15 Great Books You Might Have Missed in 2015

This Side of Home, by Renee Watson
We’ve talked about this one on the blog as much as possible, but I’m gonna mention it again anyway, because it still remains one of the most intriguing and thoughtful books I’ve read all year, and I love the discussions it raises. Nikki and Maya are identical twins, but they don’t seem to agree on much lately—not since their historically black neighborhood in Portland started going through some “upscale” changes. As Nikki embraces said changes, Maya feels like she’s losing everything she holds dear, both personally and culturally, and her new relationship isn’t helping her confusion.

Play On, by Michelle Smith
2015 was a big year for books revolving around dying with mental illness, and I wish upon all the stars in the sky that this book had gotten more attention as a great example of a book about living and loving with one. Austin has seen the effects of depression in his life, but the experience he knows doesn’t quite mesh with his impression of cute new girl Marisa. Marisa is smart, sweet, and suffers from bouts of depression—something that hits Austin hard, given he’s already lost someone to it once. But both his growing love for Marisa and his own inner strength make it something they work through together, and the setting of a baseball-obsessed southern town brings it all together beautifully.

Written in the Stars, by Aisha Saeed
If you ever want to know how to write high stakes and hold-your-breath-til-you-pass-out tension without having to involve wizards or dragons, Saeed’s debut is a masterclass. Naila’s catered to her parents’ wishes in almost every way, but she can’t help falling in love with sweet, charming Saif, even though she’s not supposed to be dating anyone her parents haven’t chosen for her to marry. When her deception is uncovered, her parents engage in some of their own, by bringing her to Pakistan not on a visit, as they pretended, but to marry her off. Under constant watch and thousands of miles from home, Naila has little hope for escape, unless Saif can somehow manage to track her down and bring her back.

Damage Done, by Amanda Panitch
In a time when everything was being pitched as “the YA Gone Girl,” this is the way-too-underread book that most lived up to the claim. Julia is now Lucy, living a new life in protection after twenty-two mysterious minutes changed her old life for good. She thought she’d left the ghosts of her tragic past behind, but when it looks like she hasn’t shed them entirely after all, she’ll have to make some questionable choices to reclaim her life, or die trying.

The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley, by Shaun David Hutchinson
Andrew lost his entire family in a single accident, and though he’s recovered physically, the emotional scars are another story. Unable to move on with his life, he secretly lives in the hospital, befriending the staff, eating the food, drawing his comic book, and visiting his “grandmother.” He’s there, too, when Rusty gets rolled in—a gay teen boy, like Drew, who’s got a body full of burns, thanks to bullying from some hateful classmates. The two bond, and Drew shares his comic stylings with Rusty, sharing the art and thoughts that get him through the day, while also revealing more of his personal life and history as the two get closer. But both are harboring secrets dark enough to break a kid in two, and together they may not be strong enough to withstand them.

Dreamstrider, by Lindsay Smith
Smith actually had two releases last year (the first was Skandal, which brought her killer psychic-teen-spy duology to a close), and often when that happens, the second release gets a little lost. I suspect this was the case with Dreamstrider, an intense, wild, complex standalone fantasy about a girl with the ability to travel through people’s dreams. When Livia gets the opportunity to up her dreamstriding training in order potentially help stop an invasion, she rises to the challenge despite the terrifying potential risks—after all, it’s not like they can be that much worse than her miserable life in the tunnels. But as missions get more and more complex, and those she thought she could trust begin to show other faces, she becomes the only one who truly knows what’s at stake, and how far she’ll have to go to save her people.

A Sense of the Infinite, by Hilary T. Smith
I don’t usually put books on a list like this without reading them, but I was so excited to get to this one after hearing stellar recommendations from trusted friends that I took it out…and promptly lost it in my apartment. Still, between those recommendations and my admiration for Smith’s previous YA, Wild Awake, I couldn’t leave this one behind. Books about crumbling best friendships and the effects of that loss are vital to YA, and the pain of losing said BFF to a boy just as you’re going through a lot of your own tough drama is something plenty of readers will no doubt identify with. Definitely a book both you and I should be reading in 2016, as soon as I find my copy.

See No Color, by Shannon Gibney
Sneaking one more into the “Haven’t read it yet but feeling pretty confident” camp (and if you don’t trust my confidence, trust multiple starred reviews instead), I have to mention this YA, about a biracial girl (half-black, half-white) being raised in a white family. Sixteen-year-old Alex doesn’t know any other transracial adoptees, but united by their love of baseball, she’s always seemed to fit well into her family. Then some research into her birth father and the romantic interest of a black boy throw her off balance, and she sets off on a journey to better know and understand the half of her identity that has always been stifled.

This Monstrous Thing, by Mackenzi Lee
When Alasdair’s brother’s faces an untimely death, Alasdair secretly uses clockwork to bring him back—but the Oliver who returns isn’t the Oliver he lost. No one can know what Alasdair has done, except the one person who does: Mary Godwin, aka Mary Shelley. When the story of Oliver’s mechanical reincarnation is released in anonymously penned novel form two years later, as Frankenstein, Alasdair finds his darkest secrets dangerously close to being uncovered, and he’s running out of time to make things right. I didn’t think “steampunk Frankenstein” would be my kind of thing at all, but I read this entire book in one sitting, demanded my husband read it, too, sent it off to someone else I knew would love it, and bought another copy. So if you, too, are a doubter—stop that.

Skyscraping, by Cordelia Jensen
Speaking of things I have to stop convincing myself aren’t my thing—novels in verse. Because between Holly Bodger’s 5 to 1, Sarah Crossan’s One, Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, and this utterly lovely and touching debut, I’ve read some damn good ones in the past couple of years. In the 1993-in-NYC-set Skyscraping, Mira is stunned to catch her father with his (male) lover, and even more so to learn her parents have had an open marriage for years. Though she initially shuns her father upon making her discovery, a more shocking one—that he’s contracted HIV—brings her back to her family to spend with her father whatever time he has left.

Underneath Everything, by Marcy Beller Paul
In case you haven’t seen me discuss this before, I’m a little obsessed with this book, which is everything I’ve ever wanted in a homoerotic toxic friendship novel. (In case you didn’t know that was a unique subgenre, I assure you, it is. If you loved Suicide Notes From Beautiful Girls, by Lynn Weingarten, or Dare Me, by Megan Abbott, this is not a book you want to miss.) Mattie convinced herself she made a clean break from Jolene, and her new life as a loner with her best friend, Kris, is all she needs. But then Mattie has a chance to take something from her old soulmate that actually matters—the boyfriend Jolene stole from her first. As Mattie builds her life back up in Jolene’s shoes, it isn’t quite the victory it should be. Because Mattie doesn’t actually want to replace Jolene, she straight up wants Jolene.

Your Voice is All I Hear, by Leah Scheier
This was a late-breaking love for me, and man did it tear me apart. April is falling in love with kind, cute, talented Jonah, and he’s falling right back. But he’s also changing before her eyes in ways neither of them understand. Because Jonah is presenting signs of schizophrenia, and as he and his family struggle to understand what that means and how to get him the right care, April has to understand her role in the process and what it means to stick by him. What I loved most about the way Scheier handles a sensitive topic here is that a significant portion of the book is dedicated to showing them falling in love, and the way he inspires her to embrace her musical talent before his illness strikes; his mental health issues aren’t what serve as her inspiration, manic-pixie-dream-boy style. You also see the way therapy is a trial-and-error process, and what it looks like when it is and isn’t working for a patient, and that’s something I wholly welcome seeing lots more of in YA.

The Scorpion Rules, by Erin Bow
In case you haven’t heard us going on loudly about this book over here, let me do it one more time. Picture the inexplicably hot AI aspect of Illuminae with a side of irreverence, a world in which the children of world leaders are effectively in escrow to maintain peace, and a love triangle that doesn’t go the way of heteronormativity. (Or drama, in case the words “love triangle” chill you to the bone.) Sounds pretty great, right? Yeah, we think so too, which is why this is one of our favorite reads of 2015 that we’re burning to see get more attention, especially for LGBTQ readers who had no idea that this title features a great bisexual heroine.

Even When You Lie to Me, by Jessica Alcott
Definitely one of the most controversial reads on this list, as books about teacher-student relationships tend to be, but also one of my favorites. Charlie is an insecure heroine, which isn’t helped by her best friend being a Hot Girl, but she’s also smart and witty as hell. When a new teacher arrives who appreciates everything she is and shares her love of books, Charlie is enamored, and as their relationship builds, she suspects her taboo feelings may be reciprocated. I love this book for pushing boundaries while never reaching for shock value, for feeling exceptionally real but never maudlin or soul-searching, for making me laugh out loud, and for the honest ending I wouldn’t have any other way.