Find your next great read for Suicide Prevention Month by exploring my reviews of these frank YA books about suicide that deal with the subject head-on.

Suicide rates among vulnerable and at-risk youth continue to rise. Reasons for this trend are varied, including mental illness and life circumstances, but the result is a feeling of isolation. No one understands. No one sees.

Reading stories about suicide is one way to understand the warning signs that a friend or your own teen might be suicidal. Storytelling is one way to see that others share these feelings and thoughts:

• Everything is falling apart.

• I am not enough.

• Who I am on the inside doesn’t match the outside.

• I feel empty and alone.

• There’s no hope.

It’s not true. If you are feeling hopeless or helpless, it might be the trigger for you to seek the help you need.

NOTE: If you or your teen is in danger right now, you can call or text 988 in the United States to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which is available 24 hours a day.

So which frank YA books about suicide should you read next? The following books aren’t afraid to use the word “suicide” or deal with this important topic directly. Some are hopeful. Some are humorous. Some people are saved, and some are not. All these stories are worth reading.

Straight A’s by Khristina Chess

“I'm going to do it. November 4 is the last day of the grading period, and if I don't make perfect straight A’s, it's all over.“ ― Khristina Chess, quote from Straight A’s

Kim is planning to kill herself.

Kim was supposed to be valedictorian of her class, but then her parents split, and everything went wrong. She’s bouncing between them and trying to carry the weight of their emotional meltdowns on top of her own stuff, and it’s just too much. Too much!

With time running out in the semester and academic pressures mounting, depression threatens to overwhelm her. Getting straight A’s means everything: scholarships, acceptance to top schools, everything! Earning 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.

You won’t want to miss this frank YA book about suicide. Fans of All the Bright Places will enjoy this one.

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Young-Ullman

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 frank YA book about suicide with real character depth and heartbreak, this one is one of my new favorites.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

“Tentacles is my term—the Tentacles are the evil tasks that invade my life. Like, for example, my American History class last week, which necessitated me writing a paper on the weapons of the Revolutionary War, which necessitated me traveling to the Metropolitan museum to check out some of the old guns, which necessitated me getting in the subway, which necessitated me being away from my cell phone and e-mail for 45 minutes, which meant that I didn’t get to respond to a mass mail sent out by my teacher asking who needed extra credit, which meant other kids snapped up the extra credit, which meant I wasn’t going to get a 98 in the class, which meant I wasn’t anywhere close to a 98.6 average (body temperature, that’s what you needed to get), which meant I wasn’t going to get into a Good College, which meant I wasn’t going to have a Good Job, which meant I wasn’t going to have health insurance, which meant I’d have to pay tremendous amounts of money for the shrinks and drugs my brain needed, which meant I wasn’t going to have enough money to pay for a Good Lifestyle, which meant I’d feel ashamed, which meant I’d get depressed, and that was the big one because I knew what that did to me: it made it so I wouldn’t get out of bed, which led to the ultimate thing—homelessness.” ― Ned Vizzini, quote from It’s Kind of a Funny Story

That is the wonderful, funny, and utterly unique voice of the narrator of this novel, Craig Gilner, who has ambitious goals for his life but who also suffers from anxiety and depression. He’s trying. Really. But things like The Tentacles get in the way.

I loved this book! It is a humorous and hopeful novel about a boy whose suicidal episode sends him on a very interesting journey through an adult psychiatric ward in a New York City hospital.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in YA novels about suicide.

Buy it. Read it. Ned Vizzini’s writing is masterful. It’s so incredibly sad that this author died from an apparent suicide.

The History of Jane Doe by Michael Belanger

“And most of all, Jane, f*#!ck you for leaving me here alone. For showing me happiness and then taking it all away.” ― Michael Belanger, quote from The History of Jane Doe

I picked up this book because I saw a positive review on Goodreads, but I didn't have any real idea what it was about except "read this book." The back-and-forth in time was confusing at first, but it seemed to adequately reflect Ray's state of mind and how he was dealing with his grief and the events after his girlfriend committed suicide. The book does a great job of exploring the helpless and unanswerable questions that someone like Jane leaves us with. I felt empathy for her parents, for Simon, for Ray, for Ray's parents, even the counselor. History shows that she touched everyone deeply and differently.

She will not be forgotten.

You will want to read this frank YA book about suicide and the way suicide impacts people who are left behind. Ray is a character worth knowing and listening to.

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

“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 a frank YA book about suicide, you definitely want to add this one to your TBR pile!

This Is Not a Love Letter by Kim Purcell

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 and racism 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. 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.

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

“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 YA books about suicide 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.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

“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 suicide, depression, and loss, and Niven handles all of 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!

By The Time You Read This I’ll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters

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?

This short, brutal novel is a fast read. It’s not easy, happy, or hopeful, but it’s a raw and real look at suicide. If you are looking for a frank YA book about suicide, this one is a must-read!

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

“You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything… affects everything.” ― Jay Asher, quote from Thirteen Reasons Why

Hannah Baker committed suicide, and she left behind 13 tapes explaining why she did it.

When Clay receives these tapes, he goes on a journey to understand why she did it. It’s a terrible story involving crimes, and with every tape, there is suspense in wondering how Clay contributed to this girl’s death.

Clay is a nice guy. He has a thing for Hannah. It doesn’t seem he could have anything to do with it, but this story shows how you often don’t know what another person is going through.

Jay Asher’s popular novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, is one of the best YA books about suicide, and it’s one of the most popular YA books about bullying. It became a super-popular series on Netflix; there’s a reason it has become a #1 New York Times and International Bestseller. If you somehow missed it, you should definitely check it out.

Other Frank YA Books about Suicide You Should Read

Because this is such an important topic impacting many people, Goodreads has several popular lists, including: YA Books About/Mentioning Depression, Self Harm, and Suicide, Goodreads Depression Book Lists, and Goodreads Popular YA Suicide Books. 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.