Last Updated Date: January 11, 2026
The best YA books about rape and sexual abuse include The Cutting Edge of Friendship by Khristina Chess, Wonder When You’ll Miss Me by Amanda Davis, and All the Rage by Courtney Summers, selected for their emotionally honest stories about difficult topics for teens, such as the impact of trauma and victim-blaming.
As an award-winning author and longtime blogger about issue-driven YA fiction, I’ve spent over a decade analyzing, recommending, and reviewing the best novels to answer this question.
You’ll find detailed reviews of more than a dozen novels in the roundup below. Some are lesser-known authors and titles, not found in the usual lists, and I’m confident you’ll find something new to read for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Trigger Warning: This blog includes references to sexual violence. Victims may find some of the book recommendations disturbing, explicit, and difficult to read. If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, visit RAINN.
#1 - The Cutting Edge of Friendship by Khristina Chess
A Gripping Novel about the Impact of Sexual Violence
Two best friends hide dangerous secrets—one about assault and self-harm, and the other unknowingly walking into the predator’s trap.
Why Chess’ Themes of Anguish, Coping, Healing, & Friendship Resonate
This realistic contemporary YA novel explores the wounds of cutting, shame, and redemption following a rape. Sadie’s resilience is fierce and unforgettable, and the book’s raw, unfiltered pain hits hard. This story doesn’t shy away from the truth—it reveals, with painful honesty, how self-harm can become a desperate response to trauma.
From the very first page, it’s clear that although Sadie and Elana have always shared everything, now they’re keeping secrets that could destroy them. On the night of the fireworks, something terrible happened to Sadie—something she can’t even name. Instead, she turns to cutting, the only way she knows to cope.
But Elana has secrets too. She’s been texting Hunter, making plans to meet in secret, and never questioning why he insists on hiding their relationship.
As their lives spiral deeper into danger, Sadie must find the strength to fight back—not just for herself, but for Elana—before a predator can strike again.
A Powerful and Fresh Voice in Issue-Driven YA Fiction
“My first time was supposed to be different. It wasn’t supposed to happen in darkness, dirt, and violence. It wasn’t supposed to be a two-man job.” ― Khristina Chess from The Cutting Edge of Friendship
Readers drawn to the emotional and physical scars of other bestsellers like Kathleen Glasgow’s Girl in Pieces might also appreciate Khristina Chess’ novels about self-harm through eating disorders, such as The Delinquent Hero and Hollow Beauty. In fact, this author is on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she tackles so many tough topics with heart.
#2 - Wonder When You’ll Miss Me by Amanda Davis
An Empowering Story about Life After a Gang Rape
After a brutal gang rape, a girl runs away to join the circus, takes a new name, gets a tattoo, and becomes a handler of elephants.
Why Davis’ Themes of Identity, Trauma, and Resilience Shine
In Wonder When You’ll Miss Me, sixteen-year-old Faith Duckle still talks to The Fat Girl. She sees her too. Usually The Fat Girl is eating something and offering snarky commentary or advice. Sometimes Faith tells her to go away. Sometimes she listens to her.
Faith was violated by a group of boys who made sport of her as the fat girl, and then she tried to kill herself. Then she ended up in a hospital, where she lost the weight but not The Fat Girl. She’s still hanging around.
This is the beginning of the story.
The real story is Faith’s journey when she runs away to join the circus, takes a new name, gets a tattoo, and becomes a handler of elephants. The real story is how Faith and The Fat Girl found healing after such a terrible event.
I loved this book when I read it twenty years ago, and I love it still.
A Tragic Lost Voice
“I'd lost forty-eight pounds and my skin had mostly cleared up. I'd missed a whole semester of school and disappeared for seven months. It seemed like no one had even noticed I was gone.” ― Amanda Davis from Wonder When You’ll Miss Me
Amanda Davis was a gifted author who sadly died in a small plane crash at the age of 32. Wonder When You’ll Miss Me was her only novel.
#3 - All the Rage by Courtney Summers
A Poignant Book about Nonconsensual Sex and Social Stigma
After being raped by the powerful sheriff's son, a girl must deal with bullying from a community who supports the accused rather than the victim.
Why Summers’ Themes of Victim Blaming and Bullying Matter
All the Rage tells the story of a girl who was raped at a party by a boy she thought was beautiful. And then, she loses her best friend for telling about it. And everyone in the school begins bullying her about it. And she ends up at another party in the same situation, only this time her ex-best friend turns up missing.
The plot alternates between bewildering and breathtaking. Who was the assailant? What happened to Penny? Will there be justice? Is the girl going to be okay?
I felt sorry for Romy because of what happened to her and what continued to happen as she suffered bullying by the other girls. At times, she is a difficult protagonist to embrace because she's a person in deep pain. She's not always nice. She doesn't make good decisions. She hurts kind people who care about her.
Although this is a fast read, the ending wasn't what I expected or hoped. I felt things remained unresolved.
An All-too-common Response
"What a stupid thing it is, to care about a girl." ― Courtney Summers from All the Rage
#4 - The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
A Shocking Pursuit of Justice
An unflinching, painful, searing, riveting, and brutal response to rape by an unpredictable protagonist.
Why McGinnis’ Themes of Vigilante Justice Appeal
I loved this book. Alex Craft is a unique female YA protagonist, and I had a hard time pinning her down. Sometimes I wanted to label her as a psychopath / sociopath based on her actions and reactions to things, but I don't think that's right.
She is a criminal. It's easy to forget that about her because she makes friends, takes care of kittens, shows compassion to other kids, and falls in love. But she also kills people. So there's that.
A Reliable Author Who Never Disappoints
"I am vengeance."― Mindy McGinnis from The Female of the Species
This is my third Mindy McGinnis novel, and I'm hooked on her. She writes compelling stories and tough, unflinching characters, and she’s one of the top authors in my list of the Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited. Alex Craft in The Female of the Species is definitely a five-star read!
#5 -The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
Relatable Coping Mechanisms After Acquaintance Rape
After her brother’s best friend sexually assaults her in her own bedroom, a girl descends into self-destructive drinking and other behaviors to cope with the trauma and secret she’s keeping.
Why Smith’s Exploration of Self-Destruction, Substance Abuse, & Recovery Resonates
Instead of telling anyone what happened, she internalizes the trauma and begins a multi-year downward spiral of acting out, drinking, taking drugs, losing friends, and sleeping around. She’s no longer the “good girl” she used to be.
This book shows how a young girl can stay silent about a crime for years, why it can be so hard to tell someone, and what it’s like to try to survive in silence.
A Bestselling YA Book about Pain and Healing
“No, can’t cry. Because there’s nothing to cry about. Because it was just a dream. A bad dream. A nightmare. Not real. Not real. Not real. That’s what I keep thinking: NotRealNotRealNotReal. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Like a mantra. Like a prayer.” ― Amber Smith from The Way I Used to Be
The Way I Used to Be can be hard to read because Eden’s pain makes her an unlikeable character at times, but this story is worthwhile.
#6 - Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake
A Heartbreaking Premise
A girl must choose between loyalty and justice after her twin brother is accused of raping her best friend.
Why Blake’s Themes about Moral Complexity, Consent, and Justice Are Important
Mara and her twin brother Owen are as close as any twins can be. So when Owen says he is innocent and never raped his girlfriend, Mara is faced with a difficult decision. She’s friends with the victim. Who is telling the truth? Her brother, who she knows as well as she knows herself, or the girl?
In addition to Mara’s confusion about her twin brother’s role as an accused rapist, she’s also dealing with her own sexual identity and relationship with her best friend, a girl named Charlie. Her parents pressure her to support her brother, but why would the victim lie? And in wrestling with these conflicts, Mara can no longer ignore a secret trauma from her own past and what happened to her.
A Lesser-Known Author with a Compelling Story
“This. This is why I never said anything. Because no one ever believes the girl.” ― Ashley Herring Blake from Girl Made of Stars
This story deals with so many issues that the conflict is a bit overwhelming at times. Yet the author handles the emotional issues about sexual assault in a beautiful, heartbreaking, and important way.
#7 - Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott
A Deeply Disturbing Look at Pedophiles and Child Rape
A girl is kidnapped by a pedophile at age 10, and as a "too old" teen, she's forced to help him select his next victim to replace her.
Why Scott’s Themes about Humanity and Silence Are Unforgettable
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 can happen 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 out.
Because the monsters prey on the mute.
An Unforgettable Character with an Unforgettable Voice
Three life lessons:
1. No one will see you.
2. No one will say anything.
3. No one will save you. ― Elizabeth Scott from Living Dead Girl
#8 - Room by Emma Donoghue
A Compelling Book about Identity, Survival, and the Power of a Mother’s Love
A teen girl is kidnapped, raped, and imprisoned in a shed, where she gives birth to a son who knows no world beyond “room.”
Why Donoghue’s Unique Perspective Shines
Room is a story told by Jack, a 5-year-old boy who lives in “room.” In some ways his teen mother is a secondary character, a 19-year-old girl who has been kidnapped, imprisoned for years, and serially raped by her jailer until she gave birth to Jack. She is a fiercely protective mother, loving, courageous, and resilient in the face of incredible hardship and danger.
I couldn’t put this book down. It was a very compelling read with an intriguing and unusual narrator, and although Ma never has a choice about her pregnancy (she’s kidnapped and raped, remember), she does have a choice on how she raises her son under these horrific circumstances.
Their journey is unforgettable.
Read this book. Think about Ma’s story, not just Jack.
The Innocent Words of a Victim’s Child
“Scared is what you're feeling. Brave is what you're doing.” ― Emma Donoghue from Room
#9 - Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
An Award-Winning Novel about Finding One’s Voice
A teen struggles to reclaim her voice and her life after being raped at a high school party.
Why Anderson’s Classic Themes of Trauma, Recovery, and Friendship Are Transcendent
Just before beginning high school, Melinda Sordino is raped at a party, and as a result of this experience, she can’t speak. Everyone hates her at school. Her parents aren’t very supportive. She feels alone, depressed, powerless, and unsafe everywhere except in art class.
When her friend starts a relationship with her rapist, Melinda speaks.
This is an important YA book shows how victims feel silenced by their assailant and the culture around them and how speaking out can liberate.
A Character with Inspiring Words of Healing
“When people don't express themselves, they die one piece at a time.” ― Laurie Halse Anderson from Speak
All of Laurie Halse Anderson’s novels deal with difficult issues, including anorexia and self-harm. Be sure to check out her other titles.
#10 - Some Boys by Patty Blount
A Poignant Book about Rape by “Untouchable” Perpetrator
After being sexually assaulted, a girl fights back against those who would shame and ostracize her.
Why Blount’s Themes about Victim-Blaming, Social Stigma, and Vigilante Justice Appeal
In this book, Grace was raped by the “golden boy” student and star athlete at their school named Zac, and she does speak. But no one believes her. Instead she is bullied and ostracized for daring to accuse the prince of such a heinous crime.
Zac’s best friend is Ian. Although he has a major crush on Grace, he no longer feels he can follow-through on that because the whole school is slut-shaming her.
Grace sets on a plan to prove to everyone that Zac isn’t the perfect son everyone believes him to be, and she’s the kind of fighter to make that happen. Instead of a depressed and withdrawn rape survivor, this character is a middle-finger-in-your-face girl who goes after her rapist despite nearly everyone being against her.
This YA book shines a light on how girls are labeled by how they dress or act—and how that can influence whether or not she is believed.
A Heroic Protagonist Who Refuses to Take It Lying Down
“Brave. The word hangs in the air for a moment and then falls away, almost like it even knows it has no business being used to describe me.” ― Patty Blount from Some Boys
#11 - Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
A Popular Book about the Long-Term Effects of Trauma on Young People
An emotional and heartbreaking novel about a self-harming girl who was raped at a very young age and now feels the man is stalking her again.
Why Rainfield’s Themes of Friendship and Recovery Inspire
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 cannot remember the face of the man who attacked her. 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.
A Survivor’s Emotional Voice
“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 from Scars
#12 - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
A Truly Unique Story about Justice
December 1973, a murdering rapist violently takes the life of a young girl, but she pursues justice from the afterlife.
Why Sebold’s Themes about Violence, Grief, and Loss Resonate
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.
An Author with Personal Experience
“Murderers are not monsters, they're men. And that's the most frightening thing about them.” ― Alice Sebold from The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold is well-known for her harrowing, heartbreaking, and controversial memoir, Lucky, about her own rape.
#13 - Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers
A Mystery about How a “Golden Girl” Lost Everything
A golden girl abruptly self-destructs on her perfect life, and the reason is shocking.
Why Summers’ Themes about the Impact of Acquaintance Rape Matter
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 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.
An Author of Issue-Driven Fiction
“You get away with a lot, even after you're caught.” ― Courtney Summers, quote from Cracked Up to Be
I’ve read several amazing novels by Courtney Summers, including Sadie. Be sure to check out her other titles.
#14 - My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
A Hypnotic Look at Pedophiles, Grooming, and Consent
A 15-year-old girl in a private boarding school is groomed into a multi-year sexual relationship with a middle-aged teacher.
Why Russell’s Themes about Inappropriate Teacher/Student Relationships Matter
What a deeply disturbing book. I wondered what made 15-year-old Vanessa so malleable to Strane's grooming and manipulation. It seemed like more than just being a lonely kid in search of approval. Her confusion about what was happening in the early days of the relationship was clear. Did she imagine that? Was it real? And then, the first sexual encounter with them was so horrible. Even in that moment of being raped, she was confused and tried to explain what was happening to her.
It was sad that the adult Vanessa was so messed up. She couldn't break free of him and what he did to her. She even seemed bent on repeating the cycle with another teacher, and I'm not sure I really believe the hopeful notes at the end of the story. I'm not sure Vanessa will ever recover from Strane.
Also, I was confused about what actually happened with the other girls. Was she really the only one who was raped, or was that just something she told herself?
An Unforgettable Character and Voice
“To be groomed is to be loved and handled like a precious, delicate thing.” ― Kate Elizabeth Russell from My Dark Vanessa
The psychological elements of this novel reminded me of The Kiss: A Memoir by Kathryn Harrison.
Another similar novel is Rust and Stardust by T. Greenwood.
Other Poignant YA Books about Rape and Sexual Abuse
Check out the 15 Inspiring Reads Navigating Sexual Assault and Survival on Epic Reads and the Young Adult Books about Rape & Sexual Abuse (331 books) list 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, including self-harming, eating disorders, substance abuse, mental illness, and others.
Author Bio
Khristina Chess is an award-winning author of more than a dozen young adult novels, including The Cutting Edge of Friendship, The Delinquent Hero, and Junior Missing. Her novel about eating disorders, Hollow Beauty, was named a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She tackles tough teen topics and writes binge-worthy books across multiple genres, including contemporary, thriller, mystery, dystopian, and adventure.
In a recent interview from her alma mater, she described how her experience in the creative writing program prepared her for success.
