June’s Top Picks in Teen Fiction

Finding Audrey, by Sophie Kinsella
Shopaholic author Sophie Kinsella’s first YA novel is about a teen girl finding her way back to life after a psychologically damaging incident. It’s also about the ridiculous awesomeness of overprotective parents, sibling bonds, and first love. Audrey hides behind dark glasses and finds it easiest to see life through a camera lens. She struggles with social anxiety, staying at home because she fears what’s outside. Still, Kinsella makes her protagonist’s circumscribed world worth visiting thanks to her keen observations of Audrey’s wonderfully nutty family. Audrey’s healing process is helped along by a sweet romance with a patient boy who wants to know the girl behind the sunglasses.

Emmy & Oliver, by Robin Benway
Emmy’s childhood best friend, Oliver, was kidnapped by his father when they were kids—and now, a decade later, he’s back. In their time apart, Emmy was stifled by reactive, wildly overprotective parents, and Oliver was living an entirely new life. Their long-dormant friendship promises to become something more, as Oliver grapples with feeling like an outsider all over again.

Joyride, by Anna Banks
After witnessing him committing an odd crime, first-generation Mexican American Carly starts to fall for Anglo American golden boy Arden, the son of a racist local sheriff. Soon they become accomplices in an escalating series of daring pranks, and what starts as a grudging friendship grows into something more intense. But Arden’s dangerous dad and Carly’s ambition to smuggle her parents back into the U.S. complicate their headlong love affair—and a late-breaking twist ratchets up the tension to an almost unbearable degree.

Sweet, by Emmy Laybourne
Set on a cruise ship sponsored by Solu, a delicious new sweetener that actually causes weight loss, Sweet is told in alternating chapters by normal girl Laurel and former child star Tom, who fall in love as the ship devolves into Solu-induced chaos. It’s a creepy, candy-bright story with blood under its nails.

Every Last Word, by Tamara Ireland Stone
Samantha’s OCD means she’s subjected to a barrage of dark thoughts all day, every day. From the outside, she’s an effortless member of the popular crowd, but internally she’s struggling—not just with her own mind, but with the knowledge that her friends will drop her like a single if they find out what’s really going on inside her head. Then new friend Caroline introduces Sam to a group of student poets that includes a very intriguing boy who was once a target of Sam’s bullying—and who, she starts to realize, has the power to change her life. The intense evocation of Sam’s perilous inner life, combined with a killer climax, make this one a must-read.

The Good Girls, by Sara Shepard
In the second half of Pretty Little Liars author Sara Shepard’s new duology, following 2014’s The Perfectionists, five girls with dark secrets are dealing with the aftermath of a murder: that of Nolan Hotchkiss, their school’s golden boy…and the girls’ mortal enemy. The thing is, he died in the exact way they planned it, as a bad joke, in class. And when a teacher with whom they share a dark connection is also found dead, the girls have to consider whether the murderer is trying to frame them—or whether they’ll be next.

Alive, by Chandler Baker
It seems like a miracle when Stella receives a life-changing heart transplant just before her time runs out, and she’s determined to live her life to the fullest. But she’s dogged by strange post-op side effects, including hallucinations and a bout of terrible pain that hits her at the same time every day. She dives into an addictive relationship with intense new boy Lev, whose presence seems to provide relief from her symptoms—until the symptoms grow even stranger, and the story takes a blood-soaked turn.

Spelled, by Betsy Schow
Princess Dorthea of Emerald bears little resemblance to Princess Dorothy of Oz, being a spoiled Emerald Palace native who just wants to get out of arranged marriage with an arrogant prince. But after she wishes on the seriously wrong star, her parents are magically exiled, her kingdom’s put in peril, and she’s forced to leave the palace walls to save her world from a big, bad witch. Her journey across Oz is full of fun fairy tale references and awesomely creepy new inventions.

Daughter of Deep Silence, by Carrie Ryan
At age 14, Frances Mace was one of just three survivors of a brutal terrorist attack on a cruise ship—but the other two survivors, a senator and his son, insist it was an ocean swell that took the ship down. Newly orphaned, she’s taken in by the rich father of a girl who died after the attack. And four years later, after her adoptive father’s death, she’s ready to use his riches to take her revenge on whoever was behind the coverup, starting with the senator and his family. Matters are complicated, however, by the onboard romance she shared with his son before the ship went down…

A Book of Spirits and Thieves, by Morgan Rhodes
This spinoff from Rhodes’ Falling Kingdoms series spans the real world and that of magical kingdom Mytica. In modern-day Toronto, a girl named Becca is bewitched by the text of a dangerous book, and falls into a coma. Meanwhile, in Mytica, Becca appears in spirit form, only visible to the one person who can help her find her way home. This book works as both a fantasy standalone and a companion read for readers who already love Falling Kingdoms, building on its rich world and dark magic.

Powerless, by Tera Lynn Childs and Tracy Deebs
Kenna is sick of being a normal girl in a world full of literal superheroes (and villains), including her superpowered best friend, Rebel. But when villains break into her mom’s top-secret lab, she starts to question everything she thought she knew about good and evil. Soon she finds herself on the side of the “bad” guys, and discovers she might have as-yet untapped abilities of her own.

The Hunted, by Charlie Higson
In the sixth of seven planned installments of Higson’s Enemy series, Ella and Ed are fighting to survive in a world where everyone over the age of 16 has been deformed—physically and mentally—by a horrible plague. Constantly on the run from the cannibalistic afflicted, Ella’s reeling from the recent death of her companions, while Ed is doing everything he can to find her, making good on a promise to her brother.

Proof of Forever, by Lexa Hillyer
Four friends who’ve drifted apart cross paths again at a summer camp reunion—then are zapped two years back in time by some strange, photo-booth magic. In the blink of an eye they’re planted back in their last year at summer camp, and must fix (and relive) their old mistakes without derailing the future.

One Moment in Time, by Lauren Barnholdt
Three former best friends made a pact at the start of high school, to do something life-changing and epic before graduation—and then their friendship fell apart. In book two of Barnholdt’s Moment of Truth series, good girl Quinn takes the wheel. She’s always been on her best behavior, but a disastrous trip to Florida, the memory of the pact, and the arrival of a very cute boy she meets on the beach combine to make her question her devotion to obeying the rules.

To Hold the Bridge, by Garth Nix
Best known for his Abhorsen series, Nix proves in this story collection that he has a knack for world building across genres and time periods. He takes readers back into the settings he created for Shade’s Children and A Confusion of Princes, as well as into wholly new ones, including a reimagined Paris and a magical boarding school. The title novella takes place in Nix’s Old Kingdom, and concerns a young man attempting to win a place with the Bridge Company through his skills in both combat and magic.