6 YA Books That Deal with Serious Issues Through Serious Magic

Over and over again, I’ve told him the wonderful thing about magical stories is that they can talk about serious issues while also being magical. That sometimes, the presence of magic is what allows you—as a reader, or a viewer, or a fan—to get through the story’s tough parts. Sometimes we need to believe in magic to get through the tough parts of our own stories—not unlike Bo, the main character in Beth Revis’s beautiful new novel, A World Without You. After the death of his girlfriend, Bo’s delusions—his belief in magic—are part of how he copes with his enormous loss. He believes he can use his superpowers to travel through time and save the girl he loves.
Sometimes a little magic helps us get through the worst of times, or allows us to face and understand difficult issues. And so, in honor of Bo and A World Without You, here are a few of our favorite novels that handle serious topics with a touch of magic.

Bone Gap, by Laura Ruby
Bone Gap is about a lot of things: love, loss, brotherhood, fear, bravery—but it’s also about magic. When people leave Bone Gap, they don’t come back, so no one believes Finn when he claims Roza was taken away against her will. Finn is the only one who saw Roza’s abduction, but he’s not much of a witness because he can’t remember what the man who took her actually looked like. Then again, no one has ever taken Finn all that seriously—that’s how he earned nicknames like Spaceman, Sidetrack, and Moonface. To make matters worse, Finn’s older brother, Sean, hasn’t been the same since Roza left. Finn wants Roza back. He wants Sean back. And he also wants a girl named Petey who lives with her mother and their thousands of bees. Everyone knows that Bone Gap, Illinois, got its name because the small town is home to gaps between the real world and other dimensions, so it just might be that Roza is lost in another world—and maybe Finn can find a way to save her.

Extraordinary Means, by Robyn Schneider
Imagine a world in the not-so-distant future where a deadly strain of tuberculosis is sweeping across the United States. To prevent them from spreading the disease, infected young people are sent to isolated facilities like Latham House, including 17-year-old Lane. Lane is determined not to fall behind in his studies, but then again, he doesn’t know when—or if—he’ll ever get to leave Latham House and go back to his old life. Lane finds himself drawn to Sadie, another Latham House patient. Despite the fact that it’s set in a (just slightly) alternate reality, Extraordinary Means deals with themes readers in this reality will recognize: love, loss, discovering who you are and what’s really important. Sadie and Lane are falling for each other, but their bodies are more fragile than they’re willing to admit.

The Probability of Miracles, by Wendy Wunder
Campbell Cooper is sick. The sort of sick where even your doctor says all that’s left is to hope for a miracle. Unfortunately, after her parents’ divorce, her father’s death, and her own cancer diagnosis, Cam doesn’t exactly believe in miracles. But her mother, Alecia, isn’t ready to give up, so she takes Cam and Cam’s little sister across the country to a town called Promise, Maine—a place where amazing, even magical things are said to occur. What Cam finds in Promise isn’t quite what Alecia had in mind—but maybe there’s more than one kind of miracle.

Every Day, by David Levithan
Every day is different for A. Really, really different: Each morning, A wakes up in a different body, in a different home, a one-day visitor in someone else’s body, in someone else’s life. A never gets to stay put for more than a single day, and has come up with a set of rules to survive this kind of life: never get attached, never get noticed, never interfere. Falling in love is most definitely against the rules, but A can’t help it. When A meets Rhiannon, A wants to see her every day. Suddenly, A is breaking all the rules—interfering, getting noticed, and definitely getting attached. But can Rhiannon love A back, when every day A looks nothing like the person they were the day before? This book is full of magic, but it will make you think about the small consistencies we all take for granted. It’s a fun, fantastical read, but it also deals with themes of love, identity, and sexuality in a completely original and utterly fascinating way.

Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell
A magical adventure from Rainbow Rowell? Yes, please! But like all great fantasy, Carry On has a lot more going on than magic and spells. Simon Snow is a student at the Watford School of Magicks, and he’s quite possibly the worst chosen one who has ever been chosen. Half the time he can’t get his wand to work, his best friend is way smarter, his girlfriend just broke up with him, and then there’s Tyrannus Basilton Pitch, a.k.a. Baz, Simon’s roommate and archnemesis. Baz is everything Simon isn’t—including a vampire. Now, things have taken a turn for the even worse: Baz is mysteriously missing, Simon’s mentor, the Mage, has been kind of ignoring him, and the Insidious Humdrum is creating magical dead spots across England. Carry On is full of magic and adventure, but it’s also a story about discovering your destiny, falling in love (even with the person you least expected), and accepting who you are—things all of us have to worry about, with or without magic.