Young Adult 
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A teen begins to fear her own mind when intrusive thoughts about harming others intensify in this arresting novel about agency, self-acceptance, and living with obsessive compulsive disorder. In emotionally charged verse, Cole presents discussions of gender, race, religion, and sex that sharply expose the legal shortcomings and binary fallacies that sometimes complicate healing.
After salacious rumors spread throughout her tight-knit community, a Sudanese teen is grounded indefinitely. In this perceptive novel, Elhillo navigates hard-hitting topics such as grooming, predation, and sex shaming, and captures a journey of self-discovery in sensitively wrought verse, resulting in a mesmerizing and a gripping exploration of the hyperpolicing of Black girls’ bodies and sexuality.
Haunted by a past mistake, a teenage phone operator recently returned from France must unravel an ominous secret code before it’s too late. Hesse confidently balances narrative flashbacks to harrowing WWI battle sequences with elegantly drawn scenes set in 1918 D.C. and Baltimore to tease out mystery alongside psychological thrills in this rewarding historical novel.
A reluctant teen must stay with the father she’s never met while he renovates an N.Y.C. brownstone in this affecting and emotionally grounded graphic novel set in 1995. Julia’s fluid illustrations, saturated in rich earth tones, breathe life into Teer’s vibrant metropolitan neighborhood, as seen by a resourceful and unfettered protagonist, in this satisfyingly transformative story about family and identity.
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Utilizing evocative language, White depicts autistic transgender 16-year-old Miles’s mission to upend a corrupt authority and seek justice for a past transgression. It’s a stunning testament to community-focused ideologies and Appalachia’s history of worker-centered advocacy that confronts the consequences of one’s failure to engage in their surroundings and the intertwining realities of politics and queerness.
Upon reconnecting with a childhood friend, a high school senior must confront her past if she hopes to build a future. Grayscale present-day scenes alternate with flashbacks in unbridled color to render an expansive triumph—Ostertag’s best graphic novel yet—that examines issues of grief, identity, intergenerational trauma, and reinvention via measured pacing, dynamic paneling, and robust dialogue.
Employment defines social status and addictive, legalized drugs are used to increase productivity in debut author Tew’s heart-racing dual-perspective future dystopian romance set in a cyberpunk, ultracapitalistic vision of America. Messy human emotions strain against technology and morality in a high-stakes story that’s packed with slow-burn pining and plentiful tension, enriched by skillful worldbuilding and nods to Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.
Compact storytelling layered with Filipino American culture and history provides the backdrop for four generations of father-son relationships to unfurl. Past and present narratives from 1929 to 2020 perceptively depict personal and sociopolitical struggles such as the Covid-19 pandemic and farm workers’ rights advocacy to further flesh out Ribay’s emotionally resonant tale that reflects on masculinity, identity, and cycles of trauma.
Johnson combines incisive prose commentary, skewering verse, and revealing memoir to highlight Harlem Renaissance–era Black queer luminaries, the racism and homophobia they experienced outside the Black diaspora, and oppression within the community. The inviting, conversational voice is elevated by Palmer’s hyperrealistic imagery, which features subway maps and skyscrapers overlaying canvas portraiture that harkens to the titular period.
In Ancrum’s intimate reimagining of the Icarus myth, a teenage art thief yearns to escape his challenging circumstances—and falls in love. Lyrical language winningly captures the magic and dreamlike aura of young romance, and brief, propulsive plotting brimming with riveting action and deeply felt emotion culminate in a subversive and triumphant ode to the importance of connection and empathy.
Through the eyes of 18-year-old Libi, a strong, sympathetic protagonist, Zaldívar crafts a hefty novel that explores the lead up to a controversial presidential election in 2017 Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Detailed depictions of the characters’ everyday dealings with widespread corruption are inextricably woven with Libi’s exploration of her expanding identity as a gay poet, adding authenticity to this potent and empowering debut.
After a Blackfeet Reservation teen is murdered, her peer group aims to find her killer—even if it means condemning one of their own. Interweaving intricacies of reservation life and striving to highlight the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis, debut author Cobell delivers a gut-punch thriller via a timely mystery plot that is by turns spine-tingling and emotionally raw.
Messages of empathy, progress, and resilience following tragedy resonate throughout this moving account of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Via vivid prose, Yoo contextualizes the history—and far-reaching consequences—of the LAPD’s racist policing, highlighting events that remain relevant to a contemporary society in which individuals continue to combat police brutality and systemic racism.
Powerful telepaths live in fear of extermination by an oppressive patriarchal theocracy in this searing debut. By playing off conflicting character motivations to explore weighty topics of reproductive freedom, internalized homophobia, and state oppression, Buffini spins an intricate adventure, while dropping tantalizing hints of further conflict and hidden history brewing under the surface of this dystopian trilogy opener.
Reynolds astounds in this sweetly hilarious story of two Black teens preparing to take a huge first step in their relationship. Sex-positive messaging encourages vulnerability as well as open conversations about bodily autonomy and consent, making for a bold tribute to Black love as well as an exhilarating story of one boy’s growth and the richly wrought community that fosters it.
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