Young Adult
2024 curated booklist
Young adult ( or YA) is typically written for and about those aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, as well as addressing problems, issues, and life circumstances of interest to teenagers “coming-of-age.”
They Both Die at the End
Adam Silvera
On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.
Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.
Category: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Representation: Bisexual, gay
Content Warnings: Character death, violence, suicide, mental illness, homophobia
ISBN: 9780062457790
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Malinda Lo
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father–despite his hard-won citizenship–Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day.
Category: Young Adult, Historical, Romance
Representation: Lesbian
Content Warnings: Discrimination, sexual activity, racism, homophobia, police violence/brutality
ISBN: 9780525555254
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Heartstopper Vol. 1
Alice Oseman
Charlie, a highly-strung, openly gay over-thinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, meet at a British all-boys grammar school. Friendship blooms quickly, but could there be something more…?
Charlie Spring is in Year 10 at Truham Grammar School for Boys. The past year hasn’t been too great, but at least he’s not being bullied anymore. Nick Nelson is in Year 11 and on the school rugby team. He’s heard a little about Charlie – the kid who was outed last year and bullied for a few months – but he’s never had the opportunity to talk to him.
They quickly become friends, and soon Charlie is falling hard for Nick, even though he doesn’t think he has a chance. But love works in surprising ways, and sometimes good things are waiting just around the corner…
Category: Young Adult, Romance, Comic, Series
Representation: Bisexual, gay, diverse genders, diverse sexualities, lesbian, transgender
Content Warnings: Mental illness, disordered eating/eating disorder, self harm
ISBN: 9780063067776
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Red, White & Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston
First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz is the closest thing to a prince this side of the Atlantic. With his intrepid sister and the Veep’s genius granddaughter, they’re the White House Trio, a beautiful millennial marketing strategy for his mother, President Ellen Claremont. International socialite duties do have downsides—namely, when photos of a confrontation with his longtime nemesis Prince Henry at a royal wedding leak to the tabloids and threaten American/British relations.
Category: Young Adult, Romance
Representation: Gay
Content Warnings: Sexual activity, homophobia, racism, character death, substance use/abuse, sexual violence, mental illness
ISBN: 9781250316776
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
A Dark and Hollow Star
Ashley Shuttleworth
Choose your player. The half-fae outcast, desperate for acceptance. The tempestuous Fury, exiled and hellbent on revenge. The dutiful prince, determined to earn his place. The brooding guardian, burdened by a terrible secret. Each holds a key to solving a series of ritualistic murders that threaten to expose faeries to the human world. But they cannot do it alone. To track down the killer, they will have to form a tenuous alliance, putting their differences – and conflicts – aside. Failure risks the destruction of the faerie and human worlds alike. And time is running out.
Category: Fantasy, Young Adult, Series
Representation: Pansexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary
Content Warnings: Abuse, character death, mental illness, self harm, suicide, substance use/abuse, violence, racism
ISBN: 9781529366211
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester
Maya MacGregor
In this queer contemporary YA mystery, a nonbinary autistic teen realizes they must not only solve a 30-year-old mystery but also face the demons lurking in their past in order to live a satisfying life.
Sam Sylvester has long collected stories of half-lived lives—of kids who died before they turned nineteen. Sam was almost one of those kids. Now, as Sam’s own nineteenth birthday approaches, their recent near-death experience haunts them. They’re certain they don’t have much time left. .
But Sam’s life seems to be on the upswing after meeting several new friends and a potential love interest in Shep, their next-door neighbor. Yet the past keeps roaring back—in Sam’s memories and in the form of a thirty-year-old suspicious death that took place in Sam’s new home. Sam can’t resist trying to find out more about the kid who died and who now seems to guide their investigation. When Sam starts receiving threatening notes, they know they’re on the path to uncovering a murderer. But are they digging through the past or digging their own future grave?
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester explores healing in the aftermath of trauma and the fullness of queer joy.
Category: Young Adult, Mystery, Romance
Representation: Non-binary, asexual
Content Warnings: Transphobia, homophobia, bullying, character death, self-harm, abuse, mental illness, suicide
ISBN: 9781662620423
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
She Gets the Girl
Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
Alex and Molly are two girls who don’t belong on the same planet, let alone the same college campus . . .
Alex Blackwood is a little bit headstrong, with a dash of chaos and a whole lot of flirt. She knows how to get the girl. Keeping her on the other hand . . . not so much.
Molly Parker has everything in her life totally in control, except for her complete awkwardness with just about anyone besides her mum. She knows she’s in love with the impossibly cool Cora Myers. She just . . . hasn’t actually talked to her yet.
When the girls’ paths cross unexpectedly, and Alex discovers Molly’s hidden crush, they realise they might have a common interest after all. Because maybe if Alex can help Molly to get her dream girl, she can prove to her ex that she’s serious about love.
As the two embark on their five-step plans to get their girls to fall for them, though, they both begin to wonder if maybe they’re the ones falling . . . for each other.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Lesbian
Content Warnings: Racism, substance use/abuse, abuse, sexual activity, mental illness
ISBN: 9781398502635
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
An Unkindness of Ghosts
Rivers Solomon
Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She’s used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world. Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship’s leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot–if she’s willing to sow the seeds of civil war.
Category: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Representation: Intersex, asexual, lesbian, diverse genders, transgender, non-binary, BIPOC
Content Warnings: Abuse, discrimination, mental illness, self harm, suicide, sexual violence, violence, sexual activity, homophobia
ISBN: 9781617755880
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)
Felix Ever After
Kacen Callender
Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.
When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle….
But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.
Felix Ever After is an honest and layered story about identity, falling in love, and recognizing the love you deserve.
Category: Young Adult
Representation: Diverse gender identities, diverse sexualities, transgender, BIPOC
Content Warnings: Bullying, homophobia, transphobia, racism, substance use/abuse
ISBN: 9780062820259
Find it in your local library (WorldCat)