With spectacular high fantasy titles, true-to-life contemporary fiction, and every genre in between, it’s good to be a young adult book lover these days. Our latest book club picks are perfect for any group, whether you’re teens or merely young at heart.
Audiobook favorite author Marie Lu returns with a historical YA fantasy. Nannerl Mozart has just one wish: to be remembered as an acclaimed composer forever. But she has little hope for her dream: She is a young woman in 18th century Europe, and that means composing is forbidden to her. As Nannerl’s hope grows dimmer, until one day a mysterious stranger from a magical land appears with an irresistible offer. He has the power to make her wish come true–but his help may cost her everything.
One spring morning, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to horrible news: a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant where their fathers work has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who’ve always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina’s grandmother. In their new lives in Leningrad, they begin to learn what it means to trust another person.
“A deeply affecting testament to the power of unlikely friendship in the face of bias, tragedy, and distance.” – School and Library Journal, starred review
Tempe was born into a world of water. When the Great Waves destroyed her planet five hundred years ago, its people had to learn to survive living on the water. Tempe dives daily, scavenging the ruins of a bygone era, searching for anything of value to trade. It isn’t food or clothing that she wants to buy, but her dead sister’s life. Elysea died keeping a terrible secret: Her beloved sister was responsible for the death of their parents. Tempe wants to know why.
After their parents divorced, 10-year-old twins Ivy and Iris were split up–Ivy lived with Dad, Iris with Mom. Now, after a tragic accident takes their mom’s life, the twins are reunited and Iris moves in with Ivy and their dad. Iris spends the first few weeks in almost total silence–the only person she will speak to is Ivy. Ivy promises her twin that she can share her life now. It’s a promise that Iris takes seriously.
Things Lulu Shapiro’s 5,000 Flash followers don’t know about her:
• That the video of her with another girl was never supposed to go public.
• That Owen definitely wasn’t supposed to break up with her because of it.
• That behind the carefully crafted selfies and scenes Lulu projects onto people’s screens, her life feels like a terrible, uncertain mess.
Look is about what you present vs. who you really are, about real intimacy and manufactured intimacy and the blurring of that line. Read by fan-favorite narrator Jorjeana Marie.
It’s been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla’s friendship imploded. Nearly a month since Cleo realized they’ll never be besties again. Now Cleo wants to erase every memory that tethers her to her ex-best friend. But pretending Layla doesn’t exist isn’t as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she’s assigned to be Layla’s tutor. When You Were Everything blends past and present into a story about the beauty of self-forgiveness, and the courage it takes to remain open to love.