5 YA Books That Take You Deep Into the Woods

The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher
The woods behind Emily’s house have always been familiar, a place for a child to play and grow. But when her dad is accused of killing a girl in those very woods, suddenly nothing is what it used to be anymore. She hopes the victim’s boyfriend can help prove her dad’s innocence—an innocence she’s less sure of by the day—but Damon knows more than he’s telling about the woods and the many games played within them.

Ash by Malinda Lo
Ash has grown up with endless stories of the Wood and the fairies who live there. After her mother falls ill and dies, followed shortly by Ash’s newly remarried father, she seeks refuge there and meets a fairy who offers her the storybook ending she craves. While Ash serves her cruel stepmother’s every whim, she continues to sneak into her beloved Wood. But then she meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, and faces an impossible choice between the fairy who’s claimed her and the woman who has opened her heart.

The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Fae are a fact of life in Fairfold; the occasional tourist goes missing, but the locals are safe—mostly. And then there’s the sleeping boy in the woods. Hazel and her brother, Ben, have been in love with him since they were children playing knight and bard through the trees. No matter how people try to wake him, the horned boy stays sleeping in his glass coffin. Until, suddenly, he wakes up. Now, the fragile safety of Fairfold starts to shatter, and Hazel attempts to play the knight again, but with so much more on the line than ever before.

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke
Wink is the odd, unnerving neighbor girl. Poppy is the bully and the beauty both. Midnight is the boy caught between them. When his family moves, he goes from being Poppy’s willing plaything to Wink’s fairy tale Hero. As the three become more and more entangled, so do ideas of heroism and villainy. Right and wrong, it seems, can be as difficult to parse as the stories Wink tells and as frightening as the house the three keep coming back to in the woods.

Orleans by Sherri L. Smith
Katrina was only the beginning. A series of progressively more devastating hurricanes followed, and brought a new sickness with them. Delta Fever spread and the U.S. cut its losses, quarantining the entire Gulf Coast. Fen de la Guerre ekes out a harsh survival there with her blood tribe, but when their leader dies in childbirth, Fen vows to get the baby out of Orleans before the Fever takes hold. With the help of a scientist who snuck across the Wall, Fen makes her way through the treacherous swamp, determined to give the child a better chance than any of Orleans’ inhabitants ever had.