Don’t know what to read next? Looking for YA book recommendations? Welcome to the Book Chat with the Young Adult Team. Every month, the YA Team each recommends a favorite book from our YA collection. We cover fiction, non-fiction, manga, comics, and graphic novels, so there is something for everyone! There is also a mixture of new releases and old favorites, so keep an eye on our posts for books to add to your TBR.
GENEVIEVRE RECOMMENDS THE OTHERWHERE POST BY EMILY J. TAYLOR
Maeve is the daughter of a notorious murderer — the man responsible for unleashing the otherworldly Aldervine on the world of Inverly, poisoning and killing hundreds in the process. Living under an assumed name, Maeve tries to forget the past and just get by. But that delicate life is threatened when a magical letter finds its way to her, the real her, via an Otherwhere courier and claims that her father was innocent.
In desperate need of answers, Maeve takes on a new alias and infiltrates the academy of scriptomancers, training as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where scribes learn the dangerous art of enchanted letter writing and traveling between worlds. Taken under the wing of Tristan, the son of the powerful Post Master, Maeve soon discovers that her secret is in jeopardy.
Can she find answers to clear her father’s name and discover the real culprit? Or will the new threats against her life turn deadly before she can? How long can she guard her identity from Tristan? And how long can she guard her heart?
This book is the perfect Dark Academia book to end summer and get in the mood for back to school and autumn vibes. The world building is top tier, the characters intriguing, and the slow burn is both simmering and explosive.
NICOLE RECOMMENDS DELILAH DIRK AND THE PILLARS OF HERCULES BY TONY CLIFF
Although the Pillars of Hercules is not the first entry in the Delilah Dirk series, a benefit of these graphic novels is that each volume is its own self-contained adventure. And what an adventure it is! If you enjoy action, treasure hunts, heists, and swashbuckling combat, then you’ll absolutely love Delilah Dirk and the Pillars of Hercules. With colorful illustrations, Tony Cliff takes us continent-hopping from desserts to ruins to an entire mythological underground city. This story is a whirlwind from start to finish, with twists that you’ll never see coming! Perfect for fans of Indiana Jones, Uncharted, or Tomb Raider.
KAYLEIGH RECOMMENDS THE FORBIDDEN BOOK BY SACHA LAMB
Staring at herself in the mirror in her wedding dress, a voice inside Sorel helps her do what she’s dying to do—jump out of the window and run away from her arranged marriage with the Esroger Hasidic Rebbe’s son. She quickly adopts an identity that she hopes her rich merchant father would never guess was her—a boy named Isser Jacobs. But there’s a problem—there’s already a boy named Isser Jacobs in Esrog, and he’s wanted for some crime that now is attributed to Sorel. With a traveling merchant and a girl who is secretly a translator of illegal political texts, Sorel finds herself running around the city desperately trying to figure out what happened to Isser, eventually stumbling into a conspiracy that is much larger than she ever would have known.
The Forbidden Book is a captivating adventure set in a robust 19th century Ashkenazi Jewish Russian setting, with supernatural and queer undercurrents woven masterfully into the story. The tightly paced story will keep you engaged, while the deep grounding in Jewish history, politics, and folklore creates a fascinating setting rich with culture and magic.
KELLI RECOMMENDS THE POISONS WE DRINK BY BETHANY BAPTISTE
Do you enjoy worlds of fantasy filled with revenge, mystery, and magic? If you do,
this is the book for you. D.C.’s corrupt world separates those who have magical abilities and
those who do not. We follow Venus, a witch who brews love potions illegally to support her
family. But the dark magic within her grows soon after her mother’s murder. A story of
revenge and the price one will pay for it.
LAUREN RECOMMENDS THE DAVENPORTS BY KRYSTAL MARQUIS
To sum this book up in one word it would be DRAMA! Every time you think nothing more scandalous can happen a new hidden truth gets revealed. If you like Hamilton and especially Angelica’s story this is a great read for you! Each character has their own set of struggles that they must face and they each face them in different ways. Some issues in this book were very much of the times, but other issues are things that we still deal with today. Protesting, rebelling against your parents and trying to figure out your own dreams are the main driving points of this book and even though its historical fiction it will feel very current.
ADRIANE RECOMMENDS ONCE UPON A BROKEN HEART BY STEPHANIE GARBER
Evangeline Fox always believed in true love, until the day she learned that the man she was in love with was going to marry someone else, her step sister. To stop the wedding she makes a deal with a person that she knows she shouldn’t, the Prince of Hearts, Jacks. His payment is three kisses, given when he requests them. This book follows the Caraval series, though you don’t have to have read Caraval to read this series. I really enjoyed the world building and the character interaction in Once Upon a Broken Heart. As a fan of romantasy, this book pulled me in and had me continue with the next two in the series, The Ballad of Never After and A Curse for True Love.
RACHEL RECOMMENDS COMPOUND FRACTURE BY ANDREW JOSEPH WHITE
After he’s sure they’re asleep for the night, 16-year-old Miles Abernathy makes two important choices: he comes out to his parents as trans, and he sneaks out to give a friend photographic evidence that Sheriff Davies is a murderer. The sheriff’s son finds out about the photos, so he and his two goons beat Miles unconscious and leave him for dead in the woods.
This violence has been par for the course between the Abernathys and Davieses for a century. In 1917, Saint Abernathy led a bloody miners’ rebellion that ended in his public execution by his Sheriff Davies. The two families have been destroying each other ever since.
When Miles wakes up at the hospital, he is visited by the coal-dusted ghost of an early 20th century miner. A ghost that Miles is, impossibly, absolutely certain he knows.
Compound Fracture is about generational violence, how absolute power corrupts absolutely, truth, and how communities either fall apart or come together.
Be aware this story handles topics that some readers may find disturbing. Content warnings include: graphic violence (including police brutality, child murder, off-page past revenge killing of a pet), internalized arophobia, transphobia (deadnaming, misgendering, public outing), on-page butchering of a deer for food, ableism (including discussion about discrimination arising from disfigurement), opioids (use, dependency, withdrawal), and vomiting.
TEEN RECOMMENDATION: PRANSHU RECOMMENDS MINECRAFT IRONSWORD ACADEMY: IT’S NOW OR NETHER! BY CALEB ZANE HUETT
I love this book and how it portrays companionship and teamwork. Work that normally would have been boring was made fun together with teamwork. As a person who has experienced Minecraft, I love the in game details they have added, and I would love to see more books from this series and how the story ends. If you like Minecraft, you’ll love this series too!
Want more book suggestions? Stay tuned for future recommendations from our team! If you’re a teen who likes to read, you can also submit book recommendations from our collection. Find out more here.
