Khristina Chess, YA Author, Blog
Khristina Chess is the author of books about teens tackling tough issues like anorexia, drinking, anxiety, and depression.
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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!
Lessons in Chemistry is one of the best books I've read in a while. It made me laugh out loud. Elizabeth Zott has a direct and no nonsense practicality about her that is so lovable. Her dog, six thirty, makes a delightful sidekick. That she teaches him almost 1,000 words (and the author gives him a point of view) is beyond wonderful.
Elizabeth's struggles for equality in a male-dominated world were poignant and emotional. She demonstrated great restraint and composure when it wasn't deserved. I felt grateful to women of her generation for the opportunities I enjoy today in the technology workplace.
Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these books you’ll devour if you liked Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. What all of the books in this list share is a bit of romance and a lot of humor. The female protagonists in these books will keep you up giggling half the night.
I hope you find something that catches your interest. Happy reading!
“Everyone likes tall, broody, sullen hunks with genius IQs.” ― Ali Hazelwood, quote from The Love Hypothesis
Ten stars! I laughed out loud, so many times, reading this STEM romance book. (In fact, I’ve read it twice.) The voice of the main character, Olive Smith, was so much fun. The scenarios that she finds herself in during her fake-dating relationship are hilarious.
I loved Adam, too, and how he was bemused by the situation and played along with all the shenanigans.
In the end, there is real depth here. Olive faces serious professional issues in the academic workplace, including sexual harassment. Adam is articulate and direct about what it means to be a good professional mentor and why he strives to do so.
If you loved Lessons in Chemistry and are interested in another novel with smart, witty women protagonists, you will love this one. I promise! Ali Hazelwood inspires women in the technology field. Her other novels are great, too, but start with The Love Hypothesis.
“You do realize that a car is a mobile make-out location, right?” Ian said. ― Khristina Chess, quote from Drive to June.
Although pitched as a story about alcohol abuse, this YA novel is also a funny, romantic story about a dating and intimacy. The present story line is a relationship that develops between the protagonist, 18-year-old Adrianna, and a pizza delivery boy who offers to help her get her driver’s license after finding her crying on the roof of her house.
Once Ian comes into her life, 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 Adrianna’s secret. What makes this book so special is the sweet relationship that develops between Adrianna and Ian as he teaches her how to drive. Although it starts as a story about alcohol abuse, this is a dreamy and hopeful YA novel with heart.
Fans of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Gamus will devour this one.
“I just can’t believe that life would give us to each other,” he said, “and then take it back.”
“I can,” she said. “Life’s a bastard.” ― Rainbow Rowell, quote from Eleanor and Park
It's been a long time since I've encountered a novel that I literally couldn't put down. Eleanor & Park was one of those books. I loved every minute. I sat on the porch, on the couch, on the floor by the window... and devoured this book. It was a wonderful reading experience about first love. Sweet and heartbreaking and everything I wanted. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good, romantic young love story.
The story unfolds from alternating points of view, both Eleanor and Park, as they fall in love over the course of one year. The dialog is witty, snappy, and fun.
As a super-dreamy book about about young love, it will give you all the feels. If you devoured Lessons in Chemistry, you won’t want to miss this.
“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.
If you liked Lessons in Chemistry, this dreamy YA book will leave you smiling for days. 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!
“I want to say yes, but I don't want to be with a boy whose heart belongs to somebody else. Just once, I want to be somebody else's first choice.” ― Jenny Han, quote from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Lara Jean is a super sweet adorable character, and even though the story seems like a common love triangle, there are enough twists to keep the pages turning. Plus, Lara Jean herself is such a star. She’s naive and on her own for the first time, and she’s making all kinds of mistakes. She’s basically a train wreck. I love her immensely. Two plot points surprised me, and I thought I had those wrapped up early on.
I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, but I finished it in two sittings. Now I see why everyone’s been reading it! :-)
Something about Lara Jean reminds me of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. You’ll love it.
If you are looking for other books like Lessons in Chemistry, check out the Readers Who Enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry list on Goodreads. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of Binge-Worthy YA Books So Addicting You Can’t Stop Reading.
Other Books Like
Do you have any recommendations for me?
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.
Impact by Nate Johnson is one of those apocalyptic novels that makes you nervous. After all, there’s not really any way to prepare for a giant asteroid strike. If you’re lucky to survive the cataclysm, the following days and weeks won’t be pleasant.
I love this kind of book! If you liked Impact by Nate Johnson, here are some reviews of other apocalyptic and dystopian books you don’t want to miss. Some are classics. Some are young adult novels you may have never seen. All of them have page-turning plots, compelling characters, and thought-provoking themes about humanity at the end of the world.
Be prepared to stay up half the night reading. You won’t be able to put them down!
“Love didn't grow very well in a place where there was only fear, just as plants didn't grow very well in a place where it was always dark.” ― Stephen King, quote from The Stand
In the apocalyptic and dystopian category, one book stands above the crowd: Stephen King’s The Stand. It’s my all-time favorite book. I’ve read it at least 7 times. I read it first in high school, so while it may not be a “YA book” in the strict definition of the category, teen readers can handle it. Trust me. I wrote my senior thesis about the themes in this book.
In this sweeping apocalyptic novel, a man-made virus named Captain Tripps kills almost everyone on earth. There are a handful of remaining viewpoint characters who become the focal point for this epic story. Their storylines run concurrently. At first they seem disconnect, but slowly they begin moving and coming together. There are some truly terrifying scenes, and a supernatural element pops up because—remember—it’s Stephen King. At the end of the world, the heroes must make a final stand against evil.
Fans who liked Impact by Nate Johnson will love The Stand (and probably read it twice).
“I am afraid. Someone is coming.” ― Robert C O’Brien, quote from Z for Zachariah
I remember reading this book in our school library in high school, and it was chilling. Now an adult, decades later, I bought a copy of it to see if it was really as good as I remembered.
Yes, yes it is!
Young adult fiction wasn't even "a thing" when this book was written, and yet, it's a thrilling, roller-coaster true YA novel about a 15-year-old girl (who turns 16 during the events) who believes she's the last person alive after a nuclear war. She's resilient, resourceful, wary, hopeful, and that mix of both childlike and wise that you would expect from a teen in this situation.
When a stranger arrives in the valley, a man, she is cautious, but as events unfold and he becomes sick, she lets her guard down to help him. This turns out to be a mistake.
The Hollywood movie version gets this book wrong: the female is older, and there are two men. If you love dystopian YA novels like Impact and haven't picked this one up yet, I highly recommend it!
“…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.
If you liked Impact by Nate Johnson and are looking for an unusual dystopian novel, you won’t be able to put this one down.
“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” ― Cormac McCarthy, quote from The Road
Maybe you’re looking for something similar to Johnson’s novel, Impact. If so, pick up The Road. This dystopian, post-apocalyptic book is gripping from the very first page. A man and his son are on the road, and something truly awful has happened. What?
The story unfolds at a delicious crawl. You can feel the agony and terror of their situation. There are a couple of scenes that are truly chilling. The horror of them has remained with me forever.
There’s a reason this novel won a Pulitzer Prize. Read it. You won’t regret it.
The Razorland Trilogy were the first apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian YA science fiction books 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.
Fans of Nate Johnson’s end-of-times novel Impact will love this series. Check it out.
“There's different ways of doing things wrong, Lynn, and not all of it is choosing to hurt others. Sometimes it's the things you don't do that make you feel the worst.” ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from Not a Drop to Drink
Set in an apocalyptic future where drinking water is scarce and people fight for survival in a wild frontier, Lynn is a young woman in rural Ohio defending a pond and her homestead. Her mother raised her to distrust, to fight, and to live, and that's what she intends to do.
I enjoyed watching Lynn's fierce character evolve into a person who was willing to allow others into her life, to trust and even love. Despite her hardness, she had a kind heart. There were some interesting scenes in interactions with other people, like the stranger on the road, that tested her humanity.
Not a Drop to Drink was also a fast, thrilling YA book about dystopian survival, and its sequel, In a Handful of Dust, follows Lynn and her adopted daughter Lucy into the unknown after a mysterious plague drives them away from their home and community and into the wilderness.
If you’re looking for compelling and apocalyptic and dystopian YA books like Impact by Nate Johnson, give these two a try. In fact, Mindy McGinnis is so awesome she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited.
My edition actually had the first 3 books together, but I didn't realize this until the transition to the second book.
Harley Tate gives an excellent story about a woman, daughter, and husband who are separated when the power goes out around the world. The daughter has 3 college friends with her. The viewpoint alternates between the mother, daughter, and father as they attempt to find one another in the immediate chaos.
The narrative is fast-paced, and the characters face many serious challenges in their journey. I became invested in the characters and their efforts to reunite, and then, I wanted them to achieve their goal of finding safety at the college roommate's parents' house in the mountains.
If you liked Impact by Nate Johnson, this is good book and new author to check out. She has a lot of others in her backlist too.
If you are interested in the political tensions between collectivism/socialism versus individualism, read Stephen King’s Cell. These themes are painted with subtle and beautiful strokes.
I recently read it a second time because I remembered two things: it was a great, fast read and I didn't like the ending (but didn't remember what it was). Now, some 15 years later, I can honestly say that the book remains a fabulous, fast-paced and engrossing read, and I appreciated the ending much better.
The novel is a zombie pandemic of sorts, set off with cell phones, and I read it during quarantine of the cornavirus pandemic of 2020. In Cell, the end of the world came with a single, abrupt pulse that changes everything, and it sends a group of survivors on a journey to find one man's son. Along the way, we learn what happened and is still evolving as a result of the pulse.
If you’re looking for compelling apocalyptic and dystopian books like Impact by Nate Johnson, you will love this one.
There’s a reason that The Hunger Games always appears at the top of lists for apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian YA science fiction books. This series has everything: a relatable and flawed heroine in Katniss, a love triangle, life-and-death adventure, good and evil, a stark world of intense poverty contrasted against ridiculous gluttony, and deeper themes about society at large.
This series is amazing. I could read it multiple times and still find new things to love. I have seen the movies multiple times, but there are things in the books that are just wonderful.
Don’t miss these lovely books. Fans of Impact 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.
You definitely want to add Unwind to your TBR pile of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian books like Impact by Nate Johnson.
Like The Hunger Games, there’s a reason that Veronica Roth’s Divergent series has become a classic series in the category of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian YA science fiction books.
For me, I loved the heroine, Tris, who finds herself thrust into this whole new environment that tests her core character and everything she knew about herself. The book grabs you and takes off running! There’s adventure, moral ambiguity, love, and tons of conflict. What more do you need? It’s very well written and engrossing.
If you are looking for other books like Impact by Nate Johnson, Goodreads also offers a list of Books by Nate Johnson.You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of binge-worthy 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.
The Love Hypothesis is amazing. Ten stars! I laughed out loud, so many times, reading this STEM romance book. (In fact, I’ve read it twice.) The voice of the main character, Olive Smith, was so much fun. The scenarios that she finds herself in during her fake-dating relationship are hilarious.
I loved Adam, too, and how he was bemused by the situation and played along with all the shenanigans.
In the end, there is real depth here. Olive faces serious professional issues in the academic workplace, including sexual harassment. Adam is articulate and direct about what it means to be a good professional mentor and why he strives to do so.
If you loved The Love Hypothesis and are interested in some other novels with smart, witty female protagonists, explore my reviews of these books. What all of the them share is a bit of romance and a lot of humor. The women in these novels will keep you up giggling half the night.
I hope you find something that catches your interest. Happy reading!
“You do realize that a car is a mobile make-out location, right?” Ian said. ― Khristina Chess, quote from Drive to June.
Although pitched as a story about alcohol abuse, this YA novel is also a funny, romantic story about a dating and intimacy. The present story line is a relationship that develops between the protagonist, 18-year-old Adrianna, and a pizza delivery boy who offers to help her get her driver’s license after finding her crying on the roof of her house.
Once Ian comes into her life, 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 Adrianna’s secret. What makes this book so special is the sweet relationship that develops between Adrianna and Ian as he teaches her how to drive. Although it starts as a story about alcohol abuse, this is a dreamy and hopeful YA novel with heart.
Fans of The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood will devour this one.
“Because while stupid people may not know they’re stupid because they’re stupid, surely unattractive people must know they’re unattractive because of mirrors.” ― Bonnie Garmus, quote from Lessons in Chemistry
Lessons in Chemistry is one of the best books I've read in a while. It made me laugh out loud on many occasions. Elizabeth Zott has a direct and no nonsense practicality about her that is so lovable. Her dog, six thirty, makes a delightful sidekick. That she teaches him almost 1,000 words (and the author gives him a point of view) is beyond wonderful.
Elizabeth's struggles for equality in a male-dominated world were poignant and emotional. She demonstrated great restraint and composure when it wasn't deserved. I felt grateful to women of her generation for the opportunities I enjoy today in the technology workplace.
This is an inspiring, page-turning, and important book about women in this field and the challenges faced historically to make progress in this area. If you devoured The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood, you will like this one.
“I just can’t believe that life would give us to each other,” he said, “and then take it back.”
“I can,” she said. “Life’s a bastard.” ― Rainbow Rowell, quote from Eleanor and Park
It's been a long time since I've encountered a novel that I literally couldn't put down. Eleanor & Park was one of those books. I loved every minute. I sat on the porch, on the couch, on the floor by the window... and devoured this book. It was a wonderful reading experience about first love. Sweet and heartbreaking and everything I wanted. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good, romantic young love story.
The story unfolds from alternating points of view, both Eleanor and Park, as they fall in love over the course of one year. The dialog is witty, snappy, and fun.
As a super-dreamy book about about young love, it will give you all the feels. If you devoured The Love Hypothesis, you won’t want to miss this.
“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.
If you liked The Love Hypothesis, this dreamy YA book will leave you smiling for days. 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!
“I want to say yes, but I don't want to be with a boy whose heart belongs to somebody else. Just once, I want to be somebody else's first choice.” ― Jenny Han, quote from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Lara Jean is a super sweet adorable character, and even though the story seems like a common love triangle, there are enough twists to keep the pages turning. Plus, Lara Jean herself is such a star. She’s naive and on her own for the first time, and she’s making all kinds of mistakes. She’s basically a train wreck. I love her immensely. Two plot points surprised me, and I thought I had those wrapped up early on.
I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did, but I finished it in two sittings. Now I see why everyone’s been reading it! :-)
Something about Lara Jean reminds me of Olive Smith in The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood.
If you are looking for other books like The Love Hypothesis, check out the Readers Who Enjoyed The Love Hypothesis list on Goodreads. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which lists other reviews of Binge-Worthy YA Books So Addicting You Can’t Stop Reading.
Do you have any recommendations for me?
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 Joice Kelly
Find your next great read for National Reading Month with these YA books that are great for teens facing tough problems.
Reading YA books about real teens tackling difficult problems can raise awareness about what others are going through. Stories about real issues like anxiety, self-harming, bullying, and eating disorders is one way to find connection and hope. Maybe through a character, you recognize that you are not alone, or you realize that a friend might be in trouble.
The following list is a compilation of the best YA books about teens facing tough problems that I’ve found. Many of these authors have written multiple issue-driven novels, and I’ve noted those. You will find some heartbreaking and challenging material here, but I promise that these books are worth it!
“No one is coming for you. No one is missing you. And no one will mourn you if you’re killed.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Property of Nobody
Freedom is not free.
Wow! Property of Nobody hooked me from the first page and never let me go!
Teódulo is a compelling and resonant male voice in a genre dominated by female characters. What makes Property of Nobody so special is the gripping, slow-boil depiction of how he falls into the trap of debt bondage and can’t escape. I worried about him. I loved seeing his journey and choices as he befriends various characters. This is the kind of thrilling, authentic novel that really shows the dark underbelly of immigration, human trafficking, organized crime, and the desperation of children caught in this web.
If you are looking for the best YA books about teens facing tough problems, you don’t need to look any further than Khristina Chess. In fact, all of her books are issue-driven stories about real and difficult problems, which is why I’ve included her on my Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited.
“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.
Readers in search of YA books about tough problems should definitely add this one to their list.
“What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” ― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give
I saw this book everywhere and picked it up, wondering what all the fuss is about. Wow. I couldn't put it down. Starr is an amazing character in a perfectly-crafted situation that screams with tension, suspense, and emotion. Her emotions are raw and authentic. You can feel her little-girl timidity in the grand jury testimony and her grief and rage in the scene with Hailey. Her world is vivid and real. The pain of her dual life and the conflict it causes her is palatable. I loved this book. I love this girl. I want to see her again, doing more, making a difference. She's made me believe in her.
And after reading this one, I wanted to read everything Angie Thomas has written and also added her to my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s so amazing! If you’re looking for more profanity and offensive language (and great stories and characters), she writes some of the best banned YA books, and you should read them.
“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!
This is simply an amazing book! If you’re looking for more heartwarming books like this, check out my list Which Inspiring YA Books about Orphans and Fosters Should You Read Next.
“There is one thing I've learned about people: they don't get that mean and nasty overnight. It's not human nature. But if you give people enough time, eventually they'll do the most heartbreaking stuff in the world.” ― Jennifer Mathieu, quote from The Truth About Alice
Told through multiple points of view, this YA novel tells the story Alice, a girl who is being bullied and shamed by her classmates because of sex. Each of the four narrators have a different perspective of Alice and what happened the night of the party, but because of their agendas, they are unreliable narrators. The worst ones are the girls who create the cloud of hate and shame around Alice.
The narrators are cruel and generally unlikeable people who spend their time justifying their actions. At the same time, because the book is short, there isn’t enough depth for them to do this adequately. I wish I’d had a little more.
In the end, only Alice can tell us what really happened—in her own voice.
If you’re looking for the best YA books for teens facing tough problems, be sure to check out this story about bullying and slut shaming. For more books like this one, check out my list YA Books about Bullying.
“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.
Don’t miss this poignant YA book about teen pregnancy. It will especially appeal to fans of Jodi Piccoult.
Teen pregnancy is one of the top concerns of American youth, and After is one of the best YA books for teens facing tough problems related to unplanned pregnancy. For more books about this issue, check out my list of 5 Young Adult Books about Teenage Pregnancy to Terrify Your Mother.
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?
By the Time You Read This I’ll Be Dead is one of the best YA books for teens facing tough problems, especially in the area of depression and anxiety. This raw book is a fast read. It’s not easy, happy, or hopeful, but it’s an authentic and real look at mental health and suicide. For more books about this issue, check out my list of 6 Gripping Young Adult Books on Depression and Anxiety Struggles.
“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
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.
If you are looking for a YA book about sisters, grief, and dying, this novel packs all these tough topics into one fast-paced great read.
“Every morning when I wake up, I don’t think I’m going to make it. Or maybe I think that I don’t want to make it. I’m heavy with what I did the night before and I’m heavy with everything inside me and sometimes it is just too goddamn much to carry around.” ― Kathleen Glasgow, quote from The Glass Girl
Everything Kathleen Glasgow writes is pure gold, and The Glass Girl is no exception.
Bella is a 15-year-old girl with a drinking problem. Her parents divorced and put her in the middle, and her beloved grandmother died, and her boyfriend broke up with her because she's "too much" (his words), and life really sucks except when she's drinking.
Bella hits bottom as most addicts do and finds herself in the hospital and then in rehab. Her journey through recovery and back to real life is not linear, and along the way, I fell in love with her and her pain. She's very authentic and young. There are moments when she shines so, so brightly, and I just wanted to hug her.
Kathleen Glasgow writes about tough topics for teens better than anyone! I definitely recommend her latest.
Trafficked is an absorbing YA novel that shows how an orphaned teenager easily becomes a victim in human trafficking. Hannah was easily duped into leaving her home for the promise of a better life, a salary, and a chance to study. Instead, she became a slave, forced into being an unpaid nanny and a maid, fighting off sexual advances of the husband of the house and his male associates, and being beaten and verbally abused by the wife. She is young, slow to realize her situation, and not great with English.
The plotting of Trafficked was thrilling. There were plenty of twists to keep me invested. For example, there is a backstory about how Hannah was "chosen" by this family that is revealed little by little.
I was rooting for Hannah to find a way out and take charge of her life. I worried about her because I knew the odds were not in her favor.
I’ve included Hannah’s heartbreaking and thought-provoking story in this best YA books for teens facing tough problems list because human trafficking is a real, modern problem across the world. You won’t want to miss Hannah’s story. She begins the novel in a state of naïve innocence in her home country, and by the end, she has become mature and wise to the adult world. It’s a realistic and sad tragedy.
Bring your tissues for 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 YA book about mother-daughter relationships, this one is one of my new favorites. For more books like this one, check out my list Which YA Books about Mother-Daughter Relationships Best Depict This Loving But Painful Dynamic.
“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.
Family is a tough topic for teens. This book is must-read for anyone looking for YA novels about sisterhood. For more books like this, check out my lists Which Heartbreaking YA Books about Sisters Should You Read Next and Which Great YA Books about Siblings Should You Read Next.
“Dad didn’t ask about my grades or anything else about my life—which was good, in a way—and after awhile, I told him I had to go home and study. ... I worried about leaving him alone in that big empty house with his shiny guns and his terrible anger and sadness. But I didn’t know what else to do.“ ― Khristina Chess, quote from Straight A’s
Separation and divorce plays a central role in this YA novel about a teen who struggles to find a path out of a downward spiral of despair.
Kim was supposed to be valedictorian of her class. Then her parents split, and everything went wrong. She’s bouncing between them and trying to carry the weight of their emotional meltdowns, and it’s too much. Too much!
Now she’s planning to kill herself.
With time running out in the semester and academic pressures mounting, depression threatens to overwhelm her. Being valedictorian means everything: scholarships, acceptance to top schools, everything! 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.
Don’t miss this ultimately sweet, hopeful, and unforgettable YA novel about separation and divorce that depicts one teenager’s struggle with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. For more books like this, check out my list Which Unforgettable YA Books about Separation and Divorce Should You Read Next.
“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 read. For more books like this, check out my list Which Powerful YA Books about Abuse and Relationship Violence Should You Read Next.
“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. For more books on this topic, check out my list Which YA Books about Eating Disorders Should You Read.
“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 tough topics related to health, Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl is definitely a title to add to your reading list. You can also find more like this one at my list Which Thoughtful YA Books about Disabilities, Illnesses, and Disorders Should You Read Next.
“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 YA psychological thriller that shows unique perspectives of friends of the killer. For more books like this, see my list Classic Books about School Shootings That Give Unique Perspectives.
“I just can’t believe that life would give us to each other,” he said, “and then take it back.”
“I can,” she said. “Life’s a bastard.” ― Rainbow Rowell, quote from Eleanor and Park
It's been a long time since I've encountered a novel that I literally couldn't put down. Eleanor & Park was one of those books. I loved every minute. I sat on the porch, on the couch, on the floor by the window... and devoured this book. It was a wonderful reading experience about first love. Sweet and heartbreaking and everything I wanted. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good, romantic young love story.
The story unfolds from alternating points of view, both Eleanor and Park, as they fall in love over the course of one year. The dialog is witty, snappy, and fun.
As a super-dreamy YA book about about dating and intimacy, it will give you all the feels. For more books like this, check out Which Dreamy YA Books about Dating, Intimacy, and Sex Should You Read Next.
“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.
Heroine is one of the best YA books featuring characters dealing with substance abuse that I’ve ever read. It’s real and raw, and I couldn’t look away. I really rooted for her to find a way to health.
If you are looking for other YA books about teens facing tough problems, check out the Best Teen Books about Real Problems and Teen Books about Real Problems 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, including eating disorders, substance abuse, mental illness, and others.
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 Duy Pham
Find your next great read for National Reading Month in these award-winning YA books about diversity and multiculturalism.
Books open us to other worlds. We see through the eyes and lives of other characters, and that experience builds empathy. Diverse and multicultural books are important because they hold up mirrors for young readers who might not often see themselves in books, as well as windows for young readers who don’t often encounter students different from themselves.
This list includes many award-winning YA books about diversity and multiculturalism, (as well as a few that haven’t won any awards but were awesome reads). I hope you find something you love here. I did!
“No one is coming for you. No one is missing you. And no one will mourn you if you’re killed.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Property of Nobody
Freedom is not free.
Wow! Property of Nobody hooked me from the first page and never let me go!
Teódulo is a compelling and resonant male voice in a genre where boys are underrepresented. What makes Property of Nobody so special is the gripping, slow-boil depiction of how he falls into the trap of debt bondage and can’t escape. I worried about him. I loved seeing his journey and choices as he befriends various characters. This is the kind of thrilling, authentic novel that really shows the dark underbelly of immigration, human trafficking, organized crime, and the desperation of children caught in this web.
If you are looking for YA books about diversity, 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.
“What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” ― Angie Thomas, quote from The Hate U Give
I saw this book everywhere and picked it up, wondering what all the fuss is about. Wow. I couldn't put it down. Starr is an amazing character in a perfectly-crafted situation that screams with tension, suspense, and emotion. Her emotions are raw and authentic. You can feel her little-girl timidity in the grand jury testimony and her grief and rage in the scene with Hailey. Her world is vivid and real. The pain of her dual life and the conflict it causes her is palatable. I loved this book. I love this girl. I want to see her again, doing more, making a difference. She's made me believe in her.
The Hate You Give should be at the top of your must-read list of award-winning YA books about diversity and multiculturalism. In fact, after reading this one, I wanted to read everything Angie Thomas has written and also added her to my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she’s so amazing! If you’re looking for thought-provoking, outstanding, award-winning YA books about diversity and multiculturalism, Angie Thomas writes some of the best.
“We are small people, with small names, meant to live small lives. That’s all we’re allowed to live.” ― Jenny Torres Sanchez, quote from We Are Not From Here
We Are Not From Here is a compelling book about a tough topic. Through the lens of fiction, we see a glimpse of some of the difficulties migrants from south America face on their journey to the U.S. Pulga, Pequena, and Chico are three teenagers fleeing violence in their home country. They believe they are prepared for what awaits them, but they are not.
The first third of the book has a slow pace. The author lingers on the character development and circumstances that forced the teenagers to leave home. Once they’re on the road, though, the narrative is gripping and realistic. I burned through the pages quickly, and several events generated emotional tears. These characters are kids. They are forced to grow up too soon. The violence in this novel didn’t surprise me, but the kindness did. Many people helped them along the way. Some turned their backs, but more offered food, shelter, and human decency. I felt like even in the middle of suffering, goodness is within reach.
If you’re looking for award-winning YA books about diversity and multiculturalism, add this one to your reading list.
“That’s when I learned that when people die, they sometimes take the living with them.” ― Angie Thomas, quote from On the Come Up
In On the Come Up, we meet Bri, a complex character facing multiple conflicts in her pursuit of her goal to become a hip-hop star. She wants to save her family, who's struggling for the basics like rent, food, and shoes that aren't falling apart. She wants to make a name for herself that isn't in the shadow of her late, great father. And she wants to do things her own way, with her own voice. She's talented, bold, ambitious, and still very innocent as the adults around her try to manipulate her for their own purposes. Even close friends try to use her experience to push forward their own agendas at school. Through all of this, Bri develops the heart and wisdom she needs to truly become a star.
I loved this book. While reading, I couldn't help comparing it with THUG, but they're completely different stories and characters. I love each novel for different reasons. Angie Thomas is a brilliant author who understands the craft of great storytelling. It's a joy to follow her characters on their journeys.
Check it out. On the Come Up also makes the list of YA books about diversity and multiculturalism that you must read.
“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 diversity and multiculturalism definitely deserves all the accolades, hype, and great reviews it has received. Check it out!
Maya lives with her mom in Guatemala and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. She has a real shot, too. Her creations are inventive, and she's going to be in this year's show. I liked the descriptions of her dresses and her approaches to solving design problems. These elements really made her character shine.
On the one hand, Maya seems like a well-grounded, mature teen with "a good head on her shoulders" about her future. On the other hand, she says and does the stupidest things. This makes here relatable as a teenager, but many of the cases felt forced and overblown. I also didn't like the tic where Every. Word. Is. A. Separate. Sentence. Gah! And the exclamation marks! Ugh! :-)
Most of the plot points are realistic and true, especially as events escalated. I won't give spoilers about the ending except to say that it was good.
If you are looking for award-winning YA books about diversity and multiculturalism and the impact of illegal immigration on young adults, this novel is worth picking up.
“The trouble with getting your hopes too far up is: it's a long way down.” ― Nicola Yoon, quote from The Sun Is Also a Star
I loved Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything, so when The Sun Is Also A Star released, I couldn’t wait to read it. This novel is a star-crossed love story between two teens of different backgrounds: Daniel Jae Ho Bae (a middle-class US citizen of South Korean descent) and Natasha Kingsley (a Jamaican girl who is being deported at the end of the day).
The timeline of the novel is 12 hours, and in that time, the characters fall in love. With every page, I kept hoping that something would change and something would stop the inevitable from happening. Because it wasn’t fair. Daniel and Natasha just found each other.
You won’t want to miss this heartbreaking, bestselling, and award-winning YA book about diversity and multiculturalism.
“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.
In a list of award-winning YA books about diversity and multiculturalism, this novel shines.
Although Trafficked did not win any big awards, it is a little-known but powerful YA book about diversity and multiculturalism about characters not often seen in fiction.
Trafficked an absorbing YA novel that shows how an orphaned teenager from Moldova easily becomes a victim in human trafficking. Hannah was easily duped into leaving her home for the promise of a better life in the United States, a salary, and a chance to study English. Instead, she became a slave, forced into being an unpaid nanny and a maid, fighting off sexual advances of the husband of the house and his male associates, and being beaten and verbally abused by the wife. She is young, slow to realize her situation, and not great with English.
The plotting of Trafficked was thrilling. There were plenty of twists to keep me invested. For example, there is a backstory about how Hannah was "chosen" by this family that is revealed little by little.
I was rooting for Hannah to find a way out and take charge of her life. I worried about her because I knew the odds were not in her favor.
I’ve included Hannah’s heartbreaking and thought-provoking story in this YA books about diversity and multiculturalism list because human trafficking is a real, modern problem across the world. You won’t want to miss Hannah’s story. She begins the novel in a state of naïve innocence in her home country, and by the end, she has become mature and wise to the adult world. It’s a realistic and sad tragedy.
In this multicultural and multi-generational YA book about a Mexican American family of “saints,” pilgrims from everywhere arrive at thier ranch in search of miracles.
I almost abandoned this book. It has a really long, slow, meandering warm up that seems to be going nowhere, and then around page 170, I was suddenly delighted me with this passage:
"It may seem like madness for a young woman to chase a runaway horse, as a galloping horse travels at twenty-five miles an hour and a galloping woman only travels at fifteen. But runaway horses rarely have a purpose, and young women chasing them often do." ― Maggie Stiefvater, quote from All the Crooked Saints
The scene that followed was full of language that made me smile and action that finally drew me into the story. More lovely moments followed. The remainder of the book was magical, mysterious, and ultimately transformative for the characters. I wish the pacing for the first half had been different.
This book has a great premise: what if you had a second chance at saying goodbye?
However for a lot of reasons, the main character didn't seem all that likeable to me, so I wasn't able to connect with her grief at a gut level. The flashbacks to the romance between Julie and Sam didn't help me to fall in love with this couple and their relationship, and instead, I found myself skimming over passages to finish. There were some engaging plot points to drive the narrative forward, but they often lost momentum. I'm glad I pushed to the ending because it was a good resolution.
The cover on this novel is fabulous, though, isn't it? It's the reason I picked up the book.
“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 diversity and multiculturalism 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 for other YA books about diversity and multiculturalism (best-selling, award-winning, or otherwise), check out the YA Multicultural Books and YA Diversity 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.
The Fault in Our Stars is the ultimate YA heart-wrenching star-crossed love story. 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.
This book will stay with me for a long while. In fact, John Green is such a great author that he’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because he’s all-around amazing!
If you loved The Fault in Our Stars as much as I did, here are some reviews of a few other books you’ll enjoy.
“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.
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.
If you loved The Fault in Our Stars, don't miss this tragic YA novel.
“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. Fans of The Fault in Our Stars will enjoy this one.
“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.
If you loved The Fault in Our Stars as much as I did, be sure to check out this thought-provoking and heartbreaking YA book that wrestles with grief and loss.
“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 books like The Fault in Our Stars. 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’re looking for books like The Fault in Our Stars, pick this one up. It’s a whirlwind read.
If you are looking other books similar to The Fault in Our Stars, check out the Readers who enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars and Books Like The Fault in Our Stars 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 about grief and love to add to my list? If you enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars, 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.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusack is one of those books that grabs you and doesn’t let go.
“I am haunted by humans.” ― Markus Zusak, quote from The Book Thief
In this historical novel set in Nazi Germany, we meet a young foster girl named Liesel. She’s an orphan. She loves books. She and her foster parents are sheltering a Jewish man in their basement. He also likes to read. The writing is lovely. Zusak paints Liesel’s world of poverty, anxiety, fear, and grief in shades of stark contrasts. He is both a poet and a novelist.
The Book Thief is a wonderful, heartbreaking, haunting, and gripping story. Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these historical books you’ll devour if you liked The Book Thief by Markus Zusack.
“When things come to an end in a way you didn't expect, in a way you never could have imagined, do they really come to an end? Does it mean you should keep searching, for better answers, for ones that don't keep you up at night? Or does it mean it's time to make peace?” ― Monica Hesse, quote from The Girl in the Blue Coat
The Girl in the Blue Coat hooked me from the very beginning. It's a historical mystery, set in Amsterdam during WWII, and the protagonist is a teenage girl who trades black market goods to support her family. One of her clients asks her to help find a missing Jewish girl. Hanneke is good at finding things, but this isn't her kind of thing.
Still, she is drawn into the mystery and can't help herself from searching. As the pages unfold, we learn about Hanneke's lost love, meet new friends, and see her grow as a person.
Sometimes, young Hanneke seems bratty, singularly focused, and unfeeling, but at the same time, her instincts have helped her stay alive this far. Fans of The Book Thief will love this one.
"The only thing left alive was the shame." ― Sofi Oksanen, quote from Purge
I picked up Purge to add to my list of YA books about human trafficking, but this novel is pure literature, a stunning international masterpiece that spans decades of history, generations of pain, and dark twisted family secrets.
Set in Estonia and bouncing between 1941 and 1992, two protagonists tell their tales in a long and dizzying narrative that weaves between present terror and past horror. These women are bound to each other in multiple ways. Their mutual distrust them unreliable narrators, so that only the reader really only has the full picture, and sometimes even that picture is murky.
As I think back on each of these women's experiences, I see so many parallels in what happened to each, even though the details are very different on the surface. For example, both are raped. Both are silenced. Both are shamed. One is betrayed. One is a betrayer.
This is the kind of epic novel that I can think about for a long time and even read again. I missed things and know that I would see even more in a second reading because the book is so sweeping and full of such meaningful symbolism and detail.
If you liked The Book Thief by Markus Zuzack, add Purge to your TBR pile. You won’t be disappointed.
“If there was only one tree like that in the world, you would think it was beautiful. But because there are so many, you just can't see how beautiful it really is.” ― Betty Smith, quote from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I first heard about this book from Oprah Winfrey and picked it up during the book club years. A classic YA novel published in 1943, before YA was really “a thing,” A Tree Grows in Brooklyn tells the story of a poor young girl growing up in Brooklyn, a child of struggling immigrant parents.
This historical YA book about immigration, class, and poverty, and Francie, has remained with me for decades. There’s a reason why this novel has stood the test of time and lands in the category of literary classics. If you loved The Book Thief and want to experience all those emotions again, read this one!
“The show must go on, even when it's not the show you expected to be in.” ― Lisa Felder, quote from We Walked the Sky
Fiedler's multi-generational novel really captured and held my interest. Two parallel stories are running: the grandmother, Victoria, is a 16-year-old who runs away and joins the circus in 1965, and her granddaughter, Callie, is a teen who has followed in her circus footsteps, but now finds herself in a new place.
There are mysteries to unravel and friendships to develop. I loved all the circus lore and animals and characters. Really, it was an enchanting story. I want to read more by this author.
When compiling the list of historical YA books like The Book Thief, be sure to add this one.
I have read several of Laurie Halse Anderson's books, and I found this one to be ambitious, compelling, and heartfelt. I learned things about slavery during the American revolutionary war that were new since most literature I've consumed has been during the later period of the civil war. The author’s research into the book made it rich and come alive.
If you loved The Book Thief by Markus Zuzack, you will want to add this amazing historical YA book about class difference, race, and slavery in early American history to your reading list. In fact, Laurie Halse Anderson 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!
It makes me sad to think that 1986 is “historical fiction,” but it is. I picked up this novel because it was the 2021 First Place winner for Middle-Grade/Young Adult Writers Digest Self-Published Book Awards. Wow! It hooked me immediately and didn’t let go.
Four middle-school boys find a backpack full of cash and pot left behind by their nemesis bullies, the Thousand Oaks Gang, and after evading them fails (they get beat up), they decide to retreat to an abandoned lake house for a few days. Being kids, they haven’t thought this through. The bullies find them. They end up stranded on an island with no food, water, or shelter and must survive until someone rescues them.
I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this novel. I felt I was in great storytelling hands with Semegran. I don’t usually like Middle Grade novels; they usually are too young for me to really appreciate. But The Benevolent Lords of Sometimes Island has something special. As others have noted, it reminds me of The Body by Stephen King, which inspired Stand by Me (the movie). Perhaps it is the narrator’s voice, which seems older and wiser than his young years.
If you liked The Book Thief, you will devour this one.
If you are looking for other books like The Book Thief, Goodreads has a list: Readers Who Enjoyed The Book Thief. 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.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides is one of those novels that refuses to be set aside. These days, it's rare that I spend a weekend with my nose in a book, but I did with The Silent Patient.
The premise is simple enough: a woman killed her husband and is now in a mental institution. She refuses to speak. The protagonist is a therapist who wants to help her regain her voice.
Will he? What will she tell him? The therapist is one part detective, one part analyst, and one part guy with his own demons to overcome. His journey to understand what happened to Alicia that night leads to a jaw-dropping twist. If you haven't picked up this one yet, add it to your reading list for 2025!
If you liked The Silent Patient as much as I did, explore my reviews of similar books. I hope you find something new that catches your interest. Happy reading!
“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! 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.
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.
Fans of The Silent Patient will devour this YA psychological thriller. In fact, Khristina Chess is on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she has so many suspenseful novels.
"Some families are lucky enough to never experience a single tragedy. But then there are those families that see to have tragedies waiting on the back burner. What can go wrong, goes wrong. And then gets worse."—Colleen Hoover, quote from Verity
Colleen Hoover is a mega bestselling author of both adult and young adult fiction. Verity is my personal favorite. The hot (hot, hot) romance was definitely a big part of the appeal, but the spicy sex wasn’t the only part. This is more than a romance novel. I loved the twisty, dark, and disorienting plot that kept me guessing until the very end. In this novel, the characters aren’t who they seem to be, and that multi-dimensional layer was the aspect that made Verity so wonderful for me.
If you’re looking for authors like Alex Michaelides that you’ll want to binge, pick this one up.
What more can I say about The Housemaid than has already been said? Fast-paced, full of surprises, chilling twist ending, compelling and unexpected characters -- this novel has all that and more!
"I'm going to let you out... Just not yet."
Holy cow! Yikes!
The Housemaid kept popping up as recommended reading for me, and since I've been seeing it everywhere, I thought, "Let's see."
I was delighted and entertained. In fact, I will definitely be reading more Freida McFadden novels! If you loved The Silent Patient, you will devour this one.
“I believe that any human being is capable of terrible things if you push them hard enough.” ― Freida McFadden, quote from Never Lie
"Never Lie" is my third Freida McFadden novel, and it didn't disappoint.
After a snowstorm traps newlyweds Tricia and Ethan in a deserted house, Tricia finds herself invested in the mystery surrounding the previous owner's disappearance.
The story is compelling, and I was surprised by the various plot twists. McFadden has a unique writing voice that makes her protagonists, whether the housemaid or Tricia, seem a little "off." The setting seemed a little contrived, but it didn't hurt the novel in the least. Yes, this is how all horror movies begin.
Bring it.
If you liked The Silent Patient, check this one out for sur.e
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston is one of those psychological thriller / mystery books that grabs you from the beginning and never lets go.
Evie Porter is a free agent who handles various “jobs” for a mysterious Mr. Smith. She’s good at her job. In fact, she’s so good that she doesn’t trust Mr. Smith and sets safety nets around her to make sure that when she’s double-crossed (not if, she knows it’s coming), she’ll be ready.
About halfway through the book, I was certain that I'd figured out who the mysterious "Mr. Smith" was--but I was wrong! The ending had a great twist and surprise. After a modest start to the narrative, I had to sit down and read the rest of the book in a single afternoon. I loved the premise, the mystery, and the conflict. I can see why people loved this one. Excellent read! If you liked The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, give this one a try!
"If she could rewind the timeline, untwist it and roll it back the other way like a ball of wool, she'd see the knots in the yarn, the warning signs. Looking at it backward it was obvious all along. But back then, when she knew nothing about anything, she had not seen it coming. She had walked straight into it with her eyes open." ― Lisa Jewell, quote from Then She Was Gone
This is an unputdownable novel. In fact, I was about 20 pages in when I realized I was going too fast and maybe, like the missing girl Ellie, I was overlooking important clues, so I went back and read from the beginning again.
I had to know what happened to Ellie, and then, bit by bit, new mysteries began to emerge. New horrors. The more I learned about Ellie and Noelle, the worse things became. The whole story became very... weird. Scary.
The relationship between Ellie’s mom and the American writer, Floyd, is where things take a turn. Floyd has a daughter who looks just like Ellie. I mean, how weird is that?
The ending was not predictable to me, and the path to reach the conclusion was not straight. I definitely loved this novel and want to read more of Lisa Jewell. Fans of The Silent Patient will agree that this is a thrilling, twisty read.
The Girl on the Train is definitely one of the books you’ll devour if you liked The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. It has unreliable narrators, as well as a twisty and confusing plot that will keep you guessing. Things definitely aren’t what they seem to be. The mystery keeps the pages turning. What, exactly, did Rachel see that day?
This book was a total roller coaster. I was all over the place with my feelings about it, and that was a good thing.
Pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed.
It’s hard to say much about this one without revealing spoilers. A man’s wife disappears, and he’s the main suspect—perhaps with good reason. But is he really the killer?
Fans of The Silent Patient will love the page-turning plot with shocking revelations and love that turned sour. Characters aren’t who they seem to be in this one, either. Everyone poses and lies.
But do they kill?
In this list of books you’ll devour if you liked The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, The Pilot’s Wife might seem to be an unusual choice. It’s a quieter mystery. Older. A slow burn. A woman learns that her husband, a pilot, has died. Then, she realizes that he was living a secret life. She pulls on that thread.
What I love about this novel—and other books by Anita Shreve—is the writing. The characters are beautiful. The story unfolds at its own pace, not at breakneck speed, but gripping nonetheless.
“This is a fairy tale with teeth and claws.” ― Ilsa Bick, quote from Drowning Instinct
And speaking of twisty thrillers with inappropriate relationships, how about Drowning Instinct, with a teen girl and her teacher?
I didn't know what to expect when a friend loaned this book to me, but wow! This book has layers. The way the author wove the "drowning instinct" theme throughout the story was really well done, and I loved the complexity of the characters and the plot twists. The pacing kept getting more intense and compelling as I read further. Addictive.
I don’t want to give too much away. If you liked T The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, just read it.
This novel is beautiful, thrilling, sad, surprising, and engrossing. Kya Clark is a resilient child who is abandoned by her mother at six. Her alcoholic father is barely a parent, and he soon leaves her as well. Somehow, she finds a way to survive on her own, even thrive, despite an aching loneliness.
But a beautiful young girl who lives in solitude in the woods is destined for danger. And heartbreak.
The mystery surrounding the death of Chase Andrews is the inciting incident of the novel, and it's soon clear that he was not such a swell guy. Foul play is suspected. Is Kya a murder? Or someone else?
There's plenty to love here, and the pages definitely turned quickly for me. Kya’s character and voice is compelling. If you enjoyed The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, you won’t want to miss this coming-of-age mystery about love, nature, and the secrets people keep.
I couldn't put this twisty, psychological thriller down. I wanted to know what happened to Sarah. This question relentlessly drove the narrative as her younger sister chased one lead after another. To make matters worse, more girls who look like Sarah are ending up dead in Golden Gate Park, and the younger sister looks just like Sarah. Would she be next?
If you liked The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, you’ll find that A Sorrow Called Sarah delivers a similar wild ride and a totally unexpected ending. I was guessing until the final pages. I have mixed feelings about whether or not actually liked that ending, but I was definitely surprised.
Okay, I would be remiss if I didn’t include some other Colleen Hoover books in this list because (let’s face it), she’s prolific and wonderful. Every one of them has been totally unique, and Layla is no exception. If you loved The Silent Patient, you must read it immediately.
How do I categorize it? A ghost story? A love story? A psychological thriller? It's hard to put a label on it. What I know for sure is that I sat around all day and turned the pages until the end. I had to know. The twist was not as much of a surprise; I had an inkling about what was happening in the middle of the book. That didn't matter. How? Now what? There were so many pressing questions. Half the time, I wasn't sure I really trusted Leeds to be a reliable narrator.
Buy it. Read it. You won’t be sorry.
If you are looking for other books like The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, Goodreads also offers a great book list: Readers Who Enjoyed The Silent Patient. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads.
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.
We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez is one of those books that grabs you and doesn’t let go. The themes of immigration and diversity are definitely a big part of the appeal, but it’s not the only part. This is an action-packed novel with a compelling plot and characters that kept the pages turning until the very end. We Are Not From Here is an emotional and thought-provoking novel.
Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these books you’ll devour if you liked We Are Not From Hereby Jenny Torres Sanchez. I hope you find something that catches your interest.
“No one is coming for you. No one is missing you. And no one will mourn you if you’re killed.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Property of Nobody
Freedom is not free.
Wow! Property of Nobody hooked me from the first page and never let me go!
Teódulo is a compelling and resonant male voice in a genre dominated by female characters. What makes Property of Nobody so special is the gripping, slow-boil depiction of how he falls into the trap of debt bondage and can’t escape. I worried about him. I loved seeing his journey and choices as he befriends various characters. This is the kind of thrilling, authentic novel that really shows the dark underbelly of immigration, human trafficking, organized crime, and the desperation of children caught in this web.
If you are looking for YA books like We Are Not From Here, 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 trouble with getting your hopes too far up is: it's a long way down.” ― Nicola Yoon, quote from The Sun Is Also a Star
I loved Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything, so when The Sun Is Also A Star released, I couldn’t wait to read it. This novel is a star-crossed love story between two teens of different backgrounds: Daniel Jae Ho Bae (a middle-class US citizen of South Korean descent) and Natasha Kingsley (a Jamaican girl who is being deported at the end of the day).
The timeline of the novel is 12 hours, and in that time, the characters fall in love. With every page, I kept hoping that something would change and something would stop the inevitable from happening. Because it wasn’t fair. Daniel and Natasha just found each other.
Fans of We Are Not From Hereby Jenny Torres Sanchez will love this page-turning YA novel about immigration and doomed love.
“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.
In a list of YA novels you’ll devour if you liked We Are Not From Hereby Jenny Torres Sanchez, this one might seem like an odd choice. However, this award-winning YA book about immigration definitely deserves all the accolades, hype, and great reviews it has received. Check it out!
Maya lives with her mom in Guatemala and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. She has a real shot, too. Her creations are inventive, and she's going to be in this year's show. I liked the descriptions of her dresses and her approaches to solving design problems. These elements really made her character shine.
On the one hand, Maya seems like a well-grounded, mature teen with "a good head on her shoulders" about her future. On the other hand, she says and does the stupidest things. This makes here relatable as a teenager, but many of the cases felt forced and overblown. I also didn't like the tic where Every. Word. Is. A. Separate. Sentence. Gah! And the exclamation marks! Ugh! :-)
Most of the plot points are realistic and true, especially as events escalated. I won't give spoilers about the ending except to say that it was good.
If you liked We Are Not From Here and you're looking for another emotional story about illegal immigration and the impact on young adults, this novel is worth picking up.
“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 immigration 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 liked We Are Not From Hereby Jenny Torres Sanchez, check it out.
Four teenagers in Mexico escape a birthday party massacre with their lives and nothing else. Their families are dead. They are wanted as fugitives by drug cartels. They have nothing. With little resources, they head on a journey into the desert to seek asylum in the United States.
This is the premise of Steve Schafer's novel, The Border.
Despite the terrible things that had happened and were happening, I had a hard time connecting with the characters on a deep level. Too much time was spent in superficial dialog. Still, the plot and pacing made the pages turn. I wanted to know whether or not they would make it (or who might not make it), and what they planned to do once they crossed. The constant threat from the gangs who were chasing them was real. Death from thirst, heat, and exhaustion was real.
There were some truly horrific moments in the book that the author could have handled more deftly, such as the young man's body that the group encounters. There are several such scenes.
Still, if you liked We Are Not From Here, you’ll find that The Border delivers a similar wild ride.
If you are looking other YA books like We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torrez Sanches, check out the Readers Who Enjoyed We Are Not From Here 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.
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.
The Stand by Stephen King is my all-time most favorite book. I’ve read it at least 7 times. In this sweeping apocalyptic novel, a man-made virus named Captain Tripps kills almost everyone on earth. There are a handful of remaining viewpoint characters who become the focal point for this epic story. Their storylines run concurrently. At first they seem disconnect, but slowly they begin moving and coming together. There are some truly terrifying scenes, and a supernatural element pops up because—remember—it’s Stephen King. At the end of the world, the heroes must make a final stand against evil.
If you liked The Stand by Stephen King, here are some reviews of other apocalyptic and dystopian books you don’t want to miss. Some are classics. Some are young adult novels you may have never seen. All of them have page-turning plots, compelling characters, and thought-provoking themes about humanity at the end of the world.
“I am afraid. Someone is coming.” ― Robert C O’Brien, quote from Z for Zachariah
I remember reading this book in our school library in high school, and it was chilling. Now an adult, decades later, I bought a copy of it to see if it was really as good as I remembered.
Yes, yes it is!
Young adult fiction wasn't even "a thing" when this book was written, and yet, it's a thrilling, roller-coaster true YA novel about a 15-year-old girl (who turns 16 during the events) who believes she's the last person alive after a nuclear war. She's resilient, resourceful, wary, hopeful, and that mix of both childlike and wise that you would expect from a teen in this situation.
When a stranger arrives in the valley, a man, she is cautious, but as events unfold and he becomes sick, she lets her guard down to help him. This turns out to be a mistake.
The Hollywood movie version gets this book wrong: the female is older, and there are two men. If you love dystopian YA novels and haven't picked this one up, I highly recommend it!
“…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.
If you liked The Stand by Stephen King and are looking for an unusual YA dystopian novel, you won’t be able to put this one down.
“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” ― Cormac McCarthy, quote from The Road
Maybe you’re looking for something similar to King’s The Stand. If so, pick up The Road. This dystopian, post-apocalyptic book is gripping from the very first page. A man and his son are on the road, and something truly awful has happened. What?
The story unfolds at a delicious crawl. You can feel the agony and terror of their situation. There are a couple of scenes that are truly chilling. The horror of them has remained with me forever.
There’s a reason this novel won a Pulitzer Prize. Read it. You won’t regret it.
The Razorland Trilogy were the first apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian YA science fiction books 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.
Fans of Stephen King’s classic novel The Stand will love this series. Check it out.
“There's different ways of doing things wrong, Lynn, and not all of it is choosing to hurt others. Sometimes it's the things you don't do that make you feel the worst.” ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from Not a Drop to Drink
Set in an apocalyptic future where drinking water is scarce and people fight for survival in a wild frontier, Lynn is a young woman in rural Ohio defending a pond and her homestead. Her mother raised her to distrust, to fight, and to live, and that's what she intends to do.
I enjoyed watching Lynn's fierce character evolve into a person who was willing to allow others into her life, to trust and even love. Despite her hardness, she had a kind heart. There were some interesting scenes in interactions with other people, like the stranger on the road, that tested her humanity.
Not a Drop to Drink was also a fast, thrilling YA book about dystopian survival, and its sequel, In a Handful of Dust, follows Lynn and her adopted daughter Lucy into the unknown after a mysterious plague drives them away from their home and community and into the wilderness.
If you’re looking for compelling and apocalyptic and dystopian YA books like The Stand, give these two a try. In fact, Mindy McGinnis is so awesome she’s on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited.
My edition actually had the first 3 books together, but I didn't realize this until the transition to the second book.
Harley Tate gives an excellent story about a woman, daughter, and husband who are separated when the power goes out around the world. The daughter has 3 college friends with her. The viewpoint alternates between the mother, daughter, and father as they attempt to find one another in the immediate chaos.
The narrative is fast-paced, and the characters face many serious challenges in their journey. I became invested in the characters and their efforts to reunite, and then, I wanted them to achieve their goal of finding safety at the college roommate's parents' house in the mountains.
If you like The Stand, this is good book and new author to check out. She has a lot of others in her backlist too.
This one is another dystopian classic. In modern times, it is eerily disturbing and relevant. Sometimes the story is dense and difficult to read, but it’s worth the time if you liked The Stand. The rat scene is particularly disturbing. It’s not an easy read, but it’s a very good one overall. I definitely recommend reading it.
As a young person, I read Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and We the Living and was so enamored with Ayn Rand’s work, philosophy, and political ideas.
As an adult, when I reread Atlas Shrugged, I found the story to be must slower and more dense to go through, but I’m still including it as an important, classic book that explores good and evil during a dystopian future. The plot is that the world is falling apart, and in rejection of the social and governmental causes of this, people begin disappearing. I don’t want to give too much away. If you loved the deeper questions in The Stand, then you want to read Atlas Shrugged.
In fact, if you are interested in the political tensions between collectivism/socialism versus individualism, read Stephen King’s own Cell. These themes are painted with subtle and beautiful strokes.
I recently read it a second time because I remembered two things: it was a great, fast read and I didn't like the ending (but didn't remember what it was). Now, some 15 years later, I can honestly say that the book remains a fabulous, fast-paced and engrossing read, and I appreciated the ending much better.
The novel is a zombie pandemic of sorts, set off with cell phones, and I read it during quarantine of the cornavirus pandemic of 2020. In Cell, the end of the world came with a single, abrupt pulse that changes everything, and it sends a group of survivors on a journey to find one man's son. Along the way, we learn what happened and is still evolving as a result of the pulse.
If you’re looking for compelling apocalyptic and dystopian books like The Stand, you will love this one.
There’s a reason that The Hunger Games always appears at the top of lists for apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian YA science fiction books. This series has everything: a relatable and flawed heroine in Katniss, a love triangle, life-and-death adventure, good and evil, a stark world of intense poverty contrasted against ridiculous gluttony, and deeper themes about society at large.
This series is amazing. I could read it multiple times and still find new things to love. I have seen the movies multiple times, but there are things in the books that are just wonderful.
Don’t miss these lovely books.
“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.
You definitely want to add Unwind to your TBR pile of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian books like The Stand.
Like The Hunger Games, there’s a reason that Veronica Roth’s Divergent series has become a classic series in the category of apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, and dystopian YA science fiction books.
For me, I loved the heroine, Tris, who finds herself thrust into this whole new environment that tests her core character and everything she knew about herself. The book grabs you and takes off running! There’s adventure, moral ambiguity, love, and tons of conflict. What more do you need? It’s very well written and engrossing.
This is another classic in the list of compelling apocalyptic books similar to The Stand by Stephen King. It as assigned reading in college, and I found it so compelling! It’s a fast read and much shorter than some of the other lengthy offerings in this list. The ideas about genetic engineering and humanity are important. When considering some of the technology advances in our current times, the dystopian future of this novel don’t seem so farfetched. Scary, huh?
If you are looking for other books like The Stand by Stephen King, Goodreads also offers a list of Readers Who Enjoyed The Stand. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of binge-worthy 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.
First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston is one of those psychological thriller / mystery books that grabs you from the beginning and never lets go.
Evie Porter is a free agent who handles various “jobs” for a mysterious Mr. Smith. She’s good at her job. In fact, she’s so good that she doesn’t trust Mr. Smith and sets safety nets around her to make sure that when she’s double-crossed (not if, she knows it’s coming), she’ll be ready.
About halfway through the book, I was certain that I'd figured out who the mysterious "Mr. Smith" was--but I was wrong! The ending had a great twist and surprise. After a modest start to the narrative, I had to sit down and read the rest of the book in a single afternoon. I loved the premise, the mystery, and the conflict. I can see why people loved this one. Excellent read!
Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these books you’ll devour if you liked First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston as much as I did. What all of the books in this list share is mystery. One or more characters has a secret or is an outright liar. Love has gone astray, or maybe, it has been discovered—but at a cost.
I hope you find something that catches your interest. Happy reading!
“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.“ ― 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 liked First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston and you’re looking for a 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.
"I am vengeance."― Mindy McGinnis, quote from The Female of the Species
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.
This was my third Mindy McGinnis novel, and I'm hooked on her. She writes compelling stories and tough, unflinching characters, and she’s also one of the top authors in my list of the Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited.
For a twisty YA psychological thriller like First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston, be sure to add this one to your TBR pile.
"Some families are lucky enough to never experience a single tragedy. But then there are those families that see to have tragedies waiting on the back burner. What can go wrong, goes wrong. And then gets worse."—Colleen Hoover, quote from Verity
Colleen Hoover is a mega bestselling author of both adult and young adult fiction. Verity is my personal favorite. The hot (hot, hot) romance was definitely a big part of the appeal, but the spicy sex wasn’t the only part. This is more than a romance novel. I loved the twisty, dark, and disorienting plot that kept me guessing until the very end. In this novel, the characters aren’t who they seem to be, and that multi-dimensional layer was the aspect that made Verity so wonderful for me.
If you’re looking for authors like Ashley Elston that you’ll want to binge, pick this one up. In fact, all Colleen Hoover’s novels are amazing!
"If she could rewind the timeline, untwist it and roll it back the other way like a ball of wool, she'd see the knots in the yarn, the warning signs. Looking at it backward it was obvious all along. But back then, when she knew nothing about anything, she had not seen it coming. She had walked straight into it with her eyes open." ― Lisa Jewell, quote from Then She Was Gone
This is an unputdownable novel. In fact, I was about 20 pages in when I realized I was going too fast and maybe, like the missing girl Ellie, I was overlooking important clues, so I went back and read from the beginning again.
I had to know what happened to Ellie, and then, bit by bit, new mysteries began to emerge. New horrors. The more I learned about Ellie and Noelle, the worse things became. The whole story became very... weird. Scary.
The relationship between Ellie’s mom and the American writer, Floyd, is where things take a turn. Floyd has a daughter who looks just like Ellie. I mean, how weird is that?
The ending was not predictable to me, and the path to reach the conclusion was not straight. I definitely loved this novel and want to read more of Lisa Jewell. Fans of First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston will agree that this is a thrilling, twisty read.
The Girl on the Train is definitely one of the books you’ll devour if you liked The Housemaid. It has unreliable narrators, as well as a twisty and confusing plot that will keep you guessing. Things definitely aren’t what they seem to be. The mystery keeps the pages turning. What, exactly, did Rachel see that day?
This book was a total roller coaster. I was all over the place with my feelings about it, and that was a good thing.
Pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed.
What more can I say about The Housemaid than has already been said? Fast-paced, full of surprises, chilling twist ending, compelling and unexpected characters -- this novel has all that and more!
"I'm going to let you out... Just not yet."
Holy cow! Yikes!
The Housemaid kept popping up as recommended reading for me, and since I've been seeing it everywhere, I thought, "Let's see."
I was delighted and entertained. In fact, I will definitely be reading more Freida McFadden novels! Fans of First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston will delight in this one.
It’s hard to say much about this classic without revealing spoilers. A man’s wife disappears, and he’s the main suspect—perhaps with good reason. But is he really the killer?
Fans of First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston will love the page-turning plot with shocking revelations and love that turned sour. Characters aren’t who they seem to be in this one, either. Everyone poses and lies.
But do they kill?
I loved this book!
I picked it up randomly on vacation because I was out of reading material, and the cover caught my eye. I started reading, and BAM! I was hooked. Really, really hooked. Like, I could not stop reading this book. This is the kind of novel that makes me want to ignore my friends and stay up all night until it's done.
The Girl He Used to Know is a love story about two people who fell in love in college, but a tragedy caused them to separate. Ten years later, they reconnect, and they discover that the love is still there. The timeline alternates between past and present, and the point of view alternates between Annika Rose and Jonathan Hoffman as they tell the story of their romance.
And what a story they have to tell!
This is a sweet, sweet book. After finishing it, I bought everything by Tracey Garvis Graves to see what other delights she has to offer, and although I also loved On the Island, I say that The Girl He Used to Know is my favorite. If you enjoyed the romance in First Lie Wins, you will devour this one.
In this list of books you’ll devour if you liked First Lie Wins, The Pilot’s Wife might seem to be an unusual choice. It’s a quieter mystery. Older. A slow burn. A woman learns that her husband, a pilot, has died. Then, she realizes that he was living a secret life. She pulls on that thread.
What I love about this novel—and other books by Anita Shreve—is the writing. The characters are beautiful. The story unfolds at its own pace, not at breakneck speed, but gripping nonetheless.
“This is a fairy tale with teeth and claws.” ― Ilsa Bick, quote from Drowning Instinct
And speaking of twisty thrillers with inappropriate relationships, how about Drowning Instinct, with a teen girl and her teacher?
I didn't know what to expect when a friend loaned this book to me, but wow! This book has layers. The way the author wove the "drowning instinct" theme throughout the story was really well done, and I loved the complexity of the characters and the plot twists. The pacing kept getting more intense and compelling as I read further. Addictive.
I don’t want to give too much away. If you’re looking for novels like First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston that keep you up late at night, just read it.
“I believe that any human being is capable of terrible things if you push them hard enough.” ― Freida McFadden, quote from Never Lie
"Never Lie" is my third Freida McFadden novel, and it didn't disappoint.
After a snowstorm traps newlyweds Tricia and Ethan in a deserted house, Tricia finds herself invested in the mystery surrounding the previous owner's disappearance.
The story is compelling, and I was surprised by the various plot twists. McFadden has a unique writing voice that makes her protagonists, whether the housemaid or Tricia, seem a little "off." The setting seemed a little contrived, but it didn't hurt the novel in the least. Yes, this is how all horror movies begin.
Bring it.
Fans of First Lie Wins by Ashley Elsten will love this one.
If you are looking for other books like First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston, Goodreads also offers a great book list: Readers Who Enjoyed First Lie Wins. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads.
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.
The Housemaid by Freida McFadden is a twisty psychological thriller that grabs you from the very first sentence and doesn’t stop. There’s a hot gardener. And the husband of the boss is even hotter. I loved how this delicious and disorienting story kept me on the edge of the seat until the very end.
Find your next great read for National Reading Month by exploring my reviews of these books you’ll devour if you liked The Housemaid by Freida McFadden. What all of the books in this list share is mystery. One or more characters has a secret or is an outright liar. Love has gone astray, or maybe, it has been discovered—but at a cost.
I hope you find something that catches your interest. Happy reading!
“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 liked The Housemaid by Freida McFadden and 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.
"Some families are lucky enough to never experience a single tragedy. But then there are those families that see to have tragedies waiting on the back burner. What can go wrong, goes wrong. And then gets worse."—Colleen Hoover, quote from Verity
Colleen Hoover is a mega bestselling author of both adult and young adult fiction. Verity is my personal favorite. The hot (hot, hot) romance was definitely a big part of the appeal, but the spicy sex wasn’t the only part. This is more than a romance novel. I loved the twisty, dark, and disorienting plot that kept me guessing until the very end. In this novel, the characters aren’t who they seem to be, and that multi-dimensional layer was the aspect that made Verity so wonderful for me.
If you’re looking for authors like Freida McFadden that you’ll want to binge, pick this one up.
"If she could rewind the timeline, untwist it and roll it back the other way like a ball of wool, she'd see the knots in the yarn, the warning signs. Looking at it backward it was obvious all along. But back then, when she knew nothing about anything, she had not seen it coming. She had walked straight into it with her eyes open." ― Lisa Jewell, quote from Then She Was Gone
This is an unputdownable novel. In fact, I was about 20 pages in when I realized I was going too fast and maybe, like the missing girl Ellie, I was overlooking important clues, so I went back and read from the beginning again.
I had to know what happened to Ellie, and then, bit by bit, new mysteries began to emerge. New horrors. The more I learned about Ellie and Noelle, the worse things became. The whole story became very... weird. Scary.
The relationship between Ellie’s mom and the American writer, Floyd, is where things take a turn. Floyd has a daughter who looks just like Ellie. I mean, how weird is that?
The ending was not predictable to me, and the path to reach the conclusion was not straight. I definitely loved this novel and want to read more of Lisa Jewell. Fans of The Housemaid will agree that this is a thrilling, twisty read.
The Girl on the Train is definitely one of the books you’ll devour if you liked The Housemaid. It has unreliable narrators, as well as a twisty and confusing plot that will keep you guessing. Things definitely aren’t what they seem to be. The mystery keeps the pages turning. What, exactly, did Rachel see that day?
This book was a total roller coaster. I was all over the place with my feelings about it, and that was a good thing.
Pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed.
It’s hard to say much about this one without revealing spoilers. A man’s wife disappears, and he’s the main suspect—perhaps with good reason. But is he really the killer?
Fans of The Housemaid will love the page-turning plot with shocking revelations and love that turned sour. Characters aren’t who they seem to be in this one, either. Everyone poses and lies.
But do they kill?
I loved this book!
I picked it up randomly on vacation because I was out of reading material, and the cover caught my eye. I started reading, and BAM! I was hooked. Really, really hooked. Like, I could not stop reading this book. This is the kind of novel that makes me want to ignore my friends and stay up all night until it's done.
The Girl He Used to Know is a love story about two people who fell in love in college, but a tragedy caused them to separate. Ten years later, they reconnect, and they discover that the love is still there. The timeline alternates between past and present, and the point of view alternates between Annika Rose and Jonathan Hoffman as they tell the story of their romance.
And what a story they have to tell!
This is a sweet, sweet book. After finishing it, I bought everything by Tracey Garvis Graves to see what other delights she has to offer, and although I also loved On the Island, I say that The Girl He Used to Know is my favorite. If you enjoyed the romance in The Housemaid, you will devour this one.
In this list of books you’ll devour if you liked The Housemaid, The Pilot’s Wife might seem to be an unusual choice. It’s a quieter mystery. Older. A slow burn. A woman learns that her husband, a pilot, has died. Then, she realizes that he was living a secret life. She pulls on that thread.
What I love about this novel—and other books by Anita Shreve—is the writing. The characters are beautiful. The story unfolds at its own pace, not at breakneck speed, but gripping nonetheless.
“This is a fairy tale with teeth and claws.” ― Ilsa Bick, quote from Drowning Instinct
And speaking of twisty thrillers with inappropriate relationships, how about Drowning Instinct, with a teen girl and her teacher?
I didn't know what to expect when a friend loaned this book to me, but wow! This book has layers. The way the author wove the "drowning instinct" theme throughout the story was really well done, and I loved the complexity of the characters and the plot twists. The pacing kept getting more intense and compelling as I read further. Addictive.
I don’t want to give too much away. If you liked The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, just read it.
This novel is beautiful, thrilling, sad, surprising, and engrossing. Kya Clark is a resilient child who is abandoned by her mother at six. Her alcoholic father is barely a parent, and he soon leaves her as well. Somehow, she finds a way to survive on her own, even thrive, despite an aching loneliness.
But a beautiful young girl who lives in solitude in the woods is destined for danger. And heartbreak.
The mystery surrounding the death of Chase Andrews is the inciting incident of the novel, and it's soon clear that he was not such a swell guy. Foul play is suspected. Is Kya a murder? Or someone else?
There's plenty to love here, and the pages definitely turned quickly for me. Kya’s character and voice is compelling. If you enjoyed The Housemaid, you won’t want to miss this coming-of-age mystery about love, nature, and the secrets people keep.
I couldn't put this twisty, psychological thriller down. I wanted to know what happened to Sarah. This question relentlessly drove the narrative as her younger sister chased one lead after another. To make matters worse, more girls who look like Sarah are ending up dead in Golden Gate Park, and the younger sister looks just like Sarah. Would she be next?
If you liked The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, you’ll find that A Sorrow Called Sarah delivers a similar wild ride and a totally unexpected ending. I was guessing until the final pages. I have mixed feelings about whether or not actually liked that ending, but I was definitely surprised.
Okay, I would be remiss if I didn’t include some other Colleen Hoover books in this list because (let’s face it), she’s prolific and wonderful. Every one of them has been totally unique, and Layla is no exception. If you loved The Housemaid, you must read it immediately.
How do I categorize it? A ghost story? A love story? A psychological thriller? It's hard to put a label on it. What I know for sure is that I sat around all day and turned the pages until the end. I had to know. The twist was not as much of a surprise; I had an inkling about what was happening in the middle of the book. That didn't matter. How? Now what? There were so many pressing questions. Half the time, I wasn't sure I really trusted Leeds to be a reliable narrator.
Buy it. Read it. You won’t be sorry.
“I believe that any human being is capable of terrible things if you push them hard enough.” ― Freida McFadden, quote from Never Lie
"Never Lie" is my third Freida McFadden novel, and it didn't disappoint.
After a snowstorm traps newlyweds Tricia and Ethan in a deserted house, Tricia finds herself invested in the mystery surrounding the previous owner's disappearance.
The story is compelling, and I was surprised by the various plot twists. McFadden has a unique writing voice that makes her protagonists, whether the housemaid or Tricia, seem a little "off." The setting seemed a little contrived, but it didn't hurt the novel in the least. Yes, this is how all horror movies begin.
Bring it.
Fans of The Housemaid by Freida McFadden will love this one.
If you are looking for other books like The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, Goodreads also offers a great book list: Readers who enjoyed The Housemaid. You might also be interested in my post, Other Good Reads.
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.
Photo by Jakayla Toney
Find your next great read for National Human Trafficking Prevention Month by exploring my reviews of these great YA books about human trafficking.
Human trafficking happens all over the world, affects both men and women of broad age groups, and takes several forms: forced labor, sex, and organ removal. Victims of human trafficking may be sold and transported across country borders. Human trafficking is a form of global modern-day slavery.
Reading thrilling YA books about human trafficking can raise our awareness of this prevalent problem and help us be more alert for potential victims as we move through airports, stay in hotels, and shop in holiday crows. Seeing a young protagonist escape a terrible situation can even inspire us to activism and social justice.
Here is my list of amazing YA books about human trafficking. With a list about teens who’ve been deceived and trafficked, I can guarantee some disturbing content here, but you will also find great reads.
“No one is coming for you. No one is missing you. And no one will mourn you if you’re killed.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Property of Nobody
Freedom is not free.
Wow! Property of Nobody hooked me from the first page and never let me go!
Teódulo is a compelling and resonant male voice in a genre dominated by female characters. What makes Property of Nobody so special is the gripping, slow-boil depiction of how he falls into the trap of debt bondage and can’t escape. I worried about him. I loved seeing his journey and choices as he befriends various characters. This is the kind of thrilling, authentic novel that really shows the dark underbelly of immigration, human trafficking, organized crime, and the desperation of children caught in this web.
If you are looking for YA books about human trafficking, 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 only thing left alive was the shame." ― Sofi Oksanen, quote from Purge
I picked up Purge to add to my list of YA books about human trafficking, but this novel is pure literature, a stunning international masterpiece that spans decades of history, generations of pain, and dark twisted family secrets.
Set in Estonia and bouncing between 1941 and 1992, two protagonists tell their tales in a long and dizzying narrative that weaves between present terror and past horror. These women are bound to each other in multiple ways. Their mutual distrust them unreliable narrators, so that only the reader really only has the full picture, and sometimes even that picture is murky.
As I think back on each of these women's experiences, I see so many parallels in what happened to each, even though the details are very different on the surface. For example, both are raped. Both are silenced. Both are shamed. One is betrayed. One is a betrayer.
This is the kind of epic novel that I can think about for a long time and even read again. I missed things and know that I would see even more in a second reading because the book is so sweeping and full of such meaningful symbolism and detail.
A true masterpiece. I loved it!
Trafficked an absorbing YA novel about human trafficking that shows how an orphaned teenager easily becomes a victim of this terrible crime. Hannah was easily duped into leaving her home for the promise of a better life in the United States, a salary, and a chance to study English. Instead, she became a slave, forced into being an unpaid nanny and a maid, fighting off sexual advances of the husband of the house and his male associates, and being beaten and verbally abused by the wife. She is young, slow to realize her situation, and not great with English.
The plotting of Trafficked was thrilling. There were plenty of twists to keep me invested. For example, there is a backstory about how Hannah was "chosen" by this family that is revealed little by little.
I was rooting for Hannah to find a way out and take charge of her life. I worried about her because I knew the odds were not in her favor.
Human trafficking is a real, modern problem across the world, and you won’t want to miss Hannah’s heartbreaking and thought-provoking story. She begins the novel in a state of naïve innocence in her home country, and by the end, she has become mature and wise to the adult world. It’s a realistic and sad tragedy.
I wanted to like this book. Sold is a YA book about human trafficking where the parents sell one of their children to a wealthy relative in the UK. Roza is forced to clean and babysit for this abusive family. The plotting is very similar to Trafficked, but its execution doesn’t meet the mark.
There are a lot of unrealistic aspects of the story, like the way Roza goes to the library and gets a job that her “jailers” don’t know about. She has too much freedom to make her captivity seem realistic. Her character is shallow and not well developed.
If you’re looking for YA books about human trafficking, read Trafficked instead.
If you are looking other YA books about human trafficking, check out the Human Trafficking Books and Novels on Human Trafficking 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 for teens.
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 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 eleven 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 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.
“Good people can do terrible things, Lydia. The longer you live, the more you see it.” ― Mindy McGinnis, quote from A Long Stretch of Bad Days
Mindy McGinnis is one of my favorite YA authors, so I couldn’t wait to dive into this new book. The setup and beginning starts off slow, but once Lydia and Bristal begin chasing a murder mystery in their small town, the plotting was great. The ending was a surprise to me, but I’m an easily fooled reader.
I especially enjoyed the friendship that developed between the girls, despite the fact that they come from very different socioeconomic backgrounds. Lydia is right. Bristal comes from the poor part of town and has a family reputation. People think of her as disposable. She’s not. She sharp-witted and funny, and she helps Lydia to see things very differently.
If you’re looking for an offbeat mystery with interesting characters, be sure to check out A Long Stretch of Days! 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!
“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 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!
“You do realize that a car is a mobile make-out location, right?” Ian said. ― Khristina Chess, quote from Drive to June.
Although pitched as a story about alcohol abuse and grief, this YA is also a romantic story about a dating and intimacy. The present story line is a relationship that develops between the protagonist, 18-year-old Adrianna, and a pizza delivery boy who goes to her school and who offers to help her get her driver’s license.
With her father traveling so much and her older sister away in college, no one knows Adrianna has been guzzling her dead mother's extensive wine collection. 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 Adrianna’s secret. What makes this book so special is the sweet relationship that develops between Adrianna 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 dating and grief. 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 Drive to June 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 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.
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.
“Motherhood is not for the weak. In my opinion, it should have a warning label attached to it—only dedicated individuals with boundless energy, unconditional love, and a high tolerance for pain need apply.” ― Kristin Kisska, quote from The Hint of Light
This debut novel is about many things: mystery, redemption, secrets, resentments, innocence, and love. I wanted a faster pace. I wanted a thriller. Kristen Kisska didn't give me that. Instead, The Hint of Light reveals its story slowly, shifting back and forth in time and between multiple character viewpoints:
Kyle, the son who is dead, slowly gives us the backstory of his recovery and new relationship with his recently-discovered daughter.
Ally, the 18-year-old daughter, who tells both before and after versions. She is grieving a father so recently found... and then lost.
Margaret, the mother, who also reveals a then and now story.
There is the story question of how Kyle really died, as well as the secret that slowly becomes clearer as the past and present layers are pulled away.
The Hint of Light is a lovely, quiet, and yet sometimes shocking novel about family and the power of a mother's love. If you’re looking for books about grief and loss, check it out. Even though it’s not “YA",” it’s worth the read.
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.
