7 Best YA Novels Set on Other Planets and the Moon

Black Hole Sun, by David Macinnis Gill
For those of you who are still bummed about the whole Mars thing, Black Hole Sun’s dystopian-ish, terraformed Mars should cheer you up—or at least make you thankful you won’t be heading there anytime soon. Humans have left Earth in exchange for the red planet, and Durango leads a group of Regulators hired to protect Martian miners from human-eating monsters. It’s an action-packed adventure with witty dialogue, huge battles, and fantastic details, which is exactly what you want in a book about a terraformed Mars.

These Broken Stars, by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
While it technically starts aboard a luxury spaceliner called the Icarus, the main story unfolds on a distant planet. Just as decorated war hero Tarver Merendson earns temporary access to the spaceliner, it meets its disastrous end, crashing into a deserted planet. After tragedy sparks romance, sole survivors Lilac LaRoux (the daughter of the richest man in the universe) and Tarver must decide whether they are really better off trying to find their way home. But everything changes when the two discover the truth about the planet, and must rely on each other in order to survive and escape.

172 Hours on the Moon, by Johan Harstad
If you’re trying to convince yourself being an astronaut is a terrible idea, then this, my friend, is the book for you. After NASA picks up a transmission from the moon, it chooses three “lucky” teenagers to go to a top-secret moon base with a team of astronauts. But once they make it to the moon, it doesn’t take long for things to start going terribly, terribly wrong. It’s basically a smart and funny horror novel set in space that will make you question everything you thought you knew about the moon and the space program, while frantically checking under your bed. And on that note, you should probably read this one during the day.

Beyond Our Stars, by Marie Langager
There really is a theme here: space travel = bad idea. After mankind lands on a new planet, it realizes the planet is already inhabited by Locals who immediately choose some humans for nightmarish experiments, making them the invading aliens. When Hope is chosen, she must hold on to her…hope for humanity’s survival, so that she can lead her people to their future. It’s a quick read, with a nice little romance to round out the suspense behind the Locals’ motivations.

The Knife of Never Letting Go, by Patrick Ness
On a planet where all the women are dead and everyone can hear each other’s thoughts thanks to a germ, Todd is the last boy in a town of men. He’s never known quiet, and is forced to deal with the constant noise of others’ thoughts, including those of his trusty dog, which come in as an exhausting chaos of words and sounds. But when he discovers a secret in the woods, he learns the New World is much more than he’d ever expected, and he has to decide how far he’s willing to go to save his own life.

Zodiac, by Romina Russell
Think of Zodiac as the Thor of YA novels: it combines sci-fi and high fantasy on a distant galaxy where total devastation is imminent. Rho Grace, who has a unique way of making astrological predictions, takes over the highest position in one of the 12 Houses of the Zodiac galaxy after a freak accident threatens to destroy her planet. But when freak accidents start happening across the galaxy’s other Houses, Rho must travel through the Zodiac to warn them an old enemy has returned.

This Place Has No Atmosphere, by Paula Danziger
For younger readers, This Place Has No Atmosphere is a hilarious coming-of-age story, set on an experimental moon community. Aurora’s parents announce she’ll be leaving the popular crowd and her boyfriend behind on Earth, which doesn’t even begin to fill her heart with joy. But after her parents promise the family will return in one year, she reluctantly agrees to be dragged on the journey, where she must adjust if she doesn’t want to drown in a pool of her own depression. It’s funny and poignant, and while it might be set in 2057, the problems are distinctly current.