Hey YA fans!
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Mary E. Pearson’s The Beauty of Darkness.
Lia and Rafe have escaped Venda, and the path before them is winding and dangerous–what will happen now? This third and final book in the Remnant Chronicles is not to be missed. New York Times-bestselling author Mary E. Pearson’s combination of intrigue, suspense, romance, and action makes this a riveting page-turner that you won’t be able to put down!
This newsletter won’t have a huge amount of new things to talk about — just a short round-up of newsy items at the end — in part because this will be a longgggg read. Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, let me explain.
In early July, as well as in the last newsletter, I asked you to share your favorite 2016 YA reads so far.
And you responded.
It wasn’t a small response. We’re talking roughly 1,700 of you — about 10% — of the subscribers to this newsletter chimed in with your favorite reads. Because there were so many responses, I whittled down the favorite reads by these criteria:
1. The book was published between January 1, 2016 and August 8, 2016. I kept off books that are coming that people have read advanced copies of or are anticipating (I loved reading so many responses along the lines of “I haven’t read x yet but I know I’m going to love it”).
2. The book was published as a YA book. I didn’t worry about fiction or non-fiction; it just needed to be a book explicitly marketed as YA. A lot of stuff skirts both the middle grade and the adult lines and YA readers read up and down, but just to keep numbers easier, I made the executive calls.
3. The books were published in the US. Not that I don’t appreciate the responses for books that were published outside the states — again, awesome to see those! — but they’re likely hard for readers here to check out.
4. I consolidated multiple responses for the same titles. In the list, you’ll see some titles have a * beside them. That means 15 or more readers listed it as their favorite.
5. For those responses with multiple answers, I went with the first title or the first title that was published this year in the timeframe.
6. Errors are mine. Because 1,700 responses!
That brought a grand total of 131 unique titles among your favorite YA reads this year.
This is such a fun list, rich with YA of all shapes and sizes. There are series books, there are stand alone titles, there are books which got a lot of buzz, as well as quieter reads. There’s both fiction and non-fiction represented here. It was neat to see the responses and be pleasantly surprised a book showed up that wasn’t one I’d expected to see. It’s also nice to see titles that published early on in the year — the ones that could be easy to forget — make an appearance.
Grab your TBRs. Here are your 131 favorite YA reads from January – August 8, 2016, in alphabetical order. I’m linking the titles so you can click through to read descriptions. Pasting them here would kill everyone’s bandwidth (& apologies if this comes out as one longgggg list — if that doesn’t work for you, click here for the readable and clickable spreadsheet).
| *A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro |
| A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry |
| A Tangle of Gold by Jaclyn Moriarty |
| *A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir |
| A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison |
| *A Tyranny of Petticoats edited by Jessica Spotswood |
| A World Without You by Beth Revis |
| After the Woods by Kim Savage |
| All the Feels by Danika Stone |
| American Girls by Allison Umminger |
| *And I Darken by Kiersten White |
| Ask Me How I Got Here by Christine Heppermann |
| Asking For It by Louise O’Neill |
| Assassin’s Heart by Sarah Ahiers |
| Autofocus by Lauren Gibaldi |
| *Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings |
| Beware That Girl by Teresa Toten |
| Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman |
| Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandiera |
| Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina |
| Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie |
| Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh |
| *Calamity by Brandon Sanderson |
| Chasing Impossible by Katie McGarry |
| Consider by Kristy Acevedo |
| *Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas |
| Cure for the Common Universe by Christian McKay Heidicker |
| Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman |
| Devil and the Bluebird by Jennifer Mason-Black |
| Down with the Shine by Kate Karyus Quinn |
| Drag Teen by Jeffry Self |
| Dreamology by Lucy Keating |
| Escape from Asylum by Madeleine Roux |
| Everland by Wendy Spinale |
| *Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick |
| *Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston |
| Firstlife by Gena Showalter |
| Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn |
| *Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima |
| Flannery by Lisa Moore |
| Flawed by Cecelia Ahern |
| Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury |
| Forest of Ruin by Kelley Armstrong |
| Front Lines by Michael Grant |
| Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter |
| *Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes |
| *Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard |
| Half Lost by Sally Green |
| *Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley |
| Hurricane Kiss by Deborah Blumenthal |
| I Woke Up Dead At The Mall by Judy Sheehan |
| If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo |
| Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh |
| Into the Dim by Janet Taylor |
| Julia Vanishes by Catherine Egan |
| *Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare |
| Let The Wind Rise by Shannon Messenger |
| Lois Lane: Double Down by Gwenda Bond |
| Mirror in the Sky by Aditi Khorana |
| Misunderstood: Why The Humble Rat May Be Your Best Pet Ever by Rachel Toor |
| My Kind of Crazy by Robin Ruel |
| *My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows |
| Nil On Fire by Lynne Matson |
| No Love Allowed by Kate Evangelista |
| Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee |
| Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine |
| *Passenger by Alexandra Bracken |
| Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff |
| Rebel Bully Geek Pariah by Erin Jade Lange |
| *Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton |
| Riders by Veronica Rossi |
| Ruined by Amy Tintera |
| Run by Kody Keplinger |
| *Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys |
| Saving Montgomery Sole by Jillian Tamaki |
| *Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here by Anna Breslaw |
| See How They Run by Ally Carter |
| Shadow Queen by C.J Redwine |
| Starflight by Melissa Landers |
| *Stars Above by Marissa Meyer |
| *Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins |
| Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum |
| Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach |
| The Blood Between Us by Zac Brewer |
| *The Crown by Kiera Cass |
| *The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye |
| The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas |
| The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash |
| The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig |
| The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead |
| The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle |
| The Haters by Jesse Andrews |
| The Island by Olivia Levez |
| The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker |
| The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian |
| The Last Star by Rick Yancey |
| The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge |
| The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes |
| The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone |
| *The Love That Split The World by Emily Henry |
| The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork |
| The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder |
| The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson |
| The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight |
| *The Problem With Forever by Jennifer Armentrout |
| *The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater |
| *The Rose & The Dagger by Renee Ahdieh |
| The Safest Lies by Megan Miranda |
| The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury |
| *The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock |
| The Square Root of Summer by Harriet R. Hapgood |
| *The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokhi |
| The Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin |
| Titans by Victoria Scott |
| *The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson |
| The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith |
| *The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski |
| This Is The Part Where You Laugh by Peter Brown Hoffmeister |
| *This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp |
| This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab |
| Three Truth and a Lie by Brent Hartinger |
| *Truthwitch by Susan Dennard |
| Unbecoming by Jenny Downham |
| Up To This Pointe by Jennifer Longo |
| *We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson |
| *When We Collided by Emery Lord |
| Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood |
| Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke |
| With Malice by Eileen Cook |
| You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan |
| You Were Here by Cori McCarthy |
A huge, huge thank you to everyone who submitted a response. I know I asked some additional questions but after playing with these answers, I figured this would be enough to bust even the biggest reader’s to-read lists.
A handful of interesting/news-worthy links worth sharing:
* Though this piece is about books for kids under the YA set, it’s really worthwhile reading since the same observations about female protagonists made there can be said about YA.
* A wonderfully in-depth look at the evolution of LGBTQ+ YA stories.
* The Thousandth Floor, which is publishing later this month, has been picked up for a TV series. Not surprising at all, given it’s an Alloy book — they’re the same company behind things like Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl.
* The adaptation of the “Chaos Walking” series by Patrick Ness has scored a big name — Daisy Ridley.
* A sweet little reminder that reading YA is totally okay for adults.
And a few links from Book Riot:
* I was blown away by the tremendous (!) response to this piece about why YA needs more quitters.
* A round-up of queer YA set at summer camp.
Thanks for hanging out with us for another collection of YA news and fun. “What’s Up in YA?” will hit your inboxes again in two weeks.
In the meantime, perhaps a book or two mentioned here will suck you in.