Find your next great read for Mother’s Day by exploring my reviews of these YA books about mother-daughter relationships.

What makes teenage daughters and mothers lock into bitter battles over clothing, hair, and friends? Doors slam. Windows rattle. Bitter words and angry silences prowl the house. While hormones are blamed, this is something different. Something deeper.

The daughter is trying to pull away and become her own person. The mother is trying to hold on to her little girl or maybe be her friend.

Maybe common ground can be found in stories, especially they’ve ever shared the joy of reading together. Books about mother-daughter relationships can bring a shared understanding. Even healing. All mothers and daughters fight. Sometimes a loving relationship becomes too painful, and a daughter moves far away—or runs away—and never comes home.

Here are my reviews of my favorite YA books about mother-daughter relationships. Sometimes they’ll make you smile. Sometimes they’ll make you cry. But in the end, you won’t forget them.

Against the Pack by Khristina Chess

“All I knew with absolute confidence was that I could move and she couldn’t. If I stayed, we might both die waiting. If I left, we might both die alone. If I left, she might die alone, but I might find help and live. Or I might find help in time, lead them to the shelter, and we might both live.” ― Khristina Chess, quote from Against the Pack

OH MY GOSH!!! How incredible! What I love most about Against the Pack is the way this story hooks you from the beginning and doesn’t let go. It’s impossible to put this one down. Melender is a gritty character who fights to live, and I was breathless as she journeyed toward the novel’s thrilling ending. This is the kind of wilderness survival adventure that explores the core spirit of a person, and as the hours and days unfold, the complicated nature of the relationship between Melender and her mom becomes apparent.

You won’t want to miss this action-packed YA book about mother-daughter relationships. Fans of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter will love this one.

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Young-Ullman

In this absorbing novel, the mother-daughter relationship drives everything that’s happening, both in the present and in the past. The present is awful. Ingrid has been sent away to a 3-week wilderness program for at-risk teens, although she didn’t realize what she was signing up for at the time, and now she’s wet, miserable, mosquito-bitten, and trapped with a misfit group in the middle of nowhere. But she’s determined to see things through to prove something to her mother and earn the carrot, which is permission to attend a music school abroad.

The past is a complicated story about her mother’s beautiful opera voice and depression. There is a strong codependency relationship between the mother and daughter, since the mother is a depressed diva. From an early age, Ingrid took care of her mother since no father was in the picture.

I loved the mystery about how Ingrid ended up in the wilderness, and I was rooting for her to make it out.

If you are looking for a YA book about mother-daughter relationships, this one is one of my new favorites.

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acebedo

“And isn't that what a poem is? A lantern glowing in the dark.” ― Elizabeth Acevedo, quote from The Poet X

What a surprising and lyrical story!

I wasn’t sure I’d like this book, which is told entirely in verse, but I couldn’t put it down. Xiaomara is a young girl whose traditional Catholic mother prohibits her from doing anything. Xiomara is a good and dutiful daughter. But she wants to participate in the poetry group.

The mother-daughter relationship was well-developed, and there was a powerful moment when the mother did something truly awful. Moments like those between mothers and daughters are the ones that can define the relationship forever. I liked the choices Xiaomara made in response to that. In fact, all of the primary and secondary characters played important roles in her journey. I loved her father, the teacher, the priest; it was refreshing to see so many supportive adults in a young person’s life in a YA novel.

This award-winning YA book about mother-daughter relationships definitely deserves all the accolades, hype, and great reviews it has received. Check it out!

How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow

“It's very hard to think of your parents as people. Full of bad checks and bad decisions, fistfights and broken hearts, all of it. Because if they can't goddamn take care of themselves, how will they take care of you?“ ― Kathleen Glasgow, quote from How to Make Friends with the Dark

After Tiger Tolliver's mom dies of a brain aneurysm, she becomes a ward of the state, an orphan, suddenly faced with an uncertain future. She doesn't have any living relatives. She doesn't know anything about her father. It's just her and her mom--and now just her. A minor.

What Tiger begins to learn is that her mom kept some important secrets from her. For example, she has a living dad. And a sister.

This YA novel about mothers and daughters is a real tear jerker! Tiger strikes me a sheltered girl with little real life experience; on the day her mom died, she was kissing a boy for the first time. She wasn't prepared for the events that followed as she entered the foster care system. Yet, despite her tragic circumstances, she makes a path for herself. She makes mistakes but doesn't fall off a cliff. She keeps people at a cautious distance, but she does make friends and finds a way to build a new family for herself.

How to Make Friends with the Dark will tug at your heartstrings. Bring extra tissues for this one!

In Search of Us by Ava Dellaira

“Maybe it's true that there are no happy endings. But, right now, Angie is grateful to be at what feels like a beginning.” ― Ava Delliara, quote from In Search of Us

The love story between Marilyn and James is so compelling and sweet. I wanted to stay with them for the whole book, and I wanted to know what happened to them, why Angie was searching for the truth about his death. Maybe he was still alive. If her mom had lied about the accident, couldn't she hope to find him and bring him back into their lives? This hope made her reckless and selfish.

That search was the only part that made Angie's story engaging for me. Her unanswered questions about her parents were also mine. I cared less about what was happening in her present with Sam and whether or not that might work out.

I sort of liked that Angie didn't really see her mom and dad as young people just like herself, full of love, dreams, hopes, and passions. But as a reader, I saw that. Marilyn as a mom was also Marilyn as a teen, and because of what happened to her, I was able to see it in her mothering. Her character arc was beautiful.

In Search of Us is definitely a great YA book about mother-daughter relationships.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez

“She has compared me to my sister every single day of my life, so why should I expect that to change now that she’s dead?” ― Erika L. Sanchez, quote from I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

I loved the cover on this novel, and with so many stars and enthusiastic reviews, I figured I would love this story. There is an interesting mystery about what happened to Julia’s older sister Olga, who died in front of a truck. There is an interesting view into Mexican culture.

But.

The mother-daughter relationship (which is the title of the book) is not the real focus of the story. The mother is portrayed as traditional and strict, but she’s also mostly a shadow and underdeveloped character. Julia, the daughter, is a hard character to like because she has so many hard edges, and I never reached a point of real empathy or connection with her—even though she is a grieving person. Instead, I felt like the book was a checklist of YA book “issues” without any depth or focus on any of them: immigration, depression, first-time sex, death of a sibling, food, Mexican culture, drug usage, attempted suicide, rape… The list could continue.

You will probably feel differently. Literally thousands of readers on Goodreads loved this book.

Still, this YA book about mothers and daughters definitely belongs on the must-read list for books in this category. It was a finalist for the National Book Award, after all.

Regretting You by Colleeen Hoover

In this amazing novel, I found tragedy, mystery, romance, and a mother-daughter relationship with deep wounds in need of healing. What a combination! The viewpoint shifts between Morgan (the mother) and Clara (the sixteen-year-old daughter), and both stories are compelling. First love clashes with a tortured old love. I loved the mystery and story questions about what happened with Chris. The ending was just right.

Regretting You is a perfect Colleen Hover book—great for readers of young adult or mature readers who are looking for books about mother-daughter relationships.

Other YA Books about Mother-Daughter Relationships

If you are looking other YA books about mother-daughter relationships, check out the Mother Daughter Relationship Books list on Goodreads. You may also be interested in my posts on Other Good Reads.

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