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What WE Are In YA in 2020: A Title Trend

Hey YA Readers!

Let’s highlight a fun YA title trend for 2020 that I touched on briefly in a previous newsletter. “We” are doing a lot of things in the coming year; we’re also being a lot of things, as well.

The “we” as a title trend is one I kind of dig. It is inclusive and engaging, begging the reader to be part of whatever the thing or group is. (This is something I thought about a lot in titling my own anthology, Here We Are, as the “we” asks for being involved, rather than viewing whatever the thing is from afar).

WE are going to have a good time next year, if these titles are any indication. Because I’ve not read any of these — yet! — descriptions come from Amazon. This is likely not comprehensive, as maybe we will see more.

Every Reason We Shouldn’t by Sara Fujimura (March 3)

Sixteen-year-old figure skater Olivia Kennedy’s Olympic dreams have ended. She’s bitter, but enjoying life as a regular teenager instead of trying to live up to expectations of being the daughter of Olympians Michael Kennedy and Midori Nakashima…until Jonah Choi starts training at her family’s struggling rink.

Jonah’s driven, talented, going for the Olympics in speed skating, completely annoying… and totally gorgeous. Between teasing Jonah, helping her best friend try out for roller derby, figuring out life as a normal teen and keeping the family business running, Olivia’s got her hands full. But will rivalry bring her closer to Jonah, or drive them apart?

If We Were Us by K.L. Walther (June 1)

Everyone at the prestigious Bexley School believes that Sage Morgan and Charlie Carmichael are meant to be….that it’s just a matter of time until they realize that they are actually in love.

When Luke Morrissey shows up on the Bexley campus his presence immediately shakes things up. Charlie and Luke are drawn to each other the moment they meet, giving Sage the opportunity to steal away to spend time with Charlie’s twin brother, Nick.

But Charlie is afraid of what others will think if he accepts that he has much more than a friendship with Luke. And Sage fears that things with Nick are getting too serious too quickly. The duo will need to rely on each other and their lifelong friendship to figure things out with the boys they love.

The Stars We Steal by Alexa Donne (Feb 4)

Engagement season is in the air. Eighteen-year-old Princess Leonie “Leo” Kolburg, heir to a faded European spaceship, only has one thing on her mind: which lucky bachelor can save her family from financial ruin?

But when Leo’s childhood friend and first love Elliot returns as the captain of a successful whiskey ship, everything changes. Elliot was the one that got away, the boy Leo’s family deemed to be unsuitable for marriage. Now, he’s the biggest catch of the season and he seems determined to make Leo’s life miserable. But old habits die hard, and as Leo navigates the glittering balls of the Valg Season, she finds herself failing for her first love in a game of love, lies, and past regrets.

Together We Caught Fire by Eva B. Gibson (Feb 11)

What happens when the boy you want most becomes the one person you can’t have?

Lane Jamison’s life is turned upside down the week before her senior year when her father introduces her to his new fiancée: mother of Grey McIntyre, Lane’s secret, longtime crush. Now with Grey living in Lane’s house, there’s only a thin wall separating their rooms, making it harder and harder to deny their growing mutual attraction—an attraction made all the more forbidden by Grey’s long-term girlfriend Sadie Hall, who also happens to be Lane’s friend

Torn between her feelings for Grey and her friendship with Sadie—not to mention her desire to keep the peace at home—Lane befriends Sadie’s older brother, Connor, the black sheep of the strict, evangelical Hall family. Connor, a metal working artist who is all sharp edges, challenges Lane in ways no one else ever has. As the two become closer and start to open up about the traumas in their respective pasts, Lane begins to question her conviction that Connor is just a distraction.

Tensions come to a head after a tragic incident at a party, forcing Lane to untangle her feelings for both boys and face the truth of what—and who—she wants, in this gripping and stunningly romantic debut novel.

When We Were Magic by Sarah Gailey (March 3)

Keeping your magic a secret is hard. Being in love with your best friend is harder.

Alexis has always been able to rely on two things: her best friends, and the magic powers they all share. Their secret is what brought them together, and their love for each other is unshakeable—even when that love is complicated. Complicated by problems like jealousy, or insecurity, or lust. Or love.

That unshakeable, complicated love is one of the only things that doesn’t change on prom night.

When accidental magic goes sideways and a boy winds up dead, Alexis and her friends come together to try to right a terrible wrong. Their first attempt fails—and their second attempt fails even harder. Left with the remains of their failed spells and more consequences than anyone could have predicted, each of them must find a way to live with their part of the story.

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee (June 9)

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco.

Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted.

Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps.

In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.

We Are Totally Normal by Rahul Kanakia (March 30)

Nandan’s got a plan to make his junior year perfect. He’s going to make sure all the parties are chill, he’s going to smooth things over with his ex, and he’s going to help his friend Dave get into the popular crowd—whether Dave wants to or not. The high school social scene might be complicated, but Nandan is sure he’s cracked the code.

Then, one night after a party, Dave and Nandan hook up, which was not part of the plan—especially because Nandan has never been into guys. Still, Dave’s cool, and Nandan’s willing to give it a shot, even if that means everyone starts to see him differently.

But while Dave takes to their new relationship with ease, Nandan’s completely out of his depth. And the more his anxiety grows about what his sexuality means for himself, his friends, and his social life, the more he wonders whether he can just take it all back. But is breaking up with the only person who’s ever really gotten him worth feeling “normal” again?

We Are The Wildcats by Siobhan Vivian (March 31)

Tomorrow, the Wildcat varsity field hockey squad will play the first game of their new season. But at tonight’s team sleepover, the girls are all about forging the bonds of trust, loyalty, and friendship necessary to win.

Everything hinges on the midnight initiation ceremony—a beloved tradition and the only facet of being a Wildcat that the girls control. Until now.

Coach—a handsome former college player revered and feared in equal measure—changes the plan and spins his team on a new adventure. One where they take a rival team’s mascot for a joyride, crash a party in their pajamas, break into the high school for the perfect picture.

But as the girls slip out of their comfort zone, so do some long-held secrets. And just how far they’re willing to go for their team takes them all—especially Coach—by surprise.

We Didn’t Ask For This by Adi Alsaid (April 7)

Central International School’s annual lock-in is legendary. Bonds are made. Contests are fought. Stories are forged that will be passed down from student to student for years to come.

This year’s lock-in begins normally enough. Then a group of students led by Marisa Cuevas stage an ecoprotest and chain themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their list of demands is met.

Some students rally to their cause…but others are aggrieved to watch their own plans fall apart.

Amira has trained all year to compete in the school decathlon on her own terms. Peejay intended to honor his brother by throwing the greatest party CIS has ever seen. Kenji was looking forward to making a splash at his improv showcase. Omar wanted to spend a little time with the boy he’s been crushing on. Celeste, adrift in a new country, was hoping to connect with someone—anyone. And Marisa, once so certain of her goals, must now decide how far she’ll go to attain them.

Every year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.

We Free The Stars by Hafsah Faizal (May 12)

Zafira is the Hunter, braving the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those who defy his autocratic father, the sultan. She must hide her identity. He mustn’t display compassion. But when both embark on a quest to uncover a lost magic artifact, Zafira and Nasir encounter an ancient evil long thought destroyed—and discover that the prize they seek may be even more dangerous than any of their enemies. In We Free the Stars, Zafira and Nasir must conquer the darkness around—and inside of—them.

We Were Promised Spotlights by Lindsay Sproul (March 24)

Taylor Garland’s good looks have earned her the admiration of everyone in her small town. She’s homecoming queen, the life of every party, and she’s on every boy’s most-wanted list.

People think Taylor is living the dream, and assume she’ll stay in town and have kids with the homecoming king–maybe even be a dental hygienist if she’s super ambitious. But Taylor is actually desperate to leave home, and she hates the smell of dentists’ offices. Also? She’s completely in love with her best friend, Susan.

Senior year is almost over, and everything seems perfect. Now Taylor just has to figure out how to throw it all away.

We Were Restless Things by Cole Nagamatsu (Fall 2020, no cover yet)

Sourcebooks Fire has bought Cole Nagamatsu’s debut, We Were Restless Things, a YA contemporary fantasy in the vein of Maggie Stiefvater and Neil Gaiman. When a boy drowns in the forest, miles away from any body of water, a group of friends attempts to unravel the truth behind his death, only to discover that the woods are awake and watching.

We Unleash The Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Meija (Feb 25)

In this nail-biting sequel to Tehlor Kay Mejia’s critically acclaimed fantasy novel We Set the Dark on Fire, La Voz operative Carmen is forced to choose between the girl she loves and the success of the rebellion she’s devoted her life to.

Being a part of the resistance group La Voz is an act of devotion and desperation. On the other side of Medio’s border wall, the oppressed class fights for freedom and liberty, sacrificing what little they have to become defenders of the cause.

Carmen Santos is one of La Voz’s best soldiers, taken in when she was an orphaned child and trained to be a cunning spy. She spent years undercover at the Medio School for Girls, but now, with her identity exposed and the island on the brink of civil war, Carmen returns to the only real home she’s ever known: La Voz’s headquarters. There she must reckon with her beloved leader, who is under the influence of an aggressive new recruit, and with the devastating news that her true love might be the target of an assassination plot. Will Carmen break with her community and save the girl who stole her heart—or fully embrace the ruthless rebel she was always meant to be?

We Used To Be Friends by Amy Spalding (January 7)

Told in dual timelines—half of the chapters moving forward in time and half moving backward—We Used to Be Friends explores the most traumatic breakup of all: that of childhood besties. At the start of their senior year in high school, James (a girl with a boy’s name) and Kat are inseparable, but by graduation, they’re no longer friends. James prepares to head off to college as she reflects on the dissolution of her friendship with Kat while, in alternating chapters, Kat thinks about being newly in love with her first girlfriend and having a future that feels wide open. Over the course of senior year, Kat wants nothing more than James to continue to be her steady rock, as James worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie when her high-school sweetheart parents announce they’re getting a divorce.


Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you later this week!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

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You’ll Love This Week’s YA Ebook Deals

Hey YA Readers!

Enjoy these delicious ebook deals we’ve found for you this week. Prices are current as of Friday, November 1.

a blade so blackA spin in Alice in Wonderland in LL McKinney’s A Blade So Black should be on your to-read. Grab it for $3.

Want a fresh take on the story of Dorothy and Oz? You’ll want to pick up Danielle Paige’s Dorothy Must Die, the first in a series, for $3.

Technology thrill ride calling out to you? Kristen Simmons The Deceivers should be on your TBR. $3.

Julie Kagawa’s The Immortal Rules, the first book in a fantasy series, is $2.

Itching for a love story? Sarah Mlynowski’s I See London, I See France is $2.

A really moving and powerful romance is at the heart of Sara Farizan’s If You Could Be Mine. $2.

A little magical realism calling out to you? Miranda Asebedo’s The Deepest Roots is $2.

I’ve not read a setting like the one in A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena — it’s a contemporary novel set in Saudi Arabia. $3.

If you want something magical and fantastical, grab Spectacle by Jodie Lynn Zdork for $3.

Julie Eshbaugh’s Ivory and Bone is loosely based on Pride and Prejudice with a fantasy adventure twist. $2.

His Own Where by June Jordan is a wildly underrated YA novel that anyone who loves this category should read. It’s written entirely in AAVE, and it’s absolutely powerful. This edition has a forward by Sapphire. $4.

Faith Erin Hicks’s Comics Will Break Your Heart is $3.

A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer can be yours for $2.

Want a story about pirates? $3 gets you Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller.

Last, but not least, Neal Shusterman’s Bruiser is $2.


Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you on Monday with a curious (but fun!) YA title trend in 2020.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

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📚📚 Don’t Miss These Late 2019 YA Books!

Hey YA Readers!

I don’t know about you, but I find the “best of” list creep annoying. Do we need to know the BEST books of 2019 in October? I don’t — and I don’t know if I really understand the point beyond getting to claim being the first. Publishers Weekly released their “best of” last week and as a reminder, that’s not the end of the year.

We’ve got two full months left.

I think December “best of” lists, even end-of-November, is far more acceptable. And the big reason?

There are still so many books to come in November and December.

Certainly, editors read those books while making their lists. But those lists overshadow the books still to come.

So to do a little making up for that, let’s highlight a few upcoming YA book releases in November and December. This newsletter will be a bit longer than normal, as I want to pack in a wide range of titles.

I’ve read only one of these (so far!) since I don’t tend to read ahead more than a month or so. That means I’m using Amazon descriptions. I’ve stuck to quieter books, since it’s probably the case you’re well aware there’s a new Maggie Stiefvater (Call Down The Hawk) book, as well as the sequel to Children of Blood and Bone (Children of Virtue and Vengeance) hitting shelves in November and December. Oh, and the last book in Holly Black’s new series, The Queen of Nothing. Maybe you also know about Neal Shusterman’s The Toll.

Go ahead and save those “best of” lists in your to-read lists for later in the year. For now, get excited about these books coming soon!

A * means it’s a new entry into a series.

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney (Nov 12)

Allie Abraham has it all going for her–she’s a straight-A student, with good friends and a close-knit family, and she’s dating cute, popular, and sweet Wells Henderson. One problem: Wells’s father is Jack Henderson, America’s most famous conservative shock jock…and Allie hasn’t told Wells that her family is Muslim. It’s not like Allie’s religion is a secret, exactly. It’s just that her parents don’t practice and raised her to keep her Islamic heritage to herself. But as Allie witnesses ever-growing Islamophobia in her small town and across the nation, she begins to embrace her faith–studying it, practicing it, and facing hatred and misunderstanding for it. Who is Allie, if she sheds the façade of the “perfect” all-American girl? What does it mean to be a “Good Muslim?”And can a Muslim girl in America ever truly fit in?

This one was fabulous! 

Crying Laughing by Lance Rubin (Nov 19)

Winnie Friedman has been waiting for the world to catch on to what she already knows: she’s hilarious.

It might be a long wait, though. After bombing a stand-up set at her own bat mitzvah, Winnie has kept her jokes to herself. Well, to herself and her dad, a former comedian and her inspiration.

Then, on the second day of tenth grade, the funniest guy in school actually laughs at a comment she makes in the lunch line and asks her to join the improv troupe. Maybe he’s even . . . flirting?

Just when Winnie’s ready to say yes to comedy again, her father reveals that he’s been diagnosed with ALS. That is . . . not funny. Her dad’s still making jokes, though, which feels like a good thing. And Winnie’s prepared to be his straight man if that’s what he wants. But is it what he needs?

Caught up in a spiral of epically bad dates, bad news, and bad performances, Winnie’s struggling to see the humor in it all. But finding a way to laugh is exactly what will see her through.

Dangerous Alliance by Jennieke Cohen (Dec 3)

Lady Victoria Aston has everything she could want: an older sister happily wed, the future of her family estate secure, and ample opportunity to while her time away in the fields around her home.

But now Vicky must marry—or find herself and her family destitute. Armed only with the wisdom she has gained from her beloved novels by Jane Austen, she enters society’s treacherous season.

Sadly, Miss Austen has little to say about Vicky’s exact circumstances: whether the roguish Mr. Carmichael is indeed a scoundrel, if her former best friend, Tom Sherborne, is out for her dowry or for her heart, or even how to fend off the attentions of the foppish Mr. Silby, he of the unfortunate fashion sensibility.

Most unfortunately of all, Vicky’s books are silent on the topic of the mysterious accidents cropping up around her…ones that could prevent her from surviving until her wedding day.

*Daughter of Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan (Dec 26)

Half-witch, half-mortal sixteen-year-old Sabrina Spellman has made her choice: She’s embraced her dark side and her witchy roots. Now her power is growing daily… but will it come at too high a price?

 

*Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan (Nov 5)

In this mesmerizing sequel to the New York Times bestselling Girls of Paper and Fire, Lei and Wren have escaped their oppressive lives in the Hidden Palace, but soon learn that freedom comes with a terrible cost.

 

Gravity by Sarah Deming (Nov 12)

Gravity “Doomsday” Delgado is good at breaking things. Maybe she learned it from her broken home.

But since she started boxing with a legendary coach at a gym in Brooklyn, Gravity is finding her talent for breaking things has an upside. Lately, she’s been breaking records, breaking her competitors, and breaking down the walls inside her. Boxing is taking her places, and if she just stays focused, she knows she’ll have a shot at the Olympics.

Life outside the ring is heating up, too. Suddenly she’s flirting (and more) with a cute boxer at her gym–much to her coach’s disapproval. Meanwhile, things at home with Gravity’s mom are reaching a tipping point, and Gravity has to look out for her little brother, Ty. With Olympic dreams, Gravity will have to decide what is worth fighting for.

Reverie by Ryan La Sala (Dec 3)

All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember anything since the accident robbed him of his memories a few weeks ago. And the world feels different… reality itself seems different.

So when three of his classmates claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what’s going on, he doesn’t know what to believe or who he can trust. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere―the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery―Kane realizes that nothing in his life is in accident, and only he can stop their town from unraveling.

Sisters of Shadow and Light by Sara B. Larson (Nov 5)

The night my sister was born, the stars died and were reborn in her eyes….

Zuhra and Inara have grown up in the Citadel of the Paladins, an abandoned fortress where legendary, magical warriors once lived before disappearing from the world―including their Paladin father the night Inara was born.

On that same night, a massive, magical hedge grew and imprisoned them within the citadel. Inara inherited their father’s Paladin power; her eyes glow blue and she is able to make plants grow at unbelievable rates, but she has been trapped in her own mind because of a “roar” that drowns everything else out―leaving Zuhra virtually alone with their emotionally broken human mother.

For fifteen years they have lived, trapped in the citadel, with little contact from the outside world…until the day a stranger passes through the hedge, and everything changes.

Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie Dao (Nov 5)

Will love break the spell? After cruelly rejecting Bao, the poor physician’s apprentice who loves her, Lan, a wealthy nobleman’s daughter, regrets her actions. So when she finds Bao’s prized flute floating in his boat near her house, she takes it into her care, not knowing that his soul has been trapped inside it by an evil witch, who cursed Bao, telling him that only love will set him free. Though Bao now despises her, Lan vows to make amends and help break the spell.

Together, the two travel across the continent, finding themselves in the presence of greatness in the forms of the Great Forest’s Empress Jade and Commander Wei. They journey with Wei, getting tangled in the webs of war, blood magic, and romance along the way. Will Lan and Bao begin to break the spell that’s been placed upon them? Or will they be doomed to live out their lives with black magic running through their veins?

In this fantastical tale of darkness and love, some magical bonds are stronger than blood.

A Thousand Fires by Shannon Price (Nov 5)

10 Years. 3 Gangs. 1 Girl’s Epic Quest…

Valerie Simons knows the Wars are dangerous―her little brother was killed by the Boars two years ago. But nothing will sway Valerie from joining the elite and beautiful Herons with her boyfriend Matthew to avenge her brother. But when Jax, the volatile and beyond charismatic leader of the Stags, promises her revenge, Valerie is torn between old love and new loyalty.

Where The World Ends by Geraldine McCaughrean (Dec 8)

Every time a lad went fowling on the stacs, he came home less of a boy and more of a man. If he went home at all, that is.

Every summer Quill and his friends are put ashore on a remote sea stac to hunt birds. But this summer, no one arrives to take them home. Surely nothing but the end of the world can explain why they’ve been abandoned―cold, starving and clinging to life, in the grip of a murderous ocean. How will they survive such a forsaken place of stone and sea?

This is an extraordinary story of fortitude, endurance, tragedy and survival, set against an unforgettable backdrop of savage beauty.


Love this newsletter? I’d love if you’d forward it to a friend and/or encourage them to sign up for it here!

Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you again on Saturday with a roundup of excellent YA book deals. It’s a new month, so we’ll see a whole host of new and exciting finds.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

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Teens + Politics = A 2020 YA Book Theme

Hey YA Readers!

I’m really excited about a piece I wrote that’ll hit site in a couple of weeks, and one of the topics within it is about a wave of 2020 YA books that weave voting and political canvassing into them. Politics have, of course, always been part of YA books in some capacity, especially in the last few years, but this microtrend is fascinating.

Teens are politically engaged, so it’s not surprising to see this. But what’s making these books stand out is that they’re happening on the micro level — local politics, local elections, and participating in the voting rite of passage.

Let’s take a look at a few of the upcoming political themed YA books hitting shelves soon. Since I haven’t read any of these yet (and believe me, they’re all on my TBR!), I’m pulling from Goodreads descriptions. A couple titles don’t yet have Amazon links, so I’ve noted that and linked to Goodreads for you to add to your own to-read.

Running by Natalia Sylvester (May 5)

When fifteen-year-old Cuban American Mariana Ruiz’s father runs for president, Mari starts to see him with new eyes. A novel about waking up and standing up, and what happens when you stop seeing your dad as your hero—while the whole country is watching.

In this thoughtful, authentic, humorous, and gorgeously written novel about privacy, waking up, and speaking up, Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career he has always had his daughter’s vote, but a presidential campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to sheltered fifteen-year-old Mariana and the rest of her Cuban American family, from a 60 Minutes–style tour of their house to tabloids doctoring photos and inventing scandals. As tensions rise within the Ruiz family, Mari begins to learn about the details of her father’s political positions, and she realizes that her father is not the man she thought he was.

But how do you find your voice when everyone’s watching? When it means disagreeing with your father—publicly? What do you do when your dad stops being your hero? Will Mari get a chance to confront her father? If she does, will she have the courage to seize it?

The State of Us by Shaun David Hutchinson (July 1, Goodreads)

The story of Dean and Dre—the 16-year-old sons of the Republican and Democratic candidates for President of the United States—who fall in love on the sidelines of their parents’ presidential campaigns.

 

The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert (July 7, Goodreads)

Marva Sheridan was born ready for this day. She’s always been driven to make a difference in the world, and what better way than to vote in her first election?

Duke Crenshaw is so done with this election. He just wants to get voting over with so he can prepare for his band’s first paying gig tonight. Only problem? Duke can’t vote.

When Marva sees Duke turned away from their polling place, she takes it upon herself to make sure his vote is counted. She hasn’t spent months doorbelling and registering voters just to see someone denied their right.

And that’s how their whirlwind day begins, rushing from precinct to precinct, cutting school, waiting in endless lines, turned away time and again, trying to do one simple thing: vote. They may have started out as strangers, but as Duke and Marva team up to beat a rigged system (and find Marva’s missing cat), it’s clear that there’s more to their connection than a shared mission for democracy.

Romantic and triumphant, The Voting Booth is proof that you can’t sit around waiting for the world to change . . . but some things are meant are meant to be.

Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed (February 4)

YES
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at allto almost anyone), Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.

NO
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing—with some awkward dude she hardly knows—is beyond her.

MAYBE SO
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer—and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural romance of the century is another thing entirely.


Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you again later this week!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

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YA Adaptation News Is Hot

Hey YA Fans!

Let’s catch up on the latest in YA book news. It might better be known this week as YA adaptation news, since so much of the news is about potential — and in-production — YA books being adapted for the screen.

 

Love the Abhorsen books by Garth Nix? Don your fandom with this Abhorsen’s bells shirt. $29 and up.


Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you again on Monday with a look at the rise of politics in YA novels.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

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Your Denim Jacket Needs These YA Pins

Hey YA Lovers!

Let’s wear our heart on our sleeves and denim jackets and tote bags with these rad YA enamel pins.

(You’ve seen that cover trend this year, right? It’s a great one!).

Enamel pins are my favorite. They’re generally $10 or under, and they’re so adaptable. It’s likely I’ve shared a few of these before, either here in this newsletter or on Book Riot, but they’re so good, I can’t resist.

Marie Lu’s The Young Elites, but in enamel pin form. $10.50.

Wear the motto of His Fair Assassin for $12.

 

This King of Scars pin is so striking, and that quote just excellent. $10.

 

 

For all of the Caraval fans out there, a pair of perfect pins. $22 for both.

 

 

Sport this sweet little pin from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before while you wait for the second book to hit Netflix. $10.

 

You can own a whole set of pins inspired by Illuminae for just $35.

 

“Safe as life,” Gansey replied, for all of the Raven Cycle fans. $11.50.

Last, but definitely not least, a pin in honor of The Children of Blood and Bone. $10.


Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you on Thursday with some YA book news!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

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🌶️🌶️ Red Hot YA Ebook Deals

Hey YA Readers!

Your weekend needs some new, cheap ebooks. Here’s a roundup of some of the best YA ebook deals going now. Prices are current as of Friday morning.

Grab Nic Stone’s vital Dear Martin for $2.

  • Emily Lloyd-Jones’s The Bone Houses, which looks excellently creepy, is $3.
  • If you’re looking for something perfect for the spooky season, grab Kiersten White’s The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein for $2.
  • Roshani Chokski’s first book The Star-Touched Queen is $3. Perfect if you love lush fantasy and romance.
  • Want a take on the serial killer story? Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers would be a great pick. $2.
  • Neal Shusterman’s Bruiser is $3.
  • Brigadoon, but for YA readers? You can have it in Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon for $2.
  • “Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity” is the pitch for The Dark Beneath Ice by Amelinda Bérubé. $2.
  • Amish horror? Indeed. Pick up Laura Bickle’s The Hallowed Ones for $3.

Nova Ren Suma’s deliciously creepy The Walls Around Us is $2.

  • Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller’s Otherworld is comped to Ready Player One. Snag it for $2.
  • Teens competing to go to Jupiter? That sounds awesome. Alexandra Monir’s The Final Six is $2.
  • Bree Barton’s Heart of Thorns is $2.
  • If you need a vampire fix, Vampire Academy‘s first book is $3.
  • Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Hearts Unbroken, which is a fabulous #OwnVoices novel, is about bigotry, cultural heritage, and acts of resistance. $3.

Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you again Monday!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

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What's Up in YA

📚 Catch Up on YA Book Talk!

Hey YA Readers!

Let’s catch up with the latest book talk over on Book Riot the last few weeks.

Do you need a Tahereh Mafi vinyl sticker in your life? You can grab one for $5.


Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you on Saturday with some great ebook deals!

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What's Up in YA

🍕 🍕 Slice This YA Cover Mystery Out

Hey YA Readers!

Let’s not slice this the wrong way. I’ve come across a YA book cover mystery that I cannot understand. I’ve reached out to fellow Book Rioters but it turns out, this is a big piece of surprise.

On YA book covers, we’re not surprised to see any of the following:

Coffee/Tea/Other Caffeinated Beverages

Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors, The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson, and When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon are, of course, just three out of many books with caffeinated drinks on YA covers.

Ice Cream

Ice cream is a YA book cover staple. For your sampling purposes, Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch, Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian, and The Summer of Firsts and Lasts by Terra Elan McVoy.

Baked Goods

There are so many YA books featuring backed goods on their covers and every year, we see this pop up more. The selection here includes donuts on Donut Days by Lara Zielin, The Art of French Kissing by Brianna Schaum and macarons, and a sugar cookie on Sara Zarr’s Sweethearts.

Fruit

We’ve got fruit on YA book covers, include on Orchards by Holly Thomas, With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, and Small Damages by Beth Kephart.

Fruit Sub Category: Apples

Thank Twilight for the fact we have a subcategory of fruit on YA book covers with apples.

This selection includes Bad Apple by Laura Ruby, Tear You Apart by Sarah Cross, and Winter by Marissa Meyer.

(I could easily subcategory peaches here, too!)

More YA Food Covers

This is, of course, far from comprehensive when it comes to food on YA book covers, but a few more worth chewing on (heh) are the animal crackers on All That I Can Fix by Crystal Chan, the pho on Hungry Hearts, and the toast on Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry.

October is National Pizza Month, and I was all excited to do a roundup of awesome YA book covers featuring pizza.

Except….

There is not a single YA book published with a traditional publisher featuring pizza on the cover.

For what is a staple food — something near universally loved and able to be adapted for so many dietary requirements — it’s sure strange to see none of it on a YA book cover.

Stranger still is that the two YA books with “Pizza” in the title also do not have pizza on the cover.

Is there pizza grease on the cover of Greg Taylor’s Killer Pizza? Sure. Is it a pizza box? Also sure. But no actual pizza is on the cover. Same goes for Kathryn Williams’s Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous.

Where’s the pizza? Where’s the sauce? The argument-inducing pineapple-topped pizza (which, for the record, can be delicious!).

This is a YA mystery I cannot solve, though it’s one that leaves me wondering.

Until next time, YA readers — grab yourself a slice of your favorite pie and question everything you thought you knew about YA book covers.


— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

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What's Up in YA

👻👻 Why Do Teen Readers Love Horror?

Hey YA Readers!

Let’s talk about all things spooky. Or, more specifically, let’s talk about why it is teen readers seem to love scary books.

I’m always fascinated by the passion teen readers have for all things scary. I was one of those teens, and I worked with those teens in libraries — and I’ve heard from them time and time again in my author life, too. Why is that? What is it that makes horror so appealing to teen readers?

To get an answer, I reached out to a handful of incredible YA authors who are writing horror to see if they had any insight. Of course they did!

The authors who responded are but a small fraction of the diverse range of voices writing horror in YA, which continues to offer incredible titles year after year. All of the authors below have penned multiple horror titles themselves.

So: why do teens love horror?

Amelinda Bérubé, author of Here There Are Monsters

I think there’s an intensity to the experience of horror that appeals to a lot of teens. The outsized feels make it engaging. It’s also a way to dip a toe into terrifying experiences without any actual danger – kind of like how carnival rides let you plunge from a dizzying height without the hard landing.

Another analogy I like to use is the metal cage divers use to observe sharks up close. With the cage between you and the sharks, they’re fascinating. Everyone has a line in the sand where scary media gets “too real” – where the cage between you and the sharks disappears – and it’s no longer fun. But media that rides that line can be really cathartic as well as thrilling; it gives you enough distance from your fears to look them in the eye and think about them. As a teen, you’re starting to realize all the ways it’s scary out there. Horror gives you a measure of power over that.

Daniel Kraus, author of Bent Heavens (February 2020)

The two most powerful, primeval emotions, especially for teens, are lust and fear. Teens seek out more of both and want to experiment. My tiny role in that ritual is to provide inroads into fear that are intelligent and complex, and are going to make readers grapple with their feelings in more sophisticated way.

There’s room for all levels of horror. I tend to work at the extreme end. I want a teen to pick up a book of mine and feel like it’s a dangerous object. I want them to read it and know the author isn’t trying to “protect” them. Look, it’s a book — if it burns, they’ll drop it. Otherwise, they’re going to find me pushing, and they might have to push back, and in the process they’re going to learn something about themselves. You get the right reader, this pushing match can make them stronger. It can change lives. I’m not fucking around.

Micol Ostow, author of The Devil and Winnie Flynn

If horror as a genre is about an externalized, socially-approved manifestation of our innermost fears, then how could it not particularly appeal to teens? Young adult fiction is so resonant precisely because of the passionate, unique emotional moment of being a teenager, and specifically dealing with the horrors of societal expectations and pressures, the mortal flaws of our most formative authority figures, and even the betrayal of our own bodies in unexplainable, uncontrollable ways.

The terrifying truth is: if horror is discomfiting, it is no more discomfiting than life itself, and perhaps at no point in time more so than during young adulthood. For me, at least, the visceral but wholly metaphorical traumas depicted in horror have always been infinitely more compelling than my own teenaged nightmares.

Rebecca Schaeffer, author of Not Even Bones

I think horror has a number of different facets that appeal to readers. Horror as a genre, especially in YA, is incredibly character driven. There’s nothing quite like edge of your seat life-threatening terror to force characters to face their own inner demons. The best horror uses the ‘monster’ as a dark reflection of the main character’s personal flaws and failures, and overcoming it helps them also come to critical realizations about themselves. There’s something very powerful about having a physical manifestation of a character’s flaws that they have to fight, as is typical in the horror genre.

The other reason I think it appeals to readers how viscerally engaging fast-paced books are. You see a similar atmosphere in thrillers, a feeling that you have to keep going, you need to find out what happens next. They’re both genres that keep you on the edge of your seat the whole read, paced so that you can’t put them down for fear something terrible is waiting just around the corner for the character. This kind of style creates highly addictive reads.

In horror, the combination of the fast pacing, terrifying monsters, and vivid character arcs combine to make an extremely appealing genre.

Amy Lukavics, author of Nightingale

I can only speak to my own experiences, but as a teen I found horror weirdly comforting in the fact that it focused on darker aspects of humanity that were otherwise ignored (but not forgotten.) I appreciated the heavy themes and dark, morbid descriptions, which I didn’t view as gratuitous, but rather brave in their willingness to speak the grisly truth, societal norms be damned. Horror can provide a safe haven to sort through the tangle of questions and concerns we have about each other and ourselves, and additionally, it always felt nice to get lost in stories of pretend suffering in order to forget about my own. My favorite YA horror novel would probably have to be Bleeding Earth by Kaitlin Ward, followed by Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers, and In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters. And while it hasn’t released yet, I am so excited for and intrigued by the upcoming Jennifer Strange by Cat Scully.

Kate Alice Marshall, author of Rules for Vanishing

Horror is a genre that thrives in liminal spaces—the in-between places. Doorways, dusk, roads, the edges where wilderness and civilization intersect. Ghosts, zombies, and vampires all occupy the in-between space between life and death. It’s in these gaps that uncertainty and change thrive—and what stage of life is more full of uncertainty and change than adolescence? Teens occupy the ultimate liminal space. The youngest teens are leaving childhood behind; the oldest teens are entering adulthood, ready or not. Teens are leaving one world and entering another, but there’s no clear boundary between them. And horror is all about taking muddled boundaries, confusion, and transformation, and delving into the darkest possibilities it holds.

I think that horror and its relatives hold a special thrill for teens because the themes of uncertainty, rules, and transgression speak so strongly to the teen experience. And because there’s a whole adult world waiting for them, full of very real danger, uncertainty and fear—but within the pages of a book, the fear is knowable. It can be conquered—or it can conquer you—but at the end of the story, you get to close the book and move on. It gives you a chance to engage with the uncertainty of the world waiting for you without the danger of getting lost in it.

Jimmy Cajoleas, author of Minor Prophets

First off, horror novels are really, really, really fun to read. I mean, who doesn’t love being scared, at least a little bit? Some of the happiest moments of my childhood were lying in my bedroom late into the night, reading Stephen King or Lois Duncan, daring myself to turn the next page.

But if I can take it a step further. The great horror film director Stuart Gordon once said, “When you look at most horror movies, they’re about an impossible dream.” I think horror novels are the same. They’re about the dreams of the storyteller, the mysteries of the heart laid bare in all of their terror and wonder. In this way, horror for me has always been a way to look inward, to confront the parts of ourselves and the world that we fear the most. That’s why I find horror to be so comforting. More than anything, even the bleakest of horror novels carry a kind of hope with them, a recognition that we live in a mysterious, unknowable world full of secrets, surrounded by people who are just as mysterious and unknowable. The world really isn’t as it seems. And that means anything is possible, anything at all.


I don’t know about you, but just reading this makes me want to pick up every YA horror book right now. May I recommend some YA witch stories or YA ghost books?

Thank you to the authors above for such fabulous insight.

Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you next week!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.