Ready, Set, Graduate: 6 YAs Set During Senior Year

The Rest of Us Just Live Here, by Patrick Ness
Mikey’s your average high school senior: all he wants is to finish out the year with mild success, and hopefully a date with close friend Henna under his belt. Average sounds a little underwhelming, though, when your best friend is part god, and you’re always the guy standing next to the guy saving everyone from certain doom. The story of Mikey and his friends plays out alongside a high-stakes paranormal romance happening to another clique, but just because someone else has bigger challenges doesn’t mean Mikey’s family struggles and college applications are any easier to handle. Because sometimes, surviving the ordinary is difficult enough.

Never Always Sometimes, by Adi Alsaid
Thanks to their Nevers List, Dave and Julia have been steadily avoiding all the clichés of high school—crushing on a teacher, going to cheesy high-school parties. But now that it’s senior year, they’re having second thoughts. On a whim, they decide to do everything they swore they’d never do—good news for Dave, since one of those things is “never date your best friend,” and he’s been secretly in love with Julia for ages. As they explore everything they’ve been missing out on and senior year draws to a close, they realize that maybe they’re not as unique as they’d like to think…and maybe that’s okay.

The Moment of Truth Series, by Lauren Barnholdt
Back when Lyla, Aven, and Quinn were freshmen (and still best friends), they wrote themselves emails containing one thing they wanted to do before they graduated high school. Now it’s time for their senior trip and the girls are no longer talking to each other…but they’re still stuck rooming together. When those emails from their past selves pop up in their inboxes, each girl is prompted to do something she normally wouldn’t, and to reconsider their broken friendship. Toss Florida beaches and a handful of troublesome boys into the mix, and you’ve got a trilogy full of senior year angst you don’t want to miss.

How Not to Spend Your Senior Year, by Cameron Dokey
Being in the Witness Protection Program means Jo is used to moving, so it’s no surprise when she has to start at a new school in the middle of senior year. But this time is different: there’s a boy involved. When Jo—supposedly dead Jo—goes back to her old school to say goodbye, she gets mistaken for a ghost, leading to a multiple-school mystery and far, far too much interest from a nosey (and, unfortunately, hot) student reporter. Is dying her hair and getting glasses enough to stop people from noticing her? And how can you focus on graduation when your would-be boyfriend thinks you’re haunting him?

Lucky Fools, by Coert Voorhees
David has been starring in every play since forever, so it’s not surprising that he wants to go to Juilliard. But with everyone else at his super-intense prep school aiming for Stanford, going for a performing arts school is starting to make him feel like a failure. Add the fact that he’s starting to crush on a girl who’s not his girlfriend, and the little problem that someone seems to be taking down the academic careers of his fellow classmates, and, well, just being himself is the last thing David has time to worry about.

Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins
Things are bad enough when Anna’s father rips her away from her perfect life in Atlanta to spend her senior year at a boarding school in Paris. But they start to look even more hopeless when Anna falls for Etienne St. Clair, the most unavailable boy at said school. But when Etienne shows an interest in her, too, things get really confusing, and all of Anna’s brand-new friendships seem to be on the line. This could be the best senior year ever…or the worst.
What’s your favorite senior-year read?