Fifteen 2015 YAs with Narrators of Asian Descent

Under a Painted Sky, by Stacey Lee
Samantha is a Chinese American girl living in Missouri in 1849 when her father dies in a tragic accident, cutting her last ties to her roots. Though she’d initially dreamed of a life in New York, a crime committed in self defense forces her hand and turns her westward instead. She joins forces with a runaway slave named Annamae, disguising themselves as cowboys in order to move along with the Gold Rush. A truly unique story of friendship, adventure, and finding a new home with your new people, Lee’s debut is not to be missed.

The Wrath and the Dawn, by Renee Ahdieh
And speaking of fantastic debuts…holy wow. Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, this tale of a girl who offers herself up as a bride for a murderous boy king in order to avenge the death of her best friend at his order is one of the most absorbing you’ll read all year. Shahrzad is a crafty, sharp-tongued heroine who can hold her own against anyone surrounding her husband, Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan. Khalid is masterfully crafted as conflicted and sympathetic, with more to him than meets the eye. Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of this fiery, sumptuous, wholly transportive read is how at just the right times, Ahdieh deftly reminds us that despite their roles, the tragedies they’ve suffered, and the fact that they are married, Shahrzad and Khalid are very much teenagers.

King, by Ellen Oh
The final book in the Dragon King Chronicles series brings demon slayer Kira to her final challenge: saving her cousin, the future king, from an evil dragon. Fighting both tigers and demons to achieve her goals, Kira is an inspiring, butt-kicking heroine who’s not without a romantic side. Fans of Prophecy and Warrior do not want to miss out on the resolution of either Kira’s external journey or her internal one.

Written in the Stars, by Aisha Saeed
You know that feeling when an author masters tension and high stakes so well, it’s actually viscerally uncomfortable to read their words? Welcome to the lovely experience of reading Saeed’s excellent debut, featuring Naila, a Pakistani-American girl whose parents abscond with her to the motherland under the guise of teaching her better behavior after she’s caught breaking the rules, but in actuality are there to marry her off. It’s brutal to watch every last vestige of control slip through Naila’s fingers, even as she tries to fight back, against the wonderfully drawn and lovely Pakistani setting. Save this one for when you have time to read an entire book in one sitting, because once the drama hits the fan, you won’t be able to put it down.

Ink and Ashes, by Valynne E. Maetani
When Claire discovers a letter from the past, she learns the truth behind her father’s death when she was a child was not at all what it seemed. Discovering her father was part of the yakuza, a Japanese mafia organization, rocks Claire’s world, and dredging up his history makes life a lot more dangerous for her, too. When her digging where she isn’t wanted catches up to her, Claire must act fast to save everything she holds dear, including her own life.

Under the Lights, by Dahlia Adler
Hi, that’s my book! (Full disclosure and all that.) Vanessa Park’s wanted to be an actress her entire life, but although she’s living the dream now as the star of a primetime dramedy, she knows there’s never a guarantee of a next job for an Asian American actress. So when she starts to fall for her publicist’s intern, Brianna, she knows making the choice whether to come out is far more complicated than anyone else can understand. When your choice comes down to your career or your heart, knowing what’s best for yourself isn’t easy, especially when everyone else around you gets to play by different rules.

Of Dreams and Rust, by Sarah Fine
The sequel to Fine’s Phantom of the Opera–inspired Of Metal and Wishes returns to Wen a year after the collapse of the slaughterhouse where she worked as her father’s medical assistant. Now she’s working in the clinic at the weapons’ factory, until she learns those weapons are to be used to quell a rebellion that includes someone close to her heart. As she leaves her world behind to venture into the bloodshed, she learns the people she thought she knew have been changed by the struggles they’ve faced since she saw them last, and though she’s sacrificed so much to join them, she may find she was better off with the life she was already living.

Vanished, by E.E. Cooper
Kalah feels lucky just to be accepted into the elite world of popular girls Beth and Britney, but when Beth disappears and Britney commits suicide, Kalah’s on her own, left to untangle the mysteries behind what went wrong. The biggest drive to figure out what’s going on? The fact that she’s been falling for Beth, believes it to be mutual, and wants her to return so they can have the relationship they should’ve been having back when they were kissing behind closed doors. Kalah’s sexuality is something really lovely to see here, because not only are queer girls of color (Kalah’s mother is Indian) so incredibly rare in YA, but so is how deeply she embraces her feelings. And bonus points that finally, finally, in a book about “the cool kids,” it’s a girl of color getting the voice at center stage.

P.S. I Still Love You, by Jenny Han
A few remarkable things about this duology (book 1, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, released last year) by Jenny Han: 1) The first book hit the New York Times bestseller list (the second may well too, it just hasn’t been released yet); 2) The sisterly relationships are complex and beautifully depicted, which is something we don’t see nearly enough in YA; and 3) to my knowledge, they’re the only traditionally published contemporary YA novels with a Korean main character written by a Korean author since Maureen Goo’s Since You Asked published back in 2013. In addition to the sisters, the touching relationship they share with their father since losing their mother, and the cute romances, Han does a lovely job weaving in the ways the girls’ maternal background informs who they are and the traditions they hold dear.

The Crimson Gate, by Whitney Miller
I’ve bought but not yet read the sequel to Miller’s horrific (in a good way) debut, The Violet Hour, but I do know that series featured what remains the only Cambodian heroine I know of in YA. Book two picks up in main character Harlow’s birth nation, where she’s been trapped by the evil goddess worshiped by the cult of which she is now the leader. Like its predecessor, the book takes Harlow across Asia (this time to China and Russia) in a bloodbath of glory.

Tiny Pretty Things, by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton
Your favorite TV show about backstabbing ballerinas come to life, this cowritten debut is told from three perspectives: Bette, who’s white and used to being the queen of their prestigious ballet academy; Gigi, who’s black, new to the school, and rises to the top in a heartbeat; and June, aka E-Jun, a half-Korean girl whose mother was a dancer and whose father is a mystery. June is not a nice girl (no one at the school except Gigi is, really), but she’s a girl who’s very much struggling to find her place. Being half white (and not knowing to whom to attribute that half), she doesn’t fit in with the Korean clique, and understudy seems to be her perpetual best bet, which threatens her mother’s willingness to keep her in ballet life at all, especially in light of her eating disorder. Though her behavior may be hard to handle, June’s also a study of how hard it is when you don’t feel you fit in anywhere, even among your own people, even among your own family. I’d give her a hug; I just wouldn’t turn my back to her afterward.

My Heart and Other Black Holes, by Jasmine Warga
Aysel has one goal in life: to end it. But fear of her inability to carry out her suicide leads to a search for a buddy to ensure she’ll go through with it, allowing her to escape the specter of the violent crime that landed her Turkish father in prison. She finds Roman in an online forum, and the two make a pact to end their lives together on the day of Roman’s choosing. But as the two get to know each other as the target day approaches, Aysel realizes the relationship building between them is proof there’s something to live for. But a pact is a pact, and there’s no way to guarantee breaking the bond that brought them together won’t break everything they have. But how much is she willing to lose in order not to?

5-to-1, by Holly Bodger
I have to admit that I’ve not historically been a huge fan of verse novels, but there’s something about Bodger’s debut that sucked me right in. Whether it was the age-appropriate voice of the verse chapters, narrated by the Indian girl responsible for choosing a husband in a society where that power falls to the women, or its interspersing with the chapters of a reluctant and crafty competitor, this was one of the more unique books I read this year, with some bold plot choices to go along with that gorgeous cover and unique verse-prose pairing.

Serpentine, by Cindy Pon
Pon made a name for herself with her last duology based on Chinese mythology, consisting of The Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix, and she returns this year with a brand-new fantasy of Chinese mythological origins. Skybright is a handmaiden by day, but by night, she reveals herself to have a far darker destiny: she’s half demon, a secret neither her mistress nor the demon-slayer she’s interested in can know. But when the world falls into a battle of humans vs. demons, the girl who straddles both must decide which side she’s on.

The Last Leaves Falling, by Sarah Benwell
The heartbreaking story of a Japanese boy named Abe Sora suffering from ALS who’s contemplating his final days, Benwell’s debut tackles difficult end-of-life questions against the thoughtful and strongly contrasting backdrops of both Samurai death poems and modern chat rooms. Gorgeously and thoughtfully drawn, with strong secondary characters in his friends, his mother, and the strangers who make up his virtual world, this is a truly unique read for YA. Intersectionality so, so rarely extends to featuring both racial diversity and physical disability, and Benwell handles it beautifully here, making Sora’s culture and background a huge part of the story.