, and love. It’s a mystery. Its private island setting evokes all kinds of summer images: the beach, the heat, the sun. The beautiful and disorienting plot will leave you reader breathless until the very end.
It’s a classic, but if you haven’t picked this one up yet, do yourself a favor and add it to your list of binge-worthy YA books so addicting you can’t stop reading. It’s a whirlwind.
Lockhart's prequel to this one, Family of Liars, does not disappoint either! In Family of Liars, the narrator, Carrie, tells the story of the summer of the boys' visit to the island, but long before those events, there are ominous hints of what is to come. In her early teen years, for example, Carrie's father insists on a surgery to break her jaw, and an infection sets in. The pages are full of great details about summertime on the island. The lemon hunt was very vivid, as well as the details about clothing, food, and the picnic table. Lockhart painted a vivid sense of place, siblings, and privilege.
“She believed that the way you speak is often more important than anything you have to say.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from Genuine Fraud
I picked up Genuine Fraud because I loved Lockhart’s book We Were Liars so much, and the premise sounded intriguing.
Genuine Fraud is a close re-imagining of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley (another binge-worthy series of books), but with female protagonists and a plot that has been lightly shuffled, so events are in different sequence but still end up being very, very familiar when you encounter them.
Because the book opens with a bang and gives a great big story question, I definitely wanted to find out what happened and how things were going to pan out. That made it a binge-worthy YA book. The ending, after all that, felt a little anti-climactic to me. Still, Lockhart is one of those authors whose writing is worth following, wherever it goes, and I'll be back for more.
“How do you forgive the people who are supposed to protect you? Sometimes, I don't know what I miss more; everything I've lost or everything I never had.” ― Courtney Summers, quote from Sadie
Sadie by Courtney Summers is another binge-worthy YA book so addicting you can’t stop reading. I felt instantly drawn into her story and liked the format of alternating podcast interviews and young Sadie’s viewpoint as she sought justice against her sister’s killer. She has plenty of personal reasons to hate him, and he deserves to die for his crimes.
This novel alternates between young Sadie, who is a missing teen, and a podcast show, where details of her disappearance are told through a series of interviews. I think I would have loved this book even more in audio format than paperback
Still, Sadie is a great read. The pacing increases as the story unfolds and Sadie gets closer and closer to her target. The conclusion to her quest for justice is a surprise. This thrilling YA book about teen runaways that will stay with you long after the last page. If Sadie sounds interesting, check out my list of Books You’ll Enjoy If You Liked Sadie.
I could keep listing binge-worthy YA mysteries and thrillers that you won’t be able to put down, but there are other genres to consider.
These YA romance books will appeal to readers of all ages. You don’t need a lusty bodice ripper for a great love story that gives all the feels. Sure, YA romance has less sex (generally), but these books make up for that in other ways. There’s plenty of kissing, sharing the same breath, and intimate moments that lead up to the kissing. A lot builds into that first kiss.
YA romance makes one of the best books to binge read.
“About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him-and I didn’t know how potent that part might be-that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.” ― Stephanie Meyer, quote from Twilight
Oh. My. Gosh.
Twilight was my introduction to YA as an adult reader, and I remember plowing through these novels at a breakneck pace. They’re part love stories, part vampire and werewolf fantasy world, and just full of all the great emotions. At one point I contacted my friend who’d recommended the series and asked, “When do they finally have sex?!” By this point I felt as frustrated about the situation with Edward as Bella.
“It’s young adult,” she said. “Remember?”
Right.
For readers who have never read them or even those who read them a decade ago, these books are highly addicting, binge-worthy, can’t-put-down, and worth another look. There’s a reason millions of people loved them, watched all the movies, and bought posters. The passion between Bella and Edward sizzles on the pages of this series. Even more, there is a love triangle between Bella, Edward, and Jacob in the middle books that turns up the heat.
“All these words and stories. My mom calls them the color of a human life: those little moments that are so uniquely ours.” ― Jennifer Niven, quote from Breathless
I might love this book even more than Niven’s All the Bright Places—and that's saying a lot!
Breathless is the story of Claude's trip to a remote island off the coast of Georgia after graduation with her mom following the sudden separation of her parents. She meets a boy and falls in love. So simple. Yet Jennifer Niven beautifully captures that lovely, breathless feeling of first love. Passionate kisses. Romantic trysts. Mosquito bites on sunburned skin.
There is so much growing up packed into this brief summer for Claude. She learns that parents have secrets and tell lies. She and her lifelong best friend grow apart even as they prepare to truly separate for fall college classes. And she has this deep relationship with Miah on the island that changes her in fundamental ways.
Breathless is the perfect book to pack for vacation reading because you won’t be able to put it down. In fact, Jennifer Niven is also on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited, so you might want to check out some of these others, too.
“His bed’s really comfortable. And he never pees in it.” ― Huntley Fitzpatrick, quote from My Life Next Door
This adorable YA love story is compelling and has an unexpected ending. Everything about the messy Garrett house draws Samantha into it, but especially the good-looking son, Jase. He’s one of several children in the house. His little brother, George, has some of the best lines. I laughed out loud. The sneaking around teen love stuff was pretty wonderful. Samantha’s best friend is a jerk, and her sister is too. No wonder she’s so drawn to the loving family next door.
Samantha is keeping this relationship with Jase a secret from her mom and everyone else in her life, but eventually that blows up in her face. In the process, she learns some lessons about who she is and who she wants to be.
This dreamy YA romance will leave you smiling for days and is definitely addictive. It evokes all those light feelings of happiness, joy, and romantic love. You just can’t help sighing about that first kiss. You can’t wait for Samantha and Jase to take their relationship to the next level, and your heart breaks when things get rocky. This is such a sweet story. So cute!
In fact, if I’m going to include My Life Next Door for the YA romance category, I also have to include The Unexpected Everything in my recommendations of binge-worthy YA books. This was another light, sweet, happy, and satisfying vacation read. The characters and story were perfect for each other. At first I didn't like them, but they totally won me over. They fit their world, and they grew as a result of the summer events. I will definitely binge-read more of this author.
Tweet Cute is a sweet YA romance told in alternating viewpoints of two teens who are engaged in a Twitter war for their family businesses. In a case of hidden identities, Pepper and Jack also are involved in a secret budding relationship through an app that conceals their identity from one another. What could possibly go wrong?
Plenty!
I loved all of the food in the book, and the world from Pepper's point of view felt very real to me. She has never left beyond the general radius of her NY apartment, and the adventure of getting on a train for her college interview seemed big and important. I could also get a real sense of Jack's neighborhood and the deli and its patrons. Both teens had very rich character development.
As a romantic novel, I had bigger expectations when the couple finally got together. It didn't feel quite as satisfying in that aspect as it might have been. Still, a can’t-put-down great read, and I definitely recommend it as a binge-worthy YA book!
The contemporary issues-driven YA books are so popular that many bestsellers have been made into successful Netflix movies and mini-series, such as 13 Reasons Why. Before they streamed to TV, though, they were binge-worthy YA books so addicting everyone was reading them. Here are my reviews of some of the best YA books to binge read in this category that have not been optioned as movies—yet.
Three life lessons:
1. No one will see you.
2. No one will say anything.
3. No one will save you. ― Elizabeth Scott, quote from Living Dead Girl
Fifteen-year-old Alice is the kidnapping victim of a pedophile named Ray who took her at age ten. This haunting, horrifying, graphic, disturbing, and tragic book is about so much more than child rape, although that certainly happens. This novel shows how a person—a child—can lose their self-worth and believe their captor’s lies.
How someone can lose their own humanity.
This thin novel was a fast read, but Alice and her story have stayed with me long after I finished. It’s her voice. In her unflinching viewpoint, Alice shows us what happens to children who are taken and never found. She challenges us to look more closely at the people around us. To notice.
Pay attention. Speak.
The monsters prey on the mute.
This binge-worthy YA book is so addicting it makes my list of the best YA book recommendations for all ages (and why). Read it. You won’t be able to look away. It will break your heart.
“Sometimes my inside hurts so bad that I need to make the outside hurt worse so the inside will stop.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Cutting Edge of Friendship
Sadie and Elana are keeping dangerous secrets.
Best friends since elementary school, they know everything about each other, but on the night of the fireworks, something terrible happened to Sadie that she hasn’t told anyone. She can’t even say the word to herself. Instead, she’s started cutting to deal with the pain.
Elana has a secret of her own; she’s texting Hunter and making plans for a clandestine meeting with him. She doesn’t know what he did or why he really wants to keep their relationship secret.
To end this dangerous cat-and-mouse game, Sadie must reclaim her courage and rescue Elana before a rapist can attack again.
So powerful! The Cutting Edge of Friendship instantly drew me into the tangled conflict, and I couldn’t look away until the girls were safe.
What I love most about The Cutting Edge of Friendship is Sadie’s fierce and resilient character and the raw and authentic emotion as this painful story escalates toward its thrilling climax. This is the kind of novel that really shows how someone self harms to cope with pain in the aftermath of sexual assault. You won’t want to miss this binge-worthy YA book about cutting that explores the complicated nature of friendship. Fans of Girl in Pieces will enjoy this one.
“Sometimes, it was just a little rough: a blocking bruise. Other times, a hard foul. And if things were really bad—full contact.” ― Sarah Dessen, quote from Dreamland
I've read a couple Sarah Dessen books that were "okay," but wow, this one really, really grabbed me!
It starts when Caitlin's sister, Cass, runs away. I knew the story was about relationship abuse, and I was expecting the runaway sister Cass to be with a bad guy, but no. After she disappears, Caitlin falls for a guy named Rogerson who ends up being the abusive one. Caitlin's downward spiral is emotional, realistic, and heartbreaking. From the first time Rogerson hits her, I kept waiting for someone to intervene or for her to wake up, but it went on and on until the climactic moment when something had to shatter.
I felt really bad for Caitlin. She seemed invisible to everyone who supposedly loved her. She was hiding her pain in front of everyone. And people she loved kept leaving her: first her sister Cass and then her new friend Corinna.
If you like the tough topics and want to explore YA books about dating violence and abuse, Dreamland is great binge-worthy YA book to add to your list. It’s addictive. You won’t be able to stop reading until the final page.
“I'd rather be lucky than good. Good is just so overrated. Bad girls have the most fun.” ― Amy Efaw, quote from After
What kind of girl leaves her infant to die in the trash?
Devon Davenport is a “good girl” whose one misstep leads to an unplanned pregnancy. She’s so filled with denial about her entire situation that she cannot even admit to herself that she’s pregnant until she gives birth. The depiction of her detachment is incredibly real and heartbreaking.
During her stay in the juvenile detention center, Devon must face facts about herself and her situation. Her lawyer plays an important role in drawing the story out of her and helping to build empathy for this girl who has committed such a horrific act.
Devon’s transformation from the beginning to the end of book is heartfelt and moving. I couldn’t put it down.
If you’re looking for binge-worthy YA books, don’t miss this poignant YA book about teen pregnancy. It will especially appeal to fans of Jodi Piccoult. And if you enjoy it, Efaw’s other novel, Battle Dress, which depicts a seventeen-year-old girl’s experience as a cadet at West Point, is also a great read.
“When I wake up, all my friends are dead. I don’t know when they stopped breathing, or how long I slept while they dropped off one by one.” ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from Heroine
Those are the opening words of Heroine, the compelling novel about the slow slide of Mickey from Catalan from her position as a star student athlete to heroin addict. It begins with a terrible car accident and pain. Determine to make it back on the field, she uses the prescription painkillers to accelerate her recovery.
But then she’s out of pills and needs more.
What’s so compelling about Heroine is Mickey’s slow slide into addiction and her denial about her situation. She justifies every step of the way. The means justifies the ends, every time.
I did not watch my friends die.
I did not leave their bodies cooling in a basement.
I am not an addict.
If you like the tough topics and want to explore Important YA Books Featuring Characters Dealing with Substance Abuse, Heroine is great binge-worthy YA book to add to your list.
In fact, Mindy McGinnis is also on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited, so you might want to check out some of her other books, too. She writes some up-all-night page-turners!
For this category, I’ve included my top two favorite binge-worthy YA books.
“I know Becca didn’t run away. That leaves one possibility and one impossibility, and I long for the impossible. Because if she isn’t dead, if she’s only been taken, she can be brought back.” ― Kate Alice Marshall, quote from Rules for Vanishing
Sara’s adopted sister Becca vanished a year ago.
Although everyone has given up the search, Sara is determined to find her because she believes Becca has gone into the woods and is lost on The Road. Sara convinces (tricks) a group of her friends to join her on this terrifying journey.
Not everyone comes home. Because at some point they break the rules:
Don’t leave the road.
Don’t let go.
Don’t follow other roads.
Rules for Vanishing is not a typical YA novel about teen runaways. It is dark, mysterious, creepy, and full of scary and supernatural stuff. I loved it and devoured it in a few days. The ending was an unexpected twist, especially because of the connection to Kate Alice Marshall’s other novel, Our Last Echoes, which I’d read first.
If Rules for Vanishing sounds interesting, check out my list of Books You’ll Enjoy If You Liked Rules for Vanishing.
“Believing is a type of magic. It can make something true.” ― Emily X.R. Pan, quote from The Astonishing Color of After
A young girl, Leigh Chen Sanders, is grieving the death of her mother, who committed suicide. Leigh believes that she turned into a bird, and she goes on a journey to visit her grandparents in Taiwan in search of her mother, the bird, and other family secrets.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan is one of my top favorite YA reads. I discovered the novel after reading a Goodreads review so intriguing that I went hunting for the title during my next Barnes & Noble trip. The Astonishing Color of After was shelved under Teen Fantasy, a category where I never shop, so without seeing the great reviewer comments I might never have discovered this touching book about grief, culture, and family secrets.
This book wrecked me. The writing is so beautiful. Whether it’s the love story, the voice, the mystery, or the family culture aspect, there’s plenty of reasons why fans connect with this YA classic. I truly can’t say enough wonderful things about this amazing novel.
If you haven’t discovered it yet, you definitely want to make it one of the YA books on your list of binge-worthy YA books so addicting you can’t stop reading. And if you have already read it, here’s my list of other great books for fans of The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan.
If you’ve seen The Hunger Games or Divergent, you know that apocalyptic fiction is popular in YA. Here are two series that you might have missed that are totally binge-worthy:
The Razorland Trilogy was one of the first YA books like The Hunger Games that I read, and from the very first pages, I was hooked! The novels are set in a dark future where the cities are ruined by plague, war, “tunnel monsters,” and ongoing skirmishes between the surviving gangs that roam in this world. In the first book, Enclave, we meet the heroine, a fifteen-year-old girl named Deuce who lives in the New York subway in a community called an enclave. Life is hard. It becomes even harder when she and another teenage Hunter are exiled from their enclave and must go to the surface to live.
The next two books, Outpost and Horde, follow Deuce in her new life above ground, and all three novels are fast-paced, engrossing reads that I couldn’t put down. Each book was as good as the last, very immersive, and Deuce is a well-drawn, fighting heroine that I rooted for every step of the way.
Check out these binge-worthy YA books so addicting you can’t stop reading. You will love them.
“You see, a conflict always begins with an issue - a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn't matter anymore, because now it's about one thing and one thing only: how much each side hates the other.” ― Neal Shusterman, quote from Unwind
Unwind is Book #1 in a 5-part dystopian YA series in which teens may be sent to "Harvest Camps" to be chopped up for parts if their parents sign the papers. No part is wasted.
Some, like Connor, are signed over because of behavior problems. Others, like Risa, are wards of the state who simply don't make the cut in terms of protegee status. Lev begins as a religious tithe, a willing victim, but after being kidnapped and freed by Connor, he also changes.
The concept of this series and the plotting are great, and I'm interested to see where the rest of the books go. There were moments, though, where I thought the book fell short of greatness. For example:
If a parent is able to bring all the parts of their child back together again, can they recover their child?
Where do the souls of these children go?
There are some attempts at these questions, but I wanted the book to go deeper. The fact that I keep thinking about the unwinding process means that something important is being covered here.
The Unwind saga definitely belongs on the list of binge-worthy YA books.
If you are looking for some other great suggestions for binge-worthy YA books so addicting you won’t be able to put them down, check out the YA Thriller Books and YA Books That Tackle Tough Issues on Goodreads. You may also be interested in my post on The Best YA Book Recommendations for All Ages (and YA) or my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type of tough topic, including eating disorders, substance abuse, mental illness, and others.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another binge-worthy YA books or author to add to my list.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Dan Meyers
Find your next great read for Suicide Prevention Month by exploring my reviews of these frank YA books about suicide that deal with the subject head-on.
Suicide rates among vulnerable and at-risk youth continue to rise. Reasons for this trend are varied, including mental illness and life circumstances, but the result is a feeling of isolation. No one understands. No one sees.
Reading stories about suicide is one way to understand the warning signs that a friend or your own teen might be suicidal. Storytelling is one way to see that others share these feelings and thoughts:
Everything is falling apart.
I am not enough.
Who I am on the inside doesn’t match the outside.
I feel empty and alone.
There’s no hope.
It’s not true. If you are feeling hopeless or helpless, it might be the trigger for you to seek the help you need.
NOTE: If you or your teen is in danger right now, you can call or text 988 in the United States to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which is available 24 hours a day.
So which frank YA books about suicide should you read next? The following books aren’t afraid to use the word “suicide” or deal with this important topic directly. Some are hopeful. Some are humorous. Some people are saved, and some are not. All these stories are worth reading.
“I'm going to do it. November 4 is the last day of the grading period, and if I don't make perfect straight A’s, it's all over.“ ― Khristina Chess, quote from Straight A’s
Kim is planning to kill herself.
Kim was supposed to be valedictorian of her class, but then her parents split, and everything went wrong. She’s bouncing between them and trying to carry the weight of their emotional meltdowns on top of her own stuff, and it’s just too much. Too much!
With time running out in the semester and academic pressures mounting, depression threatens to overwhelm her. Getting straight A’s means everything: scholarships, acceptance to top schools, everything! Earning a B in calculus is unacceptable.
As she makes secret preparations to commit suicide, the last thing she expects is to fall for the cute new guy in Writer’s Club.
Wonderful, a real page-turner! Straight A’s grabbed and held my interest all the way. What I love most about this book is Kim’s resilient character and her emotions as events escalate toward the story’s climax. It’s a great positive message for youths. This is the kind of authentic novel that really shows how someone can fall into a downward spiral of despair and see no way out of their own circumstances.
You won’t want to miss this frank YA book about suicide. Fans of All the Bright Places will enjoy this one.
In this absorbing novel, a broken mother-daughter relationship drives everything that’s happening, both in the present and in the past. The present is awful. Ingrid has been sent away to a 3-week wilderness program for at-risk teens, although she didn’t realize what she was signing up for at the time, and now she’s wet, miserable, mosquito-bitten, and trapped with a misfit group in the middle of nowhere. But she’s determined to see things through to prove something to her mother and earn the carrot, which is permission to attend a music school abroad.
The past is a complicated story about her mother’s beautiful opera voice and depression and its impact on Ingrid. There is a strong codependency relationship between the mother and daughter, since the mother is a depressed diva. From an early age, Ingrid took care of her mother since no father was in the picture.
I loved the mystery about how Ingrid ended up in the wilderness, and I was rooting for her to make it out.
If you are looking for a frank YA book about suicide with real character depth and heartbreak, this one is one of my new favorites.
“Tentacles is my term—the Tentacles are the evil tasks that invade my life. Like, for example, my American History class last week, which necessitated me writing a paper on the weapons of the Revolutionary War, which necessitated me traveling to the Metropolitan museum to check out some of the old guns, which necessitated me getting in the subway, which necessitated me being away from my cell phone and e-mail for 45 minutes, which meant that I didn’t get to respond to a mass mail sent out by my teacher asking who needed extra credit, which meant other kids snapped up the extra credit, which meant I wasn’t going to get a 98 in the class, which meant I wasn’t anywhere close to a 98.6 average (body temperature, that’s what you needed to get), which meant I wasn’t going to get into a Good College, which meant I wasn’t going to have a Good Job, which meant I wasn’t going to have health insurance, which meant I’d have to pay tremendous amounts of money for the shrinks and drugs my brain needed, which meant I wasn’t going to have enough money to pay for a Good Lifestyle, which meant I’d feel ashamed, which meant I’d get depressed, and that was the big one because I knew what that did to me: it made it so I wouldn’t get out of bed, which led to the ultimate thing—homelessness.” ― Ned Vizzini, quote from It’s Kind of a Funny Story
That is the wonderful, funny, and utterly unique voice of the narrator of this novel, Craig Gilner, who has ambitious goals for his life but who also suffers from anxiety and depression. He’s trying. Really. But things like The Tentacles get in the way.
I loved this book! It is a humorous and hopeful novel about a boy whose suicidal episode sends him on a very interesting journey through an adult psychiatric ward in a New York City hospital.
This book is a must-read for anyone interested in YA novels about suicide.
Buy it. Read it. Ned Vizzini’s writing is masterful. It’s so incredibly sad that this author died from an apparent suicide.
“And most of all, Jane, f*#!ck you for leaving me here alone. For showing me happiness and then taking it all away.” ― Michael Belanger, quote from The History of Jane Doe
I picked up this book because I saw a positive review on Goodreads, but I didn't have any real idea what it was about except "read this book." The back-and-forth in time was confusing at first, but it seemed to adequately reflect Ray's state of mind and how he was dealing with his grief and the events after his girlfriend committed suicide. The book does a great job of exploring the helpless and unanswerable questions that someone like Jane leaves us with. I felt empathy for her parents, for Simon, for Ray, for Ray's parents, even the counselor. History shows that she touched everyone deeply and differently.
She will not be forgotten.
You will want to read this frank YA book about suicide and the way suicide impacts people who are left behind. Ray is a character worth knowing and listening to.
“She peels an orange, separates it in perfect halves, and gives one of them to me. If I could wear it like a friendship bracelet, I would. Instead I swallow it section by section and tell myself it means even more this way. To chew and to swallow in silence here with her.” ― Nina LaCour, quote from We Are Okay
I wanted to read this book for many years on the basis of its cover alone. Look at it! I didn’t even know what the story was about, but it must be beautiful with artwork like that, right?
The book blurb doesn’t prepare you for what this story is about. The plot meanders between present and past. In the present, Marin is staying in her freshman dorm room alone over Christmas break because tragedy has occurred. What tragedy? Well, that’s the big mystery. Her best friend Mabel from California shows up to try to talk her into coming home, and oh by the way, the two of them were romantically involved in the past.
But not anymore.
Mabel doesn’t understand why Marin left without speaking, what happened in the interim, and why she is refusing to come home. Finding out these answers is the main story, but what this book is really about is grief, loneliness, betrayal, longing, being orphaned, and growing up.
I liked We Are Okay. It’s quiet. It’s understated and lovely. I really felt Marin’s sorrow.
If you are looking for a frank YA book about suicide, you definitely want to add this one to your TBR pile!
Chris is missing.
While he’s gone, his girlfriend Jessie decides to write letters to him, so the entire book is a series of scenes narrated to Chris. The mystery of his disappearance deepens as more of the bullying and racism that Chris had endured unfolds.
Heartbreaking, beautiful, and powerful, Jessie’s letters are her way of coming to terms with the fact that the boy she loved went running one night but never came home again.
Check out this hard-hitting YA book. It’s a great third-person look at the impact of depression on those who love the person and feel helpless to ease their suffering.
“Whose fault was it? That’s the question on everyone’s mind, isn’t it? Nobody will ever say it out loud. It’s a question people would call inappropriate. The kind of thing where everyone tells you, “It’s nobody’s fault.” But is that even true? It’s only human nature to look for a place to lay the blame. Our fingers are more than ready to do the pointing, but it’s like we’re all blindfolded and spinning. What makes a person want to die?” ― Emily X.R. Pan, quote from The Astonishing Color of After
A young girl, Leigh Chen Sanders, is grieving the death of her mother, who committed suicide. Leigh believes that she turned into a bird, and she goes on a journey to visit her grandparents in Taiwan in search of her mother, the bird, and other family secrets.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan is one of my top favorite YA reads. I discovered the novel after reading a Goodreads review so intriguing that I went hunting for the title during my next Barnes & Noble trip. The Astonishing Color of After was shelved under Teen Fantasy, a category where I never shop, so without seeing the great reviewer comments I might never have discovered this touching book about grief, culture, and family secrets.
This book wrecked me. The writing is so beautiful. Whether it’s the love story, the voice, the mystery, or the family culture aspect, there’s plenty of reasons why fans connect with this YA classic. I truly can’t say enough wonderful things about this amazing novel.
If you haven’t discovered it yet, you definitely want to make it one of the YA books on your list of YA books about suicide you should read next. And if you have already read it, here’s my list of other great books for fans of The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan.
“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.” ― Jennifer Niven, quote from All the Bright Places
Theodore Finch has more than a touch of the blues.
Violet Markey wants to escape the grief that lives in her hometown where her sister recently died.
Violet and Theodore are an unlikely couple, paired together on a school project to explore the natural wonders of their state. At first, Theodore seems to be the one helping Violet with her sadness, but Violet doesn’t have any understanding about the depth of Theodore’s despair. Along their journey, they make several unexpected discoveries about one another.
After re-reading this book a second time, I enjoyed it every bit as much as the the first. I liked the writing, the dual character viewpoints, the story, the language, and the symbolism.
Blue is a primary color.
This lovely YA book is about suicide, depression, and loss, and Niven handles all of these difficult topics with honesty and resonance. All the Bright Places is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, Jennifer Niven is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
I want to tell them, "Chip, Kim, there is no way to suicide-proof a person.” ― Julie Anne Peters, quote from By the Time You Read This I’ll Be Dead
Daelyn is going to kill herself in 23 days.
Daelyn is a bullied girl who failed her first suicide attempt but intends to get it right the next time. A website named Through the Light provides support to wanna-be suicide “completers” like Daelyn, and she spends a lot of free time there. Counting down the days.
Then she meets a boy. She tries to ignore him, but he’s pushy. Persistent. Charming, even.
But is he charming enough to keep her from going through the light when the countdown ends?
This short, brutal novel is a fast read. It’s not easy, happy, or hopeful, but it’s a raw and real look at suicide. If you are looking for a frank YA book about suicide, this one is a must-read!
“You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything… affects everything.” ― Jay Asher, quote from Thirteen Reasons Why
Hannah Baker committed suicide, and she left behind 13 tapes explaining why she did it.
When Clay receives these tapes, he goes on a journey to understand why she did it. It’s a terrible story involving crimes, and with every tape, there is suspense in wondering how Clay contributed to this girl’s death.
Clay is a nice guy. He has a thing for Hannah. It doesn’t seem he could have anything to do with it, but this story shows how you often don’t know what another person is going through.
Jay Asher’s popular novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, is one of the best YA books about suicide, and it’s one of the most popular YA books about bullying. It became a super-popular series on Netflix; there’s a reason it has become a #1 New York Times and International Bestseller. If you somehow missed it, you should definitely check it out.
Because this is such an important topic impacting many people, Goodreads has several popular lists, including: YA Books About/Mentioning Depression, Self Harm, and Suicide, Goodreads Depression Book Lists, and Goodreads Popular YA Suicide Books. You might also be interested in my post Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Melissa Askew
Find your next great read for Friendship Day by exploring my reviews of these YA books about friendship.
There’s something special about the friendships in high school. The deep emotional connections formed between best friends is strong, especially for those with the trust to share one another’s true selves. Bonds are formed through shared secrets, experiences, and common enemies, but the nature of friendship relationships is complicated. The pain of transitioning away from a long-time best friend can be a lasting and bittersweet loss.
Reading stories about the joys and heartbreak of these friendships can be a comfort. The best YA books about friendship capture all the highs and lows and complexity of these relationships. All friends disagree and fight. Sometimes friendships don’t survive to adulthood, but sometimes they do.
Here are my reviews of the best YA books about friendship. Sometimes they’ll make you laugh out loud. Sometimes they’ll make you cry. But in the end, you won’t forget them.
“Elana and I had always been as different as horses and helicopters. In an interview for our school paper last year, she described me as a reckless adventurer—audacious, fearless, and running on pure adrenaline—and herself as a hopeless romantic who dreamed of nothing more than a family as big and boring as the Brady Bunch.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Cutting Edge of Friendship
Sadie and Elana are keeping dangerous secrets.
Best friends since elementary school, they know everything about each other, but on the night of the fireworks, something terrible happened to Sadie that she hasn’t told anyone. She can’t even say the word to herself. Instead, she’s started cutting to deal with the pain.
Elana has a secret of her own; she’s texting Hunter and making plans for a clandestine meeting with him. She doesn’t know what he did or why he really wants to keep their relationship secret.
To end this dangerous cat-and-mouse game, Sadie must reclaim her courage and rescue Elana before a rapist can attack again.
So powerful! The Cutting Edge of Friendship instantly drew me into the tangled conflict, and I couldn’t look away until the girls were safe.
What I love most about The Cutting Edge of Friendship is Sadie’s fierce and resilient character and the raw and authentic emotion as this painful story escalates toward its thrilling climax. The friendship between the two girls is deep and authentic, which makes the betrayal all the more poignant. This is the kind of novel that really shows how someone self harms to cope with pain in the aftermath of sexual assault. You won’t want to miss this powerful YA book about friendship that explores its complicated nature.
“…we’ve learned that all we can do is look after our own. Reese and Byatt, they’re mine and I’m theirs.” ― Rory Power, quote from Wilder Girls
I wanted to read Wilder Girls for many years on the basis of its cover alone. It’s one of my top-10 YA favorite covers of all time. It’s so beautiful and intriguing, without even knowing what the story is about.
An all-girls school on an island is quarantined because of a mysterious plague that has killed a significant portion of both the student and faculty population, as well as animals, and the remaining people are infected. This disease does terrible things to them. Now, they’re waiting for a cure. It’s been promised. They just have to stay alive until it comes.
The pacing is fast, and I was drawn into the relationships between the girls. They are gritty heroines. I couldn’t wait to discover what was truly going on and how this situation would ultimately be resolved.
This YA book about friendship in an apocalyptic crisis is worth a try. Don’t miss it.
“We used to be pretty good friends, but fourteen-year-old girls are psychotic.” ― Jesse Andrews, quote from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
How can a book about a teenage girl dying from leukemia be so funny?
Greg and Earl are weird, unlikely friends and amateur filmmakers who manage to fly below the radar at school and enjoy their private world. Then Greg’s mom makes him reach out to Rachel, a childhood friend who has been diagnosed with leukemia and needs a friend.
Earl turns out to be the more compassionate of the pair, and the two of them set out to make a movie about Rachel. Their brilliant idea fails in execution and is the Worst Film Ever Made.
This fun, funny, and all-around wonderful YA book about friendship is full of crude humor, heart, honesty, and surprises as Greg learns things about his long-time friend Earl, as well as himself, through this journey with the dying girl, Rachel. I can’t say enough good about it. Buy it. Read it. Laugh.
“Life feels beautiful that day. The four of us Liars, we have always been. We always will be. No matter what happens as we go to college, grow old, build lives for ourselves; no matter if Gat and I are together or not. No matter where we go, we will always be able to line up on the roof of Cuddledown and gaze at the sea. This island is ours. Here, in some way, we are young forever.” ― E. Lockhart, quote from We Were Liars
What an unexpected and beautiful story about friendship, coming of age, and sorrow!
I wasn’t sure I’d like this book, but I fell in love with it. By the end it made me cry. This YA book about friendship is about a group of privileged young friends and their lies, family secrets, grief, and love. It’s a mystery. The beautiful and disorienting plot will leave you reader breathless until the very end.
If you haven’t picked this one up yet and are looking for a great YA book about friendship, do yourself a favor. It’s a whirlwind read.
“Before we were the Monsters of Brickhouse Lane—before everyone from Connecticut to California knew us by that tagline, and blogs ran pictures of our faces, and searching our names led to sites that crashed from all the traffic—we were just girls, and there were only two of us.” ― Lauren Oliver, quote from Broken Things
Once there were three friends who were writers and obsessed with a fantasy novel about a magical world. But one of the girls was murdered, and everyone thought the other two killed her. They didn’t.
Five years after Summer’s death, the friends are reunited and put on a path to find out the identity of the real killer.
This YA book about friendship is a mystery told in alternating viewpoints. I wanted to know what happened to Summer. Who murdered her and why? What happened that day in the woods? The dark plot twisted and kept me guessing until the end.
“She peels an orange, separates it in perfect halves, and gives one of them to me. If I could wear it like a friendship bracelet, I would. Instead I swallow it section by section and tell myself it means even more this way. To chew and to swallow in silence here with her.” ― Nina LaCour, quote from We Are Okay
I wanted to read this book for many years on the basis of its cover alone. Look at it! I didn’t even know what the story was about, but it must be beautiful with artwork like that, right?
The book blurb doesn’t prepare you for what this story is about. The plot meanders between present and past. In the present, Marin is staying in her freshman dorm room alone over Christmas break because tragedy has occurred. What tragedy? Well, that’s the big mystery. Her best friend Mabel from California shows up to try to talk her into coming home, and oh by the way, the two of them were romantically involved in the past.
But not anymore.
Mabel doesn’t understand why Marin left without speaking, what happened in the interim, and why she is refusing to come home. Finding out these answers is the main story, but what this book is really about is grief, loneliness, betrayal, longing, being orphaned, and growing up.
I liked We Are Okay. It’s quiet. It’s understated and lovely. I really felt Marin’s sorrow.
If you are looking for an evocative YA books about friendship, grief, and loss, you definitely want to add this one to your TBR pile!
“We might as well make some trouble together.” ― Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson, quote from The Agathas
I absolutely love Kathleen Glasgow and all her books. The Agathas is a good read, and I could not guess who the killer was until the very end. I enjoyed the growing friendship between Alice and Iris, as well as the secondary cast of sidekick characters they brought onto the case. “Fun” is the adjective other reviewers have frequently used for The Agathas, and I can agree with that. Plucky Alice and sensitive Iris make a fun pair of sleuths.
I felt the book fulfilled its mission in its mystery genre, and if the characters and writing weren’t as lovely as Glasgow’s other books, that’s more of a byproduct of the category. Also, it’s a collaboration and my first glimpse into anything by Liz Lawson.
If you’re looking for an entertaining YA book about friendship with a fun mystery too, you should definitely add The Agathas to your TBR pile. In fact, Kathleen Glasgow is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
“We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.” ― Sherman Alexie, quote from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Junior Spirit is a courageous boy who dares to leave the reservation, his school, and his best friend to seek a different life. His story is funny, heartbreaking, inspiring, and brave. I loved his quirky voice, his cartoons, and I cheered so hard for him in his basketball game.
This novel highlights the contrast between extreme poverty and wealth, as well as racial differences. These themes are handled with humor and sensitivity. This YA book about friendship is another winner that does not disappoint.
If you are looking other YA books about friendship, check out the YA Friendship Books, Toxic Friendships in YA, and Teen Friendship Books lists on Goodreads. You may also be interested in my post on Other Good Reads.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Mihail Macri
Find your next great for Eating Disorder Awareness Month by exploring reviews of my favorite books about anorexia and eating disorders.
Reading stories of others and knowing that you—or someone you love—is not alone can be a powerful way to cope. There is magic in sharing our stories. Ask anyone who has belonged to a healing or recovery community.
Reading books about eating disorders even can help save lives by showing what the symptoms and behaviors look like. Through the power of story, someone may recognize that something is wrong in their own life or in the lives of one of their friends, and this can lead someone to seek help.
So which YA books about eating disorders should you read? Here are reviews of my favorites in this category. (Bonus: There are some memoirs in this list, too!)
“It’s easier to think about food and the physical pain inside my body from not eating than the other pain of not having Kat. My sister would totally understand this. She would. As long as I’m connecting to her this way—our familiar, hungry old way—she’s with me.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Delinquent Hero
Wow! The Delinquent Hero grabbed me from the first page and never stopped!
Although pitched as an action-packed murder mystery, this YA is also a raw and unforgettable story about a complicated sisterhood, eating disorders, and loss. It’s hard to put down. The present story line is an investigation of the odd circumstances and events that landed Kat in the hospital on a ventilator, but as the hours and days unfold, the close relationship between these sisters becomes apparent, and Molly finds herself connecting with her older sister in their same old way:
"I'm not very hungry. I am, and I'm not. I am hollow, but this feeling seems less about food and more about Kat. At any rate, I do not want to eat."
What I love most about The Delinquent Hero is the puzzle that Molly is trying to solve—not just about the how this terrible thing happened, but also about her sister herself. It’s a great novel that shows the way eating disorders can impact the people who love them the most. There is so much pain in trying to answer why?
You won’t want to miss this great new YA book about eating disorders, sisterhood, and grief. Fans of Wintergirls will enjoy this one. In fact, Delinquent Hero is one of three novels by Khristina Chess in the top 100 Best Sellers in Teen & Young Adult Fiction on Self-Harm and eating disorders.
“I’d always called my body ‘athletic.’ Words like ‘stocky’ and ‘muscular’ described my figure. I was the fastest girl on the track and cross country teams. Muscular, stocky girls weren’t beautiful, though. Skinny girls were. Girls like Erica Miller.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Hollow Beauty
When tall, gorgeous Brody asks Olivia to the prom, she's ecstatic until he suggests that she use the two months before the dance to lose some weight.
But how thin is thin enough?
Body's comment sends Olivia on a spiral of dangerously rapid weight loss that borders on anorexia. As her pounds vanish, her friendship deepens with Ross, the new prep cook at the diner where she works. Despite his mysterious limp, he doesn't suffer crippling low self-esteem issues like she does; she can't even look at herself in the mirror anymore. The only time she doesn't feel ugly or fat is when she goes riding dirt bikes and cave-hunting with Ross. With Brody, instead of finding romance and true love, she feels like a terrified rabbit he's going to devour.
She's almost thin enough to be beautiful for the prom when the unthinkable happens.
Holy cow! Buckle up for a fast read because Hollow Beauty hooked me from the beginning.
What makes Hollow Beauty special is the realistic portrayal of how Olivia falls into the self-esteem trap of trying to change herself for someone else. I worried about her. I loved seeing her journey and choices as the events escalated toward the story’s climax. It’s a great positive message. This is the kind of authentic novel that really shows how someone with even a little insecurity can be manipulated and hurt.
This book is a must-read for anyone looking for YA novels about eating disorders. Fans of Thinspo will enjoy this one.
“The blade finds its way to her hip bone. Sethie’s favorite part, the part where the bone protrudes: the skinniest place on her body.” ― Alyssa B Sheinmel, quote from The Stone Girl
This wisp of a book is a quick read, and its petite size seems to reflect the super-skinny shape of the heroine, Sethie Weiss. She’s such a disconnected character she’s almost hard to like. She’s so cold, made of granite, and not in touch with herself in any way. She makes bad choices. It takes awhile to realize that Sethie’s pain is part of this perfectionist state she’s iced herself into, and the things she does and says are linked to her illness.
Sethie focuses her love on Shaw, but he’s not good for her. As the relationship deteriorates, her weight drops, and health declines. The third person voice fits with the detachment she seems to have with herself, her body, and her situation.
In the end I rooted for her. I wanted her to become a real girl again.
If you’re looking for the best YA books about anorexia and eating disorders, you should take a look at this powerful story.
“Eating was hard. Breathing was hard. Living was hardest.” ― Laurie Halse Angerson, quote from Wintergirls
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is the touchstone YA novel for eating disorders and self-harming. This book is stark, beautiful, and also painful. At times the book is disorienting, but this seems to align with Lia’s state of mind. In addition to wrestling with an eating disorder and self-harming, she struggles to come to terms with the grief and loss of her friendship. A girl is dead.
While reading this story, I often felt confused and even uncomfortable, which was the point, I think. Lia’s guilt and anorexia is palatable. Laurie Halse Anderson writes beautifully and gives the reader an understanding of someone living with an eating disorder.
In fact, Laurie Halse Angerson is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
In addition to those recommendations, one memoir writer stands above the crowd: Caroline Knapp. Her struggles with anorexia are woven through her writing in The Merry Recluse, Appetites: Why Women Want, and even to some extent in Drinking: A Love Story. Her work is funny, honest, challenging, and all-around amazing. I give her 5 stars all around and devoured everything she wrote:
"What is this drive to be thinner, prettier, better dressed, other? Who exactly is this other and what does she look like beyond the jacket she's wearing or the food she's not eating? What might we be doing, thinking, feeling about if we didn't think about body image, ever?" ― Caroline Knapp, quote from Appetites: Why Women Want
Ultimately, Caroline Knapp overcame her struggles with anorexia and adopted a dog, writing another great book, Pack of Two.
I was deeply saddened by her untimely death in her early forties.
If you enjoy memoir, you should check out Caroline Knapp’s work.
Okay, one more memoir writer should also be included: Marya Hornbacher. I read this one more than twenty years ago, but I remember how poignant and biting her voice was. Hornbacher doesn’t hold anything back. Her experience with anorexia, bulimia, mental illness, and everything else was painful, but she survived and shared it with us. She’s a brave person.
If you are someone who struggles with food or body image issues, do not take four decades to learn the lesson that I have learned: you are enough. You are small enough, good enough, smart enough. The number on the scale does not define who you are or who you will become.
In addition to the books about anorexia and eating disorders mentioned here, Goodreads offers two great book lists: YA Eating Disorder Fiction and Best Books about Eating Disorders. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of YA contemporary books about tough topics for teens, such as self-harming.
I’d love to hear about your favorites in the comments below.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. Hollow Beauty, her book about eating disorders, was named a finalist in the Next Generation India Book Awards. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by Clément Falize
Find your next great read for Mental Health Awareness Month by exploring my reviews of these YA books about depression and anxiety.
Today’s teens are struggling with depression and anxiety at higher levels than ever before. Suicides among our young people are on the rise.
Reading stories about depression, anxiety, and even suicide is one way to find hope in the darkness. For readers, books offer entertainment and escape, and connecting with characters who also suffer with depression, anxiety, OCD, or other mental illness can help someone recognize that they’re not alone. The young adult books about depression are as varied as the individuals who experience it.
NOTE: If you or your teen is in danger right now, you can call or text 988 in the United States to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which is available 24 hours a day.
So what are the best YA books about depression and anxiety struggles? Here are reviews of my favorites in this category. (Bonus: There are more than 6 books in this list!)
“I'm going to do it. November 4 is the last day of the grading period, and if I don't make perfect straight A’s, it's all over.“ ― Khristina Chess, quote from Straight A’s
Kim is planning to kill herself.
Kim was supposed to be valedictorian of her class, but then her parents split, and everything went wrong. She’s bouncing between them and trying to carry the weight of their emotional meltdowns on top of her own stuff, and it’s just too much. Too much!
With time running out in the semester and academic pressures mounting, depression threatens to overwhelm her. Getting straight A’s means everything: scholarships, acceptance to top schools, everything! Earning a B in calculus is unacceptable.
As she makes secret preparations to commit suicide, the last thing she expects is to fall for the cute new guy in Writer’s Club.
Wonderful, a real page-turner! Straight A’s grabbed and held my interest all the way. What I love most about this book is Kim’s resilient character and her emotions as events escalate toward the story’s climax. It’s a great positive message for youths. This is the kind of authentic novel that really shows how someone can fall into a downward spiral of despair and see no way out of their own circumstances.
You won’t want to miss this gripping YA book about depression and anxiety struggles. Fans of All the Bright Places will enjoy this one.
“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.” ― Jennifer Niven, quote from All the Bright Places
Theodore Finch has more than a touch of the blues.
Violet Markey wants to escape the grief that lives in her hometown where her sister recently died.
Violet and Theodore are an unlikely couple, paired together on a school project to explore the natural wonders of their state. At first, Theodore seems to be the one helping Violet with her sadness, but Violet doesn’t have any understanding about the depth of Theodore’s despair. Along their journey, they make several unexpected discoveries about one another.
After re-reading this book a second time, I enjoyed it every bit as much as the the first. I liked the writing, the dual character viewpoints, the story, the language, and the symbolism.
Blue is a primary color.
This lovely YA book is about depression, and Niven handles all of these difficult topics with honesty and resonance. All the Bright Places is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, Jennifer Niven is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
“Tentacles is my term—the Tentacles are the evil tasks that invade my life. Like, for example, my American History class last week, which necessitated me writing a paper on the weapons of the Revolutionary War, which necessitated me traveling to the Metropolitan museum to check out some of the old guns, which necessitated me getting in the subway, which necessitated me being away from my cell phone and e-mail for 45 minutes, which meant that I didn’t get to respond to a mass mail sent out by my teacher asking who needed extra credit, which meant other kids snapped up the extra credit, which meant I wasn’t going to get a 98 in the class, which meant I wasn’t anywhere close to a 98.6 average (body temperature, that’s what you needed to get), which meant I wasn’t going to get into a Good College, which meant I wasn’t going to have a Good Job, which meant I wasn’t going to have health insurance, which meant I’d have to pay tremendous amounts of money for the shrinks and drugs my brain needed, which meant I wasn’t going to have enough money to pay for a Good Lifestyle, which meant I’d feel ashamed, which meant I’d get depressed, and that was the big one because I knew what that did to me: it made it so I wouldn’t get out of bed, which led to the ultimate thing—homelessness.” ― Ned Vizzini, quote from It’s Kind of a Funny Story
That is the wonderful, funny, and utterly unique voice of the narrator of this novel, Craig Gilner, who has ambitious goals for his life but who also suffers from anxiety and depression. He’s trying. Really. But things like The Tentacles get in the way.
I loved this book! It is a humorous and hopeful novel about a boy whose suicidal episode sends him on a very interesting journey through an adult psychiatric ward in a New York City hospital.
This book is a must-read for anyone interested in YA novels about depression and anxiety.
Buy it. Read it. Ned Vizzini’s writing is masterful. It’s so incredibly sad that this author died from an apparent suicide.
I want to tell them, "Chip, Kim, there is no way to suicide-proof a person.” ― Julie Anne Peters, quote from By the Time You Read This I’ll Be Dead
Daelyn is going to kill herself in 23 days.
Daelyn is a bullied girl who failed her first suicide attempt but intends to get it right the next time. A website named Through the Light provides support to wanna-be suicide “completers” like Daelyn, and she spends a lot of free time there. Counting down the days.
Then she meets a boy. She tries to ignore him, but he’s pushy. Persistent. Charming, even.
But is he charming enough to keep her from going through the light when the countdown ends?
This short, brutal novel is a fast read. It’s not easy, happy, or hopeful, but it’s a raw and real look at suicide. If you are looking for the best YA books about depression and anxiety, this one is a must-read!
Chris is missing.
While he’s gone, his girlfriend Jessie decides to write letters to him, so the entire book is a series of scenes narrated to Chris. The mystery of his disappearance deepens as more of the bullying that Chris had endured unfolds.
Heartbreaking, beautiful, and powerful, Jessie’s letters are her way of coming to terms with the fact that the boy she loved went running one night but never came home again.
Check out this hard-hitting YA book about depression and racism. It’s a great third-person look at the impact of depression on those who love the person and feel helpless to ease their suffering.
“Whose fault was it? That’s the question on everyone’s mind, isn’t it? Nobody will ever say it out loud. It’s a question people would call inappropriate. The kind of thing where everyone tells you, “It’s nobody’s fault.” But is that even true? It’s only human nature to look for a place to lay the blame. Our fingers are more than ready to do the pointing, but it’s like we’re all blindfolded and spinning. What makes a person want to die?” ― Emily X.R. Pan, quote from The Astonishing Color of After
A young girl, Leigh Chen Sanders, is grieving the death of her mother, who committed suicide. Leigh believes that she turned into a bird, and she goes on a journey to visit her grandparents in Taiwan in search of her mother, the bird, and other family secrets.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan is one of my top favorite YA reads. I discovered the novel after reading a Goodreads review so intriguing that I went hunting for the title during my next Barnes & Noble trip. The Astonishing Color of After was shelved under Teen Fantasy, a category where I never shop, so without seeing the great reviewer comments I might never have discovered this touching book about grief, culture, and family secrets.
This book wrecked me. The writing is so beautiful. Whether it’s the love story, the voice, the mystery, or the family culture aspect, there’s plenty of reasons why fans connect with this YA classic. I truly can’t say enough wonderful things about this amazing novel.
If you haven’t discovered it yet, you definitely want to make it one of the YA books on your list of YA books about depression. And if you have already read it, here’s my list of other great books for fans of The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan.
“Everyone's got something. Some people are just better actors than others.” ― Tamara Ireland Stone, quote from Every Last Word
I loved everything about this book. Sam is a flawed character with a story to share. Although on the surface she looks like a typical teenager with the normal set of diverse friends and interests, she is something else. She has a secret, OCD, which she hides from everyone.
Watching her new friendships and romantic relationship with AJ develop was compelling, and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the plot twists along the way. The poetry is awesome! Everything about Sam's world felt very vivid and rich--Poet's Corner, the swimming pool, Sue's office... The Odometer! There is so much depth to this novel. What a satisfying read all around.
If you are looking for YA books about anxiety struggles, this book belongs on your TBR stack!
“You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything… affects everything.” ― Jay Asher, quote from Thirteen Reasons Why
Hannah Baker committed suicide, and she left behind 13 tapes explaining why she did it.
When Clay receives these tapes, he goes on a journey to understand why she did it. It’s a terrible story involving crimes, and with every tape, there is suspense in wondering how Clay contributed to this girl’s death.
Clay is a nice guy. He has a thing for Hannah. It doesn’t seem he could have anything to do with it, but this story shows how you often don’t know what another person is going through.
Jay Asher’s popular novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, is one of the best YA books about depression and suicide, and it’s one of the most popular YA books about bullying. It became a super-popular series on Netflix; there’s a reason it has become a #1 New York Times and International Bestseller. Thirteen Reasons Why definitely belongs on the list of best banned YA books to read.
Because this is such an important topic impacting many people, Goodreads has several popular lists, including: YA Books About/Mentioning Depression, Self Harm, and Suicide, Goodreads Depression Book Lists, and Goodreads Popular YA Suicide Books. In addition, check out my post, Diverse Collection of YA Books about Mental Illness for other great reads about mental health issues. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of YA contemporary books about tough topics for teens.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Do you have any YA books about depression or anxiety struggles to add to my list?
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Find your next great read for Schizophrenia Awareness Week by exploring my reviews of these compelling and amazing YA books about schizophrenia.
Reading young adult books about schizophrenia is a great way for teens to educate and entertain themselves at the same time. Schizophrenia is often diagnosed in young people in their late teens to early 30s, and this illness affects 20 million people worldwide.
Reading books about schizophrenia is a great way to see through another viewpoint that is very different from our own. And through this lens, we might gain some insight about the richness and complexity of what it means to live in that world, especially a world where a person’s perception of reality and social interactions become altered by mental illness.
Here are my personal recommendations for young adult books about schizophrenia that you’ll want to check out.
“Henry used a type of camouflage—in his case, those corny jokes and the way he dressed—to hide the game. No one could be allowed to know his special ability to detect who was real and who was an agent. Not even me.“― Khristina Chess, quote from Unquiet Riot
Riley’s life is filled with mind-numbing boredom until Henry arrives at his school. Henry’s amazing! Henry believes Earth is populated by robots posing as humans. He believes the shadows in his room are monsters escaping from the electrical wires, and he sleeps with knives under his mattresses. For Riley, visiting Henry’s world is like being a tourist in a foreign land.
Except for Henry, that place is terrifying and real.
Exhilarating and mind-bending! What I love most about Unquiet Riot is the slow unfolding of the friendship between the boys and the way Henry’s mental illness becomes revealed a little at a time. I worried for him. Riley is a great unreliable narrator who is witty and scary. This is the kind of authentic novel that really shows how factors like bullying, mental illness, and lack of teacher, parental, and even friend involvement can allow an environment for a mass school violence event to occur.
You won’t want to miss this compassionate YA book about early-onset schizophrenia in teens that explores friendship, betrayal, and the consequences of remaining silent. Fans of My Sister Rosa will love this psychological thriller.
“Real is subjective. There are a lot of things that aren't actually real to everyone. Pain, for example. It's only real to the one experiencing it. Everyone else has to take your word for it.”― Julia Walton, quote from Words on Bathroom Walls
This story about a character with schizophrenia is told through journal entries or letters to a therapist, and so it took me a long time to connect to Adam. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because I really enjoyed how the book ended. I appreciated that there weren't easy answers for his illness and that the people in his life came through for him in unexpected ways.
Check out this small but compassionate YA book about schizophrenia that depicts a character with this disease in a loving, beautiful, and hopeful way.
"Perception is relative. So is sanity, if you think about it. It's totally a Minority vs. Majority thing. If you fall on one side of the line, take a ticket and proceed. If you fall on the other, shit gets real." ― K. Ancrum, quote from The Wicker King
This novel is a fast-paced read with super-compelling characters in a relationship that evolves into a more dangerous thing with each passing page. I had a paperback copy and enjoyed the layout and visual design of the experience of the book. You can physically see the descent into darkness on the side of the pages. The creativity in this technique makes this book special.
There are moments between these two boys that are truly chilling, when Jack's dominance over August goes too far:
"We have to drown you," Jack continued bluntly. "Or just nearly enough that you pass through the gates, but not so much that you can't come back from there."
I won't give any more away. The psychological dynamic between these two characters will draw you in and keep the pages turning!
I recommend splurging on the paperback for this one so you can enjoy the visuals. For compassionate YA books about schizophrenia, The Wicker King is one of the best!
You can find also several great Goodreads Schizophrenia Lists, such as YA Psychotic Disorders/Schizophrenia Fiction, and if depression and anxiety are the mental health issues that you want to understand more deeply, be sure to look at my post on 6 Gripping Young Adult Novels on Depression and Anxiety Struggles. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type of tough topic.
Do you have any YA books about schizophrenia to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these chilling books about teen psychopaths.
Nearly 1 percent of children in the population exhibit psychopathic traits, about as many as have autism or bipolar disorder. Reading books about teen psychopaths is a great way to learn about this disorder of “empathy erosion” and what the world is like for those who experience it.
No one wants to think their own child, sibling, best friend, boyfriend, or other significant person might be a psychopath. But don’t worry; mental illness isn’t contagious.
Reading books about psychopaths won’t turn you or your teen readers into killers. Most psychopaths aren’t killers anyway. However, they might grow up to be CEOs.
Here are my personal recommendations for several amazing books about teen psychopaths that are guaranteed page-turners. And unlike the psychopaths on the pages, you will feel a wide range of emotions.
“Best friends don’t label each other as crazy or rat each other out to adults.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Unquiet Riot
Riley was born unable to feel emotions. Is that person embarrassed or insecure? Suspicious or curious? It’s confusing when someone says, “Please don’t hate me,” but their face says, “You should definitely hate me for occupying the same planet right now because I wrecked your car.”
But does that make him a psychopath?
Riley’s life is filled with mind-numbing boredom until Henry arrives at his school. Henry’s amazing! Henry believes the world is populated by robots posing as humans. He believes the shadows in his room are monsters escaping from the electrical wires, and he sleeps with knives under his mattresses. For Riley, visiting Henry’s world is like being a tourist in a foreign land.
When police question Riley about Henry’s disappearance, Riley lies about their dangerous game and scrambles to save himself from being named accessory to mass murder. If Henry talks, Riley loses.
When someone feels nothing, do things like loyalty, friendship, and trust really matter?
Exhilarating and mind-bending! What I love most about Unquiet Riot is the slow unfolding of the friendship between the boys and the way Henry’s mental illness becomes revealed a little at a time. I worried for him. Riley is a great unreliable narrator who is witty and scary. This is the kind of authentic novel that really shows how factors like bullying, mental illness, and lack of teacher and parental involvement can allow an environment for a mass school violence event to occur.
You won’t want to miss this chilling YA book about teen psychopaths that explores the consequences of remaining silent. Fans of My Sister Rosa will love this psychological thriller.
“Killing things shouldn't make you happy, Rosa. That's why they're worried.” ― Justine Larbalester, quote from My Sister Rosa
I went into this book with high expectations that Rosa would be some creepy 10-year-old future (or current) serial killer, and that story question drove the plot for me. What terrible thing will she do?
Although there are some slow points, the pacing in the second half of the book is excellent, and events took some thrilling and quite unexpected turns.
Most of the conversations between Che and his sister Rosa, who is a psychopath, are fascinating, dark, and disturbing.
Rosa shrugs. “How should I know? I asked Seimone lots of questions. She answered them all. I showed an interest. I know all sorts of things about her now.”
She’s a seriously messed-up kid.
Rosa smirks though she can’t see the phone. “I’m going to get a dog, Che. When I get it I won’t hurt it. You’ll see. I keep my promises.”
Indeed she does.
You don’t want to miss this chilling YA book about teen psychopaths.
“That joke of a bookshelf has the same crap they had in baby jail I’ve inhaled three times over and I’d kill for something - anything - new to read. But I’d never say that out loud. I’m a killer after all; they’d probably think I’d really do it. Figures of speech are luxuries convicted murderers are not allowed to have.“ ― Tiffany D. Jackson, quote from Allegedly
Mary lives in a group home following her incarceration in baby jail for killing an infant. Allegedly. Life in the group home is hard for Mary, who is smart and trying to take her SATs and apply to college. She works at a nursing home, which is where she met Ted.
Now Mary is pregnant, and they’re going to take her baby away. So after all this time, she decides to tell the truth about what happened that night when Alyssa died.
Allegedly is a dark mystery that keeps the pages turning, and Mary is a compelling character. I really wanted her to succeed because so many things seemed to be against her. The other girls (and even the so-called responsible adults) are truly awful to her, and at least one of them turns out to be a psychopath. Fun times!
If you’re looking for chilling YA books that include teen psychopaths, I highly recommend adding this one to your list. It’s unusual.
“Had I catalogued the downsides of parenthood, ‘son might turn out to be a killer’ would never have turned up on the list.” ― Lionel Shriver, quote from We Need to Talk about Kevin
Told through a series of letters, this novel tells the story from a mother’s point of view. Eva isn’t a particularly likeable mother, and she portrays her son, Kevin, as a bad seed from birth. As events unfold, however, the reader is left wondering about the difference between nature and nurture. Was Kevin born a psychopath who would bring violence to his classmates? Or was he made into a sociopath because of the way he was raised and the failure of his mother to love him?
This novel includes a dramatic crescendo to the actual events at the school, and although I’ve read this book twice now, I could read it again and still find is as chilling as the first time. Shriver deftly manages to create nuanced characters that I simultaneously felt empathy for and utter disgust and loathing.
Though not a YA novel because of the adult viewpoint, don’t miss this devastatingly powerful book that tackles the important and chilling issue of teen psychopaths.
"Life is a game; you just have to make sure you’re in control." — Natasha Preston, quote from The Lost
This short YA novel kept me engaged in the story, turning pages to see how these characters were going to escape their situation. I forgave the implausible premise because the whole thing was just super creepy. This "cabin in the woods" seemed to go on forever with its torture rooms, and the author built an entire world that I could imagine. The suspense and tension in the plot wasn't predictable for me.
The ending could have worked better if Piper had been given a little different character development earlier in the book
If you’re searching for chilling teen psychopath books that will evoke strong emotions, pick this one up. Natasha Preston has crafted a gem here.
“Mr Greenleaf was such a decent fellow himself, he took it for granted that everybody else in the world was decent, too. Tom had almost forgotten such people existed.” ― Patricia Highsmith, quote from The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Talented Mr. Ripley is the first in a series of books about a psychopath. You’ve probably watched the movie by now, starring Matt Daemon, but the books are much better, as books almost always are, for giving you the first person viewpoint into character’s thoughts and actions.
Tom Ripley is 23 at the start of the story. He’s one of those boys who has had a series of bad luck: orphaned, not particularly successful. Then he meets a wealthy man and sets on a journey to Italy.
When I read the book the first time, I had no inkling about the events that would follow. No idea.
If you’re looking for books about psychopaths, you definitely want to check out Patricia Highsmith’s series about Tom Ripley.
Goodreads also has a list on Teen Psychopath Books and Psychopath Book Lists.
You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type of tough topic, including other mental health issues such as 6 Gripping Young Adult Novels on Depression and Anxiety Struggles and Diverse Collection of YA Books about Mental Illness.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Photo by mwangi gatheca
Find your next great read for Mental Illness Awareness Week by exploring my reviews of these amazing YA books about mental illness.
Many YA book lists about mental illness focus on depression or anxiety. While generalized anxiety, depression, and social phobias are the most common types of mental illness in teens, they are not the only ones. Early onset Schizophrenia also affects teens for example, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
If you are interested in exploring a more diverse collection of YA books about mental illness that span the spectrum of conditions affecting mood, thinking, and behavior, then this list is for you.
Reading young adult books about mental illness is a great way for teens to see through the viewpoint of someone with a mental illness. And through this lens, we might gain some insight about the richness and complexity of what it means to live in that world.
Here are my personal recommendations for young adult books about mental illness that you’ll want to check out.
“Best friends don’t label each other as crazy or rat each other out to adults.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Unquiet Riot
Riley is not a psychopath.
It’s just that he was born unable to feel emotions. Is that person embarrassed or insecure? Suspicious or curious? It’s confusing when someone says, “Please don’t hate me,” but their face says, “You should definitely hate me for occupying the same planet right now because I wrecked your car.”
Riley’s life is filled with mind-numbing boredom until Henry arrives at his school. Henry’s amazing! Henry believes the world is populated by robots posing as humans. He believes the shadows in his room are monsters escaping from the electrical wires, and he sleeps with knives under his mattresses. For Riley, visiting Henry’s world is like being a tourist in a foreign land.
When police question Riley about Henry’s disappearance, Riley lies about their dangerous game and scrambles to save himself from being named accessory to mass murder. If Henry talks, Riley loses.
When someone feels nothing, do things like loyalty, friendship, and trust really matter?
Exhilarating and mind-bending! What I love most about Unquiet Riot is the slow unfolding of the friendship between the boys and the way Henry’s mental illness becomes revealed a little at a time. I worried for him. Riley is a great unreliable narrator who is witty and scary. This is the kind of authentic novel that really shows how factors like bullying, mental illness, and lack of teacher and parental involvement can allow an environment for a mass school violence event to occur.
You won’t want to miss this powerful YA book about mental illness that explores the consequences of remaining silent. Fans of My Sister Rosa will love this psychological thriller.
“Sometimes my inside hurts so bad that I need to make the outside hurt worse so the inside will stop.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from The Cutting Edge of Friendship
Sadie and Elana are keeping dangerous secrets.
Best friends since elementary school, they know everything about each other, but on the night of the fireworks, something terrible happened to Sadie that she hasn’t told anyone. She can’t even say the word to herself. Instead, she’s started cutting to deal with the pain.
Elana has a secret of her own; she’s texting Hunter and making plans for a clandestine meeting with him. She doesn’t know what he did or why he really wants to keep their relationship secret.
To end this dangerous cat-and-mouse game, Sadie must reclaim her courage and rescue Elana before a rapist can attack again.
So powerful! The Cutting Edge of Friendship instantly drew me into the tangled conflict, and I couldn’t look away until the girls were safe.
What I love most about The Cutting Edge of Friendship is Sadie’s fierce and resilient character and the raw and authentic emotion as this painful story escalates toward its thrilling climax. This is the kind of novel that really shows how someone self harms to cope with pain in the aftermath of sexual assault. You won’t want to miss this powerful YA book about cutting that explores the complicated nature of friendship. Fans of Girl in Pieces and Speak will enjoy this one.
In fact, Khristina Chess has several YA novels that deal with various mental illnesses. She’s such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
"I think we're all quite mad. Some of us are just more discreet about it." ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from A Madness So Discreet
Imagine that you could be imprisoned in an insane asylum just because you're a woman and a male in your life wants to get rid of you. This sort of thing happened to women in the last century. For real. This is what happened to Grace, the protagonist in A Madness So Discreet. The man who sent her to the facility was her own father, and the inconvenient truth was that she was pregnant with his child.
This is the beginning of A Madness So Discreet. But the novel does not linger in the horrors of lobotomies and torture of mental patients. Instead, Grace escapes into the hands of a doctor who uses her talents to help solve murders.
As a serial killer mystery unfolds, though, you know that a showdown between Grace and her father, a powerful senator, is coming. He thinks she is dead. He is about to move on to her younger sister. She is motivated to stop him, even at risk to herself.
What happens in the end of this dark novel is astonishing. No spoilers here. Just treat yourself and read it. Mindy McGinnis is near the top of my favorite YA authors. A Madness So Discreet is one of her early works, so I didn't think it was as fabulous as Female of the Species or Heroine. Still, it was classic McGinnis and worth every single page. If you want a twisty YA book about mental illness, be sure to check this one out.
“Real is subjective. There are a lot of things that aren't actually real to everyone. Pain, for example. It's only real to the one experiencing it. Everyone else has to take your word for it.”― Julia Walton, quote from Words on Bathroom Walls
This story about a character with schizophrenia is told through journal entries or letters to a therapist, and so it took me a long time to connect to Adam. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because I really enjoyed how the book ended. I appreciated that there weren't easy answers for his illness and that the people in his life came through for him in unexpected ways.
Don’t miss this small YA book that tackles the big issue of mental illness in a loving, beautiful, and hopeful way.
"Perception is relative. So is sanity, if you think about it. It's totally a Minority vs. Majority thing. If you fall on one side of the line, take a ticket and proceed. If you fall on the other, shit gets real." ― K. Ancrum, quote from The Wicker King
This novel is a fast-paced read with super-compelling characters in a relationship that evolves into a more dangerous thing with each passing page. I had a paperback copy and enjoyed the layout and visual design of the experience of the book. You can physically see the descent into darkness on the side of the pages. The creativity in this technique makes this book special.
There are moments between these two boys that are truly chilling, when Jack's dominance over August goes too far:
"We have to drown you," Jack continued bluntly. "Or just nearly enough that you pass through the gates, but not so much that you can't come back from there."
I won't give any more away. The psychological dynamic between these two characters will draw you in and keep the pages turning!
I recommend splurging on the paperback for this one so you can enjoy the visuals.
“Killing things shouldn't make you happy, Rosa. That's why they're worried.” ― Justine Larbalester, quote from My Sister Rosa
I went into this book with high expectations that Rosa would be some creepy 10-year-old future (or current) serial killer, and that story question drove the plot for me. What terrible thing will she do?
Although there are some slow points, the pacing in the second half of the book is excellent, and events took some thrilling and quite unexpected turns.
Most of the conversations between Che and his sister Rosa, who is a psychopath, are fascinating, dark, and disturbing.
Rosa shrugs. “How should I know? I asked Seimone lots of questions. She answered them all. I showed an interest. I know all sorts of things about her now.”
She’s a seriously messed-up kid.
Rosa smirks though she can’t see the phone. “I’m going to get a dog, Che. When I get it I won’t hurt it. You’ll see. I keep my promises.”
Indeed she does.
You don’t want to miss this chilling YA book about mental illness. And if reading about characters with “empathy erosion” interests you, you’ll find a list of similar titles in my post on Chilling Teen Psychopath Books That Evoke Strong Emotions.
“Everyone's got something. Some people are just better actors than others.” ― Tamara Ireland Stone, quote from Every Last Word
I loved everything about this book. Sam is a flawed character with a story to share. Although on the surface she looks like a typical teenager with the normal set of diverse friends and interests, she is something else. She has a secret, OCD, which she hides from everyone.
Watching her new friendships and romantic relationship with AJ develop was compelling, and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the plot twists along the way. The poetry is awesome! Everything about Sam's world felt very vivid and rich--Poet's Corner, the swimming pool, Sue's office... The Odometer! There is so much depth to this novel. What a satisfying read all around.
Don’t miss this moving and beautiful YA book about mental illness.
“It's hard to keep a secret when it's written all over your body.” ― Julia Hoban, quote from Willow
In this complex novel about self-harming and grief, I met the wonderful character of Willow. She is an orphan with terrible secrets. Guilt. Pain. Numbness. And love.
I can’t speak about whether or not Willow suffers from a deep self-harming mental illness, or if she’s simply a teenager who doesn’t know how to deal with the terrible things that happened in her life. Cutting seems like an answer. She feels alone and sad. At any rate, the book felt emotional and honest to me. I loved reading her story and connecting with her pain as she journeyed to wholeness.
Be sure to check out this thought-provoking and heartbreaking YA book that wrestles with cutting, grief, and the healing power of love.
If depression and anxiety are the mental health issues that you want to understand more deeply, be sure to look at my post on 6 Gripping Young Adult Novels on Depression and Anxiety Struggles or my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type of tough topic, including self-harming. You can find also several great Mental Illness Book Lists on Goodreads.
Do you have any personal favorites to recommend to me? I’m always looking for another great read in this category.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
Find your next great read for International Day of Persons with Disabilities by exploring my reviews of these thoughtful YA books about disabilities, illnesses, and disorders.
The private emotional, physical, and psychological pain of chronic illness, learning disabilities, psychological disorders, physical impairments, and other special needs are often misunderstood by friends and family members. Chronic pain wears on a person over time. Physical impairments can take as much of an emotional toll as a physical one. Reading YA books about disabilities, illnesses, and other disorders can be helpful for someone struggling with dyslexia, OCD, blindness, cerebral palsy, cancer, or deafness who needs empathy and compassion. Storytelling can be the light that helps someone be seen and heard.
Here are my personal recommendations for some amazing YA books about disabilities, illnesses, and disorders that portray characters whose stories provide complex, authentic, even humorous looks into their lives.
“Henry used a type of camouflage—in his case, those corny jokes and the way he dressed—to hide the game. No one could be allowed to know his special ability to detect who was real and who was an agent. Not even me.“― Khristina Chess, quote from Unquiet Riot
Riley’s life is filled with mind-numbing boredom until Henry arrives at his school. Henry’s amazing! Henry believes Earth is populated by robots posing as humans. He believes the shadows in his room are monsters escaping from the electrical wires, and he sleeps with knives under his mattresses. For Riley, visiting Henry’s world is like being a tourist in a foreign land.
Except for Henry, that place is terrifying and real.
Exhilarating and mind-bending! What I love most about Unquiet Riot is the slow unfolding of the friendship between the boys and the way Henry’s mental illness becomes revealed a little at a time. I worried for him. Riley is a great unreliable narrator who is witty and scary. This is the kind of authentic novel that really shows how factors like bullying, mental illness, and lack of teacher, parental, and even friend involvement can allow an environment for a mass school violence event to occur.
If you’re looking for YA books about disabilities and complex neurodivergent characters, check out this psychological thriller that explores the consequences of silence about bullying and early-onset schizophrenia in teens.
"Sometimes people did this, closed their eyes for a few seconds and imagined it gave them insights into what it was like to be her. Only, at the end, they could still open their eyes and see." ― April Henry, quote from Girl, Stolen
This slender YA novel is a fast and engaging read!
The story is about sixteen-year-old Cheyenne Wilder, daughter of a famous Nike CEO, who is accidentally kidnapped by a boy named Griffen. He's about her age, maybe older, and he soon regrets his actions because his abusive father decides to hold her for ransom. Cheyenne is in danger. She has pneumonia; she's blind; bad men at Griffen's house are interested in assaulting her; and she expects to be killed once money has exchanged hands.
The prose is simple and effective. The viewpoint alternates between Cheyenne and Griffen, and we learn backstories of both protagonists through the story. I especially liked learning so much about what a blind person might experience in such a situation. Cheyenne was clever and resilient.
I haven't read a book straight through and stayed up to finish in a long time. Well done! If you’re looking for amazing YA books about disabilities, illnesses, and disorders, you don’t want to miss this YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults and YALSA Quick Pick winner.
“Real is subjective. There are a lot of things that aren't actually real to everyone. Pain, for example. It's only real to the one experiencing it. Everyone else has to take your word for it.”― Julia Walton, quote from Words on Bathroom Walls
This story about a character with schizophrenia is told through journal entries or letters to a therapist, and so it took me a long time to connect to Adam. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because I really enjoyed how the book ended. I appreciated that there weren't easy answers for his illness and that the people in his life came through for him in unexpected ways.
With the diverse lists of YA books about disabilities, illnesses, and disorders out there, don’t miss this small book that tackles the big issue of early-onset schizophrenia in teens in a loving, beautiful, and hopeful way.
One Big Mess is one big surprise!
Gracie is a teen living with a single parent who is grieving the loss of a child and copes through hoarding. The mess is overwhelming. Gracie is such an optimistic and hopeful girl who devises a plan to help her mom by trying to get her onto a reality TV show for hoarders. She's convinced that the show has the resources to provide therapy and cleanup that her mom won't take from Gracie and her sister.
I loved Gracie's character and her relationships with her friends, sister, and parents. I was rooting for her and her mom to find some way to clean things up.
If you’re looking for an unexpected and thoughtful YA book about illnesses and disorders, you should definitely pick up this one.
“Flawed, we're truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.” ― Justina Chen, quote from North of Beautiful
Terra Cooper doesn’t have a body image problem; it’s her face. She’s blonde, beautiful, talented as an artist, and she’s fit. The problem is that she has a birthmark on her cheek that’s the size of Texas.
For me, this novel was a slow burn because of the complexity of the family relationships and the distance Terra had to travel to find her way. It’s not an easy road for her. Mid-way, a light begins to shine, and through a geography change to China and a series of maps and geocaching experiences, Terra begins a journey. There is a romantic interest. In the end she discovers acceptance, self-healing, and the real meaning of beauty.
This lovely YA book about disfigurement shows that sometimes a flaw isn’t a flaw after all.
“Maybe growing up means disappointing the people we love.” ― Nicola Yoon, quote from Everything, Everything
This lovely YA book is an all-the-feels love story about a girl locked in a tower and the prince who rescues her.
Actually, they are two ordinary teenagers. Well, Maddie is not ordinary. She has a rare immunodeficiency disease that makes her allergic to the whole world, so she lives inside a bubble. It’s not a literal plastic bubble, but she can’t go outside. She has an airtight, clean, totally isolated life in an allergen-free environment.
Until a boy moves in next door.
They meet electronically, and their relationship develops with all that emotional falling-in-love-for-the-first-time wonderfulness. Nicola Yoon writes it beautifully. The story is unique, and the sweet love story gives all the feels.
But, there’s more. Much more. Because teenagers press boundaries. They must kiss, even if that could be deadly.
If you overlooked this thoughtful YA books about disabilities, illnesses, and disorders, be sure to pick it up. In fact, Nicola Yoon is such a great author that she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s all-around amazing!
“We used to be pretty good friends, but fourteen-year-old girls are psychotic.” ― Jesse Andrews, quote from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
I loved this book. It was so comical, which is an odd thing to say about a book about a girl dying from cancer. But it’s true. It’s sad humor in the face of tragedy.
Greg and Earl are weird, unlikely friends and amateur filmmakers who manage to fly below the radar at school and enjoy their private world. Then Greg’s mom makes him reach out to Rachel, a childhood friend who has been diagnosed with leukemia and needs a friend.
Earl turns out to be the more compassionate of the pair, and the two of them set out to make a movie about Rachel. Their brilliant idea fails in execution and is the Worst Film Ever Made.
This wonderful novel is full of crude humor, heart, honesty, and surprises as Greg learns things about his long-time friend Earl, as well as himself, though this journey with the dying girl, Rachel. If you’re looking for some YA books about illnesses that will make you laugh out loud, Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl is definitely a title to add to your reading list.
“Grief does not change you, Hazel. It reveals you.” ― John Green, quote from The Fault in Our Stars
The Fault in Our Stars is the ultimate YA book about cancer. Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace are two teens with cancer, and they fall in love during a sweet time of remission. They talk about literature and philosophy, and they go on a wonderful journey to meet the author of Hazel’s favorite novel. This person is not at all what she expected—a huge disappointment, as a matter of fact—but then, life happens that way.
When the inevitable plot turn comes and twists the knife in your heart, it doesn’t matter that you’re expecting it. Augustus and Hazel are supposed to be together, so every bittersweet moment of their parting is a gasp. Every breath counts. Every syllable.
If you’re looking for the sweetest and most heart-wrenching star-crossed love story, pick up this classic. If you read it a long time ago, it’s just as good the second time around. Trust me. It belongs at the top of your pile of thoughtful YA books about disabilities, illnesses, and disorders.
“If I’m going to die, I’d like to actually live first.” ― Rachael Lippincott, quote from Five Feet Apart
Stella and Will are two kids with cystic fibrosis who literally have to stay away from one another to survive. Infections are bad, possibly deadly, and Will is like kryptonite to Stella, who doesn’t want to lose her place on the transplant list.
But the heart wants what the heart wants—even when the lungs are failing.
Stella and Will disobey all kinds of orders in their love pursuits and put their lives at risk. They have so much positive energy that you want them to beat the odds. Tragedy won’t touch them.
You will love Stella and Will’s story. The movie was pretty great, too!
“Everyone's got something. Some people are just better actors than others.” ― Tamara Ireland Stone, quote from Every Last Word
I loved everything about this book. Sam is a flawed character with a story to share. Although on the surface she looks like a typical teenager with the normal set of diverse friends and interests, she is something else. She has a secret, OCD, which she hides from everyone.
Watching her new friendships and romantic relationship with AJ develop was compelling, and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the plot twists along the way. The poetry is awesome! Everything about Sam's world felt very vivid and rich--Poet's Corner, the swimming pool, Sue's office... The Odometer! There is so much depth to this novel. What a satisfying read all around.
Don’t miss this moving and beautiful YA book about mental illness. It’s another great title for your list of illnesses and disorder novels.
If you are looking for other thoughtful YA books about disabilities, illnesses, and disorders, Goodreads also offers some great book lists: YA Novels with Special Needs Characters, YA Illness, Blindness in YA, and Autism in YA. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of book reviews.
Do you have any recommendations? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
Khristina Chess is the award-winning author of several YA novels about troubled teens turning corners. You can find her on Amazon, Goodreads, and Twitter as an active daily contributor in the #5amwritersclub.
