Find your next great read for National Runaway Prevention Month by exploring my reviews of these great YA books about teen runaways.

Grim statistics for teen runaways tell us that as many as 2.8 million children run away from home every year. This decision can lead to homelessness, the end of their education, drug abuse, being taken advantage of by predators, and desperate choices for food.

Reading young adult books about runaways or teens on fantastic road trips can start meaningful conversations about this topic. For example, sixteen-year-old Mim Malone’s “road trip” in Mosquitoland by David Arnold seems like a happy adventure with helpful sidekick characters, but real life doesn’t often happen that way. Girls do get sexually assaulted instead of escaping. They get lost.

Here are my reviews of a few of my favorite YA books about teen runaways. Be warned. It’s dangerous out there. Running away from home has serious consequences, including death.

Junior Missing by Khristina Chess

“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.

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 are looking for YA books about teen runaways, this one is definitely a page-turner with all the chills! In fact, Khristina Chess is on my list of Best YA Authors to Binge on Kindle Unlimited because she has so many suspenseful novels.

Missing by Kelly Armstrong

“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.” ― Kelly 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.

Missing is a thrilling YA book about teen runaways.

Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall

“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 book 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.

Sadie by Courtney Summers

“How do you forgive the people who are supposed to protect you? Sometimes, I don't know what I miss more; everything I've lost or everything I never had.” ― Courtney Summers, quote from Sadie

Sadie knows who killed her younger sister.

She leaves home and goes on a journey to seek justice against her sister’s killer. She has plenty of personal reasons to hate him, and he deserves to die for his crimes.

This novel alternates between young Sadie, who is a missing teen, and a podcast show, where details of her disappearance are told through a series of interviews. I think I would have loved this book even more in audio format than paperback

Still, Sadie is a great read. The pacing increases as the story unfolds and Sadie gets closer and closer to her target. The conclusion to her quest for justice is a surprise. This YA book about teen runaways that will stay with you long after the last page.

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow

“People should know about us. Girls who write their pain on their bodies.” ― Kathleen Glasgow, quote from Girl in Pieces

This wonderful novel 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 of the world. I wanted someone to help her. Someone good.

Mosquitoland by David Arnold

“I call it Mim’s Theorem of Monkey See Monkey Don’t, and what it boils down to is this: it is my belief that there are some people whose sole purpose of existence is to show the rest of us how not to act.” ― David Arnold, quote from Mosquitoland

I loved this book! I’ve included it in my list of The Best YA Book Recommendations for All Ages (And Why), and one of the reasons is that the lyrical and often lough out loud funny voice of the narrator.

Mosquitoland is the story is about a girl named Mim Malone, whose parents have divorced. She’s living with her dad, who has custody of Mim and has remarried, but Mim runs away and rides a bus to Ohio to return to her mom.

This is a long journey where Mim (a young girl on her own) encounters a cast of diverse characters, dangers, and adventures. If you are looking for an unforgettable YA book about separation and divorce and how that impacts young people, let Mim tell you in her own voice. She has a lot to say.

If you’re looking for notable YA book about teen runaways, this novel belongs in your TBR pile.

Other YA Books about Teen Runaways

If you are looking other YA books about teen runaways, check out the 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, including eating disorders, substance abuse, mental illness, and others.

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