Not sure what to read next? We’ve picked some young adult recommendations based on some of our favourite young adult books about growing up!
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Girl (In Real Life) by Tamsin Winter
Eva’s parents run a hugely successful vlog, Happily Eva after – and Eva is the star of the show. But Eva is getting sick of being made to pose in stupid mum-and-daughter matching outfits for sponsored posts.
The freebies aren’t worth the teasing at school. And when an intensely humiliating ‘period party’ post goes viral, Eva is outraged. She’s going to find a way to stop the vlog, even if she has to sabotage it herself.
Geek Girl by Holly Smale
Harriet Manners knows a lot of things. What she isn’t quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. When she is spotted by a top model agent, she grabs the chance to reinvent herself in the glam but ridiculous world of fashion.
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You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
Liz has always believed she’s too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small, rich, prom-obsessed midwestern town.
She hopes to become a doctor and has a plan that will get her out of Campbell, Indiana, forever. But when the financial aid she was counting on unexpectedly falls through, Liz’s plans come crashing down.
Felix Ever After by 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 marginalisation 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!
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Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine, this book is guaranteed to steal your heart. Dubbed ‘Dumplin” by her former beauty queen mom, Willowdean has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body?
Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked – until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint.
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Binge by Tyler Oakley
Tyler Oakley, pop culture phenomenon and the most prominent LGBT voice on YouTube, brings you his funniest untold stories in this collection of witty, personal and hilarious essays.
A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi
It’s 2002, a year after 9/11, and Shirin has just started at yet another new high school. It’s an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who’s tired of being stereotyped.
Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. She’s tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments – even the physical violence she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day.
Shirin drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons break-dancing with her brother. But then she meets Ocean James. He’s the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know her.
It terrifies her – they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds – and Shirin has had her guard up against the world for so long that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to let it down.
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The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
Subhi is a refugee. Born in a detention centre, all he knows of the world is that he’s at least 19 fence diamonds high, that the nice jackets never stay long, and at night the sea finds its way to his tent, bringing with it unusual treasures. Bringing him Jimmie. Jimmie lives on the Outside.
Carrying a notebook that she’s unable to read and wearing a sparrow made out of bone around her neck – both talismans of her family’s past and the mother she’s lost – she strikes up an unlikely friendship with Subhi across the fence. As he reads aloud the tale of how Jimmie’s family came to be, both children discover the importance of their own stories in writing their futures.
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Liccle Bit by Alex Wheatle
Venetia King is the hottest girl at school. Too bad Lemar is the second shortest guy in his year. Everyone calls him Liccle Bit, and his two best friends, McKay and Jonah, never tire of telling him he has no chance with girls.
Things aren’t much better at home. His mum is permanently hassled, his sister a frustrated single mum and his dad moved out.
Toffee by Sarah Crossan
Allison is in danger at home. Her stepmother has run away and her father is getting worse. So she runs away too and with no where to live finds herself hiding out, miles from home, in an elderly woman’s shed.
But this woman, Marla, has dementia and doesn’t recognise her as Allison, believing she is an old friend from her past called Toffee. So this is who Allison becomes, morphing into a person Marla usually knows and trusts but sometimes fears and fights.
As their bond grows, Allison begins to ask herself – where is home? What is a family? And most importantly, who am I, really?
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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.
But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the crime, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth … ?
Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson
When legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots Enchanted Jones at an audition, her dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until Enchanted wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. Who killed Korey Fields?
Before there was a dead body, Enchanted’s dreams had turned into a nightmare. Because behind Korey’s charm and star power was a controlling dark side. Now he’s dead, the police are at the door, and all signs point to Enchanted.
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Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
Simon Snow just wants to relax and savour his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he’ll be safe. Simon can’t even enjoy the fact that his room-mate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can’t stop worrying about the evil git.
Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you’re the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savour anything.
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea.
Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try. Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.
But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built, her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity begins to fall apart..
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If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Life can change in an instant. A cold February morning …a snowy road …and suddenly all of Mia’s choices are gone. Except one. As alone as she’ll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all.
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott
Can you love someone you can never touch? Stella Grant likes to be in control – even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life.
At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions. The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial.
Soon, he’ll turn 18 and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals. Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart.
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Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
When his best friend Hector is suddenly taken away, Standish Treadwell realises that it is up to him, his grandfather and a small band of rebels to confront and defeat the ever-present oppressive forces of The Motherland.
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Xiomara has always kept her words to herself. When it comes to standing her ground in her Harlem neighbourhood, she lets her fists and her fierceness do the talking.
But X has secrets – her feelings for a boy in her bio class, and the notebook full of poems that she keeps under her bed. And a slam poetry club that will pull those secrets into the spotlight.
Because in spite of a world that might not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to stay silent.
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Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli
In this sequel to the acclaimed ‘Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda’ – soon to be a major motion picture, ‘Love, Simon’ – we follow Simon’s BFF Leah as she grapples with changing friendships, first love, and senior year angst. When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat – but real life isn’t always so rhythmic.
An anomaly in her friend group, she’s the only child of a young, single mum, and her life is decidedly less privileged. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends – not even her openly gay BFF, Simon. So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways.
I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
It’s just three words: I am nonbinary. But that’s all it takes to change everything.
When Ben De Backer comes out as nonbinary, it doesn’t go down as planned: they are thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister.
All Ben can do is try to keep a low profile in a new school. But Ben’s attempts to go unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan Allan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing.
As Ben and Nathan’s friendship grows, their feelings begin to change, and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier, new life.