From intoxicating dystopian tales to hard-hitting family dramas, young adult books are a thrilling read. These twisty page turners will have the teen in your life (or you!) staying up late to read one more chapter…
Like a Brother by Nathanael Lessore
Two starkly different estranged cousins are “thrown together” in Nathanael Lessore’s bold teen comedy, said Fiona Noble in The Observer. “Chaotic” Abass and “chilled” Owais seem to have “little in common” but, as their “bond deepens, so does each boy’s sense of self worth”. Lessore tackles hard-hitting topics, including masculinity and homophobia, with a big dose of humour. This is a huge-hearted, funny book that sensitively sheds light on the “messy, unpredictable business of being a teenager”.
A Million Tiny Miles All At Once by Lucas Maxwell
Lucas Maxwell’s remarkable debut examines “family pressures, neurodivergence and resilience with heaps of humour and heart”, said Anna Bonet in The i Paper. The story begins with 14-year-old Elias entering a school competition in the hopes of wining enough prize money to take his troubled family out for pizza. But “life at home grows increasingly complicated”, and soon unfurls into all-out chaos.
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Survival Show by Juno Dawson
“Reality TV gets a ‘Black Mirror’-style makeover” in this “deliciously moreish read”, said Noble in The Observer. We follow 17-year-old Taryn, an English girl whose family is forced to seek refuge in Scotland as water levels rise in the worsening climate crisis. “Desperate to fund life-saving medication for her brother”, she signs up for a global singing contest. “The twist? All eliminated contestants are, quite literally, eliminated, ‘donating’ their lives to the ghoulish Project Population”. Dawson’s “snarky, gossipy tone” and razor-sharp “takedown of celebrity culture” are a winning combination.
Torchfire by Moira Buffini
In “Songlight”, her young-adult debut novel, Moira Buffini plunged readers into a dystopian landscape where nations are “bitterly divided by attitudes to telepathy”, said Imogen Russell Williams in The Guardian. This eagerly anticipated follow-up “pits the Brightlanders, who persecute those with ‘songlight’, against the Aylish, who prize them – and the Teroans, spacefaring telepaths who see ordinary humans as disposable”. It’s a completely absorbing tale that grips you “more fiercely” as the pages turn. “Fans will find it hard to wait” for the last book in the trilogy.
Black Star by Kwame Alexander
“Kwame Alexander is the real deal,” said Lucy Bannerman in The Times. The American poet uses “sparky verse” to tell the “powerful tale” of 12-year-old Charley, a Black girl living in the 1920s segregated American South, who dreams of becoming a professional baseball pitcher. Beautifully written, with rich characters and a vivid historical setting, this book is “a literary adrenaline shot”.
