They say March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. This year, at least in publishing, things are a little different—thanks to a positive glut of big-name new YA releases arriving in both January and February—March is a little slower than usual. (Hopefully leaving readers everywhere a little extra time to catch up on our presumably overflowing TBR lists.)
That’s not to say that there aren’t some real gems publishing this month. From a buzzy, Hunger Games-esque magical competition to a heartfelt exploration of the struggles of living with chronic illness and a timely look at the impact of social shaming and cancel culture, March may have fewer overall releases, but the breadth of their stories is both wide and timely.
Here are our picks for the must-read YA books hitting shelves in March.
Ellie Haycock Is Totally Normal by Gretchen Schreiber
Release Date: March 5 from Wednesday Books
Why You’ll Love It: An honest and heartfelt look at a teen struggling to balance her life as an everyday high schooler and someone struggling with chronic illness as a result of a rare genetic condition.
Publisher’s Description: Ellie Haycock has always separated her life into sections: Ellie at home and Ellie at the hospital. At home, Ellie is a proud member of her high school’s speech and debate team alongside her best friend and her boyfriend. At the hospital, Ellie has a team of doctors and a mom who won’t stop posting about the details of her illness online. It’s not hard for Ellie to choose which of the two she prefers.
But this latest hospital stay is different. Ellie becomes close with a group of friends, including Ryan, a first-timer who’s still optimistic about the doctors that Ellie stopped trusting years ago. Despite their differences, she can’t seem to keep him out of her head. Ellie’s life has never been ordinary—but maybe this time it will be extraordinary.
The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall
Release Date: March 5 from Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Why You’ll Love It: A charmingly queer, body-positive romance about a girl named Hollis, who teaches herself to play the tabletop roleplaying game her boyfriend loves to prove she’s a partner worth keeping. Unfortunately, his friend group doesn’t allow girlfriends to join their quest, so Chris not only misses out on the way Secrets & Sorcery gives Hollis the confidence she’s long lacked, but her growing crush on one of the girls in her group. Adorable and fun.
Publisher’s Description: Hollis Beckwith isn’t trying to get a girl—she’s just trying to get by. For a fat, broke girl with anxiety, the start of senior year brings enough to worry about. And besides, she already has a Chris. Their relationship isn’t particularly exciting, but it’s comfortable and familiar, and Hollis wants it to survive beyond senior year. To prove she’s a girlfriend worth keeping, Hollis decides to learn Chris’s favorite tabletop roleplaying game, Secrets & Sorcery—but his unfortunate “No Girlfriends at the Table” rule means she’ll need to find her own group if she wants in.
Gloria Castañeda and her all-girls game of S&S! Crowded at the table in Gloria’s cozy Ohio apartment, the six girls battle twisted magic in-game and become fast friends outside it. With her character as armor, Hollis starts to believe that maybe she can be more than just fat, anxious, and a little lost.
But then an in-game crush develops between Hollis’s character and the bard played by charismatic Aini Amin-Shaw, whose wide, cocky grin makes Hollis’s stomach flutter. As their gentle flirting sparks into something deeper, Hollis is no longer sure what she wants…or if she’s content to just play pretend.
One Last Breath by Ginny Myers Sain
Release Date: March 5 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Why You’ll Love It: The latest book from the author of Dark and Shallow Lies, One Last Breath is a fast-paced, suspenseful supernatural thriller about two young women who bond over a shared love of diving and an obsession with a decades-old murder of two teen girls in their small Florida town.
Publisher’s Description: Mount Orange, Florida, is famous for two things.
The spectre of Bailey and Celeste’s murders cast a permanent darkness over sunny Mount Orange. Tru has always lived in that shadow. Sometimes, it seems like she knows the long-dead Bailey, feels the dead girl in her bones. Now she’s supposed to head to FSU in the fall with her boyfriend, but those unsolved murders – and the death of her own sister – invade her every thought. It’s only in the shadowy deep, 100 feet below the surface of Hidden Glen Springs, that she can breathe.
When a strange girl named Rio rolls into town, hell-bent on figuring out who killed Bailey and Celeste, Tru can’t resist entangling herself in the thrill of solving the decades-old mystery any more than she can resist her familiar, aching attraction to Rio.
As the summer heat ignites, so does the spark between Tru and Rio…along with their other-worldly connection to Bailey and Celeste. But when someone begins stalking them, the girls become convinced the killer is back in town. And if they keep digging into the past, Tru and Rio know this time, it could be their blood that makes the springs run red.
Six Truths and a Lie by Ream Shukairy
Release Date: March 12 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Why You’ll Love It: This timely and often uncomfortable story of six Muslim teens who are suspected of a terrorist attack has a lot to say about Islamaphobia and how America’s justice system works—or doesn’t—for marginalized citizens.
Publisher’s Description: As fireworks pop off at a rowdy Fourth of July bonfire party, an explosion off the California coast levels an oil rig—resulting in chaos and worse, murder.
At the center are six Muslim teens – six patriots, six strangers, and six suspects.
An old soul caught in the wrong place. An aspiring doctor. An influencer with a reputation to protect. A perfect daughter with secrets to hide. A soccer star headed for Stanford. An immigrant in love. Each with something to hide and everything to lose.
Faced with accusations of terrorism, The Six are caught in a political game that will pit them against each other in exchange for exoneration. They must frame each other to guarantee their own independence or expose their secrets to earn back freedom for them all.
Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Release Date: March 19 from Fiewel & FriendsWhy You’ll Love It: A contemporary YA mystery from the author of Ace of Spades, Where Sleeping Girls Lie follows the story of a Nigerian-British student who is still adjusting to her new life at an elite school in England, when her roommate mysteriously disappears. A story that also touches on timely themes of systemic racism in elite institutions, rape culture, trauma, and grief, Sadie’s investigation into Elizabeth’s disappearance will reveal dark secrets, cover-ups, and a system that doesn’t care as much about their female students as they claim.
Publisher’s Description: Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school, after being home-schooled all her life. Misfortune has clung to her seemingly since birth, but even she doesn’t expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think Sade had something to do with it.
With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the girls collectively known as the ‘Unholy Trinity’ and they bring her into their fold. Between learning more about them—especially Persephone, who Sade is inexplicably drawn to—and playing catchup in class, Sade already has so much on her plate. But when it seems people don’t care enough about what happened to Elizabeth, it’s up to she and Elizabeth’s best friend, Baz, to investigate.
And then a student is found dead.
The more Sade and Baz dig into Elizabeth’s disappearance, the more she realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she thought. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface…secrets that rival even her own.
Cancelled by Farah Penn
Release Date: March 19 from Viking Books for Young Readers
Why You’ll Love It: An entertaining ensemble story about the pressures of young adulthood, social media, public shaming, and accountability, all told with humor and grace.
Publisher’s Description: Not to brag, but Brynn Whittaker is basically killing her senior year. She’s got the looks, the grades, and a thriving “flirt coach” business that will help pay for her ultimate dream Stanford University.
But when a highly incriminating video goes viral after the first rager of the year, Brynn finds herself at the center of a school-wide scandal of catastrophic proportions. She knows she’s not the girl in the video hooking up with her former best friend’s boyfriend (While wearing a banana costume, no less. Hey, points for style), but adding that to her reputation of being a serial dater, she quickly starts losing friends and customers. On top of that, the scorn she receives exposes the culture of misogyny that is rampant at her school . . . and Brynn and her three best friends are determined to take down all the haters.
But as she gets closer to identifying the person in the video that got her cancelled, Brynn must decide—is exposing the girl worth losing everything she’s worked so hard for?
Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis
Release Date: March 19 from Katherine Tegen Books
Why You’ll Love It: A thoughtful psychological thriller about mental health and the thin line between what is real and imaginary, Under This Read Rock follows the story of a supersmart team who struggles with a family history of mental illness and abandonment. Following the unexpected death of her mother, the suicide of her brother and the disappearance of her father, Neely moves in with her grandparents to cope. Hired at a local Ohio caverns tourist attraction, her new job helps her forget her problems—-but doesn’t make the very real monsters under her bed go away.
Publisher’s Description: Neely’s monsters don’t always follow her rules, so when the little girl under her bed, the man in her closet, and the disembodied voice that shadows her every move become louder, she knows she’s in trouble.
With a history of mental illness in her family, and the suicide of her older brother heavy on her mind, Neely takes a job as a tour guide in the one place her monsters can’t follow—the caverns. There she can find peace. There she can pretend to be normal. There . . . she meets Mila.
Mila is everything Neely isn’t—beautiful, strong, and confident. As the two become closer, Neely’s innocent crush grows into something more. When a midnight staff party exposes Neely to drugs, she follows Mila’s lead . . . only to have her hallucinations escalate.
When Mila is found brutally murdered in the caverns, Neely has to admit that her memories of that night are vague at best. With her monsters now out in the open, and her grip on reality slipping, Neely must figure out who killed Mila . . . and face the possibility that it might have been her.
The Revenant Games by Margie Fuston
Release Date: March 19 from Margaret K. McElderry Books
Why You’ll Love It: An intriguing fantasy-themed spin on the popular YA dystopian tournament story, The Revenant Games follows a yearly competition between humans caught in the middle of an age-old battle between vampires and witches. Contestants have the chance to fight for a better life by capturing one of the aforementioned supernatural beings and earning the gift of immortality or resurrection—and prizes of such magnitude mean unconventional alliances are formed and hard decisions are required.
Publisher’s Description: Blood is survival for seventeen-year-old Bly, who lives in the poverty-stricken human villages caught between enemy vampire and witch kingdoms. Most of the time, vampires and witches live in uneasy truce, buying human blood for their food and spells. But for two weeks a year, the ceasefire dissolves, and they hold the Revenant Games.
Any human can play in the games for either the witches or the vampires. Alongside life-changing riches, the witches will raise one person from the dead for whoever captures the highest-ranking vampire. In turn, the vampires offer immortality to whoever captures the most powerful witch. For most humans, the games are a ticket out of poverty. For Bly, it’s a chance to get back her dead sister, Elise, and save the life of her dying best friend, Emerson.
Together, she and Emerson forge a dangerous plan to play both sides and win both resurrection for Elise and immortality for Emerson. But when the vampire they capture stirs a passion in Bly that she hasn’t felt in a long time, she’ll have to make a her sister or the boy who’s shown her there’s more to life than just survival.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB