In celebration of this year’s Teen Read Week, we asked some of our favorite bookstagrammers to pick one YA book from this year that they absolutely loved. Find out what the best book bloggers are reading and give them a follow to catch up on all their reading adventures.
For me, young adult fiction is all about transition and growth. Teens are faced with challenges and opportunities that require adaptability and I love that Stay Sweet focuses on these vulnerable, impressionable times with grace and charm. Amelia is relatable no matter who you are or where you come from because we’ve all had to look at what was and what will be. We’ve all had to make hard choices and decide whether strength or vulnerability is best and if the two can’t be married – resulting in that growth towards adulthood. The story is comfortable, nostalgic and enchanting with a hint of innocence that is really refreshing, along with strong feminist themes that inspire and delight. Elements of historical fiction and mystery are woven throughout the novel, as well. The characters are rich and vibrant while the settings are gorgeous and welcoming. Romantic, hilarious and endearing, I’d recommend this title to anyone and certainly love its message and the incredible, heartfelt warmth found in this book. It’s a sweet read indeed!
My favorite book so far in 2018 has been LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff. I read a lot of YA books, so something has to really stand out for me to label a book as my favorite. Usually, what I’m looking for is a book that makes me feel all the emotions, and LIFEL1K3 definitely did that. I laughed, I cried, I got mad, I swore I would go to the ends of the earth for the cyborg dog, Kaiser, or for the witty, fretful little robot, Cricket. The characters all had complex personalities and there were enough twists and turns to keep me guessing until the very end!
This book follows Audrey Rose and Thomas Cresswell as they board a luxurious ocean liner and soon discover that someone is murdering passengers one by one, with nowhere for them to escape. Escaping from Houdini is the third installment in the Stalking Jack the Ripper series and it is one of my all-time favorites! Every book is filled with murder, mystery, scandal, horror and a heart-stopping romance (#cressworth!) Highly recommend!❤️
A tender, beautiful coming-of-age story that tackles an enormous array of relevant and relatable issues. Lily struggles with facing the trauma of her past while also living in fear of an uncertain future due to a family history of mental illness. She has to find her own identity and decide whether to truly live her life, embracing all the uncertainty or remain closed off, alive but not living. I love, love, loved this book! It is such a heartbreakingly beautiful book, not just on mental illness, and the very real struggle of living not just with past trauma, but future uncertainty. More than that, it’s also about simply finding out who we are, and what life we want to live. This is a book that will make you feel. It will make you think. And above all, it will open a myriad of conversations highly relevant to young adults today.
Monday Charles is missing, but only Claudia, her best friend, seems to notice. Set amid the backdrop of urban Washington, DC, eighth-grader Claudia does her best to track down her friend, but no one seems to be concerned that one girl is no longer showing up for school or activities. This book is incredible. Not only is it a gripping story that moved at a wild pace, it is an important one that is all too real for too many people. This book in particular feels relevant, as it follows a missing young girl of color, who are often ignored by police departments and classified as “runaways.” If Tiffany Jackson isn’t on your radar as a not-to-be-missed author, consider this your alert. A wonderful, harrowing, heartbreaking account of kids who are overlooked.
This story is brilliant and devastating. It’s a powerful story of a teenager who loses the one person that really mattered to her. Sadie is pretty sure she knows who her sister’s killer is and decides to go find him. She takes off in the middle of the night. The chapters are split between Sadie’s journey and West McCray’s version, the radio presenter that starts investigating Sadie’s disappearance. Every chapter ends with a cliffhanger, so you’re on the edge of your seat the entire time. The closest McCray gets to where Sadie is, the more you want to keep reading… until the very last page. At first, I thought the story was purely about revenge, but it is so much more than that. It’s about wanting to belong, to be needed, to have someone that loved you back. Isn’t that the definition of being alive? I’m not going to sugarcoat it. This is no fairy tale. It will break you (as it broke me) but be ready to keep talking about it months after you finish reading it.
These looks like sweet reads
That is a fabulous list. My co-blogger is a fan of Courtney Summers and reviewed Sadie. She was blown away by it.
Too bad I don’t like YA. I get frustrated reading them. I do however want to try Sadie.
I’ve read none of these, but they all look so good!