Our favourite Young Adult books

A rock solid paranormal thriller set in 1970s Australia: perfect for the slightly awkward 10-13 age range and FFO Stranger Things. 12-year-old Kim’s younger sister Eila discovers a mysterious glowing orb out in the forest starts communing with it… and before long weird freaky business starts happening. My favourite part of this book is Kim and his friends’ discovery of Dungeons & Dragons and the roleplaying subplot that takes place. Turns out, Garth Nix is a huge D&D fan. There’s some bonus content and maps relating to that at the back of the book.

Gwen and Art, one is a princess, the other a lord, have been betrothed since childhood. There’s one small problem though: they fiercely hate each other. So, it’s not exactly a match made in heaven. To add fire to the flames, both of their romantic interests lie entirely elsewhere: Gwen is infatuated with Bridget, the only female Knight of the realm, and Art, he’s taken a fancy to Gwen’s brother, Gabe. In this queer Arthurian tale, amidst sword fights, horse riding, and political subterfuge, and we’re taken on the spiralling quest for love and self discovery.

Suitable for ages 12 and up.

Super sweet YA graphic novel which would suit 11/12 all the way through the teens perfectly, FFO Heartstopper. Set in a near-future world where people can summon ghosts using an expensive and single-use flower, loner and horror-film-fanatic Damian attempts to bring back the ghost of his mum so he can talk to her about being new at school. However he accidentally instead summons the ghost of Saskia, a (extremely annoying!) girl who died in the local forest under mysterious circumstances. And Damian is now stuck with her for a few days until the flower wilts. Oh, and no one else can see her. While it sounds kinda dark on the surface, this is a very gentle graphic novel about love and fitting in and some of the perils of social media, plus a queer love subplot. 

A cracking young adult novel (~15+) that starts off with some fairly typical teen problems – struggling with school, getting into trouble, falling out with friends – quickly descending into some fairly untypical teen problems when Maeve finds an old tarot deck in a disused school cupboard. As it turns out, she has a bit of a natural affinity for reading the tarot…

What comes next is an a socially switched-on all-guns-blazing romp with excellent queer representation, mystical abductions, contemporary Irish politics and also an actually quite informative exploration of the Tarot. Three books in the trilogy to get stuck into. O’Donoghue is author the author of several adult novels and host of the podcast Sentimental Garbage.

There’s nothing better to combat the cold winter nights than Some Like It Cold, Elle McNicoll’s heartwarming tale of self-acceptance.

When Jasper returns home to the picturesque town of Lake Pristine, she intends to say goodbye to this place once and for all. Her plans are complicated, however, when she bumps into former schoolmate (and enemy) Arthur Lancaster, who now runs his late father’s cinema. With the pressure of retaining her ‘golden girl’ status in the town she’s outgrown—as well as the potential for romance with the guy she’s barely spoken to in years—could Jasper be tempted to stay?

In many ways, Some Like It Cold is an ode to the classic romcom, yet McNicoll revitalises the genre. Jasper has been recently diagnosed with autism, and much of the novel explores her discovery of self and desire to have her neurodivergence accepted by the wider community. McNicoll grants ownership of the narrative to her neurodivergent characters; Jasper’s autism is depicted with nuance and never at the expense of her other traits. This is a warm, funny book full of heart, and I cannot recommend it enough. For readers ~11/12-15

This warm-hearted historical novel had me gripped from the very first page.

Set in 1896, it is told entirely through letters between three young women who have recently left boarding school and entered into three starkly different social settings. As one friend navigates a busy teaching job in an orphanage, another is a debutante in the London party season, and the third is trapped in the home of her strict grandmother. Their letters convey the hopes, the fears and the desires of girls on the cusp of adulthood, and their fierce love for each other shines through.

There’s plenty of drama, as well as humour and romance and a joyful celebration of female friendship. It’s a compulsive and satisfying read for ages 12+. 

Urban fantasy with a poetic heart and a definite lean towards the darker side of folklore, this breakneck-paced novel is massive entertainment on a surface level (if you can keep up with the rapidly intensifying plot), but binding it all together is a beautifully written friendship trio. You’ll enjoy the scenes of barbed dialogue in the Jamaican takeaway just as much as the lusciously evoked magical realism as our heroes Eli and Malcolm are forced to grapple with the living and the dead on a mission stop the daughter of Death herself. Nine-nights, mysticism, leopard gods and college applications – Holness tackles it all in this breathless adventure.

Recommended for ages 14+.

If you forgive me for taking a little trip down memory lane, I read Raven’s Gate (and its four sequels) many years ago when I was a wee lad and I genuinely still think about it now in my 30s. Stayed up all night reading that bad boy! The epic conclusion was published when I was long into adulthood and I have to confess I still bought and read it hungrily.

The first instalment Raven’s Gate follows 14-year-old Matt, an orphan who’s being bounced between foster homes and juvenile detention centres, after getting mixed up in some petty crime. He gets sent to a creepy backwards village in Yorkshire (which he seems to be unable to escape no matter how hard he tries) to live with a cruel old woman called Miss Deverill. What evolves from thereon is a dark fantasy epic involving burgeoning psychic powers, ancient occult rituals and a conspiracy which seems to revolve around the nearby decommissioned nuclear power plant. Suitable for ~11+ (depending on your tolerance for violence!) and pretty entertaining for older teenagers too, but fair warning that it is pretty scary! FFO Alex Rider and perfect who will eventually end up reading Stephen King, but probably need a little stepping stone before that fateful day.