Set in modern-day San Francisco, The Beckoning Shadow ferries readers into the seedy underbelly of a world where humans with supernatural powers fight in a vicious tournament for a rare chance to rewrite their past.

Vesper wants nothing more than to blend in with the rest of humanity and pretend that her powers don’t exist. Unfortunately, she’s one of the Oddities—special humans born with powerful magical abilities—and is one of the most fearsome, as she’s a Harbinger who can read others’ worst nightmares and summon them into existence. But Vesper has already hurt too many people with her inability to control her powers—that is, until she meets Sam. A regular human who knows far more than he lets on, Sam offers to train Vesper and sponsor her in an underground fight between Oddities, the Tournament of the Unraveling.

As Sam trains Vesper in fighting techniques and helps her befriend other Oddities who teach her how to wield her dangerous powers, they learn more about each other’s past and discover that this fight has actually become a battle against death itself.

Fans of Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Fight Club and Victoria Aveyard’s Red Queen series will enjoy The Beckoning Shadow, screenwriter Katharyn Blair’s debut novel. Her genuine dialogue, authentic characters and perfectly paced fight scenes will keep readers’ blood pumping until the last page.

Guards are let down, secrets are revealed, and love blossoms in Amber Smith’s Something Like Gravity. 

Still processing the aftereffects of an frightening assault, newly out transgender teen Chris goes to his Aunt Isobel’s house for the summer. His new neighbor, Maia, is still grieving the sudden loss of her older sister. A near-fatal accident brings the two together when Maia is trying to take a photograph in the middle of the street and Chris is test-driving his aunt’s old station wagon. They get off on the wrong foot as neighbors, but soon their relationship beautifully unfurls into a romance.

Chris and Maia’s alternating points of view give the reader a bird’s-eye view of how the teens process their feelings both for one another and within themselves. With admirable gentleness and empathy, Chris and Maia explore their burgeoning relationship, slowly revealing their innermost secrets while holding some back. While sensitively tackling subjects of first love, acceptance and friendship, Smith expertly chronicles her characters’ twin journeys of grief and coming out, as well as what it takes to move on despite seemingly permanent damage. 

While readers should be warned that the flashbacks to Chris’ assault are intense, Something Like Gravity is perfect for fans of Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl and Lisa Williamson’s The Art of Being Normal.

Debut author Kat Cho bursts onto the YA scene with a gripping fantasy-romance set in modern-day Seoul.

Miyoung is used to being on her own. She’s a gumiho, a mythical fox creature with nine tails who feeds on the energy of human men, so a solitary existence is often necessary. She knows only the company of her demanding and emotionally distant mother. But one night, as Miyoung hunts in the forest by the light of the full moon, she saves a boy named Jihoon from a vicious attack, and what begins to form between the two is a bond unlike any the young gumiho has ever experienced or could have imagined for herself. Jihoon accepts her wholeheartedly, providing Miyoung with a solace and security entirely new to her. But lurking in the shadows are dark forces that want to tear the two apart, and soon the time will come when Miyoung must make an impossible choice between her immortality and Jihoon’s life. 

With the rising popularity of K-pop and K-dramas, the time has never been better for a novel like Wicked Fox. It’s rich in both modern Korean cultural detail and ancient Korean folklore, and the enthralling, action-filled plot and intriguing characters make for a story that few readers will be able to resist devouring.

Skye may be known as the school slut, but she isn’t worried about her reputation. Instead, she’s focused on partying with her friends, winning the scholarship to her top-choice art school and getting far away from her hometown. But when her mother brings a former boyfriend, Dan, back into their lives, that plan starts to crumble. Last time Dan was in the picture, he hurt Skye in a way she couldn’t even articulate. And now, torn between leaving home to pursue her dreams and staying to protect her little sister, Skye has to face a truth she’s spent years trying to bury.

Laura Sibson’s debut novel is a total knockout. The Art of Breaking Things tackles sexual assault with all the weight and nuance it deserves and none of the sugarcoating or brushing off it so often gets. Sibson wraps that discussion into a novel whose characters—from Skye and her friends to her little sister and the adults in their lives—are rendered with so much empathy that we can’t help but feel like they’re our friends, too. Sibson’s specificity and her deft prose make readers participants, not just witnesses, as Skye hits rock bottom before pulling herself back up with the help of her friends and her art.

A powerful novel about consent, creativity and the importance of trust (in yourself as much as anyone else), The Art of Breaking Things is a must-read for anyone who’s felt like she had to handle her trauma alone.

Elisabeth Scrivener is an orphan. Raised in one of the kingdom’s six Great Libraries, she has been training as an apprentice, hoping one day to become a library warden who’s responsible for the categorization and containment of dangerous magic. The Great Libraries house not only regular books but also grimoires—books created with sorcery that contain ominous spells and rituals. These grimoires can also transform into deadly creatures known as Maleficts. Elisabeth knows not to trust sorcerers and the powerful magic that whispers to her from the shelves. In fact, she has been raised to defend humans from and contain the powerful magic.

But when disaster strikes her library and she is accused of treason, Elisabeth makes an unlikely alliance with young sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn and his Mephistophelian servant, Silas. Uncovering the true saboteur leads Elisabeth down a terrifying path of conspiracy and chaos, but also of self-discovery. As she learns more about her connection to grimoires and gets closer with Nathaniel and Silas, she begins to reassess her goals and question some of the Great Library’s teachings.

Bestselling author Margaret Rogerson (An Enchantment of Ravens) presents a unique twist on a magical fantasy plot, setting the novel in a 19th-century Western Europe-inspired world that’s dealing with the inheritance of medieval magic as well as the innovations of an industrializing society. Elisabeth is a charismatic heroine, and her chemistry with Nathaniel is inevitable and natural, but it is Silas’ character arc that is particularly compelling.

A race against time filled with demonic magic, vivid settings and classic romantic tension, Sorcery of Thorns is a chillingly good gothic read.

Acclaimed author Tiffany D. Jackson’s latest novel, Let Me Hear a Rhyme, opens in 1998. It’s summertime in Brooklyn, and a teenage boy named Steph has been murdered.

Before leaving the funeral repast, Steph’s best friends, Quadir and Jarrell, visit his bedroom where they find Steph’s sister, Jasmine, and Steph’s vast collection of hip-hop music. Steph’s walls are covered with pictures of hip-hop artists like the Notorious B.I.G., but he was more than a fan. He was also an artist. 

When Quadir and Jarrell hear the music Steph had been recording before he died, they have an idea. Shouldn’t the world get to hear their friend’s lyrical genius? Jasmine agrees to let them take some of his music on the condition that they’ll also help her find out who killed her brother. Quadir and Jarrell know that could be a deadly pursuit, but soon they find themselves in a hot seat of their own. Promoting Steph’s music (whose lyrics were written for the novel by real rapper Malik-16 Sharif) without mentioning that he’s deceased brings money and opportunities to the two boys, but it also boxes them into a maze of lies they must navigate along with some volatile personalities. 

Readers will feel connected to these teens’ love of hip-hop, their loyalty to each other and their love for their community—even when they disagree over how to protect it. Alternating narration among the three main characters offers moving portraits of young people trying to live up to the best selves their slain friend and brother urged them to be. This is an engaging ode to ’90s hip-hop and to love in many forms. 

Author Abdi Nazemian brings emotional depth and a dreamy soundtrack to the story of a teen love triangle set in New York during a turning point in the AIDS crisis.

It’s 1989, and Iranian teen Reza is new to the city, having recently left Toronto to live with his mom and new stepfather. Reza knows he’s gay but is terrified to say so, let alone act on it. He quickly befriends the two coolest freaks in his new high school. Judy is a skilled fashion designer, and her best friend, a photographer named Art, is the school’s only out gay student. Both Judy and Art are devoted to Judy’s uncle, Stephen, an activist who is dying of AIDS. And Judy and Art are both attracted to Reza, but in order to follow his heart, Reza will have to confront both his fears and his family.

While the main characters in this story are all fictional, the ACT UP demonstrations vividly depicted here really happened, and cameo appearances by artist Keith Haring and musical icon Debbie Harry put the reader right in the middle of it all. Uncle Stephen makes Art a collection of index cards with info about important figures in queer history—like Marsha P. Johnson—and readers will hopefully be inspired to do further research.

I was in high school a little before these kids, and the fear and isolation they go through rings painfully true, as does the unfettered joy that comes when you find your people. Like a Love Story made me cry, but it also made me feel mighty real.

It’s been a year since a stranger killed four people in Camera Cove, a small town on the Northeastern seaboard. Labeled the Catalog Killer, the murderer poisoned the victims before posing them and pinning vintage catalog art to their bodies.

One of those victims was Connor Williams, a popular high school kid. No one idolized him more than his best friend and neighbor, Mac Bell. And while the rest of the town is trying to return to normalcy, Mac can’t. On graduation day, he finds a note in a stack of comics that he and Connor would trade—a note that suggests Connor uncovered the Catalog Killer’s identity and wanted Mac’s help. Mac is devastated that he didn’t find this note earlier, so under false pretenses, he begins his own investigation to uncover what the police haven’t. Unfortunately, his snooping rips open old wounds for the victims’ families, who are desperate to move forward. Mac is forcing the townsfolk to relive the trauma so he can untangle his own complicated feelings for Connor, but can a person ever get past losing someone they loved?

Tom Ryan’s Keep This to Yourself is a gripping murder mystery on the surface, but underneath, it is an exploration of identity and grief. Each of the victims had a secret life that the killer used to their advantage, including Connor, which further muddies Mac’s ability to piece together the puzzle. Throw in some romance and an unexpected twist ending, and readers will plow through Keep This to Yourself in one sitting.

Set in a remote Australian town that’s still reeling from a recent murder, The Things She’s Seen takes the reader on an emotional and metaphysical journey to solve a crime that no one could have seen coming—or solved—without help from something beyond this world.

Beth Teller isn’t like most people. She’s a half-aboriginal girl who died in a car accident and still roams this earth. The only person who can see and hear her now is her father, Michael, a police detective who’s drowning in grief from losing his only child. Michael is investigating a suspicious case of arson, and as he keeps unearthing clues and the small town’s dark secrets, Beth keeps reminding him of his humanity while using her supernatural abilities to aid in the investigation however she can.

When Michael begins questioning witnesses, he and Beth meet Isobel Catching at the hospital, and her account of the events leading up to the fire seem too fantastical and otherworldly to be relevant to the case, much less believable. But then Isobel reveals that she, too, can communicate with Beth, and the more she shares, the more her story begins to connect with the developing investigation. Soon, Beth and her father can’t help but begin seeing the world in a whole new light.

In their first joint YA novel, brother and sister authors Ambelin and Ezekiel Kwaymullina—descendants of the aboriginal Palyku people of Western Australia—have crafted a unique, enrapturing and experimental work in The Things She’s Seen. Their combined prose and poetry explore grief, love, violence, racism, marginalization, corruption and justice through a story filled with well-layered symbolism, transcendence and survival.

What better way to start the summer than with a new Sarah Dessen novel? In the tradition of her previous bestselling novels like This Lullaby and Once and for All, The Rest of the Story captures a young woman’s first big steps on her journey to self-reliance, reconnection and first love.

Emma Saylor lost her mom to addiction at a young age, and she hasn’t seen or spoken to anyone in her mother’s family for as long as she can remember. But when her summer plans fall through, Emma’s last-minute decision to return to North Lake to visit her maternal family propels her into a summer of discovery—not only about her mother, but about herself.

As always, Dessen’s vividly defined characters—with the sprawling cast of secondary characters adding as much complexity and depth to the story as Emma herself—will feel as familiar to readers as their own friends and family. But the real strength of The Rest of the Story is the deft way Dessen handles the tough subjects of addiction, grief, anxiety and class, unpacking these topics with nuance and a gentle hand.

While her latest novel brings us to a new fictional beach town, Dessen has scattered an Easter egg or two for avid fans throughout the book. But The Rest of the Story stands apart as a perfect summer read. It’s lighthearted, poignant and sure to give readers all the feels.

In 1851, 17-year-old Roan Eddington moves to Medwyn Mill House on a Welsh mountain under the guardianship of the mysterious Dr. Maudley. She meets the prickly ward Rapley and the unusual siblings from Ireland who have been sent to the house under the guise of charity. But it is obvious that Dr. Maudley is no ordinary doctor and that Mill House is no mountain retreat. Roan has powers that she cannot wield, and the house only exacerbates her darkness.

Fast forward to the modern day, when British teen Zoey Root has run off to Mill House with her friend Poulton. Zoey believes that hidden among the ruins is a clue to her father’s madness and her own unique abilities. Although the house is in shambles, the evil that has resided there for centuries is not. Zoey is warned that if she does not leave, the house will kill Poulton, as it has done to everyone within its walls. What binds Roan and Zoey together, despite a century of separation, is an ancient and demonic curse that spans lifetimes.

Dawn Kurtagich’s Teeth in the Mist is a hefty story with numerous narratives and melodic language that leans heavily on gothic fantasy and romance tropes. Interspersed throughout the text are illustrations and art meant to resemble old documents, photographs and artifacts. Zoey’s story is told through diary entries and mixed media. Although it takes time for the story to get underway, this read is immersive and page-turning. Be prepared for a sequel.