Stuff for the Teen Age, Biblio File

10 More Best Books for Teens 2016

As a member of The New York Public Library’s Best Books for Teens committee, I can attest to how hard it is to narrow down the hundreds of books we’ve read and discussed over 10 months down to just 50. It was really, really hard this year…and yet somehow we managed it. The 2016 Best Books for Teens is a great list, but there are books I LOVE (like really, really LOVE) that didn’t make the final list. So to make sure these awesome books get their due, here are 10 fiction books I think should’ve made the final list.

lie tree

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

Your reaction after reading this book might be: what did I just read? The answer: something amazingly original, genre-defying, thoroughly engrossing, weird and refreshingly feminist. Fleeing a growing, professional scandal, Faith’s renowned, naturalist father takes the family to an island off the coast of England to help with an archelogical dig. When he’s found dead, Faith begins to uncover her father’s web of secrets that includes a tree that grows through the spreading of lies and whose fruit shows the truth to the person who ingests it. Told you it was weird. But oh, so wonderful too! Set during the Victorian era, it shines a spotlight on the world of women and their limited choices at the time and how society perceives and shapes truth. It’s also just a really great story. You’ll be sorry if you don’t read it. Really.

 

kill boy band

Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky

A dark, hilariously funny satire of fangirl culture. The story centers around four girls who meet online and are bound together by their love of a British boy band—and not much else. When a stalking expedition at the boys’ NYC hotel goes horribly wrong, they find out just how far they’ll go for their boys and for each other. Colleagues argue that this story is too mean and too unrealistic and I counter (as someone who knows the One Direction fandom intimately) that it is scarily on the nose and frighteningly realistic. Plus, it is laugh-out-loud funny with writing that is some of the best I’ve read all year. So, put on your big girl pants and get ready for a terror-filled ride down the rabbit hole of obsessive, teen pop culture in the age of social media.

 

unbecoming

Unbecoming by Jenny Downham

A beautifully written, multi-generational story that will have you either: a) inconveniently sobbing or b) randomly giving your mother and grandmother hugs or c) all of the above. Told in the voices of 17 year old Katie and Mary, her Alzheimer's afflicted, estranged grandmother and set in present-day England and the England of the 1950s; it’s a story about growing up, the choices we make make and living with the consequences, familial connection, and being our best selves. It is that big and that deep and oh, so much drama. A rich, multi-layered narrative that is never predictable. Believe me when I say this one will stay with you for a very long time.  

 

 

dark days club

The Dark Days Club (Lady Helen #1) by Alison Goodman

This is a stellar example of gas lamp fantasy which is essentially magical, supernatural fantasy set during the 19th century. Think Jane Austen meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In 1812, on the eve of Lady Helen’s presentation to the queen, one of the family’s housemaids goes missing and Lady Helen is drawn into the shadowy, underworld of Regency London. There she meets a distant cousin, the brooding and scandalous Lord Carlston who tells her the truth: namely that demons are real, living among them, and that he and Helen are some of the only ones that can stop them. However, while she comes into her own as a demon hunter and casts off the shackles of societal expectation, what really intrigues her is the handsome Lord Carlston. I do love a kick-ass heroine doing kick-ass things in a corset. It does have a bit of a slow start but once it gets going you won’t want it to end!

 

love and gelato

Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch

This is a deceptively simple, unforgettable story of family: the ones we’re born with and the ones we make for ourselves. Lina has just lost her mother to cancer and now she’s been shipped off to live in Italy with the man she’s just found out is her biological father. In Italy, she’s given her mother’s journal from 20 years before, which takes her on a journey of discovery. I read this back in April, and I’m still smitten. It’s sweet, emotional and filled with gelato and Vespa rides through the Italian countryside and who doesn’t love that? I can’t wait to read whatever the author writes next!

 

 

crooked kingdom

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo 

A sequel to Six of Crows (my favorite book of 2015), this awesome duology pushes all my reading buttons. Set in the same world as the author’s “Shadow and Bone” series, it has a ragtag group of criminals and misfits planning incredible heists and mind boggling prison escapes. It has everything I loved from the first book: suspense, action, romance, angst, humor, sarcasm, convoluted plans, conflicted good guys, really bad bad guys, magic and some resolution - just enough that I could possibly live without a third book. But do I want to live without a third book? Do I need to write a strongly worded letter to the author demanding a third book? The more I think about it maybe I didn’t get enough resolution?! Gah! If I could marry this series I would.

 

female of the species

Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis

What does uninhibited female rage look like? Feel like? After Alex’s older sister Anna was raped and murdered 3 years ago, the killer went free and so Alex took matters into her own hands. Now she carries that secret and that rage around with her like a two ton weight. Peekay and Jack are the only ones that seem to be able to break past her impenetrable wall but these fragile, new friendships put all three of them on a collision course that will change their lives forever. It’s a rare book that gives me such palpable and visceral feelings as this one. An incredible, well written, multi-narrative novel from a author to remember.

 

 

study in charlotte

Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes #1) by Brittany Cavallaro

In this twisty, modern Sherlock Holmes redo, set at a Connecticut boarding school, U.K. transplants Charlotte Holmes is the great-great-great granddaughter of the original Sherlock and Jamie Watson is the descendant of his friend Dr. Watson. Rugby player Jamie is none too thrilled to end up Stateside but he’s immediately intrigued by the brilliant and volatile Charlotte. When they are framed for the murder of a classmate, she and Jamie go on the hunt for the real killer but there might be something or someone more sinister at work - someone with the last name Moriarty perhaps? Filled with tight plotting, tense scenes that keep the reader off balance and complex characters that keep you guessing this is a new mystery series that will have you clamoring for more.

 

you know me well

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan

What does it mean to find your tribe? For Mark and Kate it starts as an instant connection that happens one night in a San Francisco gay bar during Pride Week - even though they’ve been sitting next to each other in class for a year. Mark has just won a bartop tighty whiteys contest and Kate is running away from a girl who just might be too perfect for her. It’s an instant connection that changes everything from who they are and who their friends are to what they want out of life. Told in alternating narratives, this is a story that is life affirming, sweet, and profound. Sometimes it’s not the family you are born with but the one you make for yourself that makes all the difference. The authors' voices blend perfectly here.  I hope they write together again!

 

with mailce

With Malice by Eileen Cook

 This book is my guilty pleasure of 2016. It’s a fun, twisty, pulpy mystery that keeps you guessing up until the end and beyond. Jill and her best friend Simone are on a student trip through Italy when Simone is killed in a car crash. Jill wakes up in hospital with a broken leg, memory loss and an accusation of murder hanging over her. But could she kill the girl who was like a sister to her? What is truth, how is truth shaped and who owns it? A well paced page turner that keeps you riveted! You will be debating it's questions and murky moral ambiguity as you pass it amongst your friends.

 

 

Comments

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Very Engaging Descriptions of Books I Want to Read!

Anne, your selection of books that hit the cutting room floor and your vivid, infectious descriptions do much to prove your thesis that winnowing down a "best of" list can oftentimes do short shrift to other worthy works. Excellent job. I love your writing!

Strong choices!

Some pretty interesting options here, Anne. Some very #thatssoanne choices. Keep up the good work!

Yes!

As a fellow teen librarian, I have to say I love these books (or they're on my to-read list) too! Crooked Kingdom was a little slow to start for me (and I had to wiki some of the grisha magic because it had been so long since I read the first book) but I would love a third book so much.