There Will Be Blood…and Aliens

Any notion of friendly alien encounters is chucked to the fire with Rick Yancey’s new young-adult sci-fi thriller, The 5th Wave. A looming spaceship appears in the sky. It sits; it waits. Humans sit; they wait. Nothing much happens—no Others asking to be taken to our leader, just eerie quiet. Then, through four waves of extermination (elimination of electricity; tsunamis; plague; snipers), the Others strategically annihilate their only threat: humans. It becomes clear that these aliens aren’t on a close-encounter tour of goodwill; they mean to claim Earth as their own. As the Others hasten toward victory ...

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Holy Shift

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Nalo Hopkinson Clarifies 'The Chaos'

There’s a super-important dance contest in a few days, feelings for your ex-boyfriend are resurfacing, you’re at war with your former bestie, and it’s only a matter of time before your peculiar skin condition is revealed. In The Chaos, all of these are bona fide worries for 16-year-old Scotch, worries that are turned on their ear when a giant volcano rises from Lake Toronto and normalcy is swiftly replaced with chaos. A house on chicken legs, a giant tar monster, golden eyelashes, trippy psychedelics and a menagerie of the strange and unusual become commonplace as Scotch wades ...

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Six Days Before 'Every Day'

That brief window of time between morning alarm and first school bell are saturated with decisions, insecurity, anxiety and anticipation. What to wear? Is there time for breakfast? Who should I sit by? Will there be a pre-calculus pop quiz? For A, who’s at the heart of David Levithan’s latest novel Every Day, there’s one more significant layer of inquiry: Whose skin am I in, and how can I walk a day in his or her shoes without mucking anything up? That’s because A begins each day in a different body. Sometimes boy, sometimes girl, sometimes ...

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Marissa Moss: Introducing Young Readers to History

Going to Paris should be a dream vacation for Mira, her father and her brother in Lost in Paris, the first of Marissa Moss’ Mira’s Diary series. But when the catalyst for the trip is to track down her missing mother, who has mysteriously resurfaced, it’s less bon voyage and more angst-y family reunion. Mira wonders why her mother left in the first place. She wonders how they’ll even find her mother (and if she can be trusted when they do). And when touching a creepy gargoyle on the roof of Notre Dame catapults Mira to 1881 ...

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Exploring the Multiverse with Ian McDonald

We are not alone. More importantly, you’re not alone. There are many alternate versions of you out there—and one who just might be ready to take you down. At least, that’s the way of the scrupulously structured multiverse in Book 2 of the Everness series, Be My Enemy.

Everett Singh, on a mission to reunite with his family and locate his missing father in the elaborate folds of parallel universes, is not just relentlessly pursued by Charlotte Villiers and the Order. A mechanically souped-up, alternate version of himself is also on his heels, just as eager to ...

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Amanda Hocking Conjures Sirens in 'Wake'

Harper and Gemma, sisters for better or worse, haven’t had the easiest few years. After a tragic automobile accident left their mother mentally impaired and in an assisted-living home, their domestic day to day has been all but easy.

In the physical absence of their mother and mental absence of their father, Harper has adopted an authoritarian role. And as adorable boy-next-door Alex begins to court Gemma, disapproving Harper has only tightened the reins. The only place Gemma can shed the shackles of Harper’s obsessive, watchful eye is the bay to which she escapes for ill-advised nightly swims ...

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‘Dark Companion’: A Smart, Modern Gothic

A teenage girl at an exclusive school? Check. Foreboding, fog-shrouded woods around every corner? Check. A handsome, pale-skinned paramour with a macabre appetite? Check. But this isn’t your run-of-the-mill, sanguine supernatural love story.

Jane (not Eyre, but pretty close) is a scrappy little thing from the wrong side of the tracks with a past so terrible she subconsciously refuses to remember it. Hard work, determination and motivation spurred by a near palpable rage have rewarded her with admission to a reputable all-girls school, a full scholarship and a dreamy private cottage. And when the headmistress’ incredibly dashing son appears ...

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Finding Humor in the Afterlife: Behind ‘Devine Intervention’

The delicate topics of afterlife and the paranormal have spawned heated debates, mountains of doubt and a flurry of reality shows. But exploration of these subjects in Devine Intervention isn’t rooted so much in controversy as it is in the comedy-laden mishaps of two troubled teens.

One, Heidi, is an Amazon-like outsider who would rather retreat into her self-conscious shell than be social. The other, Jerome, is a wisecracking troublemaker, who thanks to an afterlife rehabilitation program meant to realign his soul, just happens to be Heidi’s guardian angel. Jerome means well, but by not reading his celestial ...

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BEA: Parsing ‘Peculiar’ with Stefan Bachmann

Bartholomew is half faery, half human, all peculiar.

His genetic misfortune has doomed him to a life of squalor in the faery slums, his poverty leads him to subsist on hot water and wax, and his only hope of survival is avoiding the malevolent eye of violent racists. But when a swirl of dark faery magic from a captivating stranger results in the disappearance of his young neighbor, Bartholomew and his sister are propelled into a dark plot involving kidnapping, murder, espionage and a gaping door into the faery world that promises only mayhem, death and destruction.

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A Modern-Day Mr. Hyde

Thomas Goodman-Brown has the looks, popularity, intelligence and billion-dollar pedigree that warrant envy. But when a demon masquerading as a stunning socialite detects Thomas’ emotional and mental vulnerabilities, the young man falls prey to her plan to transform him into a bodily host for the wicked spirit of her dead son, Edward.

Another Jekyll, Another Hyde is the third and final book in the Another… series by brother-and-sister writing duo Daniel and Dina Nayeri. This contemporary take on the Robert Louis Stevenson novella explores the nonchalant glamour of Manhattan’s upper crust while remaining loyal to the self-destructive and darkened ...

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Jack the Ripper in New York City

Having a family, a home and a life outside of an institution is a coveted luxury that many an orphan craved in turn-of-the-20th-century New York City. So, after 14-year-old orphan Carver Young is fortunate enough to be adopted at his advanced age, he steps right into dreamy, conventional domesticity. Right? Wrong.

When a crotchety man named Hawking, who happens to reside in a mental institution, adopts him, Carver is immediately swept into a secret world of crime detection, mesmerizing gadgetry and undercover operatives scrambling to solve a string of murders eerily similar to those of Jack the Ripper. Moreover, amid ...

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Seeing 'Double'

Who hasn’t craved a chance to erase the stains of past mistakes, regrets and judgments and start over with the unknown possibilities of a blank slate? Sixteen-year-old Chap finds himself in the rare position to take advantage of just that when he is mistaken for Cassiel Roadnight, a boy who has been missing for two years.

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Upon assuming Cassiel’s identity, Chap is immediately swept into a new life, experiencing relief at having escaped his previous existence and consuming guilt for maintaining his charade in front of Cassiel’s endearing sister and ...

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Growing up Gay in the Heartland

The tragic death of her parents sends 12-year-old Cameron Post into a state of guilt because she’s instantly glad her parents won’t have to find out that she’s gay. Against the backdrop of early 1990s rural Montana, she struggles with her guilt and comes to terms with her identity, all while wrangling with those who can’t—and won’t—fully accept her.

Along the way, Cameron receives some help from a summer friend visiting from Seattle, but then her first real love affair goes wrong, and she’s forced into a church-sponsored conversion-therapy school. Emily Danforth ...

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‘The Survivors’ with Will Weaver

It’s been over a decade since Memory Boy hit the shelves. But in its sequel, The Survivors, only two years have passed since volcanic ash fall forever changed the pampered suburban lives of Miles Newell and his family. After being turned away from their own home by menacing squatters, they seek shelter in a rural cabin with only one shotgun, a friendly goat and Miles’ impeccable memory of survival skills as their arsenal.

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While Miles quickly adapts to the unrefined lifestyle of a cabin without electricity and running water, his parents and ...

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Readers Meet Romance, From Both Viewpoints

Kelly Milner Halls takes the simplest equation—1+1=2—and brings it to a bright new level. As the editor of Girl Meets Boy, an anthology of short stories examining the sometimes awkward, sometimes tender and sometimes toxic path to young love a couple might experience, she has stockpiled a roster of 12 lauded writers (including herself) and produced six pairs of he-said/she-said love stories.

Find more short-story collections for teens with romantic themes.

Proving true the old adage that there are two sides to every story, each pair of stories gives the male point of view and ...

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Getting Through the Teen Years, on a ‘Tilt’

After 16-year-old Stan’s deadbeat dad left him, his mother and his younger sister, Lilly, to pursue life with his mistress and their child, Stan stepped in to assume household responsibilities his contemporaries could never fathom.

Five years later, Stan walks the line between level-headed adult and bewildered teen questioning the increasing changes, urges and embarrassing erections his developing body is subjecting him to. His physical evolutions are made all the more tricky by countless sexually charged thoughts about his classmate, Janine Igwash, who just might be the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen...and a lesbian. Just when ...

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Joseph Bruchac: From Native America to Slovakia

If there’s one thing that maddens Prince Rashko, it’s his family. When his parents blithely leave their virtually unprotected castle in order to attend a fairy-hosted fete, the responsibility of holding down the fort falls into the hands of Rashko and his dippy brother Paulek, who would sooner sword fight and admire wildlife than defend the castle.

Seizing an opportunity, the lecherous Baron Temny, his wicked daughter and their henchmen arrive at the castle gates and set up camp with no intention of leaving peacefully. Unsure how to defend his home, Rashko seeks solace in the legend of ...

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On the ‘Playground’ with 50 Cent

At a less-than-ideal Long Island public school, 13-year-old Butterball’s above-average height and weight perpetuate his existence as a quiet loner. So it takes his only friend, Maurice, by surprise when Butterball savagely beats him on the playground with a sock full of batteries.

Check out more books about bullies, bullying and being bullied.

Facing expulsion from school, Butterball submits to weekly sessions with social worker Liz Jenner. Despite his initial refusal to expose too much about the catalyst for his rage, he eventually admits the roots of his angst, revealing the troubled relationships with his nonchalant father and workaholic ...

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At the 'Scorpio Races' with Maggie Stiefvater

Going against all odds is a trial not uncommon for the underdog. Pit that underdog against nay-saying traditionalists, carnivorous water horses and a co-competitor who just might be a love interest, and it’s anything but common.

On the rocky, rustic island of Thisby in the Scorpio Sea, it’s the time of year when the legendary water horses, the capaill uisce, emerge from the sea, teeth gnashing. It’s also the time for The Scorpio Races, in which select men of the island mount these blood-hungry steeds for a race that is as saturated with fear and death as ...

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