Just a few of the teen books I like (and some are like mine) 

  • Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert.  Three girls play around with witchcraft that becomes all too real.  The writing was so luminous.  
  • Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen. Just read RUNAWAY by @WendelinVanD.  Twelve-year-old girl runs away from the foster care system. Well-researched. Give it to any reader or reluctant reader and they will be hooked, as I was! A book with heart and danger and growth.
  • How it Feels to Float by Helena Fox.  The writing was amazing - lyrical, whimsical, inventive.  The characters were real and flawed.  Sometimes I will put bits of paper in between pages to mark passages I especially like, and by the time I was done with the book, it looked like a porcupine.  
  • Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu. A girl at a small Texas school where the football players can get away with anything taps into the spirit of 1990s Riot Grrrls. 
  • One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus. Five teens in suspension when one of them dies. So which of the four did it? I am super-picky about books that include police procedure, but McManus did a great job.  Intriguing plot that had me guessing to the end.  
  • The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schmitz. In 1911, a girl runs away from what would be a lifetime of drudgery on the farm to the big city of Baltimore.  Feels authentic.  Wish I could hand this to my middle-school self.
  • What Waits in the Woods by Kieran Scott.  A reader recommended this to me and she was right! A real page turner.
  • I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Great book for older teens, Noah's way of viewing the world is beautiful.
  • How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon. White cop shoots a black teen and everyone sees it differently - could it get any more topical?
  • The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. Another book about a black teen being shot that then became a great movie. 
  • The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu. For older teens, looks at the power of gossip, great voices.
  • Fake ID by Walter Sorrells. Suspenseful and the part about how she got her name made me laugh.
  • Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. An end-of-the-world book that's a page-turner and thought provoking.
  • Ashes by Ilsa Bick. Has zombies, violent but I felt bereft when it ended.
  • Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden. Teens forced to fight a war when their country is invaded - feels very honest.
  • Running Out of Time (and lots of her other books) by Margaret Haddix. A great plot with great pacing.
  • Monster by Walter Dean Meyers. Interesting style. 
  • Flip by Martyn Bedford. A concept that really gets you thinking.
  • Acceleration by Graham MacNamee. Could not put it down.
  • Shattering Glass by Gail Giles. Great twists.
  • Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber. Funny and fast-paced, plus the idea was so clever, some colorful language.
  • Before I Fall by Lauren Olivier. I like books where the character gets a do-over.
  • Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. The book is told in two parts - it's the second part that grabbed me by the throat and made me see the first in a new light.
  • Wonder by RL Palacio.Made me cry.
  • The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I loved this whole series.
  • Stolen by Lucy Christopher. When I first saw that this book was coming out, I freaked out because the title was so similar to my upcoming Girl Stolen and I wondered if the plot would be. Not to worry - it's very different and very good.

Other books you might like  if you like my books
(as Recommended by my Librarian friends)

  • Rat Life  by Tedd Arnold
  • The Search for Baby Ruby  by Susan Shreve
  • Full Ride by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • Trash  by Andy Mulligan
  • I'll be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan
  • The Body of Christopher Creed/Following Christopher Creed/Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci
  • Variant by Robison Wells
  • Shelter by Harlan Coban
  • Dark Eden by Patrick Carman
  • Wish You Were Dead/Kill You Last/Blood on My Hands by Todd Strasser
  • Taken/Dooley Takes the Fall by Norah McClintock
  • The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer
  • Girl, Missing by Sophie McKenzie
  • Island of Lost Girls: a novel by Jennifer McMahon
  • Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfeld
  • Bullet Point and Reality Check by Peter Abrahams
  • The River by Mary Beaufrand
  • Shelter and Seconds Away by Harlan Coben
  • The Christopher Killer by Alane Feguson
  • Zoo by Graham Marks
  • A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monagham
  • Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaughn
  • Locked Inside by Nancy Werlin
  • Escape Under the Forever Sky by Eve Yohalem
  • Survive by Alex Morel
  • Lost in a River of Grass by Ginny Rorby 
  • Pretty much anything by Caroline Cooney 
  • Homelanders series by Andrew Klavan 
  • Scarlett Wakefield series by Lauren Henderson 
  • The Compound and The Raft by SA Bodeen 
  • Books by Katie Alender
  • Three Truths and a Lie by Brent Hartinger (has some mature content) 

All my teen books

  • Shock Point
  • Torched
  • Girl, Stolen
  • The Night She Disappeared
  • The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die
  • The Body in the Woods
  • Blood Will Tell
  • The Girl I Used to Be
  • Count All Her Bones
  • The Lonely Dead 
  • Run, Hide, Fight Back 
  • The Girl in the White Van
  • Playing with Fire
  • Eyes of the Forest (August 2021)
  • Two Truths and a Lie (2022)

Just a very few of the adult books I like

  • Girl, Woman, Other.  My favorite read of 2022.  I can see why it won the Booker Prize. As a writer, I was fascinated by her unconventional (and thoroughly fascinating) story structure. As a reader, this was definitely a "window" book, showing me the lives of Black British women.
  • Himself by Jess Kidd.  Set in 1976, when a 26 year old Irish man returns to the town where he was born and tries to figure out the mystery of his parents. I listened to the audio, which really made you feel like you were in Ireland.
  • The Displacements by Bruce Holzinger. Various people, including a family, are impacted by a category 6 hurricane that takes out Miami and then Houston. A real page turner. I read this book over three nights and thought about it when I wasn't reading. 
  • Sleepwalk by Dan Chaon.  Set in a future only sightly ahead of us. Dark and funny. The kind of book where you re-read paragraphs because they are so beautiful. 
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. An unflinching and beautiful book about difficult things. This was another audio book, with three narrators just as there are three in the book. 
  • Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett (lead singer of Airborne Toxic Event).  I listed to the audio of this memoir, which was narrated by the author. A hardscrabble childhood with a mother who was mentally ill and a father who had served time in prison for dealing heroin.  Ultimately hopeful.  Might be a good book to give someone struggling to come to terms with a rough past.
  • The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.  A woman hovering between life and death is given the opportunity to see many of the lives she could have lived. 
  • Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. A family of four from New York City gets a luxurious and isolated AirBNB in the country.  But not long after their arrival, the owners of the house show up. Something's gone wrong in the outside world - and even though they hunker down, it starts to affect them. By turns dreamy, sardonically funny, and meditative.  Probably the most perfect last paragraph I've read in a long time. 
  • Grady Hendrix’s Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.  (I also like his My Best Friend's Exorcism.)  A book club of women in Georgia slowly realizes their new neighbor is a vampire - and it's up to them to deal with him. The end of this book was not for the faint of heart, but the book is a wonderful mix of horror and humor.  Also he channels women's voices amazingly well. And speaking of voices, I listened to the audio book. If you like audio books, seek this one out. 
  • The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker. A virus that causes victims to fall asleep - sometimes permanently - sweeps a small, isolated college campus. I actually started reading this book more and more slowly, because I didn't want it to end. Beautifully written and thought provoking. 
  • The Power by Naomi Alderman. An engaging read set in a future where women have just discovered that they have electrical powers that can injure or kill men.  Doubly fun because I worked with Naomi on the running app Zombies Run, of which she the co-creator.  I wrote Season Three, Episode 43, "Love is a Stranger."  
  • Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips. Mom and child trapped in zoo when a shooting breaks out. I actually read this book in one sitting, staying up well past midnight to do it.  Highly recommended.  
  • The Last One by Alexandra Oliva Survivor meets the apocalypse. There's one twist at the end that's a bit of a gimmick, but the book is so great I will give that a pass. 
  • The Girl With All the Gifts by MR Carey. A zombie book like you've never seen before.
  • Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Like The Road, only with more punctuation and more hope
  • Domestic Violets by Matthew Norma. As a writer, I'm a sucker for books about writers, especially if they're funny.
  • Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Twisty as hell.
  • A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. A tour de force. In a weird way, this book helped me come to terms with my friend's death.
  • Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. A great book to read as a writer, and as a human being thinking about the purpose of life.
  • The Gold Finch by Donna Tartt. I know this was a love it or hate it book - count me in the first camp.