YA Playlist: Young adult books for Niall Horan fans
It's time to let Niall Horan decide your new favourite book.
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Do you find yourself distracted by the pull of a Niall Horan’s Spotify page every time you sit down to search for a something new to read?
Firstly, don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Secondly, we have the solution to all your troubles with this YA playlist. All you need to do is choose your favourite Niall song from the list below and voilà we’ve paired it with the perfect read to fit your mood and tastes.
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“No Judgement”
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
“When you’re with me, no judgement. You can get that from anyone else. You don’t have to prove nothing. You can just be yourself.”
When Ollie meets his dream guy, Will, over summer break, he thinks he’s found his Happily Ever After. But once summer’s ended, Will stops texting him back, and Ollie finds himself one prince short of a fairytale ending. To complicate the fairytale further, a family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country—Will’s school—where Ollie finds that the sweet, affectionate and comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn’t the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, closeted—and, to be honest, a bit of a jerk.
Ollie has no intention of pining after a guy who clearly isn’t ready for a relationship. But as Will starts ‘coincidentally’ popping up in every area of Ollie’s life, from music class to the lunch table, Ollie finds his resolve weakening.
The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again. Right? Right.
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“Everywhere”
When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk
“Feels like every time I turn a corner, you’re standing right there. Over my shoulder, you’re everywhere. I swear it’s hard to think, it’s hard to breathe when you’re in the air. I try to run, but you’re everywhere I go.”
It’s been twenty-seven days since Cleo and Layla’s friendship imploded.
Nearly a month since Cleo realized they’ll never be besties again.
Now, Cleo wants to erase every memory, good or bad, that tethers her to her ex–best friend. But pretending Layla doesn’t exist isn’t as easy as Cleo hoped, especially after she’s assigned to be Layla’s tutor. Despite budding new friendships with other classmates—and a raging crush on a gorgeous boy named Dom—Cleo’s turbulent past with Layla comes back to haunt them both.
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“Cross Your Mind”
To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo
“It’s your world I wanna live in. It’s your ocean I wanna swim in. It’s your show and I’m just watching. Losing you is not an option.”
Princess Lira is siren royalty and the most lethal of them all. With the hearts of seventeen princes in her collection, she is revered across the sea. Until a twist of fate forces her to kill one of her own. To punish her daughter, the Sea Queen transforms Lira into the one thing they loathe most—a human. Robbed of her song, Lira has until the winter solstice to deliver Prince Elian’s heart to the Sea Queen or remain a human forever.
The ocean is the only place Prince Elian calls home, even though he is heir to the most powerful kingdom in the world. Hunting sirens is more than an unsavory hobby—it’s his calling. When he rescues a drowning woman in the ocean, she’s more than what she appears. She promises to help him find the key to destroying all of sirenkind for good—But can he trust her? And just how many deals will Elian have to barter to eliminate mankind’s greatest enemy?
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“Too Much To Ask”
How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow
“My shadow’s dancing without you for the first time. My heart is hoping you’ll walk right in tonight. Tell me there are things that you regret. ‘Cause if I’m being honest I ain’t over you yet.”
Here is what happens when your mother dies.
It’s the brightest day of summer and it’s dark outside. It’s dark in your house, dark in your room, and dark in your heart. You feel like the darkness is going to split you apart.
That’s how it feels for Tiger. It’s always been Tiger and her mother against the world. Then, on a day like any other, Tiger’s mother dies. And now it’s Tiger, alone.
Here is how you learn to make friends with the dark.
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“Seeing Blind”
From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon
“I have seen, seen it all in paper dreams. Watched it unfold on the screen. But I never understood // Oh, my, my, you just took me by surprise and I can’t believe my eyes.”
Aspiring filmmaker and wallflower Twinkle Mehra has stories she wants to tell and universes she wants to explore, if only the world would listen. So when fellow film geek Sahil Roy approaches her to direct a movie for the upcoming Summer Festival, Twinkle is all over it. The chance to publicly showcase her voice as a director? Dream come true. The fact that it gets her closer to her longtime crush, Neil Roy-a.k.a. Sahil’s twin brother? Dream come true x 2.
When mystery man N begins emailing her, Twinkle is sure it’s Neil, finally ready to begin their happily-ever-after. The only slightly inconvenient problem is that, in the course of movie-making, she’s fallen madly in love with the irresistibly adorkable Sahil.
Twinkle soon realizes that resistance is futile: The romance she’s got is not the one she’s scripted. But will it be enough?
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“Dear Patience”
Under Rose Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall
“Just me and the stars can get lonely. Hey, can you show your face? Can you see that I’m anxious? Can you hear what I’m saying, saying? Hey, ’cause I fall too fast and I go down blazing.”
Agoraphobia confines Norah to the house she shares with her mother.
For her, the outside is sky glimpsed through glass, or a gauntlet to run between home and car. But a chance encounter on the doorstep changes everything: Luke, her new neighbour. Norah is determined to be the girl she thinks Luke deserves: a ‘normal’ girl, her skies unfiltered by the lens of mental illness. Instead, her love and bravery opens a window to unexpected truths …
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“You And Me”
War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi
‘Cause we’re two kids trying to start a fight. No matter where we go, yeah, we’ll be alright. // It’s a hard road as far as I can see. I don’t know where I’m going but I’ll get back to you and me.”
The year is 2172. Climate change and nuclear disasters have rendered much of earth unlivable. Only the lucky ones have escaped to space colonies in the sky.
In a war-torn Nigeria, battles are fought using flying, deadly mechs and soldiers are outfitted with bionic limbs and artificial organs meant to protect them from the harsh, radiation-heavy climate. Across the nation, as the years-long civil war wages on, survival becomes the only way of life.
Two sisters, Onyii and Ify, dream of more. Their lives have been marked by violence and political unrest. Still, they dream of peace, of hope, of a future together.
And they’re willing to fight an entire war to get there.
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“Since We’re Alone”
I Wish You All The Best by Mason Deaver
“Since we’re alone. Yeah, you can show me your heart. If you put it all in my hand. No, I swear. No, I won’t break it apart”
When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they’re thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents’ rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist and try to keep a low profile in a new school.
But Ben’s attempts to survive the last half of senior year unnoticed are thwarted when Nathan Allan, a funny and charismatic student, decides to take Ben under his wing. As Ben and Nathan’s friendship grows, their feelings for each other begin to change, and what started as a disastrous turn of events looks like it might just be a chance to start a happier new life.
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“Flicker”
P.S I Still Love You by Jenny Han
“I’m afraid that what we had is gone. Then I think of the start and it echoes a spark and I remember the magic electricity. Then I look in my heart there’s a light in the dark still a flicker of hope that you first gave to me.”
Lara Jean didn’t expect to really fall for Peter.
She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren’t. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever.
When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean’s feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?
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“Mirrors”
Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz
“She wants to fight. Her eyes are tired, nobody’s on her side. // She looks into her mirror wishing someone could hear her, so loud.”
Etta is tired of dealing with all of the labels and categories that seem so important to everyone else in her small Nebraska hometown.
Everywhere she turns, someone feels she’s too fringe for the fringe. Not gay enough for the Dykes, her ex-clique, thanks to a recent relationship with a boy; not tiny and white enough for ballet, her first passion; and not sick enough to look anorexic (partially thanks to recovery). Etta doesn’t fit anywhere— until she meets Bianca, the straight, white, Christian, and seriously sick girl in Etta’s therapy group. Both girls are auditioning for Brentwood, a prestigious New York theater academy that is so not Nebraska. Bianca seems like Etta’s salvation, but how can Etta be saved by a girl who needs saving herself?
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“The Tide”
Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds
“I feel it coming, it’s coming again. Don’t give up, and don’t let me. ‘Cause I’m needing you to understand. When I go, and all I ever seem to fear. Is that you’re gonna find someone. And slowly watch me disappear.”
When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Froot Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack.
But then Kate dies. And their story should end there.
Yet Kate’s death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever. Jack isn’t sure if he’s losing his mind.
Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate’s death, he’ll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And when one choice turns deadly for someone else close to him, he has to figure out what he’s willing to do to save the people he loves.
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“Fire Away”
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
“Darling you don’t have to hold it. You don’t have to be afraid. You can go ahead and unload it. ‘Cause you know it’ll be okay. // I know sometimes it gets confusing. You might be lost but I ain’t losing you.”
In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.
Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.
But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.