Mackenzie Bishop is no stranger to death. In the span of a few years, she’s lost both her beloved grandfather and her younger brother. Now, her family is trying to start over by moving to the Coronado, an old hotel in the city. Not only has Mackenzie been torn from her best friend and her childhood home, but she’s been assigned to the Coronado as her new territory. Mackenzie is a Keeper. In an afterlife where the dead are shelved like books in a library, it is her job to patrol the Narrows, a slip of space between the normal world and the Archive. When the dead, also known as Histories, accidentally awaken, Mackenzie must send them back to the Archive. It’s a dangerous job, as the Histories can become violent, but Mackenzie must prove herself to the Librarians. After all, she’s her grandfather’s legacy.

The Coronado seems to be a hotbed of activity, and Mackenzie thinks it might have something to do with a 60-year-old murder. The Histories are waking up at alarming rates, and she struggles to contain them, even with the help of another handsome Keeper with a penchant for eyeliner and literature. But when a mysterious History wanders into the Narrows, Mackenzie can’t send him back, and a forbidden attraction blooms. If Mackenzie can’t figure out what’s waking the dead, it might be the Archive’s undoing. Some things are best left dead.

Victoria Schwab’s latest novel is a clever reimagining of the afterlife, and Mackenzie is a tough protagonist bearing heavy burdens. As a Keeper, she must lie to her family and friends, essentially isolating her from everyone. It’s a lot to ask of a teenage girl. The Archived is as much about loss as it is about finding oneself.

“Enter here to be and find a friend,” reads the stone entrance arch at the Irving School, a small boarding school in upstate New York. Like friendship itself, this supposedly inspirational saying proves to be much more complicated than perhaps the school’s founders intended. The Tragedy Paper opens with Duncan starting a new school year under that arch; he’s a senior, but he’s more than a little apprehensive about the year to come. There is, of course, the Tragedy Paper, a requirement for every student in Mr. Simon’s senior English class, in which he’ll need to analyze a story—even a true story—for the elements of classical tragedy. And adding to his dread is the memory of the horrible things that happened the year before, when Duncan was a junior.

Duncan would probably rather forget about all of that, but when he discovers that his room was formerly occupied by Tim Macbeth, last year’s senior who was at the center of everything that happened, he knows forgetting is unlikely. And when he discovers that Tim has left him an account of those events, narrated in his own voice, Duncan knows that ignoring the past will be entirely impossible.

LaBan’s debut novel alternates between Tim’s first-person narrative and the third-person account of Duncan’s current senior year. Tim's story—in large part about the forbidden attraction between albino Tim and the most popular girl at school—is more dramatic by nature, and so it’s not surprising that this alternating approach can seem a bit uneven. But the suspense builds throughout, as does the sense of dread, and readers may be inspired to parse both Tim and Duncan’s stories, thinking about those classic elements of tragedy in a new light.

Six months ago, Hannah’s best friend Lillian died, wasted away after a battle with anorexia. Somehow, Lillian never left, and only Hannah can see her skeletal ghost always hovering in the background. It’s all Hannah can do to deal with her friend’s haunting and maintain a happy face for family and friends. But when someone starts killing teenage girls in her neighborhood park, Hannah suddenly has more than one ghost to deal with.

Author Brenna Yovanoff has created a rich, layered novel that perfectly interlaces a love story, a murder mystery and a story of grief. The goosebumps-inducing creepiness of the young girls’ murders and Hannah’s compulsion to solve them is balanced by the giddy excitement of her crush and budding relationship with the local bad boy. Her feelings about Lillian's death, from the guilt she feels for not stopping it to the anger she has toward Lillian for letting it happen, are fresh. It's not a one-sided expression of grief; it’s something she can talk about with the dead girl herself.

The novel’s main problem is its false resolutions. Sometimes an issue seems to be resolved, only for the reader to be dragged back into the conflict a few chapters later. While false starts and red herrings make the mystery aspect of the story more suspenseful, they can be frustrating when applied to Hannah and Lillian's relationship. 

Paper Valentine is both frightening and hopeful, a novel that uses the supernatural to make a common YA storyline seem totally unique.

Molly Horan has her MFA in writing for children and young adults from The New School.

Allie Kim is the near opposite of most 16-year-olds. Living with Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP) means avoiding sunlight is a matter of life or death, so she can only go out at night. As the disease rarely allows the luxury of a long life, Allie feels anything but invincible. She has great friends in Rob and reckless Juliet, both of whom have XP as well. When Juliet turns the group on to Parkour, the YouTube-friendly urban sport, they have a sense of cheating death with every leap or swing, especially since they’re increasing the danger by practicing in the dark. One night they land on an apartment balcony and see what may be a crime in progress. Allie wants to find out the truth, Juliet is oddly silent and Rob is caught in the middle. What We Saw at Night combines exhilaration, fatalism and mystery in a gripping novel.

Author Jacquelyn Mitchard (The Deep End of the Ocean) has turned Rear Window on its ear with this mystery. Allie’s investigation is hampered both by her friend and her inability to accomplish anything during the day. The mystery is grabby and scary, and the Parkour scenes have visual flair on the page, but there are quiet moments that speak volumes as well. When Allie awkwardly calls an old friend to reconnect, she’s watched by the local pizzeria’s alcoholic owner: “Maybe that's why he drank so much: he understood that basic social interaction was sometimes a lot harder than risking your life.” Her mother knows Allie is in a race against time, so she allows her daughter crazy amounts of freedom; instead of feeling liberated, Allie is only reminded of her vulnerability.

What We Saw at Night doesn’t resolve as neatly as one might hope, but in this case that might be a good thing. There's a sequel on the way, and readers will want to reconnect with Allie and her quest for truth and justice.

Seventeen-year-old Chelsea Price is facing yet another boring summer in Massachusetts with her dad when she stumbles upon an old shoebox hidden in the back of a closet. Inside is a letter that changes her life.

Chelsea had always been told that her mother died when she was 3. “Of a brief illness,” her father said. Her discovery casts doubt on everything she knows about the world, for it now seems possible that Catherine Eversole Price, Chelsea’s mother, might still be alive. And Chelsea is determined to find her.

Chelsea’s journey takes her to a forbidding black concrete building at the corner of Houston and Bowery in Manhattan. This is the Underground, the place to hear cutting-edge underground music, a club famous for launching careers. It also has played an integral role in Chelsea’s family history.

Chelsea finds that Catherine’s presence haunts not just the room that once belonged to her, but also the dark, brooding club owner named Hence. Chelsea and the reader are drawn into the past as alternating chapters slowly reveal the passionate love at the heart of Catherine’s life. It is up to Chelsea, with the help of an aspiring young musician named Cooper, to unravel the clues to her mother’s fate.

Author April Lindner, a professor of English, gives readers an original, fresh retelling of Wuthering Heights with Catherine. Teen readers are likely to enjoy Catherine and Hence’s romance so much they’ll be eager to read about Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, those enduring characters that inspired this modern mystery.

Eighteen-year-old Scarlet was happy with her quiet life as an outsider, working on her beloved grandmother’s farm and ignoring the whispers about her eccentricities. But when her grandmother is kidnapped and the police refuse to believe she was taken by force, Scarlet sets out to find her with the help of a handsome stranger called Wolf.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old cyborg Cinder—still reeling from the news that she’s actually Princess Selene, Lunar Queen Levana’s own niece—manages to escape from her prison cell and certain death at the hands of the Queen. Cinder begins to develop her newfound power of mind control while coming to terms with her new identity, and her conflicting feelings about the morality of using her powers of manipulation are well portrayed.

Marissa Meyer has created a rich, unique, yet accessible fantasy world. While the technology of half-machine girls plants the story firmly outside the reader’s reality, the constant presence of portscreens and “comms” seems no different from the ubiquity of present-day smartphones and texts.

Scarlet doesn’t try to recreate the fairy tales it borrows from, but instead takes their most interesting characters and gives them new purposes that expose emotions never revealed in the original tales.

RELATED CONTENT
Read our interview with Marissa Meyer for Scarlet.

Dinah seems much younger than her 15 years. She’s innocent and hopeful, someone who always sees the bright side of any situation. She and her best friend Skint help out at church as part of the “Girls’ Friendly Society” (even though Skint’s a boy) in their small Maine town. But as Skint likes to remind her, a lot of complicated problems—like hunger, poverty, mental illness and abuse—are everywhere, including right in their own backyard.

And Skint should know: His father suffers from early-onset senility, and his mother, desperate to keep her husband out of an institution, is at the end of her rope. Unlike Dinah, Skint is cynical and angry about the world around him, and he often grows frustrated with Dinah’s inability or unwillingness to comprehend the extent of the world’s troubles.

As a long Maine winter takes its toll on the town’s residents, Dinah becomes increasingly aware of the problems that consume Skint. When she must change her own opinion of her best friend, Dinah finds herself feeling unexpectedly unmoored, “like a child whose balloon has come undone from her wrist.”

N. Griffin’s debut novel raises issues (such as religious faith, social responsibility and poverty) not commonly found in young adult fiction. In the end, Griffin encourages readers to consider important questions: Is it possible to see the troubles that surround us without succumbing to despair? And what is left when loving someone is not enough to save them? Simultaneously quirky, funny, thoughtful and sad, The Whole Stupid Way We Are will remain with readers long after its heartbreaking final pages.

The French Quarter of New Orleans is no place for a child. Josie Moraine, the daughter of a prostitute, grew up there and made her own way by cleaning the brothel and working in a bookstore. She’s 17 now and ready to make a better name for herself, which means getting away from her past. When a murder ties all the strands of her life in knots, will Josie make it Out of the Easy in one piece?

Author Ruta Sepetys (Between Shades of Gray) sets her story in 1950 and decorates it with both glamour and grime. The city’s nightlife is decadent, but morning finds the streets littered with broken glass, Mardi Gras beads and bottles. Josie cleans up after nights of revelry, finding a high heel here, a cufflink there, and delivers them to madam Willie Woodley, whose brusque manner belies a genuine love for this tough, smart girl.

There are many supporting players here: mechanic Jesse and Josie’s best friend Patrick, either of whom may be a potential suitor; the working girls who’ve watched Josie grow up; and Cokie, Willie’s driver and right-hand man, who wants to help Josie escape and get an education. Through all the plot twists, Josie’s desire to better herself and maintain a moral center in a place where that’s decidedly unfashionable keeps us in her corner.

Out of the Easy has a mystery at its center, but in many ways it’s a book about family and how the ones you’re born to aren’t necessarily your true tribe. Rough-edged and glamorous by turns, this is a wild ride worth taking.

RELATED CONTENT
Read a Q&A with Ruta Sepetys for Out of the Easy.

Rudy is an average teenage boy. He plays pranks on his friends and gets into trouble, but he always planned on going to college. His life takes a drastic turn, however, when he and his family move to a remote island in an effort to save his sick little brother. After months of loneliness and boredom, he meets two friends: Diana, a teenage girl who lives a reclusive existence in the only mansion on the island; and Teeth, a “fishboy” whose screams and dark secrets keep Rudy wide awake in horror at night.

Through Teeth's mysterious cries, flaky scales and mangy hair, the novel takes the literary tradition of mermaids and makes it dark, ugly and potentially deadly. Rudy is inexplicably drawn to Teeth, despite also being afraid of him, and the two isolated and lonely boys soon find refuge in their friendship. Geared toward an older teen audience with mature themes and language, Teeth succeeds in the difficult task of convincingly capturing the voice of a teenage boy and making him likeable, yet not without flaws and weaknesses. Moskowitz does a beautiful job of portraying a universal adolescent struggle—the quest to become comfortable in one’s own skin—within the framework of a story where the reader is just as anxious as Rudy to uncover the mysteries of the island.

Moskowitz’s only weakness appears in the middle of the novel, as a lack of concrete plot development slows the tension and mystery of the story. However, her remarkable characters and unique setting prove strong enough to keep readers amply intrigued to carry on.

Rudy’s friendship with Teeth, as well as the secrets he uncovers about the strange island and its inhabitants, makes Teeth one story about mermaids that is anything but a fairy tale.

Ruby awakens on her 10th birthday to an entirely different life. Her parents are so scared of her that they lock her in the garage and then allow the government to send her to a “rehabilitation camp.” The root of her problem is a horrible disease that is killing most of America’s children, and those who survive, like Ruby, are doomed to live their lives tormented by horrific and dangerous abilities.

While many of the children in the camp are exterminated if their powers are deemed too strong, Ruby manages to hide the fact that she has one of the highest levels of ability: She can alter people’s thoughts simply by touching them. She survives to the age of 16, and she is then “rescued” by a rebel group that wants to use her powers against the government. She flees from her rescuers, joins another group of escapees and sets out to find East River, a place where kids like her are rumored to find refuge.

In the midst of this superb dystopian tale, Alexandra Bracken manages to create a fantastic male love interest for her strong-willed and independent female protagonist. Ruby connects with Liam, the leader of the escapees, who falls deeply in love with her. He is flawed but sweet—and completely convincing as Ruby’s perfect match. Readers will root for him as he is enveloped with affection for the very focused and brave Ruby.

Dystopia, romance, a fast-paced story and scenes that will invoke absolute fear in pretty much anyone will keep readers turning the pages of Bracken’s second novel. Two more installments are to follow, and the ending of The Darkest Minds will leave readers dumbstruck and salivating for more.

Emily Booth Masters reviews from Nashville, Tennessee.

Is one day enough to change your life? Allyson Healey’s existence has always been predictable and mundane. She’s never questioned her mother’s color-coded schedules or her own intention to go to medical school like her father. But on the last day of an unexciting pre-college European summer tour, everything changes. Allyson decides at the spur of the moment to spend a day in Paris with Willem, a 20-year-old traveling Shakespearean actor whom she’s just met.

A dizzying day of Parisian adventure follows, but the next morning Allyson finds herself stranded and alone. Haunted not only by the loss of Willem but also by the loss of the person Willem inspired her to be, Allyson’s first semester of college is marred by depression and failure.

When a guidance counselor suggests she drop her science labs for a Shakespeare class, a new door opens for Allyson. She begins to build an independent identity around her own interests and goals. Forgoing the summer internship her mother has arranged for her, Allyson finds her own job and makes plans to return to Paris to look for Willem. She soon discovers that her trip is as much about finding herself as finding Willem.

Gayle Forman, best-selling author of If I Stay and an experienced traveler herself, infuses this tale of self-discovery with details of international travel, Shakespeare’s plays, and the sights, smells, tastes and textures of Paris. Against this backdrop, and in the setting of Allyson’s small Boston-area college, Forman develops a cast of well-drawn characters in realistic relationships—from Allyson’s strained post-high school relationship with her longtime best friend Melanie, to her growing friendship with Dee, a classmate who’s not afraid to challenge others’ preconceptions of his unusual fashion choices. In the end, though, what captures readers’ hearts is Allyson’s own emerging individuality as she struggles with defining—and then becoming—the person she wants to be.

Readers curious about Willem’s side of the story can look forward to Just One Year, coming this fall.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE
Read an interview with Gayle Forman for Just One Day.

Alyssa Gardner can hear the voices of insects and plants. You’d hear and see strange things, too, if your great-great-great-grandmother were none other than Alice from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and your family had been cursed ever since Alice’s return.

To save her mother and herself from the curse, Alyssa discovers a way into Wonderland and accidentally pulls her sexy next-door neighbor, Jeb, down the hole with her. Together they encounter outlandish creatures—from zombie flowers to an octo-walrus—and realize dark discrepancies from Carroll’s playful tome. But before they can look for a way home, Alyssa must fix Alice’s mistakes and break the curse—not an easy task when seductive Morpheus, a caterpillar/moth creature that used to haunt her in the human world, keeps changing the stakes.

While readers will delight in such recognizable scenes as Alyssa drinking from a bottle to shrink, the richly detailed scenes that stray from the original will entice the imagination. In the process of finding her sanity and saving herself and Jeb, Alyssa may discover love as well. These adventures are indeed wonderful.

Laura Buzo, a social worker by profession, clearly understands the lives and concerns of young people, even if the young people about whom she writes are the kind of precocious youths who use words like “sangfroid” and who discuss Great Expectations and third-wave feminism on their lunch breaks.

Lunch breaks play a key role in Buzo’s debut novel, Love and Other Perishable Items (originally published under a different title in Buzo’s native Australia in 2010), seeing as it's set primarily in a Sydney grocery store, where both 15-year-old Amelia and 21-year-old Chris work as checkers. Amelia’s a stellar high school student and Chris is an under-motivated university student who may drink a little more than is good for him. But they both enjoy reading and thinking and discussing everything under the sun. The only problem? Amelia leaps headlong from their conversations into a fierce, overwhelming crush, while Chris just views their banter as a harmless distraction from everything else in his life, especially his idealized ex-girlfriend.

Buzo tells the story from both Amelia’s and Chris’ points of view, in sections that are different in style and also offset in time, so we see Chris’ take on events many pages after they are narrated in Amelia’s sections. Seeing the two of them as individuals, the reader may become increasingly convinced that Amelia—with her starry-eyed romanticism—and Chris—with his heartache and hard edges—might need more than witty banter to make them a couple.