YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults Blogging Team presents fiction titles published for young adults in the past 14 months that are recommended reading for ages 12 to 18. They also pick a Top Ten list that is presented below. 

A Magic Steeped in Poison YA Lin, J.

A Scatter of Light YA Lo, M.

A Thousand Steps into Night YA Chee, T.

African Town  YA Latham, I.

Ain’t Burned All the Bright YA Reynolds, J.

Cloak of the Light  YA Black, C.                    
Dating Games  YA Carlson, M.               
Carter House Girls  YA Carlson, M.               
Destination Unknown  YA Clipston, A.
Miles From Nowhere  YA Clipston, A.
Roadside Assistance  YA Clipston, A.               
Children of the Bard Series  YA Davis, B.                     
Hagenheim Fairy Tales Series  YA Dickerson, M.           
The Regency Spies of London  YA Dickerson, M.
The Christy Miller collection  YA Gunn, R.                    
An Uncertain Choice series  YA Hedlund, J.               
A Charmed Life  YA Jones, J.                    
I’m So Sure  YA Jones, J.                    
So Not Happening  YA Jones, J.                    
There You’ll Find Me  YA Jones, J.                   
If We Survive  YA Klavan, A.                 
First Date  YA McGee, K.
Pure  YA McVoy, T.                  
The Lost Girl of Astor Street  YA Morrill, S.                 
Life Just Got Real  YA Robertson, S.

CLASSIC CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

** Alice in Wonderland ** J FICTION CARR
Unbirthday  YA Braswell, L.                
Splintered  YA Howard, A.                
A Blade So Black  YA McKinney, L.            
Heartless  YA Meyer, M.
Alice By Heart  YA Sater, S.

** The Jungle Book** J FICTION KIPL
The Graveyard Book  YA Gaiman, N.

**Peter Pan** J FICTION BARR
Tiger Lily  YA Anderson, J.
Straight On Till Morning  YA Braswell, L.
Unhooked  YA Maxwell, L.
Stars  YA Oakes, C.
Everland  YA Spinale, W.

**The Wonderful Wizard of Oz** J FICTION BAUM
Dorothy Must Die  YA Paige, D.

CLASSIC LITERATURE

**The Count of Monte Cristo** FICTION Dumas, A.
Scavenge the Stars  YA SIM, T.

**Cyrano de Bergerac** 824.8 R839
Sway  YA Spears, K.

**Frankenstein** FICTION Shelley, M.
The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein  YA White, K.

**Jane Eyre** FICTION Bronte, C. 
My Plain Jane  YA Hand, C.

**A Midsummer Night’s Dream** 822.33 S527MS
Foolish Hearts  YA Mills, E.
Midsummer Night’s Scream  YA Stine, R.

**Persuasion** FICTION Austen, J. 
The Stars We Steal  YA Donne, A.
The Last Best Kiss  YA LaZebnick, C.

**The Phantom of the Opera** FICTION Leroux, G. 
Rose Blood  YA Howard, A.

**Pride & Prejudice** FICTION Austen, J. 
Prom and Prejudice  YA Eulberg, E.
Pride     YA Zoboi, I.

**Romeo & Juliet** 822.33 S527R
Prince of Shadows  YA Caine, R.
Juliet Immortal  YA Jay, S.
Romeo Redeemed  YA Jay, S.

**A Room With a View** FICTION Forster, E.
Love, Lucy  YA Lindner, A.

**The Scarlet Pimpernel** FICTION Orczy, E. 
Rook  YA Cameron, S.

**Sherlock Holmes** FICTION Doyle, A. 
A Study in Charlotte  YA Cavallaro, B.

**Sense & Sensibility** FICTION Austen, J. 
Ordinary Girls  YA Thornburgh, B.

**Tarzan of the Apes** FICTION Burroughs, E. 
Wild  YA Mallory, A.

What if it’s Us  YA Albertali, B.           
Emmy & Oliver  YA Benway, R.            
Serious Moonlight  YA Bennett, J.            
My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life  YA Cohn, R.
The Promise of Amazing  YA Constantine, R.
Words in Deep Blue  YA Crowley, C.          
The Rest of the Story  YA Dessen, S.             
Hot Dog Girl  YA Dugan, J.
Girls of July  YA Flinn, A.
Just One Day  YA Forman, G.         
Somewhere Only We Know  YA Goo, M.                
How (Not) to Ask a Boy to Prom  YA Goslee, S.             
The Fault in Our Stars  YA Green, J.
Coming Up For Air  YA Kenneally, M.
Love and Other Train Wrecks  YA Konen, L.             
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before  YA Han, J.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea  YA, Mafi, T.               
Since You’ve Been Gone  YA Matson, M.         
From Twinkle With Love  YA Menon, S.
Lucky Caller  YA Mills, E.               
Anna and the French Kiss  YA Perkins, S.
Fangirl  YA Rowell, R.
Field Notes on Love  YA Smith, J.
The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles)  YA Spalding, A.        
Love, Life, and the List  YA West, K.
Everything, Everything  YA Yoon, N.

Rime Chronicles  YA Arnett, M.           
Red Queen Trilogy  YA Aveyard, V.         
Grisha Trilogy  YA Bardugo, L.        
King of Scars  YA Bardugo, L.        
Folk of the Air Series  YA Black, H.            
The Gilded Wolves  YA Chokshi, R.        
The Witchlands Series  YA Dennard, S.        
So You Want to be a Wizard?  YA Duane, D.           
The Cerulean  YA Ewing, A.            
Brotherband Chronicles  YA Flanagan, J.       
The Ranger’s Apprentice Series  YA Flanagan, J.       
Rule  YA Goodlett, E.       
The Smoke Thieves  YA Green, S.
Tess of the Road  YA Hartman, R.      
Evermore  YA Holland, S.          
A Curse So Dark and Lonely  YA Kemmerer, B.     
Courting Darkness  YA LaFevers, R.       
Warrior of the Wild  Levenseller, T.         
Throne of Glass  YA Maas, S.              
Girls of Paper and Fire  YA Ngan, N.             
The Ascendance Trilogy  YA Nielsen, J.          
The Traitor’s Game Series  YA Nielsen, J.                
Prophecy Series  YA Oh, E.                  
The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica  YA Owen, J.              
The Inheritance Cycle  YA Paolini, C.           
Four Dead Queens  YA Scholte, A.          
Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series  YA Scott, M.             
The Raven Cycle  YA Stiefvater, M.
Long May She Reign  YA Thomas, R.         

Seeds of America  YA Anderson, L.
Fever, 1793  YA Anderson, L.
Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All  YA Anderson, M.  
Lovely War  YA Berry, J.    
The Passion of Dolssa  YA Berry, J.
Inventing Victoria  YA Bolden, T.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas  YA Boyne, J.                 
Walk on Earth a Stranger  YA Carson, R.              
Hamilton & Peggy  YA Elliot, L.
Projekt 1065  YA Gratz, A.
Refugee  YA Gratz, A.
My Calamity Jane  YA Hand, C.
My Lady Jane  YA Hand, C.                 
Girl in the Blue Coat  YA Hesse, M.               
The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue  YA Lee, M.                    
The Downstairs Girl  YA Lee, S.                     
The Wild Queen  YA Meyer, C.
Riot  YA Myers, W.
Come Juneteenth  YA Rinaldi, A.             
The Hired Girl  YA Schlitz, L.
Fountains of Silence  YA Sepetys, R.
Salt to the Sea  YA Sepetys, R.
Flygirl  YA Smith, S.
Enchantée YA Trelease, G.          
Code Name Verity  YA Wein, E.                
The Book Thief   YA Zusak, M.

Devils Unto Dust  YA Berquist, E.   
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown  YA Black, H.  
Anna Dressed in Blood  YA Blake, K.         
The Cemetery Boys  YA Brewer, H.
Nightfall  YA Halpern, J.       
The Horrors: Terrifying Tales  YA Horror
Dread Nation: Rise Up  YA Ireland, J.      
Sawkill Girls  YA Legrand, C.
Rot and Ruin  YA Maberry, J.       
The Haunting of Sunshine Girl  YA McKenzie, P.
Possess  YA McNeil, G.      
Amity  YA Ostow, M. 
There’s Someone Inside Your House  YA Perkins, E.
Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series  YA Riggs, R.   
Asylum Series  YA Roux, M.  
Not Even Bones  YA Schaeffer, R.   
Thirteen Chairs  YA Shelton, D.  
Slasher Girls & Monster Boys  YA Slasher
The Sacrifice Box  YA Stewart, M.     
You May Now Kill the Bride  YA Stine, R. 
In the Shadow of Blackbirds  YA Winters, C. 
Through the Woods  YA GRAPHIC Carroll, E.

YOUNG ADULT FICTION
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda  YA Albertalli, B.      
One Man Guy  YA Barakiva, M.  
Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens  YA Boteju, T.  
This is Kind of an Epic Love Story  YA Callender, K.   
Little & Lion  YA Colbert, B.    
Freakboy  YA Clark, K.     
You and Me and Him  YA Dinnison, K.   
The Great American Whatever  YA Federle, T.
Tessa Masterson Will Go to Prom  YA Franklin, E.       
Lily and Dunkin  YA Gephart, D. 
How (Not) to Ask a Boy to Prom  YA Goslee, S.        
Been Here All Along  YA Hall, S.
Let’s Talk About Love  YA Kann, C.                            
Ask the Passengers  YA King, A.                              
My Most Excellent Year  YA Kluger, S.                           
Boy Girl Boy  YA Koertge, R.                         
Openly Straight  YA Konigsberg, B.                   
You Know Me Well  YA LaCour, N.    
When Love Comes to Town  YA Lennon, T.     
Boy Meets Boy  YA Levithan, D.
Two Boys Kissing  YA Levithan, D.
Draw the Line  YA Linn, L.   
Ash  YA Lo, M.   
Ship It  YA Lundin, B.
Hero  YA Moore, P. 
Like a Love Story  YA Nazemian, A.
I’ll Give You the Sun  YA Nelson, J.
Luna  YA Peters, J.                             
If I Was Your Girl  YA Russo, M.                            
Gabi, a Girl in Pieces  YA Quintero, I.                         
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe  YA Saenz, B.                              
More Happy Than Not  YA Silvera, A.                            
Our Own Private Universe  YA Talley, R.                             
The Inside of Out  YA Thorne, J.                            
Anything Could Happen  YA Walton, W.                          
Pink  YA Wilkinson, L.
The Art of Being Normal  YA Williamson, L.

YA GRAPHIC NOVELS
Kiss Number 8  YA GRAPHIC Venable, C.      
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me  YA GRAPHIC Tamaki, M.      
The Prince and the Dressmaker  YA GRAPHIC Wang, J.

** Fantasy **
 Girl of Fire and Thorns  YA Carson, R.          
Artemis Fowl series  YA Colfer, E.             
Hagenheim Fairy Tales  YA Dickerson, M.    
Princess of the Midnight Ball  YA George, J.           
Princess Academy  YA Hale, S.               
Seraphina  YA Hartman, R.      
The Ascendance Trilogy  YA Nielsen, J.          
Tempests and Slaughter  YA Pierce, T.            
Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series  YA Scott, M.             
Long May She Reign  YA Thomas, R.        

** Historical Fiction **
Refugee  YA Gratz, A.           
The Hired Girl  YA Schlitz, L.        
Salt to the Sea  YA Sepetys, R.      
The Book Thief   YA Zusak, M.

** Mystery **
All Fall Down  YA Carter, A.        
Change Up: Mystery at the World Series  YA Feinstein, J.  
The Girl I Used to Be  YA Henry, A.       
Name of the Star  YA Johnson, M.  
A Spy in the House   YA Lee, Y.            
I Am Princess X  YA Priest, C.        
Tokyo Heist  YA Renn, D.        
Jackaby  YA Ritter, W.
The Screaming Staircase  YA Stroud, J.
X-Files Origins  YA X-Files

** Realistic Fiction **
The Princess Diaries  YA Cabot, M.                  
Darius the Great is Not Okay  YA Khorram, A.             
Middle School series  YA Patterson, J.            
The Boy in the Black Suit  YA Reynolds, J.             
Okay for Now  YA Schmidt, G.              
Counting by 7s  YA Sloan, H.                  
Stargirl  YA Spinelli, J.                
The Running Dream  YA Van Draanen, W.    
P.S. I Like You  YA West, K.

** Science Fiction **
Mechanica  YA Cornwell, B.           
Children of Eden  YA Graceffa, J.            
Dangerous  YA Hale, S.                  
Starflight  YA Landers, M.          
Spinning Starlight  YA Lewis, R.               
Legend series  YA Lu, M.                    
The Rithmatist  YA Sanderson, B.       
Skyward  YA Sanderson, B.       
Leviathan  YA Westerfeld, S.

2024 The Collectors  YA Collectors
2023  All My Rage YA Tahir, S
2022  Firekeeper’s Daughter YA Boulley, A
2021   Everything Sad is Untrue (a true story)   YA Nayeri, D. 
2020  Dig  YA King, A.
2019  The Poet X  YA Acevado, E.
2018  We Are Okay  YA LaCour, N.
2017  March: Book Three  YA GRAPHIC Lewis, J.
2016  Bone Gap  YA Ruby, L.
2015  I’ll Give You The Sun  YA Nelson, J.
2014  Midwinterblood  YA Sedgwick, M.
2013  In Darkness  YA Lake, N.
2012  Where Things Come Back  YA Whaley, J.
2011  Ship Breaker  YA Bacigalupi, P.
2010  Going Bovine  YA Bray, L.
2009  Jellicoe Road  YA Marchetta, M.
2008  The White Darkness  YA McCaughrean, G.
2007  American Born Chinese  YA GRAPHIC Yang, G.
2006  Looking for Alaska  YA Green, J.
2005  How I Live Now  YA Rosoff, M.
2004  The First Part Last  YA Johnson, A.
2003  Postcards from No Man’s Land  YA Chambers, A.
2002  Step from Heaven  YA Na, A.
2001  Kit’s Wilderness  YA Almond, D.
2000  Monster  YA Myers, W.

Click here to see the 2024-2025 Rosie Award Nominees in our catalog.

YOUNG ADULT
The Poet X  YA Acevedo, E.
The Everything I Have Lost  YA Aguilar Zeleny, S.
Internment  YA Ahmed, S.
Yes, No, Maybe So  YA Albertali, B.
The Burning  YA Bates, L.
Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America  YA Black
Girl Made of Stars  YA Blake, A.
Rules for Being a Girl  YA Bushnell, C.
The Voting Booth  YA Colbert, B.
 All-American Muslim Girl  YA Courtney, N.
Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From  YA De Leon, J.
Color Me In  YA Diaz, N.
Dress Coded  YA Firestone, C.
Not So Pure and Simple  YA Giles, L.
Amelia Westlake Was Never Here  YA Gough, E.
The Feminist Agenda of Jemima Kincaid  YA Hattemer, K.
Devils Within  YA Henson, S.
The State of Us  YA Hutchinson, S.
This Is My America  YA Johnson, K.
Tradition  YA Kiely, B.
Dig  YA King, A.
The Music of What Happens  YA Konigsberg, B.
No True Believers  YA Lumbard, R.
The Degenerates  YA Mann, J.
Moxie  YA Mathieu, J.
October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shephard  YA Newman, L.
It’s My Life  YA Ramey, S.
All American Boys  YA Reynolds, J.
Ghost Boys  YA Rhodes, J.
Juliet Takes a Breath  YA Rivera, G.
Dear Martin  YA Stone, N.
Running  YA Sylvester, N.
Take the Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance  YA Take
All the Days Past, All the Days to Come  YA Taylor, M.
The Hate U Give  YA Thomas, A.
We Are Not From Here  YA Torres Sanchez, Jenny
Watch Us Rise  YA Watson, R.
American Street  YA Zoboi, I.
Punching the Air  YA Zoboi, I.

YA GRAPHIC
Almost American Girl  YA GRAPHIC HA, R.
March: Book One  YA GRAPHIC Lewis, J.
March: Book Two  YA GRAPHIC Lewis, J.
March: Book Three  YA GRAPHIC Lewis, J.

J-FACT
How Dare the Sun Rise  J 305.23 UWIR
Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You  J 305.8 REYN
This Land is Our Land: The History of American Immigration  J 325.73 OSBO
You Are Mighty!: A Guide to Changing the World  J 361.2 PAUL
 Malala: My Story of Standing Up for Girls’ Rights  J 954.9 YOUS

NON-FICTION
Memes to Movements: How the World’s Most Viral Media is Changing Social Protest and Power  302.231 M663M
Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America  305.42 O93
Girls Resist!: A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution  305.42 R498G
A Queer History of the United States for Young People  306.766 B869Q
No One is Too Small to Make a Difference  363.7 T535N
The 57 Bus  364.1555 S631F
Parkland: Birth of a Movement  371.78 C967P
Modern Herstory: Stories of Women and Nonbinary People Rewriting History  923.6 A1I

** Baseball **
Swing  YA Alexander, K.
The Game Can’t Love You Back  YA Cozzo, K.
The DH  YA Feinstein, J.
Home Run  YA Green, T.
The Only Game  YA Lupica, M.

** Basketball **
The Crossover  YA Alexander, K.  
Swagger  YA Deuker, C.  
Hooper  YA Herbach, G.
Game  YA Myers, W.                    
After the Shot Drops  YA Ribay, R.                        

** Football **
Call Me By My Name  YA Bradley, J.                    
Gutless  YA Deuker, C.                    
The Walk On  YA Feinstein, J.                
The Football Girl  YA Heldring, T.                
Gut Check  YA Kester, E.                     
Top Prospect  YA Volponi, P.

** Running/Track/Field **
A Heart in a Body in the World  YA Caletti, D.                    
Running Full Tilt  YA Currinder, M.             
Ghost  YA Reynolds, J.                
The Running Dream  YA Van Draanen, W.

** Soccer **
Booked  YA Alexander, K.             
Out of Nowhere  YA Padian, M.                  

Click here to see the nominees for the 2024-2025 Young Hoosiers (Grades 6-8) in our catalog.