This Is Where It Ends

For all that social media allows us to narrate every beat of our existence in real time, it’s rare to find a young adult novel that tracks every minute just as closely. The books on this list each center on an event of heightened tension: a school shooting, confronting bullies, a scavenger hunt whose prize carries incredible significance, […]

Marketing LGBTQA YA is a double-edged sword. Some of it is glaringly queer, and some of it is what I love to call Under the Gaydar, i.e., there’s no outward sign of it featuring LGBTQA characters via cover design, blurb, or specifically queer award wins (e.g., Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun winning a Stonewall Honor). […]

Already addicted to Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes and its sequel, A Torch Against the Night? Of course you are: her thrilling fantasy series delivers intense excitement against the backdrop of a lush, beautifully imagined, totally terrifying landscape, with a diverse cast of characters you can’t help but cheer for. But we’ll be waiting a long […]

There are so many measures of a book’s success, but one everyone’s familiar with is landing a coveted spot on the New York Times bestseller list. It’s one of the biggest objective achievements out there, and for those who haven’t hit it (yet), it can feel like publishing’s most exclusive club. To that end, I asked […]