Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
1. Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell
What it’s about: In this story about falling in love for the first time, teenage misfits Eleanor and Park meet on the school bus and connect over comic books and music. They deal with issues of race and child abuse, and cling to a relationship that is inevitably doomed to fail. The honest writing is both funny and heartbreaking.
Amazon review: 4.6/5
stars
2. If I Stay, Gayle Forman
Penguin Group
What it’s about: Seventeen-year-old Mia slips into a coma after a bad car accident. She has an out-of-body experience, watching as friends and family visit, and needs to choose to live a difficult life or die peacefully. The highly anticipated sequel Where She Went is just as good as its predecessor.
Amazon review: 4.3/5
stars
3. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky
What it’s about: In this coming-of-age novel, 15-year-old Charlie writes letters to an anonymous friend and shares the story of his painful freshman year at high school. Charlie is a wallflower, quietly observing everything around him — both good and bad — and has deep feelings about his experiences. This book is an emotional roller coaster and will captivate you right from the start.
Amazon review: 4.5/5
stars
4. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Jesse Andrews
What it’s about: Greg and Earl, two high school social outcasts, spend their free time making their own (terrible) versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics. This twosome made movies for themselves, until Rachel came along, a girl diagnosed with leukemia. When she decides to stop treatment, Greg and Earl make her a film that forces them to step into the social spotlight and take a stand.
Amazon review: 3.9/5
stars
5. Looking for Alaska, John Green
What it’s about: Miles “Pudge” Halter has lived a safe, uneventful life, and he transfers to Culver Creek Boarding School junior year in search for a “Great Perhaps.” He is obsessed with reading biographies and subjects’ last words. When Miles goes to Alabama, he meets Alaska Young, a girl who is gorgeous, clever, funny, unstable, and utterly fascinating. She steals his heart and nothing is ever the same.
Considering this book is also by the author of
The Fault In Our Stars, I think it’s clear that this should definitely be on your reading list!
Amazon review: 4.5/5
stars
6. Zac and Mia, A.J. Betts
What it’s about: “When I was little I believed in Jesus and Santa, spontaneous combustion, and the Loch Ness monster. Now I believe in science, statistics, and antibiotics.” Zac Meier, a 17-year-old cancer patient, endures a long, grueling leukemia treatment when he meets Mia, the patient next door. She’s beautiful, feisty, and has questionable taste in music, but the two find themselves enwrapped in a surprising friendship. Told in alternating perspectives over nine months, Zac and Mia follows the relationship of two teens put in an unimaginable situation.
Amazon review: 4.5/5
stars
7. Before I Fall, Lauren Oliver
What it’s about: Samantha Kingston was a popular high school senior who lived at the top of the social pyramid. Feb. 12, known as “Cupid Day,” is supposed to be one big party filled with valentines and roses — and it is — until she dies in an accident that night. But come morning, Sam wakes up and relives the last day of her life, seven times, in fact, seeing how the slightest changes could affect everything.
Amazon review: 4.2/5
stars
8. 13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher
What it’s about: Clay Jensen returns home from school and finds a package on his porch from Hannah Baker — his classmate and crush — who committed suicide two weeks prior. Inside he finds cassette tapes, and Hannah’s voice tells him there are 13 reasons why she ended her life, Clay being one of them. If he listens to them all, he’ll find out why and learn a truth about himself that he never wanted to face.
Amazon review: 4.3/5
stars
9. Jellicoe Road, Melina Marchetta
What it’s about: Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was 11, Taylor Markham, now a 17-year-old leader of her boarding-school dorm, is being confronted with her past. When she seeks help from Hannah, the closest adult she has to family, she finds that Hannah has suddenly vanished. Taylor quickly realizes that nothing is as it seems, and the more clues she finds, the more she tries to pinpoint the connection between her abandonment, Hannah’s disappearance, a mysterious stranger, a boy in her dreams, five kids who lived in Jellicoe in the ’80s, and the ever-magnetic Jonah Griggs.
Amazon review: 4.6/5
stars
10. Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour, Morgan Matson
Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
What it’s about: Amy Curry’s life isn’t going so well at the moment. Her father recently died in a car accident and her mother decides to move from California to Connecticut, just in time for Amy’s senior year of high school. Amy embarks on a road trip from the home she’s always known to her new life. She is joined by Rodger, the son of Amy’s mother’s friend, and as the miles roll on, so do her feelings for her road trip passenger.
Amazon review: 4.6/5
stars
11. The Beginning of Everything, Robyn Schneider
What it’s about: Varsity jock Ezra Faulkner had every intention of being homecoming king — until he got in a car accident that shattered his leg, his athletic career, and his social life. This coming-of-age novel tells the tale of new beginnings after tragic endings.
Amazon review: 4.2/5
stars
12. The Spectacular Now, Tim Tharp
Random House LLC
What it’s about: Sutter Keely is the guy you want to party with, but he’s not the type you take home to mom and dad. He’s not an academic star by any means, but he’s fun and pretty content with life right now — until he wakes up on the front lawn and meets Aimee. Aimee is a hot mess, a clueless social disaster in serious need of help. What starts out as an unexpected friendship turns into something more, and Sutter can make a difference in Aimee’s life — or ruin it forever.
Amazon review: 3.6/5
stars
13. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, Matthew Quick
Hachette Book Group
What it’s about: Today is Leonard Peacock’s birthday, and he hides a gun in his backpack. Because today is the day he will kill his former best friend, and then himself, with his grandfather’s P-38 pistol. Before he sets his plan into motion, he leaves gifts for his four friends so he can say good-bye properly. Speaking to each in turn, Leonard slowly reveals his secrets as the hours tick by and the moment of truth approaches.
Amazon review: 4.4/5
stars
14. Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins
What it’s about: Anna is approaching her senior year and is pretty happy with her life. She has a loyal best friend, a good job, and a crush that is becoming something more. So you can guess that she’s less than thrilled when her father ships her off to boarding school in Paris — until she meets Etienne St. Clair, the definition of a perfect guy. The problem is, he’s taken, and she might be too if her crush develops further. Despite the cute title/cover, this book is filled with sarcasm, razor-sharp humor, drama, and much more.
Amazon review: 4.6/5
stars
15. Every Day, David Levithan
What it’s about: This unique love story follows A, a teen who wakes up in a different body every day, always living a different life. He keeps to himself and avoids getting too close to anyone, until he wakes up in Justin’s body and falls in love with Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. A’s rules no longer apply, for he’s finally found someone he wants to be with, day in, day out, no matter what body he’s in.
Amazon review: 4.3/5
stars
16. Ask the Passengers, A.S. King
Hachette Book Group
What it’s about: Astrid Jones is desperate to confide in someone, but her parents have proved untrustworthy. She therefore spends her time on the picnic table outside, asking the passengers in the planes that fly overhead very personal questions — like what it means that she’s falling in love with a girl. Her secret relationship excels and her friends are demanding explanations, but she can reveal the truth only to the people who won’t judge her, those who are 30,000 feet above her and have no idea she exists. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers’ lives — and her own — for the better.
Amazon review: 4.5/5
stars
17. Love Letters to the Dead, Ava Dellaira
What it’s about: For an English class assignment, Laurel was asked to write a love letter to a dead person. She chose Kurt Cobain because he died young, just like her sister May. Soon Laurel finds herself writing endless notes to people like Janis Joplin and Amelia Earhart, revealing secrets about her family, friendships, first love, and the abuse she suffered when May was supposed to be protecting her. Only when Laurel has written down the truth of what happened to herself does she begin to accept what happened to May. And when Laurel finally sees her sister for the person she was — amazing but deeply flawed — she can begin to discover her own path.
Amazon review: 4.4/5
stars
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