Looking to spice up your life and bookshelf at the same time? We’ve got all the best YA books to read this year all in one handy place. So whether you’re starting a readathon, you’re compiling a new TBR list, or you just want to know all the best YA book releases in 2018 – you’ve come to the right place. The only thing we won’t be held accountable for is your dwindling bank balance.
Happy reading!
1st April
‘Psalm for Lost Girls‘ by Katie Bayerl
Tess da Costa is a saint – a hand to god, miracle-producing saint. At least that’s what the people in her hometown of New Avon seem to believe. And when Tess suddenly passes away, her small community is eager to get the Pope’s stamp of approval to make it official. But Tess’s sister, Callie, knows the real Tess, and can’t stand to see the memory of her sister tainted by religious hocus-pocus. The fervor around Tess’s canonisation only grows when Ana Langone, a local girl who’s been missing for six months, is found alive at the foot of one of Tess’s shrines. With the help of Tess’s secret ex-boyfriend Danny, Callie’s determined to prove that Tess was something far more important than a saint; she was her sister, and her best friend. But Callie’s efforts uncover much more than she bargained for – a hidden diary, old family secrets, and maybe even the truth behind Ana’s kidnapping. Told through alternating perspectives, A Psalm for Lost Girls is at once soulful, a little creepy and definitely funny – an impressive debut from a new star in the making.
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5th April
‘Lady Mary‘ by Lucy Worsley
By turns thrilling, dramatic and touching, this is the story of Henry the Eighth and Catherine of Aragon’s divorce as you’ve never heard it before – from the eyes of their daughter, Princess Mary. More than anything Mary just wants her family to stay together; for her mother and her father – and for her – to all be in the same place at once. But when her father announces that his marriage to her mother was void and by turns that Mary doesn’t really count as his child, she realises things will never be as she hoped. Things only get worse when her father marries again. Separated from her mother and forced to work as a servant for her new sister, Mary must dig deep to find the strength to stand up against those who wish to bring her down. Despite what anyone says, she will always be a princess. She has the blood of a princess and she is ready to fight for what is rightfully hers.
Buy in the UK and not yet available in the US.
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‘Storm-Wake‘ by Lucy Christopher
Moss has lived with her pa on a remote island for as long as she remembers. The Old World has disappeared beneath the waves – only Pa’s magic, harnessing the wondrous stormflowers on the island, can save the sunken continents. But a storm is brewing, promising cataclysmic changes. Soon, two strange boys wash up on the shore. As the clouds swell and the ocean churns, Moss learns to open her eyes to the truth about her isolated world…
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‘The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things‘ by Carolyn Mackler
Fifteen-year-old Virginia feels like a fat, awkward outsider in her perfect family, especially next to her golden-boy big brother Byron. She’s got a lot to deal with – her weight, her best friend moving away, the mean girls at school – not to mention a boy who seems to like her! To survive, she decides to follow the `Fat Girl Code of Conduct’ to make herself acceptable, unnoticed … invisible. It seems to be working until something unthinkable happens and, before her eyes, Virginia’s flawless family begins to fall apart. As her world spins out of orbit, Virginia realises that breaking the Fat Girl Code might be the only way to create a life that belongs to her. Carolyn Mackler’s acclaimed book has been updated for a new audience and is as relevant, funny and full of heart as it was when it was first published fifteen years ago.
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‘I Have Lost My Way‘ by Gayle Foreman
Around the time that Freya loses her voice while recording her debut album, Harun is making plans to run away from home to find the boy that he loves, and Nathaniel is arriving in New York City after a family tragedy leaves him isolated on the outskirts of Washington state.
After the three of them collide in Central Park, they slowly reveal the parts of their past that they haven’t been able to confront and together, they find their way back to who they’re supposed to be.
Told over the course of a single day from three different perspectives, this is a story about the power of friendship and being true to who you are.
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‘Renegades‘ by Marissa Meyer
Secret identities. Extraordinary powers.
She wants vengeance. He wants justice.
The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies-humans with extraordinary abilities-who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone… except the villains they once overthrew.
Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice-and in Nova. But Nova’s allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.
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‘Words In Deep Blue‘ by Cath Crowley
Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favourite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.
Now Rachel has returned to the city – and to the bookshop – to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore.
As Henry and Rachel work side by side – surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages – they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.
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‘Clean‘ by Juno Dawson
When socialite Lexi Volkov almost overdoses, she thinks she’s hit rock bottom.
She’s wrong. Rock bottom is when she’s forced into an exclusive rehab facility.
From there, the only way is up for Lexi and her fellow inmates, including the mysterious Brady.
As she faces her demons, Lexi realises love is the most powerful drug of all …
It’s a dirty business getting clean …
Addiction and redemption, love and despair. Clean will have you hooked from the first page.
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‘Me Mam. Me Dad. Me‘ by Malcom Duffy
Danny’s mam has a new boyfriend. Initially, all is good – Callum seems nice enough, and Danny can’t deny he’s got a nice set up; big house, fast car, massive TV, and Kim seems to really like him.
But cracks begin to show, and they’re not the sort that can be easily repaired. As Danny witnesses Mam suffer and Callum spiral out of control he goes in search of his dad. The Dad he’s never met.
Set between Newcastle and Edinburgh, this powerful coming-of-age drama tackles the issue of domestic violence head on but manages to find humour and hope in the most unlikely of places.
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12th April
‘A Good Day for Climbing Trees‘ by Jaco Jacobs
Sometimes, in the blink of an eye, you do something that changes your life forever.
Like climbing a tree with a girl you don’t know.
Marnus is tired of feeling invisible, living in the shadow of his two brothers.
His older brother is good at breaking swimming records and girls’ hearts. His younger brother is already a crafty entrepreneur who has tricked him into doing the dishes all summer.
But when a girl called Leila turns up on their doorstep one morning with a petition, it’s the start of an unexpected adventure.
And finally, Marnus gets the chance to be noticed…
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19th April
‘Genesis‘ by Brendan Reichs
Noah Livingston knows he is destined to survive. The sixty-four members of his class are trapped in a place where morals have no meaning, and zero rules apply. But Noah’s deaths have trained him, hardened him, to lead the strongest into the future – whatever that may be – at any cost.
Min Wilder knows that survival alone isn’t enough. In a violent world where brute force passes for leadership, it’s tempting just to let everyone else fight it out. But Min’s instincts rebel against allowing others to decide who lives and who dies. She’s ready to fight for what she believes in. And against anyone who might stand in her way.
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‘I Stop Somewhere‘ by T.E Carter
Ellie Frias has never wanted to be popular, she just wants to blend in, to be accepted. But then Caleb Breward, tells her she’s beautiful and makes her believe it.
Ellie loves Caleb, but sometimes she’s not sure she likes him that much – his awkward smile, the possessive way he touches her, his harsh tone, how he ignores her one minute and can’t get enough the next. And then, on one black night, Ellie discovers the monster her boyfriend really is.
Ellie wasn’t the first girl Caleb raped. But she was the first he murdered.
Now, trapped, unable to move on, she witnesses him shatter the lives of other girls again and again. Powerless and alone, Ellie tries to keep hold of happier memories, always waiting – hoping – that someone will find her.
But no one searches for a girl they never noticed in the first place.
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24th April
‘This is Really Happening‘ by Erin Chack
BuzzFeed senior writer Erin Chack hits you in the guts, the feels, and the funny bone all at once with this collection of personal essays that read like Sloane Crosley for the Snapchat generation.
In turns hysterically funny and heartbreakingly poignant, Erin recounts everything from meeting her soulmate at age 14 to her first chemotherapy session at age 19 to what really goes on behind the scenes at a major Internet media company.
She authentically captures the agony and the ecstasy of the millennial experience, whether it’s her first kiss (“Sean’s tongue! In my mouth! Slippery and wet like a slug in the rain.”) or her struggles with anxiety (“When people throw caution to the wind, I am stuck imagining the poor soul who has to break his back sweeping caution into a dustpan”).
Yet Erin also offers a fresh perspective on universal themes of resilience and love as she writes about surviving cancer—including learning of her mother’s own cancer diagnosis within the same year and her attempts to hide the diagnosis from friends to avoid “un-normaling” everything.
Have we missed one that people need to know about? Email us at hello@unitedbypop.com