“Maybe it’s impossible not to connect our experiences to one another in a really linear way,” narrates Scarlett, a rising college sophomore and physics star. “But Einstein gave us another approach. Time [is] like a flip-book—each image still there but only moving because we turn the pages to see it.”

As readers turn the pages of Shana Youngdahl’s debut novel, As Many Nows as I Can Get, time flips back and forth. We see a road trip after Scarlett’s first year at Colwyn College. We see the year before, as she prepares to say goodbye to her small Colorado town and to David, the local golden boy harboring dark secrets. Just as she’s settling into her new home with her roommate, Mina, Scarlett learns that she’s pregnant. Should she keep the baby, have an abortion or seek adoptive parents? What will her pregnancy mean for her college experience, her intended career as a scientist and her self-image?

As the narration flips between Scarlett’s senior year of high school, her first year of college and the life-changing summer in between, she realizes that, like physics, life is all about thinking, observing, rethinking, drawing a conclusion—and then asking more questions.

YA literature, some say, is about the moments when one state of being changes to another. In its structure and its story, As Many Nows as I Can Get is a perfect example of this sometimes bumpy, sometimes poignant transition.

What does it mean to be Korean? What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to be in love? To be a family? These, among many others, are the complicated questions posed by David Yoon in his debut novel, Frankly in Love.

For 17-year-old Frank Li, disappointing his stubborn, high-strung Korean immigrant parents is to be avoided at all costs. When Frank falls for a white girl named Brit, he knows that he has to keep their relationship hidden from his family. To cover his tracks, he becomes entangled in a fake relationship with Joy Song, a close family friend. But when disaster after disaster strikes, Frank learns the hard way that some things are more important than high school romance.

Through funny, relatable prose and some truly heartbreaking moments, Frankly in Love wrestles with important questions of race and identity. Yoon encapsulates the teenage experience, not only for young Korean Americans but for all teens. He also tackles stereotypes, and though the novel does occasionally play into them, many are eventually broken down in surprisingly clever ways.

Having grown up Korean in America, I had points while reading this novel when I nearly wept from the feeling of having been seen for the first time in YA literature. Frankly in Love is an absolute must-read for young people grappling with questions of identity.

Dumped shortly after finally having sex, CeCe is determined to win back her born-again boyfriend. She decides to follow him to Jesus camp in order to prove she’s exactly the kind of girl he needs in his life. There’s just one problem: CeCe knows nothing about Jesus. Her best friend, Paul, goes to camp with her to help her play the game without getting caught, but everything goes awry when CeCe learns that her ex is dating one of her cabin mates. As CeCe scrambles to win back her boyfriend, learning more about herself, her feelings and her friendship with Paul, she realizes that what she wanted may not be what she needs after all.

Have a Little Faith in Me is a romantic comedy that explores feminism and comprehensive sex education against the backdrop of a conservative religious summer camp. First-time author Sonia Hartl tackles all of these topics and more with finesse—always candid, always open-minded and very rarely heavy-handed. 

CeCe and her cabin mates ask questions about sex and love that many young readers will already have on their minds, and Hartl answers them in a way that is both gentle and empowering. And through Paul, she gives young readers a role model for how we should treat one another and expect to be treated in romantic relationships.

Hartl’s debut is a powerful read for teens who are beginning to explore romantic relationships and sexuality.

All Jay Reguero wanted to do was play some video games, not talk to his family and finish out his senior year of high school. He didn’t want attention, and he didn’t want to make waves. The death of his cousin Jun changed all of that. In Filipino-American author Randy Ribay’s third novel, Patron Saints of Nothing, Jay knows that the only way to find out happened to his cousin is to travel back to the Philippines, where his father emigrated from 17 years before.

The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has a shockingly brutal plan to eliminate crime in the country: arrest all of the drug users and sellers, and if they resist, kill them. Before leaving, Jay learns that Jun was killed as part of Duterte’s initiative. Jay cannot reconcile this with the Jun who had sent him so many letters for years, and he knows there must be more to the story. As Jay spends time with his extended family in the Philippines, he learns that knowing the whole truth doesn’t make understanding it any easier.

While Jay and Jun’s story is fictional, the mass assassination of Filipinos is not. Jay is confronted with stark class divisions, extreme systemic poverty, fervent national pride and a growing understanding that not everything has a simple, linear answer. Patron Saints of Nothing combines personal letters and lyrical prose to create a story that causes Jay and the reader to wrestle with who they truly are and what they really believe.

Lucille and Winona meet under extreme circumstances: standing outside the police station as Lucille considers ratting out her drug dealer brother and Winona debates turning in her father, a beloved weatherman whose private behavior isn’t quite as sunny as his public disposition. In their desperation, the two make a pact: get each other through senior year and then escape to Chicago. But when Winona makes a shocking discovery about her deceased mother, she and Lucille realize they can’t afford to wait. They set off for Las Vegas with a wad of cash and a stolen car, determined to take back their power and find their freedom.

A collaboration between Brittany Cavallaro (author of the Charlotte Holmes series) and Emily Henry (The Love That Split the World ), Hello Girls is a whip-smart ode to what can be accomplished by underestimated young women. In Winona and Lucille, readers will find dual protagonists who are at once hilariously over the top and deeply relatable. These young women have been forced to grow up too quickly, but their friendship makes anything possible.

Cavallaro and Henry write with one voice, tackling the tough subjects of drug abuse, poverty and domestic violence. Winona and Lucille’s high-stakes adventure is often far-fetched and always a riot, but its lasting impression is of two young women who have decided to put themselves first, unconditionally and unapologetically.

Perfect for readers who are more than ready to raise their own voices, Hello Girls is a wild end-of-summer ride.

Ellis Kimball is a doomsday prepper, constantly adding to her various survival kits for the end of the world. Her therapist, Martha, is working with her to understand her expectation of an apocalypse, as it is manifesting in Ellis as anxiety.

After a therapy session, Ellis runs into Hannah Marks. They meet up again at school, where Hannah does everything she can to entice Ellis to hang out with her and her friends, Sam and Tal. Ellis soon learns that Hannah has visions and knows when the apocalypse is coming. Their friendship quickly blossoms as the two set out on a journey to save others while inadvertently finding themselves along the way.

Katie Henry’s depiction of anxiety is executed perfectly via Ellis’ inner monologues and outward actions. She captures budding teen sexuality as well as what it means to face your fears within your mind, your religion and your own family.

Let’s Call It a Doomsday is an exemplary portrait of acceptance, trust and revelation.

All hell breaks loose at an Atlanta high school when a Friday night football game devolves into mass fighting and chaos. Two teenage girls—one black and one white—are thrown together as an unlikely duo fighting to stay alive.

Racial tensions fuel the violence that spills from the football field to the streets, making it a life or death challenge for Lena, who is black, and Campbell, who is white, to get safely home. Thrown together by fate, the girls must find a way to relate to each other, to trust each other and to look past their biases to work together and navigate their dangerous path.

Told in alternating chapters in the girls’ distinct voices, I’m Not Dying with You Tonight shows how Campbell’s challenges are not quite the same as Lena’s—and that the community’s perception and prejudices of them both will either aid or hinder their journey. They may be together physically, but their paths are divergent because of their race.

This is a potent novel about cooperation in the face of anger, ugliness and prejudice. An ideal companion to The Hate U Give and the books of Jason Reynolds, this is a must-read for all teens. Amid the very of-the-moment themes of racial tensions and police intervention, the tenuous but authentic relationship of the two girls rises to the forefront. They just want the same thing—safety and security in an uncertain world.

The summer between junior and senior year in high school is a crossroads for many people, but perhaps especially so for Serena Velasco and her best (and only) friend, Melody Grimshaw. Both of them have just failed Western Civ—Serena because she prefers to use her considerable intelligence and anti-authoritarian outlook to challenge her teacher’s pro-democracy viewpoints, and Melody because she believes on some level that she, like all the Grimshaws before her, is fated to never graduate from high school.

The Grimshaws have a bad reputation in Colchis, the small, economically depressed upstate New York town where they live. Serena doesn’t care about public opinion, but that’s easy for her to say. Her mother is the school principal, and her stepfather is a realtor, so although they still need to worry about money, they are worlds away from Melody and the rest of the Grimshaws. Serena knows that she could easily go to college and even get a scholarship if she only applied herself. Melody’s road out of Colchis is much less obvious. She is a talented dancer, but without means or opportunity, how can she pursue her talent and her dream?

Tolman’s debut novel is mature and sophisticated, both in its subject matter, which is frequently dark, and in its narrative structure. The chronology covers a little over a year, and the prose, especially near the novel’s end, is beautifully ambiguous. At the heart of this sometimes difficult but ultimately rewarding novel, however, is a realistic portrait of two friends coming to terms with the widening gulf between their future paths, and navigating whether and how they can reconverge.

Maia knows she’s the best tailor in the empire. But with two brothers dead in the Emperor’s wars, her family’s once-renowned tailor shop is in financial ruin at the beginning of Spin the Dawn, Elizabeth Lim’s debut novel. One day a messenger brings news: The Emperor needs a new imperial tailor for his betrothed, Lady Sarnai, and is holding a sewing competition. Dressed as a boy and carrying her grandmother’s scissors, Maia travels to the palace.

While tailors puzzle over creating jackets out of paper and shoes out of glass, gossip and sabotage threaten to destroy contestants’ chances. And what is it about her grandmother’s scissors that captivates Maia? Could magic, long dismissed by Maia and her people, actually be real?

And if the contest weren’t already difficult enough, Lady Sarnai issues a final challenge— sew three legendary dresses ascribed to the goddess Amana. The first dress is to be made from sunlight so pure it can be spun, the second from moonlight so dense it can be woven and the third from the blood of stars. Accompanied by Edan, the court enchanter, Maia sets off to somehow acquire these celestial materials. But ghosts and demons haunt her path, as well as both friendly and unfriendly human travelers. On the journey, Maia will find adventure, self-discovery and maybe even love.

Reminiscent of the tales of Rumpelstiltskin and Cinderella, Spin the Dawn will leave readers eagerly awaiting next year’s sequel, Unravel the Dusk.