2016 is serving up a feast of new YA fiction. Here are a few titles NYPL staff recommend, and here are a few more. 

Fantasy

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

Safiya is a Truthwitch, able to discern truth from lies.

Fantasy, multiple persepectives, strong female characters.

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Amani uses her sharpshooting skills to escape a dead-end town. Along the way, she meets a mysterious deserter from the Sultan’s army.

Fantasy, world-building, romantic.

Historical Fiction

 

Front Lines by Michael Grant

An epic reimagining of WWII with girl soldiers fighting on the front lines.

Alternative history, multiple perspectives, gruesome, thought-provoking.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Four narrators attempting to escape catastrophe and other adversities in 1945 Europe.

Historical fiction, multiple perspectives, character-driven, haunting.

Up From the Sea by Leza Lowitz

A novel in verse about the March 2011 tsunami in Japan.

Novel in verse, realistic fiction, culturally diverse, character-driven.

Realistic Fiction

 

The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone

Maddie and her zany family accompany their grandmother on a “death with dignity” cruise.

Realistic fiction, character-driven, social issues

Fifteen Lanes by S.J. Laidlaw

Noor grew up in a brutal Mumbai brothel. Grace lives a life of privilege. When their paths intersect, everything changes for both girls.

Realistic fiction, multiple perspectives.

Realistic Fiction (dealing with rape)

 

Asking For It by Louise O’Neill

Emma O’Donovan is found beaten and bleeding and with no memory of the night before. Photos show up online and an investigation tears a small Irish town apart.

Realistic fiction, character-driven, issues oriented.

The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith

Fourteen-year-old Eden is raped by her brother’s best friend.

Realistic fiction, character-driven, issues-oriented.

Exit, Pursued By a Bear by E.K. Johnston

Hermione is drugged and raped, but she cannot remember who did it. Add to this rumors and rejection and an unexpected discovery about her best friend.

Realistic fiction, Shakespeare-inspired fiction, strong female characters

Comics & Graphic Novels

 

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan [NOTE: Skews older]

The early morning hours after Halloween 1988, four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls collide with a supernatural mystery.

Comics/graphic novel, science fiction, nostalgic, sardonic.

Orange by Ichigo Takano

Takamiya receives a letter from her future-self telling her to keep an eye on the new student in class.

Comics/graphic novel, fantasy, Manga.

LGBTQ Fiction

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Amanda starts a new school with a big secret.

LGBTQ fiction, realistic fiction, character-driven.

You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina Lacour

Mark and Kate sat next to each other for an entire year and never spoke. In one night, they will know each other better than anyone else knows them.

LGBTQ fiction, character-driven.

Ecofiction 

Dig Too Deep by Amy Allgeyer

Liberty Briscoe moves from the city to a small town in Kentucky and suspects there is something wrong with the drinking water, uncovering corruption among those in charge of testing it.

Ecofiction, realistic fiction, strong female character.

Rescued by Eliot Schrefer

John has been living with an Indonesian orangutan since he was ten and the orangutan was a baby. Years later when his parents divorce, his father sells John’s adopted brother (the orangutan) to a zoo. John cannot let this stand.

Ecofiction, first person narratives, melancholy, bittersweet.

Mystery & Suspense Fiction

 

A Study in Charlotte: A Charlotte Holmes Novel by Brittany Cavallaro

Charlotte and Jamie are descendants of Holmes and Watson and the apple does not fall far from the tree. A murder mystery set in a Connecticut boarding school.

Classics-inspired fiction, mysteries, plot-driven.

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse

Set in 1943 Nazi-occupied Amstedam, Hanneke, a finder of black market goods, is hired to  find a Jewish girl who has mysteriously disappeared.

Historical fiction, suspenseful.

Dark Humor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky

Four fan girls take things a bit too far.

First person narrative, realistic fiction, unreliable narrator, dark humor.

Have trouble reading standard print? Many of these titles are available in formats for patrons with print disabilities.

Staff picks are chosen by NYPL staff members and are not intended to be comprehensive lists. We'd love to hear your ideas too, so leave a comment and tell us what you’d recommend. And check out our Staff Picks browse tool for more recommendations!