What We’re Reading (and Loving)

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 CURSED EVER AFTER BY ANDY C. NARANJO

Risa grew up being told she was a cursed, evil child responsible for all misery and suffering to ever befall her hometown, ranging from the slightest inconvenience to true pain and suffering. With nobody there to tell her otherwise, she internalizes all these messages of badness to the point she believes she is unloveable as well as unworthy of any and all good things. On her 17th birthday, however, her life takes a turn when the witch who assisted with her birth comes to collect her to fulfill the bargain made with Risa’s parents. Now, Risa has to leave behind all she’s ever known and travel through the dark and dangerous woods accompanying a prince, Javi, on the way to his royal wedding. Of course, nothing goes according to plan…

The book is set up like a subverted fairytale adventure, and it reads like a modern classic à la films like Ella Enchanted, The Princess Bride, and Shrek or books like the Once Upon a Broken Heart series by Stephanie Garber (which I also HIGHLY recommend). Read this if you love books filled with adventure, wit, banter, and classic fairytale-esque tropes like magical curses and quests, or romance tropes like forced proximity, grumpy-sunshine, and reluctant allies to…? Although a fun read, the book also provides a deeper look at the mental health struggles related to feeling unloveable and the cumulative toll that takes. Another great feature of this book is that it includes Hispanic inspired characters and world building based on Latino identities and cultural elements. In one interview, the author even referred to her writing process as “What if I write Shrek with Latinos?” (Naranjo, The Nerd Daily). While filled with adventure and mishaps, the book also features a lot of heart and good cheeky fun.

NICOLE RECOMMENDS THE HILLS OF ESTRELLA ROJA BY ASHLEY ROBIN FRANKLIN

What’s more fitting for the spooky month of October than a horror graphic novel chock full of cryptids, small town mysteries, and a bit of witchcraft? Kat is the co-host of a paranormal podcast that reports on the weird and strange all around the state of Texas. After an anonymous tip, she takes a road trip to a small Texas town, Estrella Roja, where mysterious red lights always sit on the horizon. The freakiest part? They’re known as the “devil’s lights,” and rumors are they’re caused by the town’s dark legacy. While there, Kat teams up with another college student named Mari, and together they start to unravel the mystery of Estrella Roja – but what if it’s a mystery that should stay raveled?

Fans of horror, mysteries, thrillers, and cryptids will love this book. Its lush illustrations and bright colors only add to the enjoyment of a complex, layered story. Although there are a few scary scenes, this graphic novel is still appropriate for a younger teen audience.

KAYLEIGH RECOMMENDS BUTTERFLY HEART BY MOA BACKE ÅSTOT

Vilda has always known she’s Sámi: a member of a group of Indigenous peoples native to Sápmi, a region that stretches across what we call Norway, Sweden, Finland, and into Russia. But she lives with her family in a Swedish town—and even though her mom is Sámi, her dad is Swedish and her mom doesn’t really speak the Sámi language around her. Her main connection to her culture is through her beloved Áddjá—her mother’s father who herds reindeer and lets Vilda try on her late grandmother’s gabde, a traditional Sámi garment.

When Áddjá suddenly passes, Vilda feels like she’s lost not only one of her favorite people in the world, but also her only chance to learn Sámi and connect with her heritage. She’s drowning in the grief while it feels like everything else is changing too—she’s turning 14, she gets her first period, and she’s feeling consumed by her first big crush on Samuel, an older boy who herded reindeer with her Áddjá and seems so perfectly Sámi in a way she never will be. Vilda’s experience with access to her culture mirrors experiences of many Indigenous groups around the world–settler governments frequently attempt to destroy Indigenous identity and community through cultural genocide, forcing members, especially children, to assimilate to the dominant culture by suppressing language, forbidding religious practices, and denying access to sacred and ancestral lands. Even after the specific violent acts of cultural denial have been outlawed, the next generations of the community will deal with trauma, division, and must struggle to rebuild identity that was stolen. Butterfly Heart is a beautiful story about grief, family, and what it means to truly claim your heritage after attempts have been made to destroy it. 

KELLI RECOMMENDS WALKING IN TWO WORLDS BY WAB KINEW

This book was quite enticing as a sci-fi novel with an indigenous narrator, but I wouldn’t have expected so many intense themes portrayed in such as a relatable way. Two people from two different worlds build their friendship through their shared views as
oppressed peoples. And as they share their individual stories struggling with community trauma, oppression, and life upsets, I couldn’t help but get emotionally invested in these characters. Blending a futuristic world of technology, virtual reality, and videogames with a more dire situation in their community made heavy conversations easy to read, but thought-provoking to sit with. I’d read this again and again.

BETH RECOMMENDS YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DIE TONIGHT BY KALYNN BAYRON

Fans of American Horror Story 1984 and The Final Girls- this book is for you. Welcome to Camp Mirror Lake. Imagine a run down old camp that someone turned into a survival game. People sign up to get the wits scared out of them. If they are the last at the end of the game with the Final Girl – they win and get a lousy t-shirt.

For Charity this job is a once in a life time thing. She gets to be the Final Girl at all the Camp Mirror Lake horror simulations. But, things have been going wrong this season. Things go missing all the time until the things that are missing are the counselors. Did they just up and leave like so many others or is something more sinister going on? Charity just wants to finish the last scheduled visit but with only 4 counselors left- can they do it? Can they be more than one character? Charity calls the owner and finds out they need to leave the camp early because the disappearances are starting to get noticed.

Charity and crew start to close the camp and find out that the camp really did have people die there years ago. That’s when things get really crazy. There is a shadow following them. It is rumored to be an owl of mystical abilities. Of course Charity doesn’t believe in any of this supernatural stuff but someone is out to get them. They call the police for help after a crazy lady warns them of the Owlman but does nothing about it. Counselors are dropping like flies. Will Charity continue to be the Final Girl or is her time up?

RACHEL RECOMMENDS THE CELESTIAL SEAS BY T. A. CHAN

When Ishara Ming was sixteen, she was the sole survivor aboard the wrecked Essex space vessel. Two years later, Ishara is down an arm and five years of her memory. She’s also the captain of the Dorado, a rust-bucket with an unconventional crew. The Dorado hunts all MOBIS—spaceships made of fused mechanical and biological matter that achieved just enough sentience to go rogue—but Ishara’s true aim is to bring down the legendary Ballena: the leviathan class MOBIS that destroyed the Essex. Not everyone believes the Ballena is real, not even the Dorado’s unfailingly loyal crew. When a brief stay at a space station introduces them to someone who claims to have developed a way to track the Ballena specifically, Ishara is all ears. It doesn’t hurt that there’s something about him that scratches at limits of Ishara’s remaining memory…

But fate doesn’t give out favors with both hands open. As Ishara comes closer to capturing the Ballena and her own fragmented memories, buried secrets and dangerous choices push the Dorado and her crew to the breaking point. Ishara needs to decide how much of her future she’s willing to sacrifice for her past, and she needs to decide quickly.

The Celestial Seas is a sci-fi take on Moby Dick that serves up pulse-pounding action while asking readers to consider the ethics of secrets, revenge, and price of allegiance and empathy—or lack thereof.

ADRIANE RECOMMENDS ROLLS AND RIVARLY BY KRISTY BOYCE

Hazel is excited when her former best friend (and 8th grade crush) moves back into town. She is sure their friendship will pick right back up where it left off but Max seems to want to have nothing to do with her. In fact he seems angry with her and would rather hang with the drum section who has long been the bane of Hazel’s color guard existence. The only thing he does seem interested in is joining her D&D group, but it’s a start! This is the third book in Boyce’s Gaming and Romance series. Each of the books exists as a stand alone, though they are in the same world and characters even make brief appearances in other books. This was a fun, clean, spice free enemies to lovers story, so it is a good read for those on the younger end of the YA age range, or those who did marching band in high school!

MIRISSA RECOMMENDS ALEX, BY PROXY BY KAREN MYNA CANTOR

Alex’s mom was recently arrested for a horrible crime: poisoning her own son. Alex is a victim of Munchausen by proxy, a disorder that’s always popping up in True Crime podcasts. This book explores the damage that can happen when those podcasts get out of hand, even when a victim decides to be part of the podcast himself. As the trial date—and Alex’s testimony against his mother—gets closer, we follow along as things get more and more complicated. Alex is supposed to be better now that his mom isn’t putting mercury in his medicine, so why is he still having episodes? And why don’t his former friends believe him? While on the surface this book may be about a medical and legal struggle, where it really grows complicated is in the relationships that Alex is left to try and repair. Part of healing is learning which ones are worth the effort.

LAUREN RECOMMENDS BREAKOUT BY DHONIELLE CLAYTON, TIFFANY D. JACKSON, NIC STONE, ANGIE THOMAS, ASHLEY WOODFOLK, AND NICOLA YOON

Six incredible authors have come together to create an amazing collaboration that combines thriller elements with romantic elements. When tragedy struck the 6 most popular students at Thurgood Marshall Academy last spring break that made their number shrink by 1 they thought they would never recover. But the new school year brought in a new student who folded right into their clique. In hopes of creating new memories for spring break, they vacationed on a remote island hosted by their new friend Anthony. It seems they can’t outrun their past, and their secrets haunt them even in paradise. This book did such a great job of blending all the authors’ voices while giving each character a distinct view and their own way of managing the chaos that was in the book. It was almost a fantasy of just how rich everyone was so that was a bonus. Super surprise ending that had me guessing until the last page! 

SHAWN RECOMMENDS OTHER WORDS FOR HOME BY JASMINE WARGA

Moving can be stressful for anyone. Moving to another country is a whole other story. Jude is a 12-year-old girl living with her family in a coastal town in Syria along the Mediterranean Sea. Jude is happy, watching movies with her cousin who lives across from her apartment and exploring her city. But when the war raging in her country soon reaches her door, Jude’s mother decides to leave for America to live with her brother, Jude’s uncle. Jude isn’t too fond of America at first, missing her city, her friends, the food, and others in her neighborhood, but soon decides to make the most of her stay by making new friends and even auditioning for a role in the school play.

Other Words for Home is a novel in verse, taking Jude’s story and separating it into various parts, or acts, like the play she is trying to star in! Readers will find Jude’s inner thoughts compelling, hopeful, and meditative as she grapples with being in a new home, while wanting to return to her old one. As the title suggests, Jude’s biggest challenge is learning how to make a house a home no matter where she finds herself. Jude is headstrong, confident, and empathetic; readers will be eager to hang on every word of each poem as author Jasmine Warga crafts a tale of home and belonging.

*Genevievre’s Librarian note: this book is technically a middle-grade novel (published for ages 8-12), but the relatable themes, emotional depth, and focus on real-world issues make it cross-appeal to tweens, teens, and even adults looking for an accessible read, which is why it is included here in this YA blog. Kirkus Reviews also labeled it for ages 11-adult.

MAEVE RECOMMENDS 72 HOURS OF YOU BY DARIANNE SCHRAMM

It is not often that you find a book that can make you laugh and cry in equal measure, but 72 Hours of You by Darianne Schramm does just that.

Sydney, a teen in a small town in New York can see a count down when someone has 72 hours to live. Knowing the fate of those around her but powerless to change it has left her with a cynical view on life. She has strict rules to keep herself protected; that is until she meets Peter, a new student that is the sunshine to her grumpy in this duo. Their views on life (nihilistic and optimistic) seem at odds until Peter discovers Sydney’s secret and convinces her that her burden can actually do some good.

This book is witty and engaging with Sydney’s sarcastic tone keeping the story from veering too dark. That is not to say there aren’t plenty of emotional moments; you may want to have some tissues on standby. If you are a fan of dark humor and a fast passed character driven story, then this may be the book for you.

Want More?

Want more book suggestions? Stay tuned for future recommendations from our team!

If you’re a young adult who likes to read, you can also submit book recommendations from our collection. Email genevievre.wood@rva.gov with a one paragraph review, explaining why you liked the book and why others should read it.