Embedded Files
FIC-REALISTIC CAL
Charlotte wins a place in a prestigious writing workshop with a famous author, and not just any famous author, but her idol, and she is over the moon with joy. She is a bit overwhelmed, pretty insecure about being there, but she is thrilled. Charlotte believes a very distant relative of hers wrote a very famous poem, and while she's in Venice, she enlists the help of Dante, the handsome boy who works at the library, to help her with her research. When Luca finally notices her and her work, she is overjoyed, but the things get out of control. There are really two stories going on in this book - Charlotte the writer working with Luca and the how powerful men influence the lives of women, and the story of Charlotte's ancestor, and how women were treated at second class citizens and essentially shuttered when they showed any sign of stepping out of line or being independent.
Realistic Fiction, Romance
Read this if you liked: The Summer I Turned Pretty, Love and Other Perishable Objects, Along for the Ride, Breathless
You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
FIC-REALISTIC JOH
Liz decides to run for prom queen to win a $10,000 scholarship prize. She is very anti-prom and everything that goes with it, but figures if it will help her get to college, she's going for it. It's totally competitive and cut throat, but she soldiers on. New girl in school Amanda (Mack) also joins the competition, and Liz falls head over heels. The only problem is that she's still in the closet at school and doesn't want to tell because she thinks it will ruin her chances of winning. She neglects to mention that to Amanda, which becomes a problem later on. But there are great friendships and issues with them, a wonderful brother whom she feels very protective over, and old friend whom she fell out with but is slowly learning to trust again.
Realistic Fiction, Romance, LGBTQ
Read this if you liked: Dumplin, Upside Down of Unrequited, Like a Love Story, Leah on the Offbeat, Watch us Rise
Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown
FIC-REALISTIC BRO
This book is part autobiographical, part realistic fiction, and part magical realism. This book really opened my eyes to how people in poverty, real poverty, live. They not only have to deal with poverty, but very often are dealing with drugs, abuse, rape, and all sorts of horrors that I can't even imagine. This young girl, who watched her mother succumb to drugs, was raped by the time she was 10, raised her brothers, pulled herself up and did her best to rise above it all. What a powerful story and what powerful life lessons it teaches.
Realistic Fiction, Magical Realism
Read this if you liked: Grown, The Black Kids, The Glass Castle, With Fire on High, Monday's Not Coming, Educated
FIC-REALISTIC JAC
Enchanted Jones is a 17 year old aspiring singer who catches the eye of 27 year old super star rapper Korey Jones. He takes a shine to her and takes her under his wing, helping her with her singing and promising to cut a record with her, all the while professing his love. Slowly but surely, he distances her from her family and once she's away from her parents, a different side of Korey surfaces. A jealous, mean, possessive, abusive man. When Korey is found dead, she has to do what the police won't do - prove her innocence and have the courage to tell the world what really happened to her, even when they never believe her.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Red at the Bone, Breathing Underwater, The Way I Used to Be, Bad Romance
Anxious People by Fredrick Backman
FIC-ADULT BAC
It's the story of a desperate bank robber and desperate hostages. Everyone has issues, secrets, and needs some sort of help. The bank robber didn't mean to take anyone hostage and doesn't want to hurt anyone - just wants life to go right for once. It's funny and sad and so insightful all at once. I felt so much for all the characters because they were all hurting in their own way and all trying to figure out their place in life.
Realistic Fiction, Adult
Read this if you liked: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, The Rosie Project, The Storied Life of AJ Fikry
Just Breathe by Cammie McGovern
FIC MCG
David is a senior in HS and is in the hospital awaiting a lung transplant because of his cystic fibrosis. Jamie a sophomore and is a hospital volunteer. She's working at the hospital because she has a history of depression and is trying to stay active. When she goes into his room one day, they strike up a friendship which turns into something more for both of them. But what's different about this one is that they are both tentative about it because of their individual issues. Jamie is wise for a sophomore - she knows she shouldn't get involved because she is in no shape for a relationship, but he's hard to resist. He knows he shouldn't get involved because he may die, very soon. I liked that Jamie was mature about the relationship. Not all the time, mind you. She made some pretty bad mistakes along the way. But she knew when to stop, and she knew what to do to keep herself healthy.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Fault in Our Stars, Five Feet Apart, All The Bright Places, Zac & Mia, Everything,Everything, The Memory Book
SC ZOB
Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America.Black is...sisters navigating their relationship at summer camp…three friends walking back from the community pool talking about nothing and everything…urban and rural, wealthy and poor, mixed race, immigrants, and more—because there are countless ways to be Black enough. - from Good Reads
Realisitic Fiction, Diversity
Read this if you liked: Stamped, You Should See Me in a Crown, With Fire on High, Grown, Watch Us Rise, American Street
Cursed by Karol Ruth Silverstein
FIC-REALISTIC SIL
Ricky has been diagnosed with childhood arthritis and during every waking moment, her body hurts. Her parents have just been divorced, she's sent to live with her dad which means a new school, and all her friends have abandoned her. She's miserable, to say the least. But with the help of a new friend, she learns to stand up for herself - to her parents, with her healthcare providers, and even in school - and she finds that she is stronger than she thought. A quick, good read to help show teens that there are all sorts of kids going through all sorts of issues, some are not always visible.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Five Feet Apart, Everything, Everything, The Spaces Between Us, Scars Like Wings, Just Breathe
The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
FIC- REALISTIC
Eden is raped, at the age of 13, by her brother's best friend. She doesn't know what's going on, and she doesn't know what to do after it's over. Everyone loves Kevin - if she tells, no one will believe her, so she keeps quiet. Told in four parts - each year of HS - Eden changes drastically, year after year, trying to get it out of her head, becoming a completely different person to try to push that horrible night out of her life. And she grieves the way she used to be - she used to be a nice person, she used to smile, she used to be friendly. Now, she gets drunk, she hooks up with random guys at parties, she does what she can to numb herself to reality. Then one day she finds out that someone pressed charges against Kevin, and it all comes out again. She blames herself - if she had told, this would not have happened to this other girl.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Female of the Species, Asking for It, Speak, Thirteen Reasons Why, Girl in Pieces
Girls on the Verge by Sharon Biggs Waller
FIC-REALISTIC WAL
What a powerful book for young adults today. Camille lives in Texas and finds herself pregnant after having sex one time with a boy she barely knows. Because of the strict laws in Texas, she can’t get an abortion without telling her parents, and that is something she does not want to do. So starts a journey across the state, into Mexico then New Mexico, all to get an abortion that has been denied her. A hard look at reproductive rights and what it means when old white men are making the rules for young ladies, as well as true friendships, even when you cannot agree with what your friends are doing.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Watch Us Rise, Clap When You Land, Let's Get Lost, Exit Pursued by a Bear, The Truth about Alice
Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe
FIC PHI
Norris is a hockey player who moves from Canada to hot, hot Austin. He's not happy. He's hot and he's miserable. On his first day of school, his guidance counsellor gives him a journal and he uses it to jot down his stereotypical ideas about the different cliques in the school. But like all kids in HS, he slowly begins to make friends and even find a girl he wants to date. He's a typical teenage boy, a bit snarky, totally insecure, but generally a nice kid. He meets Madison, whom he pigeonholes into the ditzy cheerleader group, but she ends up being a real friend. It was a really good story about a boy who grows and learns to accept people and be more open and more of a friend. I liked the way Norris grew and matured in the book.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Not So Pure and Simple, Every Day, Saint Anything, Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass
FIC-REALISTIC STO
Justyce is a young black man, at the top of his Prep School class, headed to Yale, and has never been in trouble in his life. When the police come upon him trying to get his very drunk (white) girlfriend into the car to take her home, they immediately think he is assaulting her and arrest him. The incident leaves him frightened and wondering if he should be more like Dr. King. He begins to write a series of letters to himself and tries to emulate MLK. Things go from bad to worse - his 'friends' in his all white prep school are racist, he gets into fights defending his rights, and he's once again involved in a police confrontation that almost gets him killed. And all along, he's wondering why is it that as a young black man, he's continually looked at as a thug, a killer, a gangster, and everything that he is not. He's scared, frustrated, and very angry, with just cause.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: All American Boys, Long Way Down, The Hate U Give, Stamped
Stamped by Jason Reynold, Ibram Kendi
305.8 STARRED REY
A history of racism, not only in this country but around the world. The audiobook is narrated by Jason Reynolds, and I highly recommend that version. Kendi & Reynolds explain the differences between segregationists (races apart), assimilationists (advocating for integration), and antirascists (a person who opposes racism and does something about it), and says we can all be all of those things at different times in our lives. The goal is for everyone to be an antiracist. He explains that politicians (predominately old white men) made inherently racist policies and laws under the guise of anti discrimination but did more harm than good to the African American population. "Education, love and exemplary black people will not deliver America from racism, Kendi says. Racist ideas grow out of discriminatory policies, he argues, not the other way around."
History, Diversity, Realistic
Read this if you liked: The Hate U Give, Dear Martin, Clap When You Land, Long Way Down, Punching the Air, Just Mercy
Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie
FIC-ADULT ADI
Ifemelu and Obinze are young Nigerian college students in love who decide to go to America to finish school. Ifemelu gets a visa and goes, but Obinze is denied and cannot join her. It's tough on Ifemelu - she has a hard time finding a job and discovers racism, something that did not exist for her in Nigeria and tries to fit in in America. She abandons her relationship with Obinze because she feels like a failure and a fake. We follow Ifemelu's life for the 12 years she is in America and how she changes. She blogs about what it's like for a black person in America, and how many people think they're not being racists while indeed they are. When she finally decides to return to Nigeria, and enters into an even more complicated life.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Homegoing, Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Was, Pachinko, A Woman is No Man
Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli & Aisha Saeed
FIC ALB
Jamie and Maya are a couple of teenagers who are helping to canvas for their state Senate campaign. Jamie is shy and can't imagine knocking on doors and talking to strangers. Maya is only doing it because her mother is making her. Maya's having a bad summer - her parents are splitting up and her best friend is going off to college and doesn't have time for her. But she and Jamie become friends but makes it perfectly clear that as a Muslim, she can't date. Jamie respects that, but likes her, and isn't sure about what to do. An adorable book
Romance, Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Tweet Cute, The Voting Booth, Frankly in Love, The Sun is Also a Star
FIC LAW
May survived a school shooting by hiding in a closet while her twin brother and her teacher and friends were shot on the other side of the door. No one can blame her by being traumatized and angry, but she's having a hard time 'getting on with her life' like everyone is telling her to do. When she starts at a new school, she meets Zach, the first person she's been able to connect with after a year of agony. But when she discovers that his mother is the lawyer for the shooter, a women she has vowed to hate, instead of retreating from their friendship, she makes the unlikely decision of continuing it. The book gives us insight to survivor's guilt, how families are torn apart in the wake of a crime, and how hard it really is to just get on with life.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you like: This is Where it Ends, Hate List, That's Not What Happened, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
Jess has anger issues. Her father died when she was in middle school and she began acting out - fighting was the way she coped. But with some therapy and patience, she started to straighten out. Then she met Vivi. Vivi was bright and filled with positivity, and wanted nothing but the best for Jess. She encouraged her to draw, and Jess felt like she had a purpose. They planned to go to college together and she pursue a degree in art. But then the unthinkable happens and Vivi dies unexpectedly. Jess immediately regresses to her old self, pushes away her friends, started to get into fights again, and threw away her art. She couldn't create if Vivi wasn't around. But when she enrolled in a work study program with a metal worker, she found her passion once again. It's a book about processing your feelings and making the right choices for yourself.
Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ
Read this: History is All You Left Me, Goodbye Days, I'll Give you the Sun, Everything I Never Told You
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
FIC RIB
When Jay Rugero finds out that his cousin from the Philippines has been murdered for being a drug dealer, he goes there for Spring break to find out what happened. His father told him not to talk about it - the family does not want to be reminded of the shame. Jay can't believe his family can be so callous - not even giving Jun a funeral - and wants answers. Jay and Jun had be as close as cousins could be who lived so far away - they were pen pals for a long time, although Jay wasn't always the best at keeping up. Jun poured his heart out in those letters, revealing a bit of a depression to Jay, until one day Jay just stopped answering him. And now he feels an incredible guilt for not being there for him. Jun's parents won't talk to him, but once he connects with his Uncle who is a priest, finds out the truth which devastates him. This is another novel where the character is 'not American' enough and not Filipino enough. Jay feels like he can connect with his relatives - he doesn't speak the language, he doesn't know its history, he doesn't know what they go through on a daily basis. At its heart, it's a story about belonging and culture.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Darius the Great is Not Ok, Black Enough, I An Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
America Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
FIC CUM
The story of Lidia, who owns a bookstore and befriends one of her customers. It turns out he's the head of a drug cartel, and when Lidia's journalist husband writes an expose on him, Javier kills her entire family in retaliation. She escapes with her son and begins their migration to America, living day by day with the fear that Javier is coming after her. Along the way, she befriends two young sisters and other migrants who help each other with the crossing. But there are also horrors on the road - the sisters are raped, Lidia is robbed, they are scared, hungry and thirsty. I don't know if it truly depicts what life is like for a migrant, but it was interesting.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Disappeared, The Radius of Us, Something in Between, American Street
FIC RUM
Told in multiple voices across different points in time about what a Muslim women must endure in her life. A woman is no man refers to the lack of choices that a woman has - she is constantly sheltered, must wait on a man hand and foot, submit to his every whim and constant abuses, and then be married off to a virtual stranger. It's how women are a burden and if you have a baby girl you are pitied. It's all about the men in this culture. The book shows women as literal slaves in the home, not even being allowed to leave to go to the store on their own. Even with all that horror, the title also represents the strength that a woman has - she's the backbone of the family, she keeps them together and preserves the culture which is something a man could never do. There was a passage that referred to a verse: Heaven lies under a mother's feet. It refers to how Islam respects women and how women should be treated because of their importance. But Deya, who in struggling with what she wants and what is expected of her, thinks it is sheer hypocrisy.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Americanah, Behold the Dreamers, Very Large Expanse of Sea, A Girl Like That
Ten different stories told by ten different students about what happens when they walk home after school. It's a look at the detours we face on the walk home, and in life - some have it easy, some have it hard, some have parents, others have no one, some have friends, others don't, some get bullied, others bully. Even though we come from the same place, our lives are completely different.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Long Way Down, Harbor Me, New Kid, Solo, How It Went Down
It's right after 9/11, and Shirin, a Muslim teenager is the new girl at school. She wears a headscarf and is continually bullied and told to 'go home'. She was born in California and is as horrified by what happened as everyone else is, but that doesn't seem to matter to anyone. All they see is her scarf. She meets Ocean, a beautiful boy who looks past what she is wearing and only sees her. She knows she can't be with this boy - her strict Muslim parents would never agree to it - but he's so nice and kind that she feels herself being drawn in. They face racist rants and hatred by the entire school and she continues to pull way. Can they ever have a relationship? Will the world allow it? Shirin did an excellent job of describing how she feels about her headscarf, how she feels protected and special, and how it is a part of her. The way she described it was beautiful. So if that was my only take away (and it wasn't, she did a great job educating me on Muslims and their lives), it was well worth the read.
Realistic Fiction, Diversity
Read this if you liked: Saints and Misfits, Love, Hate, & Other Filters, All American Muslim Girl
Bear Town by Fredrik Backman
FIC BAC
At first, we just think this is just a book about a youth hockey team who is on their way to the championship, and winning will bring new life to the town. Everyone is counting on them, and the boys have a lot of pressure on their shoulders. But then all of a sudden something terrible happens and the town is divided. Although this is so different from his other books, and it's a dark subject, it's still written beautifully. We learn that people can change, and others cannot, some will do anything to stay on top, and while some have morals, others definitely do not. Life must go on, and we must figure out a way to make it work.
Read this if you liked: Moxie, Exit, Pursued by Bear, The Way I Used to Be, Asking For It
FIC BRO
Will, who is really short for his age, has accepted his fate. His stepbrother and best friend, Drew, is over 6 foot, and the girl he loves is 5'10. On his birthday, he decides he's finally going to tell her that he loves her, but when the gift she gives him puts him in the friend zone, he chickens out. Later that night, Drew asks her out and she accepts, so Will has to push his feelings aside. But something crazy happens, and Will starts to grow, and grow a lot. Over the course of the next year he grows almost 2 feet and becomes a minor internet sensation in the process. But the growth spurt changes a lot of things - his relationships, how he feels about himself, and how others see him. All of a sudden girls notice him and he gets a girlfriend. People are often afraid of him when he used to just blend into the background. He has a temper. He can defend himself. He has to figure out how to process all of it and how to keep himself grounded.
Humor, Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Twisted, The Beginning of Everything, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things, 100 Miles Sideways
Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart
FIC STE
Ava has burns over most of her body after a house fire which took her parents and her cousin. After numerous surgeries, Ava is healing, but can hardly stand to look at herself in the mirror. She's scarred all over her body and face, she lost an ear, and her big toe has replaced a thumb. When decides to go back to school, she just knows it's going to end badly, but surprisingly, she makes friends. Piper has also been in an accident which has not only left her scarred but in a wheelchair. She's angry because she feels her old friends don't want her in their lives anymore. But she's a pip, with a great outlook on life. So the two of them become best friends and support one another through all the bullying and low times. Piper encourages Ava to try out for the school play. And even though she's scarred and scary looking, they cast her. When Piper has her lowest point ever and pushes Ava and everyone else away, Ava knows she has to be the best friend she can be to help her through her pain. It's a story about perseverance and survival, and friendship, and accepting people for what they are.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Not if I See You First, Five Feet Apart, Faceless, The Fault in our Stars, Holding Up the Universe
Rebel With a Cupcake by Anna Mainwaring
FIC MAI
Jess is overweight and she's ok with that. On most days, she looks in the mirror and likes what she sees. But then Zara, her own personal bully, makes her life a living hell, and when her crush Matt finally seems to notice her, Jess wonders if she should cave and lose some weight. She buckles and starts to diet and exercise. She has three weeks to fit into the dress she wants to wear to Matt's party and she does it. But then she sees Matt with Zara, so what good was it? She caved and it didn't matter anyway. It was a good book - funny and Jess was a good character with a great personality. But she gave into societal norms and lost the weight for a boy. Not the right message. But she exercised and got a healthy, so good message.
Realistic Fiction
Read this is you liked: Dumplin', PS I Love You, Leah on the Offbeat, Drag Teen, The DUFF, 45 Pounds, Fat Angie
Sorry For Your Loss by Jessie Ann Foley
FIC FOL
Pup is the youngest of 8 children in a loud, close, tight knit family. Three years ago his brother Patrick died and everyone in his family has their own way of dealing with it. Pup is in a support group at school, his brother Luke is drinking himself to death, his mother just ignores the fact that his brother is gone. But Pup wants to talk about him, wants to open up to his family. When he is assigned a photography assignment at school, he decides to take pictures of everything that is important to him, and he takes the opportunity to work through his feelings about his brother's death and the impact it has had on his family. This was a beautiful book about sorrow and grief and how everyone has their own way of dealing with it, but sometimes you have to rely on the people that are closest to you to help you through the darkest times.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Goodbye Days, History is All You Left Me, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, All The Bright Places
The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen
FIC DES
Emma was only 10 when her mother died, and her father doesn't like to talk about her. They were divorced and she was an addict, so even when she was alive, she didn't have much of contact with Emma - she lived with her dad and saw her mom when she could. She didn't know her mom's family, but through a series of events, she has to stay with them while her dad goes on his honeymoon. She isn't sure what to expect, and her cousins aren't very nice to her at first, but she perseveres. What she was happiest about are the stories they tell her. She doesn't know a lot about her mom and they fill in the details. She learns that families are messy - you can love them, but you can also fight, but you are always there for one another. There is of course an adorable romance, because it wouldn't be a Sarah Dessen novel without one.
Realistic Fiction, Romance
Read this if you liked: 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Kissing in America, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Field Notes on Love
With The Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
FIC ACE
Emoni is a high school senior with a 3 year old baby girl struggling to make it through classes, work, and just have enough energy for her life. She loves to cook and takes a culinary arts class - she wants to be a chef. Her mother has died, her father took off, so she only has her grandmother to help. Emoni is very mature - I guess she'd have to be with all that responsibility - and makes good decisions for herself and her daughter. I guess that's what the book is ultimately about - making the right decisions for you and your family. Doing the right thing, whether you want to do that thing or not. And although Emoni has a tough life, she does pretty much get to do everything she wants to do like go on a trip to Spain with her culinary class, go to college, have a boyfriend and a best friend, and actually has time to hang out with friends and date. Although it was a good book, I'm not sure how realistic it was and I don't think it shows the real struggles a teen mom is faced with.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Gabi, Girl in Pieces, The Poet X, After, Girls on the Verge
Watch Us Rise by Renee Watson & Ellen Hagan
FIC WAT
Jasmine and Chelsea are sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post everything online—poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial macroaggressions she experiences—and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by online trolls. When things escalate, the principal shuts the club down. Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices—and those of other young women—to be heard.
Realistic Fiction, Feminism, Diversity
Read this if you liked: With Fire on High, Black Enough, On the Come Up, Moxie
Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
FIC KHO
Darius, who is half Persian, never feels like he fits in. He is being treated for depression, has no real friends, and is constantly being picked on. He feels like his father is always picking on him for not standing up for himself, for being overweight, and essentially for not being 'normal enough'. When the family goes to Iran to visit Darius' dying grandfather, Darius finds a boy, who like him, doesn't fit in quite right in his Iranian school for many of the same reasons. They become fast friends and Darius finally starts to accept himself.
Realistic Fiction, Diversity
Read this if you liked: Patron Saints of Nothing, Internment, Poet X, Frankly in Love, A Very Large Expanse of Sea
FIC BLI
Luke and Toby have been best friends forever. Neither has much - Luke's mom can barely hold a job and Luke is responsible for taking care of his young twin brothers. Toby's father is a drunk and a petty con who beats him. Luke is always picking up the pieces and protecting Toby, a job he doesn't mind doing. Things start to change when Annie moves to town. Toby is smitten, but she clearly prefers Luke. But when Toby's father enlists him to help with a job, everything starts to fall apart. Told in a narrative and by a series of letters written by Luke to Toby from death row.
Realistic Fiction, Epistolary Novel
Read this if you liked: Shout, Long Way Down, Devils Within, After the Shot Drops, Monster
Ava and Gen have been best friends forever but are now in colleges on opposite coasts. Ava is socially inept, has anxiety issues, has trouble making friends, and relies on Gen for everything. Gen is gender fluid, loves relationships, is outgoing, loves to party, and is just loving life. But they work as friends and are there for one another. They stay in constant touch via email and text, and the book is their back-and-forth over the course of the year. We see how they support each other, how they fight and make up, and how they change.
Realisitic Fiction, Epistolary Novel
Read this if you liked: TTYL, Love & Other Carnivorous Plants, Fangirl, Freshmen, Let's Talk About Love
How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow
FIC GLA
Tiger Toliver and her overprotective, single mother live together in a little house doing the best they can with what they have. When Tiger asks her mom if she can go to the school dance, her mom, unexpectedly, says yes and buys Tiger a dress. It's the most hideous thing Tiger has ever seen. She yells at her mom, they get into a huge fight, and she tells her to just leave her alone. It turns out those are the last words Tiger ever says to her mom. Hours later, she finds out she had a stroke and died. Tiger now has to face life without her. There is no family and no one to take her in, so Tiger ends up in the foster system until a long lost half sister that she never knew about shows up. She isn't the best parental role model, but it's better than foster care. Within the course of a couple of months, Tiger gets into all kinds of trouble, fights with her best friend, loses a boy, and is bogged down with intense grief. And through it all, she wears the dress her mom bought for her. The ugly, smelly, ratty dress that she never takes off. She wears it like a badge, because this is what her mother wanted for her.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Goodbye Days, Astonishing Color of After, History is All You Left Me, Perfect Mexican Daughter
All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
FIC REY
Rashid was just minding his own business in the convenience store when he bent down and a woman tripped over him. Next thing he knows, a cop has dragged him out of the store and is beating him on the street. He ends up in the hospital and with the support of the community, he becomes the rallying cry for police brutality and racism. Quinn, his classmate and a white boy, saw the whole thing. The cop is the brother of his best friend, and is someone who helped raise him. The book was told in two voices, that of Rashad's and of Quinn's. Rashad is of course angry and frightened - the cops are always harassing the black boys and now he intends to make a stand with his family and friends. Quinn is so torn - stands to lose his family and friends if he does the right thing. But he stands up for what he knows is right. There's a lot to think about - white privilege, understanding what boys of color go through, and how to coexist.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Hate U Give, How it Went Down, X, Out of Darkness, The 57 Bus, Dear Martin
Picture Us In The Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert
FIC GIL
On the surface, Danny Cheng seems to have a great life - nice parents, he got into his dream college, great friends, living in a great neighborhood. But then one day he finds a box in his house that's filled with paperwork he doesn't understand. When he confronts his father about it, his father gets angry and won't give him any answers. He's frustrated, and tries to google it, but still comes up short. When his father loses his job and they can't afford their home any longer, Danny feels like his life is spiraling out out of control.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Dangerous Art of Blending In, The Sun Is Also a Star, Love, Hate, & Other Filters
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
FIC SAN
Julia is una hija malcriada - she does nothing right in her parent's eyes. She doesn't cook, she talks back, and she gets into trouble all the time. After her sister dies in a terrible accident, Julia feels the pressure to be the perfect daughter her sister was, but knows she can't. While going through her sister's room, she finds some things that make no sense and she tries to find out the secrets her sister was keeping. Through it all, all Julia wants is to be her own person, but her parents are suffocating her and she doesn't know where to turn. She realizes that everyone around her has secrets, and perhaps they are living the only lives they can.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: American Panda, Gabi A Girl in Pieces, Rani Patel in Full Effect, American Street
Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich
FIC EMM
Evan Hansen is a loner. He has no friends, he doesn't like to leave his room, and he actually prefers it that way. But his mother and his therapist want him to expand his horizons, make friends, and put himself out there. He writes daily letters to himself which always start off with Dear Evan Hansen, Today is going to be an amazing day, and here's why. And then he proceeds to lie to himself and his therapist, because really, he only wants to hear something positive. Today is the first day of school, and he's determined to make an effort. But when he prints out his letter, and the school screw up finds it and takes it, that puts a whole series of events into motion. Connor kills himself later that day, and when his parents find the letter, they naturally assume that Connor wrote that letter to Evan as a goodbye and suicide note. Evan tries to tell them the truth, but they seem so happy to know that Connor had a good friend who he could turn to. And it just gets worse from there.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Turtles All the Way Down, Every Last Word, All the Bright Places, Thirteen Reasons Why, Impulse
FIC SUM
Sadie's mother is an addict who has left her to care for her sister Mattie alone. Sadie loves Mattie like a mother would a child, and when she turns up dead, Sadie goes on a quest to find her killer. She searches for Keith, one of her mother's ex boyfriends, but we don't know why she thinks he's involved until close to the end when we learn the devastating truth of what happened. Told in two perspectives - one by Sadie and the other by Wes Macray, a radio personality who is searching for Sadie, hoping to find her before it's too late.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Blink and Caution, Don't Look Back, The Lovely Bones, Paper Towns
That's Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger
FIC KEP
Leanne is a survivor of a school shooting where her best friend, Sarah, was killed. For three years everyone has thought that Sarah died a martyr, standing up for her religious beliefs, but Lee was there and knows that it didn't happen that way. When she tries to set the record straight, she is harassed by the community who wants to believe the story of Sarah.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Violent Ends, Crash and Burn, Hate List, Nineteen Minutes, This is Where it Ends
A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti
FIC CAL
Annabelle has had some sort of tragedy in her life, and one day, she just snaps. She starts running across the country, from Washington state to Washington DC in order confront her elected officials and just do something. Her grandfather offers to follow her help, and along the way Annabelle goes through highs and very lows, remembering what happened and how it all started. She remembers how she met 'the taker' and the events that led up to the tragedy, which we don't know about until the very end. At some point, Annabelle decides that instead of being scared and frail, she is angry and she is going to keep going to prove a point not only to herself but to him. Very good book about a woman's perseverance and desire to fight back.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Handmaid's Tale, The Fault in Our Stars, Faceless, And We Stay
FIC AND
Cell phones have been banned at school, so the kids at Frost's middle school use post it notes instead. It started out with affirmations, but quickly escalated into hate and bullying. While all this was happening, the new girl, Rose, starts to hang out with Frost and his friends, and they are not all happy with it, threatening to tear their tribe apart. Frost is a really good kid and has a lot of insight, and sees that all relationships change.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Thirteen Reasons Why, Fat Angie, Hate List, Mockingbird, Tell Me Three Things
SC ARM
Whether or not you believe in fate, or luck, or love at first sight, every romance has to start somewhere. MEET CUTE is an anthology of original short stories featuring tales of "how they first met" from some of today’s most popular YA authors.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Problem with Forever, How to Love, We Are Okay, The Sun is Also a Star
Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
FIC DES
Sydney's brother is loved by all and she feels pretty much invisible at home. When he starts to get into trouble, then gets into real trouble and is jailed, she becomes even more invisible because her parents are so focused on him and his issues. She meets Mac and his family and really connects with them. Sydney's mother is super strict, and doesn't want her spending too much time with them. Even though she's a Senior in HS, they don't want her home alone when they're going to be away. They enlist the brother's weird friend, who she's totally uncomfortable around, but instead of telling her mother that she's afraid of him, she accepts it.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Boy Most Likely To, I'll Meet You There, North of Beautiful, When We Collided, Infinite In Between
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
FIC ZAP
Eliza is a teenage introvert who happens to be the creator of an incredibly popular web based comic. She spends all of her time drawing and online, and her parents worry that she doesn't have a social life. She can't make them understand that this is her life, her friends are there, her work is there, and it's just as valid as real life. Eliza meets Wallace, a new boy in school who doesn't like to speak who happens to be a huge fan of the comic. They are both very shy and socially awkward and take a long time to show their feelings, but spending time with Wallace makes her realize that maybe she has been missing out on life. When the world finds out who she is, her life spirals out of control and she withdraws even further.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Eleanor & Park, Afterworlds, Fan Girl, Highly Illogical Behavior, Say What You Will
A Short History of the Girl Next Door by Jared Reck
RIC REC
Matt has been in love with his best friend and next door neighbor for years. Now that they're in high school, Maddy has started to date a popular senior and it's driving Matt crazy. It's causing a strain on their relationship, but he doesn't know how to fix it. On New Year's day, a tragic accident leaves Matt alone and desperate and unable to cope. What started out as a fun and light book got really heavy really fast. We can't help but feel for Matt and everything he's going through until his mother reminds him that everyone else is feeling a loss as well.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: What to Say Next, Second Chance Summer, Everything, Everything, My Life Next Door
Don't Get Caught by Kurt Dinan
FIC DIN
Max and 4 other 'nobody' students at school all get invitations from the infamous Chaos Club to meet at the water tower at midnight. Even though they can't figure out why they've been selected, they go only to realize they've been set up. Max decides to get revenge, and the others go along with him. The rest of the school year is filled with pranks and humor, and Max finally finds a group of friends in High School, when he always felt like he was a nobody.
Humor, Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Dan vs. Nature, The Disreputable History of Frankie L Banks, Enter Title Here
FIC FIN
Caitlin wants to escape her boring life and hard past. She has just gotten out of an abusive relationships and wants a change. She is a talented aspiring Opera singer and decides to try out for Miami School of Arts and gets in. Her new school is a complete change of scenery for her and makes her question if she has what it takes to follow her dreams and become the Diva she knows she is. ~ reviewed by Kyle King
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Related Titles: Thirteen Reasons Why, A Kiss in Time, Breaking Point, Long Way Down, Breathing Underwater
Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
FIC REY
Sixty seconds. Seven floors. Three Rules. One gun. Will’s older brother has just been shot. Dead. But in his neighborhood there are THE RULES: 1. Crying. Don't. No matter what. 2. Snitching. Don't. No matter what. 3. Revenge. Do. No matter what. - Reviewed by Sam Fellman
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Mystical Realism
Read this if you liked: Dear Martin, Piecing me Together, The Hate U Give, American Street
Turtles all the way Down by John Green
FIC GRE
Aza has severe OCD which limits her from some basic pleasures in life. She is in constant fear of contracting an illness and continually washes her hands and retreats inside herself. She reunites with Davis, the son of a billionaire who has gone missing. She wants to help him through his pain, but every time she tries to get close, her anxiety takes over. Aza goes to therapy and tries hard to control this, but finds her life spiraling downward.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Whisper to Me, The Rest of us Just Live Here, Challenger Deep, Words in Deep Blue
What Girls are Made of by Elana Arnold
FIC ARN
Nina is in love with Seth and will do whatever it takes to keep him happy. If he wants sex, she'll give it to him, she'll stay away from her friends, and she'll play by all of his rules. But her mother has warned her that love is unconditional, and when Seth finally leaves her, she spirals and tries to figure out her place in life without her boyfriend. She finds out she's pregnant, and doesn't even blink. It's about how a teenage girl feels about her body and what she's willing to do.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: American Girls, Fallout, The Impossible Knife of Memory, Girl in Pieces
If there's no Tomorrow by Jennifer Armentrout
FIC ARM
Lena is the sole survivor of a drunk driving accident where four of her closest friends died. She seems to have it all. She's pretty and popular, and is secretly in love with the boy next door, Sebastian, who we find out has been secretly in love with her. But after the accident, Lena retreats within herself and Sebastian tries to take care of her. But she's harboring a secret - she knew that the boy driving was drunk and she should have taken the keys away from him and she's having a hard time dealing with the guilt of that. She quits the volleyball team and pushes her friends away. But then she realizes that tomorrow isn't promised and she has to make the most of her life.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Along for the Ride, If I Stay, Wintergirls, Goodbye Days, Bang, Tupac & Foster
FIC ZEN
Carver sends a text message to his best friend, and then he finds out the unthinkable happened - his friend answered his message while driving and got into an accident killing himself and two other friends. Now Carver is alone, guilty, and possibly up on murder charges. His guilt is all consuming. He's afraid he's going to jail, but he also feels like he deserves it. But when Eli's grandmother asks him to spend a last day remembering her grandson, he does it and it starts to relieve some of the guilt. He does it with the families of his other friends as well, and with each goodbye day, he gets stronger and more sure of himself. Very sad but uplifting.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Little and Lion, It's Not Me, It's You, The Upside Down of Unrequited, Thirteen Reasons Why
Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
FIC CRO
The day that she moved away, Rachel proclaimed her love to Henry, her best friend, in a letter. But he never said anything about it, so she stops talking to him and cuts him out of her life. After her brother drowns in the ocean, she becomes very depressed, fails senior year, loses her friends, and gives up. Her mother decides moving back will be good for her, and when she reconnects with Henry, who is in love with Amy, Rachel decides she is over him and they can be friends again. But as they work together in Henry's bookstore, surrounded by words, books, old stories, and love letters, they begin to feel a pull toward each other.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Our Chemical Hearts, Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between, Eleanor and Park, Something In Between
FIC LAC
After Marin's grandfather dies, she breaks down and runs off to college without saying goodbye to anyone, including her best friend, Mabel. He was everything to Marin, especially since her mother died when she was a little girl. But after months of ignoring all her texts and calls, Mabel shows up at her school and forces Marin to talk. She has been spiraling downward but finally starts to get it out. We learn the tragic story of her grandfather, her mother, and all the secrets that have been kept. Sad, but lovely.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Great American Whatever, I'll Give You the Sun, History is All You Left Me, If I Stay
Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia
FIC KAN
Reshma is a high school over achiever who will stop at nothing to get what she wants - admission to Stanford. She does nothing but study. She has no friends and no social life. But she needs a hook for her college application essay, so she decides she will write a book based on herself, get an agent, and that will clinch it. She needs to 1) make friends 2) go to a party 3) get a boyfriend and 4) have sex, then she'll have what she needs for her book. But she also needs to be valedictorian and will stop at nothing, including suing her school, to make that happen.
Realistic Fiction
Read this is you liked: When Rishi Met Dimple, The Upside of Unrequited, Falling Over Sideways, Learning to Swear in America
Fire Color One by Jenny Valentine
FIC VAL
Iris loves to set fires. Her mother, who is now broke, brings her to London to meet her rich father, and hopefully get some money out of him. Her mother wants his priceless art collection, but Iris wants nothing to do with it. Iris doesn't want to meet the man who abandoned her, but finds a man who is dying and who had been looking for her for her entire life. She learns his secrets and soon realizes her father is far different than the man her mother taught her to hate.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: What Girls are Made of, The Last Time We Say Goodbye, When We Collided, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces
The Radius of Us by Marie Marquardt
FIC MAR
After Gretchen was attacked, she lived her life in fear enduring constant panic attacks. One day she sees someone whom she thinks is her attacker, and goes to find him. When she does, they form a friendship which helps her get over her fears. Phoenix is in the United States seeking asylum. He and his brother are running from gang violence in El Salvador and he fears for his life. He is afraid to tell Gretchen about his past and his life, worried that she'll reject him. They are starting to have feelings for one another, but Phoenix may be deported soon, and their time is running out. Told in alternating voices.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Like No Other, Something In Between, The Sun is Also a Star, The Lines We Cross
![Violent Ends by [Hutchinson, Shaun David, Shusterman, Neal, Shusterman, Brendan, Revis, Beth, Smith, Cynthia Leitich, Summers, Courtney, Blake, Kendare, Dawson, Delilah S., Brezenoff, Steve, Leveen, Tom, Moskowitz, Hannah, Woolston, Blythe, Doller, Trish, Scott, Mindi, Gelbwasser, Margie, Johnson, Christine, Kokie, E. M., Nader, Elisa]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/sitesv/AAzXCkcQX9DqkrdvRDK8HyXz-jv_jIQVLjyNOSdFp_EF6JAqbmRXw7CI4s-jpf8gdsinsiNGc3tmFyXIqF53OlDxXNzr_Dw0UyzFQx8OPUcBEQSLP7GoovyjhxtoD-HTIqsUfy8vaXHAhDahaW1hkndj_sinvkbSkOJH5eZMjNKrSWJ57zXFjW2E0kxw48g5y8l0sLOEp0EDh6tUkO0=w1280)
FIC ROE
Julian has lost both his parents and was taken into foster care by Catherine and her son Adam. 5 years later, he's living with his Uncle Russell, but has found Adam at his new High School. They start to spend time together, but Adam starts to get a feeling that things aren't right with Julian at home. And they aren't. Julian is scared, quiet, has learning issues, and acts very much like a little kid. He tries to please everyone, including his Uncle, but he never does anything right, at least that what he convinces himself of. This was a heartbreaking story.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: A Tragic Kind of Wonderful, The Inexplicable Logic of My Life, Orbiting Jupiter, Bruiser, Rules of Survival
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
FIC NG
Mia and her daughter Pearl have always been free spirits, never staying in one place for very long. The Richardsons are the exact opposite. The perfect family, living in a big house, with everything they could want in life. When Mia and Pearl land in Shaker Heights, Pearl befriends the Richardsons and finally feels like she is a part of something. But there is a custody hearing that tears the town apart, one of the kids gets an abortion, and the truth about Mia and Pearl comes out, all of which creates confrontation and tragedy for all involved.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Everything I Never Told You, Bellweather Rhapsody, The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
FIC PIC
Ruth is a labor and delivery nurse who has been told she is not allowed to touch the newborn baby of a white supremacist couple. But when Ruth is alone in the nursery with the baby, and the baby stops breathing, she doesn't hesitate to try to save him. When the baby dies, the family accuses her of murder and she is thrown into jail and has to face trial. The story is more about how whites and blacks react to race issues and how whites, even though they don't see themselves as racist, truly may be. It's an interesting perspective on the issue.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Help, Leave Me, Between the World and Me, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Black Like Me
Asking For It by Louise O'Neill
FIC ONE
Emma is the most beautiful girl in the school. All the girls want to be her, and all the boys want to date her. She knows it and wears it like a badge. One night, Emma and her friends go to a party and drink, flirt, and do drugs. She has her eye on an older boy and gets him into a bedroom and has sex with him. She does sort of change her mind, but lets him go ahead with it anyway. But then the drugs kick in and she's out of control and then passes out, and doesn't know what happened until the next day when pictures of her having sex with three boys are plastered all over Facebook. The comments are awful - she was asking for it, she deserved it, she was a bad person. When she decides to go to the police, she is vilified, and the boys are held up as the victims. It is tearing her family apart, she's losing her friends, and she just wants it to all go away. The ending is sad in that unfortunately, most rape victims go through what she is going through and decide to just give up just to make it all stop.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Speak, Exit Pursued by A Bear, Scars, The Way I Used to Be
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
FIC THO
Starr is an African American girl living in a poor, black neighborhood, going to an upscale mostly white school. She feels like she's two people and can never really be herself with her neighborhood friends or her school friends. Star is in the car with her friend when they are pulled over by the police, and although they are doing nothing wrong, things escalate, and her friend is shot. The story is now getting national attention, they're calling Khalil a drug dealer and a gangster, but Starr knows the real boy - the one she grew up with and called her friend. She wants to do the right thing, but when the cop is acquitted of all charges, riots break out Starr joins in the fight. This was a very powerful book and I had to take it in small doses because it was full of totally justified anger because of all the injustices felt in the black community.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: All American Boys, After Tupac and D Foster, Monster, How it Went Down
Violent Ends by Shaun Hutchinson
FIC HUT
Violent Ends is written by seventeen different authors, in seventeen different perspectives. The story centers around a school shooting lead by Kirby Matheson. However, instead of the entire story taking place during the shooting, it takes place before, during, and after. The characters could know Kirby, or they could be total strangers. Every character helped piece together who Kirby was and why he might have did what he had, however, will we ever know the exact reason? ~ Reviewed by Sarah Basenese
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: This is Where it Ends, Nineteen Minutes, Thirteen Reasons Why
FIC EGG
Mae gets her dream job at the Circle, a Google-like company that seems too good to be real. Daily parties, health care for her sick father, famous musicians playing every day, free food, clothes, dorms, just about anything. She quickly rises in the company, and quickly buys into the idea that the world should be transparent - cameras everywhere, no privacy, everyone knowing everything about everyone else. But there are many who feel that this is a little too much. Her parents refuse to talk to her if she has a camera on her, her ex boyfriends decides to go off the grid to get away from technology, and her best friend has a melt down. What's too much? Where should we draw the line? It's a thought provoking look at society and social media.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Before the Fall, Feed, Brave New World, 1984, Station Eleven
Still Life with Tornado by A. S. King
FIC KIN
Sarah, 16, has had a breakdown after a series of events she won’t immediately reveal: the reason why she is reluctant to go back to school, and perhaps most importantly, things that are happening at home, especially since the trip to Mexico six years ago. Sarah quits school, wanders the streets of Philadelphia, and meets with her fractured selves; 10-year-old Sarah, who has not yet forgotten what happened in Mexico, 23-year-old Sarah and 40-year-old Sarah. It was a bit confusing to meet all these Sarahs. I assumed the end of the book would reveal Sarah was having a breakdown and the Sarahs were a figment of her imagination. But that wasn't the case. They are both metaphor and magic realism and help Sarah through the darkest time of her life. Emotionally intense and complex.
Magical Realism
Read this if you liked: Every Day, The Weight of Feathers, Infandous, Bone Gap, I Crawl Through It, If I Stay
The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie Sue Hitchcock
FIC HIT
The book is told from the perspective of four Alaskan teens in the 70's, each with their own problems. They are all trying to find solace in their lives and figure out what to do to make it better. Ruth's father died and mother is out of the picture, being raised by an unloving grandmother; Alyce has a shot at being a dancer, but feels held back by her father; Hank and his brothers run away and then Sam goes missing; Dora's father is in jail and her mother is a drunk, and she never wants to see them again. They are all a part of each other's lives and support systems.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Burn Baby Burn, Peas and Carrots, Bitter Side of Sweet, The Serpent King
Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
FIC GLA
When we meet Charlie, she's in a hospital, recovering from the cutting she's inflicted upon herself. She's been through too much - living on the streets, in a sex house, beatings by her mother, her father dying, losing her best friend, but most of all, hating herself. Cutting is the only way she knows how to make the pain go away. When she has to leave the safety of the hospital, there is no one for her but a friend who helps her move to Tucson. She tries to rebuild her life, but she's right back in the world of drugs, denial, and loneliness. A good book about a girl who desperately wants to get better, but at 18, just doesn't know how to do it on her own.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Cut, Scars, Wintergirls, Go Ask Alice, All the Bright Places, Ellen Hopkins books
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
FIC YOO
Daniel is a Korean American boy who has an interview with Yale today. Natasha is a Jamaican at her lawyer's trying not to get deported today. It's fate that they meet, but Natasha doesn't believe in fate, and doesn't believe in love, until she does. Daniel wins her heart, but when she can't get her deportation overturned, she's on a plane and she knows that it's going to be the end of them. They've only had one day, but it seems like they've known each other forever. Spoiler alert: It would have be absolutely great if it stopped it there, because in real life, you don't always have a happy ending. But in the epilogue, fate steps in.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Eleanor and Park, Holding up the Universe, Everything,Everything, Something In Between
Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
FIC NIV
Jack and Libby meet under terrible circumstances. She's new to school after being home-schooled because she was too overweight to leave her house. She's now lost over 100 pounds and is ready to face the world. She's still overweight, and Jack, popular and full of swagger, plays a cruel joke on her. Now they're both in after school counseling. Although Libby should hate him, she feels drawn to him, especially after he tells her his huge secret - he has a condition which doesn't allow him to recognize faces, so everyone is a stranger to him. She tries to help him and they get closer, until he pushes her away.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: A Step Toward Falling, The Sun is Also a Star, All the Bright Places
FIC AND
Three young musicians have escaped from summer band camp, and follow a quest to avoid the law long enough to play the amazing show they hope (but also doubt) they have in them. It's The Haters of Summer Hate Tour, and for a few hours, they made magical music.
Humor, Adventure
Read this if you liked: The Great American Whatever, Highly Illogical Behavior
We Are Still Tornadoes by Michael Kun
FIC KUN
Scott and Cath have been friends forever, but when she goes off to college, and he stays behind, they write letters to each other to keep in touch. They both experience tragedies, fall in and out of love with different people, fight, help each other, and do everything that best friends do. It's set in the 80's, and they reference a lot of the music of the time, so for those of us who lived through that time, it was fun to reminisce.
Realistic Fiction, Romance
Read this if you liked: Perks of Being a Wallflower, TTYL, Because You'll Never Meet Me, Serpent King
Character, Driven by David Lubar
FIC LUB
Cliff is a senior in high school who wants nothing more than to win the heart of the girl he loves, who doesn't know he exists. His unemployed father thinks he's a waste and threatens to throw him out the minute he turns 18. He hopes to go to college and is working two jobs just to try to contribute to the family. When he finally gets the nerve to talk to Jillian, he finds they actually have a lot in common and they like each other. He's a good kid; stands up for what he believes in and supports his friends. This was a very good book, a true coming of age told in an honest voice.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Trouble in Me, This is the Part Where you Laugh, The Porcupine of Truth, Saint Anything
This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp
FIC NIJ
Told in multiple perspectives, the story is told in the span of 54 minutes during a school shooting. Ty is an angry teenager and he locks the majority of the students of his high school in the auditorium and randomly starts shooting. His sister is there, her girlfriend, kids he hates, kids he doesn't even know. Autumn is afraid she is going to be next, but she does what she can to diffuse the situation. There are a few kids outside the auditorium, and they do what they can to help rescue their friends.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Violent Ends, Hate List, Nineteen Minutes, Finding Jake, This is Not a Drill, We Need to Talk About Kevin
This is the Story of You by Beth Kephart
FIC KEP
Mira lives on Haven, a six mile stretch of barrier island near Atlantic City. She's grown up there and loves the island and is dedicated to her family and two best friends. But then a Super Storm comes in and devastates the island. Her mother and brother are stuck on the mainland and can't get to her, so she has to figure out how to survive on her own. When a stranger shows up at her house, she is shocked and amazed to find out their connection. Written in a lyrical form.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Life as We Knew It, We All Looked Up, Safekeeping, After the Snow
Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy
FIC HAS
Told completely in lists, the book follows Darren, a high school sophomore who doesn't have friends, who's a bit overweight, and is hopelessly in love with Zoe. His parents are divorced and then his dad drops a bomb on him - he's gay. Darren has a lot of trouble dealing with all of this. He wants to be a good son and be supportive, but he just can't take it anymore. And like a real teenager, he acts out, says things he shouldn't say, and hurts his parent's feelings. But through it all, he's can't forget Zoey and what he means to him, even though she has mysteriously disappeared.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Six Impossible Things, Along for the Ride, TTFN, The Beginning of Everything
FIC LAR
Ashley is overweight, and every year on her birthday, her grandmother tries to bribe her to lose weight. First it was a shopping spree, then it was Disneyland, the a car. Ashley always refused it until it escalated to the one thing Ashley couldn't refuse - 4 years tuition to Harvard. Her grandmother wants her to have gastric bypass surgery. Ashely is happy the way she is and can't understand why she should change. But she is slowly changing her mind because Harvard has always been her dream.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Dumplin', A Step Toward Falling, Tumbling, 45 Pounds (More or Less), Fans of the Impossible Life
Infinite In Between By Carolyn Mackler
FIC MAC
This book follows the lives of five High School freshman from the first day of school up until graduation. It shows how much can change, how people can grow, how dreams can be realized, and how tragedy can happen all in the blink of an eye.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Beginning of Everything, A Step Towards Falling, Boys Don't Knit, The Big Crunch, Paper Towns
FIC LAK
Cassie is writing an email to the boy she likes explaining why she has acted badly. She is begging his forgiveness and confessing that she has been hearing a voice in her head which has been telling her to do terrible things - hit herself, not talk to anyone, not have fun, to clean, to wash her face, has called her disgusting and dirty, and told her she'd make her father die if she didn't listen. She eventually figures out, with the help of a therapist, how to control the voice. The realization of who the voice is, and the trauma that put it there helps Cassie deal with it. But it's a window into what it's like to live with mental illness and what people and their families go through.
Realistic Fiction, Romance
Read this if you liked: This is the Part Where you Laugh, The Art of Not Breathing, Challenger Deep, Calvin
FIC LAR
Ashley is overweight, and every year on her birthday, her grandmother tries to bribe her to lose weight. First it was a shopping spree, then it was Disneyland, the a car. Ashley always refused it until it escalated to the one thing Ashley couldn't refuse - 4 years tuition to Harvard. Her grandmother wants her to have gastric bypass surgery. Ashely is happy the way she is and can't understand why she should change. But she is slowly changing her mind because Harvard has always been her dream.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Dumplin', A Step Toward Falling, Tumbling, 45 Pounds (More or Less), Fans of the Impossible Life
FIC DOW
Three generations of women living in the same house, all with a secret. Katie's mother is a scared control freak. She thinks anything and everything can go wrong and holds Katie to very high standards. Katie's grandmother has been literally dropped on their doorstep after years of no contact. She's in the beginning stages of Alzheimers and the family is trying to cope. Katie is confused and tired of trying to be perfect. They all learn and they all grow, and figure out how to be a family.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Fault in our Stars, Lock and Key, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, All the Bright Places
FIC KEN
Yuri, a 17 year old Russian physicist genius, is in the US helping stop a meteor from smashing into California. He's not always taken seriously, and he's a bit socially inept. He meets Dovie, the daughter of hippie parents and a definite free spirit. Yuri likes her and spends time with her doing normal teenage things. He finally finds a friend a realizes there is more to life than science.
Sci Fi, Realistic
Read this if you liked: The Memory Book, Enter Title Here, Eleanor & Park, Delirium
Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen
FIC DES
Peyton, Sydney's charismatic older brother, has always been the star of the family, receiving the lion's share of their parents' attention and—lately—concern. When Peyton's increasingly reckless behavior culminates in an accident, a drunk driving conviction, and a jail sentence, Sydney is cast adrift, searching for her place in the family and the world. - goodreads
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Infinite In Between, I'll Meet You There, The Boy Most Likely To, Exit, Pursued by a Bear
Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston
FIC JOH
Hermoine, the co-captain of her high school's champion cheerleading team, is drugged and raped at camp. Because she doesn't remember the attack, she struggles with her recovery because she doesn't feel it actually happened to her. She has a rock-solid support system - her friends, family, and coach, and she has the drive to not let this define her. She's strong, and when she's not, she has a lot of people around her to prop her up. She's a good character, a good role model. The book is based on A Winter's Tale.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: How to Save a Life, Someone Like You, Burn Baby Burn, Dime, All American Boys
This is Where the World Ends by Amy Zhan
FIC ZHA
Next-door neighbors, polar opposites and secret best friends Micah and Janie hide their friendship from their clique-minded classmates until Janie is date raped and she becomes ostracized by her former friends. Micah is having trouble remembering what happened the night of a big party, and while going through therapy, is slowly remembering. Janie is trying to get over the rape and now that she's missing, Micah is getting worried.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: We Were Liars, Althea & Oliver, Please Ignore Vera Dietz, The Girl Who Fell
This is the Story of You by Beth Kephart
FIC KEP
On Haven, a six-mile long, half-mile-wide stretch of barrier island, Mira and her Year-Rounder friends have risen to every challenge. But then a superstorm defies all predictions and devastates the island, upending all logic and stranding Mira's mother and brother on the mainland. Nothing will ever be the same. -Amazon
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Burn, Baby Burn, Exit, Pursued by Bear, Not if I See You First
The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
FIC SMI
Eden McCrorey’s was a band geek and good student and harbored a secret crush on her beloved older brother’s best friend. But her life is overturned when, in her freshman year, that best friend rapes her late one night in her own bed—and threatens to kill her if she tells anyone. She keeps the secret and soon finds herself using sex and boys to gain control over her own body. She distances herself from her best friend and a loving boyfriend while losing interest in music, academics, and her own future. - Book List
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: What Happened to Goodbye, Thirteen Reasons Why, The Running Dream, Hate List
Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach
FIC WAL
Parker Sante has not spoken since his father died, years ago. When he meets Zelda Toth, the silver-haired girl who looks 18 but claims to be 247 years old and immortal, his life changes. She says she is going to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge because she has nothing left to live for, but Parker tries to change her mind. Along the way, she transforms Parker, who doesn't have friends and who is an introvert, and he figures out there is more out there to live for.
Coming of Age, Magical Realism
Read this if you liked: Noggin, Because You'll Never Meet Me, The Moon and More
FIC LEA
Seventeen-year-old Calvin, who was born on the day that the last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip was published, is stricken by a schizophrenic episode and begins having conversations with the tiger, Hobbes. Struggling to regain control of his mind and destiny, Calvin becomes convinced that he'll get better if the strip's creator, Bill Watterson, will draw just one more comic.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Challenger Deep, Stoner and Spaz, Fans of the Impossible Life, Chasing Shadows
Because You'll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas
FIC THO
Ollie, who seizes near electricity, lives in a cabin in the woods and rarely sees other people. Moritz, who has a heart defect and is sees only by echolocation, is bullied at school. Urged by a doctor they both know, they begin a pen pal correspondence and help each other through troubling times.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Not if I See You First, Stoner and Spaz, Torn Away, Theory of Everything
Looking for Alaska by John Green
FIC GRE
Miles “Pudge” Halter's whole life has been one big non-event, and has craved “the Great Perhaps” his whole life. He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. She is gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then nothing is ever the same.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked anything by John Green, Thirteen Reasons Why, Please Ignore Vera Dietz
FIC DUM
Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (Dumplin) has always been at home in her own skin. With her best friend Ellen by her side, things have always worked. Will meets Bo, a hot former jock, and likes him, but she is surprised when he seems to like her back. Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all. Such a great book!
Romance, Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Eleanor and Park, 45 Pounds, Fans of the Impossible Life, Future Perfect
FIC JOH
Fifteen-year-old Jennifer has to force her family to admit she needs help for her eating disorder. But when her parents sign her into the Samuel Tuke Center, she knows it’s a terrible mistake. The facility’s locked doors, cynical nurses, and harsh rules are a far cry from the peaceful, supportive environment she’d imagined. In order to be discharged, Jennifer must make her way through the strict treatment program. She is forced to examine her relationships, both inside and outside the hospital. She must relearn who to trust, and decide for herself what “healthy” really means. This is an autobiographical fiction.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Wintergirls, Go Ask Alice, Crank, One Thing Stolen
A Step Toward Falling by Cammie McGovern
FIC MCG
This is a book about learning from your mistakes, and learning to forgive. Told in alternating points of view, A Step Toward Falling is a poignant, hopeful, and altogether stunning work. Emily has always been the kind of girl who tries to do the right thing—until one night when she does the worst thing possible. She sees Belinda, a classmate with developmental disabilities, being attacked. Inexplicably, she does nothing at all. When their high school finds out what happened, Emily and Lucas, a football player who was also there that night, are required to perform community service at a center for disabled people. Soon, they begin to feel like they're starting to make a real difference. But can they do anything that will actually help the one person they hurt the most?
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: What's Broken Between Us, Don't Ever Change, Thousand Words
Not if I See You First by Eric Lindstrom
FIC LIN
Parker Grant is blind, but can see right through you. That’s why she created the Rules: Don’t treat her any differently just because she’s blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances. Just ask Scott, the boy who broke her heart. When he reappearsafter being gone for years, Parker knows there’s only one way to react—shun him so hard it hurts. But avoiding her past quickly proves impossible, and the more Parker learns about what really happened—both with Scott, and her dad, who's recently died, the more she starts to question if things are always as they seem. Maybe, just maybe, some Rules are meant to be broken.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Theory of Everything, Because You'll Never Meet Me, A Step Towards Falling
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
FIC YAN
One of the best, and definitely the most disturbing books, I've ever read. The books spans the lives of four college roommates, centering around Jude. He is deeply and emotionally scarred, having been horribly abused during his childhood. He is a complex man, and feels he has no self-worth. He has no idea the effect he has on the lives of everyone around him, and although they try to tell him time and again, he is incapable of believing them. It is haunting and beautifully written.
Realistic Fiction, Psychological fiction
Read this if you liked: Go Ask Alice, A Child Called It, A Spool of Blue Thread
The F*** It List by Julie Halpern
FIC HAL
Alex's best friend Becca has cancer and she wants to do what she can to help her. Becca asks Alex to complete here Bucket List. Some of the things she's ok with, others, not so much. Alex herself has a lot of baggage she's trying to deal with, and doesn't really deal well. But as she completes the list, she learns that we have to live our lives to the fullest and not be afraid, because life is fleeting. Filled with a bit too much sex and language, but realistic for High School students.
Realistic Fiction, death and dying, friendship
Read it if you liked: The Fault in Our Stars, Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl, The DUFF, Ten Miles Past Normal
The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) by Kody Keplinger
FIC KEP
After the school hottie calls Bianca a DUFF, her low self esteem goes even lower. She hates him, but then begins to like him, then begins to use him to make herself feel better about her life. When a nice boy starts to like her, Bianca feels like that's who she should be with, but is caught between the the two. There is a bit too much sex in it for a YA book, but it's part of the lesson she learns in the end.
Realistic fiction, Books to Movie, sarcastic, character-driven
Read this if you liked: The Earth, My Butt, and Other Round Things, The List, Beauty Queens
Torn Away by Jennifer Brown
FIC BRO
After losing everything, including her mother and sister in a tornado, Jersey is sent away to live with her father whom she has never met. That turns out to be a redneck nightmare. When her father says he doesn't want her, she goes to live with grandparents who apparently disowned her mother when she was a baby. She wants to hate them, but she's finds out they are good people and grows to care. She learns things about her mother that are contrary to what she believes and has a hard time dealing with all the changes in her life.
Realistic fiction
Read this if you liked: The Truth about Forever, Kissing in America, Playlist for the Dead
A Man Calle Ove by Fredrik Backman
FIC BAC
Ove is a lonely old man, a complete curmudgeon who is trying to kill himself because he misses his wife so desperately. But stuff keeps getting in the way and he has to keep putting it off. It's quite comical for such a serious situation. But all that stuff makes you see what a good person he is - and then when he has a heart attack, the doctor proclaims he has a heart that's too big, and you know that he does. A lovely, touching book.
Realistic Fiction, Quirky
Read this if you liked: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
The Comfort of Lies by Randy Susan Meyers
FIC MEY
The story is told from three different points of view - Tia, the young girl who is pregnant with a married man's baby; Caroline, who adopts the baby but secretly hates being a mother; and Juliette, the wife who find out her husband cheated and is trying to figure out what to do. Desperate for the truth, Juliette searches for the baby and the three women collide with disastrous consequences.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Last Affair, The Husband's Secret, Outside the Lines
Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jess Andrews
FIC AND
Greg and his friend Earl, are high school nerds who spend their time making movies. Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel who has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.
Realistic Fiction, Books to Movies
Read this if you liked: The Fault in our Stars, Dear Life You Suck, 100 Miles Sideways, Crash and Burn
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
FIC NIV
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink. - Amazon
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: The Fault in our Stars, The Truth about Forever, Forgive me Leonard Peacock
The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks
FIC BRO
Sixteen year old Linus, a street person since leaving home, is kidnapped and taken to an underground bunker where he is soon joined by five others, ranging in age from nine to seventy, who are alternately cared for and tortured by their unseen captor.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Code Orange, The Rules of Survival, Alex Rider
We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist
At the age of twenty-five, Josh Sundquist, who had Ewing's sarcoma as a child and is now a paralympic ski racer, looks back to try to understand why he has never had a steady girlfriend. He tells the story of each of his 'relationships and how they went wrong. You have to feel so sorry for this guy - he was so clueless and scared of girls! But he was also a cancer survivor with only one leg, and from my view, really brave.
Biography
Read this if you liked: Laughing at my Nightmare, Some Assembly Required, A List of Things that Didn't Kill Me
The Truth about Alice by Jennifer Mathieu
FIC MAT
Rumor has it that Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the bathroom stall at Healy High for everyone to see. And after star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car accident, the rumors start to spiral out of control.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda, Tease, Thirteen Reasons Why
I'll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson
FIC NEL
Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Eleanor and Park, Two Boys Kissing, The Sky is Everywhere, All the Bright Places
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
FIC SIM
Don Tillman, a brilliant geneticist, thinks that having women fill out a six-page, double-sided questionnaire before a date is logical and reasonable. Rosie Jarman, an impetuous barmaid, thinks Don should loosen up and learn to live a little. Follow the unlikely pair in this laugh-out-loud, feel-good story of unexpected joys, discovery and love. -- Paulette Brooks for LibraryReads.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Us, Where'd You Go, Bernadette? The Universe vs. Alex Woods
Reality Boy by A. S. King
FIC KIN
Gerald and Hannah are messed up teens. Gerald's family was on a reality show when he was a young. His sister tried to kill him countless times but no one believes him, his mother thinks he's the crazy one, and his father doesn't care. But he meets Hannah, falls in love, and starts to see that maybe he has a future after all.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Challenger Deep, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, Charm and Strange
FIC ROW
Wren and Cath are inseparable twins until they go to college and Wren decides she wants to be on her own. Cath is miserable, but trying to live on her own for the first time. She finds her voice as a writer, working on a Fanfiction of the Simon Snow book she loved as a kid, finds romance and friendship away from her comfort zone.
Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age
Read this if you liked: Eleanor and Park, The Big Crunch, Roomies, Guy in Real Life, I'll Meet You There
Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan
FIC LEV
Based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.
Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ
Read this if you liked: Ask the Passengers, I'll Give you the Sun, Openly Straight, Rainbow Boys
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
FIC SCH
Football star Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life. When he meets Cassidy, his life is transformed.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Paper Towns, Infinite In Between, The Big Crunch, The Sky is Everywhere
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
FIC GRE
Having been recently dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, recent high school graduate and former child prodigy Colin sets off on a road trip with his best friend to try to find some new direction in life while also trying to create a mathematical formula to explain his relationships.
Realistic Fiction, Romance
Read this if you liked: Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, Why We Broke Up, FanGirl, Boys Don't Knit
Forgive me Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
FIC QUI
Today is Leonard Peacock’s birthday. It is also the day 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. But first he must say good-bye to the four people who matter most to him. -Goodreads
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Thirteen Reasons Why, All the Bright Places, Paper Towns, Playlist for the Dead
FIC VIV
Every year, The List of the eight prettiest and ugliest girls at their High School is published. Neither group does well in the aftermath of the publication of and really gets to the heart of what high school girls have to go through in society.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: DUFF, The Infinite In Between, The Earth, My Butt, and other Round Things.
We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver
FIC SHR
Kevin murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now his mother is trying to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, in a series of letters with her estranged husband. Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails. - GoodReads
Psychological Fiction
Read this if you liked: Defending Jacob, Finding Jake, Reconstructing Amelia, Nineteen Minutes
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
FIC ASH
Hannah commits suicide and makes tapes telling thirteen people why they are the thirteen reasons she did it. She sends the tapes to Clay, who spends the night listening to and distributing the tapes, and finds out why he made the list.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Hate List, Forgive me, Leonard Peacock, Looking for Alaska, Perfect
FIC BRO
Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain. - Novelist
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Thirteen Reasons Why, This is Where it Ends, Give a Boy a Gun, Finding Jake
Wintergirls by Laura Halse Anderson
FIC AND
A look into the lives of girls with eating disorders and the lengths they will go to to stay thin. They are never thin enough and nothing will be good enough until they get to be a zero, double zero, and beyond.
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Believarexic, Go Ask Alice, Pointe, Twisted, Crank, Speak
FIC AND
A traumatic event in the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda's freshman year of high school. She is an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice and delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many teenagers while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself. - goodreads
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: Cut, Mockingbirds, Twisted, Thirteen Reasons Why, This is Where the World Ends
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
FIC OLI
After she dies in a car crash, Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself. She finally realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined. - novelist
Realistic Fiction
Read this if you liked: If I Stay, The Future of Us, Looking for Alaska, Falling into Place
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