The Best YA Books of 2024

There’s nothing in publishing quite like YA fiction. It’s a genre that (literally!) contains multitudes, and whose yearly output includes titles that run the gamut from serious contemporary fiction and frothy romantic comedies to high fantasy, horror, dark thrillers, and more. Trying to name the best books each year in this category is a Herculean task at the best of times, and almost always means that a staggering amount of equally excellent titles don’t make the final cut. 

It certainly didn’t make things easier that 2024 was an embarrassment of riches for YA lovers, with bangers in nearly every conceivable vertical hitting shelves over the past twelve months. And whether you’re drawn to stories with a more realistic, magical, or spine-tingling bent, you’ll almost certainly find something on this list that runs the gamut from dystopian to hopeful.  

Here are our picks for the best YA books of 2024

Red by Annie Cardi

It’s really difficult to tell a balanced story about topics that tend to be culturally divisive, and that goes double when the subjects in question involve religion or politics. It’s part of the reason Annie Cardi’s Red is so remarkable—a story about abortion, faith, and community that treats all characters and viewpoints with grace, its narrative refuses to make any “side” the villain or mock the choices of anyone involved. Instead, it finds a heartfelt middle ground, which acknowledges the harrowing truth of a deeply personal situation and the devastating long tail of trauma. 

Red follows the story of sixteen-year-old Tess Pine, whose mother moves them both back to her hometown of Hawthorne following the death of Tess’s father. With no job, they’re forced to live with Tess’s strict, Christian grandparents who force them to attend church with them. To Tess’s surprise, she finds a place for herself in the church youth group, joins the choir, and embraces the idea of believing in something bigger than herself. But when she’s photographed leaving a clinic after having an abortion, she’s bullied at school and ostracized by those she trusted, with someone even going so far as to leave a scarlet A on her locker. 

Shades of The Scarlet Letter aside—a subplot focuses on Tess’s refusal to name the father under increasing public pressure—this book is both poignant and harrowing, a slow-burn exploration of Tess’s journey to reclaim her voice and identity without losing her faith (in God or in others) in the process. An absolute must-read in these times. 

Such Charming Liars by Karen McManus

The reigning queen of teen thrillers, Karen McManus has penned stories about everything from a murderous riff on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (You’ll Be the Death of Me) to a teen-baed true crime investigation (Nothing More to Tell). But she’s probably best known for her One of Us Is Lying series, a trilogy that helped to define contemporary ideas of what these kinds of stories are supposed to be and do. Thanks in large part to the kids in Bayview, McManus has achieved the kind of success that means it would be beyond easy for her to turn out a copycat story every few years or so. That she consistently refuses to do so is fairly remarkable, a fact that is once again in evidence with her latest book, Such Charming Liars. 

The story represents a fairly significant swerve for McManus as an author. Primarily a heist drama with a murder mystery thrown on top, it follows the story of Kat, the daughter of a jewel thief who fences stolen goods after replacing the originals with fakes. Determined to get out of the family business and give her daughter a more normal life, Jamie agrees to pull one last heist: stealing an expensive necklace from the ritzy complex of the billionaire Sutherland family and swapping it with a forgery. Kat sneaks along for the ride, determined to use her street smarts to help her mom succeed. But their plans are thrown into chaos when they unexpectedly run into Luke, Jamie’s ex-husband whom she married during a whirlwind Vegas fling a decade ago and then divorced two days afterward. And with him is his son, Liam, the stepbrother Kat never thought she’d see again.

The story skews older and darker than some of McManus’s previous efforts, and every character is some form of morally gray. (Even most of the adults in this story are some flavor of untrustworthy.) It’s the unique bond between Kat and Liam that forms the heart of Such Charming Liars. While the two share a unique family history and connection, they’re each on their own independent emotional journies that only occasionally intersect with each other. More importantly, perhaps, their connection is strictly platonic, making for a delightfully refreshing change in a genre space that loves to pair its characters off romantically.

Heir by Sabaa Tahir

Sabaa Tahir returns to the world of her Ember in the Ashes series with this banger of a fantasy adventure, that is thrilling enough to entice new readers in its own right while boasting enough connections and callbacks to the original to delight longtime fans. Heir is a difficult book to talk about without spoiling some of its most entertaining (and well-executed) twists, but Tahir’s familiar blend of action, lore, and compelling characters keeps the pages flying throughout. 

Set about twenty years after the events the original quartet of novels, Heir follows the POVs of three new characters, Aiz, an orphan from an impoverished, struggling kingdom outside the Martial Empire; Sirsha, a skilled tracker with magical abilities who has been cast out from her native tribe; and Quil, the reluctant crown prince of the Maritals, who wants to do pretty much anything other than inherit the throne. The stories of all three become inextricably intertwined across kingdoms and timelines, and the rich character work makes each sympathetic and compelling in completely different ways. Utterly addictive.

So Witches We Became by JIll Baguchinsky

So Witches We Became is described as a female-focused take on Stephen King’s horror classic The Mist, which is true in the strictest sense. But the creeping fog that begins choking off the life on a vacation island is one of the least frightening things in this story, which is a complicated and utterly furious exploration of the sexism, trauma, and abuse that so often goes hand in hand with the experience of being a young woman today. Boys will be boys, as the old saying goes, but as Jill Baguchinsky’s story proves, girls can fight back. 

The story follows Nell, who’s spending spring break sharing a rented house on a private Florida island with some of her closest friends. Sure, she and her bestie Harper have been growing apart recently—especially once Harper started dating Gavin—-and Dia has been spending most of her time crushing on Harper’s brother, Harry. But they’re graduating soon, and this may be one of their last chances to all be together like this. (And the presence of cute caretaker, Tris, certainly doesn’t hurt as far as Nell’s concerned.) But when unwanted guests arrive and a strange haze begins spreading across the island and killing everything in its path, the group is forced to confront dark secrets—-of both the everyday and the supernatural variety.

Refreshingly forthright and thoughtful in the way it confronts both timely questions of consent and difficult themes of assault, there’s something strangely satisfying in watching Nell and her friends come together to acknowledge the unspoken wrongs that have been done to them and reclaim their voices in the name of survival. One of the darker YA offerings to hit shelves this year—mind the content warnings, they’re there for a reason—-there’s still genuine catharsis to be found here.

Snowglobe by Soyoung Park 

Originally written in Korean and translated into English by Joungmin Lee Comfort, Snowglobe is an old-school dystopian YA tale that takes plenty of risks, narratively speaking, mixing many of the genre’s most popular tropes together into something thrilling nad new. One part Snowpiercer, one part The Truman Show, and one part Squid Game, the story grapples with everything from social inequality and the impact of climate change to questions of celebrity, privacy, and what it means when we offer up so much of our own identities in the name of popularity and online engagement. It’s a book that’s endlessly compelling, full of twists and plenty of complex moral and ethical questions about our penchant for escaping from our own lives by watching others, the idea of privacy as a kind of currency, and how far one should be willing to go to get ahead. It’s fascinating, not for the least of which reason being that it is a dystopia that feels all too possible in many ways. 

Set in a world where climate change has sent temperatures around the globe plummeting to subzero levels, life for most people is fairly bleak. Sixteen-year-old Jeon Chobahm, like most of her neighbors, trudges to work every day in the local power plant, where employees create the energy that keeps the city running through a variety of manual labor. To escape the monotony of their lives, Chobahm and her family voraciously consume the reality television programs produced in Snowglobe, an exclusive, glass-domed city where the climate is mild and regulated and the residents are all actors—whose lives are broadcast for the entertainment of those in the wider world. But when the lead actress on Chobahm’s favorite program dies under mysterious circumstances, one of the all-powerful Snowglobe directors comes up with a wild plan for her to become Haeri’s secret replacement, pretending to be her for the millions of viewers watching along at home. But once she arrives under the city’s famed dome, Chobham discovers that almost nothing is as it seems and its residents’ cushy lives of luxury come with dark strings attached.  

Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli

A wildly addictive fantasy romance that follows the relationship between a persecuted witch and a determined witch hunter, Kristen Ciccarelli’s latest isn’t particularly groundbreaking in this genre space. In fact, it’s chock full of familiar tropes and character types. But Heartless Hunter executes these well-trod beats flawlessly, building genuine tension and open romantic longing to an almost unbearable degree and dropping the sort of twists that keep the pages turning at a breakneck pace. (If you don’t finish this book within, say, 48 hours, I’ll be shocked.) 

The story follows Rune Winters, a wealthy heiress forced to play the role of a ditzy airhead to hide her magical abilities in the wake of a revolution that made witchcraft a crime punishable by death. By day, she attends meaningless social gatherings and gossips about fashion, but by night she uses her secret identity as the vigilante known as the Crimson Moth to rescue other members of her kind who live in hiding. Determined to do whatever it takes to rescue an imprisoned witch, she begins courting Gideon Sharpe, one of the kingdom’s most famous witchhunters. He in turn, agrees to the relationship because unbeknownst to Rune, he thinks she might be involved with the Moth. But their fake relationship begins to blossom into something neither of them expected, which makes the politics surrounding them both all the more complicated—-and dangerous. (Thank goodness the sequel arrives early next year.)

Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

Andrew Joseph White is undoubtedly one of the most original and boundary-pushing authors working in the YA space today. (If you’ve not experienced the delightful madness of his debut, Hell Followed With Us, please fix your life immediately.) It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that his third novel, Compound Fracture, is like absolutely nothing else that hit shelves this year. Unflinchingly furious and unapologetic in its politics, White’s story follows a trans, autistic protagonist struggling to come to terms with both their identity and their family’s generational history of violence in an Appalachian small town. 

On the same night that Miles Abernathy sends an email to his parents coming out as trans, he becomes the latest victim in an ongoing family feud, a seemingly unending cycle of violence that saw his great-great-grandfather Saint murdered with a railroad spike a century before. As Miles and his best friend/maybe something more Cooper navigate the bloody aftermath—and the payback that follows—increasingly dark choices are made. 

The book’s political screeds are rarely subtle and Miles’ inability to be wrong about, well, anything occasionally grates, but the swing-for-the-fences nature of White’s storytelling and the unrelenting rage that edges every word of his prose powers readers through the preachiest authorial asides. An unhinged story of revenge and would-be revolution, it’s the bloodiest, most original title, and unapologetically violent story of the year.

Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams

At a time when many young readers (and those who love them) are looking for alternatives to the Harry Potter series, La Darrion Williams’ Blood at the Root arrived precisely when it needed to. Described as a story that’s basically  “what if Harry Potter went to an HBCU”, Williams embraces the familiar beats of the magical boarding school trope but makes them completely his own by infusing his story fully with Black and Southern culture. Spells are cast in Haitian Creole or comprised of old gospel lyrics, the teens at its center speak in recognizable Gen Z slang peppered with AAVE. It’s youthful, relatable, and downright fun from its very first pages.

Nothing about this story is particularly unexpected, plot-wise—-there are the traditional new friends, wise mentors, weird and exhilarating magical classes, sought-after MacGuffins, and surprising betrayals that these sorts of stories usually contain, all culminating in a new quest that sets up the (presumed, seemingly inevitable) series of sequels. We’ve seen it all before. But featuring a hero who’s a young Black boy makes almost everything about this story feel brand new, from the worldbuilding that’s firmly grounded in West African, Caribbean, and Black American history to a narrative that determinedly centers the unique challenges of the Black experience. As Malik attempts to grow into his powers and uncover the truth about his mother’s disappearance, you’ll be with him every step of the way. 

Adventures of Mary Jane by Hope Jahren

While most of the literary world in 2024 was glued (and deservedly so) to Percival Everett’s award-winning Adventures of Huckleberry Finn retelling, James, many readers likely slept on the other excellent Twain-adjacent story of the year—-Hope Jahren’s Adventures of Mary Jane. This charming, sweetly engaging YA novel allows female readers to see themselves in the famous literary adventure by spotlighting a character who only appears for about 50 pages in the original novel: the red-headed Mary Jane who steals his heart. 

Twain’s novel isn’t known for its female characters or feminist perspectives, but Jahren aims to change all that with her take on Mary Jane, who is here reimagined as a three-dimensional, complex character with plenty of opinions and an arc of her own. Sent down the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Illinois and then Mississippi itself on a mission of mercy to an aunt, Mary Jane’s adventures on her journey are just as rich and formative as anything Huck himself might have encountered. As she makes new friends and meets an assortment of unexpected, very different figures, including an enslaved mother and daughter to a traveling  Ojibwe family, and several persecuted members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, her journey is meticulously plotted and researched. It’s also deeply emotionally satisfying, as our heroine discovers the value of the truth, the necessity of a good lie, and the power of both faith and doing good for others. It’s a warm, imaginative story of a smart, courageous, and deeply original girl. 

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson

This twisty, standalone family saga from the author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder features an absorbing central mystery and a prickly protagonist who isn’t always easy to like or root for. (This is a good thing, by the way, and more YA stories should be willing to let their MCs be wrong and ugly and occasionally cruel to those who probably don’t deserve it. That’s life!)

The titular Rachel Price vanished when her daughter Bel was just two years old. Sixteen years later, Bel and her father—who was acquitted of any wrongdoing in his wife’s disappearance, though the event has otherwise gone unexplained—are taking part in a true crime documentary about the event to help raise money for a family medical emergency. But things are thrown into chaos when the missing Rachel suddenly reappears, complete with an incredible story about where she’s been all this time and everything that’s happened to her. Bel, for her part, doesn’t believe a word of it and sets out—-with the help of one of the documentary crew—to find out the truth.

A well-plotted mystery unfolds, full of deceit, betrayals, and the sort of breakneck reveals that make thrillers in this genre such fun to read.

Wisteria by Adalyn Grace

Adalyn Grace’s popular Belladonna YA trilogy concludes with Wisteria, a third installment that completely shifts the series focus, changes its narrative structure and primary point of view, and primarily on a secondary romance than the one between Signa Farrow and her consort Death that readers had spent the first two books in the series following. And, for the most part? It works, expanding the central mythology of Grace’s fictional world in new and interesting ways.

While some fans may question Grace’s decision to end her trilogy by focusing so heavily on a character who isn’t its original heroine, Signa’s cousin Blythe has been one of the series’ most interesting characters since the beginning, and it’s lovely to see her finally take center stage as Wisteria’s primary protagonist. (The insanely slow-burn romance between Blythe and Fate, two characters whose chemistry has been blazingly apparent since their first interaction certainly doesn’t hurt either, and their relationship deftly combines all our favorite enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, and reincarnation tropes.)

But Wisteria isn’t just about Blythe and Fate’s romance—as lovely as that is to watch unfold—but her coming into her own as a woman, and making decisions about what she wants her second chance at life to look like. Smart, unconventional, and sharp-tongued, Blythe isn’t interested in the sort of life or relationship society has told her she’s supposed to want. So perhaps it was always (ahem)…fated that she’d end up with someone like Aris (Fate’s name in the human world), who may have the capability to turn her life upside down, but who is certainly never boring. Throw in a bit of mysterious magic, the possibility of reincarnation, and intriguing details about Fate’s past relationship with Life, and the end result is a sprawling magical mystery that digs into Blythe’s past even as it charts a new future for her. 

Thirsty by Jas Hammond

While YA as a genre has exploded in popularity among adult readers in recent years, it’s still a space that’s primarily for stories that are about and targeted toward teens. The genre’s ability to reflect a wide variety of experiences and identities is a big part of the reason it’s become so successful, and its willing to tackle difficult and occasionally controversial questions about topics like sex, gender identity, race, and emotional trauma is a real breath of fresh air in a publishing landscape that’s often loathe to take risks. Jas Hammond’s sophomore novel displays a similar narrative bravely, exploring the social pressures and stigmas surrounding drinking and alcohol that are faced by teens today. 

Thirsty follows the story of 18-year-old Blake, who desperately wants to join an exclusive sorority in her first year at college. The mysterious Serena Society promises connections to a network of powerful women of color, but as pledging intensifies she increasingly turns to alcohol to overcorrect for her anxiety about her lack of financial and social status and begins to lose herself to addiction. Through Blake’s story, Hammond deftly explores issues of loneliness, anxiety, and isolation, and the ubiquitous nature of drinking culture among today’s youth. 

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 and Bluesky at @LacyMB