The Best YA Books of 2023
by Laura Lambert
This was another banner year for young adult titles and the fans who love them. Fantasy, historical fiction, first love, secret societies, and murder mysteries — I’ll take one of each, please! This year also provided plenty of richly imagined diverse titles to choose from. No matter what genre you love to read, here are the best and brightest YA books of 2023!
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The Davenports
Available from:The girls at the center of Krystal Marquis’s debut novel are based on the real-life daughters of C.R. Patterson, founder of the first Black-owned car company in the United States. The Davenports takes place in 1910 Chicago and is riddled with the hallmarks of turn-of-the-century success, such as grand estates, ball gowns, young love, and ambition. “Marquis perceptively explores the history and momentous impact of Black achievements and wealth during an underreported period in U.S. history,” says Publishers Weekly. The sequel, The Davenports: More Than This, will hit shelves in May 2024.
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Silver in the Bone
Available from:Buckle up because this fantasy novel from the author of The Darkest Minds series will take you on a pulse-pounding thrill ride. When Tamsin hears about a magical ring from the Arthurian legend that can break a curse on her brother, she decides to track it down. Doing so requires her to team up with her rival and face sorceresses, dark magic, and her long-lost foster father.
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The Legacies
Available from:Get ready for a decidedly different take on elite young women. In The Legacies, seniors from New York City’s vaunted prep schools find themselves at the center of a murder. There’s a secret society called the Legacy Club and their ritzy party, the Legacy Ball. And at the end of the night, a body gets removed from the premises. Kirkus calls The Legacies a “skillfully executed thriller with a decadent setting that fans of the genre will adore.”
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House of Marionne
Available from:House of Marionne offers a unique twist on the elite — the families who send children to a magical finishing school in the South. Seventeen-year-old Raquell Janae Marionne, known as Quell, finds herself there because she has toushana (power) in her blood and must learn to control it. Amidst the magic, politics, and intrigue, she also finds forbidden love. This is the first book in an exciting new series.
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Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
Available from:The first title from Joy Revolution, a new imprint from bestselling YA authors (and couple) Nicola Yoon and David Yoon, Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute delivers on their commitment to publishing YA romance by and about people of color. In Hibbert’s novel, two 17-year-old Black, British ex-best friends — Bradley Graeme and Celine Bangura — are thrown together in the wilderness as they compete for the same scholarship.
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My Father, The Panda Killer
Available from:Told in two alternating voices, My Father, The Panda Killer is a remarkable coming-of-age story that follows Jane — a teenager who lives in California and is desperate to go to college and leave her father, his anger, and her Vietnamese culture behind — and her father — as he makes the harrowing journey from Vietnam to the United States as an eleven-year-old refugee. A vibrant story of intergenerational trauma, this novel shows the horrors of war, the path toward accepting your heritage, and the need to accept yourself.
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Thieves' Gambit
Available from:Thieves’ Gambit is the story of an epic international heist competition of the same name, but it’s also the story of 17-year-old Ross Quest’s journey to finding herself. If Ross wins the Thieves’ Gambit, she will be granted one wish — and it’s the only way she can save her kidnapped mother. Says Kirkus, “It’s impossible not to root for Ross as she tries to figure out who she’s meant to be.” The cinematic thriller has already been optioned for a motion picture.
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Murtagh
Available from:Fans of The Inheritance Cycle will welcome a return to the world of Eragon. Murtagh takes place a year after the end of Paolini’s bestselling series and features the dragon-rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. As Paolini himself wrote on Reddit. “To be clear, Murtagh isn’t a spin-off. It isn’t a retelling. And it isn’t a one-off that won’t connect to later events. It’s a direct-line sequel to The Inheritance Cycle and an essential and necessary part of what I’m doing in Alagaësia.”
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Sinner's Isle
Available from:This enchanting tale of romance and fantasy, follows the story of a powerful witch who is captive on a remote island and desperate to escape. To achieve her freedom, she resorts to blackmailing a charming pirate named Mariano. The two must work together to outwit their enemies and each other before the Offering ends, and they are trapped forever on the perilous Sinner's Isle.
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Check & Mate
Available from:As you might guess from the title, Ali Hazelwood’s YA debut is about love and chess. When 18-year-old “ex” chess player Mallory Greenleaf unexpectedly beats the world chess champion, Nolan Sawyer, at a charity tournament, she’s drawn back into the game — in more ways than one. Kirkus calls Check & Mate a “swoon-worthy romance.”
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American Royals IV: Reign
Available from:In the fourth and final installment of the New York Times bestselling American Royals series, Queen Beatrice is in a coma, Princess Samantha is missing, and somehow, Prince Jefferson sits on the throne. “This might be the most unexpected and maybe even the most emotional title in the series,” says Cosmopolitan. “What can win between heart and country?”
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Threads That Bind
Available from:The first of two books, Threads That Bind, introduces us to the orphaned Ora sisters — descendants of the Fates who wield magical abilities to build, manipulate, and sever the threads that bind people together. The youngest sister, Io, a private detective, uncovers a plot to murder women in Alante. The conspiracy grows stronger when her estranged sister appears on the arm of one of her prime suspects. “Classical mythology, police procedural, and romance combine in this imaginative, intriguing post-apocalyptic story,” says Kirkus.
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Nightbirds
Available from:Common Sense Media calls Nightbirds “an empowering read for teen girls.” But any fan of young adult fantasy will devour the story of Matilde, Sayer, and Æsa. These three Nightbirds have descended from the mystical Fyrebirds and wield subtle magic. They rely on the Great Houses to keep them safe. An attack on their inner sanctum also reveals long-held secrets about their history.
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Her Radiant Curse
Available from:Elizabeth Lim, author of the bestseller, Six Crimson Cranes, once again weaves together the best of Eastern and Western folktales and fairy tales for Her Radiant Curse. It’s the tale of two sisters — one beautiful and one not — who must save one another.
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House of Roots and Ruin
Available from:In this haunting sequel to House of Salt and Sorrows, 17-year-old Verity Thaumas and her older sister Camille remain at their family’s estate by the sea while the other sisters have spread across Arcannia. When Verity hopes to join another sister in Bloem, Camille forbids it: Verity still sees ghosts, after all. Verity ignores her sister and flees into a lush world undercut with a dark side.
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Lying in the Deep
Available from:This clever YA murder mystery is set on a Semester-at-Sea cruise ship. When Jade’s boyfriend, Silas, takes up with her best friend, Lainey, Jade wants to escape. But there they are, on the same ship, for an entire semester. When Lainey disappears, Jade becomes the primary suspect and must piece together the clues to clear her name.
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The Ruined
Available from:Fans of The Beautiful series will find a certain kind of closure in The Ruined, the thrilling final installment of Renée Ahdieh’s YA vampire romance centered around on the Sylvan Vale and the Sylvan Wyld. “No one escapes unscathed, but time may heal some wounds,” says Kirkus.
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Invisible Son
Available from:Invisible Son is the story of Andre Jackson, a boy fresh out of juvenile hall for a crime he did not commit. He is trying to rebuild his life in the rapidly changing landscape of Portland, Oregon. Set during the onset of the pandemic and the protests around the murder of George Floyd, Invisible Son is one part social commentary, one part coming-of-age, and one part thriller. “It’s a layered novel, and the main core is about Black boyhood,” Johnson said in an interview with Shondaland. “It’s about a time capsule of a particular community in Portland that I know very well, and a young boy who’s really navigating it.”
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Chaos Theory
Available from:Acclaimed YA author Nic Stone returns with the story of 18-year-old Andy Criddle, the son of a politician, whose life intersects with 16-year-old Shelbi Augustine, a high school genius, after a drunken car crash. Amid addiction, grief, and mental disorders, they find each other and themselves. “A thoughtful, realistically messy emotional wallop that destigmatizes mental disorders,” says Kirkus.
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One of Us Is Back
Available from:History threatens to repeat itself in the third book in McManus’s bestselling One of Us Is Lying series. The Bayview Crew — Bronwyn, Cooper, Addy, Nate, Maeve, Phoebe, Knox, Luis, and Kris — is back for the summer. When a digital billboard proclaims, “Time for a new game, Bayview,” and one of the crew disappears, it’s clear a deadly new game has started, and they don’t know the rules.
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Plan A
Available from:With abortion politics playing out in the headlines almost daily since the fall of the Roe v. Wade ruling, Deb Caletti’s story of 16-year-old Ivy brings the reality of abortion to light. Ivy finds herself pregnant in Paris, Texas, and takes off on a road trip to Oregon, where abortion is legal. Says Kirkus, “The book offers a powerful argument for choice, bolstered by an exploration of women’s oppression and strength, told through a personal lens.”
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Spice Road
Available from:Seventeen-year-old Imani is a young warrior who uses the power of Spice, a special tea, to protect the city of Qalia. When she learns that her presumed-dead brother is alive and spreading the secret of Spice to others, she sets off on a quest to find him in the Forbidden Wastes and bring him to justice. Says Kirkus, “Ibrahim’s worldbuilding is fresh, with an exciting premise that not only promises a tantalizing romance, but explores classism, privilege, and a debate on the human responsibility to support those who are powerless.”
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How to Be a (Young) Antiracist
Available from:In this YA version of the 2019 bestseller How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi collaborates with beloved YA author Nic Stone, author of Dear Martin, to teach young people to think critically about race. Stone is the narrator, while Kendi’s life story provides the plot points. Says Common Sense Media, “In tracing Kendi's gradual awakening to the strains of racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism in his own thinking, they defuse the discomfort that might arise when they ask readers to acknowledge these thoughts and beliefs in themselves.”
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You: The Story
Available from:With You: The Story: A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory, Ruta Sepetys, best-selling author of YA historical fiction, teaches aspiring writers the tricks of the trade — namely, to write what you know. As she told Publishers Weekly, “Whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction, experience and memory is the secret to strong and vivid writing.”
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