Find your next great read for National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month in these challenging YA books about peer pressure.

Would you jump off a cliff just because everyone else is? My parents used to say that to me all the time.

Newsflash: teens aren’t the only ones who are influenced by their peers. Plenty of adults choose hairstyles, jewelry, and clothes that trend with their friends or celebrity influencers. Just like in high school, bullies exist in the corporate world, too. Peer pressure is something we encounter throughout our lives. Reading YA books about peer pressure and how fictional characters have dealt with situations in positive ways can model good behavior for our own situations—whether in high school or in the line at a crowded grocery store.

Here are my personal recommendations for the most challenging YA books about peer pressure. My selections involve protagonists who initially stay silent against their better judgement because they want to be part of the group.

Unquiet Riot by Khristina Chess

“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, parental, and even friend involvement can allow an environment for a mass school violence event to occur.

You won’t want to miss this challenging YA book about peer pressure that explores the consequences of going along with the group and remaining silent. Fans of My Sister Rosa will love this psychological thriller.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

“What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?” ― Angi 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 about the police shooting of her friend 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 peer pressure. 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!

The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

“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.

You won’t want to miss this challenging YA book about peer pressure and the groupthink, lying, and bullying to cover up the truth. For more books specifically about the impact of bullying on teens, you might be interested in my complete list of YA Books about Bullying.

That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger

“It’s a good story. And you know what people like way more than the truth? A good story.” ― Kody Keplinger, quote from That’s Not What Happened

This novel has an interesting approach to school violence stories by showing how the victims can lose their voices and their ability to tell their side. The concept here is that Lee’s best friend died during a school shooting, and because she was wearing a cross and proclaimed her faith to her assailant, she became a martyr.

Except, that’s not the truth.

As a trauma survivor, Lee is not an especially likeable protagonist. Her motives for wanting to tell the truth and pushing the others to do so are muddy at times, and I struggled to have emotional investment in her character. At the same time, the concept of this story makes That’s Not What Happened an important title in this collection of challenging YA books about peer pressure.

Some Boys by Patty Blount

“Brave. The word hangs in the air for a moment and then falls away, almost like it even knows it has no business being used to describe me.” ― Patty Blount, quote from Some Boys

In this book, Grace was raped by the “golden boy” student and star athlete at their school named Zac, and despite peer pressure to keep quiet, she does speak out against her rapist. But no one believes her. Instead she is bullied and ostracized for daring to accuse the prince of such a heinous crime.

Zac’s best friend is Ian. Although he has a major crush on Grace, he no longer feels he can follow-through on that because the whole school is slut-shaming her.

Grace sets on a plan to prove to everyone that Zac isn’t the perfect son everyone believes him to be, and she’s the kind of fighter to make that happen. Instead of a depressed and withdrawn rape survivor, this character is a middle-finger-in-your-face girl who goes after her rapist despite nearly everyone being against her.

This challenging YA book about peer pressure takes a look at how girls are labeled by how they dress or act. For more books specifically about sexual violence, you might be interested in my complete list of YA books about rape and sexual assault.

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

“This. This is why I never said anything. Because no one ever believes the girl.” ― Ashley Herring Blake, quote from Girl Made of Stars

Mara and her twin brother Owen are as close as any twins can be. So when Owen says he is innocent and never raped his girlfriend, Mara is faced with a difficult decision. She’s friends with the victim. Who is telling the truth? Her brother, who she knows as well as she knows herself, or the girl?

In addition to Mara’s confusion about her twin brother’s role as an accused rapist, she’s also dealing with her own sexual identity and relationship with her best friend, a girl named Charlie. Her parents pressure her to support her brother, but why would the victim lie? And in wrestling with these conflicts, Mara can no longer ignore a secret trauma from her own past and what happened to her.

This challenging YA book about peer pressure, teen relationships, rape, consent, and sexual identity deals with so many issues that the conflict is a bit overwhelming at times. Yet the author handles the emotional issues in a beautiful, heartbreaking, and important way.

Other Challenging YA Books about Peer Pressure

If you are looking for challenging YA books about peer pressure, you might also be interested the Popular Peer Pressure Books list on Goodreads. Also, check out my post, Other Good Reads, which has a comprehensive list of reviews of YA books by type of tough topic.

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