The Best YA Books of 2022
by Laura Lambert
Looking back at 2022, you’ll find plenty of reading inspiration. Consider this your whirlwind guide to the YA thrillers, coming-of-age tales, budding first-time romances, wildly imaginative fantasy, and riveting historical fiction you may have missed in 2022. Here are the most buzz-worthy young adult books of the year.
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Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders
Buy from:For die-hard fans and newbies alike, Miss Peregrine’s Museum of Wonders helps readers re-experience Ransom Riggs’s beloved six-book series. The subtitle says it all: An Indispensable Guide to the Dangers and Delights of the Peculiar World for the Instruction of New Arrivals.
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A Scatter of Light
Buy from:There are subtle echoes of Malinda Lo’s debut, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, in this queer coming-of-age story set in the Bay Area in 2013. Lo’s second novel follows 18-year-old Aria Tang West in the tumultuous summer before heading to college at MIT.
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Hotel Magnifique
Buy from:All is not what it seems in this YA fantasy novel. The legendary Hotel Magnifique is a magical place that transports itself elsewhere every night at midnight. It’s a luxurious place filled with glamor and terrible secrets. That’s what Jani and her younger sister Zosa quickly discover when the hotel arrives in their city.
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I Must Betray You
Buy from:This moving piece of historical fiction introduces readers to 17-year-old Cristian Florescu, who becomes a spy during the civil unrest in Communist Romania. As author Ruta Sepetys told The New York Times, “What I want to get across is the strength and fortitude of the Romanian people, particularly the young people,” she said. “It was the young people, on December 21, who took to the streets, completely unarmed, and in some cases were attacking tanks with their bare hands. They put themselves in harm’s way. The courage, it blows my mind.”
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All My Rage
Buy from:Sabaa Tahir’s brutally honest novel follows Salahudin and Noor, two Muslim, Pakistani-American high school seniors coming of age in the California desert — and it’s a far cry from the fantasy YA that Tahir is known for. The New York Times says, “All My Rage is a love story, a tragedy, and an infectious teenage fever dream about what home means when you feel you don’t fit in.”
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Beasts of Ruin
Buy from:On the heels of the New York Times bestselling pan-African YA fantasy novel Beasts of Prey comes book two in the trilogy: Beasts of Ruin. In it, Ekkon and Koffi find themselves in far-flung communities and trying to reunite.
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Seasparrow
Buy from:The fifth novel of the Graceling Realm series takes place just weeks after the end of the previous one, Winterkeep — one of the best YA fantasy titles of 2021. When a storm destroys the ship carrying Queen Bitterblue and her half-sister Hava back to Monsea, they must find their way home — on many levels. “Within her fantasy world, Cashore never shies away from showing the charming mundanities of the everyday and the brutal realities of the harshness of wilderness and emotions as well as exploring how enduring trauma shapes a person and a kingdom,” says Kirkus.
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How To Survive Your Murder
Buy from:Kirkus calls this volume of YA horror “delightfully twisted.” Alice, a horror-movie junkie and aspiring forensic pathologist, must face down the man who killed her sister Claire — and has a unique opportunity to save her. The story is filled with fan-favorite moments from iconic horror films like Scream and Happy Death Day.
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Kings of B'More
Buy from:It’s no ordinary day in the life of Linus and Harrison, two Black, queer 16-year-old boys in Baltimore. It is the last day these two best friends get to spend together before Linus moves to South Carolina. An epic adventure inspired by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off gives the two teens the opportunity to better understand each other and themselves.
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Cinder & Glass
Buy from:In this imaginative re-telling of Cinderella, New York Times bestselling YA author Melissa de la Cruz brings the court of King Louis XIV in Versailles alive. If you love obsessing over fairy tales, add this one to your reading list!
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The Counselors
Buy from:What happens when the idyllic summer before college turns deadly? Eighteen-year-old Goldie Easton, a local from Alpine Lake, Vermont, and her wealthy friends, Ava and Imogen, find out when they return to summer camp as counselors.
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Nothing More to Tell
Buy from:Three 8th-grade students find their teacher dead in the woods behind Saint Ambrose School in Sturgis, Massachusetts. Four years later, Brynn, a budding investigative journalist and true-crime fan, returns to Massachusetts for her senior year, determined to find out what happened. You’ll love this riveting thriller from Karen M. McManus, author of One of Us Is Lying.
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Five Survive
Buy from:In this YA road trip thriller, the numbers don’t lie: Six friends on a road trip to Gulf Shores in an RV, one sniper holding them hostage, eight hours until dawn — and only five survive. You won’t be able to set down this twisty thriller from the bestselling author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
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Does My Body Offend You?
Buy from:In this fresh take on friendship and feminism, told by two female authors, 15-year-old Malena and high school senior Ruby join forces to challenge an outdated dress code and notions of beauty and identity.
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Nubia: The Awakening
Buy from:Actor Omar Epps’s debut YA fantasy novel takes place in a retro-futuristic 2098. It follows three teens who flee the island of Nubia for a bleak, class-stratified New York City and discover they have supernatural powers.
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Violet Made of Thorns
Buy from:In this YA fantasy, reminiscent of medieval Europe, 18-year-old Violet Lune is the king’s seer — and the tension with the king’s son, Prince Cyrus, is immediate. Paste magazine calls Gina Chen’s fairy tale-inspired debut “a breath of fresh air in this genre space.”
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Soul of the Deep
Buy from:At a time when Black mermaids make headlines for all the wrong reasons, Natasha Bowen’s sequel to
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Family of Liars
Buy from:Fans of E. Lockhart’s 2014 mystery, We Were Liars, will find layers of meaning in this prequel. Carrie Sinclair is 17 years old and back at the family’s private island, Beechwood. As Carrie grieves the loss of her 10-year-old sister, who drowned, she discovers more dark truths about her wealthy family.
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Bitter
Buy from:In this prequel to Akwaeke Emezi’s 2019 debut novel, Pet, 17-year-old Bitter, once a child in foster care, finds herself at a prestigious boarding school where she can make her art. But there is unrest in the city, and Bitter cannot hide inside the school and her art forever.
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Castles in Their Bones
Buy from:At age 16, the triplets Daphne, Beatriz, and Sophronia have one job — to become queens of neighboring kingdoms and extend their mother, Empress Margaraux’s realm. This is the first installment in a new breathtaking YA fantasy trilogy from the author of the bestselling Ash Princess series.
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American Royals III: Rivals
Buy from:If you love Harry and Meghan, don’t miss the third installment in this oh-so-charming bestselling series by Houston-based author Katharine McGee. In Rivals, Beatrice claims the throne and must attend the most significant gathering of royalty in the world. Meanwhile, Sam, Nina, and Daphne keep the soap opera-like drama alive. It’s the perfect time to binge-read the series before the fourth book arrives next year!
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The Dragon's Promise
Buy from:In this follow-up to her 2021 bestselling novel Six Crimson Cranes, Elizabeth Lim continues to weave Western fairy tales with Eastern myths and legends. The result is a dazzling female-driven fantasy world full of princesses and kings, demons and dragons, and an extraordinary pearl.
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Akata Woman
Buy from:The third book in Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch series finds Sunny Nwazue trying to find the balance between her identities as she tries to locate a world-saving object in a distant realm. Okorafor’s trilogy (which was named in Time magazine’s “Best YA Books of All Time” and “Best Fantasy Books of All Time” lists) draws on Nigerian rituals and folk stories, offering a fresh fantasy perspective for Western readers of the genre. Okorafor’s earlier book, Who Fears Death, is in development as an HBO Max series, so fans can expect to hear much more from this author.
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The Bone Spindle
Buy from:In this retelling of Sleeping Beauty, the character under a spell isn’t a princess — he’s a prince named Briar Rose. The person who can wake him is Fi, a treasure hunter more concerned with rummaging through old ruins than finding true love (a concept she doesn’t believe in). When Fi pricks her finger on a bone spindle, she gets saddled with Briar Rose’s spirit. To regain her freedom, Fi and her friend Shane hatch a scheme to break the curse on Briar Rose’s kingdom — and falling in love is not part of the plan.
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