Best Young Adult Books

Nobody Owens was raised by ghosts in a graveyard after the murder of his family. Growing up among the dead, learning their ways and secrets, Bod must eventually reckon with the world of the living — and the man who killed his family is still out there, waiting. A coming-of-age story set among the most protective community imaginable.

Thor's hammer has gone missing, and only Magnus Chase and his friends can recover it before the giants invade. Rick Riordan's second Norse adventure is funnier, faster, and bolder than the first, introducing a groundbreaking new hero along the way.

Percy Jackson wakes up with no memory at a Roman demigod camp. With new friends Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang — both carrying heavy secrets — Percy must journey to Alaska to free the god of death and stop a giant army from destroying Camp Jupiter.

As the Vega twins strengthen their powers and their alliances, darker forces move against Solaria — and the cost of the throne they were born to claim becomes terrifyingly clear.

The Vega twins face their most dangerous challenges yet as the threat from the Shadow Beast grows and the complicated feelings between the twins and the Heirs can no longer be ignored.

Pip's final case. Someone is watching her — a killer inspired by her podcast. As the threat closes in and the police fail to act, Pip must choose between safety and justice in the darkest, most consequential investigation of her life.

Simon Snow is the Chosen One at the Watford School of Magicks — and also the worst student in the school's history. His roommate and nemesis Baz is a vampire who has been missing all term. When Baz returns, the quest to defeat the Insidious Humdrum collides with feelings Simon has been trying to ignore. A deliberate and affectionate riff on the Harry Potter archetype.

Sebastian Morgenstern's endgame unfolds as he attacks the Institutes across the world, turning Shadowhunters into his Endarkened army. Clary and her friends must descend into the demon realms to stop him — and the cost of the final confrontation will reach into the very foundation of the Shadow World.

Spensa returns from the Nowhere with new understanding of her cytonic abilities as humanity makes its final stand against the Superiority, and the truth about the Delvers and the nature of consciousness itself must be resolved.

After her father's death, Emily Starr goes to live with her strict Murray aunts at New Moon Farm on Prince Edward Island, where she discovers her calling as a writer and resists every pressure to suppress it.

Aelin races to gather allies and the keys to an ancient power that could seal the portal allowing the Valg to invade her world — while Manon Blackbeak discovers truths about herself that will shatter the life she has always known.

Beyah has grown up in poverty and been largely invisible to the world. When she spends one summer at a lake house where wealthy families vacation, she meets Samson — a boy carrying his own grief and secrets. A love story about class difference, survival instinct, and what it means to be truly seen for the first time.

Percy Jackson and his friends venture into the treacherous Sea of Monsters to retrieve the Golden Fleece and save Camp Half-Blood from destruction.

Percy must rescue Artemis and Annabeth from the Titan lord's forces before a devastating prophecy comes to pass and Olympus falls.

Sabriel, the daughter of the Abhorsen — a necromancer who binds the dead rather than raising them — must cross the Wall between modern England and the magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father and confront a dread evil rising from Death.

Spensa dreams of becoming a pilot in humanity's fight against the alien Krell, but her father's disgrace as a supposed coward has barred her from flight school. When she discovers a crashed, ancient starfighter with an unlikely AI, she finds a path to the sky — and to truths about the war her society would rather keep buried.

The final prophecy reaches its climax as the seven demigods race to Athens to face the Giants and prevent Gaea from awakening. The conclusion resolves five books of buildup and sends Percy and Annabeth's story in a new direction.

Carter and Sadie face the final battle: Apophis is about to rise and consume the sun itself. They must bring Ra back at full power and deploy a shadow magic that has never successfully worked — while their entire network of nome magicians faces obliteration. The Kane Chronicles comes to its conclusion.

Loki is free and racing to launch Naglfar, the ship of the dead, to bring about Ragnarok. Magnus Chase and his crew set sail to stop him in Rick Riordan's rousing Norse finale, a voyage of flyting battles, hard goodbyes, and earned triumph.

Will Parry crosses into a world with a city called Cittagazze and encounters Lyra Belacqua. He finds the Subtle Knife — a blade that can cut windows between worlds. The middle volume of His Dark Materials expands the multiverse and introduces the concept of Dust as a contested force between science and religion.

A homeless Boston teen dies on his sixteenth birthday and wakes in a Norse afterlife of warriors and doomed gods. Rick Riordan trades Olympus for Asgard in a fast, funny adventure that reinvents Viking myth for a new generation of readers.

Apollo and Meg return to New York for a final reckoning with Nero and the snake-god Python. Rick Riordan closes The Trials of Apollo, and a decade of Camp Half-Blood adventures, with a finale of courage, humor, and a god's hard-won understanding of mortality.

Princess Bridget of Eldorra has a bodyguard named Rhys who has one rule: don't fall for the client. He's good at his job and bad at that rule. A royal forced-proximity romance that takes the bodyguard trope and leans into its inherent power dynamics without ignoring them — Bridget is also subject to the rules of a royal institution that has opinions about who she loves.

Stella Chen is a social media influencer with a stalker she is trying to ignore. Christian Harper is a billionaire with secrets he is trying to keep. When Stella needs protection and Christian needs a cover story, they strike a deal that is supposed to be purely transactional — but the arrangement keeps evolving into something neither planned for.